Atlanta wedding – Sharon Theresa Wheaton

Rest Recoup Refocus Completely

Rest Recoup Refocus

Greetings Internet,

If you have been following my page for a while, you may have seen some sporadic updates. Today, that all changes. I have lived in Nashville for over a year now. Over this year, I have had my time to rest, recoup and refocus in my life and business. While I was resting something really amazing happened; I turned into a new version of Sharon Theresa Wheaton.

Pain, Happiness, and Drive

2016 and now 2017 has been very interesting for Team Wheaton. We’ve had some pain and we’ve had some happiness. Having time to grieve this past year has been very helpful, but I still have more growth to experience. I am now focused and ready to work towards my dreams as a strong business owner. No more fear. No more worry and no more regret. My drive is back in full force and I’m ready to share it with the world. I’m thankful for the amazing clients I have had through this refocus period because they helped me understand what I’ve always know about myself and Team Wheaton; we rock, our work is amazing and we are a really efficient husband and wife, wedding photography team!

My new goal is to add decent writer to that list. Will I make mistakes? Oh yes. Will I fix those mistakes and move forward? Absolutely. I will no longer think and worry about being perfect. My plan is to act, make mistakes, fall on my face, look silly and then, get up and get better. Somewhere along the way, I forgot that making mistakes is how you get better. Somehow I forgot that making mistakes is how I made it here, but I will forget no more. I can rejoice with a happy heart, knowing I’ve become a stronger person both personally and professionally.

Lessons from the Hora

To kick off this new day, let’s start with one of my favorite moments at a Jewish wedding, the Hora. The hora is super emotional for me. I like to dig in deep. I must be in the inner circles of the dancing. Needing to feel all the raw emotion of this honorary dance means sometimes getting smacked in the nose with an elbow. The very first Hora I ever shot, I felt like I was in a mosh pit. After being stepped on, smacked on the back and elbowed in the face, I couldn’t get enough. I went diving in for more.

I realized recently that as much as I love this song and dance, I have no idea what the lyrics to Hava Nagila mean. When I looked up the words, I knew a post about the Hora was the perfect way to reintroduce myself to the world. The words are simple but have so much meaning:

Hava nagila
Hava nagila ve-nismeḥa
Hava neranenah
Hava neranenah ve-nismeḥa
Uru aḥim be-lev sameaḥ

These words translated into English are:

Let’s rejoice
Let’s rejoice and be happy
Let’s sing
Let’s sing and be happy
Awake my brothers with a happy heart

and yes, dear internet, thanks to the support of so many people, I have awoken with a happy heart! I will rejoice, sing and be happy!

Until next time, Cheers, Salude, L’chaim!

Agnes Scott Wedding Published

Sharon Theresa Wheaton Published Wedding Photographer

Greetings blog followers! Today we have a special feature from The Celebration Society. Please take a look at this amazing Agnes Scott Book Themed Wedding from last November; my favorite time of year for weddings. Bowie and I always say if we could go back and do it all over again, we might pick the fall for our wedding dates. Bowie’s birthday is in October, mine is in November and we always have a celebration month. We’d love to fit in that wedding celebration during our favorite time of year! Check out these two lovebirds celebrating their wedding day, forever in the fall! Cheers to our amazing vendor team:

Planner / Event Design: Invision Events Atlanta

Florist: Darryl Wiseman Flowers

Wedding Cake: Frosted Pumpkin Gourmet

Linens: I Do Linens

Band / Music: East Coast Entertainment

Lighting: Unique Event Elements

Photography: Sharon Theresa Wheaton

Leah + Grant | Wedding | Grand Hyatt Hotel Buckhead

Greetings fans! We are excited to share such a lovely wedding and couple with you guys today. Leah and Grant were married at the lovely, and recently renovated, Grand Hyatt Hotel in Buckhead! This was the first time Bowie and I had the pleasure of working at this lovely hotel. If there is one thing I can say about this location, other than its beauty, it’s that the staff is fantastic. Anything we needed, any questions we had, all situations were handled with care and excitement. From the top executive right down to the hotel staff, everyone greeted us with smiles and consideration.

We were also very excited to work with a few new vendors this wedding. Terry from Special-T-Events was the head of the show and Flowers by Yona created all the beautiful flowers and reception design. It was a great team and a beautiful day! Take some time and check out Leah and Grant’s amazing wedding. Check out this wedding published on The Knot!

To the bride and groom: Bowie and I were so, so happy to be a part of your amazing day of joy and love. Your family treated us as we were one of their own and we were so happy to be there for everyone. Here’s to an amazing marriage full of adventure, love, excitement and great surprises!

Ashlyn + Peter | Engagement| Freedom Parkway Bridge | Olmsted Linear Park

Ashlyn + Peter | Atlanta Engagement Photography| Freedom Parkway Bridge | Olmsted Linear Park

Greetings! We would like to introduce you to Ashlyn + Peter. This lovely couple comes to us from past clients Lindsey + Patrick! We’ve had the pleasure of photographing Lindsey + Patrick’s wedding a few years ago and a recent portrait session at Serenbe.

We are thankful that our clients chat about us to their friends. We like to get to know people. Let’s get to know Ashlyn + Peter.

(S) Ashlyn and Peter, tell us a little about you and Peter:

(A+P) Ashlyn grew up in Snellville with her younger brother Ryan, and her folks and both sets of grandparents still live close by. After graduating from UGA, she got her Master’s in Public Health at Mercer and now kicks butt with her work as an in-house consultant at Northside. She is an avid tennis player, runner, loves to cook and travel, but above all loves spending time with her family and friends.

Peter’s family moved to Georgia when he was 7, but thanks to his parents being from Iowa his southern accent pretty much stops and starts with “y’all”. He’s the third of four kids, and growing up in an entrepreneurial household caused him to gravitate to working in sales at a tech startup. He is getting too old to play soccer as well as he used to and enjoys Ashlyn’s cooking very much, but above all he loves spending time with his family and friends.

(S) How did you guys meet?

(A+P) This is a very controversial subject, as recollections differ tremendously. The first time we truly spent some time together, though, was on a big group getaway set up by a mutual friend (thanks, Paul) over a weekend in the mountains.

(S) Tell us a little about your first date.

(A+P) After mountain weekend, Peter got Ashlyn’s number and asked her out for a first official date. We went to an awesome restaurant called P’cheen, and spent the next three and half hours(!) laughing and realizing how much we had in common. Needless to say, it was the perfect last first date anyone could ask for.

(S) Was there a defining moment your knew relationship was taking the step towards marriage?

(A+P) This one’s a little tricky, because having instant chemistry with someone can make it seem like it was headed there all along. Pete remembers raving to my friends extremely early on about how great Ashlyn was, and brought her to meet his family about a month after the first date. Luckily she wasn’t scared off, and the overwhelming consensus from everyone was that she was an absolute keeper. When you meet someone who’s beautiful, smart, funny, and kind enough to laugh at your dumb jokes, well- you hold onto her.

(S) Peter, how did you pop “The Question?”

(A+P) Since our birthdays, anniversary, and Valentine’s Day are all within a couple weeks of each other, we try to do a fun trip every year to celebrate. Peter’s family has a lake house in Northern Michigan that they’ve gone to for years, and it was the location of one of the first real “couple’s trip” we went on when we started dating. Although sub zero temperatures are not typically what comes to mind when most people think of a fun excursion, we decided to live a little and head up there for a few days at the end of January. We were out snowshoeing along the lake one afternoon, decided to stop and take a picture to document the fact that people still, in fact, snowshoed, and Peter set up the camera to try out the self timer feature. After proclaiming “it didn’t work” after the first attempt, he secretly turned it to video mode and hustled back over to try again…except when he got back to Ashlyn, he dropped to to a knee and popped the question. Months of throwing her off the trail (Peter’s note: be careful trying that at home) made the proposal a true surprise, and the fact that we got engaged in such a special place meant a lot to both of us.

(S) Sneaky job Peter. I love how it came together so naturally and he still captured the actual moment.

We are so excited to share Ashlyn + Peter’s engagement session with all of you. We showered the Freedom Parkway Bridge with cheap champagne. It was awesome.

Bowie and I are thrilled to be apart of Ashlyn + Peter’s wedding and can’t wait for Atlanta in the fall. Enjoy!

Locations:
Olmsted Linear Park
Westside Provisions
Freedom ParkWay

Neema + Farnaz | Wedding | Intercontinental Hotel | Buckhead | Atlanta Georgia

Persian Wedding | Intercontinental Hotel | Buckhead | Atlanta Georgia – Oh yes, we’ve got an amazing one for you today ladies and gents! As you know (if you follow the blog) Neema and Farnaz were engaged over the summer and we were excited to run all over the city to shoot their engagement session.

Neema and Farnaz’s wedding was a day full of amazing beauty and love. Let’s hear all about it right from the bride:

Neema and I believe that if you can get through planning a wedding together you can get through a lot of things Neema and I were the type of couple that knew exactly what we wanted; it was just a matter of finding it. It was a little challenging because I was not from Atlanta, GA and wasn’t familiar with what the city had to offer in terms of venues/vendors so we literally started from scratch. One of the most important things for both of us was to work with vendors who matched our personality and whom we felt really enjoyed what they did! Our hard work finally paid off because we exceeded even our own expectations. Every single vendor that we worked with was amazing and I can say that I have made some truly good friends in Atlanta from the wedding planning process!

It may sound cliché, but the wedding day was truly a fairytale. The day of the wedding, I woke up in a breathtaking suite made only for a princess on the highest floor at the Intercontinental Buckhead, overlooking the entire city. My mom came to my room with the gorgeous red roses in a beautiful crystal vase. I have then pampered the rest of the day while getting ready. The hardest and most special moment was when I had my first look with my dad. The moments before my dad entered the room, a deep silence fell on the room as we all waited for him to enter. In that moment, all I could think was how lucky I was to have such a wonderful dad and how much he has done for me. During the father-daughter look, my dad put the gorgeous diamond necklace and bracelet on me. The father-daughter look was the most touching moment during my wedding and a memory I will forever treasure.

My wedding day was full of surprises. First, when my dad walked me down the aisle, the pianist surprised me by playing such an upbeat song for my entrance! The song was a traditional Persian wedding song and the guests started clapping and were very lively. I couldn’t have imagined a more amazing way to enter! I remember receiving advice from other brides, to take your time walking down the aisle and to look at your guests and I made sure to take in the moment and remember it all! My brother also had a wonderful surprise for me! He arranged one of his friends to sing our first song, All of Me! I really wanted him to sing at our wedding because he has such an amazing voice and my brother was able to arrange it! The photographer did an amazing job capturing my reaction when they announced him! Our wedding day was from 4:00 pm until 2:30 in the morning! It was a night full of dancing, drinking and celebrating our love.

The theme of the wedding was pearls and diamonds because that is my favorite jewelry combination. I absolutely love pearls and diamonds mixed or separate and I always knew when I got married that would be the theme of my wedding. In fact, when Neema and I used to talk, he would tease me about my email that included the words pearls and diamonds. There were touches of pearls and diamonds throughout the ceremony on the sofreh aghd, in the reception décor and tables and around my bouqet. The wedding reception was very classic with white and blush peonies and hydrangeas. We wanted a very chic and classic look for our wedding. We had a very long estate table with our bridal party and their dates and an oversized dance floor because we knew how much dancing we would be doing!

At the end of the wedding, I couldn’t believe how wonderful everything went and that we were married! The day of the wedding I didn’t worry about anything. I knew that all my hard work was done the day of the wedding because I placed my wedding in the hands of people I genuinely trusted. We put in over one year of work in our wedding and it was well worth it! If I had to do it all over again, I would!

A huge thanks to Hester and her team at Park Avenue Events! We were so excited to meet and work with you guys. For a few more images and a different look at this wedding, please see Park Avenue Events Wedding Portfolio.

Leah + Grant | Wedding | Grand Hyatt Hotel Buckhead

alternative_life_photography_grand_hyatt_buckhead_0014

Greetings fans! We are excited to share such a lovely wedding and couple with you guys today. Leah and Grant were married at the lovely, and recently renovated, Grand Hyatt Hotel in Buckhead! This was the first time Bowie and I had the pleasure of woking at this lovely hotel. If there is one thing I can say about this location, other than its beauty, it’s that they staff is fantastic. Anything we needed, any questions we had, all situations were handled with care and excitement. From the top executive right down to the hotel staff, everyone greeted us with smiles and consideration.

alternative_life_photography_grand_hyatt_buckhead_0001