this wedding is total proof that november weddings are awesome and should not be dismissed as cold or dreary! cortney and james, two super nice and wonderful people, met in chiropractic school and are soon opening up their own business in durham. when i first met them to discuss their wedding, cortney and i found out that we grew up and went to school not too far from each other in pittsburgh and that she went to high school with geoff’s best man for our own wedding! small world!  they are two of the sweetest people i’ve ever met and had great families and friends (i was very popular with the pittsburgh side of the family). ;) they had a beautiful wedding day with the temperature in the low 70s and the leaves just starting to change. their vendors were also fabulous! and, to start making things easier to read, i’m going to begin listing the vendors and their links below to make things a little easier on the eyes.

date: november 13, 2010

venue: 1705 prime

hair: citrine salon

hotel: renaissance by marriot, north hills

cake: sweet memories bakery

flowers: julie liles floral and event design

dj: greg ramsey of the joe bunn dj company

officiant: reverend barbara lodge

musician: harpist elizabeth munch

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geoff, being a good assistant by sitting on the couch in hair salons on his phone. ;)

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gotta have the jimmy john’s!!

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cortney and james opted to see each other before the ceremony, or have “first look” pictures. their ceremony was late in the day and the sun set directly afterwards, so it was a great choice to get pictures in before the sun set. also, it helps calm the nerves to see each other beforehand and makes for a much more relaxed day!

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hahaha this picture cracks me up every time i see it. cortney’s, “soo, what do you think??” pose. she was GORGEOUS! she wore a flower in her hair taken from her mother’s wedding day hat and had a beautiful dress that fit her style so well. and i can’t compliment the flowers enough… but maybe that’s because i pretty much had the same ones! ;) so beautiful and perfect for their day.

first look wedding photographs

we had a super handsome and sweet group of gentlemen.

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and look at these good looking ladies!!

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i am so in love with the following series of couple shots that i feel the need to emphasize how awesome november is for weddings.

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cortney is so pretty and james is super handsome and together they will make the most attractive team of chiropractors ever!

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1705 prime is one of the best wedding venues in the raleigh area, in my humble opinion. the outside is very southern/old school while the inside is very modern/hip and the food is delicious and wonderful. their staff and wedding coordinator was nothing but fabulous. we have a great time every time we shoot there. we’ll be returning in february for another wedding and i’m definitely looking forward to it.

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rev. lodge married us in october and we had a nice little reunion. :)

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raleigh wedding photographer

the mother of the groom, left, made the fantastic cookies seen on the right for the couple’s cookie table. for those of you who don’t know, it is standard pittsburgh tradition to have a cookie table at your wedding. this doesn’t take the place of the cake, but it’s more like a candy bar sort of thing. if you get married in pittsburgh, you must have cookies. that’s pretty much all i can tell you in terms of history/significance, haha. anyway, the “best cookie ever” was a delicious gluten free cookie that i could actually eat! and it really was the best cookie ever –  i chowed down on these all night!

mother son dance

cortney’s parents moved to raleigh, but her dad still operates his own chiropractor business back in pittsburgh 3 days a week. he was hilarious!! we had a great time talking about the ‘burgh and making fun of geoff for going to valley high school. booo vikings! ;)

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oh hey! it’s just me, your photographer, in your photo booth.

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wedding reception

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congratulations and much love to cortney and james for having a beautiful wedding with great friends and family! best of luck in life and your business!

i had the immense pleasure of photographing the wedding of dottie and jon last week and it was a struggle to choose which photographs to put into the blog! not only were dottie and jon an absolute joy to work with, their family and friends were so animated and happy that it was so easy to great photographs. we started off at d’elegance day spa to get photographs of the girls in the hair salon. dottie’s bridesmaids and mom accompanied her.

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afterwards we all headed on over to peace church in durham, nc. i had never been to this church and it’s my understanding that it’s fairly new, but it is absolutely adorable. it sits back on a little wooded lot in a beautiful area and is that small, triangle-shaped,  little white church that you think of in children’s books. it’s great! it had hardwood floors, a beautiful chapel, and a very open feel about the space. the big windows were also a plus. the girls had lots of fun getting ready for the big day!

dottie wore a beautiful ivory dress with fabulous purple shoes. her grandmother (her namesake) was unable to attend the wedding, but gave dottie her beautiful shawl to wear. and although it was relatively warm for a day in february, it really wasn’t warm at all when you’re wearing a dress, so it came in handy! :)

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the groom and his groomsmen arrived before the ceremony where we got some headshots of them. we then all sat around anxiously waiting. it was a beautiful candle-lit ceremony with just a hint of ambient light coming in from the windows.

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dottie and jon arrived via limo to 1705 prime in north raleigh. it had, quite simply, the best steak ever…in addition to being a fantastic place to host your reception. they had a very unique cocktail style reception that fit their wedding perfectly! everyone had a great time enjoying drinks and finger foods before the main dinner.

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grandpa gave one of the best speeches ever!! he was super funny the whole night and a great guy to talk to. he made everyone laugh.

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i captured jon in a variety of “questionable” poses all night, like the one below…to the point where jon was slightly concerned about a possible impending arrest. don’t worry, jon! i didn’t post the ones that were too incriminating on the blog. ;)

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dottie and her dad:

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jon and his dad:

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in addition to having a very classic/elegant theme, the wedding had strong overtones of lady gaga. dottie is a huge fan and liked to “strike a pose” throughout the day. :) i’m pretty sure we even have a gaga claw from inside the hair salon!

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the family gets into the gaga:

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what a super fun wedding!! i had an absolute blast shooting this and want to thank dottie, jon, miki, and the rest of their family and friends for complete cooperation and support throughout the entire day. dottie and jon – you will have a beautiful life together and your love is amazing! congratulations and please keep in touch!