Alison + Thomas // An Elegant Florence, Alabama Wedding

It’s hard to believe, but Alison and Thomas’s wedding was the very last of my 2012 season (and what a season it’s been- expect a long recap post in the near future!). And with November weddings in the South, you never know what you’re going to get. It could be sunny and 65 degrees or dreary and 40 degrees. Luckily, we got one of the gorgeous warm days for the wedding, which made all the fall leaves really shine.

These two got married at the stunning Grace Episcopal Church in Florence, Alabama, which made for a perfect backdrop for photos. I loved the florals and overall color palette of reds, forest greens, and pops of burnt orange, which perfectly signaled the transition from fall to winter. But what I loved most of all was how completely relaxed Alison and Thomas were the whole day. Since they’re both med school students (they even had to go back to school the Monday after the wedding!), they’re used to chaos and busyness, so they decided not to get bogged down with worry and stress about wedding-related details, and it really showed. They were both completely present and full of joy, and it was an honor to get to witness their marriage ceremony.

A huge thank you as always to the lovely Mary Margaret Smith for her assistance, moral support, beautiful photos, and all around friendship. She has played a *major* role in the success of this wedding season, but more on that later too. ;)

On to the photos!

I just absolutely love this portrait of Alison with her mom, sister, grandmother, aunt, and cousin. There’s something so powerful to me about a multi-generational portrait of the women of a family, and the big smiles in this one just fill my heart with happiness.

After the ceremony, we headed to the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club for the reception. It was the most GORGEOUS time of day for portraits, and the scenery was obviously amazing. I was in photographer heaven!

The craziest part of the day was when a huge lightning storm rolled through later in the evening. At this point many of the guests had wandered inside to watch the big Alabama-LSU game, so I decided to go out on the porch and see if I couldn’t catch a lightning strike in a photo. Mary Margaret had the same idea (we’re always thinking on the same wavelength like that- it’s scary, really), and was already experimenting. Almost right after I sat down next to her, this insane gust of wind blew in and nearly knocked us over, so we raced inside for cover. At that point it literally began pouring sheets of rain, which we then had to run through to get to the car… we looked like we had gone swimming. :) Anyway, neither of us thought we had actually gotten a good storm shot, but when I loaded the photos on the computer, I spotted THIS one of MM’s below and my jaw dropped! I so wish I could take credit for it but it was ALL her!

I also wanted to include a few shots from Alison’s bridal shoot with this post because I think they work so well with the overall look and feel of the wedding. She brought this gorgeous fur coat to wear at the wedding in case it got cold, but it was actually too warm all day for it, so I’m glad we got this opportunity to shoot her in it anyway. I love, love, love a bride in a vintage fur coat!

Congratulations Alison and Thomas, and thank you so much for allowing me to be apart of your day!