Carolyn+Shawn // Raleigh Engagement Session

I’m always partial to people with my name, but it does make it difficult when Geoff is directing clients to figure out who he’s talking to. Meet Carolyn and Shawn! They are super fun and cute and follow direction exceedingly well. They are also both short like me, so I didn’t have to use my step stool (yes!). We met them one evening in the Raleigh Rose Garden and made a good time of it, talking about travel and cats and how Ramsay Bolton is an evil psychopath. Fun fact about Carolyn and Shawn: if you count to three, they’ll turn and run directly into each other. If you count to three again, they’ll turn and run directly into each other one more time. It seems to be some sort of reflex. We’re looking forward to counting to three on their wedding day and seeing what happens, but they’ll probably just run into each other, this time super dressed up.

Ariana+Matt // Raleigh Rose Garden

We met Ariana and Matt way, way, way back at the 4th wedding we’ve ever photographed. Ariana was a bridesmaid and Matt was a groomsman and they had kind of exchanged brief “hello”s at each other once before since their best friends were engaged. Now they were in the wedding, and I specifically remember photographing them several times talking and dancing because I was pretty sure they were a couple, but apparently they weren’t, but rather had just started actually speaking more than “hello” that evening. Clearly they seemed like a couple and that obviously transformed into them actually being a couple and I’m really happy that I took those photos because that’s pretty much when they first met so I feel like I have some sort of weird, cosmic part in the whole thing. :)

Through the years since that wedding, Ariana has kept in touch with me. She’s an extremely talented cellist who plays at weddings and with the symphony (and has performed recently with Yo-Yo Ma!) and is generally awesome. Recently she asked me for my hair dresser’s contact information and got her hair cut right before us so we were able to see her and recommend the best gluten-free restaurant ever in Asheville (Posana!) where her and Matt were soon headed for their anniversary (they’re gluten-freebies). She had a sneaking suspicion that he might propose, so we were anxiously awaiting the news, and he did, and it was awesome, and then they went to Posana to celebrate, so I feel like we had a weirdly cosmic part in that aspect of their relationship timeline as well! Clearly the cosmos think the four of us are pretty good together.

Anyway – we are thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to have them finally… all these years later… as our clients and we’re looking forward to their wedding next March! Here are our favorites from their engagement session at the Raleigh Rose Garden. We love you both and are so excited!