Y’all I am soo soo excited about this post and a few that will follow it in the weeks to come (blame that on me being OVERLY snap happy on this particular day!!!). When we first moved to the Greenville & Spartanburg area I didn’t know what to expect from the wedding industry here in the upstate. I was nervous about meeting other wedding professionals and getting to know them because hey I am the “new” kid on the block in a way and I wasn’t just starting as a photographer like I was years ago in Houston… I have a business and well I just didn’t know what to expect. Let me just say the minute I started sending emails to other photographers & others in the wedding industry had me LOVING living in this area (I’ll get to why in just a second)… Then add the fact that Marc & Colleen from Wedding Festivals were so helpful with all my crazy wedding show questions…. and then I actually visited a show in September to see what it was all about and seriously EVERY single person I chatted with (photographer, venue, catering, florist, etc…) were so friendly and welcoming and so yep I have loved being in this area and around the wedding industry here because from the beginning I have seriously been welcomed with open arms and I can’t tell you how incredibly thankful & appreciative I am for that!! I am soooooo excited to work with all these amazing wedding professionals in the South Carolina Upstate!!!!!!!
The second wedding festival show that I did was here in Spartanburg. Beside me stood Carolina Traditions (their beautiful dresses had me wanting to renew my vows) and across from me was Ellery Farms (and y’all can I just say that just seeing Ellery Farms photos of their venue had me wanting to renew my vows there at their venue… this southern girl loves a beautiful farm house on lots of wide open fields!!!!). The day was crazy so I didn’t get to chat a whole lot with either but I did chat with Traci, the owner of Ellery Farms (I caught her and Melanie, whom works for her at Ellery Farms looking at my photos 😉 ) so me being me with the little bit of a lull in the crowd went over and started chatting and just in those few minutes Traci & I chatted I knew I couldn’t wait to get to know her & work with her one of these days!!! All I have to say is that I am so very thankful that later on that day she then came over and asked if I’d want to be part of a shoot at Ellery Farms. Knowing nothing about the shoot or bride or anything I said YES, because I just knew that it was going to be so much fun working alongside of Traci & Melanie!!!
On a VERY VERY cold February day I headed down to Ellery Farms to photograph Traci’s vision and y’all I took A LOT OF PHOTOS!!!!! I’m not just talking like a few, I’m talking just as many as a wedding day… I seriously could photograph at Ellery Farms ALL DAY LONG… I loved it, and now I am absolutely giddy to shoot their again…. especially shooting a wedding there, it’s going to be gorgeous. When I showed up these ladies had been working hard all morning and were still working hard to get everything ready!!!! I wish I had the creativity they have!!! Traci had an awesome vision and I loved seeing it come to life. Melanie worked her magic on the flowers (and rocked it in front of the camera at the end of the day), Traci’s mom was busy at work inside the house getting all the goodies ready to go out on the tables, and Kellie was there doing her thing with styling & using her talents with caligraphy (random Kendra tangent… I had never met Kellie in person and she wasn’t supposed to be there the day we had originally planned on doing the shoot due to a wedding she had but because of rain we pushed the date back and Kellie was able to help out… she is super talented. She is the owner of Jubille Weddings & Events AND Barrel & Bloom (you can rent wedding day props from her) AND she does paper & design work as well…. so that’s a mouthful but good gravy she’s talented so it was a pleasure to meet & work with her)… ALL these ladies are super talented and it was such an honor to photograph their work & work alongside of them!!!!!!!!
After wandering around the house & property I got to work!!! I started with this beautiful dress. Which came from Carolina Traditions (y’all were probably wondering where that random tidbit from above was going to fit in 🙂 )… This is a Stella York dress and I loved it!! OHH and I LOVE that sooo much of the inside of this house is white and has so much natural light streaming through it!!!!
There were so many awesome nooks & crannies in the house to photograph the details!! I really could photograph here for days and never get bored!!!!!
Love that Traci wanted to do a halo!! Melanie, you did an AWESOME job, this thing is BEAUTIFUL!!!!
This is our sweet bride Alisa. Y’all she was soooo sweet & I LOVED photographing her!!!
We used EVERY bedroom upstairs for photos!!! Ellery Farms was such a dream to photograph indoors!!!
Love this stairway!! AND that light coming in behind Alisa!!
🙂 Love this floral crown!!!
Alisa’s best friend Brielee (how awesome is her name!!) had come to just hang out during the shoot, but somehow Traci talked her into getting into one of Melanie’s bridesmaids dresses so we got some shots of her too!!!
Be sure to check back over the next couple of weeks to see more images from Ellery Farms!!!!!!!! I am soo excited about all of these!!!!
Kendra Martin Photography is a Greenville Wedding Photographer & Spartanburg Wedding Photographer, also specializing in Senior, Lifestyle, Newborn, Maternity, Family, and Child Photography.
