Walk Through a Wedding - Charlotte, NC

Weddings have an incredible ability to speed up time. The day always seems to fly by faster than any other. Timelines and schedules are rarely strictly followed and there is no time to spare when capturing the details of the day. That's why I was so grateful to spend a day last week with Justin & Mary at their Walk Through a Wedding workshop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Justin & Mary are incredible wedding photographers with a style that evokes sentiments of the 1940s. They have this old Hollywood feel to their images that I just adore. They are also big into helping other photographers in the industry. Walk Through a Wedding gave me (and the other 20 photographers) a chance to slow down the wedding day and analyze each part of the day. We honed our skills and were forced to be creative with our shooting angles since we were shooting alongside so many other people once.

We photographed the long dress, but ultimately our stylists decided that a short dress would be best for our theme. I am glad that they did because I love short wedding dresses. My grandmother had one and I have been obsessed with her wedding photos my whole life.

[Side note: My grandmother had her wedding shot by her cousin, Eddie Adams. Eddie Adams was an incredible Pulitzer prize winning photographer that received over 500 awards. He'd never shot a wedding before my grandmother's, and it may have been the only one he ever did. And I am pretty sure he did it for FREE.]

The ruffles at the bottom of the dress were whimsical and lovely.

Leslie was our gorgeous bride for the day. Don't you just LOVE that veil?!

This quiet moment may have been my favorite shot of the day.

Killer blue eyes and dark hair?! Jealous? I am.

The theme for the day was American Honey, which led to the most adorable details. This could be easily replicated and many of the details could be DIY.

How could you have an American Honey wedding and not have a honey comb!?

Almond wings for the bees and ribbons on the wrapper = Cutest. Cupcakes. Ever.

Matt and Leslie have the cutest story and I have to share it. They met online, by accident. When social media was first getting started, Matt was reaching out to childhood friends and he contacted Leslie. Only this was not the Leslie he knew from high school that he thought he was contacting. The way Matt wrote to her made Leslie think that she must know him and not remember, so she politely corresponded back. This went back and forth for awhile before they both realized they hadn't met, but the connection was made and they continued to write, then meet, then fall in love. It reminds me a little of You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks!

These two were the best models! I can't believe they'd never done this before!

And here we all are taking shots of the bridal party after Mary showed us her tips for getting natural reactions in formal portraits. There I am, in the center, with a big smile!

It was a LONG day, but I was so pumped up when we left around midnight that I couldn't sleep for awhile. I can't wait to take all the tips and skills I learned and apply them to my 2011 weddings. It's going to be a rockin' year!