Olivia+Gunnar // Raleigh Elopement

Olivia and Gunnar eloped in Raleigh in mid-November and had their closest family and friends in from out of town to stay at a big house in Raleigh to celebrate with them. Olivia and Gunnar are originally from Alabama but recently moved to the area for jobs, and we’re so glad they did! They are awesome people who are super sweet and like key lime pie. And I automatically trust anyone who loves key lime pie. They enjoy cooking together and are pretty into food. But, so is their dog, and upon returning from a honeymoon in Ireland where they brought home chopsticks from one of their favorite restaurants there, their dog dug through their bag and ate said chopsticks. You can’t with ’em all. They told us of driving through Ireland on the wrong side of the road which sounded terrifying, and they told us about black pudding which sounds totally disgusting, but beyond that, Ireland sounds really great and it’s still high on our list of places to visit someday (just without the black pudding maybe). At home, Gunnar likes video games and building computers and doing techie things, and Olivia likes all things true crime and watching movies (and we all agree that Pet Semetary definitely should not be remade as it’s perfect in its original form). We had a great time meeting their families at their elopement in Raleigh, and then a great time on a slightly drier day photographing them in Durham. Thanks for finding us, Olivia and Gunnar, and may you have many more chopsticks someday that your dog doesn’t eat. Congratulations!

Lexie+Michael // Raleigh Elopement

Lexie and Michael were introduced to us a long time ago by our friends Monica and Graham, whose wedding we shot back in 2012. Well, I guess we knew Lexie first (I spy her in one of their reception photos) and Michael later. Lexie is an identical twin (oddly enough, our third identical twin this season, but our fourth identical twin ever), and for a while we had absolutely no idea how to tell her and her sister Ashley apart. Later someone gave us the pro tip that Ashley has bangs and Lexie doesn’t, and it’s been somewhat easier since then, but if they aren’t standing next to each other it’s still not a fool-proof method and I’m never 100% sure in my answer. But, now that Lexie has been our (wonderful!) client, I think my chances of figuring out who is who will now have a 90% accuracy rate, white dress or not, and I think that’s the best you can really hope for with identical twins. So now that Lexie and Michael are married, it’s going to be Michael’s job to stand next to Lexie all the time so I don’t mess up.

These two were married at the courthouse in Raleigh surrounded by close family and friends, then they had a reception at Watered Garden Florist a few days later (Lexie’s mom is a florist at Watered Garden and did all the flowers for this wedding, which were amaaaaazing!), then a few days after that they had another reception in Chicago with Michael’s side of the family. We happily were able to keep her dress pretty clean throughout the courthouse ceremony and the pictures afterward roaming around the gardens so she could use it at the receptions. Michael studies trees for a living and is really into plants. Lexie rehabs turtles (very jealous of this) and has dogs and is also into plants. Together they are very nature-y and excited to take pictures by some trees and we were excited to take their pictures by trees and everyone was very, very happy. But not as happy as me, who received gluten-free cupcakes care of Monica and Graham from Lexie and Michael’s reception a few days later. ;) Mmm, cupcakes.