kelly & jim’s wedding day dawned slightly overcast- in a calm, cool kinda way. as the day progressed it turned from a little cloudy to dark as night and the rain came with gusto. as the ladies finished getting ready we all agreed we’d heard that rain on your wedding day is good luck- so kelly & jim? LUCKIEST COUPLE EVER! she laughed as she recounted her desire for a beach themed wedding, but just not on a beach- in case it rained. that’s some foresight!
anyway while we were finishing up, matt was at the church scouting indoor locations for some portraits as well as capturing the guy’s finishing touches. actually, i’m not sure what ‘guy’s finishing touches’ entails but judging by matt’s pictures every week it seems to include mostly eating and goofing off. and maybe readjusting a jacket or two:
matt found some pretty striking sheltered locations at the church and we got started right away!
kelly, who rarely wears makeup (because she doesn’t need to at all!), went with light, natural makeup for her wedding day. perfect for a beach themed wedding and just the right compliment to her bold earrings and romantically ruffled dress.
before we knew it, it was time for the ceremony! full of sweet moments and lots of smiles, the ceremony was a definite celebration of a marriage eight years in the making!
we grabbed a few quick portraits before they were introduced and the party started! we laughed along with everyone else at the hilarious toasts and quickly found ourselves swept up in the celebration. capturing it was a blast!
kelly & jim, we are so happy for you guys! thank you so much for having us at your wedding- we wish you the very best!
as with many of our newest friends, we first met erin online through a comment she left on our blog. as is usual for me, i jumped over to her blog to see who she was and what she was all about! i spent a while reading back entries and getting to know the sweet girl behind the blog- a writer, a photographer, a dreamer. so when erin showed up as a bridesmaid and her boyfriend, bryan, showed up as the dj at lauren & joe’s wedding last fall, it was a great surprise!
just a few months later erin emailed us with the good news that bryan proposed! we set up a meeting as soon as we could- which ended up being late on a friday night, after another shoot and just one day after stella’s ‘lady surgery.’ so covered in grass, drugged puppy in tow, we met them for coffee. we fell into friendship with them right away- we have so much in common! we exhausted every subject before finally getting around to talking about their vision for their wedding. we left smiling, knowing that we had new friends and hoping that they would pick us for their wedding!
they did!
when i arrived to start shooting i was immediately struck by the awesomely unique home erin grew up in- she told me that it was a family project- they spent years building it with their own hands, the whole family working together! this gave me just a little glimpse into how loving and energetic and, frankly, DIYtastic this family really is! i began capturing details while the girls reminisced about the rehearsal dinner they held at the house the night before and chatted about how much they were looking forward to specific wedding details that i would see later. i found myself just as excited for the rest of the day as they were! but first, a few details. long ago erin made a newspaper chain to represent the days until she married bryan and i love how she kept the final link in her sight on her wedding day- the perfect reminder of a long beautiful journey ending and the excitement of beginning another!
erin & bryan made the invitations themselves- bryan rocking the letterpress and erin masterminding the rest. they are so personal- a future business venture maybe? we shall see!
while i chilled with the ladies, matt met bryan and his guys at his & erin’s new loft. we were excited to discover that they are living 5 minutes from us! i love this big image matt captured of bryan in the parking deck of their building:
couple portraits were really important to erin & bryan so they planned plenty of time for us to explore the city together! we started at their ceremony site, the beautiful atlanta contemporary art center and explored the surroundings there before jumping in the car to enjoy a few other locations close by. it was great having so much time to be creative and i hope erin & bryan are as happy as we are with their mini portrait session.
when we arrived back at the contemporary, final preparations were almost complete and there was nothing left to do but relax and place erin’s veil to complete her wedding day look (she left the veil off for portraits as a surprise for bryan when she walked down the aisle).
before we dive into the ceremony let’s take a second to pause and oooh and aaah over these beautiful details erin and her family and friends created for her wedding! everything was so beautifully integrated with the surroundings at the contemporary- it was perfect! OH, and the typewriter? erin actually used it to address all of her invitations!
ok, back to the ceremony! erin walked down the aisle with both of her parents, so sweet! it was easy to see the happiness and love in everyone’s faces as this new family was being knitted together:
the sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the ceremony but made a grand appearance at the very end when erin & bryan walked back down the aisle, married and ecstatic! the glow of the setting sun was a stunning way to perfect that moment!
a friend of the family had secured us access to the roof of a nearby building for a few night portraits after the ceremony- it was so peaceful up there!
the reception started with a friend singing their first dance and a crowd of friends and family watching, cheering, and enjoying the personal touches erin & bryan spent months dreaming up!
then came the dancing! erin and her dad impressed everyone with a dramatic ending:
erin & bryan, thank you guys so much for having us! we are so excited for your future and we wish you the best- hope to see you soon!
we first met karen & ben just a couple months after officially launching altmix photography, while shooting tiffany & andrew’s wedding! although we were focused on andrew and tiff we did get to know karen and ben just a little- enough to see that they are fun-loving and totally smitten with one another!
after that we ran into them all over the city- eating, grocery shopping…let’s stop right here and say that grocery shopping is the LAST place i EVER want to see anyone i know- i never seem to feel the need to pull myself together before going so i can usually be spotted in sweats, a tank top, my hair sticking in every direction & completely sans any makeup. i’m kinda surprised we ever heard from karen again after she saw us like that…
but we did, thank goodness! last april i got a message from karen that she and ben were engaged and we couldn’t have been happier for them; we also knew we wanted to be there to capture it! so it was a sad day when karen shot me a message with their finalized wedding date and location (charlottesville, VA! we’ve been wanting to check out that city!) and i flipped to the calendar and found us unavailable. a little bit of pouting happened before i got back to karen with the news. we settled for engagement pictures the minute the leaves turned green this spring and so last week, about a year after they got engaged we (on purpose!) ran into karen & ben at a sweet little neighborhood park in buckhead. they were a dream to shoot- graceful and natural in front of the lens- and full of ideas and laughter.
to whomever’s landed the job of shooting this wedding in VA- you’ve got an awesome weekend to look forward to!
karen & ben, i am so glad it worked out for us to make these images for you guys! it was great spending the afternoon with you- we wish you guys the very best. no doubt we’ll be running into you soon! ;)
