Ok… So you’ve been introduced to Clay and Rachael at their Charlotte engagement session… now it’s time for me to share their super fun wedding weekend! I’ll start with the day we arrived in gorgeous Highlands, NC… and I hope you are prepared for a couple of really long blog posts while I share all of the fun moments from the weekend!

Nathan and I dropped the kids off with my parents outside of Asheville, NC, and made our way up the winding mountain roads that led us to our destination wedding location. We might’ve gotten lost for a minute or two, but we finally found ourselves at our first destination. I was dropping Nathan off to photograph the guys as they spent the afternoon golfing at the Old Edwards Club. I dropped him off, and left… with more than a few twangs of jealousy about the gorgeous location he was going to get photograph all day.

I love these fun images of Clay relaxing on the golf course. (Lots more in the slideshow!)

While Nathan was on the golf course, I was checking into our hotel, and capturing a few local details on my way to meet the girls at The Lodge at Old Edwards Inn.

Rachel has an absolutely amazing group of girlfriends. They made me feel so welcome. It’s been a long time since I laughed that hard with a group of wedding guests.

The Lodge has a ton of amazing amenities… but I think all of the girls will agree with me when I say that I think the free ice cream (Dove Bars!) was the most exciting one :)

A little preview of the next day’s ceremony… this is the lawn where Clay and Rachael were going to get married. Gorgeous!

After hanging out with the girls for a bit, I headed back to the room to meet up with Nathan, and prepare for the evening’s rehearsal dinner festivities. I met Rachael at the Spa, and was SO excited to see Clay’s mom (who we had met at Brooke’s wedding last year). I seriously love Joanie… I want to keep her :)

And then back to Rachael’s room… How gorgeous is she??! I LOVED her rehearsal dinner dress! (At this point, I started to get to know Rachael’s mom, CeeCee, and completely fell in love with her, too… These two have amazing families!)

While waiting for the shuttle to take us back over to the Old Edwards Club for the rehearsal dinner, we had to grab a quick shot of this year’s bride and groom, along with last year’s bride and groom in the amazing evening light.

Brooke and Harrison… celebrating their one year anniversary.

Clay and Rachael… celebrating their last day of engagement :)

A few rehearsal dinner details… (sadly, I didn’t grab a picture for the blog of the amazing fried macaroni and cheese, but I’ll just tell you… it was AMAZING)

After every one had finished their dinner, the toasts began. I’m not even going to try to begin explaining how amazing and emotional these toasts were… Hopefully the emotion in the images will speak for themselves.

Clay’s dad kicked it all off…

I seriously love this image of Joanie looking at her son. So much feeling.

CeeCee made us all laugh…and cry. It was wonderful to hear her and Rachael’s story.

An amazing toast by Clay’s mom… Joanie.

And an equally amazing toast by Clay’s stepmom… or Bonus Mom… Gina. Seriously, this family knows something about love, and these toasts proved it to me all over again. Good stuff.

Lots of hugs…

Everyone headed back to their various “homes” for the evening… but Clay and Rachael weren’t quite ready to turn it. We took a quick walk over to a local pub for a bit of late night socializing :)

It was a super fun day… but Nathan and I were exhausted. We grabbed a few images of our new friends partying, and headed back to our hotel for a spectacular night’s sleep :)

If these images weren’t enough for you… make sure you check out the slideshow!

xoxo

-amber