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charlottesville wedding photographers

Thank you for stopping by our blog!  We are Peter and Sarah Davis.  We love our three kids, we love Charlottesville, and we love photographing weddings!  This blog is the home to all of our recent work, so be sure to check back often!

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Lara and Ben’s Blue Ridge Parkway Engagement Session

January 2nd, 2012

Back in October, I had the pleasure of riding with Ben and Lara up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for their engagement session. I had not been up on the Parkway in quite some time so it was a great time enjoying the view, good conversation, and some special moments with a fabulous couple! These [...]
 

Back in October, I had the pleasure of riding with Ben and Lara up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for their engagement session. I had not been up on the Parkway in quite some time so it was a great time enjoying the view, good conversation, and some special moments with a fabulous couple! These two high school sweethearts were naturals in front of the camera even though they claimed they might have a hard time relaxing and being themselves!

Lara was truly a champ for these photos as well because it was frigid that evening! She never complained a bit. And we had to include the car that Ben restored in high school. I thought it was so great that he still has the car as he nears the end of medical school.

After having exhausted the first overlook, we hopped in the car and headed up the Parkway to see what we could find. As we drove towards the next overlook, I spotted this side road and made Lara turn around! It was worth the mid-Parkway u-turn, for sure!

PS – It was colder for their October engagement session than it was for their late-November wedding! This has been a crazy fall/early winter as far as weather goes!

PPS -We’re dedicated to catching you all up on what we were photographing throughout the Fall.  Stay tuned!

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We’re back!

January 2nd, 2012

Life is a balancing act. Especially when you’re balancing a family of 5 with running a business! Once we returned from France at the end of July, we hopped right back into a busy fall wedding season, the girls started school, and our son started walking. We had a decision to make: keep up with [...]

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Life is a balancing act. Especially when you’re balancing a family of 5 with running a business! Once we returned from France at the end of July, we hopped right back into a busy fall wedding season, the girls started school, and our son started walking. We had a decision to make: keep up with our blog entries and miss out on a lot of life or skip out on the blog and get a few more things done. Every blog entry written meant time that could have been spent saving our toddling son from climbing onto the table or falling from the top bunk, helping our oldest daughter learn to knit, helping our second daughter care for her beloved doll Cara, editing photos, harvesting veggies from the garden throughout the fall, raking leaves, and many of the other parts of life that call for our time. So the blog was neglected. But we’re back and we cannot wait to share six weddings, three engagement sessions, a senior portrait session, some wedding album designs and some personal photos in the coming weeks! We’ll also be doing some year-in-review posts sharing our favorite images from 2011.

So get ready for some updates and hopefully we’ll be able to get some more posts up here in the coming weeks. But for now, here’s a cute picture of our girls to keep you happy!

PS – Did anyone else feel like 2011 flew by at lightning speed, or was is just me?

PPS – We are knee deep in gardening and chicken-raising books around here! Oh yes, the Davis homestead is taking shape – more to come on that in the coming months.

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Saying farewell to our cherished grandmother

January 2nd, 2012

Last week, two days after Christmas, we loaded up the minivan and took the kids to Williamsburg to visit with Sarah’s family. Sarah’s grandmother has been living there ever since she was a kid and in our ten years of marriage (plus a few years of dating), we had made many trips down there to [...]


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Last week, two days after Christmas, we loaded up the minivan and took the kids to Williamsburg to visit with Sarah’s family. Sarah’s grandmother has been living there ever since she was a kid and in our ten years of marriage (plus a few years of dating), we had made many trips down there to visit. This time, however, we knew this was going to be a special trip. Nearly all of the family was coming in for a huge gathering. Sarah’s family has at times literally been spread all over the world, but we were all (except for two family members who were unable to come) going to be together under the same roof for a big Christmas dinner party with Sarah’s grandmother!

Now, about her grandmother (or Grandma/Gaga/Teta/Great-Gaga as she is affectionately called). She recently turned 95 years old and had recently just moved into an assisted living facility. You heard that correctly, she was living on her own up until recently. And let me tell you, Grandma is one of those people who accomplished many amazing things with her life! I loved listening to her stories of teaching in the one-room school house. She also went on to become a pilot and traveled the world as the wife of a Commander in the Navy! Grandma and Grandpa (who passed away 8 years ago) raised 4 kids and there are now 8 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.  And to top it all off, she was one of the sweetest, kind, and proper women I have ever met!

So we had our big dinner, exchanged gifts with everyone and shared warm conversations while the kids played with their cousins. One of the most amazing things for me, though, that I will never forget is that Grandma gave all of her great-grandkids one of the dolls from her prized antique doll collection! Sarah had told me many stories of how much she wanted to play with those dolls when she was a girl, but she knew they were way off limits!  We ended the evening with some photos and as I was taking them, I had a hunch these would turn out to be special memories. Lining people up for posed group shots is hardly my favorite thing to do, but oh, what special documentation we can create of generations together.

I know we will all cherish these photos below because our beloved Gaga passed away on Saturday morning, four days after being together with all the people she loved the most.

We will certainly miss seeing Grandma and hearing her stories of a full life, but we are so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to spend one incredibly special evening with her and the family. And we are so grateful to have these photos to help us remember her sweet spirit.

I took this photo of Grandma at a wedding in August. This is one of our favorites because it truly shows her liveliness!!

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Joseph and Virginie’s wedding in France: The Portraits

September 3rd, 2011

We’re back with another post from Joseph and Virginie’s wedding in France.  You can view our favorite images from the preparations and the ceremony if you’re just joining us! There were so many incredible opportunities for portraits around the castle after the ceremony and the sun didn’t set until about 9:00 so we had a [...]
 

We’re back with another post from Joseph and Virginie’s wedding in France.  You can view our favorite images from the preparations and the ceremony if you’re just joining us!

There were so many incredible opportunities for portraits around the castle after the ceremony and the sun didn’t set until about 9:00 so we had a lot to work with!  It’s not everyday that we get to photograph a lovely couple during a gorgeous sunset on the grounds of a beautiful French castle!  Let’s just say I was in photographer’s heaven.  So without further ado, here we go!

When you have a guest list of people from all over the world, you really have to do a large group shot!  Thankfully, everyone was already gathered together after the ceremony at the bottom of the church steps.  I seized the moment and did my best with my non-French-speaking self and managed to get everyone looking my way.

After all the guests started walking toward the buses to head back to the reception, I had about 3 minutes with Joseph and Virginie for a few portraits.  I quickly glanced around and spotted this gorgeous alley directly beside the church.  I asked them to walk on over and take a few minutes to themselves and this is what we got!  Granted, I had to sprint with with a ton of camera gear to catch my ride back to the castle, but I’d say it was worth the run.

Joseph and his groomsmen had me cracking up the entire day.

Virginie and her bridesmaids could not have been any sweeter!  What a lovely group of ladies.

One of our favorite parts about photographing portraits during the wedding day is having an excuse to let the bride and groom get a little time to themselves.  We commit quite  a bit of time to the couple just being together to savor the moments which not only helps them create special memories, but it allows us to capture images like these.

Check back soon for our post of their reception!  You won’t want to miss that one!

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The winners of the 3rd Annual $29 Wedding Photography Contest

August 21st, 2011

It is our pleasure to announce the winners of our 3rd Annual $29 Wedding Photography Contest!  This year, it seems as though the theme of the entries was about long distance relationships!  Nearly every one of our entrants has endured months if not years of long-distance dating leading up to their marriages and it was [...]
 

It is our pleasure to announce the winners of our 3rd Annual $29 Wedding Photography Contest!  This year, it seems as though the theme of the entries was about long distance relationships!  Nearly every one of our entrants has endured months if not years of long-distance dating leading up to their marriages and it was encouraging and exciting to read all of their stories.  This was a tough call for us as we worked through the process in the wee hours of last night!

So without further ado, please welcome the winners, Mindy Sue and Justin!

Mindy Sue and Justin’s wedding is in September and we are extremely excited to get to meet them in person soon!  Their story grabbed us from the beginning as they shared about long distance dating and misadventures in communication that nearly ended it all.  Mindy Sue described their wedding to be small, somewhat causal, comfortable, and focused on their faith which has brought them together.  We thought that sounded like a wonderful way to spend a Sunday evening in September!  Congratulations, you two!  We’ll be in touch soon to start working out the details.  And many thanks to everyone else who entered.  We truly appreciate you sharing your stories with us!  We wish there was a way for us to photograph all of the weddings!!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

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Joseph and Virginie’s French Wedding: The Ceremony

August 19th, 2011

We’re excited to share some more of Joseph and Virginie’s wedding with you!  We have so many images from their wedding in France to share that we decided to break them up into separate posts so that we can share even more images!  Be sure to check out the preparation photos if you missed those [...]
 

We’re excited to share some more of Joseph and Virginie’s wedding with you!  We have so many images from their wedding in France to share that we decided to break them up into separate posts so that we can share even more images!  Be sure to check out the preparation photos if you missed those a few days ago.  Joseph and Virginie were married in the gorgeous St. Pierre Cathedral which was built in the 15th century in the little town of Montfort l’Amaury.  We’re pretty sure you’ll agree it was an amazing location for their wedding.  There were several moments throughout the ceremony where I had to pinch myself to make sure I was really standing in a medieval cathedral photographing such a beautiful wedding.

We begin with an image that might look slightly familiar.  If you saw the previous photos, you saw another image from this series.  I wanted to share this one to further point out how rowdy and enthusiastic the onlookers were!  Check out the guy on the left with his hand in the air…and then look carefully to notice his gold and red wrestling mask!  Then just in front of him, there is another man with long hair wearing tights and a skirt!  I wish I would have had more time to photograph this crowd or at least figure out exactly what they were celebrating.  Either way, I’m glad they were there to create an amazing juxtaposition for this series!

All of the guests were taken from the castle to the church in these large buses.  Well, I guess when this town was built, they weren’t expecting huge tour buses to make U-turns for some reason!  Hats off to the drivers for getting in and out.  Again, I love the juxtaposition!

Let me just tell you that the music in their wedding was gorgeous.  I was seriously fighting back the tears at one point when the choir sang “Amazing Grace” to the accompaniment of this string quartet!  Again, it was another pinch-me moment!

Did we mention how huge the cathedral is?  You really get an idea from these next two images!

Another pinch-me moment came just after the ceremony when I was standing amongst the guests waiting for Joseph and Virginie to exit.  Here we were on a gorgeous day standing on the steps of a cathedral in a little town in France while the church bells were ringing and everyone was celebrating!  I’ll never forget this moment.

While I was down in the crowd capturing the images above, Sarah was in the back capturing these!

And we leave you with another of our favorite from the day!  Be sure to check back soon to see the portraits and the reception.  Have a great weekend everyone.

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Joseph and Virginie’s France Wedding: The preparations

August 17th, 2011

We are so excited to be able to share a few more photos of Joseph and Virginie’s wedding in France with you!  Instead of rolling out one huge post with all the photos, we thought we’d share a few at a time.  We had hoped to get this one posted a few days ago, but [...]
 

We are so excited to be able to share a few more photos of Joseph and Virginie’s wedding in France with you!  Instead of rolling out one huge post with all the photos, we thought we’d share a few at a time.  We had hoped to get this one posted a few days ago, but Mother Nature had other plans and threw a crazy storm our way that knocked out the electricity for a little more than entire day.  While we enjoyed the darkness and peace and quiet, it is a bit tough to edit photos with no electricity!

At any rate, here we go with some of our favorites of the preparations for the wedding.  We were staying in the lovely Chateau de Villers Le Mahieu which provided a lovely spot with tons of natural light for all the hair and makeup.  As you can tell below, everyone was relaxed and enjoyed themselves with several sweet moments along the way.

We get started with Joseph.  I (Peter) am a huge fan of cuff links, and his were top notch!

And Virginie’s dress was stunning – especially hanging in the window of a castle!

We love these next few moments shared between sisters!

If you are leaving a castle in a wedding dress, you really should leave in an entourage of nice cars!

The cathedral where they were married was directly next to a pub where a lively group was evidently celebrating another big occasion.  Once the buses of wedding guests arrived at the church, the party-goers turned their attention towards Virginie and her father and serenaded her with a boisterous rendition of “Here Comes the Bride!”  It made for quite a scene and this is quite honestly one of my favorite images of the wedding day!

Be sure to check back soon to see our favorite images of the ceremony.  We can’t wait to share the rest!!

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Announcing the 3rd Annual $29 wedding photography contest!!

August 11th, 2011

Happy birthday to me!!  That’s right, I am venturing further into the world of my thirties today and that means it is time for another contest!  I am so excited to announce the beginning of our 3rd annual $29 wedding photography contest!  In case you’re new to the blog or forgot what it’s all about, [...]
 

Happy birthday to me!!  That’s right, I am venturing further into the world of my thirties today and that means it is time for another contest!  I am so excited to announce the beginning of our 3rd annual $29 wedding photography contest!  In case you’re new to the blog or forgot what it’s all about, here’s the deal.  I decided on my 30th birthday that I wanted to celebrate in a special way.  When Sarah and I got married ten years ago, a good family friend volunteered to photograph our wedding for free!  That was such a huge help because we were getting married right out of college and the wedding budget certainly was not elaborate.  Our parents threw us a great party, but wedding photography was just not a part of the budget.  Little did we know that ten years later, we’d have a wedding photography business of our own!

So in that spirit, the $29 Wedding Photography Contest was born.  This is my yearly opportunity to celebrate my recurring 29th birthday while at the same time giving back to some wonderful people.  One couple out there somewhere will be chosen by our expert panel of judges (read Peter and Sarah with our kids used as tie-breakers) to have us photograph their wedding for only $29.  There are no strings attached, no fine print, no nothing.  You pay us $29, we photograph your wedding just like we would any of our other fabulous clients!  It’s our way of giving back and helping keep the world a happy place to be.

Of course, as with any contest, there are a few rules we ask everyone to abide by!  There aren’t many, but here’s the rundown:

1)  Couples entering the contest should have a true financial need in regards to wedding planning.  We won’t ask to inspect your tax records and you don’t have to share all the details, but please be honest with us and yourselves!  Our hope is that only people who truly have a need will enter, not couples with an able budget looking to save some money to be able to fly first class on their way to the 5-star resort honeymoon!  If you’ve already contacted us about photographing your wedding, you probably don’t fall into this category – sorry!

2)  Obviously, we have to be available on your wedding date!  In order to enter, you really should have a date set in place.  We can’t agree to shoot your wedding if we don’t know when your wedding will be.  Your wedding must happen before 8/1/2012.  If your wedding falls in the off-season or on a Friday or Sunday, you might also receive 2 gold stars!

3)  Couples entering the contest must be getting married within a one-hour drive from Charlottesville.

4)  Couples entering the contest must be willing to have their images and story shared here on the blog – obviously, we will be respectful of your privacy, but we know our readers love to see wedding photos and hear a good story!

5)  The winning couple will receive up to 8 hours of wedding photography coverage with no expectation to buy anything else.

6)  Contest rules are subject to change at any time without prior notice.

Here’s how to enter!

Send an email to peter@psdavis.com by midnight on August 20 telling us why you should win the contest!  That’s it, really.  But, I must say Kyle and Paul’s video from last year set the bar pretty high!  But don’t worry if you’re not technologically savvy!  Just get creative and get your submission in.  Tell us why you’re so in love and what your wedding will be like!  That’s about it.  Please let us know if you have any questions and get the word out!

As a little inspiration, click here to see  Kyle and Paul’s winning video from last year!!

And since every blog post is better with a picture, here is one of our little guy Zach learning to walk on the streets of Montmartre in Paris!

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One Frame: Cynthia and Jereme’s Williamsburg Wedding

August 7th, 2011

Let’s just say that Cynthia and Jereme’s first dance last night was amazing!  If you’d like to see a few more from their wedding, you can check out the sneak peek over on our facebook page.
 

Let’s just say that Cynthia and Jereme’s first dance last night was amazing!  If you’d like to see a few more from their wedding, you can check out the sneak peek over on our facebook page.

Ford's colony wedding

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Sneak Peek of Joseph and Virginie’s wedding in France

August 4th, 2011

So this is way too difficult.  I cannot tell you how amazing Joseph and Virginie’s wedding was last weekend!  We just got back from France 2 nights ago and I am having the hardest time choosing just a handful of images to share for a sneak peek.  So, here are a few of my favorites [...]
 

So this is way too difficult.  I cannot tell you how amazing Joseph and Virginie’s wedding was last weekend!  We just got back from France 2 nights ago and I am having the hardest time choosing just a handful of images to share for a sneak peek.  So, here are a few of my favorites so far!  I finally had to cut myself off at about 30 images (I usually only share 3 or 4 for a sneak peek)!  I’m only posting a few here to give you a glimpse of the day.  If you’d like to see more, head on over to our facebook page!  I will surely be sharing more in the near future as well as some of our favorite images from our time in Paris and Amboise!  Enjoy!

photographer in paris

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