Meet Mallory.

I’ve known Mallory for quite some time. Her sister, Emily, was one of my students several years ago. And in June, Mallory was Maid-of-Honor is one of my weddings. In August, Mallory became one of my students. And poor thing, I call her Emily about half the time. She and Emily are NOTHING alike – other than they are both a pleasure to know. But since I knew Emily first, Mallory gets called Emily a lot. Thankfully she takes it very well. She just smiles and say, “Mallory.”

When Mallory got engaged to Chaz, she asked me if I would shoot her wedding. Since I do very few weddings these days, I had to really think about it. But knowing Mallory and Emily, I knew it would be lots of fun and not too stressful, so I agreed. When we discussed her engagement pictures, I asked what she and Chaz enjoyed doing together. She said, “We race.” Hmmm, sounded like a golden opportunity to take some really different pictures – and pictures that would be meaningful to both Mallory and Chaz. When Mallory broached the subject with Chaz – he agreed that it was a great idea. The only problem was weather. As dry as it has been in eastern NC for the past year, it rained on three different days that we scheduled a shoot. But yesterday was gorgeous. Not too cool and very sunny. So, we met at the race track.

I’ll admit I am very ignorant about racing. Other than going to the drag strip in Kinston over 35 years ago when I was dating my husband – and seeing Nascar while flipping through the channels, racing is foreign to me. I didn’t know whether Chaz did stock car racing – or drag racing. I was so surprised when I saw Chaz’s car! It’s a beauty – but all of my ideas went right out the window when I saw it. Luckily, my friend and assistant, Karen, was with me and she helped me think of shots to take.

Notice the 11.8 in the last picture? That’s the date that Chaz and Mallory are getting married. How sweet is that! One of the reasons I really like shooting engagement portraits is that I get the opportunity to get the know my couples before their wedding day. Chaz was so easy to get along with. He moved the car wherever I wanted, got in and out of the car quite a few times, and smiled all afternoon. Now I understand completely why Mallory fell in love with Chaz. And watching them together made me so excited to shoot their wedding.

Here are a few more of Mallory and Chaz.

Karen and I had a great time with Mallory and Chaz – and I learned a little about racing. Enough to make me want to go actually watch Chaz race one day. I want to smell the burning rubber and feel the excitement in the air.

A special thanks to Ronnie Humphrey of Coastal Plains Dragway for allowing us to use the track!