Posts Tagged: Wedding Photography
getting married, the rush of it all
There is a rush to this whole getting married thing.
I know, “newsflash,” but I’m going somewhere with this, so stick with me:
Naturally, there is the race to get everything planned, booked, selected, purchased and pulled together. Even if you’re not on a strict timetable, there is still a sense of urgency about making the right choices and not missing any detail that might make your wedding more memorable. That’s not the rush I’m talking about though. I’m thinking of the rush of actually realizing that you’ve done it.
Do you see it? See what I’m talking about? Some of it is the group celebration, but it’s also that first look and exhaled “phew!” between husband and wife that we love to capture. Those are often some of our favorite shots (and our clients’ faves as well) …. seeing the anticipation and then afterwards, when the officiant announces that two are now one. There is still so much energy in the space, but it’s new energy. It’s an absolute rush.
You cannot get to that moment though if you haven’t booked your wedding photographers and we would love to be a part of your team that day. Most of our wedding package includes a free engagement portrait session, allowing us to get to know you and help you to get comfortable in front of the camera if you aren’t already. We’re now booking weddings for 2017, 2018 and beyond. Contact us and let’s start planning.
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, engagements and weddings, brides, 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.
Love among the vines ~ Piccione Vineyards Engagement
Kendra and Nathan love The Avett Brothers, wine, wineries and each other. The end.
Ok, there’s more to them than just that. We met Kendra at a bridal show this past March and loved chatting with her and hearing about her engagement to Nathan. They met in high school and began dating when he left for college at ASU. Before long, he was coming home A LOT and they became inseparable and still are. These two love to go to NC wineries when they have down time and they knew that a vineyard would be perfect spot to photograph their engagement session. On November 4th, we all met at Piccione Vineyards, armed with a blanket, our equipment, and sunshine and proceeded to wander among the vines. 
The Piccione Vineyard boasts amazing views of the rolling landscape of the Yadkin Valley and NC mountains in the distance and they didn’t disappoint us that day. Watching these two crack up was especially fun. Kendra mentioned that Nathan ribs her mercilessly and said that she “usually deserves it.” The couple will be getting married at The Barn at Blueberry Hill on May 20th of 2017 and we’re looking forward to the day, the ceremony and watching them make it official. 
We really like this couple and seeing them with the expanse of vineyards behind them is metaphor enough for us. Here’s to lifting a glass and toasting years and acres of laughter, teasing, harmony, prosperity and many good vintages.
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, engagements and weddings, brides, 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.
Pixels On Paper | NC Wedding Photographers | October Wedding Anniversaries
October is one of the more beautiful months for weddings in our area. It’s a month of seasonal transition which means you take a chance with weather – as with April and May. We cannot recall an October wedding that wasn’t amazing. Sometimes, the weather drives us indoors, but when the temperature and setting are on your side, it can be golden, … pardon the pun.
Here’s a toast to all of our October Anniversaries. And to many more! We love you all!
Kristin & Jason – 5 years on October 1st
“Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of all three.”
– Stanley Horowitz
Donna & Andrew – 4 years on October 4th
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
– George Eliot
Mickey & Ben – 3 years on October 4th
“It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.” – B. C. Forbes
LeighAnn & Jason – 2 years on October 4th
“Autumn’s the mellow time.” – William Allingham
Amanda & Rich – 7 years on October 10th
Melissa & Bob – 6 years on October 10th
Katie & Josh 1 year October 10th
“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell
Mary & Gilbert – 8 years on October 11
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” – Lauren DeStefano
Megan & Jeff – 3 years on October 12th
“In autumn, don’t go to jewelers to seek old, go to parks.” – Mehmet Maret Ildan
Lucy & Glen – 4 years on October 13th
“I know the lands are lit, with all the autumn blaze of Goldenrod.” – Helen Hunt Jackson
Addie & Matt – 6 years 0n October 16th
“How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.” – John Burroughs
Amy & Bobby – 7 years on October 17th
“Autumn came, with wind and gold.” – Unknown
Jamie & Daniel – 1 year on October 17th
“But these are days that we dream about when the sunlight paints us gold.” – Martha Schuster
Annette & Omudhome – 8 years on October 18th
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” – Emily Bronte
Laura & Chumah – 5 years on October 22nd
“Autumn. The year’s last, loveliest smile.” – William Cullen Bryan
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, engagements and weddings, brides, 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.
Ashley & Oscar engagement photos | 2 backgrounds, 1 God
There were years (in the many hundreds) when people married young. Maybe your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents did. No one thought anything about it and I’m not prepared to give a history lesson about why it worked or didn’t. Young brides and grooms, older brides and grooms…. we ALWAYS cheer for a strong marriage that lasts until Al Roker is talking about it on the Today Show.
These 2 below, Violet and Floyd, were married for 67 years. They were married young, were 21 and 22 in this photo, and in 2015, they passed away holding hands with their hospice beds pushed together. 67 years and together right until the last moment.
Who knows why some young marriages work and last, producing thriving families, smartypants kids, and reels and reels of memories? But they do. When we hear, “but they’re SO YOUNG,” as we have in our tenure as wedding photographers, we think, “but what if what they have is the big “IT?” We believe Ashley & Oscar have it. They are young, yes, but they have the depth, gravitas, self-awareness and sense of longevity – and they displayed it during our photo session.
They have “it” and IT is a shared belief in Christ and each other.
Ashley and Oscar met when her church took a trip to Mexico. When Oscar returned to school in the states, they started spending more time together and realized their similar dreams and feelings. Ryan and I have known them for a while. Oscar and Ashley’s brother Daniel were models for us during a prom shoot a few years ago. The Caudill’s have supported Pixels On Paper Photography and we’ve always appreciated their love and care for us. Now we get to return the favor as documentarians and friends.
I’ve never been around a couple, even twice their age, who were more grounded in faith, family and tradition. Ashley will finish the last of both her high school and college courses in December and then they will be married in NC. A honeymoon in Mexico is planned and Ashley will finally be able to meet all of Oscar’s family. We’re excited about the stories to come of how these families will blend into one and write their own new story with Him at the center. We couldn’t be more hopeful or proud or happy for them.
We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or NC high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddings, brides, and special events and portraits of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio as well as the surrounding areas. 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. Contact us to schedule your portrait or wedding photography.
Wedding Redux #6 ~ LeClaire & Raynor
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 kids, engagements and weddings, brides 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.