Mary and Niall: Married!

Mary is probably my biggest blog stalker (and she tells me she has converted a few of her Irish co-workers as well), so you imagine how anxious and excited she must be to see her wedding day post!

Although a tad warm (actually, it was sweltering), the wedding day of Niall and Mary was perfect. The bright blue skies were beautiful! Getting to shoot this wedding was a dream, but not for the reason you think it was. Yes, being in the Bahamas was an awesome good time.....but more importantly was that I was able to reconnect with my college buddies and capture the memories of little Mary's wedding day. Geoff and I are so thankful to Mary, Niall, and their families for allowing us to share in the day with them.

When I first got up to Mary's room where she was getting ready, I saw a fantastic spread of fruit and an accompanying bottle of champagne. Not only had Niall sent these treats over for everyone to enjoy, but he surprised Mary with her very own diamond earrings.

In return, Mary had her sister Katie go over to where the guys were getting ready to deliver her gift to Niall - an awesome Kenneth Cole watch. Later when I popped by to say hi, I asked him about the watch. He looked at me with big eyes and said in his Irish accent "it's the greatest watch I've ever seen". It was adorable. You could tell he really loved it and was appreciative of Mary's gift.

Lexi was the hair and makeup champion of the day - she Mary's and all of the bridesmaids hair - everyone looked fabulous! While Lexi got started on Mary, I grabbed some detail shots.

Rings

Mary's shoes

I loved the bright colors of the flowers!

Go, Lexi, go!

Mary had the best expressions while her mom and sister helped her into her dress. She really was stunning. After everything was put together, she looked at herself in the mirror and was BEAMING. Let me tell you - she loved being in that wedding dress. I think she probably would have slept in it and worn it the next day to breakfast if she could. :)

Geoff hung out with the guys as they got ready. I love this shot he grabbed on Niall in the mirror.

Ummmmmm.....I told you.....STUNNING!

And Niall? Well, yeah....he looked pretty dang hot too.

Mary, her girls, and her bridesman - Ryan. I love this shot.

Niall and his guys.

I'm pretty sure Geoff got this shot as they drove the golfcart to the ceremony.

The chapel was teeny tiny, but very cute. The perfect size for their wedding guests.

Just married! Love the golfcart.

The bridal party was a lot of fun during their pictures - it makes my life SO much easier when everyone is nice, fun, and trusts my vision for the shots. This was what we had. Thanks, guys!

Probably one of my favorite parts of the wedding day is the mini photo session I get with the bride and groom to get some fun portraits. Mary and Niall were naturals!

On to the reception! All of the details were so well coordinated - shout out to Jane!

How fun is their cake?!

Ummm....yeah....I was drowning in my own tears as Niall thanked everyone for coming and toasted Mary. He looked at her...right in her eyes...and said "Mary, I love you dearly". And he meant it with every ounce of his soul...I could tell. At that moment I couldn't have been happier for Mary for finding such a loving and committed person to share the rest of her life with.

Here I am with my girls. :)

Congratulations Mary and Niall! We are thrilled for you and can't wait to have you here with us in North Carolina! :)

Featured: SJB Weddings and Events

I was recently interviewed by Charlotte wedding planner Shanika Butts of SJB Weddings and Events and am currently featured on her blog...be sure to check it out! She updates her blog multiple times per week and always has fun stuff related to wedding planning to share. Enjoy!

Go HERE for the interview.

Year One

It's so crazy for Geoff and I to think that a whole year has gone by since we got married. At this time on June 9, 2007 I was slipping into my beautiful dress and preparing to walk down the aisle to see my groom. Seeing his face as I came down from the balcony was THE best moment of my life. 

I can remember sitting at our table at the reception, looking around at all of our guests, and just feeling so dang loved it was ridiculous. Sometimes I wish we could relive it all over again. I guess we'll just have to watch our awesome wedding video (of the awesome Scott of SFS Productions) and eat our year-old cake to pretend. Actually, if anyone is interested in seeing a clip of our wedding video, go to SFS Productions, click enter at the top, go to "view demos", select "wedding movies" - ours is the second movie on the bottom row entitled "Close Video". Done!

We made it home earlier than expected from Pittsburgh, so we're going to hit up the Cheesecake Factory to celebrate over dinner!

I made the slideshow below for Geoff that recounts are first year together - Happy Anniversary, baby! I love you to pieces!

***The wedding pictures in the beginning of the slideshow were done by our photographers of Kristin Vining Photography.

Happy Birthday Geoff!

Well, technically, Geoff's birthday is over since it is 1am. I would have blogged earlier to salute his 25th birthday, but we've been shooting a wedding all day in Pittsburgh, PA. I honestly don't really know how I'm able to blog right now - we're both pretty beat after today.

Since we flew out yesterday and knew we weren't going to be able to celebrate today, I chose Friday night as the surrogate birthday night. After we got off work I took him out to dinner at a place he's been wanting to try for some time now: Hawthorne's Pizza on 7th street. We highly recommend it!

Here is the birthday boy in all his glory.

While we waited for our food I gave him his birthday present. He recently started making coffee to take to work with him, so I thought he needed a mug of his own rather than stealing my Clemson mug every morning....I almost got him one for hot coffee, but then realized with how hot its been and will continue to be, he'll likely make it iced. I found the "mug" below that looks just like the plastic throw away kind.....except it's hard plastic. Anyway, he liked it. :)

We then headed to NODA to "Wine Up" to watch my friend Erin's improv troupe perform. Geoff even got to participate - here he is....my little actor. :)

I usually make Geoff a birthday cake every year, but this time figured a Coldstone cake was in order. Geoff is obsessed with the 'peanut butter perfection' mixing there....lucky for me - it comes as a cake too!

He loved it. This shot was taken seconds before he dropped it on the ground.

And yes, I made him clean it up - even on his birthday. Luckily most of the cake was still intact so we could eat it. In fact, there's leftovers waiting for us when we get home!

Oh, our tiny Ellen. We had to board her before we left for Pittsburgh and I can't WAIT to get her back again! She really didn't want us to leave her there. Anyway, here's some Ellen shots and a couple family portraits. :)

What a nut.

''

Also fun news.....tomorrow is our first wedding anniversary!!!

Dear Bahamas: Please come back into my life!

Three weeks ago today Geoff and I were boarding our little plane that fit 6 people to head to Cat Cay Bahamas. As I've expressed in prior blog posts, I have a teeny fear of flying. Flying in this plane was like none other that I've experienced. As embarassing as it is to admit, I was absolutely terrified - of course, I flipped out on take off....one second I was laughing from nervousness and the next I was just trying to find balance between my crying and partial hyperventilation. Oh yeah, I was a mess.

As soon as we landed on the island we saw Mary and 3 of my other sorority sisters (Megan, Andrea, and Lexi) who I haven't seen since 2003. Seeing them again made me VERY happy. It was so great to catch up with them and hear of the fabulous things they are doing these days. So much has changed in our lives over the past few years, but it felt just like old times hanging out with them.

After we checked into our room, Mary gave us a golf cart (there are no cars on the island - only golf carts) to explore the island a bit before the rehearsal festivities. After mere minutes in the passenger seat, I was squealing with excitement as this chicken ran in front of us. There were animals everywhere!

Geoff and I drove all the way to the end of the island and were able to spend a few minutes chilling in the sun and taking it all in of where we were. Man, it was nice.

When we got back everyone was showered and ready to hit the rehearsal. We got to meet Niall at this point - Mary's fiance. I can't tell you how very nice this man is....the whole weekend he was so concerned about everyone but himself - constantly checking in with us to make sure we had everything we needed. I truly couldn't be more happy for Mary that she found him.

We also got to meet a lot of Mary's family at this time - including Jane - Mary's mom. Jane took care of a lot of the details for the wedding weekend...and let me tell you....she is ORGANIZED. If I could have, I would have flown her to Charlotte to plan my wedding! Complete with her accordian binder with labeled tabs, she was all set for the weekend.

Here's a few shots from the rehearsal.

I like this shot of Lexi.

How cute little Mary is!

Mary and her dad practicing going down the aisle.

Mary and Niall....don't they look great together?

After the rehearsal we headed to the poolside BBQ dinner - it was so low-key and relaxing for everyone.

The cakes tasted SO GOOD.

Since we didn't get to do an engagement session with Mary and Niall, Geoff and I snuck them away for a few shots. They really surprised me with how comfortable they were in front of the camera from the get-go.

This is Mary with her brother and sister - cute family, right?

Not really sure what is going on here, but a great shot nonetheless! The look on Lexi's face is hilarious to me.

Stay tuned - wedding day pics coming up soon!

A day of rest....and a little trouble.

A couple of weeks ago while Geoff and I were in the Bahamas, we were able to just breathe and enjoy the moment. Since then, I've been trying to be more intentional about finding rest in my life. The past few months have been incredibly out of control, which had left me really stressed out and overwhelmed. I know that things will continue to be crazy busy between now and the end of June when I leave Davidson, but I'm trying my best to just do one thing at a time and find rest when I can.

Yesterday I was shooting all day, and didn't get home until past midnight. Even so, Geoff drug my sorry self out of bed to hit church this morning. My allergies and asthma have been pretty bad today, so when I got home from church, I passed out on the couch for 4 hours while Geoff played ultimate frisbee. It was WONDERFUL and much needed.

After my nap I convinced Geoff to take me to the Fresh Market for a bit of candy, at which we also picked up a 6 pack of beer. We then decided to go to Brixx Pizza for dinner (we recommend the chicken club - it is SO good) - we arrived to find a 25 minute wait. Geoff asked me if I wanted a drink while we waited and then joked that we should have a drink in the car since we had the beer. Well, I didn't really take it as a joke...sounded like a brilliant idea to me. After about 5 minutes of enjoying my beer sitting in the backseat of the car with the doors open, I hear someone approach the car.

"Are you guys behaving over here?"

I turn over my shoulder to find a police officer on one of those little scooters looking at me and my beer. I just about had a heart attack, as I was sure I was getting in trouble. Lucky for us - he was a nice cop who wanted to make sure I was 21. He actually thought we were making out, which was the reason he came to check on us - hilarious.

Blog posts coming up will be our trip to the Bahamas and Mary's wedding, as well as all of the second shooting I have been doing lately. In the last two weeks I have shot for Jeremy Igo, Kristen Leigh, and Ruth Rackley.....in two weeks I head to Virginia to second for Jill Higgins. I feel so fortunate to have been able to work alongside these photographers - doing so has taught me so much.

Since we can't have a post without a picture, here's a shot Shara grabbed of me as she was testing for light while I shot for her in Charleston.