S. Carter Studios

What a day indeed. You may remember Emily’s bridal portraits and how we were battling rain, the same was true on her wedding day! Off and on we were showered putting her outdoor Winridge Manor wedding & reception in jeopardy. It worked out in the end and yes, we were all a little damp but I think everyone there would agree that it was worth it. I’ve never been to a wedding that was so obviously crafted by the bride and her family. Emily’s mother made the bridesmaid dresses, Emily handcrafted Michael’s tie. From peacock feathers to hydrangeas Emily’s stamp was all over her wedding. It was a delightful combination of sweet & sassy! I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!

My, oh, my, how I was LOVING this vehicle!

See the picture below: a groom tearing up as he waits for his bride. Well, it was beyond welling, for both of them! Full on tears from start to finish. Emily’s started before the wedding when she accepted a phone call from him and through a tear smile relayed to her bridesmaids, “He’s just so good to me.”

The mist turned into a drizzle but I really don’t think Emily or Michael had a clue. They were pretty wrapped up in each other. It was just lovely.

It was beautiful and brief and then just like that they were husband and wife!

There weren’t many tears after that, just big joyful smiles.

Props to my intern Julie who lined this shot up!

Just a few horses in a pasture with mist rising up off of it, no big deal!

Loved their moms who held hands several times and celebrated God’s goodness together.

a sparkling exit

in the classic car

so classy. Thanks for letting me be a part of your celebration Emily & Michael It was such a pleasure to be there!

Nathan and Courtney were the first couple to sign up for our engagement mini sessions & they came with ideas & style! I loved that they took so much ownership during their session and were flexible and completely trusting of my ability to help them celebrate this crazy time in their relationship. That’s really a win win combination for anyone! I always get a little nervous when shooting for another photographer but was excited to be able to encourage & discuss the biz with Nathan! Enjoy some photos from their session!

Courtney didn’t wear shoes at any point of the session which turns out is how she normally rolls and usually Nathan doesn’t either so we had him take them off. I  love this image, it just makes me think, “All you need is love.”

Congratulations you crazy kids, I think you’ve got what it takes to make it!

I love having a unique name. There really aren’t very many Sabrena’s out there. Especially spelled with an E. It had its draw backs though. I never had personalized pencils in school or my name printed on my lunch box. I think as a result I became very fond (perhaps obsessed) with seeing my name in print! God must have laughed a little and given me my new last name Deal so that I would find my name in print everywhere. I’ll admit, it’s just as exciting! What does all this have to do with anything? Well, when I was engaged I attended a party that my friend Brittany threw. It was an Uppercase Living party. I loved it! Uppercase living is a fantastic company that creates vinyl expressions which you can apply to almost any surface. You can also create custom expressions by picking fonts, sizes, colors and whatever saying you’d like. The best part is that they are affordable. I should also mention they leave no damage on the surfaces (a bonus for renters!). I was so pleased with my first expression that I decided to host a party myself last year. We had a great time & Josh and I just put up the expression I received as a “gift” for hosting!

The first expression that I used was a stock Monogram with a custom expression: Est. 2009. I applied it to a window pane that I purchased for $3 at the Restore in Lynchburg. We used this as a decoration at the wedding and now it hangs in our dining room!

I invited my friend and S. Carter Studios bride Kelsey to the party and she bought letters which served as monograms on her unity sand containers.

We just recently hung the expression we got at the 2nd party I went to and I was just giddy to see it all come together. We had the piece of scrap wood hanging around, painted it black and applied our expressions to it. The For Ever & Ever part was a stock expression and we custom ordered the amen portion ourselves!

It hangs above our bed and I couldn’t think of a better place for it!

If those photos didn’t leave you feeling inspired check out a few photos I got courtesy of the Uppercase Living product showcase website.

As a monogram at a reception hall.

Living Room Decoration

In a little girl’s bedroom.

For the new baby’s room.

Or for a bridal shower decoration!

Please share your stories if you’ve used Uppercase Living! I am looking forward to browsing and seeing where else I can add more expressions! To find the nearest representative in your area click here!

Angi grew up in Poplar Bluff, Missouri with her mom, step-dad, three brothers, a sister, and a dog.  Solomon grew up in Nonthaburi, Thailand with his parents, two brothers and a sister. How in the world would these two end up meeting, becoming friends, dating, falling in love and finally preparing to be married? Well, Liberty University played a key roll as did soccer, ministry, thai food, thai language & Global English school. She helped him through heart break and he helped her through a broken toe. The rest is three and a half years of history! Angi and I became true and wonderful friends while she spent the year in Thailand. She was there the day I got engaged and I was so thankful to be there when Solomon popped the question to her! I love how he makes her laugh, how he takes such great care of her & really anyone else who happens to be around him. I love how she makes him feel special, loved and important and how she cooks thanksgiving dinner for him, even in April. They are a pretty good pair if I do say so myself, so Josh and I couldn’t help but go all out on their engagement photos! This is a long one so buckle up, but enjoy photos from their 3 part engagement session!

Part 1: Cute & casual

Part 2: Ode to soccer roots

Part 3: Cuddly & Cozy Picnic…inspired by one of their favorite and frequent dates

a plate full of this month’s DIY, button flowers!

We waited a long time for this bling!

Can’t you just imagine how great looking their kids are going to be? Seriously.

That’s all for now but it’s surely not the last you’ll see of these two as we prepare for their end of July wedding!

Well, happy Thursday! I am excited, even more than usual to share with you today’s Take A Look. It’s about US! We’re officially ready to roll with our signature Photo Booth photography and have some great photos to share with you from the first two events we did with the whole set up. Which is quite a load really! Enjoy some photos and we’ll fill you in on the details!

First: Harner Family Photos. The Harners are a wonderful, eclectic family that we know from our church. This is actually a follow up to our 3 year anniversary give away. Preston (mom) entered to win and had to wait 10 months until her whole family could gather in one location. I’m so thankful they waited so we could customize this family shoot for them! Here are a few teasers and the slideshow to accompany them!

S. Carter Studios Platinum Photo Booth: The Harner Family from sabrena deal on Vimeo.

Second: If you follow me on twitter or if you are my Facebook friend then you know I’ve been working on Angi’s Bridal Shower for several weeks now. It happened on Tuesday and I we had a fantastic time! Here are some images from her booth!

My personal favorite from the night!

and a slideshow to accompany with even more!

S. Carter Studios Platinum Photo Booth: Angi’s Shower from sabrena deal on Vimeo.

So, we’re officially ready to book: Weddings, Bridal Showers, Birthday Parties, Office Parties, you name it we’re excited to join you. Please contact us for more info! sabrena (at) scarterstudios (dot) com.

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.

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