Natalie and Brian

I love weddings. I know -- in our line of work, that's probably pretty obvious. But since we're working so hard at getting the shots we want during weddings, I sometimes take what's going on around me for granted. I just finished going through the shots from Natalie and Brian's wedding, and although it was only two days ago, it surprised me how beautiful, emotional and full the day was. When I see someone choking up, I'm thinking how I can get to the best angle for the lens I've currently got on me, where the light is coming from, how I want to manipulate the light and how to avoid the four people between my camera and the person starting to cry without climbing in the person's face and having them notice me and wipe the tears or turn away. I don't think about what's going on for them, but after going back and remembering the day and seeing it again through the photos, I got really sentimental. I hope that's how our photos are for the people we shoot, as well -- a way to relive the emotion of the most important day of their lives.

Anyway, here's some of my favorite's from Natalie and Brian's wedding. First, a couple detail shots of her shoes and dress.

Natalie was a stunning bride and her dress was gorgeous. Her mother and sister helped her get dressed, and she almost lost it when she finally saw herself in her wedding dress on her wedding day, but she kept it together. Well, for the most part :)

The rings with a bowl of peppers than Brian grew! That makes me so ridiculously jealous -- I pretty much manage to kill every plant I try to grow. Rich bought me an Aerogarden about a year ago, and while it's pretty much fool proof, I even killed those!

Natalie was dressed and ready to go!

They were married at the Annunciation Church which was the first time we'd been there. It was a gorgeous church and full of light, which is a dream for us.

After the ceremony, we went to Green Lake in Orchard Park for some pictures before heading to the waterfront downtown.

A shadow kiss!

The reception was at Shanghai Red's. Cocktail hour was up on the roof at sunset. And it was a beautiful sunset that day!

Then the sun set, and the moon rose and it was time to head into the reception.

I loved this shot of Natalie's bouquet on the table that Rich took.

And this one of the cake topper.

After some first dances, they did the bread dance -- Brian's family is Macedonian, and they have some of my favorite wedding traditions. The bread dance is a circle dance where guests can pay money to dance with the bread. It's hard to explain, but it's really cool to watch. And that's it for this blog post -- it was a beautiful wedding, and we were honored to be a part of it.