raleigh portrait photographer: derica+ian.

last month i held an end of summer contest to thank my blog and newsletter readers for referrals. the winner would receive a free session and 50 4×6 proofs. derica justice was the lucky winner! she wanted to use her session for new portraits of her and her hubby ian, who haven’t had pictures since their wedding a few years ago. i was super excited to work with derica as she is our fantastic invitation/program/thank you card designer for our wedding!! (pictures of our invitations and interview with derica coming soon).  we loved derica’s work and i thought it was cool that we got this chance to both sort of work with each other’s business. cool!

they wanted some fun and funky pictures downtown with their dog maggie, who was super adorable and well-behaved even though she is terrified to walk over grates, which i found adorable. :)

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they wanted their picture by the NC state logo which was sandwiched between duke and unc…and while duke got the cold shoulder, ian decided to take care of unc by positioning this hand over their logo. ;)

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successfully loitering!

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i had a super time out with this adorable couple and the pup! congratulations on the win, guys! and be looking out for derica’s upcoming invitation vendor interview soon!

raleigh engagement photographer: kelsey+adam.

meet a super sweet and adorable family whose october wedding you can expect to see in a little over a month! :) kelsey and adam are not only getting ready to tie the knot, they also just welcomed their newborn baby emma into the world not too long ago. when we discussed doing an engagement session, we decided we would wait until emma was born and settled in before we took some newborn/family/engagement pictures. i had been following emma’s growing-up progress via kelsey’s facebook pictures to the point where i already felt like i knew her when i met her, but she’s so much more beautiful in person than in a photograph! what a cutie. :) and oh yeah, kelsey and adam are super cute too! we had such a great time. can’t wait for their wedding next month!

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yeeeep. puttin’ babies in suitcases. this is what i do for a living, folks. paying the bills via babies in suitcases.

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goooorgeous light and a goooorgeous couple. this was her mom’s backyard where i should totally set up a small studio and pay a monthly fee to mom in order to shoot because the light is just so stellar.

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WHEELBARROW SHOT! check and mark off the photographic bucket list. :)

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YAY! can’t wait to see you two next month!

raleigh engagement photographer: heidi+aaron

heidi, aaron and i first met through the wonderful chelsea mills of chelsea reality group whom i met through the downtown raleigh alliance, so our relationship is kind of like six degrees of kevin bacon. :) i could tell from our consult for their wedding that they were a crazy fun couple and i was so stoked when we decided to do a downtown engagement session with them! and they were just as fun as i imagined them to be, of course, if not more. :)

they’re a downtown kind of couple, which i can totally relate to,  and aaron proposed to heidi downtown, so we spent last thursday afternoon bouncing around various locations and getting some funky city shots. their wedding is at the raleigh rose garden in april 2011, so we bounced over to the rose garden after we finished with downtown to get some shots for her mom. :) i had a ridiculously hard time narrowing down these images for the blog because they’re both gorgeous and the city was awesome and it was a super shoot, but here are some of the faves!

so without further ado, meet heidi and aaron. :)

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oh yeah, and their dogs! :) lola and waggy mae, respectively:

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after their wedding at the rose garden, their reception will be at the sheraton, where i hope to convince them to go outside for some night shots down fayetteville. :)

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it was really hard to get them to not smile or laugh, which had me smiling and laughing, which in turn made it more difficult for them to not smile or laugh. :) but we got some “serious face” shots in there anyway! :D

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the following picture was their idea because this couple was the definition of a fun couple. :)

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and, ladies and gentlemen, i present to you…the best family portrait EVER.

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thought this was cute! they’ll be married on the lawn in front of them. this is like the pre-wedding planning shot. “where will we put the chairs?” :)

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she is gorgeous and will make a totally beautiful bride. i can’t wait!

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yay!! i had a blast running around with them and am so looking forward to their wedding next year! make sure you check back for them in 2011. :) good luck with the planning, you two!