Artistic, Summer North Carolina Wedding | The Cookery, Durham | Jeni and Brad

wedding

Aug 26

The first time I spoke with Jeni and Brad was a very short Facetime call, as I was in the mountains and without any cell service but I had wifi. I am pretty sure Jeni had expected it to be audio only, but I went full fledged and went with video, which I think may have surprised her. She and Brad were on a walk through their neighborhood and Jeni was all laughs as soon as we started talking. We spoke for about three minutes and decided that we could wait until they got back to their house and we could have a normal call.

From the get go I knew that we would get along great. Brad was clearly easy going and excited for the wedding day and Jeni was full of energy and and impossible not to be happy around. We talked about the details of the wedding day and what they were looking for and what sort of vision I had for their day and we shared a lot of laughs. There was no doubt that getting to work with a couple that was both laid back as well as fun loving was going to be a good time.

Being that we would be starting at the beautiful 21c Hotel in Durham, which is a hotel meant to be experienced as they house a ton of beautiful art, I was beginning to get excited for what I knew would be an awesome, artistic, summer North Carolina wedding day. This was not going to be your typical triangle wedding. I was ready to explore the galleries and the often talked about vault of the hotel for portraits and a first look, and I thoroughly enjoy finding hidden nooks and new angles which this space has in droves.

When their wedding day came and I finally got to meet Jeni and Brad face to face, it was just as I had expected. These two are so in love with one another and just happy to be doing anything as long as it was together. So we moved around the hotel and found some great spots and made some wonderful photos before heading over to the ceremony and reception venue, The Cookery.

Family and friends quickly flooded The Cookery when we arrived and everyone from Jean, the matriarch of the family (and one of the coolest ladies I have had the pleasure of meeting), to the tiniest tot was happy to see Jeni and Brad and ready for the ceremony to get underway. These same people I got to meet first hand as we later made one of the largest family formal pictures of my career and the same vibrant but easy going personality I witnessed in Brad and Jeni was the same in everyone else there. It was simply awesome!

The night went off brilliantly, thanks to the always amazing Katherine Brown of Gather Together. Peter Lamb and The Wolves tore up the night with some great music finishing with a jazz rendition of the Mario Brothers theme music, and you could watch every person who was coming of age in the mid-80s just nerdily burst alive (including yours truly) as they broke into it. Kids were flying across the dance floor, people were enjoying some great cocktails and desserts and Jeni and Brad were nearly inseparable all night.

Even as the night was wrapping up and everyone was heading out, you could still pick out Jeni's signature laugh, that I got introduced to on our first call, from the crowd and you knew how amazing their day had been. This was one summer North Carolina wedding to remember.