A quick sneak peek from Erin and Bill’s wedding in Albany, Georgia!

How gorgeous is this family?  LOVE IT!

Anne: Erin and Bill, now you know why it took me a few extra minutes to get your rings back to you.  I had to clean the sticky  muffin off of them.  :D

We hope you two enjoyed Vegas!  Can’t wait to see you again soon!  :D

When I found out that my sister’s Chi-O sis Ricci had gotten engaged, I knew immediately that I wanted to take her engagement photos! She and Jacquelyn were on board, but they were both COMPLETELY nervous! To take the edge off, we stopped at Grant Park’s Dakota Blue for some cheese-covered tater tots (YUM!) and a couple of drinks before we started any picture-taking. I snuck behind the bar for this series of the girls taking a couple Lemondrop shots:

On to the park! They may have felt nervous, but Ricci and Jac were also super-smiley and so FUN to hang out with!

Jacquelyn proposed to Ricci, but Ricci plans to reciprocate with a fancy-schmancy ring for Jac as well.  In the meantime, she’s wearing an adorable plastic band that Ricci gave her when they were first dating.

This is my favorite:

While we were out, my sister Katie called!  Of course she had to talk to Ricci:

Goobers:

Ricci and Jac, thank you SO MUCH for letting me photograph you!  You are so wonderful together, and I know you have years and years of laughter and happiness ahead of you!  {{HUGS!}}

**CLICK HERE to see Pauline and Garry’s slideshow!

Pauline and Garry’s wedding was everything we had hoped it would be and more! A HUGE celebration with the most wonderful friends and family imaginable, a beautiful blend of Russian and American traditions, and stunning venues that literally begged us to take more pictures than we ever thought possible at a single wedding!

We have to give a shout-out to the fabulous day-of coordinator, Paige Cortes, who kept everything flowing smoothly through nearly 13 hours of a very packed schedule; and to Kristin Hughes, the incredible Mayflower Hotel coordinator, who made Pauline and Garry’s vision a reality.

Here are just a few of the photographs that we captured throughout the day:

Pauline has her hair done by K.C. with The Elegant Artisan while Jan gets started on her makeup.

A groomsman helps Garry with his cufflinks.

Pauline shares a moment with her mom.

Garry shows off Pauline’s ring to his best man.

Pauline’s dress, by Judd Waddell

Pauline’s mother and maid of honor button her dress.

Pauline and her mom get into the limousine headed to the church, a Washington, D.C. side street reflected in the window.

Pauline and her mom clasp hands inside the limo.

National City Church where Pauline and Garry will get married.

Pauline with her bridesmaids.

Serious, schmerious! The groomsmen goof off on the steps of the church.

The littlest flower girl, one of Garry’s nieces, bosses her grandfather around.

Pauline places her veil with the help of her reflection in the church’s glass door.

Pauline and her brother stay back from the open doorway and watch the bridesmaids line up to go down the aisle.

Into the church…

…and out of the church!  Guests blow bubbles as Pauline and Garry exit after their ceremony.

Pauline and Garry spend a few minutes alone after their ceremony, hidden in a church stairwell.

We headed over to the Jefferson Memorial for portraits…

Pauline and Garry sit on a concrete barrier outside the Jefferson Memorial for a photograph of their shoes.

The entire wedding party on the lawn behind the Jefferson Memorial.

Back in the limo, Pauline and Garry are completely absorbed in one another, despite a car full of people and photographers.

Next stop: The Mayflower Hotel for the reception.

The first dance.

Pauline dances with her brother.

Garry’s sister dances.

A Black Tie band member keeps the party going.

Pauline and Garry’s guests wave sparklers as they exit their wedding reception.

Pauline and Garry, we had a truly amazing time with the two of you!  You are wonderful, beautiful people, and we are so honored to have celebrated with you on your wedding day!  We wish you a lifetime of happiness together, and we look forward to seeing you again someday!

The luxurious, lavender details from Pauline and Garry’s wedding deserve their own blog post!

The The Mayflower Hotel in the heart of Washington, D.C. hosted Pauline and Garry’s wedding reception, and provided the stunning flowers, food and cake, lighting design, and details. This historic hotel’s Grand Ballroom has held inaugural balls, celebrity birthdays, and was where Charles Lindbergh celebrated his flight around the world.

Tea was a staple of Pauline and Garry’s wedding weekend. This fresh cup of tea was in the Bride’s Room.

One of Pauline’s friends baked a Charm Cake — a southern tradition in which each bridesmaid tugs at a ribbon buried into the center of the cake and removes a charm. Each charm is said to bring good luck to the woman who receives it.

The bridesmaids shoulder wraps and necklaces were hand made by two of the lovely ladies themselves.

Lavender shoes.

A groomsman’s boutonniere.

This cutie pie is the youngest flower girl, all decked out in lavender.

The ring bearer’s pillow.

Pauline’s bouquet.

The shimmery, purple programs.

The ballroom at the Mayflower.

Little wooden matryoshka doll magnets were given as favors to each guest.

Pauline and Garry’s monogram was beamed onto the dance floor.

Pauline and Garry invited their guests to write notes of advice on little lavender monogrammed notecards.

Silver chairs surrounded the tables.

One of Pauline and Garry’s engagement photographs was displayed beside each table number.

Just one of the fabulous menu items: “Napolean of Sliced Tomatoes and Fresh Mozzarella on a bed of Arugula and Toasted Pine Nuts with Cilantro Vinaigrette.” YUM!

The place card table.

Place cards were printed on the back of postcards from Russia, Pauline’s home country.

The wedding cake.

In honor of Garry’s service as a U.S. Marine, Pauline and Garry cut their cake with a sword!

More photos coming up!

We have so many wonderful images from Tera and Brett’s wedding! Fun portraits, and people laughing and hugging and celebrating… here are just three photos that we loved — a quick sneak peek into their wedding day.

Superheroes:

One Ring:

The Last Frame of the Night:

More to come!

We do most of our E-Shoots in Atlanta, so it was really fun to drive up to north Georgia for Rachael and Caleb’s E-Shoot! One of their family friends gave us free reign of their property, complete with an historic old home, vineyard, and apple orchard! We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful location or a more perfect day. To complete the picture, Rachael and Caleb are absolutely gorgeous themselves, and so completely in love with one another it just spilled over into all of their photographs! I had a hard time narrowing it down for this blog post, but I finally selected some favorites. We can’t wait for their wedding next year!

It’s that time of year again! I was excited to create family photos again this year for Megan and Reggie — we even got one of their dogs in on the action this time!  There is no greater honor than being asked to photograph families over and over again.  :)

Here are a few favorites from our shoot at Piedmont Park:

Neveah has so much personality, and her sense of humor totally comes from her dad!

This is Megan and her sister, Mallory, who is great photographer herself!

I think the best part of our job may just be the friends we make in the process.  We photographed Alissa and Ben’s wedding in 2008, and we’re now lucky enough to call them friends.  It made our trip to Washington, D.C. in September even more exciting, since we knew we would not only be photographing a gorgeous wedding, but we would also get to hang out with Alissa and Ben, who moved there last year!  Just a couple weeks before we were to leave, Ben e-mailed and asked about surprising Alissa with an Aftershoot while we were in D.C.  OF COURSE!  I knew we’d be exhausted from the wedding we would shoot the day before, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to photograph our friends again.

Alissa and Ben got all dressed up in their wedding finery (kudos to them for both still FITTING in their wedding finery!) and we went out of the town for several hours of picture-taking.

These are just a few of my favorite shots from their Aftershoot.

First stop: the subway at Dupont Circle:

I wasn’t sure if anyone would object to us taking clearly-professional photos, but no one seemed to mind.  Dan just hand-held a flash bare-bulb so that I could capture these lit shots.

On the subway, we were practically ignored, though Alissa and Ben did hear “Congratulations!” a lot.  ;)

The next two pictures are Dan’s:

Let me just say, taking pictures on a subway while it’s moving is NOT easy!

HA.  I love that Dan took this:

Dan and Ben went into a CVS to get bottles of water for everyone, so I took a few shots of Alissa by herself.  I love the light in this photo.

We made our way toward the Capitol Building, stopping along the way wherever we saw a cool spot for pictures.

We finally reached the mall, and spent about an hour back and forth between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.  It was SO much fun!

Another of Dan’s:

Alissa asked a local florist to create this little bouquet for her, centered around the purple cabbage.  How cool is that?

After a long conversation in which I never did understand the purpose of hiking the ball to someone else to start the play, I finally just took the picture:

Alissa wanted to try some sort of cheerleading move… but it wasn’t really working out…

So we settled for this instead:

Alissa’s bridesmaids carried these parasols at her wedding.  I loved getting to incorporate it into a few shots:

We stopped by our hotel room for a little break, and I took a few photos in the room.

I think the doormen at the hotel were REALLY confused by all the coming and going!  I’m sure they were wondering, “what kind of wedding IS this, anyway?”

Last but certainly not least, Alissa wanted some fountain photos.  How lucky that the fountain is Dupont Circle is so beautiful?  We had a little audience gather to watch as Alissa and Ben climbed into the water.  We were somewhat nervous that we wouldn’t have time to take any pictures before someone came and kicked us out, but no one stopped us!  Yay!

Liss and Ben, we love you guys!  We’re so blessed to know you!

(and Dan!)