Posts Tagged: Blowing Rock Wedding Photographers
Happy Anniversary | February’s One Couple
Lauren & Joshua – Five years on February 11th
I’m going to let my fellow North Carolinian, the late and oh-so-amazing Nina Simone take this one. Enjoy it here.
And Happy Anniversary to Lauren & Joshua Holley – our only February anniversary.
A certain kind of light
I want my whole life to be
To live it with you
Live it with you
Everybody says
Do each and every little thing
What good does it bring
If I ain’t got you, if I ain’t got you
I ain’t got you, I ain’t got you
What it’s like
Baby you don’t
What it’s like
To love somebody
To love somebody
The way I love you
Ryan and I say: Amen to that.
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.
Vendor spotlight: On the Windfall | a Perfect Outdoor Destination for Weddings
On the Windfall, located in Ashe County, North Carolina is a venue we love to photograph. When couples tell us they’ve chosen it, we look forward to seeing the spots we’re familiar with and to tramping around searching for new ones. It’s perfect for a destination wedding, with cottages for the bridal party or others, ideal fly fishing nearby, gorgeous mountain views and a reception hall that when lit at night is about as magical as it gets. (No, I do not get a kick-back for talking up this place. We just love it. It’s in our top 3 for sure.)
I was not kidding about the mountain view for weddings. It’s the very definition of spectacular.
“On the Windfall is part of the Eldreth Homestead circa 1800. The Eldreths farmed the property until the mid 1900s raising cattle, crops, and children. Some of the Eldreth descendants live in Ashe County today.” When George and Carol Ford, the current owners (some of the nicest most accommodating people you will ever meet) envisioned this place, they wanted cabin/cottage meets modern convenience for guests and they succeeded. When shooting weddings there, we see guests wandering in the nearby woods and, depending on time of year, enjoying the many shades of green or the autumn leaves. The site manages to be rustic, fantastical (think tiny white lights), homey, cool, earthy and modern.
This place is as beautiful at night as it is by day and with animals to see, views to enjoy, water to sit by and places to rest and relax, it’s the perfect spot to gather those you love around you to celebrate. We’ve shot several weddings here, including Bonnie & Amanda’s, and Meghan & Josh’s. Couples and their friends alike raved about the venue and how glad they are that they chose it.
Pixels is now booking engagement sessions and weddings for 2017 and 2018. Most brides and grooms who choose our wedding package receive their engagement session FREE. Whether you’re getting married in a church, at On the Windfall or another outdoor venue, we would love to bring our years of experience, inclusive vibe and approach to wedding photography to your celebration.
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.
weddings: it’s time to bake, er…. book YOURS!
I love to cook. If you know me, know about our house and garden, or if you read the blog from summer 2016, you’re aware that I enjoy growing things, cooking the produce and herbs I’ve grown, trying new recipes, canning veggies, etc. Ryan and I are foodies. And we love craft beer as well.
Before you head down the rabbit holes those hyperlinks can lead you down, let me say: I was thinking while reading through a cookbook recently, how very much cooking and especially baking is like planning a wedding. You need the right ingredients, the right environmental elements, good timing and all sorts of other factors in place in order to end up with something you want to devour and share and photograph. The rub is that you get one shot at a wedding vs. a cookbook author or home cook who can test and test recipes until triumph is inevitable.
Amy Adams as Julie from “Julie & Julia” – Sony Pictures
Really good recipes begin with a story. The “why” of what’s being prepared. So do relationships. How’d you meet? Who said I love you first? What made you decide that being apart was not an option? Most stories behind recipes have to do with how amazing the combination of ingredients is and why so many generations of cooks or family members have made this or that item.
Eggs are eggs. Flour is flour. But combine them and STAND BACK!!!
When we book engagements, one of the first things we do is learn your story. Yes, we ask about locations for the shoot, but we also want to know you and I am confident that we get the photos we get of our clients and we become friends with so many of them because we take learning about you seriously – and discovering the elements and ingredients that make you special as a couple.
Bride, groom, landscape, sky …. all of the elements are there.
Bride and bride, Spanish moss, water, Charleston: DONE.
Our couple at Asheville’s Biltmore Estate in autumn.
No sooner do you mix up the ingredients for an engagement session than it’s time to plan the wedding. As photographers, ours is only one part – albeit an important one.
Who asked for sprinkles??
There is weather to consider when cooking up your wedding day plan; the guest list, the gown purchase and alterations, the suits or tuxes to rent, the choices of chocolate or strawberry, sit down or buffet, band or DJ, mountains or coast, outdoors or church and on it goes. A vanilla cake is a blank canvas and once you’ve chosen your actual wedding date and location – it feels sort of limitless. To my mind, it should be fun. “Please let it be fun – and meaningful” – we pray for our clients. We so hope that it is. Even the elements that don’t come together are rarely noticed by guests. They see the environment, listen to the vows, hear the music, enjoy the experience. Guests don’t worry about the eggs when they’re enjoying the cake, you know?
Sunlight, outdoors, surrounded by family.
Throwback Renaissance gown, bride and perfect weather.
A farm and an intimate hug.
The outcome is most often lovely and delicious and our job is to capture it. What has been fun these 11+ years is seeing the same elements combined with a variety of results. Church weddings, outdoor weddings, small gatherings, casts of thousands, at the end of the day it’s still a cake, or for my purposes it’s still 2 people who enter that day single and leave it as someone’s spouse.
It’s the end of January and we aren’t the pressuring type, but if you’re planning your wedding for 2017 and haven’t booked your photographer, we hope you will do so and choose us. We are proud to be recognized for our wedding photography by friends and fans and by WeddingWire, among others.
Next week! ONION RINGS….kidding. Contact us with questions. For those of you who know us…. we love you!
a church wedding | two cultures and two families come together
Our hearts go out to the parents of brides and grooms. I think about this every time that Ryan and I shoot a wedding. God Bless the parents. They are exhilarated and stressed, proud and nervous, but mostly in love with their kids – who are no longer kids. How do you go from diapers to driving and then big decisions? How do you go from watching them choose a sport in middle school to a spouse for life? And with grace? To the parents, this must feel like it happens in 72 hours rather than a couple of decades. We honor the parents and love watching them love a celebration of their kids.
The tender moments included watching Ashley’s father place a pearl necklace around her and seeing them both in tears. The mind goes to the number of times they stood that close together as he watched her grow up and now, here she was: a bride.
While Ashley Caudill and Oscar Orozco married young (please read about their engagement to learn how they met), their wedding showed astonishing wisdom, love and faith. Prior to the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom were blindfolded and they joined hands while Oscar prayed for them. I (Misty) was the only other person in the room and it was incredibly touching. I wish that there was a recording of the words in Oscar’s prayer for them, because they were filled with humility, grace and wisdom far beyond his years. 
Both Ashley and Oscar agree that the best moment of the day was seeing each other for the first time. Neither of them could hold back crying tears of joy and reflect on those moments whenever they look back and talk about their wedding day. 
A lasso binding ceremony is part of the Orozco’s culture. A beautiful rhinestone cross lasso was placed around Ashley & Oscar by their parents symbolizing a binding unity as they prayed together and said their vows. We would love to see how the lasso will be used in future generations as an heirloom.
Another outward gesture of unity and symbol of their faith was a binding of three cords which Ashley & Oscar created and performed representing the scripture verse from Ecclesiastes 4:12 “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Oscar’s family is from Mexico, and they speak Spanish primarily, but it was amazing to see how these two families, two cultures and two language barriers were brought together in love. They combined elements from both into the wedding ceremony and the reception.
When asked, Ashley and Oscar said there isn’t one thing that they would change about their wedding day. The most memorable moments for them that they want to hold on to forever included performing the cross ceremony during the wedding, spending time with each other during pictures after the ceremony and of course Oscar said the vision of Ashley in her wedding dress.
Ashley and Oscar both recall laughing when seeing Oscar’s car covered in toilet paper after their reception exit.
Ashley was the couple’s wedding planner and she also hand-made all of the flowers, bouquets and center pieces, but their other vendors included:
Wedding Attire: Bridal Traditions
Ceremony and Reception Venue: Thanks Be To Calvary Baptist Church, Elkin NC
Cellist for the Ceremony: Steve Holman
Caterer: Oscar’s Father
Desserts: Kathy’s Creations in Sparta
Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddings, brid
the party of a lifetime ~ your wedding
When was the last time you threw a party?
How many people were there? What was the occasion?
Unless you are a rock star party thrower or professional event planner (and we know plenty of both), the biggest party of your life is probably going to be your wedding.
When in your life do so many people who love you gather to celebrate you? Seriously. Think about it. And they don’t all know each other. YOU ARE THE REASON they’re there: relatives, coworkers, college buddies, favorite teachers, high school teammates, childhood besties, neighbors, your parents’ friends and new friends you’re inheriting because you’re getting married all show up to celebrate you ………… and party.
We notice unexpected meetings and connections at every single wedding we photograph. It never fails. Two or more people are seated together at the ceremony or the reception and the only context they have to connect them is you. And then stories are swapped, jokes are told and there are moments of “oh, so you are THAT Jennifer!” or “you’re the gramma who sent the box of banana bread during exams.” Your childhood babysitter sits next to your college roommate and sparks fly! Just kidding. Well,…. maybe… But the point is, this is not a rally with a cast of thousands and it’s not your retirement party 40 years from now. It’s a blow-out love fest for you and your beloved.
We’re not going to throw shade at amateurs. Your friends and family are going to take their own photos anyway. But we’ve heard the stories of regret from those who’ve let their friends “take pictures” and there’s no do-over. For the party of your life you need photographers who are experienced; who know what to look for when people cluster and when they separate; photographers who can tell which moment is going to be epic; who understand lighting regardless of location or setting; who’ve done this long enough to anticipate every single photo that you’re going to share on social media, frame and return to 25 years later.
Couples who hire us have spent time with us and we’ve focused on them, understand the vibe and theme of the wedding, know what to capture and are ready. We are getting the photos you want from your wedding, but we’re also eagle-eyed during the reception because we know what to look for and what will matter to you when you view the photos later.
There are all sorts of parties, but those with a purpose have a unique magic. Your wedding celebrates the beginning of your lives together and those who love you want to be there. Get ready, start your list and give us a call. We’d love to capture the party of a lifetime.
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.