One of the great benefits of hiring a photographer is getting to have a professionally done wedding album! All you have to do as the bride is choose what pictures you want in the album. The purpose of a wedding album is to tell the story of your wedding.

All the bride has to do is choose their favorite pictures to go into the album and pick between an assortment of albums you want! But what is the purpose of a wedding album? A wedding album is the picture book of your wedding.  This is a keepsake not only for you but will be passed down to your children and grandchildren. I still have my mother’s wedding album and I treasure it immensely.  Especially since she and my father both died young and are no longer with me.  I design each wedding album individually and the albums come from all over the world including the US, Italy, and even Australia.  I have very traditional, very modern and some in between so I can accommodate any bride’s specific style.

When designing a wedding album, I try to correlate images and arrange them so that with every flip of the page you are traveling further into the day of your wedding. Be sure to check out the wedding album pages below! If you love them, be sure to use them as inspiration when choosing from your wedding photos! For you Facebook addicts (like me) you can add my Facebook page by clicking  here  and share the images with your friends. For you Pinterest addicts, be sure to pin the pages you LOVE  so that you can have them as inspiration forever!

Here is a quick highlight of Elyse and Jeff’s wedding day.  I couldn’t ask for a more beautiful place or people to photograph for a wedding!

Enjoy! Diane

Set in the beautiful Duke Gardens this photographer photographed one of life’s small but important miracles-a wedding.  This wedding was so touching.  It was small in size and planned very close to the actual date but what was huge was the amount of love.  It’s funny, even though most of it was planned fairly last minute, it literally all fell together perfectly.  I don’t think Elyse could have been any luckier.  One of those signs it is “MEANT TO BE”.   I was so impressed by this couple.  Not only was it clear their deep affection for each other but what touched me the most was my witness to the creation of a new family.  Little A was SO excited for Jeff to become her Daddy.  He not only put a ring on Elyse but also on little A.  And I don’t think I have ever seen a bride smile bigger, EVER.  Elyse was so happy that she finally had her perfect family.  And Jeff was so proud to be the addition that made it whole.  It’s funny how people can touch you so deeply in such a short period of time.  I guess that is another one of the big reasons I love wedding photography.  Congratulations to my new family. I am looking forward to watching you grow over the years!!!!!!!

Diane

Vigora

The hardest part about shooting bridal portraits is waiting till the day after the wedding to post them!  I get so excited as does the bride and you just want to share them with the world but obviously we don’t want the groom and guests to see the dress before the big day.

We got somewhat lucky as this was shot at the end of January and although it was a tad cold it could have been MUCH colder.  But even with a slight chill that didn’t take any of the smile off this bride’s face.   Heather has one of those charming abilities to light up any room.  Her smile and laugh are infectious and I can see how this teacher is a bee charmer to all of her students.  I only wish my babies could have her for their teacher.

She has this gorgeous long hair that holds curl perfectly and the dainty flower as dressing on her wedding gown are the perfect touch to her vivacious personality.  Here are some of her favorites and some of mine!

Congrats Heather and Mark!  You have a beautiful bride here INSIDE AND OUT!!!  : )

It’s been a busy last two days. I have decided blogging every other day is a little more my style. First I met with one of my other photographers at the studio and we practiced shooting at the worst time of day for lighting. In case you didn’t know. HIGH NOON! Yes, bright sun above your head is actually a bad thing. All you see is black holes in eye sockets instead of the lovely, blue, green or brown you might have… Unless perhaps you don’t mind getting on your knees and burning your retina’s out starting straight above at us while we shoot down on you.

Well fortunately with the newer equipment out these days we have a way to combat that issue. Don’t get me wrong, I would still prefer you to utilize the best light of the day (about 2 hours before sunset in the winter and 3 to maybe 4 hours in the summer) but at least now we can make due if we have no other choice. So we spent about an hour talking about our equipment and catching up then went outside to shoot horrible pictures! ha ha! Meaning we didn’t exactly shower and put on pretty clothes to do a real photo shoot on each other. But that aside we were really happy with the results. After that I spent the next couple of hours prepping images for two of my venues to use in their bridal shows.

Then home for some family time. Although I kind of cheated and spent a lot of it setting up a new blog for our family. But I was a good Mommy and made sure to put both girls to bed with stories and a little “Mommy time” as we call it. But I have to say I am SO happy that the new blog is done. I hated the old one because it made the pictures so small. Can you imagine as a photographer how a person would hate that???

Today, I spent most of the morning and early afternoon burning and backing up images as well as filing away what felt like THOUSANDS of emails. I know you are hanging on the edge of your seat now huh? ; )

Next the fun part! Off to my bridal portrait shoot. I love shooting in Duke Gardens because it really doesn’t matter what time of year it is the images are beautiful. The gardens are always well manicured and always have something blooming. Perfect for an outdoor shoot even in winter. I have worked with this bride’s mom before as she is a bridal consultant and SO SWEET. I just love her… well her daughter is definitely the acorn to that tree. She was absolutely adorable! And having beautiful curly flowing hair, bright eyes and a big smile, she was a dream to shoot. I only wish I could post them now. One of the harder parts of our jobs as we photographers LOVE to post our pictures. She did say I could put just her face out. And what a beautiful one it is….

Dawn a dancer whom I actually met 3 or 4 years ago when she was a bridesmaid in one of my Greensboro weddings just happened to end up being my oldests dance teacher.  Dawn is so kind, driven, and generous that I was thrilled when she asked me to be her photographer.  Oh and did I mention beautiful!  Yes-inside and out.  She was a little stressed the night of her bridal portrait as it was the first time she had ever left her dance studio un-attended.  Impressive indeed!  But you certainly couldn’t tell. She looked amazing.  We walked all over the gardens finding yet another beautiful place to photograph her.  The colors of her wedding were NC State colors in honor of her fiance (now husband) so the image she picked for her bridal portrait was perfect!  I put it first in this post.  Stunning isn’t she?  Congrats Dawn! And to see their wedding look at the post below.  I went a little out of order.  Ooops!

Can you tell the dogwood shots are my favorites?!  ;  )

I must say Katherine and Mike had the best time at their engagement session.  They laughed and played the whole time.  Being the setting of their first date as well as where they got engaged it made for the perfect engagement photography session.  This couple has so much fun I can only imagine how the wedding will be and it won’t be long!  Can’t wait!  To see more images check out their album on Facebook

Lisa and Jeff are such a cute couple. They are getting married next year. The gardens were just perfect for a fall engagement portrait shoot. They were so comfortable with each other and super nice. Can’t WAIT for the wedding!

Katherine and Braxton are such cute couple.  A brilliant mix of charm, humor and grace.  Katherine has such a classic beauty and Braxton is the rock in their relationship.  I am so looking forward to shooting their wedding.  Katherine is always smiling and the two have such great chemistry together.  This was a fun engagement session.  Congrats!  You look great!

I l just love shooting in the gardens.  I do bridals there, engagements there and when I am lucky weddings there.  It is always so beautiful.  This weekend was one of those lucky moments.  Not only was I lucky enough to be photographing a wedding in the gardens but additionally my bride was right out of a 1940′s pin up calendar.  I just love the 40′s era.  There was so much style and grace and this bride was no exception to it.  We did get a little rain (which if you don’t know means WEALTH) so the ceremony was moved under cover but it cleared up so we could still go out and get some shots in the gardens.  And as you can see it really made for some cool effects!  Congrats to Lisa and Brian.  You look GORGEOUS!