Monthly Archives: June 2016

southern belle bridal portraits ~ beauty among the botanicals

If you’re ever standing at a dinner party in, say, …….Prague… and someone asks you to describe a Southern Belle, Adrian Bridges Church should be your brain’s go-to reference point. We’re not talking the overdone, over-the-top caricature or the Ersatz Southern Lady one meets from time to time in the New South. Adrian is authentic – almost to the point of seeming as if she really is a belle from that era in the American South…….. minus of course, the strife and angst that comes from civil war and the fact that you can’t vote and whatnot.

Pixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photo

Pixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photo

Adrian’s belle comes out almost immediately in her sense of graciousness, sweetness and hospitality. She could have shown up for her bridal portraits in a hoop skirt and bonnet and we wouldn’t have blinked. Let’s just say she’d have given Melanie Wilkes a run for her money. When we were discussing her wedding photography (we’ll share soon!!), she mentioned that since her wedding was going to be more on the country/rustic side that she really wanted her bridal portraits to be more formal, elegant and in a blooming spring garden, filled with the lushness that comes with the season. There’s just one problem – the weather in the mountains of NC in the spring can be dodgy and sometimes it feels like late October. The solution? Head east toward warmth. And that’s what we did.

Pixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photoPixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photo

The botanical gardens near Winston-Salem were in bloom and they were absolutely gorgeous, making a perfect setting for this bride. When we can bend to make our clients happy, we do it and this was the case with Adrian. When she emerged from the car for her session in early April (after hours of travel for hair and makeup and then more time to get to the gardens), she actually squealed. The combination of her gown and glow, the green of the gardens, purple wisteria, moss and sunshine made our job that day a breeze.

Pixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photoPixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photoPixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photoPixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photo

Adrian told us that we’d made her dream of garden portraits come true by locating this spot. LOVE IT when that happens. This belle deserved a setting as genteel and elegant as she is, so we were thrilled to deliver.

Pixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photoPixels On Paper wedding photographers. Outdoor garden bridal wedding portrait Winston Salem NC photoWe love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs babies and kidsengagements and weddingsbrides and special events and portraits of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

Wedding Redux #6 ~ LeClaire & Raynor

wedding advice redux blog pixels on paper photo

Everyone ready for another wedding look-back? A little check-in with a couple who said their I Dos and are still together? Awesome, because here’s Wedding Redux numero 6 from Jessica LeClaire and Chris Raynor, married almost exactly 2 years ago. It’s free-ranging and VERY helpful if you’re planning or helping plan the wedding of someone close to you. Happy Reading!

Having someone help take charge of the wedding festivities who is not a family member is something I would recommend for anyone who has a family (like mine) who feels they need to be in control of everything & provide their opinion for every aspect of the wedding. I love my family, but hiring someone outside of the family help take care of things and make sure there wasn’t anything missing or going wrong made it less stressful for us!

Location… If you have guests coming in from out of town, our advice would be to have a location near a hotel for your guests to stay in or try to keep the traveling to a minimum. We loved having our reception at a hotel because it made it easy for our guests to be able to completely enjoy themselves without having to drive home. This also gave us the ability to spend time with our out-of-town guests after the wedding that evening and the next morning.

Getting married in a church was important to us, but we would have preferred not to have had communion during our ceremony. It was a requirement of our church and out of respect, we dealt with it, but if we could have avoided it to make our ceremony a bit shorter we would have. We loved the rest of our ceremony; it was traditional which is what we wanted.

It’s hard to decide who’s going to be in your bridal party vs. just being a guest at your wedding. As you start thinking about who you want in your bridal party, there are always more and more names that come to mind. We took the time to really narrow it down to who was closest to us, plus we made sure all our good friends were invited, so they were included in the celebration. We had 6 bridesmaids and 6 groomsmen.

With attire, we wanted everyone to be comfortable since we had a May wedding. We wanted lighter colors and Jess wanted the girls in short dresses because long ones would be too hot. Of course everyone’s wedding day is about the bride & groom, but if you have people in your bridal party helping share your day and you’ve asked them to spend money on clothes or shoes or taking trips with you, you should make sure they feel comfortable at all times on the day of your wedding. Our advice would be to include others’ opinions because it will make them feel even more included in your day.

Number of Guests? We had 150 people at our wedding and we were given a total of 175 by Jess’s parents & after responses it came down to 150. We send out 2 rounds of invitations to make sure we invited all family, our parents’ “requirements,” family friends and then our friends. We were able to have almost all of our loved ones (for those who could make it) and we were able to say hello to every single person that came to our wedding. This was the best part for us.

We had a spring wedding because we wanted good weather & pretty flowers and sunshine for our pictures which is exactly what we got. Additionally, we had a 2-hour window after the ceremony that gave us enough time to take great pictures and not feel rushed into our reception. Then a cocktail hour from 5-6pm, and a 4-hour reception which was a perfect amount of time for dancing and spending time with our guests. We wanted an afternoon evening wedding so we could party into the night.

We loved the food at our reception. We had a tasting months before the wedding which was extremely helpful and included Jess’s parents & sister & Chris’s dad. We wanted to have several people’s opinions to make sure we chose options that we felt all our guests would enjoy. The tasting definitely allowed us to decide exactly what we wanted.

We didn’t want to spend tons of money on flowers, as beautiful as they are; we felt putting more finances into other areas like our photography and having a photo booth was more important since we really wanted to create everlasting memories.

Having a DJ was no question. We love bands, but we didn’t feel it was the best decision for our wedding. We feel we got a better sound & dance feel from having a DJ.

We were very lucky and blessed that several of our vendors were friends of ours. Included were Ryan & Misty as our amazing wedding photographers who captured every beautiful moment from our perfect day; our DJ was a good friend of ours and our photo booth was done by one of the bridesmaids brothers (who we’ve known since college) and our wedding planner was a good friend of Chris’. Not only did we have great vendors but we had extra love coming from them because they were friends of ours.

We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden.Pixels on Paper photographs babies and kidsengagements and weddingsbrides and special events and portraits of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

introducing “tiny bubbles” ~ Newborn Matthew Minick

Pixels on Paper photography matthew minick newborn photoMatthew Clark Minick is his official name, but he was known as “Bubbles” (by EVERYONE while in utero) and “Matthew Cutie Pants” (since his birth in mid-May) – both monikers given by his older sister, Amelia. At just 9 days old, we photographed Matthew in our Wilkesboro studio. His debut was just what we expected – sweet, loving, cuteness overload.wilkesboro nc newborn baby portrait photographers photowilkesboro nc newborn baby portrait photographers photowilkesboro nc newborn baby portrait photographers photoThe Minicks are the family that we’ve photographed the most over our 11 years in business and they are now a part of our family. There are those people who show up outside of our family blood line and gene pool and feel like members of our tribe. Well the Minicks are these people for us and have been since we met Ryan and Rachel Minick 6 years ago for their engagement portraits. A quick check of our digital files show numbers of photos in the tens of thousands.
Matthew Minick newborn portrait photography photoMatthew is the newest member to join their growing family – and ours – and we know he’s going to steal our hearts the way his sister has. The kind of longevity we have with the Minicks is, to us, a sign that we’re doing something right, both as business owners and people. Fostering relationships means more and more to us with each passing year. We love our clients and we love this family more than we can possibly say.

We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden.Pixels on Paper photographs babies and kidsengagements and weddingsbrides and special events and portraits of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

happy father’s day 2016 ~ a little look back with humor and heart

We love our dads and Father’s Day is this Sunday, June 19th, so we want to celebrate fatherhood. The golf membership, neck tie, new leaf blower gift clichés were tired 40 years ago, so we’re skipping them.
And you’re welcome.
Instead of pablum, how about some photos we took of dads being dads with quotes that convey the depth and humor of fatherhood?
Here you go……
Arnold family outdoor spring peach orchard photos by Pixels On Paper Portrait Photographers photo“There should be a children’s song: ‘If you’re happy and you know it, keep it to yourself and let your dad sleep.’” – Jim Gaffigan

“Having a kid is like falling in love for the first time when you’re 12, but every day.” — Mike Myers

“Be a dad. Don’t be ‘Mom’s assistant.’ Fathers have skills that they never use at home. You run a landscaping business and you can’t dress and feed a 4-year-old? Take it on. Spend time with your kids and have your own ideas about what they need. It won’t take away your manhood; it will give it to you. I did that. I spent more time with my kids. And I found out that I’m a pretty bad father. I make a lot of mistakes and I don’t know what I’m doing. But my kids love me. Go figure.” – Louis C.K.

“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.” — Harry S. Truman

“I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.” — Umberto Eco

Pet Photography by Pixels On Paper Portrait Photography PhotoAnya Parry Newborn Portrait Photography photo

“You can tell what was the best year of your father’s life, because they seem to freeze that clothing style and ride it out.” – Jerry Seinfeld

“It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.” — Friedrich Schiller

Church Outdoor Family Portraits photo

“The only way I can describe [fatherhood]—it sounds stupid, but—at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you know how his heart grows like five times? Everything is full; It’s just full all the time.” — Matt Damon

“I gave my father $100 and said, ‘Buy yourself something that will make your life easier.’ So he went out and bought a present for my mother.” – Rita Rudner

“My daughter got me a ‘World’s Best Dad’ mug. So we know she’s sarcastic.” – Bob Odenkirk

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant, I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain

Clampett Wedding, Sarah Crisp, Danny Clampett, Wedding, Chetola photoBishop Boone and Blowing Rock NC wedding photo“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person: he believed in me.” — Jim Valvano

“Having children is like living in a frathouse – nobody sleeps, everything is broken and there’s a lot of throwing up.” – Ray Romano

Castillo Newborn Photography, Family portrait photography by Wilkesboro NC Photographers Pixels On Paper photo“Never raise your hand to your kids. It leaves your groin unprotected.” –Red ButtonsMeade Outdoor Family Portraits photo

“When you have kids, there’s no such thing as quality time. There’s just time. There’s no ‘Ooh, his graduation is better than going to the mall.’ It’s all kind of equal. Changing her diaper and her winning a contest – – it’s all good.” – Chris Rock

“A good father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society.” – Billy Graham.

We agree. Looking through these photos was a walk down memory lane as we thought about our clients and friends with kids – – – just how much these dads feel the responsibility of their children’s futures resting on their shoulders at the same time they want to enjoy every micro-second. This fathering thing is not for boys and we celebrate you men.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s out there!