Emily and Stephen – September 26, 2009 – Part 1

Oh where do I begin? Back in the Spring, I decided to give away a free wedding. Well not the whole wedding, but at least the photography coverage. Emily and Stephen were the big winners with the majority of the vote! Click here to read their story.

So, on Friday, September 25th, my hubby and drove up to Hickory for the big wedding weekend. Ironically, I had photographed a wedding in Hickory, NC exactly a year previously. When we got to the hotel we were pleasantly surprised by a super duper cute gift basket that Emily and her mom had put together for us. It had all kinds of local goodies..breads they had made, jellies, coffee mugs, chocolate...it was so so nice!

After freshening up a bit, it was time to head up the mountain (yes, I said mountain) for the rehearsal. There was only one problem..it had been raining all day..and the wedding (and rehearsal) was outside. Well, the show must go on so in between rain showers we still had the rehearsal and then came up with a back up plan for the next day if it continued to rain. The venue was absolutely gorgeous, so on a selfish note, I was praying for good weather because I wanted to take some fabulous pictures.

Fast forward to Saturday morning...

The girls picked me up at the hotel (the hubby got to go fishing) and after a quick trip to Starbucks we met the rest of the girls at the nail salon. Unfortunately..it was still raining. Uggh.

The girls got their nails done..

After getting the nails done, it was time for the bridal luncheon. This sweet sweet woman, named Ruby, from their church wanted to have a luncheon for Emily and her girls. Her house was decorated so pretty for fall and she brought out all the fine china. The food was heavenly! Ms Ruby entertained us with her many stories from being a concierge for a major airline and told us about all the famous people she had met, etc. It was so fun!

After lunch, it was time to get the hair done. The hair salon was so cute, there was only like 3-4 chairs and we were the only ones there so it was great for being able to take pics. 

After everybody got their hair did, it was time to head up the mountain. Did I mention it was still raining? Did I mention that the wedding and the reception were outdoors and it was about 60 degrees?? Just sayin.

In any case, we went to a family friend’s house where she had a big beautiful bathroom for the girls to get ready in. Before getting made up, there was about an hour where the girls (and moi) got to chill out on the couches (under blankets) and watch football. These girls are big into their college football!

Time to put on the dress! Emily’s grandmother made her dress. It was gorgeous and just perfect for her.

Right before the dress went on, the girls gave Emily the gift that Stephen had sent for her – a beautiful necklace. Here she is showing Grandma...

Since her Grandmother made the dress, I think it was only appropriate that she help get her dressed, along with Carlie, the Maid of Honor.

Since it was still raining, and the wedding was on a mountain, outdoors (have I mentioned that before)..Emily opted to wear her boots. I love it!! It was all Emily! 

As you can tell, it was a big weekend and there are lots of pics to share, so I’ve decided to split the blog posts up into 2 or 3. Up next..you get to see how creative we got with formal pics, since the wedding was on the side of a mountain, outdoors, in the rain :)