Eric and Amanda Light Up The Highgrove Estate

 Amanda and Eric are joyful, playful people.  On their first date they talked 4 or 5 hours and have been together 3 years.  They wanted a wedding that was fun.  Almost all their guests would be traveling to their wedding and they just wanted to celebrate their love with those they love at The Highgrove Estate in Fuquay Varina last October.  It was a perfect day.  Amanda is a teacher and Eric is a firefighter.  They both are committed to their vocations and to making their life enjoyable. 

Thanks to Julia Wade Photography for these wonderful photographs.  From beginning to end, we all had a wonderful time. 

Eric definitely enjoying Amanda walk down the aisle to the strains of violinist Christina Wohlford.

They wanted a ceremony in which their guests could participate so we told guests that they could clap or cheer or laugh as the mood struck them and at the end of the ceremony their guests helped me pronounce them husband and wife by repeating after me:, 'We your family and friends...now pronounce you... husband and wife.'

 I don't remember what we were laughing at in the below shot.  We sure did have fun throughout  their ceremony.

 A special treat for Amanda is that Eric's mother, Linda made Amanda's bouquet.  In their ceremony I got to say, 'May the spirit of love that lives in and around all of us fill your hearts and bless your lives.'    They practically danced down the aisle and I knew that they had had a wonderful time at their ceremony.  

 In Amanda's note to me she said, 'Thank you again for such an amazing experience.'  It was a delight for me, too, and I wish them much much happiness.

The Rigmor House, The Highgrove Estate, The Matthews House, and The Rand-Bryan House

Sometimes I get photos of venues that I'm unable to use because I don't get pictures from couples of their wedding. I thought you might like a closer look at four of them - all lovely - all in the Raleigh Durham triangle. I have other blog posts on some of them with more pictures.

The first is the Rigmor House (in the picture above) just off of I-54 going west out of Chapel Hill. I've done several ceremonies here but this is the first time I got pictures. It's a great location for an intimate lodge wedding. It's off the road, quiet, with a large center room and rooms to stay upstairs. It has a big well stocked kitchen, a large veranda and a large lot. While the lot isn't all that scenic it is spacious and easy to use with room for a tent and lots of different possibilities. It also has great parking and a fabulous kitchen. They turn the place over to you and you either cater in or do it yourself.

Their website is a really good one, too. At Christi and William's wedding below, they did the decorations themselves with the help of family and friends and did a fabulous job. Both grad students at UNC, their families all came up from Mississippi and pitched right in. They've been together 7 years so everyone worked well together to make the place literally sparkle.

The main room at the Rigmor is two stories high and is in wood paneling. The upstairs rooms rim this two story room. There's an inset in the front wall, behind this wall in the entry foyer and the front porch. This inset is a great place for a buffet. Christi and Williams' guests faced this wall. They had a slide show of pictures of them before the ceremony, then this decoration, with the unity candle for the ceremony.

They used silver metallic wide ribbon for the table decorations. Here is the head table set up right after the seating was removed after the ceremony as they're setting up long tables for the reception dinner.

Here's the well stocked kitchen they relied on.

And here is the main room looking toward the back wall while folks are setting up tables for the reception. At this time William and Christi were having pictures taken.

You can see the trellis that Christi and William entered under as they walked down the aisle.
Since their wedding was only two weeks ago I hope to get more pictures to show you of this great couple and their charming hands on wedding. And I'm glad to finally have some pictures of Rigmor House to share with you.

The Highgrove Estate in Fuquay Varina is also a great venue. Their staff is fabulous is helping everything run smoothly. Justin and Kerry married on a busy Saturday in June and I needed to leave right after the wedding. This front porch is a favorite location for pictures.


This is the long hallway where the wedding party gathers before they process straight out to stand on the brick patio facing the lake. The couple and their attendants can dress in the house, but receptions are held in a tent behind the house. As you look out this door the tent is to the right. The website for The Highgrove has great photos of the tent for several different weddings.

This is the room where you can get dressed. Gotta love that mirror. It's a huge room with a private bath of course and it is roomy enough for lots of attendants.

The final picture is the lower patio which is the ceremony site. The upper patio to the left of the outside door is where guests go for the cocktail hour. My only concern ever with this great location is that at 5:30 on a hot summer NC evening the sun is shining directly on the ceremony site. It hits the couple full force. They're facing away from the sun but it's still pretty hot. At The Highgrove Estate we make an effort to keep everyone in the cool of the hallway as long as possible. Yet the site is so lovely that it's a great venue. And many days it's just perfect. And the tent is air conditioned.


The Matthews House in Cary is an elegant house in which to stay and/ or have cocktails, a walled lawn with a trellis that's great for an outdoor ceremony and a side building connected to the house via a covered patio. Both the patio and the side building can be used to suit your needs.


The above pictures is from Ryan and Jenna's wedding in May of 2010.
On October 1st I married Jim and Debbie here. I'd never officiated a wedding in the reception room before so I wanted to show you those possibilities. I got a couple of fun pictures that might help. BTW - the web site for The Matthews House is really spectacular.

In the picture below you see at the right where Brian McGuire set up the DJ equipment for both the ceremony and the reception. He is a consummate professional and lots of fun. It was a delight to work with him again.

Here are the place settings for the reception in keeping with her colors of Hydrangea blue and silver gray. The Matthews House also did the catering.


This is Debbie and Jim's cake made by Miel Bon Bons in Chapel Hill. Their desserts are delicious as well as gorgeous.

This is the where Debbie dressed with Graham Terhune the photographer taking pictures of Debbie dressing. A fun part of being a female wedding minister was getting to visit Debbie while pre-wedding pictures were being taken.

I never got a pictures of Jim and Debbie together after the ceremony. It must have been a busy day. I loved this couple. They exemplify all that falling in love a little later in life can bring. The amazing joy of finding someone just right for you and the playfulness that brings out in you.

Below is a picture from Tim and Kristina's wedding in 2009 at The Matthews House. Another wonderful picture. This one by Diane McKinney Photography.



The Rand-Bryan House is another versatile and lovely venue. Set off the road in Garner it's a restored house with a wonderful openness. Every wedding I do here carries the unique stamp of the couple since the white on white decor and the amazing large picture window. Martha Liles and her husband are gracious hosts, very knowledgeable and very helpful.

They have a big front porch with rocking chairs that's perfect for the cocktail hour. And I've done beautiful weddings on their side lawn, but my favorite room is the one in the picture below which is stunning.

Here it is decorated for Lauren's and Brian's November wedding on a gorgeous day. You can see the lush green side lawn outside the window better from the picture below.


The next picture is taken from that window looking back into the main room. This room would be transformed for reception seating after the ceremony. At the back right is the entrance to the kitchen and there is a door to the back yard from the back right, too.

The large double doors go into a square room that is off the front hall which is a great room for displaying the cake or for smaller weddings for serving hors d'oeuvres.



This couple used only two of these wonderfully creative decorations in the front of their ceremony. It was plenty and lovely.

This couple got their delicious food catered by Whole Foods in Raleigh and served by The Happiest Hostess. They found that this was a much less expensive way to have excellent food catered for their size reception.

These weddings all went smoothly and elegantly - in large part because these venues are so suited to the needs of a wedding and are so well cared for and loved by their staffs. It's a treat to be the minister at a wedding at any of these locations. And I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Jenna and Tim at The Highgrove Estate on July 18th

The Highgrove Estate is a beautiful restored home just south of Fuquay-Varina and about 20 minutes drive south of Raleigh. It's perfect for a summer evening wedding. The vista from the ceremony site overlooks Laurel Lake, the patio catches any breeze that is possible, the house has a classic winding staircase that's perfect for pictures and ...





the estate has multiple wonderful settings for perfect photographs.


Stacy Borelli from Swank Photo and Studio took all the pictures you'll see in this posting. Jenna's parents came all the way from Tampa, Florida and Tim's were luckier to come the short distance from Zebulon, NC. In all, over 150 guests joined them on this special day.

Jenna and Tim were surrounded by family and close friends with 6 bridal attendants, 2 honorary bridal attendants, 2 flower girls and 7 groom's attendants in attendance. But the wide patio accommodated everyone beautifully. We even had room for a unity candle table and a small bottle of water stashed behind it just in case on this particularly hot day. (TIP: Noticing where the sun will be in the sky for your ceremony is especially helpful for North Carolina summer weddings.)




















After making sure that the right person had the rings and the mother's knew how to light the candles for the unity candle ceremony, we were ready to begin. Angela, from The Highgrove, was great in helping make sure every logistical detail was taken care of. We were also glad for the last moments of air conditioning as we lined up in the house before we entered into the hot sunshine. Aware of this possibility, Tim and Jenna chose ceremonial words that were rich in spirit and full of heart and warmth, and weren't long. They wanted a ceremony that was beautiful, romantic, elegant and family oriented. And this tone came through in their ceremony and in every aspect of the evening.



Music for the ceremony and for the reception was expertly provided by Ryan from Island Sound DJs and Video. He also provided a lapel microphone for me, which always makes it easier to be heard in outdoor settings.

I left while guests were enjoying cocktails at the many outdoor groupings on the patio, and the wedding party were having pictures taken - just before everyone entered into the elegant air-conditioned tent for the rest of the festivities.
Everyone had a great time.