I looked around and realized that over a decade has passed since we left film behind and began creating digital images for our wedding clients.  It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, but in some ways it kind of does.  We are gearing up for a bigger, badder and more bodacious future at W&W.  To do that, we need to make some room.

If we have photographed your wedding, or if you know someone whose wedding we photographed between 2002 and 2010, be sure to get in touch with us.  We want to make sure everyone has the opportunity to receive their electronic images before we begin clearing out the boxes of discs and cases of hard drives that have piled up over the last decade.

If you are interested, contact James and he’ll get you the info.  Don’t wait though.  We are designating one cold day in the middle of February to be “clean up day”

Nothing to take away from the person standing in front of my camera and working with me to create a time capsule in the form of a photograph.  A time capsule that reflects where they were that day.  One they can look back on years from now and remember where they were and know that they are stronger for having come through such a harrowing experience.  The real challenge for me is to try to get down to the essence of the person and helping them to express that in the span of three to five minutes. The age range is another challenge.  The youngest child that day was eight weeks old.  The oldest was eighteen years and everything in between.  Each age group requires a different approach and keeps me on my toes.

It looks like I am signed up for another session in November and I’m looking forward to it.

We’re always up for a trip to the coast.  Especially when the temperatures around here have been in the 100s nearly every day.  When I left Raleigh on the way to Courtney and Ken’s session the thermometer read 102.  Two and a half hours down the road however, I was most relieved to see the temperature was a balmy 86 degrees.

The shoot wasn’t without other discomforts though.  In the process of creating the image above, we had to cross a field that we soon discovered to be full of sand spurs.  If you’ve never experienced sand spurs, they are awful, pea sized seed pods covered in needle sharp spikes that cling to your socks and especially your shoe laces.  Anyone who spent a good amount of their childhood at the beach can vividly recount the agony of pulling these from the soles of their bare feet.  It was totally worth it though.  I love that image.

As with most sessions, we shot until the light was golden and magical.  Ken and Courtney were super fun to work with and I’m looking forward to presenting their wedding images later this year.

Congratulations you guys!

There’s a funny story behind the image above.  Come back soon and I’ll tell you all about and post lots more photos.

Really, the only point of this second post was to showcase more of these awesome flowers from Kelly Odom and talk more about the day and generally dish a bit about how great Ivy is. Seriously, that’s all.

Here’s what I didn’t tell you in the last post;  it rained!  Yes, rained.  Only for about ten minutes, and not enough to change plans, but enough to send the musicians packing up and have every phone in the place locked in on a radar web site.  Within minutes though, the rain stopped, the sun came out and the Umstead staff had every chair dried and ready for guests to be seated for the ceremony.

I was really digging the eclectic arrangements made by bundling several different flower types of the same color at differing heights.

It kind of goes without saying, but I’ll say it.  The food at the Umstead is very, very good.  The menu for this event offered a little something for everyone from seafood to Asian stir fry.

People really did get into the party and post booth.  It was hoppin’ all night long.

Here’s the full length of the cake by Gregory Bingham.

Ok, here’s something else you didn’t know unless you were there.  Brittany and her Dad can dance!  I mean like dancing with the stars level stuff.  When Brittany spins around, it’s not just a nice polite spin.  It’s a full force dress whipping double spin.  It was really fun to watch them have a great time on the dance floor.

You know when Ivy is involved, there will be some yummy surprises throughout the evening.  In this case, mini moon pies. Mmmm!

Oh, and did I mention the professional dancers from Elevate?  This one was getting the crowd warmed up with a Michael Jackson routine while others were dancing behind screens at the dj booth.

Wow.  That’s all I could really say during and after Brittany and Brian’s wedding.  The place was great, the friends and family were a joy to work with and of course the couple was too.  Ivy Robinson as usual, overachieved in pulling off another magical event.  Everywhere you turned, there was something interesting to see and the guests were well entertained throughout the day.

Okay, I’m going to admit something to you right now.  We’ve shot a lot of weddings and over the years, I have observed that there are weddings that are full of emotion and love, and then there are really beautiful weddings that are, well, just really beautiful and that’s about it.  It’s a rare opportunity to get an abundance of both, but Brittany and Brian’s family are both so warm, so caring and genuine that you can’t help but love every minute that you’re sharing with them.

Kevin Milz was making the guests get their party on with his Party & Post booth.  It was a hit.

The Art of Cake created a really cool design in silver and gold.  The Ws (James & Meridith) really like the cake topper.  I keep wanting to put a little ‘&” between the Ws.

So here’s where the day got really cool.  Chris and Toni from Heart Stone Films had planned to do a same day edit, which is where they create a short but intense film of the day’s events to debut at the reception!  Talk about pressure.  Brittany had no idea that this was going to happen.  As soon as they were introduced into the reception, Brittany thought they were going into the first dance.  What happened instead was a moving presentation that had everyone in the room dead silent in awe of what they were seeing.  Want to see it?  Check it out HERE.

The band had the party people moving all the way to the end.  Then it was time for party 2.0 in the salon.  Ivy transformed the room into a club and the DJs kept the party going till the wee hours.

In the end, everyone had a blast, and the Umstead Hotel proved once again to be the ultimate host for a fabulous event.

The above image is the one Brittany chose to put on display.  Bouquet by Kelly Odom