Monthly Archives: January 2009

Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.


Ryan & Jenny

Destination - Snowshoe Mountain Resort

January 26, 2009 – 12:03 am

We love doing destination weddings…

Did you hear that?  We LOVE doing destination weddings!!!  So, if you know someone getting married far away or even just a little ways away… ahem, ahem… yeah, we’ll probably want to do it  :)  It is much more involved for us than it sounds, but we love doing it for the simple fact of being together for an extended period of time … we ARE newlyweds after all, right?

One of the three destination weddings we did this year was for the fabulous Ryan & Jenny from Ohio.  They decided to have their destination wedding at the beautiful Snowshoe Mountain Resort in Snowshoe, WV.  The resort sits atop Snowshoe Mountain about 4 ½ hours from Winchester, and the entire drive is jaw-dropping gorgeous!  I went down to shoot their engagement session by myself several weeks before the wedding, and was quite nervous about falling asleep at the wheel (I’m SO not good at staying awake in the car).  But, once the sun rose on that winding road showcasing the tall green trees, babbling brooks, and awe-inspiring vistas from the tops of each mountain, I felt as if I was in a fairytale, and there was no chance of me wasting that experience on sleep!  I haven’t seen a deep blue sky that intense since my last trip to Kauai, and the tranquility that was in the air was much needed for my over-worked mind.  It turns out that we didn’t get to meet that day after all, which was a huge bummer, but I didn’t feel like it was a waste for an instant.  Even the drive back was so much fun, as I had a chance to actually stop and take some photographs for ME, which was very therapeutic.

Alright, enough of the relaxation, and on to the big event!  I’m so glad that we had a chance to shoot this wedding.  Ryan and Jenny are such a classy couple, and nothing could have been more spectacular about their entire wedding weekend!  They planned so many great excursions for their guests throughout their entire stay, and we heard numerous stories from several guests about the fun they were having.  To top it off, the resort was having their Chili cook-off event, Fire on the Mountain, so there were lots of vendors & some great music to see while we were there.   I found the coolest blue & purple candles that I ended up buying for our wedding which was just around the corner!

This was the view out the window of our room the morning of their wedding. Breathtaking…

We started off at their hotel, Allegheny Springs, where they were getting ready three floors apart.   I was with the girls….

And Jon was with the guys…

The ceremony site was at the bottom of the ski lift at the boathouse, and even though the top of the mountain was PACKED with the chili cook-off crowd, the resort let us occupy the lift for quite some time ushering guests and the bridal party down to the site.  So fun! Here’s Jenny & her dad coming down the lift…

The view from the lift was INCREDIBLE!!!

The view from the bottom wasn’t so bad either :)

They had Brothers Short play at both the ceremony and their reception. Definitely the best band I’ve seen at a wedding yet!

I loved this moment during the ceremony between Ryan’s mom & sister

Here we are coming back up the lift to the reception (you can see Ryan & Jenny right behind us)

The coolest thing happened when we got back to the top of the mountain.  Some of the chili cook-off crowd started singing “Country Roads”, which just happened to be a main theme of Ryan & Jenny’s wedding.  I’m not sure how they knew that, or if it just made sense to sing that particular song since we were deep in the mountains of West Virginia, but it had to be the highlight of my entire weekend!  I guess it’s one of those “You just had to be there” moments :)

Check out that backdrop over the West!

I’m not sure about this image, but I’m posting it anyway.

And then there were fireworks… how totally awesome is that?!?

As I mentioned before, Ryan & Jenny are such a classy couple. They decided to not have a grand exit, and instead sneaked off without anyone knowing in this classic Mustang, driven by Bob Elwood from HGTV’s House Hunters in Aruba (I’m an HGTV nut, so forgive me)!

Many thanks again to Ryan, Jenny & their families for letting Jon & I capture this special event in your lives.  Here are a couple sunset pictures from their wedding weekend.

Up next…

Ryan & Jenny’s wedding
Wedding Window - Vendor Spotlight
Jennifer’s bridal session
Matt & Jessie’s wedding
OUR WEDDING - pt.1
Khimaira Farm - Vendor Spotlight
OUR WEDDING - pt.2
Rodney & Tiffany’s wedding
Gary & Staci’s e-session
Wesley & Heather’s wedding
GS Productions - Vendor Spotlight
Matt & Laura’s wedding
Geoff & Jennifer’s wedding
OUR Day After session w/ openField photography.
Rob & Jen + Two!
Matty & Jessy’s wedding
Splitpine Studios - Vendor Spotlight
Sean & Kathy’s wedding
Kara’s maternity session
Gary & Staci’s wedding
Manda’s generosity
Keith & Jessica’s wedding
Valley Pig Pickin’ - Vendor Spotlight
Brad & Casey’s e-session
David & Jacki’s wedding
Jaxson Ray - newborn
Nicole’s maternity session

By Lori | Posted in destinations, weddings | Comments (3)

Happy New Year to all!!!!

January 1, 2009 – 8:33 pm

Happy New Year to everyone!!!  What an exciting time for us right now, as we make a big transition from 2008 to 2009!  More on that later…

I hope you all had a great holiday season, and a promising start for the New Year.  I know times are tough for many of us right now, but I have faith that things will get better in time.  We just need to keep our friends and family closer than ever right now, and focus on building stronger relationships with those that mean so much to us.

While I finalize the details of our big launch (that’s the only hint I’m giving away!), I’ll show you what we’ve been up to over the holidays in our spare time.  First, our Christmas card:  I always wait until the last minute to get these things out, and I always say that next year will be different… well, let’s just say that next year will be different ;)  We only had a few hours one day to shoot some images & unfortunately Byron couldn’t be with us that day, so it was just the two of us.  We had to get the images and design the card the same day in order to have them in time for Christmas, so it didn’t leave much room for creativity.  We just picked all our favorites, and plopped them on a design template we’ve created before, and sent them off to be printed.  Here’s the end result:

Front of folded card:

Inside of card:

Yeah, it could have been much cleaner and less cheesy, but we still like it.

Christmas Day was so great!!!  We actually went around to several family members’ houses before we opened our presents.  I didn’t think I’d enjoy having our Christmas last, but it actually turned out perfectly!  We’re thinking of making that a tradition since it worked out so well.  Byron & I had fun making these AWESOME holiday ornament cupcakes for breakfast (if his mama’s watching, I’m sorry, but it was just this once!).

Here’s a short (I promise) slideshow of our first married Christmas…

For New Year’s, Jon & I headed downtown to the Virginia Brewing Company to hear a few of our friends’ bands play.  We actually didn’t get there until 11:45, but we had a blast!  There was some crazy guy trying to start a fight after midnight, but luckily the security crew was on top of it, and made him leave.  I sure hope he had a designated driver, and got home safely…  Anyway, we saw so many friends that we haven’t seen in ages, and had such a great time hanging out with them!

Here’s to a warm & prosperous New Year to everyone!!!

By Lori | Posted in personal | Comments (1)