Green Lovely

Every now and then I escape out into the forest to rejuvenate and refresh. My friend Dana and I took a hike along the Mountains to Sea Trail that runs by the Eno River here in Durham. The mountain laurels were in full bloom and the 17-year cicadas were flying and singing high in the trees. Lovely!

An Elegant Wedding ~ Jan and Matt

Jan and Matt held their wedding at the beautiful Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, NC with a reception following at the Hilton here in Durham, NC. Everyone was so sweet, and the wedding was full of charm.

The beautiful bride in the neighboring Coker Arboretum.





... and the handsome groom ...



Vicky Jamieson-Drake of Chapel of the Cross and Jay Minnick of Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church were the officiants of the lovely ceremony.















A little bit of love in the sun while the guests headed to the cocktail hour.











The beautiful cake was created by Sweet Memories Bakery while the flowers were by the English Garden.









The groom's cake was covered with illustrations showing what Jan and Matt love to do.



Cheers to Jan and Matt!



Thank you for having us Jan, Matt and family! Alexa and I really enjoyed photographing your beautiful wedding.

Mary Paulsen's Crazy Art

Wendy, Simon and I were driving to Holden Beach on the way to photograph Kate and Jacob's wedding. We passed what seemed to be a wonderland of treehouses and other inexplicable objects along the side of the road. The next day on our way home, we had to stop by to see what all of the clutter was. The visual cluster of objects was the amazing work of Mary Paulsen. We wandered through her whimsical maze of treehouses, and glass houses, and trash turned to art collections in awe and with a little bit of trepedation (those treehouses I'm pretty sure aren't built to code!). Mary was sitting inside one of her creations rocking and listening to some loud gospel music. She was kind enough to step outside and share some of her ideas behind her work. We left feeling inspired at her drive and not a little overwhelmed with what we saw. Definitely check out this woman's work if you ever visit to Holden Beach!

The Winner Is ... Rhiannon!

Thanks for all of the comments on selecting your favorite floral layout last week! Rhiannon is the winner of the Free 8x10 from my Floral Portfolio. Rhiannon, you can go ahead and pick out your free 8x10! The layout above is the one that was choosen for the baby girl nursery! I love it. Please contact me if you'd like custom artwork for your home.

Flowers for a Baby Girl

I was asked to compile my flower images so a soon to be mother could pick out a few for her baby girl's nursery. You may view my Floral Portfolio here: Florals These were some of her favorite images that I compiled into three different layouts.

Layout One:



Layout Two:



Layout Three:



Comment on which layout you like best and you will enter to win a Free 8x10 of any image from my Floral Portfolio! I will announce the winner a week from today, so check back to see if you've won!

Bridals ~ Jan at the Coker Arboretum

Jan and Matt just got married, so I can now post her beautiful bridal portraits! She got married at her church, the Chapel of the Cross, on Franklin St. in Chapel Hill. The beautiful Coker Arboretum, part of the NC Botanical Gardens backs up to the church, so it made for a most beautiful and meaningful location for Jan's bridal portraits. Everything was in bloom and completely lovely, including the happy bride!





The beautiful boquet was created by the English Garden florist in Raleigh.









Isn't she lovely!



Just one more picture of the pretty flowers!





A dreamy landscape for a nature loving bride.