Ooooh, welcome to my 101st post! It would’ve been cooler if I’d noticed the milestone on my last post, but whatever!

Trisha and Steve were my first couple booked over video iChat… I thought it’d be a great way to faux-meet seeing as they were trying to plan their wedding from Kansas! I even got to meet their little kitty, Karma. They were very sweet and I was excited to meet them, especially since we’re friends on facebook so I’ve had a little window into their lives the last year or so (lots of running and thesis-ing, ha ha!) and it was nice to finally get to hang out in person! It was a fun, beautiful and dramatic day (two power outages and a major thunderstorm!) and I am really excited about the images we got!

I headed down to the hotel in Ithaca where everyone was in good spirits and the girls were finishing their preparations.

Looking gorgeous Trisha!

The ceremony was at All Saints Church, in Lansing. I cannot tell you what a huge treat it was to shoot in a bright church! Like, majorly majorly awesome.

So happy!

We headed to a nearby park for some pictures…

Rings + antlers = cool!

Then we headed to a truly stunning spot for the reception. Trisha and Steve had told me that it was a self-sustaining house on an organic farm, and of course I had high hopes that it would be beautiful, and I was not disappointed.

A heavy thunderstorm rolled in and we had to leave the tent for a while because of the metal poles… the light was insane. If it hadn’t been raining with intense lightning I probably would’ve kidnapped Trisha and Steve to take a million photos in this light. I’d be sadder about it if we hadn’t gotten so much other awesome stuff!

Toasts…

And a few more portraits from around the farm… I really could’ve shot there for about five times as long. Ugh, it was so beautiful!

And finally… my favorite…

It was such a pleasure to photograph you guys, and I basically want to shoot every wedding at this spot from now on!!!

I knew I would like Sipra from the start. Her first email was sweet, engaging and enthusiastic and when we met to talk over details, her personality matched right up. I didn’t get to meet Jan until half a year later, when we did the engagement shoot, and I totally love their dynamic- she’s bubbly and sweet, and he’s quiet and witty. It’s a really cute combination! We had fun wandering around Highland Park and Corbett’s Glen for the shoot… I even forgot that I was moving the next day! With only a few weeks left until the wedding, I am really pleased I got a break to post the engagement photos!

We started at Highland Park, which was a challenge since it was during the Lilac Fest- there were people everywhere. I managed to find a few angles that looked like we had the place to ourselves…

Then we headed to Corbett’s Glen, which is a cool place to shoot!

Is that spiderman crouching up there on the ceiling… I mean, I can’t blame him for wanting to join the party, we are pretty cool after all.

We also went to the other entrance to Corbett’s Glen, which is a really pretty little trail.

I love this one… his big manly hand next to her dainty face!

Pretty light..

See you guys soon!

Another awesome wedding last weekend! Lauren emailed me earlier today sweetly asking when the blog would be up because she’s so excited for the pictures (which I love!), and I’m excited too, so I’m going to jump right in!

I met the girls at Lauren’s parents’ house, which was really nice to shoot in… they had some cool furniture and nice light. The flowers were gorgeous!

Lauren looked just lovely!

The wedding and reception were held at Park Country Club which is pretty breathtaking and castle-like. You’ll see what I mean a few shots down! So much happiness…

Yay!

I think when a man kisses a woman’s hand, it is such an elegant, gentlemanly gesture… and look how he’s looking at her! I think that, as I write this, I can already hear the collective swoon of every woman who sees this!

We had to go out front and take advantage of the dramatic setting! What did I tell you?

Bridal party win! I’m saving the rest of the portraits for the end… best for last! (Also, don’t you totally love the navy dresses with pink shoes and flowers? It’s so fab!)

First dance.

Perfect!

After all the formalities, Lauren and Henry kicked off the party with an awesome choreographed disco dance. It was really funny and they totally have moves. Right before it, as they stood off to the side, Henry looked at me and said “This is the most nervous I’ve been all day!” but no worries, you guys nailed it!

This one cracks me up!

There were multiple dance-offs over the course of the night, which is all I could ever really ask for.

Dance-battle with tambourines!

Portraits… we had so many cool spots to work with, I had a hard time choosing my favorites!

To finish up, I decided we needed to do some pictures in the room where the girls waited before the ceremony… which conveniently happened to be air conditioned. I think that was the slowest I’ve ever shot, ha ha!

Smokin!

Thanks so much for having me Lauren and Henry, I had so much fun with you!

A while back, Design Aglow (a great resource for beautiful design, stunning templates, and all sorts of inspiration) announced a contest to be included in their upcoming “Inspire Me” posing guide. I rarely get around to entering photos in contests, but I had just the image in mind for this one so I sent it in. Of course I totally forgot about it until today, when I got an email announcing that one of my images was selected from over 1000 submissions. Woo!

Here’s a link with more info, and of course my winning image of Stacy and Drew with their super cool bridal party. My card is called “Character Study”

This rules!

It’s been a crazy whirlwind the last few weeks that looked something like this: moving-wedding-unpacking-wedding-birthday-nyc-philly-wedding-yardwork-atrocious combination of cold and allergies. To be followed by wedding-more unpacking-a lot more weddings. Ha ha! I can’t wait to get some of the pictures from my birthday trip, I had SO much fun! I got back just in time for Kristie and Jason’s wedding, and you have to hear their amazing “how we met” story. It’s one of the funniest!

Jason has a favorite bar that he goes to with his friends. They know the owner and she’s just a bit scatterbrained, so the guys like to play jokes on her occasionally. The prank in question involved secretly posting a “Help Wanted” sign out front and watching the owner deal with all the interested applicants. Kristie saw the sign and went in to apply, and the owner seemed confused so Kristie mentioned the sign. The owner still looked confused, but agreed to consider her because, after all, there was a sign up! Kristie got the job, and hit it off with Jason, and now here we are! I just love that a silly prank turned into a marriage… who would ever guess that the owner would not only agree to interview, but actually hire someone when she wasn’t even looking! I love it.

I headed down to Watkins Glen to meet the girls at Sunset on Seneca B&B . It’s a beautiful spot! Here’s Kristie’s custom-made dress:

The place was buzzing and Kristie was happy as could be as the girls had their hair and makeup done.

The ceremony was outside on the deck overlooking the lake… pretty view!

£ (a little inside joke!)

Oh hi little good-luck ladybug that landed on Kristie’s dad’s tux! Welcome to the party!

A few portraits at the B&B…

Then we headed to the pier near the Harbor Hotel.

Dancing! The way he looks at her is so very sweet…

Mother-son… aww.

It was too hot for most people to dance… but not too hot for tickling!

Thanks for having me guys! Congratulations!

I’ve been waiting for Katie and Sean’s wedding to roll around for a while now… we booked last spring and I shot their engagement pictures in the summer and had a lot of fun with them shooting around St. John Fisher (and falling over) and a pretty field. Plus it was time for our Buicks to reunite… they missed eachother!

I started out at Katie’s parents’ house where the girls were getting ready. Katie started crying when she first saw her dad and he asked her why she was crying and she was just like *sniff sniff* “I don’t know!” *sob* It was a ridiculously sweet moment.

The church was pretty… it’s nice to have really open space to work in.

Mr & Mrs!

For pictures, we headed to a beautiful house on the lake, which was great. We did a few bridal party pictures, and I had to post this one for the guys. They had some really elaborate plans for jumping shots, and jumping high five shots. I think we can all agree on who has the best form here…

Now of course on to the ones with just Katie and Sean… they told me they’d been practicing since our engagement. I didn’t think they needed it, but they do look mighty hot right here.

We also got some sunset shots at the hotel where the reception was, which I love! I’m going to pretend that’s a beautiful old estate in the background, ala Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice, instead of a furniture store. Romantic!

Now on to the party… I told Katie at one point that was the first reception where I ever actually lost track of time! Their family and friends were really entertaining!

Shooting dancing can be really tough. Most people dance in a circle formation, which means there’s a wall of backs aimed at me. Sometimes people do this thing where they make two parallel lines and then two people will dance down the middle. I LOVE this. Everyone should do this. So much easier to get great pictures!

Some of the girls also had an interesting choreographed dance:

Katie’s family are big Sinatra fans!

Dirty Dancing!

This really sums the two of them up… so happy together!

It has been an honor being your photographer Katie and Sean! Enjoy Lake Placid!!