Welcome to my blog! I'm thrilled to be able to share with you my favorite images from weddings, engagements, maternity, and more! Grab a cup of coffee and get snuggly cuz this blog will give you all the feels!
the blog
welcome to
Doughton Park
XOXOXO,
Mabyn
When we first arrived at Doughton Park, we hiked up the top of the hillside and were rewarded by this super cool tree. I couldn’t help but want to add his gnarled branches into the background. It’s such a great contrast to these two & their love.
The day was so beautiful & clear, the perfect conditions to see mountains for days! Those Appalachian mountains get me every time!
Wind always makes a beautiful photograph epic! Just a little ruffle of the hair and this moment just takes my breath away!
At first Casey & Andrew didn’t know how to pose or what to do with their hands. It took a little nudging, but once they realized that all they had to do was be themselves & love each other, well nothing else was needed!
Andrew & Daniel use to play in the band Hot Vegas together. I dubbed this shot Casey & Andrew’s album cover for whenever they choose to start up their own band. 😉
Or they may choose just to snuggle each other for life in stead…I guess that’s okay too!
This is joy! Just beautiful, loving joy!
I saw this spot of negative space and I couldn’t help myself. I don’t have couples do the jump shot often, but if anywhere was a perfect spot THIS was it!
One of the funniest parts of this entire session was that Andrew directed the entire thing and not in the way you might think. He didn’t tell me what to do, but whenever we took our camera’s further away you’d hear him tell Casey things like “Okay now look into my eyes, now look over there and smile, now kiss me!” He did it over and over and the best part was IT WORKED!
Casey brought along this gorgeous red dress that she searched tirelessly for. It was a gorgeous pop of color against the sleeping brown of the woods at Doughton Park.
Dark moody woods + gorgeous couple + the perfect light = Mabyn’s happy place! UGH!
Casey has the florist hook up to make her an incredible floral crown! The attention to detail was fantastic and it was the perfect accent to shoot in the woods!
This shot is all Daniel! Isn’t he getting good? Dang! He makes his wifey proud!
And of course we had to stick around for that gorgeous sunset! This time it was a vibrant orange, the perfect contrast to those blue mountains in the background. Oi…I love my life!
This time around the wind was a little quieter than our last mountain session. However, there was just enough of it to give us a beautiful wind blown tendril or two.
The wind also obliged to give us a couple of epic dress shots! THANK YOU MOTHER NATURE!
I love the contrast in this shot, the dark moody mountains & the sweet emotion in Casey’s “sleep face” as she likes to call it. I like to call it GORGEOUS!
I of course had to get Casey up on that mountain top by herself for an epic dress shot. I love you Andrew, but you’re just not as pretty as your wife. 😉
But we’ll add you back in anyway. 😉
This time I wanted to stay a little longer after the sun was gone to capitalize on that rich vibrant sky. We broke out the flashes and created some super cool night shots!
These two were tired after our epic adventure, looking this good takes a lot of energy! Thanks Casey & Andrew for being completely amazing!
To see more epic photo sessions click here!
I am a big fan of community over competition. I spent most of my musical theater collegiate years fighting for a spot on the stage, fighting to be heard, fighting just to feel accepted. Those years were hard, but they taught me to never give up! Plus, I’m pretty sure that’s where I get all of my dramatic flair from in photography.
When I tumbled head over heels in love with wedding photography, part of my joy was finding a community of people who wanted to help me succeed. It was incredible to go from fighting the world all by myself to having a family of like minded photographers cheering me on. I am so grateful for each and every person who poured their time, knowledge, and sometimes even money into. I am forever grateful for your investments!
All of this mushy stuff is leading to a point and that point is I’m always on the look out for amazing communities to connect and invest in. If I can help just one other photographer reach a goal, get inspired, or never give up, then it’s all worth it! One such community that I was recently invited to join is called Otterplan Connect. Their motto is “Connecting wedding creatives. Growing together” and it’s specifically designed for North Carolina Wedding Professionals.
Otterplan recently reached out and asked to interview me for their monthly member spotlight! What an extreme honor! You can read the full interview here:
March Spotlight: Mabyn Ludke Photography
Now that Daniel & I have settled in Western North Carolina, we’ve been looking for new ways to connect with professionals in the area. Otterplan is a great way to meet new people & they’re constantly revamping & implementing new connection strategies into their site! I’m looking forward to the network of amazing wedding creatives that Daniel and I will continue to connect with through this site!
XOXOXO,
Mabyn
You may recall a sweet little wedding nestled in the Appalachian mountains about 45 minutes from Asheville that Daniel & I shot last summer. Jenna & David are worship leaders and they contacted us to shoot their incredibly sweet & beautiful Burnsville, NC wedding. After most weddings, I send a few photos to the vendors who helped create such a wonderful event. We love lovin’ on our vendors and we appreciate all they do so the least we could do is share a few photos with them. Little did we know that this simple act would lead to quite the chain reaction!
Our images were shared from vendor to writer to magazine editor! We ended up getting a full page feature in Mountain Escapes Magazine! A completely unexpected and wonderful surprise! We also landed an invite to the 2017 Burnsville Bridal Expo. After all of that love, how could we say no?! So we packed up our photos in the car and headed to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite little towns, Burnsville!
Amelia Hoilman of White Falls Catering did an incredible job of setting the stage for all of the talented vendors to showcase their specialties. We had a great time introducing ourselves and getting to know the local community. I’m a HUGE fan of supporting local and this community sure knows how to do it right! On top of the beautiful setup in the Burnsville Town Center, they invited West Entertainment to get the party going, & had a hilarious cake smash where brides clawed through layers and layers of cake to find the ring hidden inside! It was quite possibly one of the nicest & most entertaining bridal shows I’ve ever attended!
As some of you may know, 2017 marks my 10th year as a wedding photographer. That means I’ve officially been shooting weddings for a DECADE! Okay, now if looking in the mirror didn’t make me feel old, this sure does! However, it’s a milestone I will gratefully celebrate! To work at something I love so much for so long, to have others support me, to be able to see hundreds of joyful brides and grooms as I scroll through my website look back at me, it’s a feeling of satisfaction and peace that I can’t aptly describe.
Most of the time when we attended a bridal show we give away an engagement session. This year however, I wanted to go big in celebration of 10 years! So we opted to give away a wedding collection! WHAT?! I know! We’re crazy! So it is with much joy & excitement that I get to announce that the winner of our Wedding Collection Giveaway is Margaret Casey & Jackie Sprinkle!!!!! Congrats!!!! We’ll be sending you an official “You won lets get our happy dance on” email and we can setup a time to discuss all the details! EEEE! YAY! This is so much fun!
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth. We can’t wait to shoot more beautiful weddings in the WNC area and have an amazing 2017 season!
XOXOXO,
Mabyn
