Emily & Lee Eloped! | A Downtown Durham Wedding

Well hello there! Happy New Year! And holidays! And... December? Did I even put up one single blog post in December? Let's just say it's been a while... hope you've been well! Things got a bit off-the-charts busy for me at the end of the year, and blogging didn't make the must get done cut, but in the back of my head, I always knew that Emily & Lee's wedding last fall was going to get top billing when I got back on the wagon. You may remember Emily from this shoot last January... she runs the Duke Farm in Durham, and I was photographing her for the Starting Fresh cookbook project I'm collaborating on. Well, back in September, she came into the studio and announced that she was getting married... in two weeks... and that I was the first person she had told! Her fiance, Lee, had just moved to New Haven to start law school at Yale, and she was planning on joining him in the winter. With all the big changes, they figured they'd just go to the courthouse and have a little ceremony to make it official the next time Lee was in Durham, then have a party later once their lives were settled and they'd had a chance to plan. They didn't want the day to go undocumented, however, which was where I came in.

Lee & Emily met at the farm, so it seemed appropriate that we start the day there. We didn't really have an agenda to follow, except that the court only performs weddings between the hours of 11 and 11:30, so the plan was as follows:

• Do some photos at the farm while Lee & Emily made a bouquet and boutonniere with the flowers that were still blooming in late September
• Head downtown for more photos on a beautiful Friday morning
• Meet up with Lee's sister Mary Beth and her boyfriend Brock (aka: the witnesses) for champagne and Monuts
• Go to the courthouse and get married!

It was, bar none, the most laid-back wedding I've ever photographed, and easily one of the sweetest.

Lee & Emily told their families about the wedding at Thanksgiving, and started planning a big party for this coming summer in the mountains. I'm super-excited to be joining them to photograph that part of the story as well... see you guys in August!

xox,

annemie