Planning a wedding is easy task said no one ever… Have you tried planning one in the middle of a pandemic crisis? Just the thought of it gave me chills….. Well, until I shot Kara & Tim’s wedding!

When they first started planning out their big wedding, they never thought that anything like a world spread virus would push them to make big changes! Many times during the planning they felt like they were sacrificing a lot. Changing their date was not an option, so they decided to reduce the guest list and focus on everybody’s safety.

As most of my photographer friends know, we go through multiple phases in our carrier. From excitement and loving our whole shoot, all the way to doubting everything we do.  I believe that part of it is because, as artists we strove for perfection, and while that pushes us to become better at our art, we sometimes lose sight of appreciate the beautiful moments we have captured. This past year I have particularly struggled with this. But a wedding that began as a literal natural disaster, that erased all of the hard planning for their perfect day taught me to seek the beauty in what is in front of us.

I am beyond honored to have one of my images win one of the biggest photography contests in the wedding industry. When I started this career I never considered I would win awards, I just wanted to capture beautiful pictures. While I was growing as an artist I didn’t realize that I was growing as a person too. These are the images I aspire to capture for all of my clients. Images that tell their story, photos that they will look at twenty years from now and recognize themselves and all the special details, photographs that will make them relive every emotion of their special day.

Lauren & Jacob’s wedding was one of the most fun weddings I shot. They were both so laid back and easy to work with and as you can see from the images they had a blast!

Starting with their special dance walking down the aisle, to their toasts and sparkler exit, you can tell that it was a happy and fun day! And their sweet dog Alice was part of it too!

I asked them what was their favorite part from the day,

I first met Erin in 2010, when she became my next door neighbor. I had just had my son and that was the same year I started photography professionally. Soon enough, Erin and her twin sister, became my models. Being there to photograph Erin & Devon’s wedding was a lot more than just being their wedding photographer, I was a family member.

Their wedding was supposed to take place in 2018, but unfortunately a very terrible accident happened in their family so they had to postpone. It made their relationship stronger and make them aware of how fragile life can be, making them enjoy every moment with their loved ones even more.

Their day went by so beautifully, full of emotions, at West Manor Estate. The groomsmen all elegant and tight in their tuxedos and the bridesmaids gorgeous in their mismatched silver sage, dusty blue and burgundy dresses. The cake was a cappuccino flavor, Devon’s favorite flavor!

Rachel contacted me more than a year before her wedding day and then I didn’t hear from her for over a month, which made me think that she had picked another wedding photographer. It felt weird cause we immediately got along, so I decided to send her a follow up email. Her response will always be one of my favorites! She said, I’m sorry if I didn’t get back sooner, we were getting the last details together before booking you, I would die if I didn’t have you as my wedding photographer! She seriously made my day, my month and whole year! lol

Rachel & Chris’s wedding was seriously like a fairytale… They exchanged their vows in front of family and friends having the woods of Four Fillies Lodge as their background. Rachel’s bouquet was a stunning cascade made out of roses and greenery and her bridesmaids had little lanterns filled with the same greenery and red roses. The forest was filled with white lilies based out of “Aladin”, Rachel’s favorite Disney movie. Their three tier cake was an almond cake with raspberry buttercream, and a red velvet cake with white chocolate buttercream. Every little detail was picked with so much attention and love, up to their first dance. “We wanted to pick a classic song and have a fun choreographed dance. Chris always complained that he couldn’t dance and the only dance I knew was the box step, taught to me by my father as a little girl. One evening , the song “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran came on and we began singing it to each other. While the song was playing Chris took my hand and we began dancing; He asked me to teach him the box step. From that moment on, every time the song played we would practice the dance. It not only became our song, it became our dance. Our first dance felt flawless because it was purely us, nothing else mattered; it was just the two of us.”

Here is a little more of Rachel & Chris’s story…

Pink is almost every little girls favorite color and what’s better than pink is having different shades of it in your wedding details. Add some greenery and a pop of wine and you get this elegant and colorful look that Heidi had on her wedding day!

Of course, when you hire a professional wedding planner & design artist, like Caroline la Rocca that translates your ideas in beautiful designs, then you know you can’t go wrong!

Heidi & Dizzy’s day started at Hotel Roanoke, where they got ready with the wedding party, then moved to Virginia Mountain Vineyards for their ceremony & reception.

How they met: Brooklyn & Bryan met at Radford College through a mutual friend and actually didn’t like each other when they first met. They hung out together a few times, then went separate ways for about a year, until he decided to contact her again which ignited communication between the two for a few months.

How he proposed: One night after having dinner together, Bryan asked Brooklyn to be his girlfriend at the Mill Mountain Star! I am so glad he did because the connection between them is so intense, as you can see in their engagement pictures that I took at Smith Mountain Lake – the place where they spend most of their time now and that they made their peaceful place.

Chelsea & Mitch’s wedding day was perfect in every aspect. When she walked down the aisle, in her elegant gown by Essence of Australia, it was a really emotional moment for everyone and especially for Mitch. The ceremony and the reception took place in the classic and charming wedding Patrick Henry Ballroom. After the first dances, the amazing band took over and the whole night was just filled with dancing and fun!

How they met – Amy and Brian were out with friends in downtown Roanoke and met at Lucky’s. They were in a big group and were introduced but they didn’t actually have their first date until months later,  when Brian asked Amy for coffee, on St. Patrick’s Day weekend. 
Their first official date was at Local Roots. 

I started traveling when I was 8 with my family and my mom always made sure that we enjoyed the journey not just the arrival to where we were going and the more I travel the more I realize how much I love it and how it defined me as an artist.

This was my first trip to Pacific City, Oregon and even though, I wasn’t there for long I loved it!  The views from our little hotel room, the walks on the beach, even getting stuck in the sand with our rental!!! lol