Wedding Related | Rich Smith Photography

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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: Wedding Related

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!

Amber + Nick [epic]

November 12, 2009 Posted in wedding

Last weekend we made the journey across the US to the amazing state of Wyoming to photograph a delayed wedding session for Nick and Amber! This is one of their favorite places in the country and it was their dream to have wedding photos in this meaningful place…where they were engaged.

Heather and I were so glad we flew. Not only because we didn’t want to be in a car with a toddler for 30 hours but because it was so beautiful seeing the mountain ranges from the sky. I’m sad I didn’t have my camera out but taking care of Alana on the flight was a full time job and we couldn’t afford to carry anything else!

This was Heather and my first time to go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and we were just blown away by the beauty and majesty there. I was secretly hoping to see Harrison Ford there but no such luck. He must not have gotten my message that we were coming into town. But we did see elk and two bull moose fighting and although I had to avoid stepping into Bison patties, we never got to actually see one.

We wanted to take the main photos on Saturday but it was extremely cloudy and there was a bit of snowfall. So we spent the day scouting for locations and calculating the best time to be at each place. Those pics are coming soon!

So on Sunday, we woke up around 5:30am and got out the door at 7 to be in our first location around 7:30. It was around 23 degrees outside. When the wind wasn’t blowing it didn’t feel that bad. But unfortunately the wind did blow a lot… making my subjects VERY cold. More on that later. Let’s get to the pics!

Here we are at the Grand Tetons! Incredible mountain range!

Eat your heart out, Ansel Adams.

Love the Snake River in this photo!

Nick and Amber were so cold, they were shaking and bumping into each other. They thought that was hilarious. Look at the wind blowing through Nicks hair. What troopers!

These fields we found near Kelly, Wyoming. A dream to photograph in!

Incredibly cool aspen trees. You’ll see more of these in a post from the previous day.

Oh my daughter’s poor hair. The weather is so dry that it caused major static and we should have used hair spray on it! Haha. But what a cutie, isn’t she?

Couple of moose we saw. A few moments after this photo was taken they decided to fight. Fortunately my camera has video capabilities so I switched over. You can check it out here.

Back to the fields at Kelly with Nicks family and closest friends…

Nick and his dad.

Amber and her girls!

Love this photo!

Alana with her aunt.

Thanks for looking! Be sure to check out more of our trip soon!

Erika + Michael [wedding]

November 6, 2009 Posted in wedding

Had the wonderful time photographing Erika and Mike’s wedding! They’re such beautiful people inside and out. It was just fun hanging out with them and their families for their big day. They only found me a couple of months ago and I was glad I had this day still open to them. So glad they found me. I really had a blast getting to know them better while doing their engagement session and knew their wedding was going to be a special one. Boy was I right.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the wedding! Check ‘em out!

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