On the wedding day, I met Lauren and Henrick at the Inn on Broadway for their first sight. It was so very sweet… tears, laughter, kisses and a little dancing.

Henrick had queued up their song, “Someone Like You” right before Lauren came down, which I thought was a great touch. Music makes everything better.

Ok, let’s start with a little back story before we get into the portraits. Henrick is from Denmark and has traveled all over the world. He landed in Rochester as the captain of the fast ferry. Lauren owns Rochester’s best coffee shop (three years in a row!) Sips, which is just down the street. The first time Henrick walked into Sips he said (and I quote) “my eyes had heart attacks.” Which… really… I don’t have words for how much I love that. It took a lot of lattes (no I’m not going to make that pun you guys) for Henrick to finally win Lauren over, but clearly he did and they have been on cloud nine ever since. Given their history, we decided to head to the ferry terminal for some pictures. It was a perfect combination of bright overcast skies and those fat dark blue clouds (which I did not do anything to the color on them… it’s just how they were) in the background. I could’ve stayed there all day!

Here’s Henrick the Strongman (Literally. He has done the Strongman Competition) hamming it up while lifting his dainty wife… they’re so damn cute together.

In front of the ferry terminal looking like a still from a classic film!

Then we headed to Sips for a few shots.

Smokin!

GQ

We headed back to the Inn to meet up with the bridal party. So sharp.

Look closely at everyone’s expressions. A gust of wind came out of nowhere and a few of the girls had “Marilyn Monroe” moments and then everyone started cracking up… he he.

The ceremony was so emotional and heartfelt. Lauren learned to speak Danish so when they did their vows, Henrick did them in English and Lauren in Danish. It was such a sweet gesture.

These two moments right after the first kiss are my favorites!

Incredible details!

Cocktails and speeches were down in the wine cellar. I don’t usually include pictures from the speeches, but I just love how they are with each other!

Party time!

After I got some nice dancing shots, I busted out the second flash for some backlight. I love the extra dimension it adds.

As I mentioned, Henrick is a huge Elvis fan, so they passed out trays of big sunglasses with sideburns for a bitchin’ Elvis medley.

At one point, I saw this sad, lonely little sideburn that had fallen off someone’s glasses just sitting by itself in the corner of the dance floor. I laughed for a good minute. It was such a pathetic sight. I’m glad it found a new home as a soul patch, ha ha!

I don’t know what it is, but I like it.

!!!!

I didn’t get the story behind this, but there was some kind of epic battle of Lauren and her Dad vs. Lauren’s Mom and Henrick to the tune “We Are the Champions.”

No agreements were made on who won.

Everything about this is cute.

Thanks so much for having me Lauren and Henrick! It was truly a pleasure

Emily’s mom made this awesome birdcage veil. I do so love a birdcage.

This girl knows how to work it!

Dad sees her for the first time. And seriously people, how gorgeous and perfect is this dress on her?

The ceremony was at St. Louis Church in Pittsford, which I LOVE. I’d never been there before, but the light is great, the whole church is beautiful and the setup is pretty fantastic photo-wise. Having the chairs for the bride and groom on the left side of the altar is basically infinity times better than on the right.

A couple of tears from Emily’s dad… awwwwwww!

Seriously, LOVE this place.

The reception was at the Memorial Art Gallery, which is a really cool spot for a party! Emily and Dan (and a bunch of their friends) are chefs, so uh no pressure on the caterers or anything, ha ha. They had some pretty nice moves for the first dance…

More tears!

How cute is this picture???! Everyone was having so much fun!

Get down, get down!

Killer! Kind of has a Pulp Fiction dance vibe, right?

Before the reception, we headed off to the Woodcliff to take advantage of the view. The bridal party was awesome, thankfully it wasn’t as cold as Pam and Jared’s wedding, but it was still pretty bitter out there!

Nice light!

We also did some stuff at the gallery, which has some cool places to shoot. I like the crazy pattern of the branches.

This was a quick indoor shot, I couldn’t get it exactly how I wanted it, but thought it turned out kinda cool anyway.

I knew Emily was going to bring it with the footwear after she wore heels to our engagement session at Mendon Ponds and called them her “hiking boots” and these did not let me down! I adore colorful shoes on brides!

Thanks so much Emily and Dan, I’ve had such a great time working with you guys! Have an amazing time in Florida!

Also, I can stay silent on this issue no more… I’m With Coco. 1000%

Viva la Conando!

Pam and Jared were married this weekend, just after New Year’s, and I can’t even begin to express how amazed I am at how smoothly everything went… Pam is a friend of one of my couples from this summer (more on that later!) and her first question was whether or not I’d be able to take care of planning from overseas- Jared is in the military and is stationed in Germany, so they’ve been back and forth a bunch of times in the last few months, came back to New York for the holidays and their wedding, leave for Jamaica on Tuesday and then the day after they get back, they’re officially moving to Germany. Just take a second to think about that. Planning a wedding, moving to a foreign country, honeymoon travel, and holidays all within about TWO WEEKS. My head is about to explode thinking about it. But you’d never guess from how chill everyone was during the lead-up to the wedding.

I met the girls at the Radisson downtown where they had a beautiful suite overlooking the city.

Some finishing touches…

Looking lovely!

When Pam and I first met earlier this fall, I showed her some pictures from other winter weddings I’ve done and she really wanted some cute winter accessories to go with her dress… I looooove this muffler.

As always, I’m thrilled when clients decide to do a “first sight” and it was essential on this day because the sun was going to be completely gone over an hour before the ceremony! So cute! (Fun portraits at the end)

Happy!

First dance… I love those star lights.

The speeches were great- emotional and really funny.

Krystle and Tim!!! I love when I get to see past clients, especially when they live hundreds of miles away. Cute as ever! Really great to see you guys, marriage looks good on ya!

Some of you may recall this guy was one half of the beautiful choreographed dance from Krystle and Tim’s wedding. I was hoping for an encore performance… no such luck, but he still brought some moves.

It got a liiiiittle bit rowdy… the guy in the foreground is my favorite part. I was making the same face!

Chair dance terror!

This one makes me laugh… so dedicated to the rhythm.

I always like to end with the portraits, they serve as a nice punchy conclusion.. what do you guys think?
We headed to the Lamberton Conservatory for portraits, that place is beautiful!

Spanish moss is cool, I like both these angles.

And finally, my favorites, we got about 12 seconds out in the -12 degrees… I heart snowflakes!

Congratulations you two, have a fantastic time on the honeymoon and I hope everything goes smoothly with the move! Talk soon.

Emily and Dan are getting married in January, and we got together for a sweet shoot during peak fall colors. We met up at Mendon Ponds and had about 2 minutes before it started pouring, so we decided to meet again the next day and I’m so glad it happened that way! The next day I came across this cool field that had these weird seed pods with white cottony seed puffs floating around, so I tossed the idea out to Emily and Dan and they were game… I’m posting these first because I LOVE them so much!

We had to keep waiting for the wind to bring a cloud of the puffs over, and Emily and Dan were perfect models every time I yelled that some were coming. Well done!

Then we headed back to Mendon Ponds and got some shots with their two puppies Jake and Gracie. They’re such a funny pair, and totally adorable.

Shooting with dogs is so hilarious… looking calm and cool on a peaceful nature walk:

….aaaaand 2 seconds later, playtime! He he he, I love dogs

Then we left the pups for a few more of the romantic ones

All of my couples are pretty adventurous anyway, but it’s nice when we don’t have to worry about getting dresses dirty!

Love them in this shot! They really are cute together.

Looking forward to January you two, enjoy the holidays and see you soon!
I’ve got some other engagement and portrait shoots to blog, so stay tuned for those as well everyone

The ladies got ready at the Brookwood Inn

Then we headed to St. Mary’s downtown, which is really beautiful and open.

The officiant was teasing them for standing so far apart

After the ceremony, we went to Corn Hill for some portraits with the bridal party… we had awesome light! Soft late afternoon light and dark blue clouds in the background, which I LOVE.

Ooooh la la! Big thanks to one of the groomsmen for helping with the veil!

Looking lovely Mrs!

Gina and Dave wanted to stand in the road for this shot with the Rochester sign in the background… who am I to argue?

Then we headed to Midvale for the party.

There was a sweets room. It took a lot of effort for me to not accidentally fall face first into this mojito flavored gelato.

Dancing! Gina reminds me of a Disney princess with that million dollar smile.

So sweet how they’re looking at eachother.

My cousin Kristy STILL rocking the dance floor even though she was due last Wednesday! So awesome!

The Turtle! This cracks me up every time I look at it!

And saving my two favorites for last… mmmmmmm.

Also a big thanks to Andrea at SE Video for being so fun to work with, I can’t wait to see the video!

Thanks so much Gina and Dave, I hope you’re having a fabulous honeymoon!

The morning of the wedding, I headed out to meet the gents at “The Men’s Room” which I can say with certainty is a phrase I have never uttered before! They were there to get straight razor shaves, which is probably the coolest “guys getting ready” thing I’ve ever seen! They all loved it, and looked great… highly recommended! (Also, the Men’s Room has a Dundee Beer vending machine. I took a picture with my phone, sent it to everyone I know, and got about a hundred texts demanding to know where I was… ha ha!)

We had a lovely weekend for fall foliage, and Becky was looking stunning!

Loved the bouquet from Red Rose Florist, it was wrapped in fabric from Becky’s mom’s wedding dress, and her grandfather’s handkerchief. What a beautiful way to incorporate those heirlooms!

Seeing Becky for the first time, and just beaming.

During the rehearsal, the officiant joked that they should “gaze longingly into eachothers’ eyes” during the ceremony… nailed it!

Have I discussed my love of officiants who stand off to the side during the ceremony?!

Yay!

Guests were invited to sign these cool vintage skis that will be hung in Becky and Mike’s home. LOVE it.

Sweet first dance…

The toasts were really funny, and included “what not to do” advice from their married friends, and a top 5 list of weird places Mike has fallen asleep, which I can totally relate to… must be an Irish thing. Anytime, anywhere. Try me!

The night was a bit of a Vegas reunion, here are Kristy and Tony trying to figure out how to slow dance around her pregnant belly! Baby Megan (HINT) should be making her debut in the next couple of weeks, but that didn’t stop Kristy from rocking the dance floor and asking if anyone wanted to bet on whether or not she could do the dolphin! HA ha ha ha.

Amy was the subject of one of my favorite dancing pictures from Kristy and Tony’s wedding, and did not disappoint this time around!

A little MJ

And some portraits… Colgate has some fabulous trees!
Yes, I’m that funny. Kidding, this was all Mike.

Thank you Becky and Mike! I had a great time with you… have a fabulous time in Seattle and hug a Redwood for me. I’m super jealous!