Posts Tagged: wedding photos
Wedding Redux…. What would YOU do if you could do the day again?
This was the wedding of Meghan and Josh in August of 2015. The groom made the arbor they stood beneath (a gift to his bride) and she walked down the aisle to Bruno Mars’ “Marry You.” There were amazing details in every direction – from the mountains behind them as they pledged to be together for life, to the bouquets, color choices, and reception where everyone danced and partied late into the evening and stayed for the weekend.
BUT. What if they could do it again….? Do it all over again.
If you’re planning your wedding – listen up.
We asked Meghan and Josh what they would change and here is what they said. [insert the high-pitched rewind sound here and clip of everything moving at top speed in reverse]
Name 3 things you would do differently, if, by some strange wrinkle in the universe, you could do it all again (with the same person of course)?
I wouldn’t worry about a shuttle service to get people to and from town. I wouldn’t book vendors based solely on price and I wouldn’t try to do things I wasn’t completely happy with just to save money.
Name 3 things you would do again, if you could?
I would definitely do a small destination like we did where we all stayed in cabins together for the weekend so it was an extended celebration. I would still have my personal and humorous wedding. I would use my florist, caterer, and my photographers a million times over.
Tell us about vows. Any changes?
I LOVED our vows! We wrote our own and they were completely original and US. They were humorous, but still sweet.
How about the number of guests?
DO NOT invite everyone you have ever known and don’t worry about people getting their feelings hurt. Throughout this process, I started to notice that for every person we added to the guest list, we were adding approximately $75/head. This is where I should have cut my budget instead of scrimping on other things or trying to put too much work on myself.
Did you use a wedding planner or the “family-and-friends-all-hands-on-deck” approach to planning?
I had a planner and don’t know how we would have done it without her. I wish we had utilized her even more instead of me trying to do it myself to save money! I tried to do a lot of things on my own or use people who were “cheaper” to try to cut costs. I would have paid the extra amount and had everything taken care of and not worried about it! Do you notice a trend here?!
Time of year? Time of day?
I never wanted an August wedding, but then I never planned a wedding until I had to. August was perfect! Late summer was perfect for my colors and the time of day and location (on top of a mountain) made the weather absolutely unbelievable!
Location?
My fiancé and I wanted something that was natural and gorgeous, which is exactly what we got. We had to go way out in the county to find this, and didn’t want people to worry about driving. We wound up spending more money for a shuttle service to and from town and up and down the mountain than if we had just paid extra somewhere else. We had to rent two sets of chairs because of two separate locations, get generators, and lug things up and down the mountain just to try to get everything we needed into this “natural” space.
What about the elements of the ceremony?
Make it ALL about you! Traditional or not, putting your personal touches on these makes all the difference in the world and it is what your guests will remember.
Decorations & decor?
Make sure they fit your venue. I wanted glitz and glamour mixed with the natural space and additional vintage elements. Sometimes your venue is decoration enough!
Number in the wedding party?
I would suggest going with the smallest number of people possible. My 6 were perfect, but the smaller the better.
Positive and negative advice on any or all of the following:
Attire?
Dress in things that will look good, but also fit your location.
Food?
EAT! I said, “oh we are GOING to eat!”…then we didn’t. We loved the food we selected and then we didn’t even get our to-go boxes.
Gifts?
Don’t register for things you have no intention of using, regardless of what people think you need!
Flowers?
My flowers were one of the TOP things that made my wedding! The colors were gorgeous and tied together my color scheme perfectly! In an attempt to save money, I tried to use potted plants at the altar, but I should have let my florist do those as well.
What, if anything, do you regret?
I don’t regret anything, however, there are a few family members that I wish I would have taken pictures with before they left. I wanted the majority of the pictures done before the ceremony so that we could use the full time for the reception. I had some older family members I assumed were going to stay through part of the reception, but they left right after the ceremony, so they aren’t in any of my photos.
What do you wish you’d done, but were afraid to do?
There are a few moments of my wedding that I wish had been slightly more serious, but that is just not my personality. I was scared to have anything even slightly sentimental because I knew I would cry, so I did everything in my power to make sure that I didn’t break down.
What would you do more of?
If I could do it over, I think I would have enjoyed things more. I don’t say that to mean I didn’t enjoy it, but it was a very stressful time, and I went through different phases and a boat load of emotions. I had days where everything mattered and I didn’t care about the cost; other days, I wasn’t spending a dime, and nothing was a big deal because it was just a “celebration.” Looking back, I see that these were things I will only get to do one time and I would have cherished every moment even more if I had truly had a concept of this.
Stay tuned for more in this series — Wedding Redux, especially if you’re a bride-to-be, maid of honor, mother-of-the-bride or newly engaged. Hearing from those who’ve stood where you are about to stand can make all the difference in the world.
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.
Merry Christmas ~ with our deepest gratitude and love
We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and give you our heartfelt thanks.
2015 has been an amazing year for Pixels On Paper and it wouldn’t have been that way were it not for our awesome clients, supportive friends, partners and families. Thank you to those who put your faith in us and invested in our talents. An additional & HUGE THANK YOU to those who have referred us to friends and family. We hope and pray that you will continue to do the same, as ultimately this is what keeps us in the business of fulfilling our crazy dream.
This year, we served new clients, for whom we fell in love – new babies, newly engaged couples, brides & grooms, parents who adopted and families who wanted to create memories and heirlooms. And there were recurring clients (many have become our lifelong friends) who we loved to plan with and serve for those milestones that are worthy of more than pics taken by a smart phone. In August, Pixels celebrated its 10 year anniversary with a big party surrounded by many of you and believe us, our hearts were full – and still are.
It’s also been our busiest year ever for graphic design. A special thanks to those business owners who have trusted us to help them build their brand identities and design marketing materials that will help their businesses grow. We hope for continued success in all of your endeavors.
As we enter into the season of proposals and engagements, if you or somebody you know is getting engaged, please keep us in mind for engagement and wedding photography. We are currently booking 2016 and 2017 dates!
To all of you out there, THANK YOU. Our wish for everyone in 2016 is health, happiness, peace, love and big dreams!
whitney & preston ~ a wedding of place, people, horses and special details
We are people people.
We love our clients and if you read these blogs, know us, hang out with us with any regularity, have hired us, then you already know this. There is NO WAY we’d be successful if we were not relational by nature.
But we also love the details and the wedding of Whitney Pegg and Preston Parsons was a perfect combination of personal details and character that reflected their personalities.
Williams Farm is a beautiful spot and gave us almost too many options and gorgeous views – ALMOST. If you can consider that much perfect landscape “a detail” – then it was one of the better ones and Whitney and Preston had dozens of perfect details.
Preston is in law enforcement and is an officer. When they asked us to integrate patrol cars and artillery into their photos, wellllllll, it was a fun challenge. We looked for and found creative ways to do this and they turned out to be some of their favorite images in addition to the classic ones we took.
Brides-to-be: TAKE NOTE. If you want an outdoor wedding – country or otherwise – these two nailed it. Check out the barn (OLD barn), the horses and the set up for both the ceremony and reception. The details around each aspect of their day were amazing and so much fun to shoot.
Both Whitney and Preston seemed nervous before the wedding and we always expect this. Once they laid eyes on the other however it was as if no one else was there and you could see that this was the moment they had been waiting for. You could see them completely relax. They even told us afterward that this moment was one of their favorites of the ceremony and day.
Whitney told us that she had “a photo to go with every aspect of the wedding” that they’d asked for and said “and you even did last minute shots” that they wanted to add.
They’ve requested more photos of them in the future and we can’t wait!
Wanna see their engagement photos? Have a look!
Mr. & Mrs. Shumate ~ a wedding of authenticity, beauty, intimacy and family
Authenticity is a word so entirely overused, and poorly I might add, that its meaning and importance have been pretty much hijacked. As with other things of value, authenticity can become diminished and ultimately ignored. In an effort to take it back (“she said, shaking her fist in the air”), we present Amber and Andy Shumate and their August wedding photos.
Rather than put down the many ways we falsely refer to things and people, causes and characteristics as authentic, here’s a quickie review: authentic means true. It means real. It’s not something that needs to be self-important or self-referential, or high end to make a statement or low end to make a statement – it just is undeniable. That’s who Amber and Andy are – they are real and they don’t pretend to be anything other than themselves… happy to be together, solid, and in love.
They said their vows in Rendezvous Mountain State Park in Purlear, NC where the views are amazing and seemingly endless. The chapel in the forest is a naturally secluded backdrop with a large picnic shelter just steps away that accommodates a reception. Honestly, it is one of Wilkes County’s best-kept rustic wedding locations.
Andy is a fireman and works for the NC Forestry Service and he and Amber spend a lot of their time together in the great outdoors. Photographing them in the forest and overlooking the mountains seemed – pardon the pun – only natural.
We photographed their engagement in June and their wedding was quite similar because of their desire to include family and focus on the people, faith and values that ground them.
Andy’s daughter Ashlyn is central to their lives.
While she is Amber’s step-daughter, the two are already incredibly close and because of this, Ashlyn’s role in the wedding was primary… and particularly tender. Together they were all creating a new life, a new thing, a new family.
The details at the wedding were also perfect for the day and the couple: they were hand-made, heart-felt, creative and deeply personal.
Is there anything more powerful than seeing families blend? Than seeing a couple come together after beating life’s odds, and then make a plan not just for themselves, but for the next generation?
Isaiah 43:19: See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Congratulations and nothing but love and joy to you guys!
bridal portraits ~ a day just for her
There are more than a few inspirational quotes about girls. Girls and cars. Girls about to become brides. Girls and their dreams. Girls being domestic. Girls being daring, etc. So we’d like to pause here and let you conjure your favorite lines or even images…
Done? Ok. So meet this glorious girl, Jamie Goforth, now Jamie Harrison. Her wedding was October of this year, [you’ll have to stand by for the photos of the day], but THIS DAY in August was just about her. We photographed Jamie at the home of a family member in Wilkes county and her mom, grandma, great-aunt and great-uncle all came with her to enjoy the experience and watch her.
The views were spectacular as they tend to be in late summer in the western part of NC, and Jamie looked so fresh and happy. Honestly, this day seemed to increase her excitement about her wedding day. Every bride deserves a day as BRIDE that isn’t her wedding day, don’t you think? The wedding day blur is exhilarating yet inevitable, so we love being able to spend time with brides (and their family members and pals) before the actual nuptials.
I mentioned the views, but the entire home was perfect for showcasing a girl just about to start a new chapter. In particular, the pair above where she appears to be the queen of the estate, but still so young and fresh and contemplative.
Jamie’s family loves antique cars and they have a large collection, so including one in the portrait session was an easy and fun choice. She had a huge assortment to choose from, too. While classic cars are as different as individual girls, her groom is a big fan of the convertible red classic Thunderbird. Photographing her elegantly draped over it was too fun and it is a shot that any car guy can love and appreciate.
We look forward to showing off their wedding pics soon, but in the meantime, we encourage those who are planning proposals this season and want to capture it, those who are engaged and need portraits of you and your fiancé(e), brides-to-be or couples planning a spring or summer wedding, contact us. We’d love to help make your day perfect by ensuring you get the best portraits. Visit Pixels online or call us 336.990.0080.