When Jess and Steve e-mailed us to inquire about our availability to photograph a wedding in New Orleans, we did a lot of happy dances. So, so many happy dances. We’ve always wanted to visit Louisiana, and we knew New Orleans would provide the insanely varied and funky backdrop to a million killer wedding photos, but I’m not sure we realized just how awesome it would actually be. We estimated about a 10/10 on the awesome scale, but it ended up being more like a 51/10.

Their wedding venue was Race+Religious (on the corners of, you guessed it, Race and Religious streets) in the Lower Garden District. We were lucky enough to grab the Air BnB available next door so we literally walked about 5 feet to the wedding (best commute ever). And we spent the days before the wedding in awe of the venue, the Garden District, the French Quarter, and every other place we visited in New Orleans. Everything is old. Old, tilted, crumbling, peeling. Everything is a million different colors. The paint on buildings is chipped away to reveal concrete which is peeled away to reveal brick. There are palm trees and huge oaks destroying the sidewalks and ferns everywhere. It was like someone went inside my head and thought up the most visually interesting place for me ever and then put it in a city and a venue. I certainly left part of my heart there for sure as it’s basically an entire city devoted to the holiday of Halloween, and we all know how I feel about that. Bats bats bats.

Anyway – besides loving New Orleans and Race+Religious, we love Jess and Steve. A lot. They’re cooler than we could ever probably achieve, and it shows. Look at her dress! And the little tiny pictures she hand painted for her tables! And who can forget the pool donut? Also, her head smelled really great all day, so there’s that. Jess and Steve – thank you for bringing us to this fabulous city and showing us an amazing time. We heart you a lot.

  • Date: June 27, 2015
  • Ceremony + Reception Venue: Race+Religious // New Orleans, LA
  • First Dance Song: “Joy” – Iron & Wine
  • Honeymoon: Minimoon in Shenandoah National Park
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant –Legit Officiant Andrew Pattison | Florist – Poppy & Mint | Cake – Pure Cake | Caterer – Joel’s

A lot of big hair, more Mad Men discussions than you can shake a stick at, little woodland creatures decor, and a cat named Woody in a gold lamé tuxedo. Such was our wedding weekend in Washington, DC with Emily and Eric. They’re two amazing people who know how to have a really good time and have really good taste. Emily got ready in an old timey hotel room with lots of portrait paintings and a tiny ceramic squirrel holding their rings. I went to take pictures of her adorable blue shoes and a tuft of cat hair fell out of them, so I liked her right away. Then I had the opportunity to listen to them describe in great detail how one of her bridesmaids bought a tuxedo at a pet store for Emily and Eric’s cat Woody, but how it velcroed at the wrong spot so that Woody was able to get out of it, so she used it as a template to make a bigger, better tuxedo out of a gold lamé fabric (because why not?) that also was able to attach to a harness. They used a stuffed animal version of Babar for approximate measurements, but had to take some of the fabric out at his final fitting (cat tailoring is complicated). Woody did not tolerate having his picture taken for long, but man, he looked good in a tuxedo. Speaking of which, Emily and Eric also looked equally fantastic in formalwear, and together the three of them make a very fashionable DC family. We enjoyed every bit of our stay in DC getting to know them, and now we also have the first wedding under our belt where Geoff took the metro to the guys getting ready spot and I walked to the girls. We could get used to this. :)

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  • Date: June 6, 2015
  • Ceremony + Reception Site: Josephine Butler Parks Center // Washington, DC
  • Emily’s Occupation: Works on housing policy in the White House budget office
  • Eric’s Occupation: Manager at the Environmental Protection Agency
  • How You Met: We were in the same graduate school program together at Georgetown in Washington DC.
  • Interesting Fact: Emily volunteers at the National Zoo (I operate the panda cam for a couple hours each week).  Eric loves the ocean but doesn’t live anywhere near it anymore.  To stay busy, he works in the garden and is on a quest to run the length of every street in the District of Columbia.  He tracks his progress by marking-up a map on their wall.
  • Honeymoon: Andalucia, Spain
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant – Jessica Ben Ami | DJ – Van Petty | Florist – A Petal’s Edge (Gerry Rogers) | Cake – Cakes by Leslie | Caterer – A Main Event (Rebeccah Propp) | Hair/Makeup – Modern Bridal | Videographer – Wedding Mix DIY Videography | Coordinator – Candy+Co Events (Tori Maltby)

We met Emily and Taylor for the first time at Abby and Aaron’s wedding we photographed in 2013 in the Outer Banks. Taylor is Abby’s brother. Now we’re friends with Abby and Aaron due to our mutual love of Halloween and our love-bordering-on-obsession of their dog Casey (look at that face), so because we hang out, we’ve also had the opportunity to hang out with Emily and Taylor at Abby’s Halloween parties (when we can recognize them in their costumes, that is). We liked them because they also like Halloween, and because they also like Casey, and because Emily retouches photos for a living so we can complain about mutual editing things. Now we like them even more because they had moss and ferns at their wedding, and Muse as their first dance song, and because they too, like Abby and Aaron, had the amazing Uncle Bill (Abby and Taylor’s uncle who plays Rod Remington on “Glee”) sing at their wedding (he is truly amazingly talented and also hilarious and we might’ve taken a selfie with him). So. It’s settled then. We like them. We’re unsure how they feel about us (jury’s still out since they called our Interesting Fact question “terrible”). But either way they’ll be forced to see us at Abby’s parties and we’ll win them over eventually.

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  • Date: May 30, 2015
  • Ceremony + Reception Site: The Oaks Events // Midland, NC
  • First Dance Song: “Starlight” – Muse
  • Emily’s Occupation: Photo retoucher
  • Taylor’s Occupation: Mobile Paralegal
  • How You Met: Halloween Par-tay! Taylor was the only one at the party to get Emily’s costume (Mia from Pulp Fiction).
  • Interesting Fact: Sincerely spent 30 minutes trying to come up with ‘interesting’ facts about themselves. What a terrible question.
  • Honeymoon: Bali, Indonesia
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant –Uncle Ralph Jones | DJ – CrackerJack | Cake – Delores Holt | Caterer – Concord Union Bistro | Hair – Images Salon | Makeup – Letsgetvamp Makeup | Coordinator – Michelle from The Oaks Events | Wedding Singer – Bill A Jones