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.

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!)

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.

I’m not sure if you can feel it on days like today (Noah may be floating past my house some time soon) but we’re on the verge of a beautiful spring season. Now, I know, verge might be a bit of a stretch but I’d like to start ringing in the Spring with a celebration of Love. It’s fitting that Valentine’s Day is just three weeks away. So, I’d like to make it easy for you to surprise your special someone or someones (or nudge them to surprise you) with an S. Carter Studios Love Is In The Air mini session. I’m happy to help celebrate dating love, married love, the love between parents and even sibling love. I’m just a sucker, a lover of loving love if you will.

The session fee for our special is $40 and will come with an online gallery of your images. Sessions must take place on Thursday February 11 between 2 and 4 pm or Saturday February 13th between 1pm and 4 pm, contact us to get priority scheduling! We look forward to celebrating with you!

Well, go ahead and lean back, because this post is going to be a long one. You’ve seen Gavin & Kelsey before, the infamous paint couple! We took their engagement photos on a warm, beautiful summer day and they were married on 12-12-09 a very VERY cold winter day. They didn’t let the chilly weather keep them from having a perfect celebration! There was joy and excitement and awesome facial expressions from Kelsey without pause from the first few minutes I was with them until they left for their honeymoon. I’ll interject a few happy thoughts throughout the post but for the most part I think they speak for themselves!

Kelsey was the only bride I was able to give her ornament to in person. She had such a fun reaction!

She was an absolutely stunning bride!

Gavin and Kelsey chose to do a first look. This gave us lots of time to take photos of them and their wedding party. This was Gavin’s face as he saw his bride for the first time.

and Kelsey’s as she walked toward her groom. PS. First glimpse as those perfect little blue shoes!

You may remember, it was really, really cold this day in Lynchburg so we let Kelsey defrost a little and took pictures of the guys first. They were great!

West Manor was a great location for the photos and their reception!These ladies were amazing, not complaining one bit and looking good while sticking it out!

I could have taken pictures of  just these two all day long. Really.

My very favorite from the whole day!

Kelsey, wow, just WOW.

BLING, bling.

I may, have had a crush on her shoes, maybe.

Oh, yeah, there was a ceremony too!

I just can’t get enough of brides on the arms of their fathers! So much significance in this one little moment.

Two noteworthy things about this image: these candles are the same ones that Gavin used the night he proposed to Kelsey, there were over a hundred of them that night! The second is explained by the photo below it.

This is how I know i have the best brides. Kelsey was so chill about this! Oops, oh well.

A brief pause to share some of their great details!

It never gets old

seeing my work at receptions!

Alex, Angi and I with the bride, me reaching toward Solomon who had rapid fired a few shots by this point. Thought it would be a funny addition to the post

This mother son dance had the whole room misty-eyed. Gavin and his mother took turns letting tears slip between laughs and hugs. It was absolutely precious.

Love this photo of Gavin’s mom showing Kelsey’s dad the little birthday cake they gave her after the first dance. So sweet of her to share her birthday with the newlyweds.

there was dancing, lots of really, fun, dancing.

The newlyweds left in a flash of sparklers to their honeymoon in the mountains of TN.

Julie and I met in college while we were training to go on a trip to Brasil! You may remember several other people on this blog who went on the trip with us like Travis, Collin, and Naomi! During Julie and Stephen’s session we ran through the list and of 17 of us over half are married or engaged! We’re pretty sure there is something special about that black Amazon water! I was so happy to celebrate with her when she got engaged and can’t wait for their September wedding! Really, it’s going to be a great wedding filled with rich details and bold colors. I wouldn’t expect anything less from this gator hunting girl! I hope you enjoy a few photos from their engagement session!

I have these two friends, one is Jim and one is Alisha. I hang out with them separately and sometimes even together. It just so happens that they are married but for some funny reason I had a hard time thinking that was real, well, until we had their Fall photo session. They are both lovers of Fall and we even had a celebration in honor of October. Celebrating with the Meadors is always great because Alisha has the market cornered on appetizers and Jim makes the most delectable sweets in all of Lynchburg! They are two very special friends of mine and I’m so glad that I can finally, fully endorse their status as a married couple, to each other. Love you guys, thanks for kicking around in the leaves with me! Enjoy a few of their photos of married love.

Really, how could you not love them??

Outstanding.

a funny one to end the post….

It should be noted that Alisha and I have two matching shirts and she wore both of them over the course of their session. Once I copied her and once she copied me. So Jim took this photo which we’ve happily dubbed 6th grade BFFs.

Happy Tuesday everyone! I want to introduce you to a series of blog posts I’ll be doing about what I feel defines S. Carter Studios perspective and style. There are so many wonderful talented photographers out there and many on the horizon. I hope that through these posts you’ll get to know more about S. Carter Studios and what we strive for as you consider letting us be a part of your family for a session, for a wedding or for a life time. I’m calling these posts By Definition. The topics covered will hopefully help you to understand how we define ourselves and why there are some things that we consider standard at S. Carter Studios. We strive for quality with our clients and have a purpose for how we do things because time is too valuable to waste during shoots. I hope you enjoy the series and that it helps you to understand this wonderful gift God has given us!

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By Definition: Kissy Pictures

Who would have thought kissing would ever go out of style? Strangely, it’s true. If you follow blogs of photographers across the industry and all over the country you’ll see what I see and that’s a mysterious lack of kissing pictures. Don’t get me wrong, their blogs are great and the photos are beautiful but overall photographers seem to be nixing the kiss. I once had a person say to me, “Your couples all seem to kiss a lot!” This caused me to smile and reflect… I guess my blog is stacked with photo upon photo of the kiss in its various forms: on the cheek, on the forehead, on the nose, on the hand, right smack dab on the mouth. I began to wonder, hmm, what is it that I seem to love so much about the kiss? Then I realized IT.

Kissing is like sharing a secret. When I committed to marry Josh I agreed to only share my kisses with him. I knew from that moment forward, God willing, that he would be the only man that I would share moments like that with. He and I have a secret that no one else can come close to understanding and that’s the chemistry between us! I love kissy pictures because when a man and woman commit to each other, in that long term rocking chair and gray hair kind of way, they save part of themselves for just one other person. So, why would I only have them stand next to each other, near each other, or across from each other, which they can do with almost any person in the world when I can ask them to joyfully do something they have agreed is just between the two of them? Kissing is romantic and it’s fun and I love it. So, that’s why kissing pictures are part of the S. Carter Studios standard. Here are a few of my favorites from over the years.

Plus, I don’t discriminate, I love engaged kisses

Melanie & Tim

Maria & Mark

Emily & Zach

Gavin & Kelsey

Bryant & Amanda

Jake and Patsy

… and married kisses…

Eric & Traci [we share the same anniversary date of March 13th!]

Mark and Maria

Laura and Ryan

Nate and Bekah

Adriel and Amy (and Papa Joe)

Chase and Kalina

… and family kisses!

The Parks

The Allens

The Mengs

The Oberneders

The Lamontes

Thank you for taking the time to read this post, I hope it helps you understand more about us! Sabrena, and the S. Carter Studios Team

If someone were to ask me, what is your ideal bride like, I’d have to answer with a bride like Alisha! When we met to discuss the details of her wedding to Kent she excitedly discussed their relationship and at the same time asking me about my experiences as a bride and about how I met my wonderful husband. She is flexible and fun, great to communicate with and adventurous! Josh and I only got to hang out with her and Kent, who is visiting for a short four days while on break at from his studies at Full Sail University, for about 40 minutes today until the session had to be cut short due to inclement weather.  Kent is just as wonderful, caring to hear about our lives and getting to know us better, even while sloshing around in the wet leaves. Hopefully we’ll be able to steal a few more minutes of their precious time together on another of Kent’s visits to grab some more great shots. Until then, enjoy a few from their great session!

I’m going to flip back and forth with some of these shots, before the rain, during the rain. This was during the rain, after an exciting leaf fight which I think Kent clearly won as evidenced below, when they happily laid down in wet leaves, just because I asked them to!

One of the first shots of the session, just look at their chemistry!

To leave you with my favorite shot of the session. Cheers!

October 14th is a nice round number. It’s always been special because it’s two days after columbus day. It’s also been special because it’s my little brother’s birthday. I found out that he has a birthday twin, which is a very fun thing if you ask me, and her name is Jenny. She also happens to be my intern and you all haven’t heard much about her so I thought I’d take time on 10/14 to tell you a little about both of them!

My brother is 14 months younger than I am. In my head I think he’s at least two years but it seems crazy to me that he’s 23 today. He’s been my partner in crime / mortal enemy for over two decades and has the power to charm me even when I’m at my angriest.

Yes, we were both much chunkier then.

It’s been a pretty wild and fun ride. He’s the kind of guy who risks getting arrested on your wedding day to keep one of the bridesmaid from getting a silly parking ticket. He’s one of the best navigators I know and he loves his family more than we deserve.

Happy birthday to you Christopher Andrew. I love you!

Part 2

I’m sure you’ve caught my illusions to a wonderful, talented assistant. Her name is Jenny and she’s the eye behind Paper Napkin Photo. It’s been such a wonderful experience working with her and I’m so proud of how far she’s come during our time together! She doesn’t sleep enough and has this crazy thing for measuring wounds with clipboards but I think I’ll keep her around. Thank you Jenny for all your hard work this summer and fall, I don’t think I would have made it through a few of these things without you!!

Here is Jenny, we haven’t taken any head shots yet but here are some photos of her in action!

Happy birthday to you Ms. Jenny!!

I’d show you how I can balance a birthday cake on my head but I have a feeling that would be dangerous.

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