Melissa and Dave have known each other since grade school… Melissa’s parents’ house is a 5 minute drive from Dave’s parents’ lake house. (I really hope I deployed all those apostrophes properly.) They were long time friends and even went to prom together, but didn’t start dating until a few years ago! I loved hearing all their family and friends talk about how perfectly they balance each other out, and I could definitely see it at the wedding… I can’t believe it took so long for them to get together! They are just perfect for each other!

I met the ladies at Melissa’s parents’ house, where the incredibly talented Erica Abdo was working her makeup magic!

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes on the blog may notice that I’m obsessed with fun shoes for brides, Melissa did not disappoint with her gorgeous, sparkly Jimmy Choos.

I love all of the ladies attending to our bride as she gets ready… makes me think of the romantic period!

Look at this gorgeous girl!

The ceremony was at St. Mary’s of Lake, which is a beautiful church.

Yay!

We went to the lake house for a while so the bridal party could hang out for a bit and we took a few photos as well. Everyone was really patient as I blasted them with the flash to balance out the super bright sun on the lake behind them! Thanks guys

We also hit up the lakefront by the Sherwood Inn, where the reception was held. We had some sweet light filtering through the trees… mmm, pretty.

Portrait time… OMG backlit fountain!

Melissa’s dress is so, so stunning.

Oh yeah, the dress has pockets. Yessssssss!

The party at the Sherwood was outstanding, thanks to the guys from Ormond Entertainment.

Wedding MVP of the week goes to Melissa’s dad, on the left… he was rocking it out all night!

This is a shot of Dave trying to coax his dad out onto the dance floor as his dad sort of shrinks back into a potted plant… right when I took it, all I could think of was one of my all time favorite gifs of Homer backing into a shrub. I mean, it’s perfect right?

And this may be my all-time favorite dancing picture… perfect in every way! We can see both of their faces, got some flying Choos, I mean I couldn’t ask for anything better. I don’t even understand the physics of this move, but I love it.

This was the dance floor during the last song of the night… the guys from Ormond killed it on Saturday!

Thanks so much for having me Melissa and Dave, have a wonderful honeymoon!!!

I really love it when couples make their wedding their own… just making little changes here and there to the regular wedding traditions. Marianna and Gordon put so much thought into really making their day exactly what they wanted, and it was such a sweet and loving wedding. Even the priest, who I believe had only met with them once or twice before the wedding, got choked up during the ceremony.

Marianna had her hair and makeup done at Shear Ego… what lovely skin she has! I love a pale bride!

We did a first sight because Marianna and Gordon planned to greet all their guests as they entered the church, which I thought was a really cool idea. This was my favorite moment of the first sight, when Marianna showed off her incredible Kate Spade shoes!

The ring exchange is always a great part of every ceremony. So many grooms have trouble with this and it always elicits a cute reaction from the bride!

This season has been mercifully cool so far, so when we hit Durand Beach for pictures there were only a few other people around. It was a gorgeous spot!

So happy, so sweet.

Favorite.

We took a midday break and met back up at Casa Larga for a few more portraits before the reception. So pretty out there!

I don’t think I have posted a cake cutting picture in a while, but this one totally cracks me up. They had a bit of a tough time cutting through the frosting, so Gordon got really business about it… ha ha ha! Gordon-1, Cake-0!

This guy was a dancing machine! Kelly, my bride from last week, told me that her brother named himself the wedding MVP because of all the pictures of him doing handstands and crowd surfing… I’m thinking I might need to start awarding weekly Wedding MVPs. If so, this guy gets it!

This was an unexpected and delightful surprise! I love the chair lift dance!!

Thank you so much for having me Marianna and Gordon, I’m so happy for you guys, you are so perfect for each other! I hope you’re having a lovely time in Hawaii!!

Another lovely wedding! I had really been looking forward to meeting Kelly and Andy… we had tried valiantly but snow and a 9 month deployment got in our way. Andy is in the Navy and just returned from his long deployment about a month ago, so there was an extra layer of joy this weekend. This was actually my third military wedding, but the first one with uniforms, yesss! (To be fair, one of my brides was a Marine, so it’s not like she was going to wear her uniform!)

Everyone was chill and happy at Kelly’s parents’ house as they got ready…

Gorgeous, glowing bride!

Handsome groom.

The ceremony was at Most Holy Rosary Church, which is a really great place to shoot. It’s actually pretty well-lit and I loooove that Kelly and Andy were reflected in the shiny floor!

Loved this sweet moment when Kelly leaned her head over on Andy’s shoulder… le sigh!

I think my favorite thing about full Catholic ceremonies is all the time between readings and things where the couple can have a few seconds to themselves (sort of, ha ha, I mean there’s only a couple hundred people watching.)

Right as Kelly started walking down the aisle, the priest told me he would invite me onto the altar during communion for some shots… I thought that meant just going up along the sides to catch shots like the one above. Obviously I didn’t have time to clarify, because Kelly and her dad were headed my way, so I pretty much had 5 heart attacks when the priest actually stopped the ceremony after communion to bring me up for this shot. Now I know what it’s like for the bride and groom to have a couple hundred people staring at them! Yikes! It was so funny, I’m sure the look on my on my face cracked up more than a few of the guests. Sweet shot though!

The reception was at Bellevue Country Club, which has an increeeedible view from the 7th hole… check this out!

The light was a bit intense so we waited to do most of the portraits around sunset and it was worth it, if I do say so myself!

Kelly brought along this little flag for some pictures, which I thought was a super cute idea!

So adorable!

This is the one and only time you’ll ever hear me say something good about bugs: I totally like them in this shot.

Ok, let’s talk about this party. These people were ready to ROCK. And rock they did! I don’t think I’ve ever seen people have so much fun… the dance floor was completely packed all night long and everyone was having the best time!

Sisters with their grandpa… so sweet

There were some acrobatics and lots of dirty-dancing-esque-lifts going on, it was pretty hilarious!

Andy, thank you for your service! Kelly and Andy, thank you for having me! I had so much fun photographing you and your families and friends! Have a wonderful time in St. Lucia!

Ah, where do I even begin? This season has just been incredible so far. I met Lindsay, Jared and Lindsay’s parents last year and they were just such nice people, I could feel the excitement emanating from them even though the wedding was over a year away… so I knew once the day actually arrived that it was just going to be such a warm, happy affair. Lindsay and I kept in touch via email over the year+ between booking and shooting and she was so sweet and funny and even shared an hilarrrrrrious dream she had involving wedding photography that had me totally cracking up.

I headed down to Ithaca bright and early to meet the girls at Julie Stone Salon. They did a lovely job and Lindsay’s hair was to die for… I was definitely getting a Veronica Lake vibe.

“It’s your daaaaay!!!” Yay sisters.

Lindsay told me that she’d had a tough time finding wedding dresses that were “her” until she saw this lovely Priscilla of Boston gown in a magazine and ripped the page out. The next time she saw her mom, her mom said she’d found the perfect gown for Lindsay… and it was the same dress!!! That is too crazy. But they were right, it was just perfect!

As I’ve said a million times, I’m obsessed with colored shoes for brides. I think it’s such a great little addition. These Badgley Mischka’s blew my mind up. I mean seriously.

Lindsay complimented Jared’s dad’s suit and this was their reaction. Love it.

Father of the bride looking at his little girl on the way to the Chapel… awww!

I love Sage Chapel on the Cornell campus. So beautiful.

Their ceremony was so personal and so lovely.

They took a few traditions and made them their own… they decided they’d both get to smash a glass. I love how Lindsay totally committed to this, even in her dainty heels!

It had rained on and off all day and it there was a loud rumble of thunder during the ceremony. I took a peek outside right after it ended and it was pouring, so I crossed my fingers that it would be done by the time we finished the family pictures. Miraculously, it did stop. Good thing, because we had a pretty motley assortment of umbrellas, ha ha! PS. Lindsay calls this one the “Friends” shot, ha ha ha! Perfect!

The views around Cornell are so fab.

Fun portraits!

Lindsay and Jared have been together for 10 years, but they have such a playfulness in their relationship, you’d think it had only been like 2 months. Super sweet.

I got to ride in the limo (yay!) and loved this cute moment of ring-admiring.

Jared was excited to see the ring shot… hope you like it!

Party time!

Everyone was just having so much fun all night!

Thankfully it looks like there is still someone who can Teach Us How to Dougie.

Congratulations and thank you so much for having me! I had the best time with you, your families and friends! I hope you have an incredible time in Fiji!!

Jill and Martin, yay! I’ve been waiting for this one for quite some time. We had an incredible engagement shoot last spring when the magnolias were in bloom and these two were just so stinking cute and sweet and fun to work with. I met the ladies at the Hyatt for preparations, everyone was in good spirits.

Jill’s dress was breathtaking, just perfect for her!

And she looked absolutely lovely!

I loved these moments when she and her bridesmaids were seeing her finished look for the first time… so exciting.

We headed over to Chapel Hill for the ceremony, it’s such a pretty building.

So happy.

After the ceremony, we headed to Irondequoit Country Club for pictures and the party. I hadn’t been there before and it’s so nice… I love the little garden in the back.

Can I shoot you guys every weekend please?

A perfect match of dainty and dapper.

Irondequoit Country Club was looking beautiful with help from Kittelberger Florist’s lovely creations!

First dance sweetness.

Everyone has the best faces in this picture!

Makeshift limbo:

In heels with a drink… IMPRESSIVE.

And a cool little night shot using the video guys’ lights to cap off the post!

Thank you so much for having me Jill and Martin, I loved sharing the day with you, your families and friends! Hope the weather in St. Lucia is fab!

We all know April showers bring May flowers. But what do May showers bring? Well, awesome wedding pictures for one! Sure, nobody wants it to rain on their wedding day, but when it comes down to it you just have to roll with it.

As I headed to meet the girls at Danielle’s parents’ house, the rain got heavier and heavier, but when I arrived nobody seemed really bothered by it.

Pretty bride.

The ceremony was at the lovely Syracuse Cathedral.

Sweet ceremony, happy couple!

Danielle, Christopher and their bridal party were totally cool about being out in the rain for pictures. It was mostly just drizzling, but still… troopers! I think it was worth it!

We originally planned to go to a park for pictures, but it was just too rainy so we did everything in the plaza around the cathedral. It’s a really cool area and we had tons of pretty spots to work with. I love that place!

Cute!

Favorite. I think this needs to be a giant print.

Everyone had fun at the reception.

Especially her

And him. And me while taking this picture. I mean come on… hilarious!

he he!

This has to be one of my favorite first dance pictures in a while… so happy!

Thanks for having me Danielle and Christopher… I’m sure you’re having an incredible time in the Bahamas! I think I’m going to start including honeymoon coverage in my offerings, this weather is bunk!