Nicole & Brian came to us for their Strong Mansion wedding photography through Nicole’s mom, a hobbyist photographer who I’d first met many years earlier through a local camera club. They originally met through a mixed martial arts class (now how cool is that!), and a few years later, Brian planned an elaborate wedding proposal to take place at his federal police graduation ceremony. Even Nicole’s mom was kept in the dark as Brian arranged to ensure that he be last on stage to be photographed. And then, he dropped to one knee, reached up to his hat, and pulled a ring box out from under it! Brian’s not usually the type to make a scene in front of a crowd, so this just shows how in love these two are and how Nicole makes him feel!

Just a few months later, I met with Brian & Nicole and her mom to talk wedding photography at the beautiful Strong Mansion in Dickerson, Maryland, situated at the foot of Sugarloaf Mountain on the southern edge of Frederick County. Nicole’s primary concern was finding a DC wedding photographer who could handle their different skin tones, with Nicole being very pale and Brian being half African-American, half Korean. (Funnily enough, one of our past weddings that I showed them of another multi-racial couple was of someone that Nicole had gone to high school with and had dated!)

Their beautiful fall wedding ceremony took place in front of the pond next to Strong Mansion. Before seating themselves, guests were invited to take part in a ring warming ceremony, in which they held the couple’s wedding bands tightly to suffuse them with wishes, prayers & blessings, and to saturate them with love. Then at the reception following the ceremony, squares of fabric dotted each table so that guests could write notes to them; the fabric blocks will then be stitched together to keep Nicole and Brian warm for decades to come!

Congratulations to this happy, newlywed couple – enjoy their Strong Mansion wedding photography!

In search of a DC wedding photographer skilled at photographing multi-racial couples?