Melissa&Blake ~ Engagement Session

Melissa is a Wake Forest graduate and Blake is a Duke graduate who are living the city life up in NYC. Even though they are from North Carolina, they didn't meet each other until they were living in New York City with a population of 18,976,457... it is funny how life works! While they were down in their home state for a friends wedding, they took an afternoon to walk through Duke Gardens and Duke's West Campus with me for some beautiful engagement portraits. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the session. I can't wait until their wedding next year!





























Thank you for having me guys, and thanks to my sweet hubby for carrying my gear and making us laugh!

Front Yard Garden

I've always dreamed of living in an open valley with mountains surrounding me where I could grow a garden and raise animals. As it is, I live in downtown Durham, with a much smaller yard... but I am still able to live my country life dream! Here are a few of the plants growing in my garden. I photographed a lot of the flowers, but we also have tomatoes, okra, brussel sprouts, onions, potatoes, lavender, tomatillos, kale and broccoli all growing in the front yard as well. It is fun going out before dinner to pick food to eat. I love how fresh everything tastes!

This is our little bungalow, with reprint orders in the mailbox and Chestnut on the lookout!



Native Bee Balm





Another view of our house (before we got the weed wacker working!)



Beautiful nasturtium. The flowers are a sweet and beautiful addition to a fresh salad.



We have garden peas and sweet peas that are just about to finish up their growing season.



Yarrow





Purple Speedwell





Fragrant sage



Basil and my grandmother's old watering can.





Rosemary



An orange lilly poking through the yarrow.



Perfect chard!



Some of you may be wondering where are the pictures of our chickens. They live in the back yard... here is an old post showing our Chickens! Now I'm hungry!

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.