Posts Tagged: bridal portraits on location
southern belle bridal portraits ~ beauty among the botanicals
If you’re ever standing at a dinner party in, say, …….Prague… and someone asks you to describe a Southern Belle, Adrian Bridges Church should be your brain’s go-to reference point. We’re not talking the overdone, over-the-top caricature or the Ersatz Southern Lady one meets from time to time in the New South. Adrian is authentic – almost to the point of seeming as if she really is a belle from that era in the American South…….. minus of course, the strife and angst that comes from civil war and the fact that you can’t vote and whatnot.
Adrian’s belle comes out almost immediately in her sense of graciousness, sweetness and hospitality. She could have shown up for her bridal portraits in a hoop skirt and bonnet and we wouldn’t have blinked. Let’s just say she’d have given Melanie Wilkes a run for her money. When we were discussing her wedding photography (we’ll share soon!!), she mentioned that since her wedding was going to be more on the country/rustic side that she really wanted her bridal portraits to be more formal, elegant and in a blooming spring garden, filled with the lushness that comes with the season. There’s just one problem – the weather in the mountains of NC in the spring can be dodgy and sometimes it feels like late October. The solution? Head east toward warmth. And that’s what we did.
The botanical gardens near Winston-Salem were in bloom and they were absolutely gorgeous, making a perfect setting for this bride. When we can bend to make our clients happy, we do it and this was the case with Adrian. When she emerged from the car for her session in early April (after hours of travel for hair and makeup and then more time to get to the gardens), she actually squealed. The combination of her gown and glow, the green of the gardens, purple wisteria, moss and sunshine made our job that day a breeze.
Adrian told us that we’d made her dream of garden portraits come true by locating this spot. LOVE IT when that happens. This belle deserved a setting as genteel and elegant as she is, so we were thrilled to deliver.
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 babies and kids, 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: winding creek wedding barn
Misty spent an amazing day at Winding Creek Wedding Barn – a destination wedding location in Yadkin County, NC, doing a photo shoot complete with models, catering, clothing, makeup and hair. Winding Creek touts its scenery, laid-back feel, on site bridal salon, rolling farmland and rustic elegance.
The place is beautiful.
We love outdoor photo shoots and a scan of our wedding and engagement sessions (in fact our family portraits as well) italicizes this. Winding Creek is a PERFECT outdoor wedding venue.
Helping to create the mood for the day at Winding Creek were several other fabulous vendors. Clothing and accessories were provided by Bridal Traditions; hair and makeup styles were created by Cali Stott; the cake was made by Sweet Thing Bakery & Café and the catering was from Third Branch Café. All of these vendors are definitely worth a look if you’re planning your wedding.
Winding Creek Wedding Barn is a find for those who are interested in a place that caters to what wedding parties need and want, with a relaxed yet stunning vibe.
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 babies and kids, 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.
bridal portraits embracing romance, imagination, and books
Do you ever look at a photo and think about the zillion captions that could be written? There are contests out there and most are about funny photos or cartoons, but this shot below evokes so many thoughts.
What would her groom write? “Hurry to me!!”
Or her father? “There goes my girl….”
What would her big sister say? “Wait up!” or “I miss her already.”
Or her great-great grandmother if she could see this photo? “How romantic.”But she’s off and this image of Elizabeth (Eli) Rickard walking down the steps has become one of my favorite bridal portraits to date. It’s another image that I conceived once I saw this stairway in the Green Park Inn. I described my thoughts to Ryan and along with Eli’s sister Kari, we made my vision come true. I like it because it’s different from many other bridal portraits we’ve taken. For me it portrays movement, anticipation, and represents the marriage journey that Eli was embarking on. It’s always deeply rewarding to try something creative when you have a bride so deeply ensconced and in love with her favorite things – in this case, books, fantasy, romance and Kyle.
Elizabeth is a classic romantic, a dreamer, a lover of fantasy, has a super hero spirit and a smile that’s as big as her heart. She just married her beloved Kyle Bishop on March 5th (portraits and blog to come), but these bridals were taken indoors due to rainy and cold January weather. Elizabeth loves to read (this will be this week’s understatement), so the historic Green Park Inn’s library made a perfect setting. To note: Eli’s favorite book is Black Beauty and the horse portrait fit brilliantly. Her sister Kari used pages from Black Beauty to create Elizabeth’s bouquet.
Books were incorporated throughout the wedding details (and we STRONGLY encourage you to check out their engagement photos to fill in more of the story).
I always encourage brides to include friends and family in the portrait session and day. It’s fun to witness the relationships, and time with each other on these days is often the most time they’ll get since the wedding day itself can be whirlwind. For Eli, this session included her mother, sister and niece, all of whom came in from out of town. It was a girl’s day to play dress up and they were, to the person, emotional and giddy throughout the portrait session.
Our caption for this photo above would be “She’s ready.” We promise when the wedding photos have been processed and we can share bouquets of books and the stories that made their day the fairytale that it was – you’ll be the second to see them.
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 babies and kids, 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.