Category: weddings

I told you wedding season was in full swing! I’ve been editing photos all week to prove it. 🙂 Chris and I photographed Mallory and Eddie’s wedding yesterday on a day that threatened storms, but the weather held up beautifully the entire time. I’m trying to wrap up some more editing (there’s just piles of it!), so I’ll get right to the photos in this post! We started out at the gorgeous Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville.

I love catching little moments like these:

Married!

A couple of quick photos outside of the church…

…And then we went straight to Dominion Valley Country Club where Chris was on detail-duty while I headed outside with the bridal party to take a few portraits.

I love this shot that Chris took from inside the country club. It’s his view…

…of me taking this:

You two both look amazing!

The grounds at the country club were beautiful. Chris’s view:

And my view of the same shot:

A really sweet first dance:

Followed by some fun parent dances:

I added to my collection of grandma-on-the-dance-floor shots!

Sparklers!

Best wishes and congratulations Mallory and Eddie! It was so nice to see you both again on such a wonderful occasion. Thank you so much for allowing Chris and I to be a part of your day – we had a great time capturing these photos for you!

Wedding season officially kicked off for us this past Memorial Day weekend! We had the pleasure of visiting one of our favorite venues again, Rust Manor, for the wedding of Rachel and Aaron. The weather behaved beautifully all weekend (other than being just a tad on the warm side) and we had such a lovely time photographing the event. I started out with a few shots of Rachel getting ready:

Rachel – you’re STUNNING:

Rachel’s mom helping out with all of those buttons:

Then we headed to Rust Manor to meet Aaron.

Rachel and Aaron saw each other before the ceremony – I love this spot in the grove! Beautiful.

I LOVED the pop of yellow against blue – perfect summery colors:

I’m kind of excited about this ring shot!

Chris caught this shot of Aaron waiting for his bride – doesn’t he look like he’d fit right in on the pages of a J. Crew catalog?!

We had plenty of time before the ceremony for photos, and plenty of time after! I LOVE a relaxed schedule.

I love how happy they are in all of these first dance photos that Chris shot:

One of my favorite things at the reception is when grandparents get out on the dance floor!  Winners of the anniversary dance with over 60 years of marriage:

Best wishes and congratulations Rachel & Aaron! We are so honored to have been a part of your celebration, and we wish you years and years of happiness. Have an amazing time on your honeymoon!

We met my senior year of high school when I moved to Virginia from Texas. (Yes – my last year of high school!) She was the first person that befriended me at my new school, and we clicked instantly. We were both endlessly silly and hyper, constantly had the giggles, and let’s just say that we were both also a bit boy-crazy. I’m so thankful that I met her – she made all the difference to my senior year. If you told me back then that one day I would photograph her wedding I would have thought you were nuts (only because I didn’t realize then that I would be doing photography as more than a hobby). But now she has found the one boy that she’s the most crazy about and I did have the huge honor of capturing Coelle’s wedding day memories. I couldn’t be more happy for her and Corey! Better with photos than I am with words, here are the highlights from the day through my lens, starting with Coelle getting hair and makeup done at Hairloom in Brambleton and getting dressed at Lansdowne Resort:

Hopefully Coelle won’t kill me for posting the Marilyn Monroe shot below, but I think it’s one of the cutest things ever:

Then we headed to Breaux Vineyards where Coelle and Corey saw each other before the ceremony. LOVE Corey’s expression here:

The ceremony took place on the lower pavilion. Here are Coelle’s sweet nephews performing the critical task of ringbearers:

I think I can take a little bit of credit for the next part of the ceremony because when Coelle was brainstorming ways to make her wedding personalized, I suggested that instead of a traditional sand ceremony, they could combine nuts and bolts into a jar since Coelle and Corey are both engineers! It was noisy, but so fun:

Chris’s shot of the nuts-and-bolts ceremony:

And his view of the ring exchange:

The rings:The recessional is always one of my favorite parts of the ceremony – they look so happy!

Laura Ritchie of Events in the City (adore her!) did an A-MA-ZING job of coordinating and planning this event. Ready for some scene-stealing reception details? Starting with this fabulous corkboard literally made out of corks to hold the escort cards (love it!):

Go ahead and drool over the following floral arrangements and table settings:

Norman of The Sweet Life outdid himself with this grapevine-inspired cake:

Singer/songwriter and brother of the bride, Brandon Schott, sang Coelle and Corey’s beautiful first dance song.

Sweet parent dance moments are another favorite of mine:

So I’m still not totally clear on the whole story, but I think The University of Maryland’s mascot, Testudo, showing up was a complete surprise to everyone!

UMD is Corey’s alma mater (check out his Terps socks), while Coelle went to Virginia Tech (hence her orange shoes and Hokie feet tattoo):

The band, ‘Round Midnight, kept the dance floor packed all night long:

It was a perfect day! To Coelle, Corey and both of your families, congratulations and best wishes! It was so incredibly wonderful and fun to experience this day with you, and to capture these memories. Corey and Coelle, I am so incredibly happy for you! Love always, Susan

Have you ever wondered about what exactly goes into the whole wedding photography process (specifically our process) step-by-step? Each wedding start-to-finish includes at least the following steps:

• consultation with the bride and/or groom via meetings, emails, phone calls, etc.
• contract preparation
• accounting/book-keeping steps throughout
• shooting an engagement session
• editing the engagement session
• site visits to pre-visualize the wedding day
• additional consultation to discuss the wedding day schedule
• pre-wedding prep including equipment checks and cleanings, battery-charging, and memory card formatting
• shooting the wedding!
• backing up the wedding images and then backing them up again
• editing the wedding including categorizing and processing the images
• creating a blog post of my favorite images
• uploading the images to Pictage (thus backing them up, once again)
• burning images to discs
• packaging up everything for delivery

Most of my weddings also include guest books and wedding albums, so that adds additional steps for designing the albums, making changes to the designs, and then ordering/delivering the books. Plus there are tons of other little steps in there just to keep the business running smoothly. Whew! So all of that said, in order to provide my clients with the best and most personalized service, I only take a limited number of weddings each year. I am so excited about the amazing couples that we have booked for 2010!

We are currently booking for 2011, but have decided to open up one more spot for 2010 (though June and October are both full). So definitely contact us soon if you’re considering SSP for your wedding this year! And in honor of this really rainy weekend we’re having, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite images from Marjorie and Nick’s rainy day wedding last year:

While all of our weddings are memorable in their own way, I think it’s safe to say that Chris and I will never forget Patty and Travis tying the knot on December 19, 2009 in the middle of a blizzard. As their wedding date drew nearer I thought, I hope we have good weather, but I guess I should have been more specific with my wishes! Despite the cold, the wind, and of course the snow, the day was beautiful and we were so happy to be a part of it. I’m going to show quite a few of my favorite images because there were so many guests who couldn’t travel due to the weather, and I know they’d love to see photos, so I’ll get right to it.

While I couldn’t imagine wearing a dress at all that day because it was so cold, Patty wore two dresses – the first one for the ceremony was her mother’s wedding dress. And the flowers were arranged by none other than Patty and her bridesmaids!

Patty’s engagement ring:




This is the face Patty made at the exact moment she found out that Travis had made it safely to the church. Bride, check…groom, check. (Photographers, check!) We’re all set!

Final moments of getting ready at the church:





Chris’s shot of Patty coming up the aisle:





I love these little glances during the ceremony!

Another beautiful image by Chris:



Okay, these two were absolute troopers. I didn’t have to beg much to get them outside for a few quick pictures while we still had some daylight. I probably don’t have to say this, but it was COLD.

Then we were back inside for dress #2:





A quick dance rehearsal before the reception:

And once we were at the old historic train depot for the reception, I pleaded my case for a few more pictures outside. Both were happy to humor me!




I love these next two images that Chris captured:


Once we were back inside, Patty and Travis were able to thaw out and dance their first dance.

Some beautiful parent dance images by Chris:



If I heard the story correctly, the wedding cake didn’t quite make it to the reception (the delivery vehicle was stuck in a ditch en route!), but there was a groom’s cake and a cream puff tower standing in as sweet treats.

The last couple times we went outside weren’t even my idea, nor was the snowball fight, so I can’t be responsible for a frozen bride and groom at this point! But doesn’t Patty look so cute in her boots?




MOH, Sarah, and Patty are showing off their boots, but Chris and I were standing in a snow drift about two feet deep taking this picture and couldn’t see over the snow…

I asked Dan, the MOH’s husband, to take our photo when Patty jumped into the drift with us!

Birdseed exit!

Patty and Travis, I’m so glad Chris and I could be there for your wedding – thank you so much for your hospitality! We enjoyed our little wintry adventure with you! Hopefully you’ll get a chance to warm up on your honeymoon. 🙂 Best wishes and congratulations!