Elizabeth+Rich // A Durham Food Tour Wedding

These guys are my favorite beard+pixie cut combo besides ourselves. They are us, but they’re way smarter and can lift heavier things. They also have a dog and live in South Carolina. Everything else is exactly the same. I’d adopt them if I could, or be adopted by them, or at the very least sew ourselves into one giant footie pajama and walk around together all the time. They are Elizabeth+Rich, and there they are on their engagement session when we first met them. Now they are back and getting married. And, of course, they had the absolutely brilliant idea of turning it into a food tour wedding. They really like food and food tours and so why not have 30ish of their closest peeps and family get together in Durham for a food tour wedding? THERE IS NOT REASON NOT TO DO THIS.

They were married at The Boiler Room in the American Tobacco Campus among a lot of industrial pipes. Then we went outside and Elizabeth educated us about how the land is moving so that’s why the tiny door at the ATC campus fake lunch counter is so tiny. There was a complicated, sciencey name for this that I’v since forgotten, but it was neat. Then we went to Bull City Burger and I ate a pimento cheese burger and fries while almost crying with appreciation (everyone loves pimento cheese). We all moved on to Alley 26 where there were cocktails and cheer and a fancy salad. Next stop was The Durham where they rented the rooftop and had a bunch of apps including the dozen or so deviled eggs that I ate entirely by myself. We all admired the view of a chilly downtown Durham from the roof, all decked out for the holidays. Then we all walked to the infamous bull (since you have to show people from out of town, it is practically a requirement), and onto Criterion from there where there was cake and coffee and sparklers. It was one of the most darling and endearing weddings we’ve ever had the pleasure to shoot. Chill, calm, friendly, and fun. A most miraculous way to end the year. Congratulations, Elizabeth and Rich, and onward to 2019!


Date: December 16, 2018
Ceremony Venue: The Boiler Room // Durham, NC
Food Tour Stops: Bull City Burger and Brewery, Alley 26, The Durham, and Criterion
First Dance Song: “You for Me” – Blossom Dearie
Rich’s Occupation: Mechanical Engineer, Professor of Physics at Coastal Carolina University
Elizabeth’s Occupation: Professor of Art History at Coastal Carolina University
How You Met: The old-fashioned way: through mutual friends (Ted & Jillian, our witnesses!) at a dinner party in Manhattan (in 2011!)
Interesting Fact: We can’t think of anything, so here is some random trivia: We have an almost 16-year-old mutt named Riesling who is probably curled up on the sofa under a blanket right now. E’s brother and sister-in-law are flying in from Bosnia for the wedding. They win. R used to drive big-rig trucks while he was in college. E was a cheerleader in high school and was voted “most spirited” in her senior class (she still gets 5/5 every semester from her students in the category “enthusiasm for the subject matter”). E spills things (a lot)… there’s a really funny story about our second date. Oh, and neither of us were sure that our first date was actually a date when we planned it. But it was. After it was over, E was so smitten she walked 10 blocks in the wrong direction before she noticed she was going the wrong way.
Honeymoon: Since adventure travel is the norm for us, we thought we’d do something out of the ordinary. We are spending a week at a destination spa in Santa Fe, NM, for all the yoga, cooking classes, and massages we can stand!
Officiant: John Baltes (E’s brother)
Ceremony Music: Tim Fischer (friend)
Florist: Mahtab Pedrami (friend)
Cake: Mad Hatter’s
Caterer: Taste Carolina Gourmet Food Tours
Hair/Makeup: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Heather+Garrett // Maternity Session.

We’d been looking forward to working with Heather and Garrett for such a long time, but even more so when they added a rug into their nursery with dancing Chewbaccas on it. Heather is the very talented artist behind Remember November, Inc., where she uses her badass graphic design skills to make even more badass printed signs and paper products for weddings! Sooo if you’re getting married and you need any signage (invites, table numbers, menus, programs, etc), she’s your girl (visit her Etsy shop!).

In addition to being really talented, she and Garrett also really like Star Wars. In the happiest of all happy parental coincidenes for Star Wars fans, they also named their kid Finn before they knew he was the name of the main character in The Force Awakens. Heather also makes really adorable embroidery as a hobby and has been working her way through a Star Wars alphabet that I’m pretty sure we might just straight up steal from their kid’s bedroom. Until then, here are pictures of us following Heather and Garrett around on a lovely evening in Durham where we talked tv shows and movies and music and discovered that we’re not the only ones watching Bates Motel.

Carly+Jay’s Downtown Durham Wedding

When Carly and Jay inquired about their wedding, they told us that Jay really likes singing Usher for karaoke. They also told us that they like No Doubt and Horse Feathers. We replied to their e-mail stating that we weren’t quite able to rectify their love of those two bands with Usher, but that we’d overlook their discrepancy. They responded by challenging us to a heated debate and/or lightsaber battle to prove to us that 90s Usher is the best. We counter-offered by challenging them to a game of ping pong in our office. They lost. We won. No Doubt beats Usher. They’re still upset about it, but whatever.

They still hired us to shoot their awesome wedding in downtown Durham. Carly’s parents own the sweetest private residence of all private residences where they have a rooftop that overlooks the city as well as a thousand other super cool things about their house (a giant safe! a cool spiral staircase! a library wall with a Beauty and the Beast-style library ladder!), so they decided to get married there (it wasn’t a hard choice). It translated into an amazing wedding venue. And now we are super lucky to call Carly and Jay our friends, and despite their interesting fact stating that they hope to spend their lives together abroad, we’re pretty sure that they like us enough to stay here… or at least hide us in their suitcases.

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  • Date: June 20, 2015
  • Ceremony + Reception Site: Private Residence // Durham, NC
  • First Dance Song: “Walking on a Dream” – Empire of the Sun
  • Carly’s Occupation: High School English Teacher
  • Jay’s Occupation: Bartender and student at UNC
  • How You Met: Carly tried to get Jay to dance with her after a few too many beers. Jay politely turned her down…then asked her out the next night. They fell in love 2 hours later. :)
  • Interesting Fact: We lived in Korea and traveled around SE Asia together. We hope to spend most of our lives together abroad.
  • Honeymoon: Hiking, camping, and relaxing in the Canadian rockies and Vancouver for 3 1/2 weeks. Alberta and British Columbia, Canada.
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant – Reverend Ingrid Sagula | DJ – DJ SPCLGST | Florist – Gillian Rose Galdy | Cake – Amelia Smith | Caterer – Durham Catering | Hair/Makeup – Arrow Salon | Coordinator – A Swanky Affair (Amanda Scott) | Ice Cream – The Parlour