Brandi & Sean's Wedding Reception

Brandi and Sean's Wedding Reception definitely deserves its own post.  Brandi wanted her guests to have a fun experience at her reception, and I'm pretty sure she achieved that!  She had flip flops in the bathroom for the ladies, a late night cotton candy and boiled peanut station, a huge spread of food, and a beautiful wedding cake surrounded by tiers of cupcakes.  There was even a BIG surprise for Sean at the reception...the Hinton Casino (Hinton is their last name).  You'll notice in the first picture when Sean and Brandi were walking into their reception to be announced the groomsmen were wearing poker hats!

Sean's mom is giving the lead vocalist in the band a thumbs up for his Louis Armstrong impression singing "What a Wonderful World."  They had an incredible band, The Finesse Band, they knew how to put on a GREAT show!

Casino details....they had 5- 6 different casino tables set up.  It was very cool! 

I completely forgot to mention that there was also a photo booth!

There was quite the dance party at this wedding!

Even the fathers knew how to break it down!

Sean and his family are huge Clemson fans, while Brandi and her family, from Columbia, are Gamecock fans.  There were orange and white (Clemson!) and garnet and black (Gamecocks) pom poms.  These were actually set up for the exit, but they came in handy as the party kicked into high gear.  

Brandi's grandmothers were proud Gamecock fans.

When there was about 45 minutes to an hour left in the evening, Brandi changed into this super cute creamy white and gold short dress.  She also put on her killer shoes from her rehearsal dinner.

Congratulations Brandi and Sean!  Your wedding was a beautiful and fun weekend!

Vendors:

Venue - Huguenot Loft at Peace Center

Florist - Me and Me Designs

Band - The Finesse Band

Wedding Planner - Farrah Redmon (Bride's cousin)

Food - Granatas Catering

Bennett Family

This was a FUN family photo shoot for my hairdresser, Teresa.  Although Teresa has only been cutting my hair a little over a year, I feel like we "go way back."  She has been cutting Sam and his parents' hair for as long as he can remember.  I have a hairdresser in Charlotte that cut my hair since I was a little girl, and it was tough leaving her when I came to Asheville.   Teresa makes me feel like she has been cutting my hair as long as she has been doing Sam's hair.  

So here is Teresa's cute, cute family!  Her daughter Savannah on the right and her granddaughter Amora (Amora's parents aren't pictured).  I was really hired to photograph cutie pie Amora, but I thought while I was there, we needed to do family shots as well.

Teresa's family lives near Mars Hill College, and it is beautiful in this part of the mountains (20 minutes north of Asheville).  Teresa took me on ride on a 4-wheeler up the mountain for Amora's portraits.  I have quite the traumatic memories of 4-wheelers, so I made Teresa go really slow.  Zac, my brother, grew up with a 3-wheeler and then got a 4-wheeler (yes, we might have been a little bit red neck....we didn't have mountain trails to ride on...just woods near my grandparents' house).  For some reason, I wanted to go on rides with my brother, but he always ended up scaring the sh*t out of me on these rides.  But time after time, I would ask Zac, to take me on a ride and I of course would request a fun, leisurely pace.  And time and time again, he would go really fast, and scare me to death!  I thought that if I screamed really loud in his ear while on these death rides he would slow down, but it only made him go faster. So I don't have happy memories on 4-wheelers.  Teresa, however, was a good driver, and I felt safe at all times!

This was our view from the top of the mountain!

It was really hard to narrow down the images of Amora for you.  She has the sweetest smile, but there also are a few images where she is staring me down, which is still cute.  

Love this one!

Love this one too!

I also wanted to take Savannah, a junior in high school, aside for some pictures.  She is a talented singer, grade-A student, and awesome athlete...oh and she is beautiful!

This reminds me of..."the hills are alive, with the sound of music...fa la la la.." 

And one of my all time fav family shots...such a beautiful setting!

One last image for you

Brandi & Sean's Wedding Day

 Continuing with Brandi and Sean's wedding day....there was a calmness over Brandi as she got ready, and it was awesome to watch.  She was truly just soaking in the day and enjoying every moment.

I mentioned that they had a great group of family and friends surrounding them on this day.  Check out their bridal parties!

Brandi did bridal portraits with me, so I had to take a few minutes to get a good portrait of Sean on his wedding day.   He was very calm as well!

 There's a funny story with this next picture.  Brandi and I talked several times before her wedding going over the timeline and which shots she wanted to take of the bridal party after the wedding.  The bridal party was 24 people, and then add in Brandi and Sean and that makes 26 people!  I had mentioned to Brandi that I wanted to do a street shot of the party.  Luckily Greenville has a fairly small downtown.  We waited for the light to turn red and we ran out into the street.  I was snapping pictures quickly knowing that I would only have a limited amount of time, but I was also willing to push the time of the red light.  Downtown wasn't busy, and the bridal party filled up the width of the street (and there weren't any cars behind them waiting at the light).  I think I got about 5 pictures in, and then Zach (my BFF's husband and the groom's brother - who happens to be a  police officer in Greenville) yelled at me...."Okay Meredith, let's wrap it up, we got to get out of the street!"  His police officer instincts kicked in!  I was a little shocked but fine with it knowing I had got the shot I wanted.  I thought it was funny, and Sarah was appalled at her husband...haha!  I think he now feels bad for doing that, but  it all worked out!  

While photographing Brandi and Sean, I think about 3 or 4 cars drove by and congratulated them - these were people that knew them...not random strangers!  Out of those 3 or 4 cars only 1 was heading to the reception!  They have a lot of friends!

Up next, the reception...and the Hinton Casino!