Raleigh Wedding Photographer: Caitlin+Christopher

Everyone’s favorite baseball enthusiasts tie the knot! Caitlin and Christopher, law school students at the University of Virginia, held their wedding here in Raleigh where Caitlin’s family resides. They met at the University of Georgia, and in a weird, Twilight Zone spin on events, are good friends with one of the groomsmen at our last wedding in Asheville. Normally we only see repeat guests at weddings that come from referrals, but these two couples didn’t know each other until they met at the wedding of the groomsman, Beau, a few weeks ago. At that point Sarah called and said, “We met another one of your couples!” So we thought that was cool, and we shot Sarah’s wedding, and then as we’re rolling up to Caitlin and Christopher’s wedding, Geoff says, “That’s Beau!” and it was… and it was all very deja vu strangeness. I guess it just proves that our clients are cool and run in cool circles with other cool people who have equally awesome taste in photographs. ;)

Anyyyway, this wedding was a beautiful late morning wedding and we had a great time shooting it! I must say, it was one of the most active dance parties we have ever seen… especially for an afternoon reception. Also, it was definitely hands-down the most active group of people over 70 I have ever seen as well. The grandparents were totally jamming out. It was pretty amazing. Caitlin and Christopher are total sweethearts who are beautiful inside and out. :)

Date: August 13, 2011

Ceremony Venue: Sacred Heart Cathedral // Raleigh, NC

Reception Venue: North Ridge Country Club // Raleigh, NC

Officiant: Father Sal Busichio

DJ: Tim Hazell, TJDJ

Florist: Suzanne Page, JaGG Classic Wholesale

Cake/Food: North Ridge Country Club

Caitlin’s grandmother made these little floral arrangements below in tiny watering cans for their wedding after-party at the house, and I just thought it was the cutest idea ever. It would make adorable centerpieces for a spring wedding outside. Way to go, grandma! Also, the above picture is one of my favorites of the day. :) It makes me smile!

Christopher is a sweetheart and had just the best, genuinely excited reaction upon seeing the lovely Caitlin. :)

It started raining during the ceremony, so we improvised and did the first half of their pictures inside. :)

Beau! Our mutual wedding client friend. :)

This was a very energetic exit… I feel like the noisemakers had something to do with that. ;) We hadn’t seen this type of exit before, and it was great! I kinda wanted a noisemaker, but it would’ve distracted me, so it’s probably for the best. Congratulations, Caitlin and Christopher! Best of luck in Virginia and please keep in touch! :D

Raleigh Wedding Photographer in Asheville: Sarah+Jimmy

This was one of those weddings where you went to sleep afterward feeling like you were at a wedding of a friend. Sarah and Jimmy, our favorite Algebra teacher and rock climbing instructor, and owner of the ever-popular Clive, were married at the end of July in Asheville, NC in a beautiful ceremony in the most ridiculously gorgeous church and reception hall. We were welcomed into their family wholeheartedly for the weekend and enjoyed every minute of it.

Geoff and I hadn’t made it out to Asheville yet since we moved to North Carolina, and it is every bit as awesome as everyone says it is. We had a super time as illustrated by this way too long blog post. We’re so grateful for Sarah and Jimmy for bringing us out there! (Strangely enough, our other Asheville wedding in October is at the same reception venue… and we are totally stoked because the location couldn’t be better). Our lovely couple currently lives in Charlotte, NC, but are originally from Georgia where they went to school at UGA… so this was a mini-destination wedding for all involved. :)

We started out the weekend photographing Sarah and Jimmy’s rehearsal dinner, so a few from that lovely evening and then we’ll dive right into the wedding. I have a hard time leaving all of my wedding comments at the top here… and I realize that spoils the flow of the pictures, but there are some things that need commented on with the picture. ;)

Date: July 30th, 2011

Hotel: The Crowne Resort Plaza // Asheville, NC

Rehearsal Dinner Venue: The Sunset Terrace at the Grove Park Inn // Asheville, NC

Ceremony Venue: Grace Episcopal Church // Asheville, NC

Reception Venue: The Crest Center and Pavilion // Asheville, NC

Officiant: Lee Mason // College pastor of the bride and groom

Band: The Business

Florist: Blossoms at Biltmore Park

Cake: Earthfare

Hair and Makeup: Leau de Vie Salon

Here are some of the pictures from their rehearsal dinner at the Grove Park Inn… a beautiful building on top of the world’s steepest hill ever. I was slightly, slightly concerned about the Mazda’s capabilities climbing it.

After the lovely and intimate rehearsal dinner, we got some beauty sleep and woke the next day to brave downtown Asheville to make our way to the Leau de Vi salon for hair and makeup. Of course, Asheville was holding the Bel Chere festival that weekend, and every street that we needed to get to was blocked off. :)

Our beautiful, beautiful bride Sarah and her adorable little Etsy hair flowers. :)

Sarah got ready at the Sunset Cottage at the Crest Pavilion… a cute little house on the property that the girls stayed in the night before the wedding.

Obviously being really, really ridiculously good-looking was a requirement of this wedding party. Absolutely gorgeous (and so nice!) ladies and super handsome and friendly gentlemen. :)

After the beautiful ceremony presided over by their college pastor, Sarah and Jimmy and crew headed to the Crest Pavilion on top of another really steep hill. It is so pretty up there… and, while we avoided the rain, it was thundering during our newlywed pictures and we could see the rain in the distance. It was pretty awesome. Their decorations for the rehearsal was so cute and beautifully handmade. Their tablecards had quotes about relationships on one side, and the goals for their first year of marriage written on the other. It was really interesting to read them and such a great idea to create newlywed goals like that!

Oh hey, downtown Asheville! Funny seeing you here.

Sarah and Jimmy are such sweet people and just gorgeous, easy to photograph, and super nice and willing and laugh at all my silly nonsense. :)

Raining in the Blue Ridge Mountains…

Let’s just take a moment here and observe the awesome array and selection of sweet bow ties at this wedding, shall we?

The Business, a band local to Asheville, played the reception and they ROCKED! What a great group of guys…super fun, great music, and an excellent show. They are highly recommended if you’re looking for a band in the area. They played all sorts of stuff and the crowd loved them. We love you, the Business. :)

Sarah and Jimmy – thank you so so much for having us and inviting us to be a part of your wedding. We hope we did it justice – you are lovely people and we wish you the best of luck in all your adventures. Please keep in touch with us!

Raleigh Engagement Photographer: Tiffany+Neal

Tiffany and Neal are a lovely couple who just recently moved to Raleigh from Albany, NY! They are recently engaged and are planning their wedding for late May in upstate New York, and while we aren’t able to be there, we were so happy to be able to meet them to take their engagement pictures here. They chose the NCMA for its architectural neatness and for the beautiful surrounding grounds. It would also be different from anywhere in Albany, so they liked the uniqueness aspect. We had an excellent time talkin’ weddings and television. We also found out that they have a cat (who has an equally sickeningly cute name to our cat, Buckles) – Noodle the cat. He is chubby and flops around like a wet noodle. We really really wish he would’ve been able to make it to the engagement session, but I’m pretty sure he had some important plans somewhere. Noodle, we hope you like these pictures of your adorable owners!

Congratulations on your engagement, Tiffany and Neal! We hope your wedding is beautiful and wish you the best of luck in wedding planning!!