We absolutely love it when one great couple introduces us to another great couple (or several!). That was the case with one of our awesome couples from ’08, Lindsay & Trey. We had such an awesome time at their wedding and then not long after that we hear from a childhood friend of Lindsay’s, Christina, that just loved what we did for her friends and wanted the same for her wedding at the beautiful Sugarloaf Country Club in Atlanta, GA. Christina and Minjae live in New York and are so busy being an investment banker and doctor, respectively, that they could not find time to make it down to our area for an engagement shoot. Though that’s not ideal as we really prefer to get to know a couple before the wedding so we’re more like friends, we understood the distance and their schedules made it next to impossible. They at least wanted us there for the rehearsal ceremony and dinner so we had a chance to get to know them a little bit. As a bonus, Lindsay (who was a bridesmaid in the wedding) and Trey were so kind as to offer us to stay at their lovely home while we were in Atlanta for the wedding weekend.

What happened over the course of the weekend was nothing short of magical! Okay that may be a little exaggerated but we did have a pretty amazing time. First of all, Sugarloaf was a spectacular venue for the wedding. The homes in this community look like they belong on MTV “Cribs” and the clubhouse itself was enormous! The rainy-looking skies cooled everything off in time for the ceremony and made the light a dream to work with but thankfully the rain never came. Christina and Minjae were so nice and easy to work with (as were their families and friends) that by the end of the wedding, we felt like we had known them for a while. This was our first Korean wedding and there were so many cool things to photograph. For instance, they had a PaeBaek ceremony where the couple changed into traditional Korean wedding outfits (see photos below) and tried to catch dates and chestnuts tossed by their relatives. Apparently the number they catch of each determines how many girls and boys they will have! The reception that followed was an all out dance party with some impromptu karaoke mixed in.

The coup de grace though came at the end of the night when Christina and Minjae wanted to do some of our signature end of the night shots at their hotel. Of course we said yes as that is one of our favorite parts of a wedding day. We were not prepared for just how awesome their hotel, the St. Regis Atlanta, was going to be. This place was a dream and we could have easily photographed there for an entire day! We are so glad that Christina and Minjae had some energy left and loved photos so much that they gave us ample time there. It was definitely worth it as we got some of our best end of the night shots yet!

Enough blabbing. As they say, the proof is in the pudding, so check out our pudding!

Their “First Look”!

We love that more and more of our brides are using decorative flower or feather hair pieces. Nothing against tiaras we just like to see something different from time to time.

Note to future brides of ours: We may ask you to get on the floor, but only if it’s worth it. We hope you are okay with this.

The wind was blowing Christina’s veil so beautifully! (When it wasn’t whipping her mom in the face!)

The PaeBaek ceremony outfits and details were so much fun to photograph. Christina’s shoes and lil’ purse were freakin’ adorable and the table detail on the left was gorgeous!

After successfully catching many dates and chestnuts (which means many future children) they did a piggy back ride around the room. What a hoot! Every wedding should have this!!!

Yet another hoot! Christina’s dad bustin’ a move on the dance floor! He really showed those youngsters what for.

And we can’t not show some of the awesome end of the night shots we did at the St. Regis hotel. Here are some spreads from the album we designed for them. You can see the whole shebang in the slideshow at the end. It’s pretty freakin’ sweet!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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These two Clemson alumni, and season ticket holders, tied the knot right in the heart of their homeland, Clemson University, at the Owen Pavilion behind the Madren Center. Though Clemson purple was one of the main colors for the wedding, nothing was over-the-top and everything was very elegant, right down to the Clemson fight song introductions! Seriously though, Jennifer and Chad’s wedding was beautiful and the location was special to them because they met when they were students at Clemson. Not to mention that the Madren Center grounds, Owen Pavilion and picturesque Lake Hartwell made for a very nice backdrop.

Love the barefeet and smiles. ‘Cuz everyone is happier without heels on.

After their booty-bumpin’ introduction to the Clemson fight song, they slowed things down and showed off their dance skills.

A golden sunset over Lake Hartwell.

Jeff Hayes from Party Machine sharing, and causing, some laughs with the couple and the crowd. He and his crew always do a great job entertaining the guests.

Not sure what exactly was going on under there but love the expressions.

Jennifer and Chad pulled out all the stops with their dance moves. It’s always nice to see a couple out on the dance floor and not spending the whole reception having to go around talking to people they hardly know. It’s your party, enjoy it dang it!

Being Clemson alumni, they were able to get access to Death Valley and it just happened to be right after the Orange and White game so the field was freshly painted.

Apparently, being season ticket holders also has it’s privileges!

Check out the album we designed for them for the whole story including more fun on the field!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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The blog drought is officially over! It’s not that we haven’t had anything to blog about, we’ve just been so busy gearing up for another busy wedding season, creating a portrait website and a myriad of other things, that the blog has taken a backseat. That ends today as we roll out a monster blog from a fabulous wedding we shot recently.

This wedding was a long time coming. We met Jamie quite a while back at our first boudoir marathon, which she did for her man, Scott, who was at the time serving in the Army in Iraq. Fast forward to January 2009 and she calls us letting us know that they are planning a November wedding as Scott will be transitioning out by then after being overseas for over 14 months! We finally got to meet Scott at their engagement session and seeing them together was so dang cute you can’t help but fall in love with them and their infectious playfulness.

So then come November, the day before their wedding, we were all pumped and excited to spend the next day photographing these two lovebirds tying the knot and then partying down to celebrate. Well, fate intervened, and the shootings that day at Ft. Hood, where Scott just happened to be stationed, caused the Army to recall him back to the base immediately and for an indefinite amount of time. Imagine, the day before your wedding, which you have been waiting for for well over a year and a half, and all of a sudden everything gets called off!

As anyone can imagine, they were devastated and the wedding plans had to be put on hold until the Army gave them some idea of when they could leave the base again. Eventually, the wedding was rescheduled for February 20th and of course we worked with them, as did many of their other vendors, to make it happen.

After all the waiting, months and months apart and the cancellation heartache/headache, February 20th came without incident and it was a gorgeous, sunny day, just perfect for their ceremony at Cliffs of Glassy chapel. They followed it with a reception at the Sawmill on North Main in downtown Greenville. These two are so sweet and loving, they obviously deserve each other and, after all they had been through, they certainly deserved to have a beautiful and fun-filled wedding day. As their photographers that spent the whole day with them, we can attest that they got just that! Check out some of the highlights below followed by the album we designed for them.

First up: Jamie’s Bridal Portraits at the Lace House in Columbia, SC

Don’t you just love Jamie’s genuine smile? We do!

And we couldn’t go the whole day without getting a few shots of Jamie & Scott’s first furry child: Nani, aka super-cute fluffball.

Dahlia did an amazing job once again on the bouquets…

and decor.

Jamie & Scott’s First Look was so sweet, we almost got emotional, especially knowing what all these two had been through to get to this day. Love the tear in Jamie’s eye.

All natural light! Love it when it works with you.

We were shooting from another angle before this but a quick walk around the couple showed us a completely different angle and a nice tribute to Scott’s time spent in the Army, risking his life in Iraq.

Jamie’s dad is such a sweet guy and this is just one of the beautiful and touching moments they shared that day.

Jamie’s parents are an inspiration because, even though they are divorced, they get along so well which only made their daughter’s wedding day that much more fun and enjoyable for everyone.

Heck even her dad and step-dad get along enough to share a little dance! Gentlemen, we applaud you.

Love this shot of Blake, our good friend from Jumping Jukebox, gettin’ down! He and his crew did a great job entertaining the guests and keeping the party going.

The men were really getting into serenading Jamie, including Scott’s dad!

When Scott went in for the garter with his teeth, Jamie was a little surprised.

But Scott was undeterred!

Scott’s little sister was so pumped to catch the bouquet, I don’t think anyone else stood a chance. Nice killer instincts Katie!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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Well the holidays are over and a new year has begun. We’ve been so busy the past month though, we haven’t been able to post all the fun stuff we did last year! Like Baird and Zach’s wedding for instance. The incredibly cold temperatures on their December 11th wedding didn’t stop us from having a great time photographing outside though we had to step inside periodically to let the happy couple warm up and to regain feeling in our shutter fingers. Baird’s mom, Paige, is a caterer/florist/decorator-extraordinaire and she did an amazing job with all the flowers and decorating both the church and the reception. The ceremony was held at the practically new Palmetto Hills Presbyterian Church in Simsponville and the reception at the, also somewhat new, Loom at Cotton Mill Place. The Loom is an old mill renovated into a big open space with original hardwoods and huge floor to ceiling windows. It’s a great venue if you want an already nice-looking blank canvas that you can really personalize to your wedding colors and style.

Check out some of our favorites from Baird’s Bridal Portrait session and the wedding day. At the end you can view the wedding album we custom designed for them.

The couple’s First Look:
The one on the right is right before Baird sneaked a peek at Zach. She said she was so anxious she couldn’t wait for him to get to her.

And the ensuing smiles. It was so funny; Zach was hesitant to touch her like he was afraid he would ruin her dress or something. You can tell by his hands on the left that he was itchin’ to hold his beautiful bride.

We think the blue sky mixed with the warm tones from the sun make it look as if it were mid-summer. Of course Baird remembers vividly that it was more like an arctic winter but she was such a trooper and stuck it out for what we think are some beautiful shots.

Like this one…
This was one of their favorites as well and will be the cover of their album.

We couldn’t let Baird have all the fun out in the cold, so we brought out her girls and had them squeeze in close for warmth and give us some goofy faces. Little did they know, all we really wanted was to capture the laughter that almost certainly follows. Of course the goofy faces can be fun too.

Love Baird peeking around the corner. Her uncle did a great job of keeping her laughing and not thinking about how nervous she was.

Love how Baird’s grandmother looks so proud and happy for her.

This was definitely a neat looking cake ala Kathy & Co. but what really makes this cake shot sing is the beautiful background that Paige created.

Attention brides and reception venues: There is nothing worse than taking a beautiful wedding cake and sticking it right up against a plain, boring wall. Not only does it make it difficult to get a good angle for the cake cutting, but also to get any interesting shots of the cake itself! Please do all photographers a favor and move it away from the wall. This has been a public service announcement from the Coalition for the Ethical Treatment of Wedding Cakes.

See, better placement = neater angles!

And now for something completely different…

To give you a better idea of what an awesome job Baird’s mom, Paige, did on decorations, here are a couple detail spreads from the couple’s wedding album showcasing her beautiful handiwork.

The Church:

The Reception:

To see it all come together, check out the custom album we designed for them:

Oh Yeah! And Happy New Year everybody!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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Emily and I are suckers! (Allow me to explain) We agreed last year to not only limit the amount of weddings we shoot a year (so that we can really focus our attention on each couple and provide a quick turnaround) but also to avoid booking anything on our birthdays or anniversary (so we could focus on ourselves for a few days a year). Then along came Kristin and David who are getting married on September 25th, Emily’s birthday. What can we say, we loved their personalities, their ideas for their waterfall-themed wedding and we loved the fact that they loved us! So we caved. And after their engagement session, we are so glad we did. These two have so much fun together that you can’t help but have fun when you are around them. If they were this excited and happy at the engagement session, we can only imagine how much more they will be on their wedding day. We’re afraid someone’s head may explode from exuberance. See what we mean in some of our favs below and be sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom.

Since they are having a waterfall-themed wedding, we all thought it apropos to do part of their session at a beautiful waterfall.
We were so glad these adventurous spirits were willing to brave life and limb to get up close to the mighty falls….. OK so it wasn’t that dangerous but we appreciated it anyway.

The stone on this building was such a vibrant shade of green, apparently from algae. Kind of a gross thought but very cool looking.

Poor Dave getting denied some smoochin’! Don’t worry, he made up for it later.

After the falls, they wanted to go to the Biltmore Estate.

Love the tenderness in this one.

Love the genuine laugh in this one.

We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful, clear Fall day.

Love David’s face in the right shot. Once they saw it, we all started calling it the “Arrrr” face.

Sometimes the not-so-obvious places make for great images.

Without clouds in the sky, sunsets tend to be fairly tame with only one or two colors, but if you catch it at just the right moment, those colors seem to explode and fill the sky.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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We knew from Bunny & Justin’s Engagement Portraits that their wedding was going to be unique, which is something we thrive on. And they did not disappoint with a beautiful, elegant and strikingly awesome wedding, despite a little sidestep with their first venue, Spiegel Farms, which was recently shutdown. After that bomb was dropped on them, Kim at Ryan Nicholas Inn came to the rescue. She was very accommodating and worked with them to give them a wonderful wedding. In fact it worked out for the best since it sprinkled most of the day so their plan for an outside ceremony at Spiegel would not have worked well anyway. The formal, elegant feel to the Ryan Nicholas Inn went surprisingly well with the couple’s red and black theme including custom Converse sneakers and red mohawks sported by a couple groomsmen. But don’t take our word for it, see for yourself in some of our favorites below, right after some from Bunny’s rockin’ bridal portrait session. Then see how we put it all together in a beautiful custom-designed album by checking out the slideshow at the end.

The Crystal Swan room at the Ryan Nicholas Inn is simply gorgeous and a perfect backdrop for Bunny’s gorgeous gown.

This crafty couple designed and assembled their awesome programs themselves. This emblem was inspired by an album cover from one of their favorite bands, The Avett Brothers.

Kristin of Dahlia did another stellar job with the flowers. She always seems to make the bridal bouquet unique and special to the bride as evident here by adding the Hello Kitty pendant for Bunny.

Loved Bunny’s reaction to seeing her amazing cake by Couture Cakes.

We could tell why she was floored. This cake was a true piece of art and the little Bunny & Justin figures were too cute.

And what makes the wedding truly special and memorable for the groom…

a Darth Vader groom’s cake of course!

We just love it when couples break tradition and be themselves.

In case you haven’t noticed, Justin has quite a beard and apparently it is capable of actually holding and storing small objects. So the joke was that that is where the rings could be hidden…
Of course they weren’t really in there but it made for a hilarious moment during the ceremony. Mind you in the tumult of emotions, Bunny completely forgot about the gag and was kind of getting freaked out when the Best Man pretended he couldn’t find the ring. Hence, the not-so-humored look on her face.

Yeah, they look “Happily Married”.

Love the expressions in the next two…

The Ryan Nicholas Inn has soo many beautiful rooms and they had the whole place to themselves for the night so we had to take advantage of at least one of the many bath tubs. This one could be titled “Bubbly Bunny Sips Bubbly and Blows Bubbles”. Say that 5 times real fast.

And now for their custom album. Enjoy…

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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Here’s highlights from another fun Family Portrait session, this time with Christy, John and Conner. Be sure to check out the slideshow at the bottom for extra cuteness!

Left: Cute & Cuddly baby. Right: Punk Rock baby.

Little kids just love to grab at anything. This time it was John’s nose and hair.

“Child of the Corn”

Left: A “corny” rendition of “American Gothic”

Since it was almost Halloween, we had to get Conner’s incredibly cute Monkey costume involved.

Just love how it looks like the monkey is smiling for the camera.

Not sure what Conner was thinking at this exact moment but his expression is priceless!

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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We love making each couple’s engagement portraits unique in some way by capturing their personalities or involving their interests. So when Zach mentioned he is a big hockey fan and even plays in a league, we all came up with the idea of going to the local ice rink. And since he plays there all the time, he got us the hookup to get into the Pavilion Ice Rink and we even got to use the goal as a prop.

Did we mention Baird was an accomplished figure skating ballerina? No?! Well that’s probably because it’s not true but she could have fooled us with this awe-inspiring display of skill and grace. (Just teasing Baird, we know we put you up to it.)

And here is Baird’s oh-so-intimidating “Game Face”.

After Emily and I’s feet were literally frozen from wearing only our street shoes on the ice (only fell on my butt once thank you very much), we headed downtown for some more fun.

Emily’s view:

Curtis’ view:

And now for something completely different…

BAM! Your mind has just been blown!

Thanks to Baird and Zach for being great sports and having fun with our goofy ideas.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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Emily and I have really been enjoying all the family portrait sessions we’ve been doing lately. It is a nice change of pace from weddings and keeps us thinking about new and exciting ways to capture people, their personalities and their relationships. Check out some highlights from a couple recent shoots.

Elizabeth, Jeff & Bolen

Little Bolen was so cute trying to pick up that big pumpkin. Check out the whole sequence of events in the slideshow below.

Wanna know what prompted these priceless expressions? Check out the slideshow below to see.

Kids are lucky because they can do expressions like this and it’s hilarious whereas adults looking like this would just look weird.

Luckily we ended the shoot on a happy note.

Kris, Steve, Jack & Kyra

Sig, the family pooch, was the model doggie and helped complete the family portrait.

…and was well thanked for his cooperation.

Jack and Kyra were some of the most well-mannered children we have had the pleasure of meeting. Of course we had to bring out a little of their goofy side for some shots too.

Steve’s parents happened to be visiting so we included them in a few shots. They were such a happy couple and obviously still very much in love, which is always great to see.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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We love it when couples come to us with ideas for their engagement portraits for two reasons. For one, it’s usually something that is special to them and therefore the images will have more meaning for years to come. And two, it means they are going to be even more excited about the shoot since they had a hand in conceptualizing it.

Lark is a real foodie (of course it doesn’t hurt that he works in the restaurant industry) and he personally knows the chef at the Westin Poinsett, where the wedding reception will be. So he thought it would be cool to do a little cooking action right in the hotel kitchen and we agreed! Nothing too elaborate, just something romantic like making chocolate-covered strawberries for his sweetheart, Traci. So after we had some photo fun in downtown Greenville and around Falls Park, we headed for the Poinsett kitchen.

Checkout the slideshow followed by some of the highlights below.

Traci & Lark loved this image because it is “so Lark” and from the short time we have known him, we would have to agree. The caption would read something like “C’mon man, seriously?!”.

Love amidst the hustle and bustle of a busy restaurant kitchen. (Actually it wasn’t that busy and Chef and an assistant were kind enough to help us fake it) Thanks again Chef!

Now that is one appetizing (and extremely expensive) dessert plate! Kudos to Lark for his expert plating.

Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

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