Katie & Steve’s wedding ceremony was at the beautiful Sarah Duke Gardens in Durham, NC with a reception following at the Umstead Hotel in Cary, NC. The gardens are a beautiful place to have a wedding and, of course, have some wedding photography as well.
This year I’ve had alot of “travel” involved wedding photography clients. Either I’m traveling to a particular destination or the bride & groom are traveling here. Katie & Steve fit the profile, well, exactly. They currently live in Texas and decided on getting married in North Carolina because of its central location to their friends and family. I remember how difficult it was planing my own wedding so I can only imagine removing the ability to meet with people face to face. However, on Saturday, it was obvious that all the planning, phone calls and even facebook chats (guilty) made it worth it. With an outdoor wedding, we really kept our eyes on the sky as the forecast was calling for scattered showers. On the ride over to Duke Gardens, Katie would look up nervously at the sky just to make sure the weather was behaving. Once we arrived, I think the weather got the message because the sun same out and made for a beautiful ceremony. With storm clouds approaching after the wedding, we got thru our formals and made some pretty awesome photos with the looming clouds before heading back to the Umstead Hotel.
After a quick trip back to the hotel, the surprises were endless: A helicopter grooms cake from Sweet Memories, beautifully decorated and coordinated flowers from the Watered Garden and, of course, dinner from the Umstead. Randy from Joe Bunn DJ got the party started with dancing and Katie’s father brought the room to tears (yes, me as well) with his performance of a song he wrote for his daughter. After the cake cutting and dancing, everyone got back to the dancing & celebrating of Katie & Steve’s beautiful wedding.
Congrats to you both! I am honored I was present to capture your day and produce some beautiful photos for you to remember it by. Speaking of, here’s a selection of images from the day.
Wedding: Sarah P. Duke Gardens – Durham, SC
Reception – The Umstead Hotel – Cary, NC
Flowers: The Watered Garden – Raleigh, SC
Cake: Sweet Memories – Raleigh, SC
DJ: Joe Bunn DJ – Randy Bennett- Raleigh, NC
