Alison and Brent: Married!
Alison and Brent were married way back in May in a beautiful ceremony at Duke Gardens. The day started out heavily overcast and threatening to rain. By the time Alison emerged from the Washington Duke Inn to get into the limo, all traces of gray had vanished from the sky. The rest of the day was just as wonderful. Alison was so calm -- I'll remember her as the Zen Bride. To me, this shot epitomizes how calm she was all day.
"Getting Ready" is one of my favorite parts of the wedding day to document. Shots like this one, with all the bridesmaids gathered around, each one working on some aspect of the process, make me think of all the brides throughout history who've had their close female family and friends around to help them prepare for this day. Back in the days of "Ladies' maids" I guess it wasn't such a big deal -- the simple act of getting dressed in the morning was a pretty elaborate process that required the help of at least one other person. Now that we can just throw on jeans and a T-shirt -- well, it makes the act of getting into what is most likely the single most elaborate dress we'll ever wear even more monumental. Couldn't this same shot (with minor allowances for fashion) have been taken 50, 100 or 200 years ago? I love, love, LOVE that beautiful window light!
The end result. Isn't she simply stunning?
The guys have it easier...although Frank reports that the button covers flummox at least one of them every time. Here's Brent, working on the tie. Granted, I've never had to tie a tie in my life...so who am I to pass judgement?
A shot of Brent and then one of all the guys...pretty darn spiffy, if you ask me.
One quick note about all the black and white images in this post: Alison and Brent's wedding was so classic and elegant. All day I kept thinking that it could have taken place in any era -- the gown, the tuxes, the details, the setting -- it was just timeless. There was something about so many of their images that just screamed "Convert me to B&W!!!" I don't have a fixed plan or set rules about which images to convert to black and white. There's no percentage of total images delivered that have to be in black and white. It's true that I prefer the documentary images to be in black and white (many wedding photographers call this photo-journalism. I call it documentary because that's what I'm doing -- documenting the details, sights and emotions of the wedding day.) Most of the time it's just a feeling I get about a particular image...maybe it's the composition, maybe it's the ratio of highlight areas to shadow areas, maybe there's just a weird color cast that I don't like in the original (that happens with digital images sometimes). Whatever it is, it's one of the things I like best about shooting digital: having the choice to convert an image to Black and White when I feel like it!
Alison and the ladies, waiting for the word to head down to the lower gardens for the ceremony to begin.
Oh my gosh, how I love a long veil. Such drama!
Alison doesn't know this (at least I think she doesn't) but right before she and her dad began the walk down the steps to the fish pond, a mother mouse and several mouse babies ran right across the pathway. I'm pretty sure her dad spotted them, too -- we exchanged a quick look of surprise (or was it horror?) followed by a shared understanding that we shouldn't react at all. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised -- it was Spring after all and we were in a garden. Still...not something you expect to see right before the bride begins her walk down the aisle!
The energy from their combined smiles as they met at the altar could have powered a small village for the day.
A detail shot of the sand ceremony. In case you've been hiding out under a rock (or crash weddings nearly every weekend), the sand ceremony is quickly gaining ground on the unity candle as the perfect way to symbolize the act of hitching your life to someone else's for all eternity. (Although I do wonder what happens the first time you move house -- how do you keep the sand from getting jostled all around and losing that pretty pattern?) Still, I love it and it makes a lot of sense for an outdoor ceremony -- no worries about the wind snuffing out the candles.
Tah Dah! Alison and Brent are MARRIED!!!
With every wedding, I try to have at least one shot of the bride and groom that is completely classic...if someone found the image 300 years from today, they wouldn't know when it had been taken. They'd just see two people in fancy clothes and in LOVE.
Some details from the reception at the Washington Duke.
First dance as husband and wife!
I think of this shot as Part II of the first image. :)
Jason, the best man, was a riot. Here he is giving the toast. I think this was right before he told Brent to take Alison's hand and cover it with his own. He then solemnly pronounced: "This is the last time in your married life that you will ever have the upper hand."
Action...
...reaction.
I have a 20x30 canvas of this in my office -- it's one of my all-time favorites.
Ken Holmes with Joe Bunn DJ Company did a great job with the tunes. Can't you tell?
A white tent under the mid-day sun...perfect light for portraits!
Last shot of a perfectly wonderful day. Thanks to Alison (for always being happy and relaxed) and Brent (for putting up with all the pictures.) We wish you both a long, long life full of love and happiness!
Alison and Brent: Fearless!
I'm doing things a bit backwards here -- I'll be blogging about Alison and Brent's gorgeous Duke Gardens wedding later this week, but I just couldn't wait to get a few shots from their Fearless Bridal session up. When we scheduled the session on November 3, we were all really hoping for gorgeous Fall colors to take advantage of, forgetting that here in the South, sometimes those colors don't come out in full force until later in November. We found two little trees in Fred Fletcher park, one orange and one red. Everything else was stubbornly green. Here are a few of my favorites taken in the park:
Because there was a wedding scheduled for the park that afternoon, we headed for the Warehouse district downtown. This is the area around Hargett and West Martin streets and I love it -- there's lots of industrial-style doors, lots of bricks and grunge. I think it's the juxtaposition of the bridal gown with the rough-around-the-edges feel of the downtown location. Plus, it's just unexpected, which makes the pictures all the more interesting. I love urban shoots!
I love this one of Alison and Brent cuddling up in front of these cool doors.
We found this spot behind a limo company (how appropriate) right off the railroad tracks. There was this great green vine growing all over the bricks. When I looked at the images later, I realized there was our Fall color -- the great rusty red of the bricks, the muted yellow-green of the vine and the yellow of the sunflowers. Score!
But black and white is always classic.
I couldn't resist working the railroad tracks in to the shoot.
I love the texture in a brick wall -- not to mention all the color variation from brick to brick.
The last shots of the day as the light was fading. Yep -- I got down in the middle of the road for these next few shots. Brent loves having his picture taken so much that I joked that he wasn't going to tell me if a car was coming. Somehow, I survived...
Maybe my favorite. So romantic.
I have really enjoyed working with Alison and Brent over the past year. They are definitely one of my all-time favorite couples. Alison's emails always crack me up -- I love hearing from her. And even though Brent hates having his picture taken and he likes to grumble about it, I think he secretly enjoys our sessions. Plus, all he has to do is to look at his bride and he gets what I call the "Look." I think he looks pretty darn awesome. Thanks, you two, for a really fun Fearless Bridal session! I'm gonna miss ya (sniff)!
It’s time to Rock the Vote!
(Please note: this is a pinned post...scroll down to see the most recent entries.)
I know, I know...the election was weeks ago. I'm not THAT behind (although if you could see my "To Do" list you might beg to differ). I'm talking about voting for your favorite pair of names for the Sweet Life birds. I got lots of emails with suggestions, some of which you can read in the comments section of the original post. After giving it intense consideration :) I narrowed the field down to three. They are:
1. Amor and Vita (Latin for love and life and my personal favorite)
2. Pepe and Sasha
3. Sonny and Sweetie
On the right, there's a web thingamajigger where you can vote and track the results. Voting will go on until December 31. The winner will receive a free Fearless Bridal session, so if your suggestion was one of the three chosen, tell all your friends to stop by the blog and V-O-T-E vote! Do not however get your computer-genius friend, cousin, sibling, etc. to write a tricky little piece of web code to vote every three minutes or some such...remember I'm married to one of those computer geniuses and we will find out about it and disqualify that pair of names. So keep it on the up-high, people!
Here they are once again...don't let them stay Boy Bird and Girl Bird forever!
Edited on 1/1/09 to add: Drumroll, please...the winner of the Name the Sweet Life Birds is Amor and Vita, suggested by Kaitlin and Nick, who were married in September. They are the lucky winners of a Fearless Bridal session. Thanks to everyone who contributed name ideas and voted! I had so much fun checking the stats that I'm definitely going to run contests more often!
