This past weekend, me, my sister and hubby went to upstate NY for our cousin Don’s hubby’s Life Celebration, and a celebration it was!! More to come later in the blog post…

Here is all of our extended second and third cousins, aunts and uncles on our mom’s side, we met so many family members for the first time! We had a blast getting to know each other and hearing all of our history, much of which has gotten lost since my grandma has Alzheimer’s and we never learned about our family from her before she got sick.

And here are some of the old photos we got to see while we were visiting…

Our mom when she was 2, the same age as Poppy.

The restaurant our great grandfather owned in Queens, Constantine’s.

Our Great Grandpa in the middle and the little boy to the left as you look at the photo was our Grandpa, Jim, our mom’s dad and to the right of him is Don’s mama.

Here is a photo from Chris + Don on their wedding day. When I lived in NY they would take me out on the town, they were so in love and they would crack me up, Chris was hilarious! He will live on through his family, friends and all his stories but he is deeply missed, life isn’t the same without him.

These two have so many insanely talented friends, many are actors and actresses on Broadway, and they sang Chris’ favorite songs, had us all shout out old songs we liked and created a show tunes piano piece based on the songs we chose. It was nothing short of amazing to watch! All of the kids mouths (along with mine) were just hanging open. Talent like this is lost in today’s time, most kids or younger families aren’t exposed to music, dancing and talent like this! If it weren’t for Donnie and Chris, I may never have experienced it.

David Green, sang “I am What I Am.” He is married to Judy Kayr who is nominated for a Tony for “Nice Work.” I think he should be nominated as well with that voice!

Our cousins put together a piece, “Chris Duffy by the Numbers.” It was beautiful and such a tear jerker!

They have been together for 39 years, yes. 39. But the state of NY only considered them married for 91 days. They are the happiest and most in love couple. They balanced each other, as Don told me, Chris was the flyer and he was the rock.

This life celebration came right after Amendment One in NC was passed. All love is beautiful, important and valid and why NC doesn’t see this is beyond me. To all of our LGBTQ friends and family, we are deeply sorry for the inequality NC has brought. We will continue to try to change it!

I was soooo excited to meet these two boys, we photographed Megan + Michael’s wedding 4 years ago, and are soooo incredibly honored to be able to document their new fammy sammy!
Wyatt, Zachary and their first born, Calli are three peas in a pod. The boys love laying there watching Calli and she likes to run off and explore, come back, sniff them, give them kisses and then head out again. They are going to have fun growing up together!
Mom + Dad have mastered TEEEEEEAAAAAMMMM WORK! When one boy starts to get fussy without looking at each other they break out in the exact same song and the kiddos get quiet, listen and smile, it’s like magic. They make parenting look so easy, especially for 2!
Thank you like crazy for having me out to play with you!

We were sooooo excited to see the supermoon this weekend, it was raining on Saturday but we got to enjoy it on Sunday! Candace and I have been planning this shoot for over a month, going through all the ideas, what we envisioned, how to make it work… the logistics were rather difficult but it made us laugh and do lots of problem solving! Thank goodness her hubby is an electrician!
We have a blast bouncing ideas around and making it happen! If there is anything you have in mind, no matter how wild it may seem, let us know! Or if you would like a dusk/nighttime shoot or photos on the cloud, we’d love it!
More details on everything the shoot entailed and some behind the scenes photos will be coming soon.

I have had sooo much fun working with these two on their albums! They couldn’t decide which images to use so they got two albums telling their wedding story. We debated on having 2 albums, one having getting ready, ceremony and portraits and the other having their cocktail hour and reception but we agreed that if they have 2 kiddos they both may want a complete album.
Here is the first album to arrive!

We had such a great time at the portrait party last weekend, Carrie and Candace had a blast playing with the props! A few behind the scenes silly pictures…

Michelle + Paul have been planning their elopement for over a year now and not a single person knew about it besides them, Dr. Dave, me and Carrie and the gals at The Sanderling.
That’s pretty amazing, there is no way I would be able to keep such a wonderful secret!!
They said their vows on the beach, had a picnic complete with bubbly and dinner at The Left Bank.
What a perfect evening!
After the ceremony, Michelle said, “I wish I hadn’t waited so long to marry you!”

This one of Carrie cracked me up!

This little fella was hands down the easiest newborn we have ever photographed! Usually the newborn session takes anywhere from 2-6 hours depending on the baby… there is lots of eating, pooping and peeing and then sleeping. Tons of work goes into those cute sleepy babies!
This morning we arrived and Grigsby was asleep on mama’s chest, we immediately got together all the props we wanted to use, which were mostly Currituck themes (Mons and Josh and Currituck for life!.) Their home is filled with antiques, decoys, old duck prints… so of course, these had to be incorporated!
Once we started photographing him, he was asleep for an hour, woke up and wanted to eat and was right back to sleep! This is only the second time we haven’t been pooped or peed on, we don’t mind either, but it’s a special treat to leave clean!
Loved all the ideas Carrie and Candace came up with! Mons and Josh are more traditional so a photo with all their silver/crystal set up was perfect!

Renee and Jed had such a beautiful wedding on Ocracoke Island. They chose their parents sound front home as the location for their ceremony and reception. Everything was just perfect. Even though it rained, they were able to have the ceremony outside by the water, and then run under the tent to enjoy their food and drinks! We always love to capture the details of your special day. I especially love this shot of their rings.

And this is the view from Renee’s hotel room where she got ready! I wanted to take a picture of the water front with the lighthouse in the background, and than this pelican flew into view and made the picture even better!

I love these silly shots of Renee before her ceremony!

This little stinker was so very nervous about his job as ring bearer. He was crying on the steps, then made it to the aisle and collapsed on the ground. Too stinking cute!!

Jed’s face is priceless as he watches Renee appear at the end of the aisle! And the love in her eyes just makes her glow.

Here are a few more fun and emotional photos from their ceremony.

Candace caught one of our fave moments here! This moment is so tender and sweet.

Everywhere we looked, all the family and friends were having so much fun, and were just so happy for the newlyweds. Renee is so super lucky to have such a wonderful loving sister! I thought I was going to cry at everything Abby did!

The sweets were so YUMMY!

Did I say there was rain? Well the weather decided to clear up just in time for some really delicious evening light! We took full advantage of the change and caught some wonderful moments during the reception! I adore sunsets!

Renee and Jed had all the yard lit up with these beautiful lights, so pretty with their reception tent in the background.

One of my favorite pictures to get, is your reception lit up and shining during the night. I love the color of the sky and the way everything looks so magical.

YAY Sparklers…. I can’t think of anything else to say… except that we LOVE sparklers!

Thank you so much Renee and Jed! We feel truly honored to capture your beautiful day for you! Congratulations.

John has hundreds of pounds of arugula growing and one of Poppy’s favorite things to do is to go out each day and pick it with him. She always tries the raw greens but much prefers it as pesto! If you’re in need of any fresh organic veggies, John will be doing the veggie boxes again this summer!

It was such a great surprise to see John and his beautimus girlfriend, Alisha, on Sunday! We are both from New Bern and our moms were best friends, I am 6 years older than him and used to babysit him and my sister. John is moving to Okinawa for 2 years and came up to visit my sister this weekend before leaving. They swung by to see us and we made them model, he was wearing a comfy grey sweatshirt with a bright orange shirt underneath and luckily under that he had on his white shirt. She was looking beautiful just the way she was!
I am so proud of him and it is sooo great to see these two so happy and in love! You could see the sparks between their lips as they smooched and the twinkle in their eyes as they looked at one another. We didn’t have to prompt a thing with these two, they would just be walking and he would unexpectedly swoop her up and she would just melt in his arms. We love and will miss you, Be SAFE!