Hannah+David+Clifton

I was very excited to meet Clifton because I already love Hannah and David (we photographed their wedding back in 2016!). And I knew that Hannah loves cats, and she told me that Clifton also loves cats. I wore one of my many shirts with cats on it to their session to try and win him over, and I think it worked. He also seemed to trust me more when he learned that our cats have similar names (theirs is Jackson, ours is Jackie – both cats have the nickname of the other cat, as well as JackJack, Jackie Boy, JJ, etc). Let me tell you…Clifton really, really, really loves cats. He has a lot of cat stuffed animals. All of the cats are named “Kitty.” Out of these many cats, he does have a favorite Kitty who is gray, and who he wanted me to hold (Clifton is enormously sweet). He also was very keen on my idea to pose him on a stool surrounded by his cat collection, which I was incredibly excited about, and it’s a picture which I hope some day makes an appearance at his wedding. I love this family and their love of cats. We had a great time mowing the lawn, swinging on swings, collecting acorns and tomatoes, and playing with cars. But most importantly – talking about cats.

Kirsten and Matt are my kind of people. Geoff is insistent that the amount of animals living with us don’t outnumber us, but he’s wrong. Kirsten and Matt are living in a joyous dreamland of cats and dogs living together, cuddling on the bed and everyone getting along. They live very happily living alongside the following:

*Chip – yellow lab, exceptionally good boy, friendly, cuddler
*Pascal – white Ragdoll, friendly, goofy, likes to chase shadows on walls and harass Chip
*Cinder – insanely handsome very-good-boy long-haired Siamese who enjoys being the center of attention and is very good at jumping
*Weston – human toddler, likes to dance to the Black Eyed Peas, owns the coolest shoes, has the most wonderful cable-knit sweater known to small children, and has an insanely cute laugh

In addition, they also live with Tansy, a calico who spent the session hiding from me under the bed, and two bunnies. And soon they’ll have a 34 year old photographer who moves in as the “Cat Nanny.” So it’s a full house with an unbelievably high cute factor over there and I’m definitely jealous of how well everyone gets along. Also 100% jealous of Weston’s shoes, which I went home and immediately put on my Amazon wish list. What a good looking bunch!

Remember these three pretty faces from their engagement session earlier this year? I say three because one of those pretty faces is a very shaggy/furry pretty face and that is the face of Sam the Dog. But, she is 100% a member of this family and is always included so I don’t want to leave her out here. Sam was a groomspup and, while she historically does not like very many people, she did cuddle with Geoff on the ride over to the ceremony in the backseat of the car, and she did lick my hand exactly once on the wedding day, so I’d call it a win. This was a huge improvement over literally jumping away from me if I tried to pet her in the past (which I frequently did because I forget she doesn’t like me and she’s so cute). ANYWAY – Sam was there, and adorable as usual, and wearing a little floral collar. Jen and Jon were also there, also being adorable, and wearing a pretty dress and bee socks respectively. Jen let me wear her stole on top of my puffy vest while I took photos of them and I looked very high fashion as they can attest.

These guys are so sweet and nice and smiley and funny and we love them both. They really like Game of Thrones and lifting heavy things and October (me too! except lifting heavy things). Jen is also Celiac, so we enjoy talking about things we can and cannot eat. They like deep frying gluten free stuff, and there was a moment of the wedding night where we cornered Jon and discussed deep fryer options. They had a gluten free cake (!!!) and gluten free pizza (!!!) and three of the world’s cutest flower girls. The best man also created a brilliant speech where he asked the guys getting ready for random words to include, just for kicks, to see if he could seamlessly integrate them. He asked Geoff, who asked him how hard he wanted the word to be (he was told very hard) before suggesting polypropylene, which, I have to say, was seamlessly integrated (I wouldn’t have thought it could be done). We had a great time meeting all their family and friends (who are just as nice as they are, surprise!) and can’t wait to discuss GoT’s series finale with them in the future.

Date: November 17, 2018
Ceremony + Reception Venue: The Historic Wakefield Barn // Wake Forest, NC
First Dance Song: “Beautiful Crazy” – Luke Combs
Jon’s Occupation: Financial Analyst for Cisco and Personal Trainer
Jen’s Occupation: Speech Therapist
How You Met: We met on the dating app Bumble
Interesting Fact: We cruise town playing Pokemon way too often.
Honeymoon: The Bahamas!
Officiant: Pastor Jason Butler
Band – Whiskey Rebellion
Florist: Expressions of Love
Cake: Sweet Traditions
Caterer: Il Muliano
Hair/Makeup: Teighla Norris
Coordinator: Daniel Varela of Chad Biggs Planning