Bethany and Adam

We've been looking forward to Bethany and Adam's wedding all summer (though, probably not as much as they were!), and finally, the weekend arrived. Going into it, we knew it was going to be a pretty large wedding as Bethany and Adam have the most amazing friends and family -- seriously, a lot of the time, you see groups of 200 and you wonder if the bride and groom even know everyone at the wedding, but at this wedding, we knew they had very personal realtionships with all their guests. And it's no surprise -- Bethany and Adam are some of the most warm, welcoming, relatable people we've met.

When we shot their engagement shoot this summer, we told them we needed to finish up by eight. Within seconds, Adam had us cracking up because he completely pegged as having to finish, not because of our child or a deadline shoot, but because of our fantasy football draft -- which he knew because he and Bethany had finished theirs up right before our shoot. What I'm trying to say (probably less eloquently than I'd like at 2 a.m.) is that we immediately clicked with them and knew that when we shot their wedding, it would be like shooting our friends.

And friends are very important to Adam and Bethany -- in fact, their friends and family helped them with virtually all the details of the wedding, including their flowers. They bought the flowers wholesale and had a big craft project. I think they came out perfectly (including the ivy from the front of Bethany's mom's house to add a really personal touch).

The rings!

We were outside Bethany's parent's house taking some photos before heading to the chuch, and Bethany's shadow was perfect!

When we got to the chuch, Bethany was waiting in the nursery for the ceremony to begin. While her girls made sure all her details were in order, she snuck off to the world's smallest table and chairs to read over her vows.

At the same time, Adam was in the hallway outside the sanctuary getting ready to get married!

Some of our favorites from the ridiculously touching ceremony...

The kiss!

In the movie 27 Dresses, Katherine Heigl's character talks about her favorite moment being when the groom first sees the bride. But Rich and my favorite moment is the first few seconds after the ceremony -- before the maid of honor and best man even exit the church, when the newlyweds have that first moment together. A lot of the time, that's the last moment they'll have alone as husband and wife until the end of the night, and the utter joy they have that they've just finally married without having a few hundred people looking at them is amazing.

We headed over to Chestnut Ridge Park for some portraits before heading to Lucarelli's for the reception.

This was a groom who seriously couldn't stop playing with his ring all evening. He and Bethany were both beyond thrilled to have them on their fingers.

Then it was time for their first dance!

Bethany and Adam put together a very personal, fun reception. After their first dance, they shared a slideshow of their lives.

Then it was time for the bouquet toss!

So, Bethany is from Buffalo and is very much a Bills fan. Adam is from Pittsburgh and likes (ahem) the Steelers. As Bethany sat down to start the garter ceremony, their friends ran up and put a custom t-shirt on her.

Now, Bethany and Adam have a great sense of humor. Instead of going the traditional route of pulling the garter out and tossing it, Adam found almost all of Bethany's earthly possesions up her absolutely unforgiving dress, which she perfectly pulled off -- to the point that Rich and I didn't even notice anything lumpy when she came out for the garter! First he found a Terrible Towel...

Then a Bills jersey!

Finally, he got the garter out and in the air.

A great dance shot of Rich's.

When Bethany and Adam left, they did through a whole boatload of sparklers. Totally sweet exit. Thank you, Bethany and Adam, and your families, for having us with you to celebrate your really amazing day.