Duke Chapel, Durham - Hinton Family

It was a real pleasure meeting the Hinton family this past Sunday. Brad is one amazing young man. He is currently attending Duke Divinity School where he is in his first of the three years he will be attending. His mother, Sandra, wanted a photograph of him in front of Duke Chapel. The school means quite a bit to Brad - so after taking a few photographs by Duke Chapel, we went and took some at Duke Divinity that were important to Brad. The school, like the chapel, are both beautiful and rich in architect. We took some time to create a few portraits of Brad, as well as both of his parents Sandra and Bill and his friend Erin. Brad is also an EMT and loves the outdoors. He should be happy, they are calling for snow this weekend, and he loves to ski.

Biz-Link luncheon fundraiser for Loaves & Fishes

Biz-Link recently held a wonderful luncheon at the Cutting Board Restaurant in Burlington. The luncheon was put together with one thought in mind – giving back to the community. According to Jennifer Lloyd Ball of Pine Lake Pavilion (and Biz-Link Member) said that, “78 people attended the event including the Biz-link members. The Biz-Link Collected a total of $883.14 for Loaves and Fishes!!! What a great success!” Loaves and Fishes is a wonderful organization who helps the many local families in need with food.

It was great to see many businesses come out to spend the afternoon networking and hearing keynote speaker Doug Stevenson talked about “How to Thrive in a Tough Economy.” There were many prizes won throughout the afternoon, lots of laughter and good food. A BIG thank you to all who attended and help make this a great success. Biz-Link has a weekly meeting held on Thursday at Benjamin's Seafood Restaurant in Burlington off of Church Street. If you like to learn more about Biz-Link call: 229-6103 or visit them at the The Biz-Link.


Sponsors:
The Cutting Board
Fire Cloud Design
All State Agencies
Texas Road House
Pine Lake Pavilion
Action Travel
Kitchen 14 Catering
Help Me Debbie
Shiloh Presbyterian Church
Red Bowl Restaurant
Lifeway Christian Center
Alamance Glass & Mirror
Hayes Homebuilders

Some of the beautiful tables for the event.

Getting to know one another..



Winning some of the wonderful door prizes

Loaves and Fishes

Doug Stevenson of Abundance Business Solutions Company gave a great presentation, "How to thrive in a tough economy."

A contest between two of the members - who could get the most people to attend the luncheon.



All in good fun, the loser would have to eat crow. Which btw tasted like chicken.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am so very blessed – celebrated a wonderful “early" Thanksgiving with my family last Saturday as my husband went to Germany for his work. We enjoyed all the traditional foods of Stuffed Turkey – my mother’s recepie of wonderful stuffing and loads of other goodies. It isn’t the food – it is the time that we finally get to sit down as a family and be together. Today, I am enjoying the day with my children, we are going to make a huge pot of pasta sauce that will last us through the holiday. With 8 pounds of ground sirloin and Italian sausage - it is one meaty sauce. Then we are going to make Gnocchi. A family tradition for every Christmas Eve since I was a little girl, making homemade potato dumplings. So we thought why not today? These are so yummy – but after you eat Gnocchi, you are done for the night – it is on the couch watching a movie. I have many blessings this year – my family, my friends, the wonderful people I have gotten to know and photograph and my all my pets (Precious, Wishbone, Sweetpea, Jake “the cheese puff”, Tigger, Oreo and Mushu). I wish everyone a very Happy and a blessed Thanksgiving!

Solar Decathlon - Washington DC

Solar Energy Homes - Solar Decathlon

One large tour bus - about 45 High School students - 8 adults - a load of iPods, cell phones all into one 15 hour day for a trip to Washington DC. It is hard to believe that Sara will be graduating shortly - December 18Th. So when I was asked to help with the students that were going to Washington to see the Solar Decathlon, I immediately said yes. One of our last field trips together OK, I won't go down memory lane here - but there is something energetic about that many kids on a bus.

The Solar Decathlon were houses that were completed created and built off of solar energy. The Solar Decathlon site describe it best "The Solar Decathlon joins 20 college and university teams in a competition to design, build, and operate the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house." Quoted from the Solar Decathlon site. Some of these homes were amazing - if you want to know more about solar engery homes or who competed and won the contest - just click the link above!

A quick group picture:


Enjoying lunch in front of the Washington Monument


One of the many houses we got to visit - it was amazing some of the designs that they came up with.


Sara and her friend

Washington DC - Raleigh Greensboro Photography

The girls



A couple of students convienced the staff at Golden Corral that it was one of the teachers birthday.

Thank You Janice

I recently meet up with Janice who is the mother of my bride Mary Jan. Janice was so wonderful to work with and one of the things I love about her is that she really wanted those Photojournalist moments. So it was really a joy to sit down and have coffee and deliver her prints. Right before we were leaving she pulled out some beautiful flowers to give to me to say "thank you". I was just so unbelievably touched by her kindness. I went home with the biggest smile on my face and now they sit on my office desk to keep things colorful on this gray day. Thank you so much Janice! You can view Mary Jan and Foster's wedding
here.

Hope you have an awesome day!
Ciao,
'Chele

Happy Halloween

It is that really fun time of the year. Where the air is starting to turn crisp - the fall colors are robust... if there are still leaves on the trees and time for wonderful treats. My daughter had a costume party to go to - so we thought it be nice to make some cupcakes for her to bring. We love baking in the fall and especially during the holidays. So I thought I share with you a few pictures of our tasty treats.
Enjoy the night, be safe!
Ciao!
Chele

Forever Bridal Show - Durham Hilton

Bridal Show: Forever Bridal Show
Canvas's: Simply Canvas
Flowers: Gallery Florist and Gifts

We made our first appearance at the Forever Bridal Show in Durham this past Sunday. What a wonderful show to participate in. The brides were amazing, friendly and fun to talk with. The show was a little smaller than Forever Bridal's larger shows and we were grateful as we got to spend some quality time with the brides that visited our booth.

Our booth was built by my husband Joe and my son Matt. They decided to make something rich, warm and inviting. Using a bit of my Italian heritage - they come up with the following:



These columns were refurbished by Matt - which took over four hours of preparation. Then Joe and Matt created a special top rail piece to content the two columns together. There we were able to create some spectacular way of hanging our images. Matt also made the backdrop that hangs behind all of the prints. It took him over 8 hours of pinning, two hours of sewing and yards upon yards of fabric to make. We hung some beautiful canvas's which included - two 16x20's, two 20x30's and three 20x24's. We were amazed at the fantastic quality of our canvas maker: Simply Canvas. They simply made us look fantastic! We also had many albums our for display among some beautiful rose petals from Gallery Florist and Gifts, Inc. From our custom designed Guest books, Coffee table books and our signature leather albums. It took over 3 months of preparation to prepare for everything we wanted to do for this show. Matt spent the day Saturday, while I was photographing a wedding, with Joe, prepping the booth for Sunday.



We also offered a drawing for a free engagement session, we were thrilled on how many brides entered.






So who won? Check your email!

Our next with Forever Bridal show is in January 2 & 3rd. For more information on the show - you can contact them with the link above. Expect to see a few changes to our booth, but we would love it if you can mark your calendars and see us there!



Until next time.....
Ciao Bella!
'Chele

Welcome to our newly designed Blog

Thanks for stopping in and checking out our blog. It is a wet chilly mornin today. Grab something warm to drink and spend a few moments with me. I want to welcome you to our new beautiful blog. It has been in my mind for so long but only through the wonderful talents of Jackie of Memories By Design, has it become a reality. She was awesome to work with and if you are in need of a blog, I highly recommend her.

So now that I have this wonderful new blog there are so many things I would like to share with you. I promise if you keep coming back - there will be lots of weddings from Duke Garden, Castle McCulloch, Revolution Mills - just to name of few. Engagement photographs of Meagan and Jeremy, lots of Bridals including Emily from Duke Gardens to view, some stories of my couples, my family and a little bit about myself along the way also. But I would LOVE to hear from you, so just leave a comment or two for me, I promise to read each one!
Ciao Bella!
'Chele

Castle McCulloch, Jamestown NC Inspirational Board

Real wedding details - There are so many beautiful details that go into a wedding - like Megan and Skeeters wedding. So I thought it would be nice to do an inspirational borad from their wedding. Enjoy!

Sara Robinson - Burlington, NC

Can I brag in this post? This is my daughter Sara - what an amazing young lady she is. This is her senior year in school, in which she will graduate early in December. Then she will enroll early into College. She is creative, funny and intuitive. She is not sure what avenue she will travel down yet. She loves movie production, photography and culinary. No matter what she decides to go into - she will succeed. I can't wait to see the next few months unfold for her - it is going to be an amazing time. Thanks for letting me brag for just a few minutes.

Pine Lake Pavilion - Mebane, NC

Pine Lake Pavilion recently held an Open House in September. We were thrilled to be one of it's vendors there to participate. There were many wonderful prizes that all the brides won. This is a very relaxed atomsphere for the brides - as it just a few brides who come - then they get to have time with each vendor that they wish. Some of the people who participated were:

Flowers By Gary
Alamance Party Rentals
Pine Lake Pavilion
Michelle Robinson Photography
Exquiste Style By Amy