Tag: Chapel Hill Weddings

Caroline + Lex tied the knot on May 21, 2016 in a rustic outdoor wedding at the Chapel Hill Carriage House. Their unconventional wedding featured baby goats, the one-and-only Rameses, and a double-rainbow. No joke.

Read the Q&A with this sweet couple, featured below, to learn more about their wedding inspiration and photography experience! To view all of the photos from their wedding and order prints, please visit their gallery on my online print shop!

1. What are some of your favorite things about your partner? How were these attributes expressed during or leading up to your wedding?

Lex: A few of my favorite things about Caroline are her compassion, her thoughtfulness, and her grace. Our wedding exemplified each of these. She was always thinking about our guests’ comfort during the planning, she ensured every detail of the wedding was perfect, and she was breathtakingly stunning and totally composed throughout the ceremony and reception.

Caroline: I love so many things about Lex and one of them is his steadfastness. He is great at helping me calm down and remember what’s really important, which was hugely helpful during the wedding planning process. He’s also incredibly caring and puts his love into action by finding thoughtful ways to make life easier for other people (ex: waking up at the crack of dawn to take the dog out and doing all the laundry and dishes when he could tell I was a little overwhelmed). He also has such strong and loyal relationships with his friends and family and I loved listening to them reminisce about all their memories together over the weekend. Lastly, his sense of humor is on point and I thought it was reflected in so many little moments of the wedding, like the Princess Bride quote that started off our ceremony.

2. What was most important to you in planning your wedding?

Our primary goal for the wedding was to host a fun event that our guests would enjoy. We also wanted great food and music, and to represent our respective homes, North Carolina and West Virginia. It was important to us to have a wedding that felt in line with our values, especially the ceremony. We wanted to say vows that we felt good about saying and include traditions we were on board with.

3. Are there any details or moments from your wedding that are particularly special to you? (E.g., you wore your momma’s dress, your partner unexpectedly serenaded you, there was a double rainbow all across the sky…).

You pretty much hit the nail on the head with “there was a double rainbow all across the sky!” There was, and it was amazing. Another amazing moment was that Rameses made an appearance during the cocktail hour! As a surprise to us, Caroline’s mom had invited him! We are both huge UNC fans so it was so much fun to get to celebrate and take some photos with Rameses himself. We also will never forget shout-singing Carolina in My Mind, Take Me Home Country Roads, and the UNC fight song on the dance floor with our guests. There were countless other very special moments  – those are just a few that really stand out. It was a perfect night filled with so much joy.

4. Now that you’ve tied the knot (and survived!), what advice would you give to other folks planning their wedding?

Don’t sweat the small stuff and eat dinner, and dessert!

5. What is the first thing you want to do with the images? Wallpaper the hallway? Internet fame?

Lex: Cell phone background and send to family.

Caroline: Add them to our photo album! For a wedding gift, both of our parents made us this amazing photo album that starts with photos and memorabilia of both of us as children and continues with photos of our relationship and years together. I cried happy tears my first time looking at it, and I can’t wait to add photos from our wedding to it.

6. What is next for you as a couple? Any big plans?

Right now we are very happy to explore summer in Pittsburgh together with our much loved puppy Otis. We are also very excited to be going to a wedding in Colorado to celebrate with some of our very best friends! Beyond that, who knows what the future holds?!

7. Anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks, Courtney, for doing a great job and being super easy to communicate and work with! And thanks to our amazing parents, families, wedding party, vendors, the Chapel Hill Carriage House team, and all our friends for helping make our wedding so special and wonderful and unforgettable.

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Caroline + Lex, thank you for being such a breeze to work with! Your wedding was an absolute blast, and I enjoyed every minute. I hope you love these photos and enjoy them for years to come!

A shout-out to all our fab vendors for making this day possible:

Venue: Chapel Hill Carriage House

Coordinator: Kat Mendenhall  

Photography Assistant: Layson Peters

Bride’s Dress: Rebecca Schoneveld purchased from Glitter & Grit

Groomsmen Clothing: Brooks Brothers

Florist: Petal Pushers 3

Dessert: Simply Cakes

Catering: Sweet Basil’s Catering

Invites: If It’s Paper

Band: Big Fat Gap

Transportation: Ecostyle Transportation

Kasha + Drew tied the knot on a perfect fall day at the Barn of Valhalla on October 17, 2015. This artistic couple incorporated some truly unique elements into their celebration, including handmade jewelry by Kasha’s brother, white lace-up bridal boots, and an owl release. The owls were not inspired by wedding doves, an anonymous Pinterest Board or Harry Potter- Kasha’s family founded Claws, Inc.- a pretty rad nonprofit that rehabilitates wild animals. Kasha grew up surrounded by all sorts of critters, so the owl release was a natural way to symbolize their union.

I’ll let Kasha + Drew explain this in more depth in the Q&A below! To view all of the photos from their wedding and order prints, please visit their gallery on my online print shop!

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1. What are some of your favorite things about your partner? How were these attributes expressed during or leading up to your wedding?

Kasha – My favorite thing about Drew is how compassionate he is. He cares so much about people (and animals!) and is pretty much the definition of a give-you-the-shirt-off-his-back kind of guy. He’s also wicked smart and funny so he keeps me on my toes and keeps me laughing. I’m pretty prone to stressing out over even the smallest things, but Drew is one of the very few people who can calm me down when I’m freaking out about something. That was definitely a godsend throughout the whole wedding planning process.

Drew – One of my favorite things about Kasha is her upbeat personality. Sometimes I get too serious about things and she kind of keeps me a kid at heart and reminds me to relax and enjoy things. We also just complement each other really well – I’m more wired towards science, math, engineering, and she’s more artsy and creative (which helped a lot with the wedding planning obviously). And of course our mutual love of animals.

2. What was most important to you in planning your wedding?

We both agreed early on that a successful wedding is a fun wedding, and most of all we wanted it to be a big party and for everyone to enjoy themselves. We also wanted to make it as personal as possible, so from the décor to the ceremony to the music we planned out and made pretty much everything ourselves (with a lot of help from our wonderful friends and family).

3. Everyone is raving about the owl release that happened during your ceremony. Why did you decide to incorporate such an unusual element on your wedding day? What did you expect the owls to do during the release? And how do you think they liked it? 🙂

My (Kasha’s) family runs a local wildlife rehabilitation facility called CLAWS, Inc., where they rehabilitate a huge number of raptors (birds of prey) every year. Rehabbing wildlife was an enormous part of my life growing up so we thought the release would be a cool and meaningful way to incorporate that. Owls also represent new beginnings in many Native American cultures and we couldn’t think of a more beautiful way to start our new journey than by helping them start theirs. It would have been nice if both owls had flown away but one thing you learn when working with wild animals is that they’re called wild for a reason and they’re going to do things on their terms, despite whatever you might have in mind. The second owl was recaptured and successfully released the next day!

4. Are there any details or moments from your wedding (other than the owl release) that are particularly special to you? (E.g., you wore your momma’s dress, your partner unexpectedly serenaded you, there was a double rainbow all across the sky…).  

Kasha – That’s a tough one! Like I said, most of the details were very personal – my mom made my veil and we double-teamed the flower girl dresses, my brother made all my jewelry and Drew’s wedding band, Drew’s mom made his tie and sneakily attached our messages to each other to it and my dress, one of Drew’s groomsmen made our cake, we had a whole team the day before and day of arranging flowers, decorating the archway, and setting everything up ….so many things. As far as moments…our first look was beautiful and probably what I was looking forward to most. It was so sweet and one of the only moments we had just to ourselves the whole day. My father/daughter dance was ridiculously fun to plan and we totally killed it. Also, just getting to have so many people we love in one place dancing around and partying together was really amazing.

Drew – Our first look was really special to me. I was against the idea of it at first – I thought you should see the bride for the first time walking down the aisle. But my sister is a wedding photographer and she and Kasha convinced me to do it. Now I’m glad they did, it would have been embarrassing to cry that much in front of everyone during the ceremony. Another great moment was when my sister cut into the mother/son dance. It was a surprise and a meant a lot to me. Also, everything was catered by a good friend of mine who did an amazing job, so that was great.

5. Now that you’ve tied the knot (and survived!), what advice would you give to other folks planning their wedding?

Don’t get bogged down in the details! If you forget stuff or things don’t go perfectly, chances are no one’s going to notice but you. Surround yourself with people who are going to support you and make the process easier/more fun. Also, if at all possible plan to see any friends and family that you can the day before or the day after – we got lucky that a lot of our wedding party was there all weekend because the wedding itself went by so quickly we barely had time to really visit with anyone.

6. Why did you decide to hire me? What was it like working with me on your wedding day and in the planning stages leading up to it?

The first thing we considered in our decision was your unique style – you are absurdly good at capturing the quirky candid shots that we wanted, as well as making gorgeous portraits. We also really like how you use light in all of your photos, whether during golden hour or with your soft box on the dance floor. Other than that, having worked with you before I knew how much you put into every wedding and also that you had the chill, fun personality that would fit in really well with us and everyone else on our big day (which definitely turned out to be true!) You were a delight to work with throughout the planning stages (having a vendor who helps alleviate stress instead of adding to it was pretty great!) and we couldn’t be happier with our decision to hire you!

7. What is the first thing you want to do with the images? Wallpaper the hallway? Internet fame?

We’ve had a ton of people asking about them so the first thing we’ll do is distribute, distribute, distribute! And after that wallpaper the house.

8. What is next for you as a couple? Any big plans?

We’re hoping to go on a delayed honeymoon to Italy in March! Other than that, just enjoying married life.

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Kasha + Drew, it was a true delight working with you! I loved how deliberate you were in creating a meaningful celebration true to your story- yours was the first (and probably the last!) wedding with an owl release! Thank you so much for inviting me to document your day- it was truly an honor.

A shout-out to all our fab vendors for making this day possible:

Venue: The Barn at Valhalla

Second Shooter: Abby Stalsbroten

Videographer: Kate Lord Sander

Coordinator: Angie Hinchman & Tara Rudo

Bride’s Dress: Bridal Mart

Bride’s Shoes: Amazon

Bride’s Jewelry: handmade by bride’s brother with The Derrty Lion

Bridesmaids Dresses: ladies’ choice from David’s Bridal, Azazie, and Target

Flower Girl Dresses: made by bride and bride’s mother

Ties: Tiebar.com, Spoonflower

Florist: Paula Jean’s Garden and Sam’s Club

Dessert: Cake by James Painter, other desserts made by friends and family

Catering: Glenn Lozuke

Invites: Magnet Street

Programs: Printables

DJ: Ryan AS Jones

Lexi + Kevin tied the knot on July 4, 2015 at The Rigmor House in a festive Fourth of July wedding. Yes, a holiday celebration with red, white, and blue, a patriotic photobooth, and a brilliant fireworks finale!

This fun couple answered some questions for me about their wedding inspiration and photography experience. Read their thoughtful response below. And to view all of the photos from Lexi + Kevin’s wedding and order prints, please visit their wedding gallery on my online print shop!

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1. What are some of your favorite things about your partner? How were these attributes expressed during or leading up to your wedding?

Kevin: One of the things I really admire about Lexi is her creativity, and for the wedding that came out in spades. She planned and designed most of the decorations and everything turned out really great. She’s also really fun and I think that’s also what helped make it easy to plan a fun wedding for all of our guests.

Lexi: Kevin was so helpful in keeping me calm and organized. He is such a laidback guy, and he never seems to worry about much because he is so good at planning. He was very involved all along the way, even with small decisions like whether or not we should get compostable plates, and he always had a way of balancing things that made sense to me. I remember a few weeks before the wedding, I had made a long list of things that needed to happen and was starting to pull my hair out because of it. He took one look at my list, told me to stop panicking, and jumped on helping me make sure it was all taken care of. That really helped us both stay calm and happy the day of the wedding!

2. What was most important to you in planning your wedding?

We really had two goals in planning the wedding – the first was that all of our guests had a really good time and felt comfortable, and the second was that we not spend a million bucks making that happen. Looking back I can say with confidence that it is possible to pull off a DIY wedding that doesn’t break the bank, but that also has all the special moments and extra touches that make it an unforgettable evening. It also happened to be the 4th of July, so we tried to fold in some fireworks and festive decorations without going over the top on the red, white and blue theme. In general, we need to add more colors to our lives so that It helps us grow for personal growth. And become an optimist in all matters. This is a very important quality in life.
To find out more check this link right here now.

3. Are there any details or moments from your wedding that are particularly special to you? (E.g., you wore your momma’s dress, your partner unexpectedly serenaded you, there was a double rainbow all across the sky…).  

There were so many special moments at our wedding! Because our family and friends all came together to help make everything perfect, even the small details were special. From the flowers, to the cake, to the decorations, to my hair, every single piece of the day was made extraordinary by the people who selflessly gave their time and talents to help us.

I think one of the most touching moments was during our first dance. The song was written and performed by Kevin’s brother and best man, Greg, so that was incredible to begin with, but then about midway through the song our parents, brothers, and grandparents joined us on the dance floor. I’ll never forget looking around and seeing tears stream down Kevin’s grandfather’s face and my mom beaming as she danced with my brother. It was a bit unconventional, but I’m so glad the people the most dear to us were able to share that moment with us.

We should also give a shout out to our awesome bottle of bourbon that kept the rain away on our special day. Kevin’s dad tipped us off to this southern tradition of burying a bottle of bourbon exactly one month before the wedding, at the exact place you are getting married, to make sure it doesn’t rain. So on June 4th at 6:30 pm, we drove out to the Rigmor house and buried a quality bottle of bourbon upside down where we planned to have the ceremony. It worked! Even though it poured the day before the wedding and all around the Rigmor house the day of, we didn’t get a drop of rain, and the weather was beautiful.

4. Now that you’ve tied the knot (and survived!), what advice would you give to other folks planning their wedding?

This is probably something you will hear a lot (because its true!), but sit back, relax and try to enjoy it. The whole process goes by so quickly, and when you get to the big day, you have to just let go and know that everything will work out. Your family and friends will follow your cue, so if you’re happy, they will be too, and no one will even notice the small details that are bound to go differently than how you planned them. It’s really a remarkable day, not just because you get to join lives with the person you love, but also because its probably the only time that all the people you care about will be in one place. So enjoy that, and don’t sweat the small stuff!

5. What is the first thing you want to do with the images? Wallpaper the hallway? Internet fame?

Probably just look at them all and remember our big day. And share them, lots of people are excited to see them.

6. What is next for you as a couple? Any big plans?

At the end of September, we’re going to go back to the cottage in Asheville where Kevin proposed. It will be nice to go back and reminisce.

7. Anything else you’d like to add?

Even though we went mostly DIY with our wedding, the one thing we knew we didn’t want to risk was having beautiful pictures of our special day. That’s why we hired Courtney, and even before having seen any of the pictures, we knew that was the right decision! Courtney made us feel so comfortable and we knew we were in good hands. And I promise Courtney didn’t ask us to say this – it’s just true!

One other thing: A co-worker of Lexi’s filmed a lot of great footage of the wedding, and he and another co-worker pitched in to have it edited down into a 5 minute video. It’s set to the song that Greg wrote and recorded for our first dance. Here’s a link to the video and a link to the song on soundcloud. The lyrics are below:

all the day long, all the time

I circle the words inside of my mind

over and again

never do they make it out

out go the lights, I lay them down

and wake to find they’re still there

all of the time spent here

makes me believe it’s real

what I’ve always known

I’ve waited all my life

to take a hand in mine

and I won’t let go

I think about my life

all of the time before you arrived

every long night

out of the house, out of town

I’d search the world, all around

how did I find you so near

all of the time spent here

makes me believe it’s real

what I’ve always known

I’ve waited all my life

to take a hand in mine

and I won’t let go

inside the walls that bind us

if trouble should ever find us

the first sight of blood won’t turn me away

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Lexi + Kevin, thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of your wedding celebration! I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend The Fourth, and we had such a blast celebrating your love (and the holiday!) with you. I hope fireworks go off in your mind when you see these pictures! 🙂

A shout-out to all our fab vendors for making this day possible:

Venue: The Rigmor House

Photography Assistant: Shaena Mallett

Coordinator: Mary Tiger

Minister: Reverend Sealy Cross

Bride’s Dress: English’s Bridal

Bridesmaid Dresses: David’s Bridal

Florist: Bride’s Mother/ Wild Scallions Farm

Catering: Clyde Cooper’s BBQ

Invites: Designed by bride

DJ: Jess Dilday

It was chilly when Sarah and Erik read their vows to each other underneath the wooden trellis, but everyone was warmed by this couple’s deep love for one another.  It made me wonder why more couples don’t get married in the winter, since the environment was so intimate and cozy!  Perfect for a wedding.

Sarah and Erik got married at the Rigmor House in Chapel Hill, one of my favorite places to shoot because of all the natural light indoors.  They adorned the tables with festive candles, cranberries, and red roses, which gave the reception a romantic feel. Their friends were extremely fun; I enjoyed watching everyone’s sick dance moves.  I was also pretty amused by the amount of shots consumed in the kitchen in between dances.  🙂

I shot this wedding with my brand new high school intern, Layson Peters.  She did a phenomenal job, and it was so fun to live vicariously through her enthusiasm, since this was her first wedding to shoot ever.  It was nice to realize that my love for wedding photography hasn’t waned over time; every time I create a new picture of a new moment with a new couple, that quiet thrill hits me. It’s the same feeling I had during my first wedding, and I hope that as long as I am in this profession it will continue to shape my work.  And I hope the same for Layson.

Sarah + Erik, thank you so much for sharing your day with us!  Enjoy!