first place winner in two categories for the wedding photographic society 3rd quarter contest!

things have been quiet over here at CSP as i closed down the doors for 3 weeks while geoff and i got married and went on our honeymoon to costa rica. :) we had the best time at our wedding and a very interesting (and dangerous!) honeymoon! i’ll be blogging about all these adventures later… :)

but for right now i am so thrilled to announce that i came home to discover that i had won 1st place in two categories in the 3rd quarter contest sponsored by the wedding photographic society! the WPS is headquartered in raleigh and is a network of professional photographers locally and globally. they hold quarterly contests where their panel of judges receive submissions from photographers in various categories. this quarter’s judges were james walters, stacy borelli, and christobal perez.

i won first place in the “beautiful mistake” category from rosalyn and patrick’s wedding. the beautiful mistake category was meant to highlight the occasional mistakes that photographers make that turn out to be a totally awesome picture. in this case, one of my flashes didn’t fire and i was left with this image. i believe i ran over to geoff and was like, “LOOK THIS IS AWESOME” shortly thereafter, haha. i now tend to do this “mistake” on purpose. :)

first place winner wedding photography

the other first place winner of mine was in the category of large groups, which is one of my absolute favorite pictures from my repertoire of wedding pictures. taken from valerie and kenneth’s wedding, this was an image that was created using a very willing and cooperative bridal party + lots of time for pictures + cool lighting + nice setting.  i’ve been told a few times that it looks like it could be a twilight movie poster, haha, which i think is both funny and kind of accurate. one of the judges said it was “kind of badass”, and i’d have to agree. :)

1st place wedding photography

thank you to the judges! i am so flattered and honored to be recognized. and congratulations to all the other winners in the categories! to see the other winners as well as read the comments from the judges on my photographs and others, please visit the WPS website here.

raleigh wedding photographer in pinehurst: kelsey+adam

kelsey and adam’s wedding date finally came! you may remember the adorable couple from their engagement shoot with their daughter, emma grace. kelsey and i have been facebook chatting it up over the last couple of months and we were so excited for our weddings which are falling a few days apart (mine is coming up in a few days!). i love the bond that you can build with clients and that lovely point where clients become friends. :) kelsey and adam are definitely that – my friends as well as a beautiful couple who has a wonderful group of family and friends. they thankfully had a warm, dry, sunny day on october 9th when they were married in pinehurst, nc. enjoy!

bride getting ready with white flats wedding jewelry bridesmaids

had to get a shot of the mother/daughter wedding dresses. :) emma grace’s tiny dress was just too cute! we hung it in the same place as mom’s as a surprise… we thought kelsey would enjoy the side-by-side pics. :)

mother and daughter wedding dresses bride getting ready with perfume bridal veil

first look pictures are becoming very popular for several reasons: 1.) you get ALL of the nervous jitters out of the way so you’re both relaxed for the ceremony 2.) extra time for pictures! 3.) your better half actually gets to tell you what they think about what you’re wearing instead of smiling at you in silence then turning to do the ceremony 4.) you get to express your love for each other in a very genuine way before the ceremony and all-day ruckus begins 5.) they make ADORABLE pictures!

i highly recommend going with the first look pictures. we’re doing it for our wedding because we don’t want a cocktail hour, and i’d love to get pictures beforehand for time, so geoff and i can talk about the dress, and so i can concentrate on actually walking down the aisle (which is stairs!) instead of trying to see what geoff’s expression is. :) if you don’t trust me about first look pictures yet, just look at how adorable kelsey and adam’s are! he was sooo nervous to see her, which made it even more adorable.

first look

he has such a sweet expression on his face. :) such a lovely set of pictures!

first look first look pictures

then we got all of THIS out of the way before the ceremony! it was an easy, low-stress day. love it. the bridesmaids wore sangria colored dresses with the groomsmen in matching ties.

bridal party in sangria bridesmaids in sangria dresses groomsmen with sunglasses

kelsey’s bro walked her down the aisle and into the sunny ceremony. it was bright! it made the pictures look very fall-esque though and i’m digging them. :)

southern pines wedding ceremony

southern wines wedding photographer

southern pines wedding ceremony

two-sided first kiss! thanks to geoff for getting the one on the left. :)

first kiss

i’m in love with this ring shot. i’m in love with her ring!

claddagh wedding ring

wedding portraits

raleigh wedding photographer

southern pines wedding photographer

southern pines bride

southern pines wedding

autumn wedding north carolina

emma grace making her tiny debut for the second time on the CSP blog. :)

baby wedding dress

autumn wedding

they had an intimate reception back at kelsey’s mom’s house which was very relaxed and fun. a nice break for my back and feet from a crowded dance floor! sometimes it’s good to switch things up a bit. :)

north carolina wedding photographer blog

wedding dog

outdoor wedding reception

outdoor wedding reception

thank you, kelsey and adam, for entrusting me with your pictures, which i know are very important to you. you have been amazing to work with all this time and i look forward to seeing you in raleigh soon! :) congratulations!!

raleigh wedding photographer in chapel hill: melissa+jimmy

i had the great opportunity to photograph a wedding with one of the most beautiful couples (inside and out) in chapel hill on october 2nd. meet melissa and jimmy. :) they met at clemson university and, after a long bout of long distance wedding planning with jimmy stationed in germany, melissa moved there with him. they love it and i could not be happier for them! they’re both genuinely very sweet and nice people… not to mention the total rocking-ness of their bridal party!! this was one of those weddings where i get home and i actually still have energy left because everything was so relaxed and people were so supportive. worked with some great vendors on this one as well!

the girls got their hair done at the aveda institute and went on to the church of st. thomas more to get ready before the ceremony.

st. thomas more catholic church chapel hill, nc bride getting ready st. thomas more catholic church chapel hill, nc

the picture on the left below is just after her bridesmaids had literally lifted her up and set her in her dress, haha. the picture on the right is melissa wrapping her grandfather’s rosary he used as a child around her wrist as a tribute.

bride rosary

i love seeing the expressions from the couples during the walk down the aisle. thanks to geoff for this shot. :)

ceremony groom walking down the aisle wedding ceremony

st. thomas more is a catholic church and they did a full mass wedding, but it wasn’t without the occasional giggles. :)

st. thomas more chapel hill wedding ceremony st. thomas more chapel hill wedding ceremony st. thomas more wedding ceremony

what a lovely group of girls! i love black bridesmaid dresses!

bridesmaids black dresses

and what a good looking group of guys, of course! jimmy had on his uniform and the females in attendance were swooning.

groomsmen dress blues

the wedding reception was held at the carolina inn in chapel hill, nc. we got their formals outside because it’s a beautiful building. the reception room was the old well room and was very near to the UNC game party that was happening, so we had the occasional congratulatory yells from strangers in the building. gotta love it!

carolina inn wedding pictures

one of the bridal party members coined this their zoolander pose, and that’s pretty much accurate.

the carolina inn wedding photographer the carolina inn wedding pictures

this is my favorite of the day. melissa is gorrrrgeous. i’m pretty sure i could put her in some sort of giant pumpkin costume or clown wig and she’d still be just as gorgeous.

bridal portrait chapel hill wedding pictures carolina inn

ahhhh! this kills me. :) melissa and jimmy had this picture taken at his formal before his commissioning in the army and it’s framed in their house. they wanted to recreate it on their wedding day now that he has his new uniform and her dress was a wedding dress this time! the recreation is planned to hang next to it. i think we did a darn good job recreating!

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north carolina wedding photographer

they’re both really big clemson tiger fans and had a purple and orange tribute candy bar which was great! so of course the rings had to go in the multi-colored M&Ms.

chapel hill wedding photographer

carolina inn wedding

wedding portraits

first dance

katie cathey of events by la fête rocked out the wedding reception in the old well room! and the cake walk did a fantastic job on their cake.

Events By La Fête

wedding reception carolina inn

carolina inn old well room wedding reception

wedding reception carolina inn old well room

i’m always a sucker for the guys to break out into random group singing in the middle of the reception. my favorite part of any day.

wedding reception carolina inn

the fantastic mark mcnally of the joe bunn dj company threw a fantastic dance party!

joe bunn dj company

carolina inn old well room

melissa used her mother’s garter and was not planning on having a garter toss as she was just generally against it. at some point in the evening we got word that jimmy had negotiated the garter toss…and i’m glad he did because the below picture is adorable.

garter removal

wedding reception

carolina inn wedding reception

i love a good bubble exit.

bubble exit wedding

carolina inn wedding

this wedding was such a joy to work on. thank you to melissa, jimmy, their awesome bridal party and supportive family and friends, katie cathey, mark mcnally, and the carolina inn for being so wonderful! have a GREAT time in germany you guys and keep in touch!