Est. 2012 | Colorado Springs, Colorado and Charlottesville, Virginia wedding & family photographer

I don’t think I can even explain HOW excited I am to be sharing this with you all today!!! After photographing a JMU engagement session last night, I was too excited not to share this with you all!!! I want to start off by saying that none of this would have worked out without the help of each creative vendor as well as the owner of Belle Grove Plantation! You all are an inspiration to me and I am SO glad to have met you through this shoot! GO DUKES!

The behind the story of this shoot is kind of funny because I had no intensions of doing a styled shoot until I had puzzle pieces come together. I remember spontaneously finding Belle Grove Plantation via online and saw they host weddings. After doing some research, I then found that very place is where James Madison was born. Naturally, I HAD to email Michelle (the owner of Belle Grove Plantation) regarding a potential shoot. Again, I had a tug on my heart to do this … I had no idea where I was going to go with it at this point. After receiving Michelle’s enthusiastic response, I immediately started brainstorming ideas. Because I was pulled into this idea of emailing this venue particularly for my love for my University … why not try finding other professional and successful JMU Alumni wedding vendors?! Honestly, at this point I didn’t know if I would be able to find a JMU vendor for every puzzle piece needed, but somehow we were all able to put our heads together and create a JMU Alumni exclusive styled shoot! This was meant to inspire and excited those who attended JMU … and possibly the engaged JMU couples who are looking for a bit of JMU inspiration for their wedding day.

Do you remember Matt & Shannon’s JMU wedding back in September? I contacted them knowing they were in the area and loveeeee JMU as well. They were AMAZING and fit the part so well!!! From a cake designer to florist to wedding coordinators to makeup artist to even rental … we made a complete JMU Alumni creative team! If I could tell you that the day flew by faster than I can remember … it did. It was pretty exciting touring the home of James Madison’s childhood and not to mention sitting on a fancy couch featured in the movie Lincoln! What was even MORE exciting was when we were told that we were the first JMU Alumni to step foot into his childhood home! Geek out moment for us!!! Haha! After setting up the table, chatting about our college days and enjoying Evan’s amazinggggg cupcakes it made me realize really why I did this. Even though we may have been strangers to one another (for the most part), we all had one thing in common … WE LOVE JMU and will always bleed purple! GO DUKES!!!

THE AMAZING VENDORS
Venue: Belle Grove Plantation, King George, VA
Wedding Coordinators: Jennifer from MayJune Events (’06) and Alicia Carroll (’11)
Models: Matt King (’11) & Shannon (Mueller) King (’11)
Photographers: Stephanie Messick from Stephanie Messick Photography (’11) and Ali from Alisandra Photography (’09)
Makeup: Kara from Best Face Forward – Skin, Makeup & Color Artists (’07)
Florist: Amanda from Anthomatic (’09)
Cake: Evan from Sweets by E (’07)
Stationery: Callie McLean (’11)
Rentals: Courtney from Perfect Settings (’13)

Once a Duke, Always a Duke!

Thank each of you for making my vision come to life! Amazing day from start to finish! So blessed to have met and connected with each of you! XOXO

The beautiful venue, Belle Grove Plantation! Thanks Ali for the photo! To say the least, we had an AMAZING day weather wise!!! So fortunate! 🙂 Don’t you love this purple and gold theme?! Great job Amanda for adding a little touch to the chairs! They looked great! Of course we had Mrs. Dolly Madison attend. 😉 Callie did an amazing job putting together the stationery with metallic gold letting detail! What is so unique about this house are the curved doors. So cool! And Evan, you are SO good with your cake design! I trusted her to put something together and she did it perfectly! Amazing flowers … as always, Amanda! LOVE the envelope liner!!! Cheesy Thursdays anyone?! Why not have a grilled cheese bar! We also had a little display of the infamous “Red, White and Blue Cookies” … if you remember those? I took the recipe and now make them whenever I can … LOVE THEM! Of course everyone knows about the “Darts and Pats” from “The Breeze” Newspaper! Love this! Shannon, you are stunning! Little gold detailing. 🙂 Love this!! You two are cute! Thanks Ali for the bridal shot on the right, Shannon is a pro!! Fun details. 🙂 THIS. LIGHTING. omgsh. LOVE the right photo!!! SO cute!!! Love the black and white photo too! Thanks Ali for this shot of Matt on the right! MY. FAVORITE. Cute!!! GO DUKES! Stunning. Thanks Ali for this ending shot! Amazing day!!!

Thanks again for everyone involved in this shoot!!! Especially, Ali! Thank you SO much for helping me set up and take down … and for EVERYTHING! Including making those cute grilled cheeses! Haha! Amazing day! So proud of my Alma Mater!!!