Rachelle and DJ: Married!

A few weeks ago Geoff and I had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Rachelle and DJ at the River Ridge Golf Club in Raleigh. I hadn't had the chance to meet Rachelle prior to her wedding day, so I was relieved to find that she was incredibly sweet and so easy to work with! She completely trusted my vision for her wedding day and told me that she knew I would make her pictures beautiful. :) 

The flowers were done by Flowers By Design

Ummm......are you serious?! Rachelle = hot!

This is DJ....looking as handsome as can be.

The girls......

....and the guys.

She's the cutest flower girl you've ever seen, right? Apparently this little girl had recently gotten a new dog - the family named it "Sarge". She must have really been missing it, because she was calling the dog's name the whole day. It was CUTE. "Sarge.....Sarge.....Sarge......." It wore off on Geoff and I - we were saying it to each other all day long as well. :)

The ceremony was out on the front lawn - it was beautiful. We had some good weather!

LOVE this one.

Ummmm......AWESOME grab, Geoff!

The details of the reception were so fun and colorful. Rachelle out did herself with it all! I was so impressed at how everything was so coordinated.

Chocolate truffles for the favors.

I was a BIG fan of the cake. Not only was it cool as heck, but it tasted GREAT. Ah yes, the perks of being a wedding photographer. :)

I mean it.....it was GOOD cake. Be jealous.

Okay - pause a second to acknowledge Rachelle's grandpa. Oh my, this man was a riot. Here he is dancing with the catering staff....I think he proposed to her that night. Later, I found him wearing Rachelle's veil. It was hysterical - we were CRACKING up. He was so fun!

A sweet moment.

Get it, girl! Rachelle and her bridesmaids were cutting it up big time on the dance floor. Bethany of All the Right Grooves was awesome (as usual)! Geoff and I hadn't seen her since she DJ'ed our wedding last June...we were grateful for the reunion!

Congratulations you two!!! Have fun in VEGAS!

2 Years Ago Today....

I was getting engaged.  May 27th, 2006 was one of the best days of my life.  As promised in an earlier blog post, here is the recount of the day.

I was up from Clemson visiting Geoff for the weekend - we woke up early enough on Saturday morning to head up to the mountains for the day. We spent a few hours hopping on rocks in streams (one of my favorite things to do) and people watching in the water hole.

While we were headed back from the mountains, our friends were setting up for a special night at the Winghaven Gardens here in Charlotte. Here is Kristina, Jon, and David spreading out rose petals and lighting hundreds of candles:

Jon on the phone with Geoff:

After showers and getting dressed up, we headed to dinner. Geoff wouldn't tell me where we were going - when we pulled up to Winghaven, I was really confused. As soon as we got out of the car, I peered through the gate to see tealights lining the path. At this point, I knew something was up. We rounded to corner to enter the gardens, at which I saw a trail of rose petals leading to our table set perfectly for two.

We then proceeded to have a GREAT meal, which was prepared by Geoff's boss - Sherrie. Geoff kept going back and forth between our table and the little house to bring out the next course. He was clearly very nervous, as he was walking really quickly.

After dinner he told me that he had one more surprise. Again, he went into the house and came back out with a laptop. He set me up in front of it and began the show. I didn't know it, but Geoff's co-worker - Catalina - was taking pictures.

As the picture montage of he and I put to our song - "you and me" by lifehouse - went on, I began to cry...as the seconds wore on and the pictures flashed by, I knew what was about to happen. After the last photo, the screen went to black followed by text...."I love you, I LOVE you, I love YOU" (a saying that he frequented). From there, a blurred out picture of his face panned out to reveal him holding my engagement ring.

My stomach hit the floor. I turned around to find Geoff on one knee, holding my ring and looking up at me. Ahhhhh....it was PERFECT.

Then, the flashes of light from the bushes began and Catalina's presence was revealed. :)

After the moment was over, she took a few pics of us - the newly engaged couple!

Even though it's blurry, here's what it looked like with all of the candles.

I also thought I would share the video montage he created for me. I won't feel bad if you don't want to watch the whole thing. However, I recommend at least fast forwarding through to the end of the ring shot - it is AWESOME.

Clint and Annye: Engaged! (but not for long)

After returning from a trip to the mountains two years ago at which both Clint and Annye were present, I can remember Geoff telling me that Clint was "interested" in her. And now here they are - just a month away from tying the knot! We are definitely excited to shoot their wedding at the end of June. Such an incredible privilege to be able to capture the moments that they will look back on for the rest of their lives. 

We got a PERFECT evening at Freedom Park for their engagement session. The weather couldn't have been nicer! Thanks you two - we hope you had as much fun as we did....we'll see you soon!

I love this one.

We got some beautiful light to work with!

The brought along a football - so of course we made them take turns tackling each other.

Way cute, right? :)

Ummm....yeah....I couldn't have asked for better light!

I am OBSESSED with this shot of Annye.

I'm a big fan of the look that comes out of shooting in the kiddie play train - yup - love it!