Charleston / Thom & Ashleigh's Wedding

I'm on my way back to NYC after a beautiful wedding weekend in Charleston, South Carolina.

We came down on Saturday to check out the plantation where the wedding was going to be taking place.

The Boone Hall Plantation, made famous in The Notebook as Rachel McAdams's family's summer home, and more recently, the site of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds's Wedding.

This place is S-T-U-N-N-I-N-G!!!!!

The driveway to the main house is literally 2 miles long.

We decided to have the ceremony off to the side of the row of oaks under all the arches. It looked awwwwesome. 

There were so many incredible places to shoot at this venue...

In front of the mansion (every time I was reminded of the fact that Ryan Gosling AND Ryan Reynolds had both stood where I was currently standing I squealed ever-so-silently into my soul)...

Out in the cotton fields...(which totally reminded everyone of 12 Years A Slave, womp wompppppp)

Or around the badass pickup truck that Ashleigh's dad brought down to South Carolina just for the wedding...

The bride and groom were soyyyy happy and beautiful.

And everything was impeccably designed...

LOVES shooting the weddings of fabulous friends in fabulous locations!!!!

First plantation wedding ever...but definitely not the last!

Okie...heading back to New York for a marathon day of shoots before jumping back down South again on Wednesday. Yup, I have ANOTHER plantation wedding this coming weekend, this time in New Orleans!

Smathers & Branson Shoot: Day 1

So over the course of two-day Smathers & Branson models shoot we took about 5,000 pictures.

I'd never done an official "fashion" shoot before, but Peter had already booked me for his wedding in September and really liked my stuff, and he had faith that my abilities in the wedding and headshot realm would translate.

Not gonna lie...I was a tiny bit nervous. But I'm really happy with how everything turned out!

We started shooting at 8am on Monday.

Golfing took up the first part of the day.






Lots of belt and outfit changes...




And lots of tight butt shots!



The boys got along great and were really easy to work with. Really sweet Southern guys. No model divas.




Our three models were:

Travis, a Casper Van Dien lookalike.

Erik, a better-looking version of Hobbit Elijah Wood, and a former castmate on Survivor China.




And, Jay B., possibly the most beautiful man I've ever seen or photographed in my entire life.

I seriously think he is destined to be the next face of Ralph Lauren or something and am taking it upon myself as a mini-mission to make sure he hits the big time.



After golfing, we hit the shooting range and fired some shotguns...loud and scary!




Oh...fun behind-the-scenes note: because we were shooting belts, we were constantly tucking and re-tucking the models shirts to make sure they fit just right with no weird bunching.

Lots of jamming our fingers right in their pants to adjust things to perfection. Peter was a little apprehensive about it at first. But Michelle and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. ;-)



After a while we wouldn't even warn them that we were about to poke and grope them, we'd just get right up in there and do what we needed to do!




After hunting we hit the stables...



We stripped them down and put them in more riding-appropriate attire...



Can you tell Jay Jay was terrified of the horsies? He hides it well no?



But as he tried to escort the horsie along he had a really hard time controlling it and it yanked and jerked him everywhere trying to eat grass.



Love me some cowboys!



Just look at those sexy belts!



We played some poker...



Did some collegiate drinking...




Grilled some food. (Oh, other side-note: Travis was REALLY sweaty and would constantly sweat through all his clothes. LOL.)



And then went down to the docks.



Finally we ended with some horseshoes!



It was a long but productive day!

Spring Island!

So I landed at Savannah/Hilton Head Airport early on Easter morning and my driver was an older gentleman with a heavy Southern accent and a sweet mullet holding a sign that said, "KAWN."

He kept calling me "Mr. KAWN." And I didn't have the heart to correct him.

He drove me 45 miles east to Spring Island, where Peter's family's home is. The scenery on the way is pretty awesome. Tall tall trees lining the highway...



We passed a Hot Dog Buffet...oh the South...



And then pulled up to Spring Island.



Once you pass through the security gates, it's like you're in Jurassic Park.




There's so much lush vegetation everywhere you turn, its kind of surreal.





After getting to the house and dropping off my bags, Peter, Michelle and I hopped in a golf cart to tour the island and scout locations for our photo shoot the next day...



We drove through the golf course...





Passed the ruins of the old plantation house...



Checked out the gazebo, which they use for BBQing etc.



Walked down to the dock...



Which looks like something out of "Lost"...




Met the horsies at the stables...



There's also a shooting range...




Teehee!



The house itself was a beautiful Southern home.



Loved the pillars and high ceilings.



And the kitchen was pretty sweet.



I was given the guest house for the past few days.

Aside from a tick bite and some daddy longlegs, it was pretty epic.

Some of the delicious foods we had over the past few days included Shrimp and Grits...



Chicken and Sausage Cavetelli...



Sweet pepper cheeseadillas...



A delicious salad...



And some fresh apple cobbler.




Yes Peter and Michelle are super cute and super domestic and are really good cooks!



It's also really awesome to be around friends who are fellow entrepreneurs running their own businesses.

Peter has his belt and accessories line: Smathers & Branson

And Michelle runs her own jewelry company: Mija Jewelry

The sight of us all sitting around the dining table with our laptops in work mode catching up on emails would have made a really cute picture.

Check their stuff out and buy something!