S. Carter Studios

I’d been looking forward to their wedding since Kimberly and I first began discussing it in the Fall of 2008! We took their engagement photos over Valentine’s Weekend in 2009 and they were wed in mid January 2010! Their wedding was a true joy to be involved with. It reminded me of mine in many ways which made it that much more fun! And the weather, who could ask for 50 degree weather on January 15th with the bluest skies you’ve ever seen and just snuggled between two of the worst snow storms to ever hit the East Coast! God has been watching out for them over their long engagement and had this day planned especially for them. Enjoy a few of their photos!

PS. Our workflow is different now and there are some who caught a glimpse of these photos RIGHT after the wedding (within three days actually, lol) those lucky people are the Facebook fans of S. Carter Studios. If you’d like to be alerted to the newest content then join up!

I won’t lie, I have a little bit of lash envy!

They opted for a first look after having seen the great photos from Gavin & Kelsey’s and I’m so glad they did!

It gave us lots of time for photos of just the two of them and their really fun bridal party!

I wasn’t kidding about the day!

They were married at a lovely church just a block away from my house!

and after all that waiting, they became husband and wife.

We headed over to the lovely West Manor to celebrate! There were loads of great details, food and dancing.

Kimberly and I joked that she was my first Friday bride, my first red cake and several other firsts. Not too shabby to plan a wedding with such impact!

These were absolutely delicious as were the toppings located just to the left! Gotta love a make your own mashed potatoes bar.

We’ll finish this post with the best garter retrieval of 2010.

When Josh & I were planning our wedding we were given the advice to discuss what we think the most important parts of the wedding were and then decide to spend our money accordingly. When we discussed it he told me he thought that my dress should be the one thing we purchase regardless of cost because he knew that it would be the dress I wore in all my photos and my one and only wedding dress! I was sincerely touched by this thoughtful response. Later, we proceeded to spend the bulk of our budget on photography, lol. I did love my dress but I hadn’t been dreaming of my dress all these years, I’d been dreaming of my pictures. I know there are brides though that have been standing in front of mirrors swaying too and fro since childhood picturing themselves in the perfect gown and so I’m excited to invite you to take a look at OnceWed!

Once wed was launched in 2008 by a bride who had tried to sell her wedding gown and realized that there weren’t very many resources dedicated to making this process easy for others! There are designer gowns at discounted prices and opportunities to list your dress if you’re interested in helping another bride get that picture perfect gown & pocketing a little cash in the process. More than just a very well designed marketplace it has been expanded to include images and stories from real weddings, DIY projects (my new favorite thing) and links to many fantastic vendors! They even have a section of the site dedicated to ideas for specific categories. It’s one of those websites that you can certainly get lost in over and over! So, if you’re a bride to be or have already taken your trip down the aisle I would encourage you to treat yourself to some eye candy at OnceWed.

Here are a few tasty appetizers!

I Love that the whole concept is geared toward helping brides who are interested in hand picking projects to make their designer wedding at a lower cost without compromising on originality or style!

Also, for those of you have wondered how to get rid of some of those bridesmaid dresses that you really won’t wear again or need one, two or four for this coming summer, I found WoreItOnce.com that specializes as a market place for you to buy and sell (or liquidate in some cases) your bridesmaid dress inventory!

** The randomly selected winner of the Jimmy Cakes give away is: Emily Walker Tucker, an encouraging fellow photographer! Emily please email me so we can set up your order!

One thing I truly love about weddings is the food, namely the Cake! My sweet tooth cannot be denied and on days when I do weddings I don’t have to think about what I eat because I need all the fuel I can get. So I’m happy today to get to share about my great friend Jim’s business, Jimmy Cakes! Jim whom you’ve seen before, with his beautiful wife Alisha, is one of the most creative people that I know! I have benefited from his creativity several times and encourage you to do the same! He makes homemade cakes, cupcakes and pies. It’s 100% from scratch and he’ll even go organic for you. Recently he let me help by letting me make the icing for some cupcakes! INCREDIBLE. I think anyone who has had a Jimmy Cake would be happy to attest to the sheer tastiness involved in the experience! I encourage you to follow his blog so you can see even more wonderful creations and read a little about the process he goes through to make them!  Now, please be impressed by photos of some of his work. Be sure to read through the bottom if you’re a Lynchburg resident because there may be a special treat in store for you if you comment on this post!

Jimmy Cakes will provide goodies for all types of events: birthdays, bridal showers, weddings, baby showers, rehearsal dinners, holidays and even if you just really want some incredible cake.

A Potterific cupcake cake.

This cake was made for my Josh’s 25th birthday! Go Dawgs!

Homemade peppermint mocha cupcakes!

The texas cake from Stephen & Leslie’s wedding!

The newest and my personal fav: The Grenadenhaver cake (happy-you-had-a-baby-it’s-a-boy-and-also-your-birthday-cake)

This is just the tip of the flavorful iceberg my friends! I love to hook my friends up so it’s time for a little give-a-way. Please comment on this post explaining which of these cakes is your favorite and why. Your name will be entered into a drawing for a dozen free Jimmy Cake cupcakes of the flavor of your choice! You must be a Lynchburg local to be eligible to win this giveaway! The winner will be announced with next Thursday’s take a look post!

Oh boy, I discovered today’s Take A Look on Monday and had to hold on to it for three days before I could properly share it with you! I stumbled upon this on Facebook. You know how on Facebook you are “friends” with people that you don’t see regularly and probably wouldn’t stop them on a busy day to have a conversation, but you are still happy to read about their new puppy, see photos of their first home together and be in awe of how talented they are? Adam and Katie are those types of friends for me.

Katie was kind enough to suggest that one of her friends check out my work so I mosied on down to her Facebook to thank her and stumbled upon this wonderful, happy animation that she and Adam used as their wedding invitation. Adam has been impressing me for several years now and works with a great team at Hello Marketing offering those skills for hire! I can’t imagine how long this animation took them to finalize but I’ve got to say it’s definitely worth it. I guarantee it will make you smile! So Take A Look at Katie and Adam’s Wedding Invitation Animation!

Invitation Animation from Everett Options on Vimeo.  PS. Josh and I watched like five other videos from Everett Options channel, be warned it may suck you in!

Katie and Adam are happily married and I’m sure they are bringing joy, like this little bit, to whomever they come in contact with.

Josh and I live in the house of love, aptly named by my friends who know that while we were engaged everything was the __________ of love. It made perfect sense that when we bought our first home that it would be the house of love. The house of love has been absolutely perfect for us, the most common term to describe it has been, “Cozy.” It’s true! We love to celebrate and share with friends and recently we opened the house of love to one new member: Charleston “Charlie” Deal. We rescued her from the Lynchburg Humane Society on Friday and have spent the weekend loving on her and spending great quality time with each other. Quality time can be hard to come by for a husband who works mandatory 10 hr days, 5 days a week and a wife who battles an “obsession” with being connected to the internet. But, by God’s great grace, we make it work. So I hope that you have had a wonderful, beautiful Valentine’s day celebrating the people in your life that help you understand how very loved you are, whether they are family members, friends or lovers! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Here are some photos of me and my valentines! (Photos of Josh and Me by my beautiful sister Rebecca Carter, Photos with Charlie taken by us with my Canon Powershot SD880 which almost bit the dust in a water bottle incident but lives on, that’s right CANON!)

Part 1: I really, truly love Thursdays. Thursdays are my Saturdays. I choose how to spend my time from sun up to sun down. Thursdays are also great because the next day is a “light” day of teaching.  I think the birds chirp a little louder and the sun looks a little warmer on Thursday. This has inspired me to let that Thursday joy pour out via this blog. So on Thursdays, as often as I am able, I plan to invite you to Take A Look at something that makes me happy, something that inspires me, something that I think is worth your time. Without further ado I invite you to take a look today at:

Julia’s Poppies Design. The mastermind behind Julia’s Poppies is a lovely friend of mine, Ms. Jamie Wyckoff. She has a talent for creating custom print designs for any occasion! Here is some of her work that I snagged to share from her amazing Portfolio website & her blog. She comes up with completely custom designs for wedding  stationary based on the couples!

Save the Dates

Invitations – LOOOOVE these!

It would be a shame not to share some other pieces that are just too clever! This is a pop out birth announcement

This is a We’re-having-a-baby announcement! – Another awesome thing about Jamie is that she posts stories behind her designs and even a little behind the process! It’s all on her blog!

So let’s say you’re not in either the engaged or having a baby category. Jamie still has something up her sleeve for you! Check out a couple of her stationary designs.

I haven’t even tapped the tip of the ice burg as Jamie also customizes clothing and accessories!

Other reasons I love Jamie – I’ve gotten to know her family pretty well. She was a sister of the groom at Josh & Michelle’s 2009 wedding (bet you can spot her even if you’ve never seen a photo of her)

and she was a sister of the bride at Dave & Justina’s 2007 wedding which is where I first glimpsed her stationary skills.

So, go and check out her amazing work and please let her know that I sent you! Also, she’s running a free giveaway contest on her blog that you can still enter!

Josh and I were engaged for 15 months before we were married. This was necessary for us as I had a several weddings over the summer, needed to finish up Grad school and Josh didn’t want to get married in a month where he or anyone else would be hot. March it was! March, 15 months away. One of the things I enjoyed about our long engagement was the opportunity to really do a lot of things myself, by hand! I got to get crafty and work for months on preparations for our wedding. I wish I could say I did a better job of keeping photos of those projects but I don’t have that many to share. I am, however, excited to begin sharing projects that I’m doing now, or other’s projects that I think would be of use to a bride who is looking to put time into hand picking the perfect projects she’d like to do herself!  So here is installment 1 of Hand Picked: Love Letters.

I am not a scrapbooker. I have no patience for the detail and effort that goes into it. I do however LOVE the homemade, hand cut and crafted feeling of scrapbooks. So from time to time I create little things which might be considered craftbook-ey like these valentine’s day themed cards!

Ingredients: From AC Moore – LOVE them!

Pink & Brown Paisley paper – $0.79

Cream card stock – $0.49

10 pack note golden, textured note cards & evelopes – $3.97 (sale!)

Blank Index Cards (from Walmart) $0.44

Total for 10 hand picked cards: $5.65

Step 1: Trace hearts onto back side of Paisley paper & cut out.

Step 2: use hearts as a template to trace a larger heart onto cream paper. Cut out cream heart.

Step 3: Glue paisley heart on top of cream heart and apply to front of card with a strip of index card (to be used for a greeting).

Step 4: Glue one index card to inside of gold card for message space.

Step 6: Repeat as needed. I’d say each card took an average of 4 to 5 minutes.

These could make great Be-My-Bridesmaid Invites, Love Letters to your attendants as they are saving up to participate in your big day, Thank you cards for gifts. Can you think of anything else they may be helpful for?

I hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of DIY and that you look forward for more to come! Do you have any DIY you’d like ideas for? Let me know and I’ll keep my eyes open for you!

So, remember that weekend when we got 20+ inches of snow? Well, right at about an inch and a half, Josh and I took off for our great winter migration to the South. We drove through snow and ice for 6 hours and stopped just short of the turn off the highway for Ryan and Kristina’s wedding. The craziest part of the whole thing was that when we got to their ceremony site, 20 minutes form our hotel, you couldn’t even tell there had been a storm! Don’t get me wrong it was FREEEEZING but their awesome bridal party hardly whimpered as we took them outside for photos. I think Ryan and Kristina would tell you that it was all worth it! Enjoy photos from the last wedding of 2009!

PS. I must take a moment and brag on my seriously handsome and talented husband: Josh Deal. A lot of these photos came from him as my second shooter. I really did hit the jackpot with this one! Just to prove it to you I’m going to post a J.D. after each image in this post that belongs to him.

Yes, I’ve mentioned it before but I’m in love with Kristina’s big, beautiful eyes and lashes. I mean really, look at them!

their flower girls were JUST adorable.

Here’s part of the J.D. love fest

J.D.

J.D.

J.D.

J.D. {It is good to note that I had gotten the “talkin to” by the church lady and was dutifully hiding behind a large column no further forward than the first row of guests and not encroaching on the stage AT ALL. So Josh got the job of getting these fun shots}

J.D.

J.D.

J.D.

A brief pause in this tribute to show an image of mine!

and back to the action

J.D.

J.D.

The chapel had beautiful natural lighting flowing through the windows.

Just trying something new.

Absolutely classic as we took picture outside, Josh turned around and got THIS.

J.D.

Gotta say this is a favorite from and old S. Carter Studios standard.

and back inside to warm up again.

I’m convinced their kids will have great eyelashes too, lol.

aaaand back out.

They had their reception in the lobby of the pharmacy school Ryan graduated from at Campbell University. They even brought in a gorgeous Christmas tree for guests to put gifts under. It was covered in ornaments which served as favors!

Reasons to get a 2nd shooter. I get this while Josh gets the one below

I love the way he sees things!

They had stations around their reception with their favorite desserts and the stories behind them. Everything was soo tasty.

Beautiful Christmas themed decorations made it a cozy holiday celebration.

As quicky as it started, their celebration was over and they headed off. But not without some mischief first.

J.D.

J.D.

I had no idea but was thankful for this shot!

A note: Many of these photos from Ryan and Kristina’s wedding were available on Facebook shortly after the event. I wait to blog them until after I’ve completed editing so the blog readers can get a full selection but if you’re itching to see the work as soon as it’s available then by all means, join 843 of my closest friends and become a Fan on facebook. New content and updates as soon as it’s loaded as well as special Facebook contests and prizes to be announced! Just for the heck of it you should follow me on twitter too!

This is Beth. We’ve been friends for six years, which if you know me, is pretty impressive because I moved a bazillion times in my life making it difficult to keep friends for longer than a few years. She was a wonderful source of inspiration for my wedding and she’s all around great friend to have. She recently moved to NY for a job opportunity and we thought it would be a great idea to try out version 1.0 of our photo booth. Our signature photo booth is a new launch for 2010 and we’re excited about bringing an opportunity to our brides to capture their guests as crazy as they actually are! The booth will also be available for parties! Contact us for more info! In the mean time, enjoy some photos from Beth’s booth.

I cannot take credit for the props, they were Josh’s idea mostly, with some help from Ashley’s musical storage! Here is a picture of me (well, my arm) and my loving husband. He’s the best.

Today I met Kaydence Grace (about 10 hours old now) and Wyatt Mitchell (about 2 weeks old now). I didn’t do much work,  my dishes didn’t get done and I wasn’t able to put away all my laundry but I got to spend time with real, wonderful people that I love. It was a very good day.

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