The Wyatt family… where do I start?  Best to start at the beginning…of Worthington Photography  LLC, practically!  In the summer of ‘05, our first year as a full time business, Sam shot Ryan Wyatt’s wedding.  Ryan and Eric’s wedding caught the eye of editors at the Knot and was published in the regional magazine.  Soon after that we began working with Ryan’s mom, Sallie Wyatt, who plans weddings in the Williamsburg area.  Over the years Sallie of Williamsburg Weddings and Events has become one of our favorite event planners to work with.  She’s creative, detail oriented, personable and totally behind the scenes.  Her events are always stylish and smooth running.  Ryan eventually branched off and started her own business, Cheers! Consulting here in Richmond so now we’ve got double the talent.  

We were excited to hear that Casey, Sallie’s youngest daughter, was engaged and even more excited to shoot another Wyatt wedding.  Casey and Justin (or “Dub” as his friends and family call him) were married at Belle Isle State Park in Lancaster Virginia on the Northern Neck.  Guests entered through the main house, walked past two tents and out to the ceremony site on a point overlooking the water.  The weather was beautiful, the setting was perfect and as you’ll see from the pictures, Casey was just radiant.  Canoes filled with ice and beer sat on the perimeters of the tent alongside a bar serving up a cast of vodka drinks.  Stations of food lined the dining tent, including roasted oysters, a regional specialty this month and any other ending in “-er”.  The Reapers played while guests danced under the tent lights and into the night.  Check it out:

Everything was amazing that day, as one might expect from a family of event planners.  But as perfectly as the day unfolded, it was the unbridled celebration of Casey and Dub by everyone present that stood out more than anything else.  Pat, the father of the bride, began his speech by saying , “I loooove me some Casey Wyatt…”  A crowd sweaty from dancing cheered, whistled and whooped in agreement, ourselves included. Love, togetherness, good times and some wild stories to tell the next day: that’s what a Wyatt wedding is all about.  One of the guests ribbed me and said, “I’m sure you see a lot of weddings but Wyatt weddings are the best, right?”  Word.

Check out this slideshow of our favorites from the day and if you were a guest and would like to be notified by email when all the photos are available for viewing, click here.  Casey and Dub, congratulations on your marriage and thank you so much for inviting us to be part of such a memorable event.  To the Wyatt family: party on…

Posted by Mel @ 7:20 pm, in Weddings | 3 Comments | Permalink

Baby Caroline came into the world on August 30th, a day I can confirm is a good day to be born since we share the same birthday.  If you believe the horoscopes, Caroline is destined to become a creative perfectionist.  Even if you don’t believe in horoscopes, Caroline is destined to look forward to the first day of school more than the average kid since it will mean her birthday is near.  Birthday cake does have a way of sweetening the end of summer a bit.

As you can see, Caroline is just perfect and Annie has taken to motherhood like a natural.  Enjoy this slideshow of the session or view the whole session by clicking here.  Already I can’t wait for our three month shoot!

Posted by Mel @ 5:00 pm, in Newborns, Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

Yep, you read that right, a surprise wedding.  When Ali first contacted me about shooting the event, I had to ask what exactly a surprise wedding was!  Ali explained that she and Michael had planned an engagement party for family and friends on Solomon’s Island, a boating village on the Maryland side of the Chesapeake Bay where Michael proposed.  After much consideration, they decided it might be a better idea to forego the pomp and circumstance of a wedding and get married among family and friends in a more casual and relaxing atmosphere.  So they developed a plan to tell their guests to meet at the local Tiki Bar for cocktails in the late afternoon after returning from day trips of hiking, kayak and sailing.  Once everyone was gathered at the Tiki Bar, they would announce the real plan: to walk down the street to St. Peter’s Church for a ceremony, right across the street from the restaurant.  A minor detour for a major event.

Its worth noting the following line from a rough itinerary that Ali sent me the week before the wedding.  As I told her, never in many years of receiving wedding itineraries had we seen the following:

4:30 – 5pm  Party moves from Tiki Bar to Chapel.

Awesome.

They confided that keeping their intentions a secret for as long as they did was really hard.  There were some security breaches along the way so we’re not entirely sure how many of their weekend guests knew the real deal but the photos of the big announcement demonstrate both surprise and/or approval:

After the ceremony we took a few group shots of everyone outside the chapel before the group headed for dinner.  We loved the atmosphere at Solomon’s Pier and the clams looked pretty good too!

Here’s a slideshow with our favorites from the day and if you were a guest and would like to be notified by email when all the photos are available for viewing, click here.  Congrats Ali and Michael and thanks for inviting us to be part of something so unique!

Posted by Mel @ 9:54 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink

I’ve been holding this post for awhile, waiting for just the right time to share it.  Melanie and Neal had a beautiful small town wedding in Onancock, Virginia last year with bright colors and many Southern, summer accents.  They chose a Queensberry duo album in classic black leather and matting and I’m very excited to finally share photos of the finished product.  

Duo books are unique because they combine both matted and digital pages, resulting in a very unique construction: its no surprise that they are our most popular album option.  Another perk of duo albums is the option to add wing (gatefold) and flip pages.  Wing pages create a dramatic opening sequence by splitting the first image you encounter down the middle into two doors that swing open into a layout, inviting the viewer into the story.  It made sense to use a photo of Melanie and Neal coming out of the church as our opening wing page so that the wings would open just like the church doors.  While photographing the book, I noticed that the church doors open into a photo of a window: it was unintended but nice to know that my subconscious still plays an active role in these things.  Check out this sequence to see how it works!

I am including a few screen shots of various layouts from this album design as well as a some detail shots so you can see how this lovely book came together.  If you would like to check out the entire layout, click here. 

Posted by Mel @ 2:46 pm, in Albums | No comments | Permalink