Ahh.. the fall. I’ve written about this before but, well, as it’s my favorite time of year, I will bring it back up again. Fall in North Carolina has one stunning feature, the bluest skies of the year. So, of course, when Cindy & Adam hired me for their downtown Raleigh wedding, I was very excited because of their ceremony location, Sacred Heart Cathedral in downtown Raleigh offers some beautiful scenery to shoot their wedding portraits, both inside and out.
We started off Crabtree Valley Marriott wedding, where Cindy and Adam were in two different suites getting ready. Ginger Mullins, a vary talented Hair & Makeup artist in Raleigh, and my wife, was doing Cindy’s wedding hair and airbrushed her makeup to make her even more radiant. While Cindy was preparing, Adam and the guys were in their room playing with a toy helicopter so much that, when I got there, it was on a charger (for the 2nd time I believe). That is one thing I really love about weddings, such stark contrast from the bride’s room to the grooms.
We headed over to Sacred Heart for the wedding ceremony. I can honestly say, Sacred Heart is one of the most gorgeous wedding locations in the area and the staff is so accommodating and pleasant to work with that is really is a pleasure to shoot weddings here. The ceremony had a great couple of moments, one being a family relative was brought up to perform part of it. I didn’t verify but the feeling I got was this was unscripted and, judging by the prompting, no one knew about it before hand.
After the ceremony, we headed down to Fayetteville St to shoot a few wedding day photos with the bride, groom and bridal party. That’s really the great thing about a downtown Raleigh wedding, all of the locations you can walk to in such a short period of time. After the wedding portrait photo session, we headed back to the Crabtree Valley Marriott for their wedding reception.
One common theme I had picked up on throughout the evening was how great all of Adam’s and Cindy’s friends are. I could definitely see how close everyone at the wedding was and I got to experience a few of the inside jokes – from Justin Bieber cd’s as wedding gifts to a little Karaoke voice mail. After the parent dances and cake cutting, the dance floor blew up (Thanks to Mitch from Joe Bunn DJ) and, as the night wore on, I saw, for the first time, a, well, “forced” garter toss. Cindy had decided she didn’t want to toss the garter and, well, her friends decided otherwise, so they dragged her out on the floor (again, great friends) to do it.
I want to send my sincerest Thank You to Cindy, Adam, their families and friends for your gracious hospitality and open your family to me on their wedding day. It was a real honor to capture such a special day for everyone. Of course, here are a few photos. :)
