We hope that right now, you’re out relishing a day off. No one should labor too hard on Labor Day. This long weekend is one of the last siren calls of summer. School is back in session and people are back to a structured schedule of work and perhaps longing for the next thing to look forward to.
For us, it means harvesting items from our garden, chasing our son around who’s threatening daily to walk right out the door and thinking about our clients – old and new – and our vendors. We love the vendors we have the privilege of working with and thought that we’d share a few of them with you. These come highly recommended and not just by Ryan and myself.
Leatherwood Mountain Resort is a pretty spectacular spot for weddings and we’ve photographed our fair share in this amazing location. For more views, and instances of our work at Leatherwood, take a look.
From the country to the city and that takes us to a pretty glam spot – Holiday Inn Center City Charlotte. If you want a wedding where there is plenty to do over the weekend and a diverse crowd or wedding party who want lots of options for dining and activities, Charlotte, NC is hard to beat. The skyline views also make this Holiday Inn perfect for photos – engagement, bridal or otherwise.
And for the Part 1 finale on vendors (don’t worry, there’s another blog to come), we have to mention Bridal Traditions Wedding & Prom Attire which is located near us in North Wilkesboro. We are friends-like-family with Kelly at BT, and have collaborated with her and her team more times than we can count. Gorgeous gowns, tux options, gifts, and ideas pour out of their doors.
That little number in the gown above just happens to be Kelly, the owner of Bridal Traditions’. She knows what she’s doing.
We love making suggestions, when asked, so if you’re planning your wedding in North Carolina and would like to know more about the vendors we think of highly, please reach out. Vendor Love Part 2 comes soon!
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.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License
All photos are ©2018 Pixels On Paper. Do not copy, crop, or remove watermark.
Every wedding contains a universe of memories that belong to a single couple.
And we love the continuum that leads to this… a gorgeous bride encased in her veil and a happy man waiting for her.
Thanks to our job and God’s hand, couples share that continuum and universe with us.
How they met, who spilled a drink, who was nervous, who made the first joke, what the proposal was like, setting the date, the excitement, all of the weird and traditional family ideas, friends who got involved, elements that are particular to them …..
Each one is as different as each couple, because each one is a singular story that is theirs for the rest of their lives, to be told again and again. Our job is to capture and celebrate.
Jamie Goforth and Daniel Harrison’s wedding in October of 2015 was a celebration of their complete story…… to date.
Jamie’s bridal portraits were so fun to capture. You like mountains, cars and beauty? Have a look.
Quick flashback of their engagement: these two met in middle school, but reconnected many years later. After some time, distance and chasing, they sealed the deal at the luxurious Grove Park Inn. Now fast forward to the below. A new family made up of Jamie, Daniel and Daniel’s son. A kid in a suit. Are you kidding me?! He was a perfect groomsman and sweet as the day is long.
The wedding ceremony was held at Camp Cheerio in Glade Valley, NC and their awesome and VERY LIVELY reception was in Roaring Gap at High Meadows Country Club where there was dancing, the shoe game, toasts and too much fun with their favorite people. We asked them about “best moments” from their reception and Jamie said, “How do we pick? Being announced as Mr. & Mrs. Harrison, our first dance as husband and wife, and talking to all of our friends and family.”
If only there was a behind the scenes photo of us taking the images below….
Both photos represent a far longer story (of collaboration and balance and coordination) than we can share in a blog post, so for now picture this: Ryan was kneeling down capturing the silhouette image on the left while I was leaning over his back with my camera directly above (almost on top of) his head capturing the image on the right. Both at the exact same time. Two different techniques and two different visions. When a couple of photographers, married no less, capture wedding photos, there is this crazy breaking of some 6th, 7th, 8th wall or entering of a new dimension that occurs. I’m still blown away that after 10 years working together how different and perfect our individual perspectives are in their own right. We continue to work together seamlessly to represent a moment in time. We are a team — both lead photographers — and we compliment each other in a way that only a husband and wife can.
Pixels on Paper is now booking sessions for proposals, bridal, engagements, and weddings for 2016 and 2017 and we’d love to be a part of capturing and celebrating your continuum. Call 336.990.0080 or email us and we’ll do our part in making your story memorable.
The only minor thing about Katie and Josh’s October wedding was their now-shared surname. Katie Muskal wore her mother’s wedding gown when she walked down the aisle to marry her groom, Josh Minor. The gown was reworked and tailored to suit her style, but kept the elements that reminded her of her mom and bonded them that day. And that’s only the beginning….
The bride told us that she, “wanted to create a casual, rustic but chic, festive atmosphere where everyone could be comfortable and have a good time. And of course, we wanted it to be in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains!”
Katie is a native of Pennsylvania, but as an Appalachian State alum, she got the mountain bug and fell in love with our Blue Ridge …… and fell even further for a NC boy – Josh. “After dating a few months, we spent an amazing weekend deep in the mountains while attending a football game. I can honestly say that the beautiful scenery helped us fall in love more and more each day. For our wedding, I wanted to recreate that feeling of love we experienced on that trip.”
There is something about an outdoor wedding that is both challenging and adventurous and so deeply cool. Everyone is surrounded by mother nature, we’re all under the sky, there is tender ambient noise, and the trees and flowers and the rest of nature become attendees.
A little shout out: this couple worked with the amazing talent of Buddy Fore and his efforts tend to result in the most beautiful and well-organized weddings. Just look at his table arrangements!! Also, look for him in the 2016 issue of High Country Wedding Guide.
There was no shortage of details that spoke to autumn and tradition. The bride’s Jewish upbringing was celebrated with a “chuppah” made of antique cloth from both the bride’s and groom’s grandmothers. They celebrated with a “breaking of the glass” ceremony, and later the “hora” chair dance at the reception. Finally, the centerpieces and decorations on the head table were from the bride’s grandmother, who passed away last year.
We love the Blue Ridge Mountain Club! It couldn’t be more picturesque and it, along with the fog and rain in the morning followed by a starry night, allowed us to get gorgeous photos of this glorious couple and the many people people who came from hither and yon to be there to celebrate with them.
This reception had the highest energy we’ve seen and photographed all year. The dance floor never cleared thanks to DJ Erok, whom we would highly recommend. Ages young and old partied well into the night. We loved that when they did need a break, the outdoor fire-pit was close by and the stars were out.
Katie asked if it might be possible for us to thank her parents – David and Tracy Muskal, for giving them an amazing wedding and to thank everyone else who came to celebrate with them. Of course we can: THANK YOU SO MUCH!
From Ryan and myself, we’d like to thank Katie & Josh for allowing us to be a witness to their special day. Good Luck, you two! We love you!
Meghann and Josh know how to do it up right. Their August 2015 wedding goes down in our book of faves. Meghann told us several times that she didn’t realize everything that was going on at once or recall all of the details until she saw all of the photos we shot. That, to us, says mission accomplished. Brides and grooms plan for everything, but can’t be a part of Every Single Thing.
That’s why they hire photographers.
We loved the color palette of this wedding, we loved their families and friends and we loved the property – On The Windfall in Lansing, NC. This wedding, sports fans, was literally at the top of a mountain and guests were delivered to the site via designated 4 wheel drive vehicles. There were no other buildings around. The views in every direction were spectacular.
And we loved the million little thoughtful details. (Their wedding coordinator was Sammie Roberts of Something Perfect Wedding & Events and the attention to detail was unerring. Nice job!) When we meet with engaged couples, we advise them to put as many personal and significant details in their wedding ceremony as they can and these two went above and beyond. One example…. Meghann had small portraits of her late grandparents sewn into her bouquet.
Josh’s job centers around being outdoors and he and Meghann spend their free time outside and in the woods as much as possible. So, one of Josh’s personal touches/contributions was that he built the arbor/altar where they said their vows. The mountain-top setting took everyone’s breath away and then, topping it off, was this hand-made gift Josh made for his bride. I mean, C’MON!!!
Meghann countered his personal touch by choosing to walk/dance/strut down the aisle to Bruno Mars’ “Marry You.” Josh LOVED it, and so did everyone else. The mood was already electric and this just goosed it that much more.
Part of their ceremony included a beautiful representation of them joining their lives and they did it in form of something that will live on and grow. The couple planted a tree together using soil that they brought from each family homestead. Like the Unity Candle or the Sand Ceremony, the blending of families in this way was beautiful and touching and incredibly apt in that setting. These two are just so cool!
The reception……. oooooooooh my. The sun started to fade as the toasts were made and food was served and then the karaoke got started. It was a PAR-TAY!! So much joy, so much dancing and storytelling and singing and silliness. Meghann told us that she’d cried several times while planning the ceremony and reception (the Good Cry; the “I love him and can’t wait to be his wife” cry) and was certain she would “be a mess.” But she said afterwards, “I can honestly say that no tears were shed that day…which is surprising. When we look at our pictures, we are laughing in so many of them – and not just with each other – it’s during every phase of the day. Mostly, I remember laughing when we read our vows. Some of it could have been nerves, but for the most part, it was hearing that we had chosen some of the very same things to say to each other without even knowing.”
We want to end this blog with quotes directly from the bride and groom about their day and their feelings about life ahead. We asked them the 3 things they want to remember about their wedding day and here’s what they said:
1 – The biggest thing I want to remember is a lesson: Above all else, we have each other and everything is okay.
2 – Life is easier and you can relax when you put things “in your garden”. Minor details never matter! Smile, breathe, and LAUGH!
3 – Everybody around us worked SO hard to pull this off … doing things behind the scenes that I didn’t even know about. Always remember to love and appreciate everything that everyone has done for you. It may not look like a lot, but for every little bit you see, there is a lot of deep rooted effort.
When you start off the summer with one of the rainiest seasons in quite a long time, any wedding couple begins to be concerned that their day would fall on one of those wet days. Amy and Tom were very fortunate to have a clear NC mountain day to celebrate their wedding in Boone, NC, the heart of the high country. Even in the beginning of August, the temperature was just right for what was to be a day full of family and friends from literally all over the world celebrating their love. This couple resides in Washington DC but planned a NC mountain destination wedding in Boone and Blowing Rock NC, where Amy spent years growing up and her parents still live. Amy enlisted the help of a wedding planner and designer, our dear friend and incredible talent Melissa Riley of Day of Your Dreams. Even if your not making wedding plans long distance, we highly recommend Melissa. Her help is essential and her creations beautiful.
The ceremony was held at Grace Lutheran Church in Boone, NC. A very special touch before the start of the ceremony, was Amy’s mom playing several songs on her flute as guests were being seated. She has such an amazing talent and contributed it for a moment that will forever be engrained in our minds. Family was also a big part of the wedding party itself. Tom’s oldest son and brother, along with Amy’s brother, were groomsmen, and Tom’s two youngest sons were ring bearers, carefully carrying the rings down the aisle in bird’s nests.
One moment from the ceremony itself that we will never forget, was when the pastors (one of them being Amy’s pastor growing up) called Tom’s boys up to the altar to make them part of the marriage celebration. Amy, Tom and all three boys held hands and made promises to each other to become one family, promising to love and care for each other.
After all of the post ceremony photos were complete at the church, the wedding party drove over to Chetola Resort in Blowing Rock, NC. We gathered the wedding party to do a few more photos before the party began. Melissa did an exceptional job designing and setting up the reception just outside the main lodge. A large white tent was set, with some amazing hanging floral arrangements provided by Bless Your Heart floral designs. If you’ve never seen the incredible floral artistry by Sherry of Bless Your Heart, it’s a sight to behold. It was wedding photographer’s dream come true to photograph this family-oriented couple’s wedding and the beauty that surrounded them in all the amazing details.
Because kids are such an important part of Tom & Amy’s life they wanted a kid-friendly wedding and wedding reception. There was a separate tent beside the main tent just for the kids! They had their own menu for dinner, had lawn games and paddle boats to take out on the lake (both for the young, and the young at heart.) Plenty of activities kept the kids entertained and having as much (if not more) fun than the adults.
The reception band, Hipshack, played all night and the guests really seemed to enjoy themselves out on the dance floor. It really was a great party that everyone will surely remember. Congratulations to Amy, Tom and the new family!
Wedding Venue: Grace Lutheran Church, Boone, NC
Reception Venue: Chetola Resort, Blowing Rock, NC
Wedding Photography: Pixels On Paper
Wedding Planner: Day Of Your Dreams
Wedding Gown & Veil: Did Someone Say Party
Flowers: Bless Your Heart
Rentals: Boone Rent All
Entertainment: Hipshack Band
Gifts/Favors: Candy Bar from Mast General Store, Boone NC
Want to learn more about our husband and wife team providing wedding photography packages and portrait photography in the NC Mountains, Wilkesboro NC and the NC High Country and packages for NC Mountain destination wedding photographers? Call 336-990-0080, visit our website www.pixelsonpaper.net or send us and email at mail@pixelsonpaper.net for more information.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License
All photos are ©2013 Pixels On Paper. Pixels On Paper Photography Hendersonville NC Wedding, Asheville Wedding Photography, NC Mountain Weddings, NC Mountain Destination Wedding Photography, NC Mountain Wedding Photographer, Boone Wedding and Portrait Photographers, Boone Wedding Photography, Boone Wedding Photographers, High Country Wedding Photographers, NC Wedding Photographers, Charlotte Wedding Photographers. Husband and wife team providing creative photography for weddings and portraits in NC, specializing in the NC High Country, Charlotte, and NC Mountain Destination Weddings.