On Friday evening Sam headed out to Gloucester, Virginia to join the fun as the Ferguson family kicked off the weekend’s wedding events with a fabulous rehearsal dinner for Logan and Joseph at the Ware River Country Club.  The weather was beautiful, the toasts were hilarious and, as my husband was sure to notice, there was some really good beer on hand for guests to enjoy.  I was loving on the tartan ties and table linens.  Here are just a few shots from the evening with more from the wedding to come momentarily!

Posted by Mel @ 3:43 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink

Gorgeous.  Gorgeous weather, a gorgeous bride, a gorgeous place.  Jenn and Chris’ wedding at Tuckahoe Plantation, one of our very favorite local venues, was the stuff little girls dream of without any of the pretense that usually comes with such lofty hopes.  And that’s probably because Jenn and Chris are such relaxed, fun, and kind people.  They would have been happy no matter what.  Every guest we came across at this wedding was truly kind.  Sam said more than once, “everyone here is so…. nice!?”   Yes, I threw the question mark in there because prior to this wedding we were convinced that everyone has at least one relative that everyone else feels the need to apologize for… but maybe not?  Or maybe that guy just couldn’t make it?

A farm dog with soulful eyes and a nice smile decided to participate in the ceremony.  He favored the center of the aisle and even accompanied Jenn and her father part way down.  Throughout the ceremony his head found the sympathetic hands of guests who gave it a good scratch, he chewed on plastic cups (that more than one person beside myself tried to throw out of range just to keep the crunching noise to a minimum… to no avail…), and he even cruised right up to the alter more than once.  His presence didn’t ruffle any feathers.  A friend of mine believes that dogs are old souls who come back to watch over us.  Maybe that’s why it felt like he belonged.

Chris’ father co-officiated the ceremony and gave a very personal homily.  A family member painted a beautiful family tree for everyone to sign in lieu of a guest book.  The soft pink, silver and Tiffany blues were perfect for spring.

Jenn and Chris’ exit was a little different: the idea was for guests to use their cameras like paparazzi to get the couple to make crazy faces.  Sam had the “safe” vantage point so I decided to do something a little more experimental and keep my shutter open, figuring that as flashes went off I might get multiple funny faces.  I’m not crazy about the picture but the spirit of the idea is there (check out Jenn’s face in the upper right), I know what to do differently next time.  Anyway, I decided to post it just to show that this old dog is still learning new tricks!

Here’s a slideshow of our favorites from the day and if you would like to check out their online gallery when its available, click here.  Congrats to Jennifer and Chris on a beautiful day and a fantastic night!

Posted by Mel @ 8:33 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink

Katie and Aaron were married at Derbyshire Baptist Church with a reception at the Willow Oaks Country Club here in Richmond, Virginia.  The weather was perfect: sunny, breezy, warm but not hot, cool but not cold.  As Aaron said, its the kind of weather you would order up for your wedding day if it were possible to place such an order.

Katie hales from Radford University and Aaron from VCU.  I realize that I am about to get hate mail from our beloved Hokie clientele but I don’t know what else to say: we haven’t seen a party quite like this!  I’m no wuss, I can dive into a crowd of thrashing dancers with the best of them, mosh pits do not phase me and I do not cower from the occasional crowd surfer.  But there I was in the middle of a country club on a Saturday evening, wishing I had protective padding and maybe even a helmut.  It was that live…

I’ll put up some photos here to sum it up or you can check out the slideshow to see more.  And if that’s just not enough, click here to be notified when their online gallery is available.  Congrats to Katie and Aaron on such an awesome wedding, its obvious you had the time of your lives!

Oh, and to this kid: work it, lil’ man…

Posted by Mel @ 8:37 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink

If you were looking for me in the middle of a teenage funk, it was a pretty good bet that I could be found sulking in Old Town, Alexandria.  I took a series of drawing classes at the Torpedo Factory at the age of 15 and adopted the area as my personal reflective space, somewhere I could go take my tormented soul to enjoy an ice cream cone from Ben and Jerry’s anonymously while staring out at the water.  When Erica told me that she and Mark were planning a wedding reception in the Torpedo Factory I was intrigued, remembering the concrete floors, cat walks and pleasant “art” smells created by paints and thinners as I wondered how the space would translate.  It translated awesome…what a great spot for a funky, modern reception!  The ground floor was professionally lit and transformed into a wonderland of silver tablescapes to complement the blue hues that followed us through the day from the flowers to the pier lights.

Victoria of Perfect Detail Event Planning made sure that everything was in place and was fantastic to work with.  Guests enjoyed cocktails in a tent off the back of the main building facing the pier as the sun set before they were invited inside to dance beneath disco lights and lanterns.  Erica looked a-mazing, we knew that she and Mark were going to be a lot of fun to work with from their engagement shoot last fall.  It was great to see the Wilberger and Clifton families again and we’re thrilled to add the Howells to this group of crazy, fun clients that we have had the privilege of working for over the past few years.   We really do love you guys…

Here’s a slideshow with our favs and click here if you would like to be notified by email when Erica and Mark’s online gallery is available for viewing.  Congrats to Erica and Mark and thank you for inviting us to be a part of it!

Posted by Mel @ 9:24 pm, in Weddings | 1 comment | Permalink