Posts in Category: Weddings
One January Anniversary ~ celebrate!
Bethany & Kevin McCoy 7 years January 23rd
Happy Anniversary to a couple we watched (and photographed!) marry 7 years ago. A winter wedding filled with warmth and love. Sounds trite but it’s true. And if you don’t believe me, here’s 16th century poet Thomas Campion.
Now winter nights enlarge
This number of their hours;
And clouds their storms discharge
Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
And cups o’erflow with wine,
Let well-tuned words amaze
With harmony divine…
This time doth well dispense
With lovers’ long discourse;
Much speech hath some defense,
Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well:
Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys,
And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys
They shorten tedious nights.
Happy Anniversary, Bethany and Kevin!
If you’re planning your wedding and are looking for engagement portraits and wedding photographers, please contact us. We’d love to hear your story and capture your big day.
best of 2016 wedding day photos
HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone! As we ease into 2017, we thought we’d share some of the best of our wedding images from 2016. Looking back at these, it really was a great year to get married and we loved being a part of these and many other important occasions in your lives. CHEERS to all and for those of you tying the knot in 2017, we cannot wait!
What’s a little rain and snow with the right lighting?
Gorgeous views and gorgeous couples.
A pirate-themed wedding for a couple who’ve been together long enough to really celebrate.
Autumn weddings outdoors!
A church wedding in Fort Mill SC and fabulous reception (above).
Bonnie & Amanda Walling
Our first but hopefully not last same-sex wedding. Truly beautiful. (above)
Outdoor wedding with a cigar bar at the reception (above).
Ashley & Oscar Orozco
Our last wedding of 2016 with this couple who met on a youth activity trip.
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 Country Club Wedding with Smiles, Dancing & Cigars
We ask our brides and grooms about best and favorite moments, among other things, after their wedding day. Responses range from couple to couple, but with Christine Whitford & Adam Kessell, it was about firsts.
First look at each other during the ceremony.
First kiss after the I Dos.
First moments of greeting and chatting with their guests.
Christine and Adam were married on October 22nd at Firethorne Country Club in Marvin, NC and moment to moment they were present with their friends and family and enjoying each bit.
There were tearful moments for all the girls while they were getting ready. Both of Christine’s grandmothers gave her precious family heirlooms, one of which was a bracelet that her late grandfather had given her grandmother.
Christine’s dad cried when he first saw her before walking her down the aisle.
Christine was a very enthusiastic bride and lots of fun to work with. Because we photographed a previous wedding where she was a bridesmaid, and shot their unconventional but historically significant engagement photos, she already knew our style and how we work. We already had a great relationship with her and Adam, so we knew it was going to be a blast.
Christine’s cathedral length veil was epic. We did have a few “all hands on deck” moments when the wind picked up though.
Firethorne provided an absolutely gorgeous outdoor setting for the wedding. The weather was perfect, there were smiles all around and lots of tender moments, joy and laughter (Christine: “we like to think our friends and family are pretty funny!”).
The reception was a party, as it should be. The DJs from Split Second Sound delivered the goods and kept the dance floor hot and all of Christine and Adam’s friends showed off some serious dance moves. The dancing was Christine’s favorite part of the reception she told us and Adam’s was the cigar bar. Ryan enjoyed spending time photographing at the cigar bar as well. There was just FUN in every direction.
Christine: “When we talk about our wedding day, we talk about how great it was to see everyone and just dance and have a good time. It was so nice to see our families blend so well together. It made my heart smile.”
Christine and Adam not only had a beautiful ceremony and killer reception, they are class acts. In lieu of favors, the couple made a donation in everyone’s honor to the animal shelter where they had recently rescued their own pup. Congratulations, you two and nothing but love for you both on the journey ahead!
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.
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.
Cheers to Our december anniversaries
While December weddings are not as common as, say, June weddings, they do happen and they are so much fun. There’s that extra element of celebration in the air that bleeds over from the holidays and wraps the whole event in more joy, more hope, more love. This month we are photographing several weddings and look forward to capturing that same feeling for the brides, grooms and their families and friends. In doing so, we also want to take a moment to say Happy Anniversary to the couples whose weddings we had the pleasure of shooting in years past. We love you all!
Becky & Jackson 8 years December 6th
“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” – James M. Barrie
Andrea & Eric 4 years December 22nd
“A happy marriage is about 3 things: memories of togetherness, forgiveness of mistakes and a promise never to give up on each other.” -Surabhi Surendra
Shanna & Seth 3 years December 6th
“The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest. The first to forget is the happiest.” – unknown
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.