Hannah+David // Durham Wedding

Hannah and David had a wonderful afternoon wedding at the Cotton Room. Both of them are absolute pictures of calm. The 100% cool and collected expression Hannah is wearing through this entire blog post is not carefully curated; she was just like that all of the time. And I’m pretty sure she can give Tyra a run for the money in a closed-mouth-smile competition. Also, she kind of reminds me of Natalie Portman. Plus, she wore a lace dress with this awesome detachable skirt thing made of tulle. It’s kind of like a veil, but for the lower half of your body instead of your head. I love Hannah and it is obvious.

It is also very obvious that David loves Hannah, as he spent most of the day lovingly gazing at her and why wouldn’t he?! Of course he would. David is wonderfully kind and charming and was so sweet to us all day… making sure we ate and were okay and thanking us for being there. They are just the best. It’s kind of how I picture the wedding of any sort of royal prince and princess in maybe England or something. Is that weird? Maybe. Anyway, we had a lovely time, and then dragged poor Hannah and David into the mosquito infested woods of Durham to take pictures of them post-wedding (yes, both of them looked this good after their entire wedding, which is pretty unbelievable). Congratulations to two wonderful people – we were so happy to photograph your wedding!

  • Date: October 1, 2016
  • Ceremony + Reception Venue: The Cotton Room // Durham, NC
  • First Dance Song: “Forever” – Ben Harper
  • Hannah’s Occupation: CPA
  • David’s Occupation: Renewable Energy Business Development
  • How You Met: Slim’s Downtown Raleigh – first met and then met again a year later at which point we started dating
  • Interesting Fact: David loves dogs and is allergic to cats but has grown quite fond of Hannah’s cat. The dog and cat have grown quite fond of one another too!   Hannah is a vegetarian. David is not – but graciously compliments each vegetarian dinner Hannah makes – even when he wishes they contain meat :)
  • Honeymoon: Sedona, AZ
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant – Reverend Felix (Tony) Futtrell. DJ – Island Sound (Frankie). Florist – English Garden. Cake – Ashley Cakes. Caterer – The Cotton Room/Triangle Catering. Hair/Makeup – Makeup for Your Day. Coordinator – Shelley Clayton. Exit Car – Dave’s Car.

Lauren+Kris // Duke Forest Wedding.

Lauren and Kris had all the necessary things for a delightful wedding: donuts, a jazz band, an ice cream truck, a crazy little biodiesel bus, and a phone full of pictures of their cat Calvin using Snapchat wearing a fedora and a fake mustache. They were married by a friend in a little intimate spot of grass in the middle of Duke Forest surrounded by trees and fabulous early fall light. Then we all went on to the reception at The Cookery that was adorned with little golden dinosaurs sporting air plants that were standing guard over bottles of liquor holding wildflowers. I really wanted to steal all of them and start a tiny gold dinosaur plant army but I couldn’t do that because Lauren and Kris are so nice and I feel like it’s probably good luck for your marriage if you start out with your own golden dinosaur plant army and I didn’t want to rob them of that.

Did we mention the ice cream truck? We did, but we’re going to talk about it again right now because ice cream. At one point Lauren held a glass of wine in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other and looked so ridiculously thrilled with the whole thing and I thought yes, this is what happiness looks like. Everyone loves The Parlour and we do too, especially when they arrive in a pink and white truck, and I had two scoops of the Vietnamese Coffee because it’s my favorite, even though I don’t like coffee at all. And we ate our ice cream as the fabulous Mint Julep Jazz Band played on into the night and everyone had the best time talking and socializing. Thank you for having a delightful and charming wedding, Lauren and Kris, and we hope you’re up in DC starting that tiny golden dinosaur plant army with your cat Calvin.

  • Date: September 23, 2016
  • Ceremony Venue: Duke Forest // Durham, NC
  • Reception Venue: The Cookery // Durham, NC
  • Lauren’s Occupation: Economist for the federal government in DC
  • Kris’s Occupation: Energy analyst
  • How You Met: Graduate school classmates at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment.
  • Interesting Fact: Although they love Durham almost as much as they love each other, the only actual NC native in their family is their okra-loving cat, Calvin (from APS of Durham).
  • Honeymoon: Not sure yet! The front runners are Croatia and Laos.
  • Vendor Credits: Officiant – Zarak Khan. Band – Mint Julep Jazz Band. Florist – Pine State Flowers. Ice Cream – The Parlour Ice Cream Truck. Caterer – Durham Catering Company. Hair/Makeup – Carla White. Coordinator – Gretchen Garrett of Red Bird Events. Ceremony Music – Jordan Nance. Transporation – Greenway Transit. Donuts – Monuts.

Maggie+Humberto // Durham Engagement.

When Maggie and Humberto sent us an e-mail, they told us that they wanted to have their engagement pictures taken inside Food World. I think I text messaged Geoff first, before responding to the e-mail, with something along the lines of, “WE GOT AN INQUIRY TO TAKE PICTURES INSIDE OF FOOD WORLDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” to which Geoff responded, “YESSSSS, FOOD WORLDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!” We felt it might be inappropriate to respond to Maggie and Humberto in all caps with that many exclamation marks, so I curbed it as much as I could, but I think there still be might be some caps in there. Food World, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is an international grocery store in Durham. We actually stumbled across it while we were eating snow-cones at Pelican’s one evening; you can see Food World shining on down the hill. We needed cheese, and we figured Food World sounded like a grocery store, so cheese must be in there.

Cheese was indeed in there, but so were pinatas. And bags of rice. And fruit and vegetables that I couldn’t identify. And bags of Japanese candies and cookies and fish that still had their eyeballs. Every flavor of Jarritos imaginable! Bags and bags of dried peppers that I also couldn’t identify! Basically, we walked around Food World in stunned, international silence. It was incredible. Since then, we’ve obtained the knowledge of how to use some of those dried peppers to make General Tso’s, and regularly take out of town visitors on pilgrimages to Food World because it’s amazing. We still don’t know what most of the fruit and vegetables are, and we have yet to purchase a pinata, but small steps, people, small steps.

So the true pinnacle of our photography career was achieved Maggie and Humberto asked us to have photos taken in there. We were so happy someone else appreciated Food World as much as we do. And we were so glad when Food World graciously granted us permission to shoot some engagement pictures inside (always ask permission!). Maggie and Humberto also introduced us to their pastry counter and their taqueria inside! This was something we previously overlooked in our sheer joy to just be inside Food World. Later we also took Maggie and Humberto into downtown Durham and we had fun there, too (because they are awesome people!). But not quiteeeee as much fun as we had in Food World (because Food World).