Read the Q&A with Stacy + Jay, featured below, to learn more about their engagement session inspiration and photography experience! To view all of the photos from their session and order prints, please visit their gallery on my online print shop!

1. Tell me about you! (The floor is yours: How did you meet? What activities do you enjoy doing as a couple? Who is your celebrity couple doppelganger?)

We met through mutual friends and knew each other for a few years before we got together. Serendipity struck one night at Southern Rail; we had an amazing conversation getting to know each other better, and the rest is history! We love to cook (and eat!), hike, play with our dog Pepper, travel, and do crossword puzzles.

2. Why did you decide to book an engagement session? Was there anything in particular you wanted me to photograph (or avoid…)?

We knew we wanted engagement photos; what else would we have used as pictures for our save-the-dates and wedding invitations? We’re a pretty ridiculous couple, so we knew we wanted our pictures to reflect that. We didn’t want “typical” photos, though of course we wanted to look amazing in them. We hoped to avoid anything that seemed to cliche or staged…we wanted something that showed off how we interact in real life (while also making us look incredible).

3. What was your favorite moment from the engagement session? Favorite photos?

Jay: My favorite moment was really a collections of moments: trying to persuade our dog Pepper to do what we wanted her to do. She never complied. My favorite picture is of me, cross-eyed and Stacy wearing my glasses. I also love the on(s) under the Davie Poplar.

Stacy: My favorite moment was climbing out over the creek in the North Carolina Botanical Garden. We weren’t exactly wearing outdoor footwear but we made it work! It was great to be able to have Pepper in these photos. I think my favorite shots are by the Old Well. It brings back great memories of our time at UNC.

4. What do you plan to do with the engagement photos? (i.e. Wallpaper the hallway? Internet fame? Make a collage of your pup?)

Fairly typical stuff- use them in our official wedding correspondence, frame a few and give them to our parents, stun our friends with how great we look together, the usual. Now that we have them, I am sure we’ll come up with some ridiculous ideas like print them on wrapping paper or coffee mugs.

5. Anything else you’d like to add?

We had a great time! Courtney made the entire session fun and playful. I think we were a bit nervous going in…thinking that there was a “right” or “wrong” way to do engagement photos, but Courtney put all our fears to bed and helped us get over any anxieties we had so that we could have fun and let our true selves show.

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Stacy + Jay, thanks for being your fun, goofy selves throughout this shoot! I had so much fun romping through the trails at the North Carolina Botanical Garden with you and revisiting our Alma Mater and expressing our Tar Heel pride. I hope you love your pictures and even get some laughs out of some of these shots. Enjoy!

The post Stacy + Jay | UNC-Chapel Hill Engagement Session | Chapel Hill Engagement Photographer appeared first on Courtney Potter Studio.

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

The post Caroline + Lex | Chapel Hill Carriage House Wedding | Chapel Hill Wedding Photographer appeared first on Courtney Potter Studio.

Since Anirudh and Suhana are both UNC alums, they chose The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for their spring engagement photo location. Any Tarheel living up out-of-state daydreams about campus in the springtime (especially when there is still snow on the ground up North!) We couldn’t have had a nicer day for this shoot in March- eighty degree weather and sunbeams illuminating the newly blossomed flowers made for a rejuvenating experience after the long winter.

Creatively speaking, one of biggest challenges of shooting at an iconic spot like The Old Well or Coker Arboretum is avoiding visual redundancy (I have lost track of how many times I’ve shot there!). One of my 2015 goals is to really push the envelope with making images- I don’t want to settle for what is comfortable or expected. To challenge myself on this shoot, I brought an assistant to help me work the reflector (thanks Kasha!). This is something I have just recently started doing that creates a more polished look- that extra pop of light makes a huge difference!

Anirudh and Suhana, thank you for making this session such a pleasant experience! I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the first real day of spring in North Carolina. I hope you love these photos, and I can’t wait to to photograph your wedding this August!

To view all of the photos from Anirudh + Suhana’s session and order prints, please visit their online gallery on my print shop!

The post Anirudh + Suhana | UNC-Chapel Hill Engagement Session | Chapel Hill Engagement Photographer appeared first on Courtney Potter Studio.

This sweet couple opted to have their engagement session during the late spring on UNC Chapel Hill’s campus. I always love an excuse to return to my alma mater, and with the diversity of flora and changing quality of light each season, no two shoots are the same.

This particular spring day was hot, but the light just before sunset was absolutely perfect. We hit some of the most iconic spots- The Old Well, Coker Arboretum, Davie Poplar, and the Forest Theater– but Beth and Anthony were not shy to go off the beaten path a bit and explore. We tromped through a less popular (but pretty!) field at the arboretum and found a fallen tree, which they gladly incorporated into the photos.

Beth + Ant, thanks so much for having so much fun with this shoot and contributing your own ideas to it! It was fun to collaborate with you both, and I can’t wait to work with you in 2015 for your wedding!

To view all of the photos from this session and order prints, please visit my print service.

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