Posts Tagged: NC Wilkesboro wedding photographers
Bonnie & Amanda | Married… On The Windfall | Lansing NC
Have you ever procrastinated because you’re afraid you’ll never do justice to WHATEVER IT IS? You’re sort of paralyzed by a yearning for perfection? Well, join us won’t you as we attempt to describe this couple, this wedding, this day and everything it symbolized. We feel confident in this: it meant something not just to Amanda and Bonnie – the newlyweds – but to everyone who witnessed their marriage and saw their journey culminate in the official, legal “I Dos.” 
Bonnie Hostetler & Amanda Walling were married on October 14, 2016 at On the Windfall in Lansing, NC. Fall outdoor weddings bring life and birth during a time when the earth rests from blooming and we all turn our thoughts to warmth, fires and the holidays. This couple wanted their celebration to be that: the beginning, the birth of their union as a sanctioned and sacred thing. And it was from the first note to the last hug.
Watching Bonnie and Amanda’s nerves and anticipation of seeing each other for the first time at the ceremony was incredibly sweet and then seeing them each walk down the aisle as individuals, and then later back up the aisle as a couple is something I’ll never forget. Because we had two brides, it was special to see twice the amount of emotion, excitement and attention to detail that what we normally witness and photograph. Grooms typically tend to be laid back and go with the flow. They told us that finally being face-to-face was the best moment of the day.
The vows are by their very nature the most tender and moving part of any wedding ceremony and these were no exception. The extraordinary display of emotion from not only Bonnie & Amanda but also every single guest that was there was, I believe, what seemed to make this wedding so unbelievably affecting. It was a group realization of how much harder it is for a same sex couples to marry each other. It’s as if they’ve already defied so many odds and barriers and now could demonstrate their love and commitment to each other surrounded by their friends, family and biggest fans. We could all see how much they love each other and what they would go through for each other. When it was finally possible to say, “this is us. we did it!,” there was even more reason to celebrate. 
So, this couple… where to begin? Amanda is incredibly attentive to the needs of everyone around her, most especially Bonnie’s. She’s driven and competitive, but in the good ways, you know? She’s positive and she’s organized and you want her on your team.
Bonnie brings the wattage. She’s full of light, laughter and smiles. She cares deeply for people, is the girlie girl with a tom boy’s heart and she looked amazing in her gown. Bonnie dreams big and pulls others into that spirit. Together, these two love the outdoors as much as they enjoy being with others. If you read their engagement blog, you know they have a camper and love to travel and camp in it – just the two of them. 
Fun Fact: The officiant accidentally said “wing” instead of “ring” during the ceremony. It was hilarious and the brides especially thought so. If you’ve seen “The Princess Bride,” you get it.
On the Windfall is a magical spot. We’ve shot many a wedding there and Bonnie and Amanda chose well. They told us that they’d been hyping it to guests for months as this gorgeous venue and perfect spot for their wedding. Sure enough, people kept telling them during the reception how amazed they were once they got to be there in person and see it, enjoy walking the grounds and taking in the autumn views. 
The reception and meeting all of their friends…. we loved it. We were welcomed like family, which felt wonderful. Professionally, we’d looked forward to the wedding day for such a long time and had high expectations about what we were going to be able to do with the couple and at this location. When we walked away that night, all of our expectations were exceeded. These two are so completely in love and they really took the time to make their day as special, beautiful, fun and interesting as they are.
Great receptions mean great guests and so many different types of people were brought together for this wedding. Regardless of color, sex, age, religion, education, etc., there we all were celebrating. It speaks volumes to the type of people that Amanda and Bonnie are and how many people love them.
If I wrote down every detail and used all the adjectives that come to mind in this blog, you’d be finished reading it around Easter, so I will just say this:
We love these two.
Amanda and Bonnie are wonderful people and they matter so much to those who are able to be in their lives and world. What we witnessed on October 14th was a shared dream that came true. It was a celebration in the truest sense. It was history making for them, but it was also about a single wish to be together forever. We saw joy, community, families and a family being forged, fairness and justice in manners of the heart played out, and we saw what love can be if you let it.
For those of you planning, here’s the Vendor Roundup! Each of these did an amazing job to make Amanda and Bonnie’s day gorgeous and memorable.
Location: On The Windfall
Planner/Coordinator: Megan Drake of The Elegant Event
Hair/Makeup: Canvas Beauty Bar Boone
Flowers: Fuschia Moss
Cake: Ugga Mugga
Music: Mountain Peak Sound
Specialty Rentals: A Bushel & A Peck Vintage Rentals
Caterers: Stacey Pierce & Julie Weldon of Charleston SC
We are now booking engagement sessions and wedding dates for 2017. Contact us to schedule yours.
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.
Happy Wedding Anniversary to our November couples
“Love is the answer”… and there are at least 2 comic endings to that sentence, but you’ll have to look ’em up.
I love a good sonnet as much as the next person, but this month – as I highlight the anniversaries of the couples we’ve photographed – I’m returning to humor. I don’t think we can ever get enough, do you? Just sayin.
Rachel & Jeremy – 4 years on November 3rd
“Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet service to see who they really are.” – Will Ferrell
Amy & Rex – 5 years on November 5th
“Honesty is the key to a relationship. If you can fake that, you’re in.” – Richard Jeni
Jesse & Bobby – 6 years on November 6th
“Being a good husband is like being a stand-up comic. You need 10 years before you can call yourself a beginner.” – Jerry Seinfeld
Katy & Josh – 4 years on November 10th
“My best birth control now is just to leave the lights on.” – Joan Rivers
Betsy & Scott – 5 years on November 12th
“Obviously, if I was serious about having a relationship with someone long-term, the last people I would introduce him to would be my family.”- Chelsea Handler
Lindsay & Scott – 6 years on November 20th
“Love is a lot like a backache, it doesn’t show up on X-rays, but you know it’s there.” – George Burns
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.
christine & adam’s loray mill engagement photos | pixels on paper nc wedding photographers
Adam, Christine and a cozy Kensie – their “child.”
We met Christine at the wedding of her friends, Lauren and Patrick in 2014. This girl is a referral machine. We’ve not only booked more weddings because of her recommendations, but when she got engaged herself, she called us. We chatted with the pair at yet another wedding (no, they are not professional wedding goers!) and they were musing about potential engagement photos spots. We told them what we always tell couples: choose a location that’s meaningful to you so that in years to come you can look back at the photos and recognize the setting for its significance. That was when a lightbulb appeared over Adam’s head.
We took advantage of as many angles and options as possible and loved doing so with the couple and their sweet dog Kensie. These 2 will make it official (if you didn’t look closely at the photo above), October 22 of this year in Charlotte and we’ll be there to capture the next set of family memories and history. Counting the days!
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.
a classic southern summer church wedding ~ read: HOT & lovely
If you were hoping to get a piece of cake with Clemson paws on it, see a completely glamorous bride, and a husband who cannot stop smiling, you missed it. You missed the cake. The rest is below. Jason, Jessica and their nearest and dearest gathered last month to celebrate them at their wedding at St. John’s UMC in Rock Hill, SC. It was fun, tender and hot as blazes, but we took the images that made them the happiest. The couple shared this: “We are blown away at the moments you captured. We are weepy just thinking about it. You created memories for us that we will always have and that we will return to for the rest of our lives.” Mission accomplished.
If you want to see what can be done with high heels AND mountain views, I hope you’ll check out Jessica and Jason’s engagement portraits. I can’t tease it any more than that.
Jessica told us that her favorite photo is of her with Jason as they walked back up the aisle as husband and wife. We agree. You can tell how crazy in love they are. We also loved the simplicity and classic nature of their wedding – the colors, the church, the flowers, everything was gorgeously understated, elegant and lovely.
St. John’s provided us with so many opportunities to shoot, but we love photos of these two outside especially. To wit: a lamppost was scaled in the making of these memories…. we suffer for our art.
The reception was held at Gettys Art Center in Rock Hill, because the bride and groom vibed on the old interiors of the place. True enough, it’s an amazing spot for a reception. One – air conditioning in July! Big plus. Two – beautiful stained wood paneling.
Jessica: “We cried when we danced with our parents. I didn’t expect my dad to dance with me. I was 100% surprised. It was quite possibly the best moment I have ever had with him. And I loved seeing the photos of Jason dancing with his mom.”
In the spirit of sharing the love for other wedding vendors, we ask our clients who they hired. Here are those chosen by Jessica and Jason: Wedding gown: Castle, Spartanburg, SC
Wedding coordinator /planner: Crystal Beck. Jessica told us that she was “a game changer.” The bride didn’t worry about anything.
Flowers: Jasn’e Creative Design.
DJ or band: Split Second Sound out of Charlotte NC. “Eric was the BEST! I would hire him again tomorrow if I had a reason.”
Catering: Essie’s Catering. Yummy food.
Cake and desserts: Carrie Shafer. “She is a friend- doesn’t do it professionally but they were DELICIOUS.”
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.