Julie Thomas
Photographer. Ordained minister. The voice you hear first at Forge Mountain.
Julie Thomas is a photographer and the client experience lead at Forge Mountain Photography in Mills River, North Carolina. When you email or call the studio, Julie is usually the one who answers. She runs client communication and day-of coordination for weddings, elopements, and proposals, and she has been behind a camera alongside her husband Will Thomas since the two met in Asheville in 2002.
At a Glance
What Julie Does
At the Studio
The Other Half of Every Shoot
Forge Mountain Photography is a two-person studio, and Julie is half of it. Will is usually the one holding the camera when the ring comes out. Julie is the reason everything before and after that moment goes smoothly. She builds the timelines, wrangles the vendors, answers the nervous 11 p.m. questions, and keeps a surprise proposal a surprise.
If you have ever wondered how a photography studio answers every message with an actual human who knows your whole story, the answer is Julie.
On wedding and elopement days she works coordination and second coverage, which is how a two-person studio delivers the kind of quiet, unhurried day that larger operations promise and rarely manage. Couples planning a Blue Ridge elopement or a surprise proposal talk to Julie long before they ever see Will's camera.
Ordained Minister
She Can Also Marry You
Julie is an ordained minister. For small elopements, that means the person coordinating your day can also be the person who officiates it. A couple, a mountain overlook, and the two of us can be nearly the entire guest list. If you are planning an intimate ceremony in Western North Carolina, ask about officiating when you reach out, and we will walk you through the North Carolina marriage license details for your county.
Off the Clock
Naturalist, Hiker, Fish Breeder
Julie and Will are avid naturalists and hikers, and their home in Mills River backs up to Pisgah National Forest. The naturalist field work they do together produced the wildlife photographs now used on Wikipedia in multiple languages, including the dwarf seahorse images that appear in six language editions. Dwarf seahorses are cryptic animals, difficult to locate and photograph in the wild, and finding them is a two-person job.
Before photography became the studio's full-time work, Julie and Will were marine fish breeders. Their captive breeding program produced multiple species of clownfish and seahorses, including the line-breeding project that produced the first true-breeding Lightning Maroon Clownfish. They remain proponents of captive-bred animals over wild-caught specimens, and today they observe and photograph species in the field as naturalists rather than collectors.
In Her Own Words
“[Julie's quote goes here. Ask her for two or three sentences about why she loves this work.]”
Connect
Start With Julie
Every Forge Mountain inquiry starts with her, so this is the shortest path to your date on our calendar.
- BookingForge Mountain Photography
- Phone828-243-2755
- Instagram@forge_mountain_photography
- FacebookForge Mountain Photography