If we had a golden doubloon for every time we were asked to attend or photograph a pirate wedding – we’d have a single coin and a million pirate jokes we’d be tempted to make. But this was no joke and the ceremony itself was filled to the brim with pirate references and joy that only the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott. It started as a party but this year, the host couple added a new element: they got married, …. on their property ……. dressed as pirates and surrounded by their friends, many in costume. It was a blast, down to when the last sword was sheathed and the last lantern was out.The couple are in beverage distribution, so there was no shortage of beer and ale for the party and their first dance as man and wife was to Chris Stapleton’s Tennessee Whiskey. Edith and Kirk have been a couple for 21 years and a dozen of those ago, they started hosting a pirate party on their gorgeous wooded property that boasts a stream that runs through it and a pirate ship. Their place is called: the Piratez Cove. If you find yourself suffering from poverty of imagination for a party or a wedding (or both), take note:
Edith’s processional music was AC/DC’s Highway to Hell. They said their vows on a bridge that Kirk built. No walking the plank. Before the ceremony, they had a parlay party where the bride and groom laid their weapons out on a table. Kirk had a few, but Edith had quite a few more. Peace was established.The party lasted late in the evening and a chef pal of the couple made Japanese rice hibachi for those staying up and hanging out. We had the best time. These 2 and their friends are a fun bunch of pirates and pirate-loving peeps. Here’s to doing it your way, with your theme!
Whether your wedding is conventional or as non-conventional as Edith & Kirk’s we would love to be part of it as your wedding photographers. Contact Pixels On Paper Photography so we can discuss your celebration and specific needs.
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.