When I first met Erin & Graham, two things stood out to me… one, they were really laid back & loved the ideas we talked about for their wedding and, two, they selected two really cool venues for their wedding day. Jones Chapel on the campus of Meredith College is a gorgeous chapel with beautiful grounds, a wonderful amount of natural light and central to many great reception locations. A relatively new location for receptions in the Raleigh area is Vaughn Towers. Vaughn towers, if you didn’t know, is the building at Carter-Finely stadium on the NC State campus which houses the press box, private suites and catering facilities. Talk about a unique place for your wedding reception – especially if you are a State fan.
Erin & Graham chose to see each other before the wedding ceremony at Jones Chapel. I always talk to my clients about this and the real benefit is we can take care of alot of the “formal” photos before hand leaving us a little more time to work one on one with the bride and groom afterwards as well as get them to the reception quickly. We found a nice quiet spot on the Meredith college campus for their “first look”. I tried to get Erin to sneak up on Graham but, well, you just can’t do that wearing a long wedding dress. After we had a few minutes together (and yes, I left them alone for a few minutes as well), we headed down to the water for group photos.
The wedding ceremony inside Jones Chapel went perfectly and was quite a lovely service. We ended up photographing a few mire family members who arrived after our first wedding portrait session and then headed over to Vaughn Towers for their wedding reception. Vaughn towers has 3 floors, with the 1st floor being the open area for wedding receptions and the 3rd floor houses the chancellors suite and many other private suites. Being a big NCSU football fan, I am stoked every time I get a chance to photograph here. The venue as, of course, a gorgeous view of the football field and it’s layout is perfect for a wedding reception (being a large open space).
Ryan from Spin got the party going and, let me say, wow. Once the initial dances were over the dance floor remained packed the entire evening! Even during the breaks in the action for the cake cutting and bouquet/garter toss, everyone just stayed on the dance floor to get a great spot for when the music started.
I’d like to thank Erin & Graham for being, well, such an awesome couple! I hope you enjoy a small selection of photos from their wedding day!
