One Burg to Another

During one weekend in May, I started in Lynchburg for Sarah and Ernst’s wedding on Friday the 18th, spent the night at my good old former home near LC’s campus, the White Catsle. I then drove to Roanoke on Saturday morning for a family session with Siobhan, Trey and Collins and got back home on Saturday night. On Sunday, I photographed a wedding at Rust Manor with Julie and Eric. This wedding was 10 minutes from my house and probably the closest wedding to home I have ever been a part of. It felt very odd, but after driving some miles to and central Virginia on Friday and Saturday, it felt nice to be close to home.

A Quaint Lynchburg Wedding

I am so excited to share a bit from each of these events and i’m going to start with Sarah and Ernst. If you are one of my Lynchburg friends, you probably know these two! These two met in Lynchburg when Sarah was going to Lynchburg College (playing basketball) and Ernst was at Liberty University (playing football). Their time in the city of Lynchburg has been some of their only time close to one another over the past couple years. Sarah has been in Indiana and Ernst has been finishing up at LU so they have been doing the distance thing for some time. I am so happy for these two and that they are finally going to be living in the same area in Columbus, Ohio! Not only are they moving but they did formally get married last weekend, they also celebrated Ernst’s birthday, Norway’s national day, and his graduation from LU. Needless to say, their lives have been full of celebrations and I’m still grateful that I got to be a part of this one. It was very cozy and quaint of a small crowd with their immediate families, AJ and John Eccles, (shout out) who also married these two! The same crowd will also be there in 2019, for another ceremony and big old celebration with quite a few more than 10 people, which I am also so excited to be a part of! At this particular celebration, however, I learned a couple Norwegian wedding traditions that are so fun and intriguing!

-The couple wears their wedding rings on their right hand!

-When you find their photos below, you will find a traditional Norwegian wedding cake, which is definitely different than what you see at traditional American weddings

(it’s too fun and complex to explain so just check out the photo below :D)

-THEN you will see Sarah and Ernst pulling the top ring off of the cake. Typically, however many rings they pull off is how many kids they are going to have! In this case the rings were pretty snug as it had to travel 200 miles from Greensboro so they just pulled off one BUT we will see if that is the case for these two 🙂 I am sure they will also take 2019’s cake into consideration.

I love learning about traditions like this and seeing them all in person through out the day was truly special. I am so happy for these two and loved being a part of this day, especially since I have known Sarah and her family for some time now! I have actually learned a bit from her dad Robert, a fellow photographer, who I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with since we both were photographing basketball games at LC. I have known his daughter and the lovely bride Sarah since our time at LC! She has accomplished so much in her career since then and I can’t wait to hear about their time in Ohio! Getting to know Ernst has made me even happier for her as I have seriously never seen two people look at each other the way they do. Congrats Sarah and Ernst! Thanks for having me!

Roanoke Family Session

The lovely Siobhan is also a friend of mine from college and seeing her for a few hours in person last weekend as a MOM left me speechless at times. She and Trey are amazing parents to little Collins and I can’t put into words what it was like watching them care for her through out the day. She is such a good baby and was actually one of the most cooperative little ones I have ever photographed. At nearly 6 months she’s close to teething so keeping her hand out of her mouth was the only challenge at times but if that’s the biggest concern during a family session, I’ll take it! She lasted a good while with the camera in her face while also scoping out and walking around downtown Roanoke with her parents and her grandparents. This all made for a solid Saturday afternoon with one of my favorite families and seeing how this family’s life has transformed over the last couple of years has been so fun to see and I can’t wait to visit again. Thanks Siobhan, Trey (Go O’s), and Collins for having me!

Local Leesburg Wedding at Rust Manor

I had been in touch with Julie back in the fall about her May 2018 wedding. We had great conversation back and forth but due to some tough circumstances, we didn’t touch base again until about a month and a half before her wedding day. I was still available for that date and I remember in the moment being so happy that I could be there for Julie and Eric very soon. This was definitely a rare situation but after meeting this couple, and photographing their wedding last weekend, I realized how well this worked out. I typically know my couples pretty well before their wedding with there being more time to talk and get to know one another, and I was definitely a little nervous at first for this one. However, after meeting and talking to Julie and Eric in person for less than an hour, I felt like I had known them for a long time.

When their wedding last Sunday was finally here, I only had the average amount of nerves that I usually do on a wedding day and everything through out the day went perfectly. If you don’t remember, Sunday was sandwiched in between a lot of rain and everyone was happy and probably a little surprised to not see a single rain drop through out the day at their venue. Rust Manor hosted this wedding beautifully and it could not have gone any better. While yes the day was amazing, it did bring some tears to my eyes at a couple of points, which is a VERY RARE occurrence for me. It isn’t often that I will get teary eyed at a wedding or event that I am photographing but I couldn’t help it when…

-Julie’s father, Paul, saw her come down the stairs for the first time

-Their father/daughter dance

-Julie and Eric’s first dance

Julie and Eric’s first dance was so sweet and after watching that, one could tell that these two had been through so much together and that they were in awe to finally have that moment together. Just scroll down and you will see what I am talking about. Huge congrats and lots of love to Julie and Eric!

Thanks for hanging friends!

love and meows,

Gracie