More of Kelly & Dave!

Kelly and Dave were surrounded by awesome family and friends this weekend!  Something about a destination wedding really brings your guests this feeling of togetherness.  Plus the groom's family was HUGE, so I think they had fun celebrating. 

Here are Dave's parents, who welcomed us like family that weekend.  Don, the dad, is a BIG FAN of Bruce Springsteen.  He commandeered the computer room at Sanibel Moorings, and had his children buy as many concert tickets as possible as soon as they come online.

The church was beautiful- it was just the right size too!  I love cozy chapels!

The ring bearer, Will, needed one last reassurance hug before walking down the aisle.  Will was a major cutie!

These next 2 pictures were taken by Rachel Garrison.  I just have to share them because, we could get so close to the bride and groom in this church it was awesome!  They had 4 doors up by the altar.  Rachel was able to quickly, easily, and unnoticeably walk around the back side of these doors and get some amazing shots!   

Barbara's maiden name was Flock (Barbara is Dave's mom).  So when Kelly and Dave walked down the aisle, her family held up signs that read "Welcome to our Flock."  It was a cool surprise!

After the ceremony and formals, I was able to take Kelly and Dave back to the Sanibel Moorings condo for pictures.  This place has beautiful grounds for pictures.  

The reception was held at Traditions, which was right on the beach as well!  It was a lovely place with awesome food!  Rachel and I were treated to an amazing grouper dinner here! 

 

About three-quarters of the way into the father-daughter dance Kelly and her Dad switched it up and got the dance party started!

Later that night, Kelly did the entire Thriller dance!  It was awesome!

Congratulations Kelly & Dave! Thanks for letting me a part of your awesome weekend!

Kelly & Dave's Wedding Part 1

Kelly and Dave got married on Earth Day (April 22, 2012) on the BEAUTIFUL Sanibel Island, FL.  I've been all over the state of Florida, and this by far was my favorite Florida location.  There really was an "island feel" while being there.  We weren't just at the beach...we were on an island.  The locals were friendly, the restaurants were great, and the wedding guests were awesome!  

Before I dive into the wedding details, I first must give out a shout out to my sister-in-law, Rachel Garrison.  Lucky me, Rachel traveled and shot this wedding with me!  We travel and work well together, it's fun spending time with her, and she's an awesome photographer.   We ate fish and key lime pie for 6 straight meals (not including breakfast).  Oh my goodness was there some good key lime pie in Sanibel!

The wedding guests stayed at Sanibel Moorings Condominiums.  Dave, the groom, has a family condo there, and he grew up spending his summers on this beach.  How awesome would that be?! 

Rachel and I enjoyed our condo at Sanibel Moorings as well (photo on left below is by Rachel).  The grounds were spectacularly beautiful!  The condos were sandwiched by the ocean and an inlet.   Our condo has a nice view of the docks.  It was very peaceful.

Now onto wedding details :)

Kelly was a beautiful and confident bride, and I really enjoyed the time we had before the wedding to focus on some images of just her.  I must say her make-up and hair team were fantastic.  They had plan, and knew how to stick to a time frame!  It was awesome!  And Kelly's make-up was awesome!

Here are some details of the church.  It was beautiful inside.  The ceiling resembled a ship, and the light pouring in the windows was so nice!

So that's all that I will post for now.  I know there will definitely be another Kelly & Dave wedding post (or two) : )

Featured on rusticweddingchic.com!

My work has been featured on the RusticWeddingChic Blog thanks to my bride, Elizabeth O'Quinn!   Head on over to Maggie Lord's wedding website for some awesome inspiration for your wedding or for any fun event you may be planning.  She has lots of beautiful images on her blog, and I particularly enjoyed browsing her DIY section.

Also, here is a peek of what's coming next....Kelly & Dave's wedding in Sanibel, Florida!

My brother is getting married!

My brother Zac is getting married this October to the very sweet and beautiful Carla!  I'm looking forward to the wedding festivities that will start in July with her bachelorette party!  I was very happy to take engagement pictures for them.  Some of you might be thinking it could be weird to take engagement pictures of your own brother.  But let me tell you, Zac is not one bit camera shy and he  knows how to work the camera.  He had a very brief modeling stint in high school.  Someone scouted him in the mall.  He did one photo shoot for his modeling card, and he never pursued it any further.  Too bad!  I had fun tagging along to that one photo shoot and watching!

Congratulations Zac and Carla!

Roscoe came along for the photo shoot too.  Although he really doesn't like to look at the camera.  He was more interested in finding the biggest stick possible to carry around.  He found this tree limb, that was over 8 feet long, and he wanted to carry it everywhere we went.  Zac had to keep telling him to "leave it."  He also managed to find an old tennis ball in the woods!  It was really funny!

These next two images are some of my favorite of the session.  I like how comfortable Zac and Carla seem, and I like the light pouring through the leaves in the background.  

Here's Zac goofing off with a piece of grass in his teeth.  

I have to give a shout out to Ann who works at the Bobbi Brown counter at Neiman Marcus, SouthPark.  She did my make-up for my wedding, and she did Carla's makeup for the engagement pictures (which means she will be doing it for her wedding!).  Ann is awesome and super friendly.  If anyone in the Charlotte area needs makeup for an event, you should go see her!

A Dog & A Diamond

I photographed my brother's engagement pictures yesterday, and I can't wait to show you him "working the camera."  Haha!  We had a great session yesterday, but for now I will leave you with 2 teaser images : )  I hope everyone has a Happy Easter with their families tomorrow!

Gearing up for Weddings!

I am so excited about my 2012 wedding clients!  This couple was briefly introduced here.  Their wedding will be this summer, and I'm looking forward to seeing some familiar faces.  It's going to be a fun day celebrating a sweet, thoughtful, loving couple.

We did their engagement session at Brady's neighborhood pond from high school - yes they are high school sweet hearts!  They had many fond memories of hanging out together at the pond, and it is also where Brady proposed to Katie.

I think Brady looks very GQ-esque in this picture with his gaze : )

Aren't they soo cute together?

They are working on their dips - I'm looking forward to their first dance!

I gave them a little workout, and made them hold this dip a little bit longer than normal - thanks Katie and Brady!

So I had a vision of them doing something similar to this picture below, and when I asked if Brady could pick-up Katie and do an almost Dirty Dancing type move their response was one for the books !  Katie said, "oh yeah, Brady you can do this, it's like what we practice!"  They actually look comfortable doing this, it was so awesome!

Shooting near any sort of water source when the sun is setting is awesome.  The light reflects off the water, and it had this awesome warm glow!

Katie and Brady, I hope these pictures brought back warm memories from your early dating years!  I'm looking forward to July!

Hans is a growing boy!

Hans is still growing like bamboo (trust me my neighbors have it in their backyard, and they say it grows a couple feet a day in its growing season).  And Hans has pretty much been my life the past few weeks (aka - that's my pitiful excuse for not having a new blog post for you).

So here is his weekly growth progress for you for weeks 11 through 13...