there are several excellent reasons to have a photobooth at your wedding; here are 12 of them:
stay tuned for kayla & newton’s beautiful wedding coming to the blog soon!
on august 18, 2007 two things happened:
– matt & i got married!
– a category 5 hurricane slammed our honeymoon destination.
we scrambled around to create a plan b and ended up in the mountains of north carolina in the beautiful vacation home of some friends of ours. our jamaica getaway was rescheduled for two months later. after that we started a business and vacation was a little bit of a foreign idea to us for a while… ;)
fast forward two years. we struggled to do it, but we successfully blocked off three (consecutive) precious summer weekends. we were finally planning a trip together! just matt & me, heading out west to explore a new landscape, relax & rejuvenate! but then, just before we booked airfare, we found the perfect little home for us and welcomed baby stella into our lives. it was SUCH an exciting time for us but before we knew it those three weeks were over and we were still surrounded by boxes and discovering little ‘gifts’ stella was leaving all over the house. love her.
SO THIS WAS THE YEAR! we blocked off three weekends without looking back and booked airfare as soon as we could to cement our plans. june 28th snuck up on us and before we knew it we were sipping coffee in seattle- shortly after we found ourselves surrounded by snow on mount rainier, followed by a rainy day in astoria before walking cannon beach and hitting up portland including an afternoon exploring the columbia river gorge. from there we stopped for fresh veggies in eugene, oregon on our way to crater lake where we breathed deeply before wandering down the coast to petaluma, napa and sonoma. we followed that with a couple days in san francisco before leaving for big sur and landing in orange county to catch up with old friends where we threw on hoodies for an afternoon in laguna beach before finally crashing in san diego for a couple of days and catching a flight home. oh you guys, it was AWESOME! we saw some of the most beautiful landscapes we’ve ever seen, ate some of the very best food we’ve ever had and generally vacated life in georgia for 15 days of exploration! there is no way to recap it in one blog post- it was hard enough to narrow our pictures down to 900! but here are a few of our faves:
ace hotel, seattle, washington:
we were so happy to have some of our favorite people EVER join in for the first week of the trip! erin & sean moved to california last year and we miss them so much. kerry park, seattle, washington:
gas works park, seattle, washington:
mount rainier, ashford, washington
judge if you like but i couldn’t help but be reminded of stephenie meyer’s description of the forests in the pacific northwest- everything covered in green moss and ferns- even tree trunks. i couldn’t help but fall in love with the emerald, foggy landscape as we hiked and wandered all over the area:
goonies, anyone!? cannon beach, oregon:
we stopped to smell an overwhelming number of roses at the international rose test garden, portland, oregon:
crater lake, crescent lake, oregon:
tasting wine and wild plums at bartholomew park winery, sonoma, california:
cave tour and tasting at gundlach bundschu winery, sonoma, california:
thrilled & overwhelmed at baker creek heirloom seed bank in petaluma, california:
golden gate bridge, san francisco, california:
bird rock, monterey, california:
we loved this little cottage! it reminded us of how we always pictured shell cottage in the order of the phoenix, nerdy much?
bixby bridge, big sur, california:
really i could go on for days about the amazing experience it was to see all of this but i’m cutting myself off now. i hope you enjoyed some of the images as much as we enjoyed living them! thanks so much for making it all the way through our trip ramblings- we’ll be back to regular scheduling starting NOW, so watch our for kayla & newton’s photobooth in the near future!
our final wedding before our big road trip (i think i forgot to tell you guys about that…thankfully there’s twitter!) took us to the lovely, quaint town of starkville, mississippi. being our first venture into the magnolia state (found that little nickname on wiki- hope it’s right…) we decided to get there early enough to scout/wander around downtown and get to know the city via the super helpful maps stacey drew out and emailed over to us. we passed bunches of cute little cafes and pubs- making mental notes to come back with stacey & zach to shoot there the next day. finally, we’d worked up a little appetite and ducked in for a delish dinner at a little local place in the cotton district that had been pumping out amazingly tempting smells as we scouted. full and happy, we found our hotel and hit the hay- knowing we had an awesome day ahead of us!
stacey’s wedding day arrived with a blazing sun (that’s a nice way of saying it was a BEAUTIFUL day and HOT AS BLAZES), a brilliant blue sky and lots of cheer as the girls munched on fresh bagels and pastries. friends reruns were playing in the background adding a since of nostalgia to the scene and reminding them all of their fun days in college and stories that would dissolve them all into laughter. the girls pulled a mirror into the living room so they could still be together while they took turns with hair and makeup- they all seemed so close and happy, it was really beautiful to be a part of it all. also, i’m obsessed with stacey’s dress, feast your eyes:
before we knew it, it was time for stacey & zach to have a moment together on the drill field at mississippi state before portraits. a little construction put a kink in stacey’s perfect plan but she rolled with it easily as we picked out a new spot for her to meet her man. they had a few sweet moments outside before taking cover in the air conditioning with their wedding party. luckily, inside was a well-lit blank slate and we made a few images there before jumping back outside for round two!
we left campus and headed downtown, excited to return to some of the spots we loved from the night before! stacey & zach braved the sun and when it was time, their whole wedding party was ready too! we loved the different little vignettes all around downtown starkville; such a diverse enviornment!
just as we finished portraits a few clouds blocked the sun and dropped 11 or 12 raindrops on the church. it seemed surprising after such a sunny day but such is life in the summer in the south. we were all grateful for the slight temperature drop as the guests began to arrive. i love these images of stacey peeking out at her family and friends- she was so excited she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!
and then the rain REALLY came down! we stopped to grab this image on the way to the reception site- this was just before we were blinded by big fat drops of warm summer rain (which i happen to really love!). everyone arrived to the reception safe and dry except stacey’s dad & brother who were driving the getaway car…a convertible! but they said if you drive it fast enough you stay a little drier, hahaa!
this guy knows how to party:
stacey & zach, thank you so much for getting us out to starkville for your wedding! we loved spending time with you and your friends- we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect way to spend our last weekend before our time off. we wish you guys the very best!