we were kids making memories

& then we fell in love.

We are Jacob and Alex Allen, owners of Cedar Relics Photography + Films. We love Jesus and serve faithfully at our local church. We have a fiery five year old, and our sweet baby girl made her arrival in March 2023. Family is everything to us, and it is always placed at the top of our priority list. Smith Lake, Alabama is our happy place - a place that we made some of the best memories during our childhood. Saturday drives in Jacob’s ‘02 Tahoe and sunsets at our property are good for our souls. Let’s be real… we are natural born “homebodies”. Alex is passionate about capturing moments in life through the lens of her camera, and Jacob handles all of the wedding films and a lot of the behind-the-scenes work: graphic design and website maintenance. You know…all the really fun stuff.

We have been an integral part of each others’ lives for as long as we can remember, and we were destined to be together forever because, as our dads will quickly tell you… they "signed a contract" when we were about the age you see in the black and white photo at the top of this page. One day, our eyes opened, and we fell deeply in love, began dating, and then married in the fall of 2015.

We get asked this question by so many: “Why did you choose the name Cedar Relics?”. We wanted a name with meaning, with significance. A name that intertwined our story with all of the clients’ stories that we capture. When Jacob decided to propose, he knew not just any ol' ring box would do. He set out to craft something that would serve as a surviving memorial of something that would pass, (i.e. a relic). So he went to one of his favorite spots on Blackwater River, found the most fragrant, perfect cedar branch he could find, and turned it into a ring box for Alex's engagement ring. Just one smell of that box (our “cedar relic”) takes us back to the day we got engaged and the moments leading up to our wedding day. In the same manner, we hope just one glance at the memories captured by Cedar Relics takes you back to the best memories, the best days, the best moments of your lives…