Hey everyone! A few weeks back Kyle and I were able to go visit his family in California for the first time in two years! It was such a great trip and we were pretty sad to have to come home and go back to work. Kyle's next door neighbor Morgan found out I was going to be in town and asked if I would shoot some engagement photos for her and her fiancé while I was around. Of course I said yes! I had a lot of fun with these two. It was also really nice to shoot in a completely different environment than I usually do. Tennessee and California definitely have very different landscapes and colors. It was cool to get some photos that looked super different from what I can normally take in Tennessee! Anyway, I loved working with these two and I'm super happy for them to be getting married in just a few weeks this September!
Chris & Arianne - Henderson, TN Wedding
It was SUCH an honor to be involved in Chris and Arianne's wedding back in June. It was such a beautiful gathering full of incredible details and wonderful people. The wedding was held at the home of one of their friends (my friends too) that used to be an old plantation house. The Noles home has a beautiful yard, perfect for a wedding. Almost everyone I knew was involved in this wedding somehow. All the ladies from church were involved with decorating, planning, setting up, etc. All of the little kids from church were involved as flower tossers, a job which they took very seriously. It was great to be a photographer at a wedding where I knew almost everybody. That rarely happens for me!
Chris and Arianne have such a great love story and a wonderful wedding day story. I hope that I captured their story well and can share a little bit of it with you today.
One of my favorite parts about any wedding is the flowers. I look forward to seeing what kind of flowers each bride will have! A good bouquet can really make a wedding for me. Well guess what - Arianne is as obsessed with flowers as I am! Seriously - this is the most fresh flowers I've seen in one place EVER... and it was glorious. Just glorious.
Oh, don't worry. I took like forty different photos of her bouquet. Here are a few.
Beautiful, right? Told you.
As wedding favors Chris and Arianne gave flower seeds for the guests to take home and grow. I love it!
The Noles house was full of people all day. It was both chaotic and lovely. The children found ways to entertain themselves with music, games, and books.
Arianne made a BEAUTIFUL bride.
This wedding ceremony was definitely the most intimate wedding ceremony I've ever witnessed - and I've been to a few weddings. It was so honest, open, beautiful.
The wedding started with a time of worshipping God!
Joe began the ceremony talking about how God molds us like clay and creates beauty from our lives. After he spoke Chris and Arianne told their own versions of their love story to each other, and Arianne's twin sister Jennalyn created a clay sculpture for the couple.
Here the couple was told to look out at the crowd of their loved ones and soak it all in. So often people bustle through their wedding day so fast they can't even remember it. (By the way - that's what I'm for!). I'm glad Chris and Arianne took time to be the in the moment.
The moment right after the bride and groom walk back up the aisle is one of my very favorite moments because memories like THIS happen!
Hug from mom + group hug with mom and sisters!
I loved this kids table!
After cutting the cake Rebecca, a friend of the couple, performed a song for them. Then they shared their first dance to another song Rebecca performed.
If I had to choose a word to describe this wedding it would definitely be "whimsical". Seen here by the flower girls encircling the dancing couple. Pretty much the whole evening had this vibe. Whimsy and love.
Chris had written a song to Arianne for their wedding. He performed the song for all of us and it was super sweet!
After Chris performed his song he invited all of their musically inclined friends to come up and surprise Arianne. It was so awesome! I've never seen this happen at a wedding and it was really cool. Everyone just brought whatever instrument they could play and joined in.
There were many great aspects of this wedding, but my favorite was that Chris and Arianne are STUPID in love. Like so, so, so in love. It was obvious and radiating that they absolutely ADORE each other. You'll see what I mean...
This is Zachary. This is not his love story, but he is really cute. He's about to be a big brother too!
Also, this is by far the longest blog post I've ever done! You're welcome. Or I'm sorry. Either one. :)
Kelli & Josh - Chattanooga, TN Wedding
Back in May I was blessed to be able to document this awesome couple's wedding day. Josh and Kelli are both such sweet people and it was great to be with them on their wedding! July 4th is a special day for the two of them, so I really tried to get this post done yesterday as a little gift to them. I tried but just couldn't make it happen! Here it is though, a day late, in honor of their (dating) anniversary. Happy Fourth of July and may you have many more together!
Josh didn't want to see Kelli before the ceremony, but Kelli always fixes Josh's hair because apparently it can be unruly. We thought it would be cute to get a photo of her fixing his hair, even though he still didn't see her. I thought it was pretty cute.
One of the bridesmaids doing a little pre ceremony nail polishing.
Above are the pennants that were hanging on the windows surrounding the entire sanctuary. I had never seen this idea and I thought it was so great! What a cool decoration idea!
Look how happy they are!
Since we were in Chattanooga we of course went to the famous bridge! What we didn't know is that Relay For Life was taking place that weekend and there were thousands of people on the bridge and in the park below for the event. The couple and I miscommunicated and they ended up parking on a different side of the bridge than I did and walked the entire length of the bridge to find me! Oops. It was nice though, because we had live music and an audience while we did our shoot!
I really prefer to do a first look and get all of the photos of the couple out of the way before the ceremony. However, a couple's wedding should be exactly what THEY want it to be, and these two didn't want to see each other before. Instead of cutting into their reception time, we met somewhere after the entire event was over. One really nice thing about doing it this way is that there's no schedule to worry about! The wedding is over, we can relax. I feel like this shoot with Kelli and Josh was so relaxed and flexible because they didn't have anything to worry about! And they were already married, so they were in a pretty good mood. :)
THIS LIGHT THOUGH. Another great thing about doing photos after this particular wedding is that it was the PERFECT time of day. This is not always the case, but for these two we managed to time it perfectly. Check that light...
As I said, we had live music. At one point these two broke out doing the Stanky Leg. So naturally, I grabbed a photo of it.
Lauren & Brandon - Nashville Engagement
Meet Lauren and Brandon.
My first real interaction with Lauren and Brandon was at a wedding I shot last year at Crown Winery in Humboldt, TN. Lauren was a bridesmaid and Brandon was a faithful assistant throughout the setting up process. I remember showing Lauren how disgusting (really... DISGUSTING) my feet were after shooting a wedding all day. I probably should have tried to leave a better impression than showing my dirty feet to someone, but I guess it worked! I was so happy that Lauren contacted me when she and Brandon got engaged! I'm excited for their wedding in November.
This engagement session in Nashville was so much fun. Lauren told me they weren't really "field of flowers" kind of people and they were looking for more industrial looking engagement photos. Challenge accepted. I took them to The Gulch in Nashville, where almost everything fits that description.
From shooting with Lauren and Brandon I learned a little bit about them. That's why I loved doing engagement shoots before the wedding.
1. They laugh A LOT. I love it! They really make each other smile, which I think is a good thing if you're planning to get married.
2. Brandon loves coffee, Lauren does not.
3. They are both very easily distracted. Haha!
We arrived in The Gulch at the same time, but I had to wait behind someone to pay for my parking for a while, so they stepped into this coffee shop called The Tin Cup. I met them there and decided it was a pretty cool place for photos so that's where we started our shoot. It's lucky I was held up paying for parking because I think Brandon discovered his new favorite coffee. I had to take his cup away for us to take some photos and he was not happy with me. After the session he walked back to the shop and bought more coffee...
Brandon has this super awesome tattoo and I just needed to show it to everyone...
I promise, this just started happening without prompting. So I let it happen and then encouraged it.
I love how much they make each other smile!
Alex & Andrew - Cullman, Alabama Wedding
Back in May I was honored to document Alex and Andrew's love story. Alex was my suite mate for a semester in college, though we knew each other before that. I was SO excited when Alex contacted me about wedding photography. She's so pretty and has great taste so I knew she'd have an incredible wedding. What I learned from rooming with Alex in college is that she has adorable taste, she's really good at math, she keeps her room really clean, and she loves Pretty Little Liars (don't we all).
I didn't meet Andrew until we shot engagement photos (which you can view here: http://www.stephaniebengephotography.com/blog/2015/2/1/alex-andrew-nashville-engagement). When I met him I immediately liked Andrew. Andrew is really nice, likes his shirts well ironed, and takes a long time fixing his hair.
It was such a pleasure spending time with these two, and with everyone else involved in making their special day happen. It was such a beautiful wedding and I'm excited to share it with you!
Adults color too.
Alex's first look with her bridesmaids.
First look with her dad.
First look with her man.
The bride and groom had some family friends who have the MOST BEAUTIFUL house. It took about 15 minutes just to walk around it and scope out photo spots. I couldn't even handle it. I'm so glad we were able to take a little trip out here because it was definitely some gorgeous scenery.
I'm not sure what the technical name for these little treats are, but they were incredible. They're like mini sweet potato pies. I ate way too many and I've decided I want to be buried alive in a pile of these little things and eat my way out.
The bride and groom dancing to Time of My Life. It was amazing.
This little guy was a real party animal, let me tell you. I couldn't get him to chill out.
Alex and Andrew hired an awesome band! They were so much fun and very entertaining.
Alex and Andrew are definitely the kind of folks who love to dance. Their first dance was amazing and choreographed perfectly. They had so much fun at the reception and it was obvious to me how much they enjoyed themselves.
I'm so glad I caught this amazing moment (completely unintentionally by the way). Alex and Andrew were mid dance-off and I was snapping away. I didn't see this until I started editing. That woman behind Andrew with the look of horror on her face is his mother. This moment is my favorite.
Thanks to everyone who made Alex and Andrew's special day possible!
VENDORS:
Hair/Make UP: Jenna Nelson and Andrea Barnett with Salon Luxe
Ceremony: Cullman Church of Christ
Reception Site and Catering: TP Country Club
Cakes: Barnett Bakery
Band: The Flashbacks Showband
Wedding Dress Designer: Jason Alexander
Wedding Dress Shop: Something Blue - Hartselle, AL
Bridesmaid's Dresses: Bridesmaids, Inc.
Menswear: Jos. A. Bank