Til Death - The Glass Box in Raleigh North Carolina - Urban Downtown Wedding

Here it is! I am so excited to share my own Wedding with you guys! WHAT? That is insane. I have been a married woman for exactly 2 months now and marriage? It’s pretty damn great.
So much happened that day, so much let up to my day and I thought a million times on what to write when I finally get to blog it. I have been sitting here on my laptop at 2 AM, perfecting this post.

So much was on my mind for this day, what I learned and experienced through out my wedding day journey, that I decided to concentrate on the story, and what inspired me and I promise there will be more blog posts about the planning, experiences with my dress, and so much more coming soon!
I had debated on blogging while wedding planning, but seriously, I wanted to do the damn thing and than see if what I did actually made sense and have a better insight as an actual bride!

Anyway, here goes the best day ever.

On the morning of my wedding day, I woke up super early. I was so excited and anxious! I had everything planned out with much time to spare as I tried to make sure we have enough time, even if we would run late. Because that’s who I am as a person. Me and my bridesmaids started the morning in a GORGEOUS Air BnB in Downtown Raleigh. I chose it because it was all white on the inside with gorgeous natural light - it looked like straight out of a HGTV show and was perfect!

I filled up on Chic Fil A Nuggets and Mimosas to get ready for the day - by the way, it’s an amazing combination and the best breakfast ever. 10/10 would recommend! As we got our make up done, some of my family started pouring in to hang out. We started the party early and danced around the living room to shake it off and get ourselves hyped up!

OH MY GOD THIS WAS IT. THIS IS MY WEDDING DAY!

My nephew is my world and if we met there is a good chance I have told you all about him. From the moment he was born he was my heart and soul, and our bond only got stronger over the years. It’s so special so I knew I wanted to do a first look with him. He was so psyched to be a ring bearer and to “see his Tante be a princess”. Seeing his little face light up, his arms wrap around me and hug me so tight and his sweet words was one of the absolute high lights of my day and I will forever keep them cherished. Sorry Matt, half my heart is taken :D
My god daughter and flower girl was by the way totally supposed to be a part of our getting ready pictures, but she was so tired that she completely passed out! And yes that is a Meghan Markle inspired Tiara she’s wearing. I totally debated on wearing one like it myself, because we all know how obsessed I am with the Dutchess by the way!

However, I kept looking at my phone - it was weird not to be texting Matt, telling him about the day. We always text when we can, so consciously keeping myself from texting him until our first look was SO HARD.

The Cannon Room kindly let us use their space for our first look. It is an absolutely gorgeous venue and the perfect place to see Matt for the first time. I was just so excited to see him in his Wedding Day attire, for him to finally see me in my dress! I was so giddy and nervous, but once I saw him and he saw me, our eyes met, and we finally got to hug each other - it all went away. I was safe. Matt was there, we were going to get married, this day that we had dreamed of was here. It all felt so surreal so having a second to breathe and alone with him was amazing.

We had a horrible weather forecast for our wedding all week and it was literally tearing me up - we had an outdoor ceremony and super cool outdoor portraits planned, after all. The thought that my dream portraits and ceremony overlooking the Raleigh Skyline wouldn’t come true was gut wrenching. I had been dreaming of this day all my life and after capturing so many amazing wedding portraits for so many amazing couples that when it was finally my time I wouldn’t get those amazing Heirloom Portraits to look back on and decorate our home with, ugh. Was all this work I put in our vision and day going to be in Vain?

But we got so so lucky - after raining all morning, the sky cleared up for us in the afternoon. The ground was wet, my dress was drenched and the train of my dress had turned black BUT we got the Images we dreamed off. We took our Portraits before the ceremony with our Wedding Party in downtown Raleigh in the streets and on top of a parking garage. They came out even better than I had imagined and I am so excited about them! My heart was happy.

“We’ll do the ceremony inside, right? It’s pretty cold!” My wedding planner suggested. “Let them wear coats” I replied, Marie Antoinette style. If I could freeze for the view in my little dress, the only one unable to wear a jacket, everyone else could put on a coat. I promise, this was my only real Bridezilla moment, and it paid off. I am so glad that I decided to have my bridesmaids wear Leather Jackets. With North Carolina, you never know what the weather is going to be like and I loved the look it gave them! As a photographer, of course the images and the story telling was extremely important to me. We had chosen the Glass Box because we had imagined a ceremony, overlooking the skyline and as long as it wasn’t pouring rain, I would make it work. I promised myself that. And we did, I am so glad we did. I wouldn’t trade the pictures of our ceremony for any amount of warmth in the world!

Plus I was wayyy to busy being nervous about the ceremony to even realize that I was cold.

Our Wedding vision was to in cooperate Matt and I’s shared love for the city, downtown, griddyness and some edge into a beautiful and classy environment. We wanted the perfect mix of edgy and classy. We wanted a dark fantasy and something completely different than what I usually shoot. Secretly we had been talking about our “Dark Fantasy” Wedding with The Great Gatsby and Greatest Showman vibes forever. I am so deeply inspired by these movies because of their bold, deep colors. This was reflected in all of our decorations and over all colors. Black, Navy, Burgundy, with Gold Accents.

I am usually a sucker for everything green, golden light + light colors. But for our wedding, I had such a clear, dark and moody vision from the very start. They are a complete contrast to our engagement portraits BUT it was a project, a vision that couldn’t have been done any other way. Shout out to my photographers for making my vision come to life!

I was obsessed with the Idea of Black Candles and a Black Cake. Fun Fact - The Script you see in the Back ground of our Cake are the lyrics to “A Million Dreams” which was our first dance! I love the script roll.

Our Motto? ‘Til Death. It wasn’t just prominently displayed when you walk into the venue, but also as our cake topper. I have no idea when we started saying it or how it came up, but it’s been our motto since before we had even been engaged. I knew Matt was the one pretty early on. He was different. He is my person and we let each other know pretty quickly that we wouldn’t let each other go, no matter what.

The Glass Box was the perfect Venue since it gave us the opportunity to have a rooftop ceremony, and it was a small intimate, gorgeous space. I had shot there a couple of times before and always knew had been obsessed with it. Plus due to it being Glass almost all the way around, we would keep the background of the big city during the party, which was super important. The city was a big part of our vision, we’re both city people and love the vibe so having it as a backdrop was amazing! We didn’t want a big wedding, but rather something intimate. Bouji on a budget is my motto at most times, so it gave us the chance to make our design vision come to life on a small scale while spending time with all of our closest friends and family. We DIY’ed a lot and I will totally be making a post on how to save, what we did etc etc! So watch out!

My Dress and Cape. Very early in my planning journey, I kept seeing wedding capes pop up. I thought they were rad, so I saved them to my Pintrest board. And as it goes, I kept seeing more and more, until I knew that I HAD to have one. I always thought I would have a chapel veil with a blusher - but a cape? That was unusual, different and I had not really seen it before. Plus it was a blast playing with it. Obviously, I had to have it.
My dress experience and shopping is a topic that deserves a blog posts all for itself, so stay tuned for that!

Matt was wearing a gorgeous black velvet tux with velvet loafers which just topped the whole thing off. He looked so darn handsome! When we saw the Black Velvet Suit we knew we had to have it for our wedding! We really wanted a black tie vibe! We rented the suit from The Black Tux and honestly, Matt was so sad when he had to send it back. I think he needs one for real for real!

After the ceremony, we walked into our reception to “Apeshit” by the Carters, because first off, the music video is goals and we figured it was a wonderful way to introduce us as a couple. It might also be one of our favorite songs to jam out to in the car.

My uncle, who is like a father to me, and I had the most emotional first dance together and we both cried. He had picked “Butterfly Kisses” and while we were dancing, my entire life flashed before my eyes. It was a beautiful moment that I will forever capture.

Enough with the sappiness - we ended the night by partying hard! Our amazing DJ played amazing tunes and all of us were dancing all night and having a blast! Our music choices? 90s and early 2000s Hip Hop and other fun dance jams, some good old trap music and bops from our child hood. I only left the dance floor once to catch a breath and get some of our cake and was totally busy getting down with it for the rest of the night.

Overall, our wedding day was absolutely amazing! I am so grateful for every single person who came out and was there for us. It was seriously so amazing to have so many people we love under one roof! I still get a bit teary eyed when I look at our portraits. Always the photographer, finally the bride!

And now? I am looking forward to decoration our home as husband and wife with our wedding day portraits. I am so looking forward to look back at our Images and remember the joy and love I felt that day. Gosh, It was so stressful but I wouldn’t trade it for the WORLD!

If you read all of this, you are the real MVP! Now enjoy our Images.

Our Vendors

Wedding Venue The Glass Box at 230
First Look Venue The Cannon Room
Planner Timeless Events
Photographer The Pennington Co
DJ CW DJ Entertainment
Cake Sugar Euphoria
Dress Allure Bridals from New York Bride and Groom
Cape NoonToTheMoon Bridal
Video Hightower Film
Rentals CE Rental
Flower Girl Dress Toddlers + Tulle
Bridesmaids Dresses Davids Bridal
Groom + Groomsmen Suits The Black Tux

Decor + Details
Hankerchief Gift Exit 17
Lasercut Name Place Cards enDice
Bridesmaids Tumblrs EnjoyLifeThings
Bridesmaids Robes BlossomSyrup
Laser Cut “Til Death” Sign Letters to you
Vow Books Our Vows
Globe Guest Book SelahGraceDesigns
Handlettered Scroll Backdrop Emelyn Letters
Ring Box World Jewerly Box
Cake Topper NGO Creations