Did you hear that bell? Well, you know what that means!!! It’s time for another Wedding Redux, where we ask couples whose weddings we photographed to talk candidly (and helpfully) about things they loved and things they would change. It’s in the form of a Q&A, complete with friendly advice and feedback. Today’s couple – Elizabeth & Kyle Bishop – are faves of ours. We shot their engagement and bridal photos and then their amazing March wedding. Pay attention brides and grooms – their input is thoughtful and detailed!
YOU’RE MARRIED. You’ve done it! Now… IF you could plan and execute your wedding day all over again, what would you do more of?
Kyle: “Dancing. I wish we had been able to invite more people that would have danced with us. I think it would have made the reception more festive.”
Elizabeth: “Eating! Even though we tried to make sure ahead of time that we would get something to eat, we still only managed a few bites of the appetizers. We chose such yummy food for our guests and then didn’t get to enjoy any of it.” [PIXELS NOTE: Look for Kyle’s funny addition at the end of this blog about food. And sadly, we see this all the time. Great intentions to eat the food and then it never happens.]
What would you do less of?
Kyle: “Prep work. Hiring a wedding planner would have helped with that.”
Elizabeth: “A wedding planner definitely would have been nice to have, especially with all the other things we had going on while we were planning our wedding.”
This came up a couple of other times during the Q&A with these two. The wedding planner vs. friends and family debate. The Bishops told us how they wish they’d hired a planner to take the stress off of themselves and their many family and friends who stepped in and stepped up to help from the planning all the way through the day. It’s a tough call, when you have a budget, and Ryan and I certainly don’t get a kick-back if a couple decides to hire a planner. We just want happy couples. We’ve seen weddings planned with family and friends that were flawless and relatively stress-free but you never know. The key word is stress. So figure out ways to eliminate as much of it as possible.
What do you wish you’d done, but were afraid to do?
Kyle: “Learn a couples dance to break into for our first dance. That would have been pretty neat.”
Elizabeth: “A choreographed couples dance would have been a lot of fun, but neither of us is very confident in our dancing skills. Our friends and family probably would have loved it though!”
Positive and negative feedback (or advice) on any or all of the following:
Attire?
Elizabeth: “LET YOUR DRESS SHOPPING BE FUN! Going into shopping, I think a lot of brides stress about finding “the one” but we shouldn’t. The right dress at the right price IS out there and you will find it. It may not be at the first or second shop and that’s okay. It also might be at the first shop and that’s okay too. My gown was the third one I tried on and I insisted on trying several others because I thought “‘It can’t be this easy.'”
Food?
Kyle: “We liked the choice of food but the delivery was lackluster. Many people had to wait longer that we would have liked to eat.
Elizabeth: “Food was… a bit of an issue for us. Everything was delicious, but there seemed to be a lot of confusion between what we expected, what we were told we would have, and what we ended up with. Most of our guests didn’t realize there was any issue, but it was a source of stress for us leading up to the event and on the day of. Be sure that you know exactly what you’re getting, how it will be served, and what the kitchen’s plan for timing is.”
Flowers?
Elizabeth: “We were lucky enough to have my sister and maid-of-honor offer to make all of our flowers from various craft paper and book pages. It was a lot of work for her, but it was the prefect addition to our day and not having to worry about picking up flowers on the actual day was a big load off our minds. We did have a live flower bouquet to toss though. I was not about to throw one of my sister’s creations.”
Location?
Kyle: “We had our dream wedding. Boone was the best place for that.”
Elizabeth: “Where do you want to get married? Go there! We knew that no matter where we had our wedding, most of our family was going to have to travel several hours, so we chose somewhere WE wanted to get married. If you do have a wedding away from home, I would suggest providing your guests with a list of favorite restaurants and local activities. Many of our guests arrived the day before and spent time shopping or sight-seeing before our ceremony started.”
Elements of the ceremony?
Kyle: “The chapel was the right place. Again, somewhere special that we always wanted to get married.”
Elizabeth: “Your officiant can really make a big difference. We were lucky enough to have a family member that is also an amazing minister. Find someone that makes the two of you feel comfortable and who can speak to you as a couple.”
Number in the wedding party?
Elizabeth: “I always imagined a small wedding party, maybe three. At most four. I am, however, lucky for have a husband with a lot of friends and a desire to include them all. I admit, it stressed me out a few times along the way, trying to coordinate that many people, but in the end everything worked out well. Kyle’s guys were wonderful about helping with setup and all of my girls were perfect. My biggest piece of advice would be not to worry about tradition too much when it comes to your bridal party. I had a bridesman, who stood on my side and our grandmothers were our flower girls. Everyone loved them!”
Time of year? Time of day?
Kyle: “It was a perfect time of the year. We got snow and sun. What more could we ask for?”
Elizabeth: “I think these things are really personal to each couple. We knew we wanted a big party of a reception and that we wanted it at night, so that dictated our ceremony time. We also knew that we didn’t want our anniversary too close to either of our birthdays or any particularly important holidays. I would advise finding out when the peak wedding season is in your desired area, and then choosing a date a couple of weeks before or after that. Doing that helped us really stretch our budget.”
DJ vs. a band?
Kyle: “Our DJ was the best decision. We were able to pick out the songs that we wanted and direct the flow of the evening to our liking.
Elizabeth: “We wanted so many different kinds of music that a DJ was really the only way for us to go. Ours had a great song selection and managed everything really well. The only thing I would mention here is to make sure ahead of time that your DJ is comfortable announcing things during the reception. We assumed that was part of being a DJ and we were wrong.”
Vows?
Kyle: “Write your own and it will allow you to show how much you care about each other.”
Elizabeth: “We wrote our own and I loved it. I admit, I was nervous to read my own words in front of everyone, but it was ultimately more important to me that Kyle know exactly how I felt. My biggest advice here would be to speak up! I was so nervous and emotional that I wasn’t able to project very well and as a result, not all of our guests heard what I was saying.”
Name 3 things you would do differently, if, by some strange wrinkle in the universe, you could do it all again (to the same person of course):
1. Lock down the schedule of events for the reception so that everything is on time.
2. Hire a wedding planner to lower overall stress.
3. Have a pizza from Capone’s pizza for my grooms cake.
Name 3 things you would not change / would do the same:
1. Location and Time. I feel like our wedding was perfect.
2. Our photographers. They were the best vendor decision of the wedding. [THANKS, GUYS!]
3. The oldest couples dance got some people on the floor dancing that didn’t dance the entire night.
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.
We are so far behind on blogging already this year. Honestly it’s because blogging is very low on our priority list. The 2013 Spring photography season is here and we are in full swing at a fast passed sprint. Because of that, rather than writing blogs, it’s more important to us to provide excellent customer service to our clients and make sure their photos are being edited, PreView Sessions are being had, wall art and albums are being created and delivered in a fast turnaround time. All those reasons aside, we know our followers still want to see more large images and read about all the wedding photos we’ve been taking and the portrait photography we’ve been creating. Just to give you a little taste of what we’ve been up to, here are some peeks at what you will hopefully soon be seeing in full posts on the blog.
We weren’t available to photograph Alisha’s wedding photos but that didn’t stop her from using Pixels On Paper to photograph her Bridal Portraits which we uniquely styled with some of our collection of antiques and photographed right outside our Wilkesboro, NC portrait studio.
Stephanie is a property manager and needed new headshot photography for her company’s website and for use in their print advertising.
Caroline and Andy live in Boston and were married in Caroline’s hometown of Elkin, NC. Pixels On Paper communicated with them long distance to coordinate and provide all of their wedding photography.
Rose Glen Village Senior Living needed commercial photography for a new website that is being designed by a Greensboro based advertising agency. Pixels On Paper collaborated with both Rose Glen and the Ad agency. We had a really fun day hanging out with many of Rose Glen’s residents and capturing lifestyle photography, everyday living in their homes and social environment.
Sarah and Jeremy will be getting married on June 1st. But before that we wanted to get to know them even better by photographing their engagement photos. This entire session was photographed right outside our portrait studio in the NC Mountains.
We captured some gorgeous Charlotte wedding photos for Ashley and Phil who had their wedding in Uptown Charlotte on the Holiday Inn Center City Rooftop Rotunda.
Kristie and Trey will be getting married in July. Their engagement photos gave us an opportunity to see how comfortable they were in front of our camera and get them use to being photographed before the big day. This is another portrait session outside our studio. It’s great to be a photographer in the NC Mountains!
This Asheville NC wedding photography is from Kaitlyn and Denny’s amazing and rainy wedding day at family-owned Raymonds Garden Center. The garden center provided a beautiful backdrop for wedding photography with all the flowers we could possibly imagine. A lot of rain didn’t keep us from getting lots of wedding photos.
Pixels On Paper were the Charlotte wedding photographers for Rich and Amanda in 2009. Now they are expecting their first child and we are blessed to be providing them with Maternity photography and newborn photography as their family grows. They made the trip from Ft. Mill, SC to Wilkesboro, NC to take advantage of the settings at our portrait studio.
This Bridal portrait photo is still a secret since the Bride’s wedding day has not yet arrived. It’s so much fun to integrate into Bride photos something as special to her as the years of dance that have been a part of her life. It also gives us a great opportunity for creative photography.
Bridal Traditions Wedding and Prom attire needed commercial photography created for their new exclusive line of designer wedding gowns. It was a great experience photographing these beautiful gowns inside our portrait studio. The dresses all seemed like they were in the perfect setting in our historic property.
Want to learn more about our wedding photography packages or portrait photography ? Call 336-990-0080, visit our website www.pixelsonpaper.biz or send us and email at mail@pixelsonpaper.biz for more information.
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All photos are ©2013 Pixels On Paper. Pixels On Paper Photography Wilkesboro NC Wedding, NC Mountain Weddings, Asheville NC Wedding Photographers, NC Mountain Wedding Photographer, Boone Wedding and Portrait Photographers, Boone Wedding Photography, Boone Wedding Photographers, High Country Wedding Photographers, NC Wedding Photographers, Maternity Photography, Maternity Photography Greensboro NC, Commercial Photography, Lifestyle Photography, Headshot Photography. Husband and wife team providing creative photography for weddings and portraits in NC, specializing in the NC High Country, Charlotte, Destination Weddings and in the NC Mountains.
Love is such a powerful emotion, and one that was never more evident than in the wedding ceremony for Katherine Brown and Joshua Isaacs who were married back in November in Wilkesboro, NC. It is easy to see love in this relationship all around. Not only between Josh and Katy, but their love for God and their parents love for them.
Katy’s father, Kevin, is the pastor at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Wilkesboro where the ceremony was held in front of close to 400 family, friends and members of the Mt. Pleasant congregation. Of course there was no way he was going to pass up the opportunity to preside over his daughter’s wedding. There was plenty of emotion all around during the ceremony, starting with Josh’s reaction to seeing his bride for the first time, to Kevin’s tearful advice to his daughter and her new husband. The couple even celebrated their first ever kiss together to conclude the ceremony.
After the ceremony, the room was efficiently converted over from seating to tables and chairs for the reception while we took the newlyweds around the church grounds for their first portraits as husband and wife. With Josh dressed in his Marine dress uniform and Katy’s beautiful wedding dress, it was hard not to get a stunning photo.
Walking back into the reception, the afternoon continued with first dances and LOTS of people coming up to offer congratulations. The couple’s final send off into their new married life was running through a gathering of the guests that all had balloons and streamers, but Josh just had to sneak in one last kiss before they jumped into the car.
We wish Katy and Josh all the best!
Be sure to check out Katy’s stunning bridal photography portrait session here.
Photography: Pixels On Paper
Wedding & Reception Venue: Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church
Flowers: Desi’s Floral & Design Studio
Clergy: Reverend Kevin Brown
Want to learn more about our wedding photography packages or portrait photography in Wilkesboro NC and the NC High Country? Call 336-990-0080, visit our website www.pixelsonpaper.biz or send us and email at mail@pixelsonpaper.biz 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 Wilkesboro NC Wedding, NC Mountain Weddings, NC Mountain Wedding Photographer, Boone Wedding and Portrait Photographers, Boone Wedding Photography, Boone Wedding Photographers, High Country Wedding Photographers, NC Wedding Photographers. Husband and wife team providing creative photography for weddings and portraits in NC, specializing in the NC High Country, Charlotte, Destination Weddings and in the NC Mountains.