Westin Poinsett Wedding

Matt and Jessica were married yesterday at St. Mary Magdalene with their reception at the Westin Poinsett. We were worried about the weather yesterday morning...but the clouds and rain cleared and it became a beautiful afternoon! Jessica and Matt made time in the busy wedding day schedule to have Main Street Trolley drop them and their wedding party off at Falls Park for a few photos between the ceremony and reception while their guests enjoyed a cocktail hour. Everything went perfectly...and we are so happy for them both!! Matt and Jessica, have a great time on your honeymoon in Hawaii.
-Craig and Lindsey

Devereaux Wedding Greenville SC

Like last weekend, we again spent this weekend on the road. On Friday, we shot the wedding of Kim and Stephen at The Garden Retreat, just outside of Erwin, Tennessee. We are so excited about the images we got...and we'll post their photos shortly. Then on Saturday we had the pleasure of photographing Andrea and Matt's wedding in Greenville. They definitely had the quintessential Greenville wedding, and it was very obvious all the thought that was put into the details (not surprising when you consider that the bride's sister, also the matron of honor, is a wedding planner in Boston).
Andrea and Matt's ceremony was on the rock patio of the Lazy Goat (Mine and Craig's favorite restaurant in Greenville-if you have not been, it is a must!) and then all of the guests walked to Devereaux's for the reception. Later that night, everyone was invited back to their house for an informal BBQ.
Andrea and Matt were completely focused on leaving the smallest environmental footprint possible from their wedding. To do this they used local vendors (ceremony music provided by the very talented Tim White and B & R Events coordinated the reception), recycled stationary, organic ingredients & food, and the flowers for the bouquets and decoration were purchased that morning from the farmer's market!
We so admire the way that they were conscious about their environmental impact. We always strive to be the same and we now have found the world's first "green" wedding album. This album line features 100% post-consumer recycled paper, environmentally sensitive cover materials like hemp, recycled kraft paper, and lotka paper, the entire process is powered by green E-Certified windpower, and 5% of the proceeds go to reforesting and to purchase carbon credits. We are soooooo excited about these books!

wow, wow, WOW....

With a name like Adelle Valentine (now Graham), how could you expect anything less than a hot fiery redhead!!! That's exactly what we got when we met up with Adelle and her husband Travis at Lake Greenwood yesterday. We first met them at a wedding we shot this past July and they told us how when they got married two years ago, their photographer didn't get any good photos of just the two of them. We hear this so often and that's why it's always one of our priorities to get great shots of each of our couples. Anyways, they asked if we'd be willing to do a photo shoot of the two of them and we said definitely. I mean take one look at them and you know the camera is going to love them!!! So this past weekend, we made a whirlwind tour of the state. We started in Columbia on Saturday for Tracy and Ty's wedding (see their slide show below) and then headed to Charleston for a great shoot with Susan and Jacob on Sunday (we'll put up some of their shots shortly). On our way back from Charleston yesterday, we met up with Adelle and Travis for an awesome shoot! They wanted something "edgy" and I think we got it!
Also, to put in a plug for them, Adelle is a great hairstylist at Identity (Lindsey has started going to her and loves her!)... you can visit her website at www.hairbyadelle.com. They also own Suburban Blood Trail which is a great haunted trail that benefits a great cause. So if you want some great fun this Halloween, be sure to go!!!

Millstone at Adams Pond Wedding Columbia SC

We had a great time at Tracy and Ty's wedding yesterday in Columbia. Check out their slideshow below. We'll post a few of their photos soon.

Charlotte NC Engagement Photography Session

We went to Charlotte to shoot Stacey and David's engagement session about a month ago. We had a great time with them...I just love it when a couple is lovey and not afraid to show it in front of the camera.
-Lindsey

The Hurst Tower was special to Stacey and David, it is where they first met...










We had been shooting around outside for a bit when it began to rain. So we ducked inside a hotel, which made for some great shots too!




David, the sweet talker that he is, even convinced the front desk to give him a key to the penthouse!

Fundraiser for Camp Courage kids...

As most of you know, Lindsey and I volunteer for Camp Courage, the non-profit program of The Greenville Hospital System for children and teens with cancer and blood disorders. This is probably one of the most rewarding things that we get to do. These kids are absolutely amazing, fun, and truly inspirational. We travel to their camp and have a fun photo shoot session with each of them. We then give them all of the photos to share with their families. We also make ourselves available at no charge to each of the families for a portrait session. Life is so precious and we really want to capture this family bond forever.
In addition to these photos at camp, we are also participating in a fundraiser scheduled for November 22-23. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, a huge financial strain is added to the family. So, the money raised from this fundraiser will help to fund a vacation to Disney World for the kids. We will set up a studio at the hospital and take family portraits for anyone who's interested. Packages range in price from $18 - $35 and there is no sitting fee. All of the proceeds will be donated to Camp Courage. This will be a great time to get a family photo for Christmas and your donation will go to a wonderful cause. If you can't make it out during those days, but would still like to donate, that'd be great too!
To give a donation or to schedule a time slot for your family portrait, please contact Jamie Gibson of Camp Courage at jgibson@ghs.org
Thanks to each of you for your support!

Julie and Nick's wedding slideshow

We are playing around with and starting to add short video snippets to our slideshows. This was our first try at it, but it's our plan to start doing this for all of our couples. This is our wedding from this past Saturday. We will post their photos soon. Let us know what you guys think of the video!

P.S. We are NOT videographers and have no intention of becoming one. This added feature is not meant to discourage you from hiring a videographer. This is only meant to enhance your photographs.

Outer Banks Wedding Photography

Craig and I LOVE to travel. It is probably our favorite thing to do...besides drinking wine and eating cheese! So we were super excited when Brooke and Adam asked us to photograph their destination wedding in Surf City, NC. The beach in the small island town of Surf City is a very special place to Adam and his family. In fact, Adam took his first steps on that very beach. We shot Adam's sister's wedding two years ago, and it was great to see their family again. Congratulations Adam and Brooke...hope Costa Rica was great!













Very good advice...


These are some of my favorite father/daughter dance photos of all time...it makes me tear up just looking at them!

Pretty Place Wedding Photography

What can I say about Mary Ellyn and JP...I really enjoyed this wedding. They reminded me a lot of Craig and I. I am very much like JP... almost always happy, never worried about anything, not concerned with the details, just assuming that everything will work itself out. Mary Ellyn, on the other hand, is very organized and on top of things, like Craig. I think the photo below of their wedding cake topper explains it very well...



And their ceremony was just amazing. Mary Ellyn and JP were married at Pretty Place, which is a beautiful location to be married. But what I loved the most about their ceremony was the way it was tailored to be all about them. You could have never spoken to either of them before, but after sitting through the ceremony you would have felt like you had known them for years. The entire ceremony was sincere, funny, and touching (yes, I cried...a lot). I'll try to get more information about their minister to pass along for anyone who is looking...











Not only did they choose a beautiful ceremony site, but the reception at Key Falls Inn overlooking a pond and mountains was stunning!!!...

Here come the photos...

I'm sorry we have kept you all waiting so long. But I am excited to finally be caught up with our work and to begin blogging again. This shoot actually took place several months ago, but we have been holding off posting Lindsey's bridal until after her wedding (which was on August 2nd). Now, as all of you can see... Lindsey is gorgeous, but she doesn't enjoy being in front of the camera. She is like so many of our clients and that is why we always try to put everyone at ease. Craig and I can sympathize, we don't particularly love being on the other side of the camera either! All of our clients are nervous the first time, but within just a few short minutes, they are always having fun and it makes for beautiful photos! With all that said... Lindsey, I hope the session wasn't too painful ;). Craig and I thought the photos turned out great!
-Lindsey

PS. For those of you who are interested...you can sign up to receive notifications when we make a new post (see the bottom of the page).

New intro to our website!

All of you probably experienced our new slideshow intro when you entered our site. It is still a total work in progress, but we wanted to go ahead and put it up. Please let us know what you think... love it? hate it?.... either way, we'd love your feedback. We will be adding a skip button soon so that those of you who visit our site often won't have to sit through it every time. I'll be tweaking it all day today, so if our site is unavailable at anytime... just blame me! Hopefully I won't crash it though ;-)! We're off to shoot an engagement in downtown tonight and then our first Fall wedding is tomorrow. We are so excited, it's at Cleveland Park in Spartanburg, which is always a beautiful location! We hope to spend Sunday posting photos to our blog (including ones from this weekend) so be sure to check back! Hope you all have a great one!

A quick recap....

So, since our last posting of photos, we've had something like 13 weddings, 6 engagements, and 8 bridal portraits. Then on top of that, we spent a day volunteering and shooting portraits at Camp Courage (Greenville Hospital Children's Cancer Camp) and we conducted a workshop for area photographers. So when I say we've been swamped.... I really mean, "WE HAVE BEEN SWAMPED!!!"... but we have loved every minute of it!
We have been pulling select photos from each of those shoots and plan to start uploading those for you to see towards the end of the week. We are putting the finishing touches on some albums that need to be sent off to print, first. It is our goal to be completely caught up by Friday because our Fall wedding season begins on Saturday and we won't have another break until Christmas. We recently attended a workshop in Charlotte with David Jay (www.davidjay.com) and came away with some great workflow ideas. So from now on, we have developed a workflow that allows us to not get backlogged like we did this past summer. That combined with Lindsey soon devoting herself full time to Sposa Bella and we are so excited for things to come.
We'll tell you about each of the weddings as we post them, but we want to share some of our other adventures with you until then. We got to spend the day at Camp Courage, a camp for children with cancer and blood disorders from Greenville Hospital System. The last one we attended was for teens, but this one was for the younger kids. The youngest was probably about 5 years old and the oldest would have been early 20's. I can't even begin to express what it's like to spend a day with these amazing kids. They have been through so much at their young age, yet you'd never know it. They are the happiest, sweetest, kindest kids, that I think I have ever been around. I so wish that I could show you their beautiful faces, but because of privacy, we won't post their photos. They are absolute sweethearts, though! We will be conducting a fundraiser for them in November... we are taking family portraits and donating all proceeds back to the program. If any of you want to help out with a donation or find some other way to volunteer, please let us know and we'll put you in touch with the right people. It is so worth your time and effort!!
Way back on August 1st (seems years ago right now!) we conducted a workshop for local photographers. We limited the class to 25 people and were at full capacity. We spent the morning demonstrating our workflow and photoshop techniques, had a live studio and on-location shoot with one of our amazing couples (Thanks Jessica & Greaton!!), and then spent the latter part of the afternoon discussing marketing and business techniques. We received good feedback from the attendees and met some awesome area photographers. Every time we hold a workshop, we get so much out of it ourselves. Not only does it make us critique how we do things as we are preparing our presentation, but every time the photographers who attend, bring up some great idea or different way to do something that we can then incorporate ourselves. No matter what line of work you are in, we highly recommend studying with the best people in your field (we do this every chance we get, by attending workshops and conferences) and then becoming friends with other people in your area who are in your field. We love hanging out with other wedding photographers and learning from each other! Tonight, I'm conducting another workshop, but it's much different... this one is small with the Clemson University Women's Club. Instead of professional photographers, these are all ladies just wanting to take better photos of their kids and grandkids!! Should be fun, though!
I'll end today by telling you all about our weekend. We are season ticket holders for Clemson football and usually enjoy going to the games. The last few years, we haven't been able to attend a lot of games because it is our philosophy that if someone selects us to photograph their wedding, it is much more important than a football game. This year, we actually are free to attend 3 games (Citadel, NC State, & USC). We went to the first home game against the Citadel and were miserably hot. Then we were free last Saturday and had made plans to go to the NC State game. Once they announced that it was at noon and was going to once again be miserably hot (we found out later temperatures in the stadium reached over 100 degrees!!!), we decided that we'd TiVo the game and spend the day relaxing together instead. This was our last Saturday free for several months and we knew we'd have a better time elsewhere. So we jumped in our car and headed to the mountains. We have a little convertible that we only take out on pretty days and Saturday was the perfect day for it. We drove around for a couple of hours and ended up stopping in Highlands NC. Highlands is one of our favorite mountain cities. Great food, great shopping, and great spas (last time we were there, we spent way too much money at the Old Edwards Inn Spa, but it was amazing!!). This time, we skipped going to the spa and instead opted for a glass of wine and great meal at Wolfgangs on Main (www.wolfgangs.net). I can't say enough about their service, atmosphere, and food. It's superb! If you're ever in the area, be sure to stop in and try it. For those of you that haven't chosen a place for your wedding yet, they also do weddings! Anyway, as we were driving along the curvy mountain roads, Lindsey decided to see what kind of photos her iPhone could take. The results are below. Take care and we'll write more soon!
-Craig