Margaret and Bryan are two pretty awesome people who live in Winston-Salem happily playing video games and discussing pugs. They met online when they were living in San Diego, and then they moved to New York. All of these places had bubble tea. Now they live in North Carolina and are struggling to find bubble tea, but we’re confident that someday they will (maybe? I don’t know, I’m not even sure what bubble tea is). They enjoy all types of video games, but together like playing Overcooked. When we asked them what it was about, Margaret responded with, “You’re a bunch of adorable characters working in a restaurant to fill orders really fast, but the restaurant is also haunted.” And that pretty much sums it up. During their engagement session they showed us the joys of Overcooked, and then took us around Winston-Salem where there are so many good murals omggg the muralllsssss. Team CSP is a big #1 fan of wall murals, and Winston-Salem seems to be the capital of them, and I was so distracted and overjoyed that it was surprising to all of us that I got anything actually accomplished during this session. We look forward to photographing their wedding in the spring… and if one of their wedding guests is reading this, maybe a good wedding gift would be the gift of bubble tea.
The first time we met Emily and Dan, we had a Skype meeting where they held up their tuxedo cat and we held up our tuxedo cat and we were both pretty thrilled at the greatness of our cats having a meeting over the internet (the cats, pictured below, for reasons unknown don’t look as thrilled about it as we do).
But what we didn’t really realize at the time was exactly how much Pax and Buckles look alike, and how we’d come to confuse them on Instagram. Actual conversations with Geoff go like this:
– I show a picture of Pax to Geoff. Geoff looks at picture.
– Geoff, alarmed: When did you take Buckles to someone else’s house?!
– Me: That is Pax, Emily and Dan’s cat, the one that looks just like Buckles.
– Geoff: No, that is Buckles.
– Me:… No, it’s really not.
Annnnnd repeat. Emily and Dan are currently living in Pittsburgh, and someday when we’re up there visiting our families, I am determined to stop by unannounced and swap our cats for a few days and see if they notice (they’ll forget this by the time I actually do it).
But before I do that, I need to back up here and talk about their wedding. It was fabulous! And involved a flower crown that currently holds the title of Supreme Queen of Flower Crowns everywhere and I imagine it will continue to hold that title for quite some time. I was concerned about her ability to move, but that flower crown held fast and strong and did not shed one single petal all day, nor move from its exact spot on her head. It was like a being from another world. I’m not sure what happened after they left the wedding, but I can only imagine that some sort of spell had to be cast to a.) release it from her head and b.) set it free into this world. She asked me how to preserve it, but I imagine now, after observing its powers firsthand, that it’ll just do that itself.
Their wedding was so summery and gardeny and funnnn. There were little tiny cake toppers (one shaped like our cat – thanks, guys!) and wonderful floral elements and a flag representing Pittsburgh (that I think they also did for us – thanks, guys! wow, you thought of us a lot). AND they went to Iceland for their honeymoon and we spent way too much of their final consultation giving them advice on Iceland rather than their wedding (they didn’t need the wedding help anyway). But come to think of it, they didn’t really need the Iceland help either, especially when we saw that they gave each other hiking boots for their wedding gifts. We had an awesome time at their wedding and love how rad our clients have been this year! No pressure, the rest of you. Congratulations, Emily+Dan!
• Date: May 28, 2017
• Ceremony + Reception Venue: Leslie-Alford-Mims House // Holly Springs, NC
• First Dance Song: “Lovin’ You Baby” – Charles Bradley
• Emily’s Occupation: Neuroscience PhD Student at University of Pittsburgh
• Dan’s Occupation: Media & Marketing Manager
• How You Met: High school AP English class
• Interesting Fact about Emily: Name twin will be at the wedding and they were also roommates in college at UGA
• Interesting Fact about Dan: Played the role of “Sk8er Boy” in a independent film in 2004
• Interesting Fact about Emily+Dan: Emily made a Pro’s and Con’s list before she decided to date Dan and Dan’s Mom wanted Dan to date Emily after she saw Emily reading “Catch-22” at the pool.
• Honeymoon: ICELAND!
• Vendor Credits: Officiant – Rev. Patrick Ballard. DJ – Eric Hodgden of All Around Raleigh DJ Company. Florist – The English Garden. Cake – Sugar Euphoria. Caterer – Belle’s Catering. Makeup – Michelle Clark. Hair – Jennifer McDonald. Coordinator – Annie Truesdell of Orangerie Events. Classical Guitarist – Ed Stephenson.
It’s always the people who warn us repeatedly how awkward they’re going to be in front of the camera who are always the least awkward people in front of the camera. Elizabeth and Catherine are two pretty amazing people who are not at all awkward in front of the camera even though they insist that they are. They met playing rugby, and who now enjoy T-Rexes (is that the appropriate plural of T-Rex?) and narwhals and brewing their own beer. They listed off different types of beer they enjoy brewing and they all sounded complicated and involved, but also tasty (I don’t know what coffee oatmeal porter is but I like oatmeal). And considering that they’re going a hops plant in their garden, I think it’s safe to say that it’s serious past time. And you know what they say! Those who homebrew together stay together. If that’s not what they say, it really doesn’t matter, because Elizabeth and Catherine are getting married so now I’m making it a legit saying. This land that they’re on in this shoot has been in Elizabeth’s family since the 40s, and is full of gorgeous fields and also probably snakes but we didn’t see any of those (yay!). Elizabeth and Catherine are fantastic and hilarious people, and we’re super excited to have them as our wedding clients in December!