Bridal and couple sessions always produce some of my favorite photographs. Whether you wait several months or do it the day after the wedding, it's always fun to dress up again and go out for more relaxed photos as a married couple. If you do it soon after the wedding, you have the added advantage of being able to re-use the wedding flowers and can often avoid a second tux rental. Chris went with the current trend and wore a nice suit for the wedding so that a tux wasn't even an issue.

While Jill and Chris are busy cruising around the Mediterranean on their honeymoon (I'm so jealous), here are a few of my favorite shots from their post-wedding portrait session last week.

I love fall! The leaves are changing, and we're finally having some great jacket weather, the sort that makes you want to sit around a campfire making s'mores. The temperature on Saturday may have been a little cooler than Jill and Chris would have wished, but it was still a beautiful fall day for their outdoor wedding at Norris Dam State Park. After a few photos around the park, the couple said their vows at the ampitheater and then walked across the street for a dinner reception at the Tea Room.

Jill and Chris had their private meeting on this leaf-strewn lane outside the rustic cabin where she had gotten ready.


There was another wedding staged at the old mill and barn in the park, but we found some more creative places to do a few pre-ceremony photographs.







The ampitheater is surrounded by large trees and made for a very natural, serene ceremony site. This was their first kiss as husband and wife.

I love the idea of having a petal toss as the couple exits the ceremony. I had a couple try this before, and none of the guests (not even the friends and family who knew about it) threw the petals. Jill did a good job putting explicit directions on the petal cones: Please shower Jill and Chris with petals at the close of the ceremony. However, guests still seemed a bit confused. While it was still a fun exit, anyone copying this idea may get even more petals in the air if they ask the officiant to give directions just before the exit.

Jill's grandfather and his friends provided live music at the reception.

The guests had fun using the photo booth, complete with fun props and costumes.

Candi and Ryan had a fabulous wedding on Sunday. The ceremony was in Wightman Chapel at the amazing Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville. SBC has beautiful arches, windows, stone, and woodwork that make it a beautiful wedding venue. A photographer could spend several hours exhausting all of the stunning photo spots there. Candi and Ryan did choose to see each other before the ceremony and do all of the formal group photos - a decision that lets couples spend more time together on their wedding day and get more great photographs together.




While candid shots can capture the action and mood of the day and are a very necessary part of wedding coverage, I do love a beautiful portrait.











While most of the day was very relaxed, Candi and Ryan were excited to run through their recessional and bubble exit (although Ryan had some trouble keeping up).





After a few night portraits, we headed to the reception at Maggiano's Little Italy. As perfect as Scarritt Bennett is for ceremonies, Maggiano's is an excellent choice for a reception. Although they don't seem to have room for really large crowds, the food ranks right up there with some of the best wedding food I've ever had, and they definitely don't skimp on the serving sizes. Although most of the guests seemed to be too full to even eat another bite, I always appreciate a good dessert, and there were lots of delicious choices. There was even a "bleeding armadillo cake" just like in the movie Steal Magnolias. After the couple cut the cake, Ryan ceremoniously presented the tail piece to a special guest.



Although there wasn't any real cake smashing going on, Candi did manage to smear a bit of icing on Ryan's face. She proceeded to cleaned him up with a napkin, but he took a quicker route to cleaning the icing off of her.



The guests were treated to a fun photo slideshow from the couple.



Some wedding crowds go a little overboard with the bells on the tables, but this group rang them just often enough. When you hear bells, you know there's a great photo opportunity.



With the beautiful venue, sweet and happy couple, and amazing food, it really was a great wedding day. After a road trip through the North East (which is beautiful this time of year), the couple will be heading to Hawaii where Ryan will be reporting for duty at Pearl Harbor. As part of the armed forces, they both deserve our respect and gratitude, and I was very honored to have been a part of their important day.

When we set out to do Megan and Monte's couple session yesterday, I had plans to do some cool shots with Smoky Mountains in the background. However, you can't really predict what the weather will be like on top of a mountain, and we ended up caught in the middle of a cloud. Although it wasn't what we planned for, I think that the fog was cool... in more ways than one. The temperature was almost 30 degrees colder on the mountain than in Knoxville, but Megan didn't complain. She was a trooper, and we got some beautiful photos including a few sunset shots with the mountains in the background.

I've resisted posting larger blog photos because they take longer to load for everyone and won't show up on all monitors without scrolling. However, I know that it's hard to really appreciate a photo when it's too small so I'm considering switching to a larger size. Let me know what you think.

I didn't really plan on blogging this today, but I started looking through the photos and just wanted to go ahead and share. Although she is from Maryville, Rachel and Josh live in Florida so they had a combined wedding/honeymoon here in the Smoky Mountains at The Dancing Bear Lodge in Townsend. The ceremony was held in a smaller meeting hall with the reception in the larger lodge and formal photos around the grounds. The reception tables were set up indoors and out with a dance area on the lower deck.

The lodge and cabins are all very nice and modern but retain a rustic charm with many custom touches. The carved doors on the lodge are truly amazing.



A family friend did the flowers, and I thought Rachel's bouquet was perfect for a mountain wedding. It incorporated irises (my grandmother's favorite flower and the state flower), sunflowers, and daisies.

The walkway to the ceremony site was lined with these hanging cones of Gerbera daisies. It's a little difficult to convey in a photo, but the effect was simply beautiful. Guests felt like they were walking down a forest path to a little cabin in the woods.

Rachel is an anthropologist and planned much of her wedding while working in South Africa. As favors for her guests, she brought back these creative little keychains that were handmade out of wire and beads by African artisans. VERY cool.





I love Rachel's mermaid gown, and it fit her perfectly.






Josh watched as Rachel cut the cake. Carrot Cake. My favorite!


Although it was a very hot and humid day, the guests weren't deterred from dancing into the night to live music by the Swinging Richards.

Josh's family taught everyone a Lebanese wedding dance, and the couple showed off some of their moves.