Riley and Vance… we love them so much we don’t even know where to begin with this blog post.  Back in 2008 we shot the wedding of Vance’s brother, Stanford.  After seeing Stanford’s wedding images, Riley and Vance knew we were the photographers for them and asked us to shoot their wedding, as well.  The wedding took place on Valentine’s Day 2009 at Vance’s parents beautiful home (the same place as Stanford’s wedding).  Vance’s mom remembered us and greeted us when we walked in the door and asked if we wanted her to fix us some lunch (she is SSSOOOO sweet!!!).  We just love her to pieces!  Since we had work to do (and we had just gorged ourselves on McDonald’s), we declined her offer for lunch and started shooting all of the beautiful décor around the house.  Everything was pink and red and just made you feel warm and fuzzy all over. 

Riley arrived shortly afterwards and we started her getting ready session… all the girly stuff… details of the dress and the shoes, candid images of her putting her makeup on, etc.  This is one of our favorite parts of the day because it gives us a chance to connect with the bride and photograph her last moments as a single woman.  The anticipation and preparation is always visible in the images and we love that.  Grooms can’t possibly understand all the effort their brides go through to look so beautiful on the wedding day.  And, boy-oh-boy, did Riley look beautiful!!  Our favorite thing about Riley is that she is not only STUNNING on the outside, but she is such a warm and friendly person on the inside; Vance is getting the best of both worlds!!  We also shot candid images of Vance getting ready and it was like déjà vu because he looks so much like his brother, Stanford, whom we had photographed in that same room just months earlier.  But we made sure to put a new spin on the images so his would be different from Stanford’s.  We try to capture the personalities of each client so each wedding looks different, even if the venue or the décor or even the people are similar to another wedding.  Riley and Vance decided to see each other before the ceremony, so they actually were able to help each other get ready (i.e. Vance zipped Riley’s dress, etc.).  What special moments those were!!  The ceremony took place in the house and was so peaceful and sweet.  There were high windows providing lots of natural light, which we love.  Riley accidentally tried to put Vance’s wedding band on his right hand instead of his left, so it was cute to hear the guests snickering about that.  After the ceremony we took Riley and Vance outside and shot their newlywed portraits.  We even incorporated some of the pink and red balloons.  They took well to our direction and allowed us to be creative with their posing and we love the images we got.  We love when clients just relax and TRUST us with their portraits because the images really take on a new feeling when that happens.  We think the clients’ personalities and love for one another really come through the images that way.  Then we headed back in and joined their reception.   The first dance, the cake cutting, the speeches… all of it was great.  They even had a little bonfire going in the backyard.

At the end of the reception we went to say our goodbyes to the happy couple and were taken aback with their comments.  They went on and on about how great we were to work with, how they loved our enthusiasm and passion for what we do, and how they’re going to refer everyone to us, etc.  Most of our clients have nice things to say at the end of the wedding, but Riley and Vance get the trophy!!  Zahra even started crying a little bit (but I think she hid it pretty well).  Riley and Vance, thank you so much for being such genuine, down-to-earth people and for allowing us to be a part of your unforgettable Valentine’s Day wedding.  Thank you for recognizing our passion and work ethic and for taking the time to tell us you appreciated us.  We can’t tell you how much we just love you guys to death!!!  Call us the next time you come through Atlanta and we’ll go have drinks!! 

Instead of throwing the bouquet,  Riley had the cutest little things called “cake charms”… each girl pulls a charm out of the cake and they all have a different meaning.  Riley read each meaning out loud. I think some of the girls were planning to use their charms as pendants. Cool idea.