After Maria & Kyle’s Atlanta wedding at the Atrium in April, they wanted to take even more photos in their wedding attire. After talking it over a bit, we decided on a semi-trash the dress / bridal type session in the Blue Ridge Mountains that would allow us to capture some really beautiful photos of them. The main goal was not to trash the dress like a traditional trash the dress session, but if it happened in the process, no one was worried about it.

In search of a whimsical and romantic location, Maria talked to her friend Nancy about using her beautiful property deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia and she was more than willing to help out. We made the three-hour drive and although the weather called for rain, we were very lucky and it turned out to be perfect all day. Once we arrived, we met up with Nancy and her husband Tim, who were both beyond generous and more than willing to help in any way.

After Maria and Kyle were changed and ready to go, we started in one of the barns on the vast property. We were constantly followed by a curious black cat who just loved clawing and riding on Maria’s dress. I guess that’s trash the dress by a cat. :) Once we finished with the barn area, the real adventure started. Nancy took us on a tour of the rugged back hill terrain of the mountains in a Cadillac Escalade no less. Surprisingly, the Escalade handled extremely well as we crossed small rivers, drove on the edge of vertical cliffs, and over steep rocks. It really felt like an African safari, at least to us city slickers. We were only missing the wild animals.

As we journeyed deeper and deeper into the mountains, we would stop at various locations that looked interesting. At times, getting to the location took some legwork, climbing through poison ivy, and walking barefoot across jagged river beds. You just have to make sacrifices to get what you want. Even being as secluded as we were on the side of the mountains, we would occasionally run across a random person or two. Of course, they would take one look at Maria and Kyle in their wedding attire, riding around in an Escalade, and laugh. I couldn’t blame them though, we really kind of stuck out.  

Battling the ever setting sun, we eventually headed back to capture some photos with one of Nancy and Tim’s many horses. Between all three of us, we had about a half a day of riding experience. Nonetheless, Nancy and Tim stayed with us the whole time to help us through it all. The black cat also made his return and showed us all how to ride a horse with ease. When Maria first mounted the horse, it took a minute or so to adjust. The particular horse we were using had what Tim called an “easy mouth”. I’m not 100% sure if the horse was trained that way or if that’s just how the horse was naturally, but it meant it didn’t take much on the reins to make the horse move in any direction. 

Maria quickly figured that out when she pulled back slightly on the reins to adjust herself in the saddle and the horse started to quickly back up. The more he backed up the more she would pull trying to keep her balance. Faster and faster the horse ran backward until he tripped on some wood and both Maria and the horse went down! I was in shock as all of this took place and had no reaction to anything. As they fell to the ground Maria’s amazing rodeo clown skills came out. She somehow did a flip/twist type of thing and rolled out of the way seconds before the horse almost landed on her.

Both Maria and the horse were perfectly okay, but after such a jarring and traumatizing experience, you would think Maria would be over the whole “photos on a horse” idea. Ha! Of course, she wasn’t. She dusted herself off and hopped right back up there like she was about to go herd cattle. We took our time and slowly finished all the photos we needed just as the sun really began to set.

All in all, it was really nice to get out of the city for the day and spend time with some awesome people. We had an incredible time and an amazing adventure that none of us will soon forget. Here are a few of my favorite photos from our adventure in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. :)

My name is Matt Druin and I’m an Atlanta wedding photographer that specializes in unique, offbeat weddings for all awesome people! Not only do I shoot amazing Atlanta weddings, but I also travel frequently for destination weddings, and weddings all over, with no travel fees in the US for amazing wedding photography. I also shoot Atlanta engagement sessions for newly engaged couples. I’ve even been known to travel, and far, for engagement sessions too!

Contact Atlanta Wedding Photographers Matthew Druin & Co

Email [email protected]

Phone 678-551-0115

Address 225 Parkway 575 #66 Woodstock, Georgia 30188

Portfolios www.matthewdruin.com

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