Rich Smith Photography » Chattanooga Tennessee Wedding Photographer

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We are Rich and Heather Smith, a husband and wife team based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We specialize in local and destination wedding photography, and we have been blessed with amazing clients and incredible opportunities the past few years!

We are two extroverts who adore meeting new people. We love laughing, family dance parties in the living room, chai tea lattes, and most importantly, our adorable two year old daughter, Alana.

We are so thankful that our clients trust us to document their lives, and we consider our blog a place to share our lives with you. Whether you are a friend, family, client, or stranger, please relax and enjoy a glimpse into our world.

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Category Archives: engagement

Brandon and Rachel {passionate} [Engagement]

December 4, 2009 Posted in engagement, lifestyle

It was just such an awesome pleasure for us to meet Brandon and Rachel in Hawaii. They are such an amazing couple. Full of life. Fun to be around. Extremely in love. Cool as all get out. They’re just beautiful people inside and out. I just feel like we became fast friends with them and we miss them like crazy already. Can’t believe they’re 11 hours (flying time) away. It’s just crazy to think about. Oh man… I’m going to quit writing this paragraph because it’s just making me wish I had a time machine to travel back two weeks.

Meet Brandon. He is our wonderful friend Leigh’s nephew and moved to Hawaii about a year ago to become the golf pro at the Mauna Kea golf resort.

Meet Rachel. She’s the super sweet girl who decided to move half way around the world because of love. Someone should write a book (or movie) about these two.

I was absolutely thrilled they wanted me to photograph them. Two beautiful people in one the most beautiful places on earth? Sign me up. They were awesome in front of the camera and I just loved working with them. We had so much fun on this photoshoot that I was on an emotional high for the longest time!

No more talking! Photos! Check these two out!

We found a black sand beach! They were watching a sea turtle bob his head up and down out of the ocean.

Love these trees! Love this photo!

Side note: I had so much trouble picking out my favorite images to blog. Seriously… every single photo is amazing with these two in it!

Laying in a comfortable bed of corral rock.

I just want to apologize to Brandon and Rachel. I’m from Tennessee. I had NO idea how painful it was to get your jeans full sand. It’s like walking around wearing sandpaper… literally! I got to try it out about two days later with our photoshoot with Leslie (pics coming soon to this blog). But you’ve got to admit though… these pics made it totally worth it! Am I not right!?

Blow this image up large… now.

How amazing is this couple!? I just want to comment on ALL of the photos above but will just let the pics speak for themselves.

Brandon and Rachel: It was just so amazing meeting you guys. Can not express to you how much I loved working with you two. Heather and I want to see you both again so badly! Everyone just accepting Heather and I into the Janous family dynamic and we are just so blessed and grateful to call you our new friends! Thank you!

Ronella & Skyler [engagement]

November 3, 2009 Posted in engagement, lifestyle

So excited that Ronella and Skyler picked me to photograph their wedding. From the very first meeting I had with them, I went on about how cool their names are. Ronella’s sister is a fantastic family photographer in Birmingham and wanted to do the photographs but she’ll actually be IN the wedding. So Ronella picked me! Woot!

Ronella and Skyer both are just fun, passionate people that are completely, madly in love with one another. It was definitely a joy to be around them and photograph their session. We were having so much fun, it was hard to be serious at times! The results I couldn’t be more thrilled with! Check out a few of my favorites below!

After hanging downtown for a while, we went up to Lookout Mountain to finish our session at Sunset Rock. What a beautiful place!

We hiked in and knew I was in trouble when I had to go back up to the top. Talk about winded! But I finally made it.

It’s so hard to choose my favorites. I was about to put “I love this photo!” above every one of them but decided I didn’t want to annoy my blog readers. Hope you enjoyed the photos. Check back for their wedding photos in May of next year. It can’t get here fast enough!

Rachel + Miles [engaged]

October 5, 2009 Posted in engagement

Got to hang with my new friends and cool clients Rachel and Miles up at Point Park on Lookout. What an incredible time we had! It was a gorgeous day with amazing light. I was PUMPED about doing this session! Rain and extremely cloudy weather was the way of life around here for a while and it was just so nice to work with beautiful sunlight. Beautiful light + beautiful couple = something I can get into!

Rachel is a personal trainer and is one of these people who actually runs marathons for the fun of it and NOT because a bear is chasing her… which is the only way I’d be caught running 26 miles. Despite my questioning her sanity in this area, she’s a REALLY cool girl.

Miles loves sport bikes. That automatically puts him in the ultra cool category. He said that I could ride his bike at their engagement shoot but must have forgotten. That’s okay though. I probably would have gotten the riding bug again. I miss my motorcycle really bad!

So two really cool people getting married. Good match! And I’m so excited that I get the privilege to photograph their wedding next year in Kentucky!

Check out some of my favorites!