Neil Boyd Photography

We were really happy to shoot the wedding of Nikki & Travis the other week. Nikki & Travis are both in active service in the Air Force so they flew in to NC from their base in Nebraska. The wedding was at the outdoor space at the Doubletree Hotel in Durham. If you've never been outside the back of this hotel, it is a beautiful setting across the lake. Nikki & Travis tried to beat the heat of July by having the ceremony early at 10.30am. However the weather just wasn't co-operating for them and it was probably already in the 90's by the time the ceremony started.

We'd arrived early at the hotel at 8.00am to photograph the preparations, probably the earliest start we have ever made at a wedding. We got some great shots of the girls and then went on to shoot travis and his groomsmen.

The ceremony was a hot one but we got some great shots of the service and afterwards we took the happy couple and their bridal party for a stroll down the lakeside to capture some fun and romantic images of them.

After this short interlude we went back to the hotel where the reception took place in the hotel's large tent. Everyone had lot's of fun as they danced away to the "Boomerang" band.

Here are just a few images from the day......

On Saturday I returned to one of my favorite venues in the Triangle - The Carolina Inn. This venue really is the epitome of "Southern Charm" and the newly renovated bedrooms are beautiful.

I was photographing the wedding of Rebecca & Juan, who flew in from LA to have their wedding in historic Chapel Hill.

It was a beautiful day as we started the photography of Rebecca getting ready at the Inn.

We then moved on to photograph Juan and his groomsmen before setting of to the University Baptist Church for the ceremony.

After the ceremony and family portraits we took some time out to visit the Old Well which had some special memories for the happy couple.

After this brief interlude it was back to the reception at the Carolina Inn, where the party was in full swing.

After a beautiful meal, Rebecca & Juan danced the night away with their guests.

It really was a great event and here is my selection of some of my favorite images of the day..........enjoy!

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of driving to Princeton, NC to shoot the wedding of Paige & Brandon.
I first met Paige at the wedding show in Raleigh in January and we hit it off straight away.
We followed that up with a meeting at the studio where Paige brought her entourage of her Mum and Aunt Treva, who was going to direct the wedding.
I was so happy to be working with such a kind, honest and loving family.
The first item on our photographic agenda was an engagement shoot at my secret location (don't ask).
Paige was really nervous about being photographed, but soon relaxed and we had a lovely afternoon in Spring.
Next came the bridal portrait session (and I've included a few of these here) and it was Paige's turn to be a model for the day and wow! did she pull it off!

- Judge for yourself!

Bridget and I drove out to Princeton for the wedding itself, which was held in the beautiful princeton Church of God.
This was a typical NC country wedding with about 400 guests all of which couldn't have been nicer.

We had such a great time, Enjoy......

I've been waiting to show these images for ages. Well Lindsay finally got married last week and i can now show some images from the bridal portrait we shot a few months back. Lindsay looked absolutely stunning and we had such a fun shoot. Enjoy!

Had a great time this weekend traveling out to Warrenton NC to the beautiful Magnolia Manor. Its a great venue for an outdoor wedding, an old refurbished plantation house, built in 1815, in 600 acres of land.

The day started with Hunter and her bridesmaids getting ready at the house.





And when all was complete we then went and shot a few portraits of Hunter.





After we ushered Hunter back into the bedroom, the focus was then on Andrew. Andrew's father was a real character. he'd travelled over for the wedding from Poland and he didn't speak a word of English (And my Polish isn't so hot!) He kept cracking jokes all day, that only the Polish contingent understood, but his expressions said it all. Here he sharing a joke with Andrew.



The weather forecast for the day was an 85% chance of a storm and Andrew kept a close watch on the one that was brewing.



As it happened, although there was a lot of noise, and a real darkening of the sky we only actually had a small amount of precipitation.



The storm blew over and it was time for the ceremony. Hunter made a pretty spectacular entrance on a horse drawn carriage.



When she climbed down the ceremony commenced.



Hunter and Andrew exchange their vows.







We had some fun with the bridal party prior to the reception.



And then we moved on to the formalities.



Hunter's Step-Father was really proud taking his dance with her, and he looked great in his uniform.



I also grabbed a few night shots of the beautiful venue, before heading back to Raleigh.

Mehvar & Yucel - 06-06-10

We see a lot of couples at the studio who are stressing about their wedding and how much they have to do before the big day. Well let me introduce you to Mehvar & Yucel.

They planned and executed their event inside TWO WEEKS!

Now, why they left it so late I have no idea, but they decided that they wanted to get married inside two weeks and they did it in TWELVE DAYS.

The first stage was to have and official wedding ceremony, so the two of them just popped down to the courthouse with their two witnesses and were married last Tuesday.

The next stage was to plan the reception. They decided on Brier Creek Country Club for the location and being a Sunday, it was still available. After finalizing with Brier Creek, they then came to see me, and booked me on the spot for stills photography and video..

Following this they then went on to book a DJ (Lenny Fritts) , flowers, a cake(Sweet Memories), and a string quartet. Mehvar then set off and bought a wedding dress and Yucel hired a Tux.

Over the course of the week they planned their itinerary for the day and finalized the menu and other arrangements with Brier Creek.

I have to say, this was some accomplishment and it was a great occasion to document.
All of the vendors did a fantastic job in pulling things together in such a short time scale.
The wedding reception was awesome and everyone had lots of fun.

Here are some of the photos from Sunday….

I was privileged to photograph a really nice wedding this last weekend. Samantha & Aaron came down from New Jersey to have their wedding at Barclay Villa. Barclay Villa is a wonderful venue and one of our favorites. Its in Angier and is a real ‘Oasis” of a wedding venue.

When we arrived it was a hive of activity as Sam and her bridesmaids prepared for the big event.

At this stage we didn’t know if the event was to be outdoors or not as a storm was looming. Thankfully, we escaped the bad weather and the ceremony took place as planned in the beautiful grounds of the villa. Aaron nearly lost it during the ceremony, but who could blame him, as Sam looked absolutely stunning!

After the ceremony we had a fun photo shoot with the bridal party and got some great shots of Sam and Aaron when the others had gone into the cocktail hour.

After the cocktail hour and dinner it was party time as “Suckerpunch” provided the entertainment. What a great group of musicians and Kelly, the lead singer really belted out the tunes.

Cathy and Cindy from Barclay Villa really kept things moving and ensured that all the guests had a fantastic evening.

Enjoy the images......

What a beautiful wedding we had last weekend. We took a trip down to Fayetville to shoot the wedding of Shea & Bo. We first met Shea at a wedding show last October she bounced in wearing some wild clothes and I said before she'd even opened her mouth "she's going to book us to shoot her wedding". Sometimes you can just tell and I knew from her personality that it was going to be FUN!



We arrived at Highland Presbyterian Church mid-afternoon and began shooting Shea and her "Entourage". Shea had ELEVEN bridesmaids and they were all up for some fun.





Not to be outdone Bo then turned up with TWELVE groomsmen.



The church was very large and it was a good job as about 400 guests turned up to witness the nuptials.

After the ceremony we did some family photos and then proceeded to shoot the huge bridal party, but we had lot's of fun.







After the photo shoot it was off to the reception. Again this was a reception with a difference. Iw as told that it was going to be at Shea's parent's house, but actually it was spread over the common grounds of about four adjoining houses. It was absolutely stunning. They had (and I counted) ten tents, under which was a dining area, a lounge, various buffet stations with an incredible array of food. One of the tents housed the North Tower band who played music throughout the evening.









The whole event was directed by Vickie Fletcher of Elegant Weddings and she did a fantastic job making the event run so smoothly.

It truly was a real 'Southern Soiree"

We are really happy to announce that Neil Boyd Photography, has been chosen as the exclusive photography studio to participate in the forthcoming “My Fair Wedding” Bridal show, which is being run by We TV.

The “My Fair Wedding” bridal shows are to take place across 20 locations nationwide with the North Carolina event taking place at The Streets of Southpoint Mall on October 9 & 10, 2010.

We TV is a TV channel which features shows such as My Fair Event, Bridezillas, Platinum Weddings, Girl Meets Gown and many other shows related to the wedding industry.

The road shows will feature appearances by We TV celebrities such as David Tutera, Mark Ingram, Ron Beni-Israel and a host of others.

I was really pleased to receive the invite to participate in this event. They have asked for only one wedding vendor from each category (Photographers, Bridal Gowns, Florist, Cakes etc.) to participate and the people running the event have said they only want to work with industry leaders at each location. I think that this wedding show is going to be a unique experience and unlike any other wedding shows in the area”.

More information about My Fair Wedding can be found at Wetv.com

I’ll keep you updated as things progress…….

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of shooting the beautiful multicultural wedding of Sima & Michael.
Because of their different backgrounds the couple decided to have two ceremonies for their wedding.
The first (American) wedding took place at one of my favorite venues, the stunning Duke Chapel.

The wedding took place at the chapel mid afternoon and we were able to get some great shots during the service.





After the service we then spent some time photographing the bridal party and the happy couple around the chapel grounds.





The wedding party and the congregation then moved on to the beautiful setting of the Washington Duke Inn.

Everybody moved into one of the spacious banquet halls were a formal Persian ceremony was then held.



After all the formalities it was then time to enjoy the reception. The reception hall looked spectacular. All of the floral arrangements at the three sites were done by Fresh Affairs and as usual Lyn and his team did an awesome job.



After dinner it was time to get the party really started and there was no one better to do it than, my good friend, Joe Bunn. His mix of American and Persian music had the dance floor hopping all night.





There was hardly time to breath and I think the only time the dance floor wasn't full was the short break for the cutting of the cake, which was provided by Sweet Memories Bakery, and as usual it tasted lovely!

At the end of a long fun-packed day it was time to see the couple off as their chariot was waiting, which in this case was a golf cart which had been provided by the venue.




This was a great and unusual event and all that is now left for me to do is to edit down the 4000 images that Bridget and I shot into the selection that will make up Sima and Michael's wedding album.

Neil

On Saturday we had the privilege of Shooting Tanya & Jimmy's wedding. The wedding took place at Ridge Road Baptist church (one of the few venues I've never photographed at before) and what a beautiful church it was. The sanctuary looked great and my good friend Lyn Graves from Fresh Affairs did a great job withy the floral arrangements.

Even though it rained a bit on the day, there were plenty of covered areas where we could shoot. After the wedding ceremony and photos we were off to The Capital City Club. Now, if you've never been there the Capital City Club is one of Raleigh's finest venues and the view across Raleigh is awesome.

At the reception Tanya had three of the bridal portraits we had made for her on display and everyone commented how great she looked in them.

So, here they are for your enjoyment:

We were approached recently by Club Solutions Magazine to shoot the front cover and inside spread for an article they were writing on O2 Fitness clubs and its owner Michael Olander.

We were quite familiar with O2 fitness, having shot all of the interior photography that adorns its beautiful website – O2fitnessclubs.com

We went to the clubs Creedmoor Road location and met Michael over there.

He was a pleasure to work with and we got some great shots of him inside the club.

The article (and my photos) will be published in their next edition.

With the upcoming local elections happening soon, I was asked to photograph one of the candidates last week.
Jamie Earp is standing for NC house 34 and he took time out of his busy schedule to spend a few hours with me.
Although not being used to being photographed Jamie was a natural and we had a lot of fun.


Jamie takes time out to talk to some of his constituents.



Working hard at the office.



Drumming up some support for the future?

After a long day Jamie takes time out to go for a walk in a local park.

This week we were happy to receive a copy of the Finish Ski magazine "Next"
(Which is actually written in English!)

Its a wonderful magazine with great articles (and photography of course) about skiing.

We were approached by an ad agency to travel to the new Procor plant in NC to photograph their Director of Operations and some internal shots of the plant.

Procor Strength specializes in high-end fitness equipment and their new facility is awesome!

We had a great day working with bill Banczak and of course ended up with some great images for the "Next" publication!

On Monday I participated in the Raleigh "Photography Shootout" organized by Rob Nicholson. We had a great attendance of about 20 photographers from all over the state. I had an hour to show how I shoot brides in unexpected adverse conditions. It had been raining all day so rather than do a beautiful outdoor shoot at Meredith College we had to take the group indoors in the Royal Bakery. One of my Ex-brides Jeanie Stasko volunteered to model and did a great job. My Friends at Tre Bella bridal provided Jeanie with her dress, jewelry and flowers. Ginger Mullins did an awesome job with her hair and Jennifer at Make Up For Your Day also did a great job on the make up.

It was quite stressful trying to photograph with 20 other photographers watching while at the same time answering their questions, but it was a great experience.

Thanks to Jonathan and Cara at F8 for organizing it all.

Here are some of the images........