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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Many thanks to the Nathan and Amber Holritz for the wonderful images you see of us on the left!
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Category Archives: wedding

Rachel & Miles | Married!

June 24, 2010 Posted in lifestyle, wedding

I was so excited to go up to Kentucky to photograph Rachel and Miles wedding. I haven’t spent much time up there but fell in love with Kentucky almost immediately after crossing the state line. Beautiful sunlight was illuminating the most incredible wheat and corn fields you can imagine. With cool old barns interspersed along the way. Not sure what I was expecting but it wasn’t this. Everywhere I turned I wanted to photograph in that location.

When I arrived at Rachels grandparents farm, the sun had already gone down but there was still enough light to make out the lake, tents and beautiful land around. Which made me immediately wish I had dragged someone with me to second shoot. There were too many amazing details to get in the time period I had.

To top it off, EVERYONE I met was just amazing. Rachel has a super close family and it showed. There was excitement in the air and it energized everyone around. Amazing surrounding, beautiful people, close family… these are definitely conditions I can work with.

After a good nights sleep, the bride got her hair and make up done about 12 miles from the farm:

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The first look:

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I love that bowties are coming back. I saw several of the guys wearing them. So cool.

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I’ve been shooting weddings for a while but Rachel introduced me to “tradition” that I had not encountered yet. All the bridesmaids put their names on the bottom of the brides shoe. At the end of the day, the bridesmaids name that is the clearest is either going to be next getting married or having a baby. It was great seeing the reactions from all the girls!

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The shy but beautiful flower girl:

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The incredible reception site…

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The arrival at the reception!

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A new first for me! A mac-n-cheese bar!

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It was SOOO hot outside! I had to bribe the girls that if they ran down the hill for me, I’d cut the photos short and they could change into something more comfortable. It didn’t take much convincing.

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They left on a boat on the river (you can just make it out in the photo below). Side note: this lake did NOT exist when her grandfather bought this land. He and his three sons dug this lake. Yep, it’s a man-made lake. Incredible feat with incredible results!

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Thank you Rachel and Miles for treating me so well while I was with you guys! I had a blast. Some of the many firsts I had with this wedding were: 1) first gift basket I’ve ever received from a bride (with homemade Kentucky bourbon balls that were so good) and 2) the first time the brides mom photographed ME with the bride! That just made me feel ultra special. I want that photo Mom! :)

Ronella & Skyler | Wedding

June 7, 2010 Posted in wedding

Ever since photographing Ronella and Skyler at their engagement session, I knew this fun couple would be a blast on their wedding day. I was NOT disappointed! Young, energetic, beautiful and fun. That’s them! On top of that, I had Amber, our associate shooter, come along to help me photograph which made the day go that much more smoothly. Nice to be able to be in two places at once. Check out a few of photos from their big day!

We started out at Headquarters Salon which brought back a lot of good memories because it was where I shot one of my first weddings several years ago!

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These next photos are from Amber! I’m so proud of her!

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More pics from Amber as Ronella was getting in her dress…

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We were running a little bit behind schedule. Here’s Skyler patiently waiting downstairs for the “first look”!

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The first look!

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Skyler and his guys…

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Ronella was just playing around but I just love how beautiful she looks here!

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How cute is the little flower girl!?

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One of these photos is unlike the others… can you spot it?

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Haha… love the above photo but to be fair, here’s a NICE photo of Ronella and her bridesmaid.

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The ceremony was held at the beautiful First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, TN.

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Ronella’s parents came all the way from Romania to be at the wedding and her dad prayed for them in Ronellas native language. What a beautiful moment!

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Skylers grandfather was actually the minister that married them. So to be sure it was a special ceremony.

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The reception was held at the Black Fox Farms.

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Everyone in this photo (minus Skyler) went to school with Ronella at a school in Romania. Can you believe they all were able to make it to the wedding!? How cool is this group!?

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The night was filled with awesome food and beautiful speeches.

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We were SO excited when Ronella wanted to use Strut to document in the most fun way possible the guests that came to her wedding!

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Here’s just a few of the pics we got there! If you want to see a lot more, check out the Strut Facebook Page!

Heck ya I jumped in there too!

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And the send off!

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Thank you so much Ronella and Skyler for making your wedding just so fun! Amber and I had a blast hanging out and we can’t wait to get the rest of your wedding images to you! You two are awesome!!!

Lauren and Clay | Wedding

June 2, 2010 Posted in lifestyle, wedding

Gown Boutique: Boutique Couture
Cake Artist: Cakemakers, etc.
Caterer: SwissAm Fine Catering
DJ: Sound Force
Florist: Humphreys Flowers
Makeup Artist: Elea Blake
Hair Stylist: Hair a gogo
Reception Venue: Hunter Museum

I had a wonderful time photographing Lauren and Clays wedding! Lauren is just a trip to hang out with… bringing smiles to everyone around her!

It had been a while since I had photographed their engagement so I was pumped about seeing them again. Such a wonderful couple. Full of excitement, anticipation and nervousness!

Heather is still sick in her 1st trimester so I asked the amazingly talented Amber Holritz if she wanted to photograph with me. I was pumped when she said she was free to help me out! That just made me even more excited about the day!

It turned out to be a beautiful day although the weather forecast called for thunderstorms. Thankfully it only sprinkled for a couple minutes of right before the reception.

We started off at Hair-a-go-go…an awesome salon on the north shore:

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Then we headed to Elea Blake to get her makeup done. They did an amazing job as always!

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The first look:

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We had an unexpected visitor wanting to witness the wedding. Came almost to the front of the church and was in such a good mood until one of the groomsmen had to carry him out. Look at that sad face! Can honestly say that’s never happened to me at a wedding before!