Trash-the-Dress: Chase... Again!

Don't forget!  You have till tomorrow at midnight (July 1st) to take the survey mentioned two posts below-- let me know you took it and you are entered to win a $25 Target gift card.  

At the first time Chase trashed her dress, I did not have a single other bride who would consider the idea.  As we were walking out of the field after the shoot, Chase marveled at how she did not have a thing wrong with her dress!  Right then and there we decided that when things warmed up we were going to toss Chase in the water with that gorgeous dress on.  Now I have a hand full of brides who can't wait to head to the beach (or other various destinations) to trash their dresses!  There is debate over which fabulously famous photographer came up with the concept- regardless I thank them both for starting such a fun trend!!  I will trash mine one day and it will be glorious....

Steven and Chase were brave enough to trash Chase's dress on their way out of town one morning last week.  Typically I am not up and ready for a shoot at this point in the morning- let's just say I would rather stay up late- but I was so ready for this!  After a failed attempt at using Yates Mill (thanks to all the Facebook suggestions- the mill had flooded so it was closed) we headed down to Lake Wheeler.  PERFECT.  Only a few people were out fishing, no one on the beach and the docks were fairly empty.  

I can't imagine how strange it must feel to put something you spent so much time and money into protecting, into lake water.  Don't you love art??

Giddy and ready to do it again!

By now Chase was a pro at jumping off and swimming back to shore in that heavy dress.

Steven wanted in on the action and was so excited he forgot their 

plan to look at each other when they jumped. :)

NOTE: Veils in the water are swirly and pretty.  

Once they are wet and out of the water however, they are much like saran wrap...

Now the shoot just gets funny.

Steven is a minister and thought it would be cute to baptize Chase.

Chase thought it would be funny to run through the ducks and geese... 

instead the ducks and geese thought it would be funny to run into the water towards Chase. 

Chase and Steven--- that was so much fun!  Thanks for setting the bar high for my first water trash-the-dress... I am looking forward to our snow TTD session.  Gotta get some snow in NC first...

Wedding Story: Paola and Wes

YOU BLOG READERS ARE AWESOME.  Thank you so much to those of you who have taken the time to fill out the survey that I linked in the post before this one.  If you have not filled out the survey yet, you have until July 1st to take it.  Let me know what you did and I will enter you in the contest for a $25 Target giftcard- one of my favorite stores in the world.

I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures from Paola and Wes' wedding day that I wanted to share with you on here.  As you saw in Paola's bridal portrait post, this girl is classy and stylish, leaving no detail unplanned.  

Paola and Wes kept their wedding party simple with Wes' Dad as the best man and Paola's sister Nicki as the Maid of Honor.  They found really great ways to honor their other friends through out the day.  I started out at Paola's house while she, her Mom and sister were getting ready...

Remember these fabulous shoes?  Someone commented on the bridal portrait post if these were real Christian Louboutins- girl, they are FOR REAL.  And that is also a for real gorgeous yellow diamond engagement ring.

Nicki watches on as Paola gets her makeup done.  

Thanks for passing our information along to your sister, Nicki!

Nothing better to calm wedding day nerves than old school 90210.  This is Paola's favorite show and from what I hear she catches the re-runs on the Soap channel religiously.

Touch up before we head to the church!

Paola's whole family getting the final touches ready for some 

group pictures before the ceremony.

This was my first bi-lingual wedding and it was so awesome to experience that.

One of Paola's flower girls kept counting the shiny buttons on Paola's Dad's dress uniform- "Uno, dos, tres..."- and came up with a different number every time.  It was tricky.

Paola's other flowergirl decided to dole out goldfish for everyone to snack on while they waited for the ceremony to begin.

Finally making the walk to the sanctuary...

Married!!!

I NEVER post formal pictures, but I thought I would toss one up to show you that we do them when you want us to.  Also to show that Wes and Paola's important men were ushers- 

and looked handsome doing it.

Paola was nervous that they had not practiced their first dance.  

Wes said "don't worry, just follow my lead."  Their first dance was fabulous- 

I would not have been able to dance like that on the first try :)

Along with fabulous food, Paola and Wes had a gelato machine- delicious!  

And then later in the evening ice cream sandwhiches were passed around.  

These people knew how to keep the crowd happy!

I was feelin' the sweets when it came to portraits of their bling...

The reception was held in the Capital City Club, 

which boasted tons of great views of downtown Raleigh and beyond...

Who could resist dancing with this precious flower girl!?

Wes and his college friends giving Paola some love...

These guests could do every cool dance move ever invented- including the jump rope.  

By the way, I don't do this much- and they did not ask us to do it- but their band was AMAZING.  They are called Mr. Potato Head and I was just blown away by the variety of music that they were able to play and sing... and do it well.  The crowd LOVED them.

Apparently Fayetteville Street has some strict rules, so Paola had to get creative with their send off.  I think the pinwheels looked awesome as they left.

Wes giving his Mom some love.

How adorably happy are they!?  Off they goooo!

Paola and Wes- I am going to try not to be jealous over your fabulous Italian honeymoon- I hope it is as amazing as it sounds.  All your friends seemed like they had known us for ages and your family was so warm and inviting.  The ceremony was beautiful- Thank you for inviting us in to tell the story of your day!

Survey and Win!

I am always pleasantly surprised when someone confesses their love for this blog- makes me all giddy inside.  It makes me curious to learn who all is checking out our work and what brings them back.  I have put together a teeny tiny short survey... will you humor me for a minute and fill it out for me??  As an incentive, I have a $25 Target gift card to give away.  Leave a comment with your email address or shoot me an email (storyphotographers(@)gmail.com)  letting me know that you did in fact take the survey- that way the survey can remain anonymous.  I will just have to trust you that you actually took the survey :)

So you have until July 1st, 2009 midnight (est) to fill out the survey and notify me that you have done so.  Then I will randomly draw a name/email address to see who wins that Target gift card.  Who knows, if more people than I imagined fill out the survey, maybe I will throw in a second gift card... 

Click Here to take survey

EDIT: Anyone that checks the blog can take the survey- other photographers, wedding vendors, clients, future clients, friends, family, complete strangers.  Also, there is not a place to put your email address on the survey so that your answers remain anonymous.  If you want to enter to win the Target gift card, email me, comment below with your email address or let me know on Facebook :)

And because posts without pictures are LAME, here is a picture David and I took with our new point&shoot camera at the beach for the weekend.  I was afraid that when we started the business that we would no longer take pictures of our every day life- I was right.  So this lil point&shoot is going to change that!

This is David and I in our office workspace...