Cotton Room Weddings

Click here for our page dedicated to The Cotton Room.

The Cotton Room is one of our favorite venues in Durham (along with its sister venues The Lucky Strike Suite & Belt Line Station). We’ve had the pleasure of photographing many weddings at these venues, including Jennifer & Wade’s which is featured in full in this blog post. I will note that their wedding happened a couple years ago, before the Cotton Room had (1) put together the gorgeous Magnolia Suite for a getting ready location, (2) turned The Lucky Strike Suite from a getting ready location into its own incredible venue space, and (3) finished the indoor space for Belt Line Station. That’s why I’ve updated this post (which a lot of you seem to find) to include some of our more recent Cotton Room couples. Check out their weddings by clicking on any of the next three images:

Basically, we really love Durham weddings and we really love the Cotton Room team and all that they offer couples. Exposed brick? dreamy sigh. Huge windows? dreamy sigh. That incredible wallpaper in the Magnolia Suite? *faints*. So if you’re considering getting married there, check out the weddings I’ve linked above (and Jennifer & Wade here below) for some inspiration and then get in touch with us ASAP so we can be the ones to photograph your day!! 

CONTACT KIVUS & CAMERA FOR YOUR COTTON ROOM WEDDING

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We believe that love is bright and colorful, and your wedding photographs should be bright and colorful too.

Kivus & Camera are Raleigh Wedding photographers who create bold, colorful, magical memories of your wedding day with beautiful, artistic portraits AND enthusiastic, genuine moments. Your unique love story deserves to be told through unforgettable, breath-taking photographs that stand out from the crowd. Kivus & Camera love creating that magic. After all, as past bride Courtney says, we’re photography sorcerers.

And though we call ourselves Raleigh wedding photographers, we definitely photograph Durham weddings, Chapel Hill weddings, Cary weddings, etc. We’re all over the Triangle area, and we’re happy to head to the beach or mountains and even to places outside of North Carolina! Just let us know where your love story is headed.

Want to know more? Check out more of our images or learn more about our nerdy selves or just send us a note! Can’t wait to hear from you.

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Now on to Jennifer & Wade:

Jennifer & Wade’s Cotton Room wedding was delightful! Jennifer got ready with her bridesmaids, her mom, her grandmother, and Wade’s mom in the newly redecorated Lucky Strike Suite, before heading up to the princess tower for a first look with her almost-husband Wade.

While we were up in the main space for the Cotton Room, Wade also got a first look at the cake topper, which Jennifer had ordered custom from Etsy. We did the majority of their engagement photos at NC State, and there wasn’t a more perfect cake topper for this pair than Mr. & Mrs. Wolf. Keep your eye out for that topper below among the rest of the story, but first, let’s give some love to the:

Cotton Room Wedding Vendors

Venue: The Cotton Room
Hair & Makeup: The Makeup Addict
Wedding gown: Justin Alexander from Maggi Bridal
Florals: Tre Bella
Officiant: Perry Hardison
DJ and uplighting: All Around Raleigh DJ
Caterer: Triangle Catering
Cake: Cinda’s Creative Cakes
Transportation: White Horse

Cotton Room Wedding Photos

Getting ready

Jennifer’s bridemaids, her sister and a childhood friend, were totally on top of making sure her dress was wrinkle free. And look, that dress has pockets!!!! Winner. I also really loved Jennifer’s earrings.

Meanwhile, John was hanging out with Wade and the guys at the Bull Durham Suite, which has a popcorn machine. Unfair. I feel like both suites should get popcorn.

First Look and Portraits

Once they were both dressed and looking awesome, it was time for the first look. Since Saturday’s high was something like 95 degrees, we did just about everything inside. The tower just off the bar in the Cotton Room was the perfect location for their first look though. They were both full of smiles and maybe a couple happy tears as they saw one another.

After some portraits of just the almost-weds, their friends and family joined for some group portraits in front of the Cotton Room’s tall windows overlooking the rest of Golden Belt.

Cotton Room Wedding Ceremony

Time flies on wedding days, and just like that, candles were lit and it was time for the ceremony.

Jennifer & Wade recessed to rounds of applause and then were greeted with plenty of hugs from their loved ones. We did sneak outside down to Beltline Station for about a minute, and we all immediately started sweating, but Wade & Jennifer got a little bit of dance practice in and the light was pretty.

Cotton Room Cocktail Hour and Reception

Back upstairs, the Cotton Room team had finished the flip and the newlyweds celebrated with a drink and some of their appetizers in the lounge area.

How about those decorations though? The favors were custom bottle openers, and most of the bud vases in the centerpieces were craft beer bottles, hand selected by Wade & Jennifer, who also emptied the bottles (by enjoying the brews, obviously) so the flowers could go in water rather than beer. That’s my kind of decor prep.

It’s time to party! Look at those joyful faces as their friends and family cheer their entrance! And nothing but love for one another during their first dance.

After parent dances, Eric from All Around Raleigh DJ got the party going and I think I saw almost every single guest on the dance floor at one point or another.

When you’re dancing though, you need to make sure you have enough fuel. Sugar helps. And here’s that adorable cake topper of Mr. & Mrs. Wolf. I loved how expressive Jennifer & Wade were while feeding each other cake.

Since the temperature hadn’t dropped that much, we opted for setting up a night shot inside, using the ceremony backdrop for a couple more portraits.

Of course there was still plenty more dancing.

And then a sparkler exit to cap the night. Congratulations to these two, who are currently enjoying an awesome honeymoon complete with scuba-diving adventures.