Zack & Jemissa

Zack and Jemissa are friends with Jon and me and when they asked me to photograph their wedding, I was so excited! I'm sure I've said this before, but it's always a special treat to photograph my friends' weddings. :)

I met up with Zack and Jemissa a couple weeks ago to photograph some engagement portraits for them. It was a really hot afternoon, typical of our wonderful North Carolina, but Zack and Jemissa were troopers and did such a great job given how warm it was that day and they looked fabulous in their pictures.

We decided to meet up in Fred Fletcher Park first and then we moved to Moore Square downtown. We started off at a swing set and got some really cute pictures of the two of them goofing around on the playground.


Not everyone is into the "kissy" pictures, but I always like to get at least one. :) This one was my favorite of Zack and Jemissa. I love how Zack enveloped his arms around Jemissa.

I hadn't really taken any close up pictures before, so I wanted to try this out. My sister-in-law actually did a picture similar to this with her daughter (my cute little niece) and I thought it looked cool, so I wanted to try it out with Zack and Jemissa. What do you think?


This is when we switched things up and went to Moore Square for a different scene for our pictures. Zack is pretty much a goofball who is always trying to find some fun in everything. I had some really hilarious pictures of him picking Jemissa up like this, and this picture was my favorite. I think this was Zack's favorite picture of the day. :)


I like doing pictures where the couple kind of blends in with the background when we're in areas like this. I call these my "urban" style of pictures.


As our final spot for the day, Zack and Jemissa hopped up onto the newspaper stands in front of one of the restaurants at Moore Square. It was a really great afternoon, taking pictures of Zack and Jemissa. Check back in on the blog and I'll post their wedding pictures soon!

Ryan & Jenessa

Ryan and Jenessa's wedding was so much fun to photograph. It's always a little more special to photograph a friend's wedding. Ryan is really good friends with my husband as they are both graduate students at NC State...well, Ryan has since graduated, but he's still working there now. :)

We got some really beautiful pictures of Jenessa for her portrait, so I wanted to have some nice pictures of Ryan on the wedding day. This one is one of my favorites.


Ryan and Jenessa were a little non-traditional on their wedding day. They wanted to take their pictures together before the wedding ceremony so they could enjoy the cocktail hour with their wedding guests. This wooden bridge was the place they chose as their meeting spot. It was such a pretty little spot in the woods. They were so cute together when they first caught a glimpse of each other.


Jenessa wore beautiful bright blue shoes to match the hint of blue in her dress. Jenessa's is going to be a veterinarian and is at the NC State Vet School. She has a bunch of girls she's gotten to be really close friends with at the Vet School and they all signed the bottom of her shoes. It was such a cool idea!


There is a spot at Duke Gardens called the Zigzag Bridge. Ryan wanted to take the groom's men to this spot to take some fun pictures together. This is their "Captain Morgan" pose....it was pretty hilarious getting them to pose for this. My husband, Jon, was one of the groom's men. He's the really cute one, the second from the left. :)


The wedding ceremony was in the Angle Amphitheater at Duke Gardens. It was such an awesome location for a wedding. There was a pond just behind where the wedding party was standing with a waterfall feeding into it. Throughout the ceremony, a bullfrog was singing along and a duck came up and was waddling behind the bride's maids. It made for some fun entertainment during the ceremony!


I'm not always able to capture the moment of when the wedding license is signed, but I love taking these photographs. Here is Jenessa's maid of honor signing in as a witness.


The wedding rings are always fun to try and photograph. These are sitting on top of the piano in the reception hall.


One of the reasons why Ryan and Jenessa chose Duke Gardens as their wedding location was the reception hall inside the Doris Duke Center. The ceiling is absolutely gorgeous with all the wooden beams and natural light streaming through.


The wedding cake is a fun story. I recommended Lynn's Traditions to Jenessa because Lynn did my wedding cake for me when Jon and I got married in 2005. It was fun to see Lynn at Ryan and Jenessa's wedding since she made my wedding cake as well!


This is my favorite picture of Ryan and Jenessa's first dance together. You can tell how they are absolutely enveloped in each other at this moment.


After Ryan and Jenessa had enough alone time on the dance floor, they welcomed the wedding party out to join them.