The Wedding Show – January 5 & 6
If you're a bride-to-be, please plan to stop by Sweet Life Photography's booth at The Wedding Show on Saturday, January 5th and Sunday, January 6th in the Jim Graham Building at the N.C. State Fairgrounds. The show is a great way to preview over 150 Triangle bridal professionals in one afternoon! Show hours are Saturday 9 am to 4 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 4 pm. Come enjoy an afternoon of fashion shows, cake test-tasting (!) and the chance to win some great door prizes, all while possibly knocking-out a huge chunk of your wedding planning. Imagine hiring all your wedding vendors in one day!
We'll have some beautiful albums and books to look through, plus plenty of other images from recent weddings and engagement shoots on display. Drop by and say hello! Plus, we'll be giving away a free ZOOM tooth-whitening procedure from Dr. Jodi Foy, DDS. Dr. Foy is a fabulous Raleigh dentist who is also a client -- I've had the pleasure of photographing her son several times. We'll select one winner at random shortly before the show closes on Sunday, around 3:50 pm. As Dr. Foy says, "Even if you're not wearing white, your teeth should be!"
Hope to see you there!
Christmas Is…
...only 6 days away. I'm not ready yet!
...delicious. Thanks, Barbara, for the goodies! They are awesome. Here's a link to the recipe: Paula Deen's Toffee Bars. Trust me, you wanna make this for Christmas.
...fattening, but who cares? It's Christmas! Bring on the sweets!
...bittersweet. I miss my grandaddy at this time of the year. He always wore a smokin' red sports coat with a holly-green wool vest on Christmas Day. I also miss my brother Marc and his wife Christy, many miles away in NYC.
...crazy-making. Anyone been to the mall in the last few days? Anyone tried to go to the mall and gave up when you couldn't get near the parking lot?
...irritating. Raise your hand if you think "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is the most annoying holiday song ever. If you're about to overdose on traditional Christmas music, try singer/songwriter Mindy Smith's "My Holiday." It's my new favorite Christmas album. And if you agree with me on "Twelve Days" check out The Twelve Days After Christmas. (Watch it on YouTube here. The video quality is awful, so minimize it and just listen.) The Vocal Ensemble group at Kat's school performed this song at their Holiday Concert and it brought down the house.
...a good excuse to be silly. Enjoy!
...exhausting. My "to do" list is obscene. When I get overwhelmed, I remember what my wise-beyond-his-years nephew asked in preschool, when faced with one too many Christmas crafts: "Is this really necessary?"
...a good time to remember what's important: my family, my friends, my amazing colleagues and photography mentors, and my wonderful clients. It's been such an overwhelming and fantastic year. THANK YOU!
Wishing you all the best this Christmas and peace, happiness, health and prosperity in 2008!
Ashley and Matt
Ashley and Matt's wedding was wide-open, flat-out amazing! These two ECU grads began dating in high school when Matt's mom invited Ashley along on a family outing...she must have had a second-sense about Ashley, because these two were obviously made for each other! And they certainly know how to have a good time. Even their rehearsal was fun! The dinner afterwards at Venero's Pizzeria's Monti Hall was fabulous. There were lots of great moments during the dinner -- singing Happy Birthday to Matt's Grandad, watching the couple's parents open gifts from the bride and groom, listening to several very heartfelt toasts. I think everyone, me included, got a little choked up when Matt announced he'd been offered a job with Caterpillar in Illinois. You could tell everyone was really happy for them, but so sad they'd be moving away. It's obvious that this couple is well-loved by all their friends and family.
The wedding day was a celebration from start to finish. The weather was beautiful and Ashley looked amazing in her gown. I'm not sure I can describe it adequately in words, so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. The rest of the wedding party was elegant in black. Ashley let her bridesmaids choose their own dresses and each lady carried a different colored bouquet of roses from Jody at Annie V's in Clayton that popped beautifully off the black. Matt and Ashley agreed to see each other before the wedding (but Ashley strictly specified, "No kissing pictures!") so that they could get to the reception as quickly as possible...with good reason! The couple chose the elegant Hinnant Family Vineyards for their reception site. What a fun party! Matt's fraternity brothers from ECU were there contributing to the general mayhem and merriment. Colin from Island Sound kept everybody on their feet dancing right up until the stroke of midnight. I'm convinced that they would have stayed until the wee hours of the morning if they could have! The image below was the last dance of the evening. The couple had already changed into their street clothes in prep for leaving for the hotel but they were still grinning from ear-to-ear. Matt and Ashley, it was a blast -- thanks for letting Sweet Life Photography be a part of your wedding day! To check out their slideshow, click here.
Katrina and Kelvin: E-Session
Katrina and Kelvin met through an online dating service. They began getting to know each other exclusively on-line and then moved to talking on the phone
for 2 to 3 weeks before finally meeting at Outback Steakhouse for their first date. Katrina says she still remembers every moment of that first date! Katrina has quickly become one of my favorite brides-to-be. She is such a genuinely sweet person and so well-suited to her job as a nurse at UNC Hospital. I originally met with Katrina and her sister (who I'm going to hire as my PR person -- she is my favorite cheerleader), so I hadn't had a chance to meet Kelvin until the morning of our engagement session. I'm pretty adamant about shooting in the morning -- I really like morning light and since I'm usually shooting in public locations, I don't like having to shoot "around" other people. You can have a perfect moment in amazing light, then have someone walk into the shot and it's so frustrating. Kelvin works nights and had worked the night before our shoot. He was pretty groggy when he and Katrina showed up at 8:30 a.m. for their shoot at JC Raulston Arboretum. I was a little concerned that I wasn't going to get any smiles from him, but he rallied quickly! Katrina and Kelvin are getting married on May 3, 2008, which is where I got the idea for the last image. To view their slideshow, click here.
Jackie and Brett
Jackie and Brett were married on October 7 at the Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill. I don't know what it is about the Carolina Inn, but whenever I am lucky enough to shoot there, inevitably, the images are some of my favorites. Maybe it's the gorgeous surroundings, from the elegant suites where the brides and grooms get ready, to the pretty outdoor courtyards where the ceremonies take place, to the elegant Old Well Room with its graphic black-and-white tiled floor. Maybe it's because that's where Frank and I got married over 17 years ago. Whatever magic happens there, I hope it keeps happening. I love Carolina Inn weddings!
When I photographed Jackie and Brett for their e-session, I remember looking at the images and thinking Jackie looked like she stepped out of a Kennedy family portrait. She has such lovely, classic features -- what they would call "patrician" up North. The dress she chose was actually called the Jackie Onassis! It was absolutely stunning on her, so obviously my Kennedy comparison was right on target. And of course, my blog readers will remember Brett as my Ashton Kutcher look-alike, so really, how could their wedding images be anything but gorgeous?!?
Looking at their ceremony pictures makes me wish I had that same freedom to move around during church ceremonies. I think it is so sad that most churches require wedding photographers to stay in the very back of the church. Now, I know there are some obnoxious wedding photographers out there who get way too close, but there's a way to capture the ceremony from different vantage points without being distracting and in-your-face. I love that Jackie and Brett's outdoor ceremony (and the couple themselves) gave me the freedom to get some angles that I don't usually get inside a church -- like shots of the couple's parents' faces as their grown-up children said their vows and formed a new family. To see what I mean, click here to view Jackie and Brett's slideshow. Now, I'll climb down off my soap-box...
We had to race to finish photography ahead of the quickly fading Fall light, then it was off to the reception in the Old Well Room. Frank got some amazing shots of the couple during their first dance and I love the images from the individual dances the couple had with their parents. There's always a moment in every wedding when I find myself getting all emotional and it's usually when the bride dances with her father and the groom with his mother. I don't know how that tradition began (I'm gonna Google it) but it never fails to make me go all mushy!
Kristen and Matthew
Kristen and Matthew were married at Apex Baptist Church on October 6. I loved the colors Kristen chose for their wedding. The bridesmaids wore chocolate brown and the flowers were a gorgeous combination of deep coral, peach and ivory -- perfect for a Fall wedding. Kristen told me when we got together for their engagement session that she'd always imagined herself in a princess-style dress -- big ball gown, big veil, etc -- but when she found this elegant beaded ivory sheath, she surprised herself by falling in love with it. It suited her perfectly. I'm so glad I can finally show off her bridal portraits! We were so fortunate to be able to shoot at the Matthews House, a gorgeous bed-and-breakfast in Cary. Click here to see the slideshow from Kristen's bridal portrait session.
Matthew is the Youth Intern at Apex Baptist and you can tell that he is such a valued member of the ministry team and the church -- everyone loves him! It was awesome to capture a shot of his expression when he saw his beautiful bride heading down the aisle toward him. After the wedding, the couple raced outside beneath a shower of rose petals to the limo that would take them to the Crabtree Marriott for the reception. What a fun party! It's been a while since I've seen such enthusiastic dancing at an afternoon reception! Check out Kristen and Matthew's wedding slideshow here. Working with this couple has been so great -- from their awesome chemistry during our engagement session right through all the smiles of their wedding day (Kristen even held it together when her hairdresser was over an hour late)!
