Happy New Year!!!!!! A huge thank you to all my incredible clients for making 2011 so lovely and to my 2012 clients for giving me so much to look forward to! (You too, 2013′ers!)

I have been super busy working on decorating my house, I am almost finished with my great room and will post before and after pictures as soon as I have it finished. I built 2/3rds of my chandelier this evening, I can’t wait to finish it!

I met with Kate and Mike in Victor (it was the least I could do considering they came all the way from Clinton, NY) over the summer and we set up the engagement for late September. We originally thought it was going to be cloudy and rainy but it ended up being a beautiful sunny day and we made our way through Rochester (and giant clouds of midges) to shoot at a few different locations. We started at Highland Park, Kate and Mike were like “We’re nervous!” but this was the second exposure I made. They are clearly lying liars.

The sun filtering through the trees was so pretty…

Kate + Mike + Black + White= hotness!

Ah, midges. The light was pretty intense over in this spot but I had to document the midges… yes, all those little glowing things were BUGS. Which, if you know me, is pretty much my nightmare. When I was in Iceland we went to a place called Lake Myvatn, the literal translation of which is Lake Midge (or Midge Lake, if you’re nasty.) Fortunately when we were there the midges weren’t there. Apparently they hatch a couple of times a year and the clouds are so thick you pretty much can’t breathe without them going in your mouth and stuff… I imagine it looks a bit like this. I had them in my bag, in my shirt, all over the place… it was pretty gross. But it looks awesome!!! And that’s all that counts (unless they had been spiders, in which case I would have set everything on fire and driven off a cliff.)

Then we headed to Village Gate for some more pictures, the light was getting prettier by the minute and Kate and Mike were killing it.

LOVE this one

And this one.

So much to work with at Village Gate!

Our final destination was the Old Toad, where these two met… I am so glad they met here, what a great photo op! And of course a couple of pints never hurt anybody!

So looking forward to the wedding you two, see you in a few months!

Ooooooooooh boy. So what I’m going to start doing is just announcing a blog hiatus at the end of every season so I can focus on editing but also have a deadline for when to return. I just get so wrapped up in finishing editing all my weddings that it’s difficult to switch gears and blog stuff (everything that hasn’t been blogged was shot, edited and delivered weeks/months ago, so there’s no real sense of urgency to get the shoots blogged.)

Anyway, I hope you had a beautiful fall and are all ready for the holidays! I have an awesome shoot to share from the hottest day of all time! Katrina and Matt are getting married in 2013 (yes, 13!) and got in touch with me in April… they booked me over two years in advance which made me feel kinda like

We met up at Syracuse University for the shoot and it was over 90 degrees, even in the evening. We survived though, and came away with some beautiful photographs. Katrina and Matt have been together since junior high, I believe, and you can just feel the sweetness and love in their relationship.

Syracuse’s campus is really lovely.

Mmm, sunset light… I am sitting in a cafe right now with snow swirling around like a snow globe, but I can practically feel the warmth of the sun in these. I love blogging summer shoots in the dead of winter, ha ha!

We also headed to Franklin Square, and heaven knows I love a backlit fountain!

Katrina and Matt were just so fun to shoot, they are so cute and happy.

Really, really ridiculously good looking.

I can’t wait to shoot their wedding, it’s going to be incredible!
Have a great holiday everyone! I have a ton of engagements to blog and I’ll be doing at least one a week until I run out or wedding season starts up again, whichever comes first!

Oh oh oh, Kalie and Brian! This day could not come soon enough! I booked these two about a year ago and they are such a delight to be around. Kalie is such a bubbly, sweet and hilarious person, even when she had a “freak out” (her word, not mine) at the salon, it was extremely polite and giggly and pretty much nothing like a freak out. Bryan is just this laid back, confident guy, and definitely Kalie’s perfect match.
At the salon, Kalie kept tearing up out of happiness and excitement… the makeup artist was telling her to dab the inside corners of her eyes to catch the tears and Kalie was waving her hands around going “They’re coming out the wrong side, what do I do?!?!?!” It was so hilarious, I was dying behind the camera.

So happy!

Kalie really wanted to go to the beach, and it was… intense. It was cold and windy this weekend, and with each step closer to the lake it got colder and windier. But those blue clouds were beckoning…

Look at the veil going vertical… that should give you an idea of the strength of the wind!

So cute together!

I can’t get enough of those blue clouds!!

The girls were such troopers in that chilly wind!

Rocking the carousel!

Kalie and Bryan’s reception was at the Rochester Museum and Science Center, which was such an awesome venue!! I can’t think of anything better than cocktail hour with woolly mammoths.

Such pretty centerpieces!

Mmmmm. Bryan was obsessed with legos when he was a kid (as in, that is all he would play with… ever) so Kalie surprised him with a cute bride and groom lego cake topper!

So happy!

Aw…

This guy had no trouble getting the party started.

Tough choice this week, but the Wedding MVP award goes to Bryan’s dad… he owned the dance floor all night. It was pretty awesome!

Favorite

Ha!

DID put a ring on it!

Thank you thank you Kalie and Bryan, it was such a wonderful day and I’m so glad I could be there! Have the best time ever in St Lucia!!!

I was so excited to finally meet Adrianne and Owen in person after emailing and video ichatting with Adrianne for nearly a year. Video chat is the best for long distance clients! Adrianne is a designer and had a great rustic vision for her wedding, so I couldn’t wait to see all her details! Let’s start with the best one first, Adrianne’s goooorgeous Amsale dress. Oh muh guh. I love the little red leaves poking in, signaling the start of fall.

I’m totally getting a young Catherine Zeta Jones vibe from Adrianne in this shot. She is so stunning!

Pretty darn good looking couple, wouldn’t you say?

It’s official!

Bubbles, yesss!

We did portraits at a beautiful lake house in Hilton, love that sun filtering through the trees!

We also did a few at Ridgemont Country Club, where the reception was held.

Details!

Such a sweet and happy first dance…

Owen’s mom’s reaction to the toasts was so great… I couldn’t pick a favorite so you get the whole series! It’s my blog, I do what I want, ha ha! This series perfectly illustrates the vibe of the evening… FUN.

Owen and his mom dancing… parent dances are so wonderful to photograph!

Adrianne and her dad…

Love the tear-

Adrianne let me know they were going to have their reception “NYC Style” which means dancing every second. No complaints here! They dance before dinner, in between courses, and basically all night long. I’ve done a few weddings down in that area and/or with people who come up here to get married, and it makes for a great party! I want to start with Wedding MVP of the week… This girl was rocking the floor all night long, and what clinched her title was when the band appointed her leader of the conga line, she grabbed the mic and yelled “I’m in charge of this s***!” It was so hilariously delivered, I laughed til I had tears in my eyes!

Ha ha!

Thanks so much for inviting me to photograph your day, Adrianne and Owen… I had a blast!

What an absolutely beautiful day Lisa and Dave had! Lisa is my hair stylist (which, people, please don’t blame her for how my hair looks on wedding days… even dumbledore couldn’t tame this mess on a humid day. That was a really nerdy reference.) and I was so excited to be able to photograph her wedding! Lisa’s maid of honor is a photographer, so I shot the ceremony and portraits and she shot the reception (which is why there are no dancing pictures!)

I knew Lisa was going to be gorgeous, but come on! Are ya kidding?! She has the most perfect skin, I did not do any photoshopping at all whatsoever. JEALOUS!

Almost ready… and so happy!

Lisa and Dave had their wedding at the Webster Arboretum , which is just lovely.

They are not big on being the center of attention, so they made the ceremony very, very private. I think there were about 15 people there, it was such a sweet and mellow vibe.

Mr and Mrs!!

Their guests showered them with lavender seed (you can see how much Dave loved it, ha ha!) which smelled so nice. It stayed on my shoes even when I got home and made my porch smell amazing!

As soon as I took this bridal party shot, I knew it needed to be blogged. Thank you, sir.

Lisa’s flowers were gorgeous, I forgot to ask where they were from but when I find out I’ll add it! (eta- Surprise, surprise, Lisa’s beautiful bouquet is from Kittelberger’s… knocked it out of the park yet again guys!)

As blue as can be… again, no photoshop enhancement! (Usually I enhance them, ha ha)

Lisa’s vintage vibe was so adorable!

tee hee! Dave was all about getting the right pose on this… he’s hilarious!

My sister was married here and I have done shoots here, but somehow I never knew there was a topiary maze!

Sizzlin’

Thanks so much for having me Lisa and Dave, have an amazing time in Paris and Santorini! (Like you need me to tell you that, ha ha!)
I have another wedding and a bunch of engagements that need to be blogged, so stay tuned y’all!

Crazy happy, these two kids… seriously just crazy happy. I’m pretty sure Joanna’s ear-to-ear smile didn’t budge the entire day, and Brian’s only moved so he could ham it up with some funny faces.
Things were pleasantly hectic at Joanna’s parents’ home, with multiple last minute alterations and all that fun stuff. Joanna was unflappable until her mom got a little emotional and threatened to set off a chain reaction of tears.

She recovered nicely.

How gorgeous is this house? It’s going up for sale very soon, in case you were wondering!

The ceremony was at St. John of Rochester, Brian looked so thrilled I thought he was going to sprint down the aisle to meet Joanna and her dad.

The ceremony was really charming, lots of laughs.

The priest surprised Joanna and Brian with a post-kiss fist bump… I like the reaction shot even better than the actual fist bump shot.

We headed to Cobblestone Creek for pictures and the reception. The bridal party requested a jumping shot and they flipping nailed it! Oh, Brian… ha ha ha

This bridge is pretty awesome!

It was quite bright when we first started shooting so we came out later to take advantage of soft, evening light. Brian is pretty great at making Joanna (and everyone else) laugh.

Aww!

Party!

This guy gets the Wedding MVP award… he kind of owned the dance floor.

How cute are these two? It’s ridiculous!

Thank you so much for inviting me to be part of your day, it was really a blast to photograph you guys! Have an amazing time in St. Lucia! I will try to reign in my jealousy