Molly+Trevor // Duke Gardens Wedding

You know you have the right client-photographer relationship when you show up and the maid of honor that you’ve never met is really excited to present to you a dozen little miniature hands for you to take ring shots with, and then you proceed to also use the bride’s floral binder and Pantone color samples you find lying around and find out that the wedding is floral and Pantone themed. With little hands. Then someone casually suggests hanging the bride’s dress on a pointed hand that’s jutting out of the wall, but it’s facing the wrong way, so the bride gets up on the counter with a hammer and a drill and proceeds to move the hand. Then they tell you that all of the bridesmaids have temporary tattoos that are scented. These… these are my people.

I won’t say too much about Molly and Trevor because they already know we love them, and they already know how fantastic they are (they are the only clients we’ve had to put their photos on a potato), and I already went over some of that from their engagement session (their apartment which is super fabulous and was published on Apartment Therapy, is now going to live on in our dreams as they’ve just recently bought a house which will be, I have no doubt, equally fabulous). So now I’ll just concentrate on their wedding which was pretty incredible. They wallpapered everything. The bar, the seating sign, the aisle runner, the band’s backdrop! Everyone’s table seating had Pantone colors with their names printed on them that doubled on the back as postcards! The kids had matchbox car boutonnieres! I could go on and on for a while but I’ll just stop with Molly’s dress which was incredible. It was floral. It was fantastic. And it was totally a prom dress from Nordstrom’s (we’ve already had a lot of people ask us, so there you have it folks). She said she wasn’t sure when she’d wear it again, but I assured her that she should just wear it all the time because why wouldn’t you.

• Date: April 15, 2017
• Ceremony + Reception Venue: Duke Gardens // Durham, NC
• First Dance Song: “You’ve Got a Friend” – James Taylor
• Molly’s Occupation: Children’s Museum Exhibit Designer
• Trevor’s Occupation: Biochemistry PostDoc
• How You Met: World Wide Web
• Interesting Fact: We have the exact same glasses prescription.
• Honeymoon: Eventually Norway.
• Vendor Credits: Officiant –Meghan Benson. Band – Liquid Pleasure Band. Florist – Pine State Flowers. Cake – Sugarland. Caterer – Chapel Hill Catering Company. Coordinator – Grace Beason of Grace Leisure Events. Molly+Ferry’s Hair: Stephanie Boettcher at Arrow Studio. Molly+Ferry’s Makeup – Pam Hung from OnLoKation Makeup. Bridesmaid’s Hair – Posh Studio. String Musicians – Save the Date Music. Photobooth – Zimzoom Photo Booth. Transportation – Greenway. Ice Cream Truck – The Parlour. Lighting – GetLit Special Event Lighting. Spray Tan – Tansformations.

Becky+Jake’s really rad wedding at CAM Raleigh

What makes me so happy with this wedding is how happy Becky looks. Not that she’s not happy or anything like that, but that I remember when we first met Becky and Jake and we basically discussed how bad she hated having her picture taken. According to them, she’d freeze up. The whole deer-in-headlights deal. And I’ve loved seeing how, over time, Becky has been able to completely ignore me. I can see where that wouldn’t be a normal person’s goal… to get someone to ignore you… but it’s awesome when you go from an initial meeting of, “Becky really hates having her picture taken” to Becky running around the city smiling and laughing and not worrying about me jumping out at her from the bushes.

Becky and Jake are those really cool clients that you hope to get but that secretly make you nervous at the same time because they’re really cool and you sometimes feel like maybe your level of cool won’t live up to their standards of cool, you know? I also remember at the first meeting that Jake told me that he didn’t “just want wedding pictures, we want art.” And I thought OKAY WE CAN DO THIS DEEEEEEP BREATTHSSS. And I hope we did. I think we did. To me, the pictures reflect how the two of them are perfectly suited to each other’s quirkiness… and how they not only make a gorgeous couple, but how they’re just so ridiculously right for each other. They’re the type where, if you were friends with Jake, you’d be more than happy to now welcome Becky along to every previously-Jake-only activities and vice versa. They’re kind of infectiously awesome like that. And we like them a whole bunch. I hope these pictures are as cool to you guys as they seem to us. This wedding was rad… and our second time shooting this year and ever at CAM Raleigh where I think I might just set up a tent in the back and live if that’s okay with the staff. Thanks in advance!

So normally I don’t interrupt posts like this, but I thought this was so cool that I had to point it out because it’s tiny so it’s easily missed. But that bird below that flew over the ceremony that Geoff so awesomely caught just happened to be their wedding colors. WEIRD. Thanks, bird!

First Dance: “Take Care” – Beach House

Bride’s Occupation: Lab Manager at NCSU and also part-time doctoral graduate student in Microbiology at NCSU

Groom’s Occupation: Senior Software Architect at IBM

How You Met: The internets! Online dating site called OKCupid.com – we owe them our firstborn :)

Interesting Bride Fact: Is ALWAYS 5 minutes early to everything…

Interesting Groom Fact: Is ALWAYS 5 minutes early to everything… and purposely arrived 5 minutes LATE to their first date – on a Monday, at a restaurant that, as it turns out, is closed on Mondays – leaving Becky wondering if she had been stood up.

Honeymoon Destination: Dominican Republic

Date: April 28, 2012

Ceremony and Reception Venue: CAM Raleigh // Raleigh, NC

Wedding Planner: Grace Leisure Events

Officiant: Jonathan Prinz

DJ: Frank Meldau of Joe Bunn DJ Company

Florist: John Griffin with Themeworks

Cake: Once in a Blue Moon Bakery

Caterer: Posh Nosh

Hair: Dana Hunter at Alter Ego Salon

Makeup: Belle Trachtenberg at Alter Ego Salon