When it comes to planning for the big day, everything has to be perfect, the ring, the dress, the location, and of course the guy you’re marrying! I realized that finding the right guy and knowing he’s “the one” happens when you “just know,” same with the dress, and the church… but the wedding photographer? Of course! There’s a click that happens between the bride and every vendor involved in her special day.

So it might surprise you that Myrick and I had never met in person prior to my Bridal Portraits (which I drove 7 hours for from south Alabama to Nashville, TN for). Myrick and I found each other on Twitter because we shared the same last name – Cowart. At the time, I had just become engaged and was beginning the search for the perfect wedding photographer, but it took me a few weeks of casual twitter-conversation with Myrick before I even knew he was a photographer.

After seeing his website and then speaking with him on the phone I knew he was the one! It was the constant contact on Twitter though that gave me the “click”. When a business trip took me to Nashville we decided to also schedule my bridal portraits to save on extra travel. That bridal portrait session sealed the deal for me; I was stoked to have Myrick (my long lost cousin – or so we think) part of my very special day! And you can see why!

My dress was a very important part of the day. I am an aspiring fashion designer, and my wedding dress was the first full apparel that I designed, so capturing it in high fashion form was critical. It’s obvious that Myrick did just that!

Two Rivers Mansion Bridal Shoot

This photo from the bridal portraits is so special. It’s the photo I chose as my portrait to display at the reception. Myrick says I was a trooper during this shoot…we had chosen to photograph outside a gorgeous mansion in Nashville and believe it or not it decided to snow that day! In the middle of March! It made the day, and the photos, magical!

Special Photo Credit of Beautiful Cake in bottom left – Dr. Jayne Sells

I also designed my shoes and the cake, all of which included the same brooches that were also placed on the bridesmaids’ dresses and my dress.

The picture of the rings is also special to my heart; those are my engagement ring and my grandmother’s wedding band. My grandmother was one of my best friends, she passed away when I was 9 years old and she had always dreamed of making my wedding gown. You see my grandmother was a seamstress, she spent countless hours making dresses for my cousin and me, she was the chosen seamstress for Mardi Gras costumes every year, and she always talked about the day when she would make my wedding dress. Well, she wasn’t here to do that, but I still had her wedding band and a handkerchief that belonged to her with her first initial monogrammed on the front, she was just as much a part of my wedding day as anyone else.

Myrick did a superb job of capturing my personality and the personality of my groom and our wedding party precisely! It’s amazing how quick he was able to catch my silly, sassy, girly personality and truly pull that out through the lens.

Ah, the ‘first look’ photos. It was very important to my fiancé and I that we not see each other the day of the wedding. He had heard me talk about my dress  and my hair for months but would not let me show him pictures, or drawings, or even describe it. Not only was he seeing me for the first time in this moment, he was seeing me in my dream dress. The moment was breathtaking and priceless; and these pictures tell the story perfectly.

My wedding day was the most FUN day of my life! I laughed the whole way down the aisle in the recessional, our driver honked the horn the whole drive to the reception, my husband and I along with our 400 guests danced the night away at the reception! Every second, every moment of our day was exceptional! From our first dance to mom and I showing off our ‘blingin’ shoes, to the cotton candy! It was perfect!

Words cannot express what happens to my heart when I see this picture. I can’t tell you how huge our support network is. Friends, family, church family, they have all been there for us, encouraging us, giving us words of wisdom and prayers of success from the moment we began dating 5 years ago.

When Kevin got down on one knee on January 24th, 2009 and asked for my hand in marriage, washed my feet and promised to serve me the way Christ served the church for the rest of our lives together, I said “Yes!” and we rejoiced. Immediately after, he walked me into a room of 100 of our closest friends and family who were waiting to rejoice with us. From that moment on, the words of encouragement, the thoughts of approval have flooded our home and congratulation cards began pouring in. I ran into mothers telling me they hope their daughters marry a guy like Kevin, things you can only wish others would say about your spouse, those are the things that were said to me and to my husband Kevin.

So, this picture says it all – The looks of approval and the arms stretched upward in a shout of celebration for us completely sums up our life together then, now, and forever. Our fairytale is just beginning.

Getting ready..

It seems like there is so much planning that goes into the ceremony, the reception, the cake, the colors, the music, and many other things. I think that most couples don’t really worry about what type of room they will be using to get dressed in. I’ve photographed in all different types of situations to sunday school classrooms, hotel rooms, homes, tour buses, and even outside using a broken piece of glass as a mirror! And as a photographer, my job is to look for light… whether that’s using available light or creating light with different types of light sources. Well, I’d like to share some different scenarios with you all as you begin your planning this year and give you some different things to think about as you plan your wedding and where you will be getting dressed.

The images below were shot at The Pick Inn, in Gallatin, TN. Orginally, Amanda & her mom were sitting inside the room away from the windows and I just asked them if they wouldn’t mind moving closer to the window to allow some window light to spill in… and here’s what we got..

Hotels can be a great place to get dressed!  This shot was taken at The Hermitage Hotel. I can’t say enough about this hotel… absolutely amazing to take pictures in.  Below, Aisha and her sister were hanging out in the bathroom making the final adjustments before the ceremony when I simply asked to come out by the huge windows and let me photograph them while they finished getting ready. As you can see, window light is just totally beautiful…

Another beautiful location to get married AND that has amazing rooms to get dressed in is at Kennesaw Farms in Hendersonville, TN.  Notice the big mirror in these two different images below. It’s the same mirror in both pictures and how awesome would it be if mirrors could talk because I am sure that they would have some amazing stories to tell!

Again, in these shots below, I simply just used available window light.  The shot on the left is the bride’s son putting her ring on her hand and giving her his blessing to be married…

I think that the toughest places to photograph the “Getting Ready” shots are chuch classrooms.  Many times these rooms are downstairs where this is no natural light coming in and your only option is to use the florescent lights in the ceiling or to use on-camera flash. A note to photographers, I highly recommend trying to avoid using on camera flash for these types of pictures. If you do have to use on-camera flash, try either bouncing the light off of a wall or ceiling or using something to diffuse or soften the flash.  The “Getting Ready” shots should be as natural as possible capturing the light of the moment.

Besides hard lighting, another reason that classrooms are difficult to shoot it is because of the blemishes that are sometimes on the walls or ceilings. Notice the ceiling tiles below on the right.  Yes, I would normally either crop this image so that you couldn’t see the ceiling or I would photoshop the blemishes out. But I wanted to use this as an example of things to look for when you are taking tours of possible locations.

The room below was an actual bridal room at a church.. again, there weren’t any windows and the lights on the ceiling were actually behind the bride’s head so it wasn’t putting my light on her face.  To fix this problem, I put a lamp on the dresser, took the lamp shade off and shot. The bride was thankful for the lamp as well because now she could actually see what she was doing! There’s a cropped version below where I got rid of the lamp.

Here’s an  example of taking a dark classroom and turning it into my studio! In the image below, you will notice a carpeted choir riser behind the bride. It was pretty much used to just throw junk on.  There wasn’t any natural light and florescent lights are not the most attractive lighting to shoot in, so I set up my big light and cleared off the carpeted riser and asked the bride if she would stand up on it do a mini-fashionista-photoshoot with me!  Fashionista Photoshoot below!

One of my favorite places to shoot “Getting Ready” pictures are in homes.  There are many many advantages to shooting in homes!  Not only do you have so many rooms to choose from when it comes to a home but everyone is relaxed when they are in a home setting.  The shots below were taking in the brides home in Quito, Ecuador.

Here are some more shots in a family members home. And look at ALL the windows surrounding everybody! Can you tell that I love natural light?

Now one of the most unique places that I have shot the “Getting Ready” pictures was on a tour bus!  Not alot of space but it certainly provides alot of fun! I see a foot there in one of the bunks.. I think the bride was taking a little siesta before showtime!

Now when it comes to guys and “Getting Ready” photos, there is the exception of course but most guys take about 10-15 minutes to get ready so if they have a way to entertain themselves in the “Getting Ready” room, then life is good! In the guys room, I have seen everything from ping-pong tables to pool sticks to poker!

Well, I hope that this has sparked some different planning ideas or give you things to look for when you are scouting out locations for your wedding.  Just remember that there are lots of places to get dressed in and if you pick a place that has lots of lighting, not only will you get beautiful photographs, but your photographer will love you!  And if you’re a photographer, I hope it has maybe given you some ways to look for lighting!

Thanks! And leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

I wish I could say that I had arranged for this white leather couch to be sitting outside for the guy’s photoshoot…but I just walked out of my hotel trying to find a cool place to shoot the guys and there it was.  I couldn’t believe it! The groomsmen were thinking wow, this photographer had this awesome white couch shipped in just for this photoshoot!  Shhhh… don’t tell! 

I’ve been shooting weddings now for 7 years and they had one of the sweetest moments that I have ever experienced during a ceremony.  Ryan & Amy finally had their chance to make it all official and Ryan got to “kiss his bride”.  Well, they asked Ryan’s grandfather to come forward and close the ceremony in prayer.  Ryan’s grandfather then had everybody stand up and join hands all across the sanctuary and he prayed the sweetest blessing over this couple.  It was one of those moments where you just wanted time to sit still… and there aren’t any words to describe the peace that was in sanctuary that day…

Another one of the things that I love about my job is the great locations that the couples pick for their weddings.  Ryan & Amy rented out a 3-story yacht for their reception!  They called on Carolina Girl to take their wedding party on a 3-hour tour into the sunset and it was incredible! Thank you Ryan & Amy for inviting me and my fiance down to capture such a beautiful wedding..

Below are some shots of the “Mad Men” waiting in style…

This was one of the funniest moments that I have ever seen during the “Toast” moment. You know the picture where the bride & groom are supposed to take their glasses and wrap-around-each-others-arms-and-take-a-drink photo? Well, these guys were attempting to do that but kept bumping into each others hands and drinks and getting their arms all locked up in weird positions.. well, finally they just raised their glasses and said “CHEERS!”

Not only were these guys stylin’ & profylin’ but wow, could they dance!  They had their first dance totally choreographed and I don’t even remember them sitting down to eat because they were dancing the entire time!

Thanks again, Megan & Andrew for trusting me enough to photograph your Nashville Wedding even though we had never met face to face until the day of! You guys were awesome!

I really appreciate Veronica & Steven trusting me enough to fly me down to shoot their wedding… it was an experience that I will never forget!

Here are a few shots that we did on their engagement shoot in Veronica’s hometown in Ecuador.

The image in the top left-hand corner is the view looking out the front door of this church. I was taking pictures of their ceremony and turned around and I was absolutely blown away by this view.  The picture doesn’t even do it justice. It was like looking out and seeing a painting by God.

Veronica & Steven asked me to ride along with them from the church to the reception to capture some of images of their ride.  Even though I couldn’t understand a word that the driver was saying, I was so captivated by this guy.. he looked liked something from the movies!

The food in Ecuador….oh the food… I could go on forever about the food.  At their reception, they had this amazing candy while guests arrived at the reception and for dinner, they served salmon that just melted in my mouth!  The image in the top right was taken from the reception at sunset.  Absolutely amazing…

For their first dance, Veronica wanted to surprise Steven by having fireworks go off during their song.  She surprised me as well because I was just shooting away and about 30 second into their dance, I see this huge flame go off in my camera and I thought the place was on fire! But after the initial shock, I was able to make a few adjustments in my camera and capture these images below… I loved the bubbles and the fire together…

I can’t really put into words what their reception was like… not only did they have a 9-HOUR reception, (6pm-3am) but during one of those hours, they had a “CRAZY HOUR!”  The “Crazy Hour” is a time where these guys came dressed up in costumes doing acrobats and playing drums! Unbelievable!! They also brought masks and fun hats for everybody to wear.  At one point during the Crazy Hour, they had a contest where they would do a specific kind of acrobatic trick and they made members of the bridal party perform the SAME acrobatic trick as a contest to see which team was better!  Too funny!  A few of the bridesmaids were in total shock when they realized that they had to climb onto the groomsmen’s shoulders in their dresses and flip over BACKWARDS!

I love the look of this groomsman in the middle-right picture.  I asked him what the look on his face was for…and he said, “dude, the bridesmaid had been dancing in her shoes for 7 hours and now those shoe-less feet were in my face!”

After a beautiful wedding and a reception that I will never forget, the next day Veronica & Steven wanted to do a “Day After” shoot.  Here are some images from the shoot on my last night in Ecuador. I hope to get back soon!  If you’d like to hear more details on how Veronica planned her wedding abroad, click this link!

Ashley’s Brideguide – A Real Wedding…

Chris & Claire actually met in Memphis…so they just HAD to have a picture with Elvis in it!

I love this series of pictures below..I just had them take turns being in the background. But when it was Claire’s turn, I noticed that she was looking at something else and wasn’t looking at the camera and I shouted “CLAIRE!! STOP LOOKING AT CHRIS’S BUTT AND LOOK AT THE CAMERA!!” LOL! That got a HUGE smile to come across her face!

August 1, 2009… time for the BIG day for these guys!  Claire and her bridesmaids got ready at Claire’s mom’s house and wanted to have her pictures done there because of the beautiful scenery at the lake house and I really tried to convince them to let me get a shot of them jumping off of the dock into the lake but I think we’re going to plan that for a later date!

On to the wedding…they got married at a place called “Carrigan Farms”.  I had no idea what to expect when I tried to picture a wedding at a rock quarry but WOW, was I so thrilled when I pulled up to this location!  I pulled up and the guys were ready with flasks in hand for their turn!

I really do appreciate them trusting me enough to hire me to drive out to NC to shoot their wedding. They are a truly beautiful couple and it was a absolute pleasure being able to watch them share this moment with each other.

Thanks again, Chris & Claire for this experience with you guys!  I really tried to get some “L.O.V.E.” for you two on camera, but the “E” fizzled out right during the picture!