Everything has been so busy in real life and my lifestyle baby photography business that this blog has been sorely neglected. Almost two months ago, Nathan and I had the awesome opportunity to photography a gorgeous destination wedding in Highlands, NC. I grew up in Asheville, NC, which isn’t very far from Highlands… yet somehow I had never had the chance to experience the beauty of this particular part of the NC mountains. I feel blessed that I have now had that opportunity!

I’m so far behind, that I haven’t even shared with you the fun Charlotte engagement session that I did with Clay and Rachael this past summer… So before we delve into their amazing wedding weekend… Let me introduce them to you through their engagement pictures!

Nathan had originally been scheduled to photograph this engagement session, but due to a knee injury, I had to step in and photograph it. To be honest, I was really excited about the opportunity…I knew we were going to have a blast :) I had been able to spend time with Clay and Rachael last year, when Nathan and I photographed Clay’s sister’s wedding weekend in Key West. We immediately fell in love with the entire family, and were so excited when Clay called us soon after his engagement. We knew we were in for another amazing wedding.

I love this image that Nathan captured of Clay and Rachael during Brooke and Harrison’s reception.

For the engagement session, we started off at Clay’s apartment…which I immediately fell completely in love with! I just loved the urban vibe of the place. It suited Clay perfectly.

After a quick couple of shots on their balcony, we headed out for a walk… Clay and Rachael had a destination or two in mind, and I just stopped them whenever I saw something I liked!

We didn’t make it very far before I stopped them and made them hang out on this little bench…

We walked a bit further and arrived at the bar where Clay and Rachael met. I was SO excited that they had put this place on the list of places to see… So fun to take pictures at places that have strong memories for the people I have photographing!

I loved this reflective wall… It’s crazy how the most unassuming locations can become awesome spots for photographing…

Rachael is so pretty… I adore her smile.

One of my favorite locations that we used was the public transport station… I took about 23 million different images here, and I loved way too many of them :)

Loved the subtle light here…

One of my favorite shots of the day!

We thought this whole park was so random… We found the signs from the photo above, these giant fish, and some really cool benches. Something fun to photograph around every corner :)

We were trying to make our way back to Clay’s apartment, but I kept getting distracted by fun locations… like this really cool textured wall :)

And this spot, with the apartment building in the background. LOVE!

We headed up to the apartment, but detoured on the clubhouse floor… I’m SO glad we did. I love the resulting images.

It was almost dark… so we headed back up to the apartment to satisfy my need to grab “just one more quick shot” (or 22 quick shots, whatever ;)) before I headed back home…

It was a super fun evening that just increased my excitement about their upcoming wedding… I’ve got all those images ready, and will hopefully have time to post them very soon!

xoxo,

-amber

Last post, I shared Jessica and Adam’s engagement images with you… now I can finally share their wedding images!

Prepare yourself for a ton of images… as I mentioned in the engagement post, we really love this family :)

I always enjoy the getting ready part of the day… Jessica was in a wonderful mood, and there were nieces and nephews and sisters and friends every where I turned!

I’m not going to lie… I love that I caught Jessica with her dancing face on :)

I really love Jessica’s sister Diana and her two girls. We spend lots of time hanging out by the pool with them every summer, and I can’t wait until their upcoming lifestyle session! (Will be sharing that session on the lifestyle baby photographer, hopefully later this week!)

A few getting ready details…

And then it was time for Jessica to get into her dress. Isn’t she lovely?

I really do love Liz. She’s the best.

While I was capturing the girls getting ready… Nathan was hanging out with the guys. Sometimes there isn’t a ton going on with the guys prep, but that wasn’t the case this time. I LOVE these images of Adam high-tech-ing the tie tying process:)

And this capture of Terry (Jessica’s dad) praying with Adam. So beautiful.

We don’t usually share images from the “formals” in our blog posts, as it isn’t the part of our job that we enjoy the most or get excited about sharing… But I do have a few outtakes from Jessica’s family formals that I really love.

(please note Jessica’s brother’s face in both of these. John’s hysterical:) )

Like I said on the engagement post… I think Jessica is so beautiful. Nathan captured her perfectly.

Jessica and Adam did not want to see each other prior to the ceremony… but Jessica really wanted to have the opportunity to talk to him and touch him. I love this series of them having a moment before their ceremony.

Everyone headed back inside for a bit of relaxing, and then it was time for the ceremony. While Adam had a time of prayer with the ministers…

Jessica’s sisters were having a moment of prayer with Jessica. Beautiful.

Love love LOVE this image that Nathan captured of Terry “giving his daughter away”. Adam’s face speaks volumes here.

The church was beautiful!

Parker, Jessica’s nephew, made the most awesome faces during the ceremony… First, Nathan caught him expressing his boredom (or possibly his exhaustion…who knows. When your 5, I’m thinking weddings are probably a bit of both :))

And then, check out his face during the First Kiss. Love it!

Husband and wife!

I love this image of Terry praying for his daughter and new son-in-law. He’s amazing.

Stolen moment…

A bit of cake… (Kenna in the foreground seriously cracks me up:) )

Lots and lots of kiddos…

Love this series of Jessica and Adam leaving their reception.

Before Jessica and Adam headed off to their honeymoon, they made a quick stop at the battlefield for a short portrait session. I’m so glad we made the decision to do this… the light was beautiful, Jessica and Adam were incredibly happy and relaxed, and the resulting images are so fun!

My husband rocked this portrait session… I love these images.

Gorgeous. Jessica and Adam are just gorgeous!

Jessica and Adam… (Power family… all of you!), we love you guys. Thank you so much for letting us be a part of your wedding day. We can’t wait to see everyone again!

Enjoy the (really long) slideshow:)

love y’all,

-amber

Nathan and I are blessed to have adopted a couple of local families as our own… I’m truly not sure what we would’ve done without them over the last several years. One of those families is the Powers. Love them. There’s a lot more to the story than that… but we’ll leave it at that… We really love them.

In 2006, we had the awesome opportunity to photograph the wedding of Becca and Keith. We were already in love with the whole family, but after spending the weekend with them for this wedding, but were truly hooked :)

So when Jessica contacted us to let us know that she had gotten engaged and really wanted us to photograph her wedding, we were more than excited to make that happen :)

I had the opportunity to do an engagement session of them awhile back, and never had a chance to share them, so before I share their wedding images, I thought I’d showcase a few of their engagements.

Adam and Jessica were so awesome to photograph. They’re obviously crazy about each other, so all I had to do was find a bit of nice light and point the camera in their general direction :)

I’m not usually a fan of mornings, so when we booked our session for early morning, I was kinda sad… Until I saw the light :) I assure you, the light made me very happy. (As did Jessica and Adam’s infectious obvious excitement about one another :) )

Love the emotion in this one.

Loved this fun wall…

Jessica is so beautiful…

This strip of apartments is one of my favorite photo locations ever. I have no idea how we happened across it, but I’m so glad that we did :)

This little spot doesn’t even look like Chattanooga to me, does it? Love it!

Aren’t they adorable?

One final spot on the way back to our cars… Love this random location.

What a fun session :)

(I also had the privilege of meeting Barry and Chris from Starving Lion Media… They created a super fun engagement video, you can check it out here: http://vimeo.com/14113166)

The wedding post is coming in just a few minutes… I can’t wait to show you how beautiful their day was!

A few weeks back, I was hanging out with my wonderful friend Heather who was in the first trimester of her pregnancy and feeling pretty cruddy… she happened to mention that Rich was having a difficult time finding someone to second shoot with him at an upcoming wedding. I immediately checked my calendar and told her that he didn’t need to keep looking… I was free, and more than happy to help!

So that Saturday morning… on what felt like the hottest Saturday in the history of Chattanooga summers… I woke up bright and early and photographed Baby Julia and her family …  then a hurried across town so I could photograph Baby Ben and his family… then rushed to Cleveland to photograph the bride getting ready. It was an insane day, and by the time it was over I was exhausted… but it was well worth it. Brent and Heather were an absolutely adorable couple, and I’m so excited about the images that I was able to capture. If you’d like to see the full story of the day, you should head over to Rich’s blog… he captured the day beautifully!

Bridal prep is one of my favorite things to photograph, and Heather was a stunning bride. Perfect!

Headed to see Brent for the First Look.

They were so sweet together in those first few minutes… I love being a part of these moments.

The master at work.. Rich Smith :)

We had a blast riding around on the grounds behind a tractor… I don’t think this fella knew quite how bumpy of a ride he was creating for us in the back! It was worth it though… the location was perfect for portraits!

A few of the portraits I grabbed while Rich was shooting. It’s fun to be a second shooter… it gives you the freedom to explore completely random angles.

After portraits, we headed back to the house where Heather had a few minutes to freshen up (seriously, the heat was intense!) before time to head down the aisle.

The girls took a moment to pray together, just as they were about to leave the room. It was beautifully emotional.

Love this exchange between Heather and her dad… as they started down the aisle. I also love the light they just happened to be standing in :)

Love the emotion in these next two images…

Laughter- I believe they are laughing at some reference to Heather’s past boyfriends :)

Tears- Heather sang to Brent during the ceremony. It was a complete surprise for him, and it was absolutely beautiful.

I love this Crosses Project image that I was able to capture during the ceremony…

Brent surprised everyone by picking Heather up and racing down the aisle with her. So fun!

I’ll end the post with an image from the first dance… the emotion combined with the light make me happy :)

More posts soon :) I’ve posted a ton of new stuff on Facebook… just have to find the time to get it on the blog as well!

xoxo

-amber

I recently posted Nathan’s coverage of Faith and Chris’ beautiful Dominican Republic, and now I have the opportunity to share with you a few images from their fun Chattanooga celebration! I was originally going to call this a reception, but in reality, it was not very reception-like, at all. Instead of being full of traditional moments and perfectly choreographed dances, this evening was about celebrating. It was truly an awesome party.

When I was told of the location, Coltrane’s on 9th, I seriously had no idea where it was. It’s located directly across from the Read House, which means that I have driven past this sign a million times, and somehow never even noticed it. I was uncertain as to what sort of place it might be, and was pleasantly surprised by how fun it was to photograph!

I thought it was adorable that Faith played bartender for a bit… You know you’ve got a gorgeous bride when she even looks spectacular mixing drinks in a crowded bar! :)

The dance floor was a blast. It started off empty… but it certainly didn’t stay that way for long! This crowd was crazy! Some hysterical dancing took place.

Fun stuff :)

I have no idea how late the party lasted, but I have a feeling it went well into the night.

Faith and Chris, you guys throw an awesome party! I’ll be in touch soon about the rest of your images :)

-amber