Early last month, I headed out to photograph my first ever Pavilion at Carriage Farm wedding for the lovely Ashley & Devon. After the excitement of the weather we had in September, I was pleased to see the forecast and that we were going to be blessed with a beautiful sunny day out in the countryside.
I met up with Ashley and her bridesmaids in the bridal suite at the venue while Erin headed over to hang out with Devon and his entourage. As I say, I’d never shot at the Pavilion at Carriage Farm before. If you’ve never seen it, it really is a great venue with a lot of clean, directional natural light, especially in the bridal suite. If you’ve ever checked out my blog before, you probably know my style is very much based on a documentary style using and manipulating the available light, so I enjoyed every second we were in there.
Ashley and her planner, Chelsey at The Gathering Co. had done a really god job of putting together a great timeline that maximized the amount of time dedicated to photography. Ashley and her girls were already made up and ready to get dressed when I got there, but we still had over two hours for the getting ready portion of the day, which allowed the bride to have a first look with her dad, a blind first look with her groom where they exchanged letters, and still have plenty of time for portraits both inside the bridal suite and outside in the sunshine. I really enjoy having the freedom of this kind of additional time in order to make sure we get beautiful portraits of everyone in the bridal party as well as the parents of the bride and groom.
Following the ceremony, we had another hour dedicated to portraits, so we were able to take care of those all-important family group shots and still have plenty of time to explore the woods next to the venue and play with the beautiful golden hour sunlight. We took A LOT of great pictures, so we’re only really able to scratch the surface with this blog post, unfortunately. I have. load more I wish I could share, but I don’t want to bore you all.
Anyway, from there, it was into the reception and a first dance lit by the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the pavilion. K9 Entertainment provided a great night of music before we headed out for a sparkler exit with just the bridal party around 11pm.
A big shout-out to all the great people that made Ashley & Devon’s day so great to work on:
Ceremony & Reception: Pavilion at Carriage Farm, Raleigh, NC | Event Coordination: The Gathering Co., Raleigh, NC | Florist: Teacup Floral, Raleigh, NC | Caterer: Cook Shack, Louisburg, NC | Cake: Rachel Bailey Cake Artist, Fuquay Varina, NC | Hair & Makeup: Megan Perry, Raleigh, NC | DJ: K9 entertainment, Apex, NC | Dress: Carolina Bridal World, Smithfield, NC | Assistant Photographer: Erin Henderson, Wilmington, NC
Love and best wishes to Ashley & Devon, who are a suer-cute couple with a lot of fabulous chemistry. I wish you guys all the very best!
Onto my picks of the pics. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
