Jennifer and Michael and Susan and Tyler

We shot the weddings of Jennifer and Michael and Susan and Tyler down in Allegany State Park. It was the first time we'd been to the park -- a gorgeous, enormous park, and the first time we'd shot a double wedding. Michael and Susan are siblings who married Jennifer and Tyler at a double wedding ceremony in the woods. It was beautiful, but being the woods, it did require some nontraditional wedding preparations.

Jennifer and Susan got ready in some cabins at the park (this one is Jennifer).

And then hid behind tented areas at the wedding site while the guests and grooms arrived (this one is Susan).

The ceremony was a double wedding, but it was still broken up to allow each couple to experience the elements of the wedding independently. The way they planned it was really neat to watch. You know the brides are good friends to be willing to share their day!

We took some quick outdoor portraits of the couples before heading over to the luau-themed reception.

The couples did their first dances in an area drapped with lights. As the first dances were coming to a close, a light rain started to fall, and the girls danced in the rain. It was a beautiful day, and while it ended being a very wet day, I've never seen two brides less bothered by a little water.

Jenn and Dennis

It's obviously become a huge trend among modern wedding and portrait photographers to blog about their weddings and other photo shoots. I think the general idea is that it lets you reach out to your most recent clients while you're editing their event and show them a few sneak peaks so they get excited about your work. Maybe more important to some shutterbugs, though, is that it also shows everybody your most recent work. I think most photographers are like us and have galleries on their site that are at least a year old or more...I love our blog, but we're awful at updating the site!

For me, the most important part about blogging is quickly becoming the opposite of the first point above. When I blog a few photographs from a wedding of a couple like Jen and Dennis, I totally get excited about wrapping up the editing and getting the images ready for delivery. It really energizes me.

When Alyssa and I are watching a wedding day unfold in front of our cameras, we're working our butts off to capture moments and get exposures just right, etc. When we get back to the studio and start going through our selection and post-processing of an event - that's when we can really step back and appreciate the magic of a couple and their passion for one another.

Sorry for rambling, but Jenn and Dennis put it all in perspective for me this morning. What a fantastic couple:

Alyssa captured this "moment between" while she was setting the girls up for a more posed portrait of the bridesmaids...I love it. Alyssa told me Jenn's maid of honor is just off-camera and may or may not have been the source of hilarity.

Meanwhile I was hanging with the man himself, looking debonair despite what I imagined was a decent case of the butterflies. I could never tell because Dennis was just very relaxed and happy to be marrying Jenn. Some couples overly stress about the details of their day, and I'm sure they did in the days prior at least a little - but on the big day the important part was being together.

Alyssa took up position above while I shot below. Did I mention she is completely addicted to capturing other peoples' flashes?

She's also into reflections - like the mirror on the organ!

I was into Jenn's mega-watt smile, which she was saving for Dennis when they knelt at the altar.

This was a shot I really dug from the reception at Kloc's Blossom Grove in West Seneca, just outside of Buffalo.

And then I started playing with some guerrilla off-camera flash. Basically, I'll sync a radio-control unit to one of my small flash units and set it off from some oddball location - usually to create a cross-lighting or back-lighting effect for something different. This is Dennis helping Jenn out with the family tradition of the wedding wine skin while his dad looks on.

In this shot, Alyssa is doing her best ninja impression, holding the flash behind them while I snap away - good thing we wear all black suits!

And one last one for the road...Congratulations, Jenn and Dennis!

Cathy and Arvind

I should start by saying when Cathy and Arvind did an engagement session with us, we got really excited to shoot their wedding. You know, that's a pretty dumb statement, actually, because shooting couples a few months before their wedding is always awesome - and it always makes for a better relationship between us on the big day.

Our day started out like it usually does, with Alyssa spending time with Cathy and her family...

I cracked up when I saw this shot Alyssa took of Cathy's parents' cat. I mean, we have a cat (Wilma) that we're pretty fond of even though she looks at us sometimes with serious disdain and maybe even a little loathing...and their cat has definitely got the general feline, "I'm not all that impressed" look going:

All that aside, Alyssa and I met back up at the church, SS Columba-Brigid church in Buffalo. The church was recently built when the parish lost their old building to a massive fire. The huge stained glass window made a wonderful backdrop, even though I think these two are so in love they could have gotten married in a cave and been beaming like this.

Since Cathy and Arvind were having their reception at the UB Center for Tomorrow, we headed over to Baird Point for some group photos. I think Alyssa did some really nice work on this image. Instead of trying to force something involving rows and seated/standing people, yadda yadda with such a large group, we just had everyone stand naturally and we made Cathy and Arvind more of the focal point of the image...which is as it should be. I like the obvious symbolism of having the entire new family standing together behind them.

So, the hi-light of the reception was definitely the "stick dance," which everyone learned and then performed together. The whole reception was really neat, with nods to Cathy's home of Buffalo and Arvind's home of India. There were Buffalo wings in steam trays right next to samosas and two serving lines of food with traditional Indian and Americana. All the hard work to honor both traditions really paid off in a really classy reception.

Thanks for reading, and thank you, Cathy and Arvind!

Jennifer and Michael

Jennifer and Michael were married Friday the 13th, but the intrepid couple was smart enough to stay away from a campsite wedding. Instead, I hung out with Jennifer as she got ready at her parent's house. She looked gorgeous and had some amazing bridesmaids helping her get ready (and I must point out that one of the first conversations they had after I arrived had to do with the best horror films of all time, which I thought was appropriate -- and my vote is always with the Exorcist).

Michael and the groomsmen got ready at the church, the beautiful St. Clares Community Parish in Buffalo. 

Honestly, the limo ride and the walk down the aisle went so fast for me, I can't imagine how fast it must have seemed for her.

 

 

The one quick rainshower of the day held off long enough for a beautiful bubble exit. 

After some quick pictures at the church, we headed over to the reception.

And you know a couple completely rocks when they make their own cake topper, and it happens to be...

Jack and Sally! I'm totally dating myself and dorking out here, but that was probably my favorite cake topper of all time. Then it was time for some dancing!

Michael totally changed ties mid-way through the reception to match the cake. So completely awesome. We hadso much fun with the crowd at the reception, and with Jennifer and Michael. Congratulations, again, guys!

Walls and Ceilings? Check. Floors? Check. New proof books? Check.

Advantage Hardwood put down the first coat of polyurethane on our studio floors this morning. After the ton of repairs that have been done over the past year, it's incredible to be close to re-opening our studio space. I have a big "before and after" post saved up with photos we got of the studio space as it looked in the 60s, the dentist's office it had been turned into when we bought it and the work that we've had done recently...but I can't help tossing a few up for now, because we are really excited about possibly being done by the end of July:

You can see we still have to prime and paint the drywall and tile in the hearth...but the trim, base and floors are all killer. The area above is where we'll be doing our shoots - ten foot ceilings and plenty of space for 9-ft-long backdrops.

You can see where Alyssa started stripping the banister rail, but we have a long way to go to restore all the wood. And yes, that color yellow is EVERYWHERE. We'll be spending a lot of our non-shooting/non-processing time this summer with gallon buckets of Citri-strip and wire brushes. The wood details are going to be really cool, though...

We also got in samples of our new proofing books for weddings. They're from Willowbooks and look really nice.

That's all for now, but we'll have another wedding up tomorrow and another the day after that!

Owen!

I titled this blog entry with an exclamation point, because it's well earned. Owen was a ton of fun to shoot! I don't know how kids that young learn to ham it up for the camera, but Owen was all about getting his photos taken. He reminds me of our son, Murphy, a lot. That's probably just because he's an incredibly cute kid and I (as all parents do) think we have an incredibly cute kid, too.

Thanks for spending time with me, buddy!

Carrie and Eric

When we went to get directions to Carrie and Eric's wedding, we laughed. They were married at the Twentieth Century Club, a gorgeous mansion a block from our studio. In all honesty, we've passed this building once a day for the past two years, and we had no idea it existed. What an amazing venue for a wedding. It's a women's club and has been for a century, with an absolutely gorgeous garden where they held the ceremony. Here's a shot of the stunning bride getting ready.

As well as a shot of Eric, right before he headed down to the gardens.

The bridal party was getting ready in a wing of the mansion with these heavy sliding doors that lead to a central room upstairs where the guys were getting some pictures taken. The following shots are why I absolutely love having both of us at weddings.

The garden was set up with pristine, white chairs and the aisle perfectly lined with fresh rose petals for Carrie's entrance.

This shot is one of Rich's. When I was looking to make certain he had a good angle coming up on the kiss, I couldn't help but smile as I played, "Where's the photographer?" and found him hiding in a bush. Here's a few of my favorites from the ceremony.

You can never go wrong with a bubble exit. I'm still waiting for a wedding planner to have some Gazillions of Bubbles lining the aisle. Seriously -- Best. Toy. Ever.

The next few are a few dancing shots from the reception. It really was a fun crowd, doing some really serious dancing, and a wedding we loved being a part of. Congratulations, again, guys. You were perfect.

Muralee and Abhi

We've been involved in some really breathtaking weddings so far this summer, and Abhi and Muralee's marriage was certainly no exception. As photographers, it was a joy to be working with the incredibly rich visuals of a traditional Hindu ceremony. I met up with Muralee the night before at Sri Rajarajeswari Peetam (near Rochester, NY) while Abhi was performing Puja.

The temple was buzzing with activity as Abhi and Muralee's family and friends prepared for the celebration.

The next morning, Alyssa went to Abhi's parent's house while she was getting ready for the day. She told me that the amount of work that went into preparing Abhi was amazing. She looked stunning in all of her photos!

Meanwhile, I was with Muralee while he prepared. Yes, he rode a horse to the temple - I wish all grooms would mount up prior to the wedding...just awesome.

We have so many shots from the ceremony, I couldn't figure out which ones to feature (a cop out, I know). I picked the first one because it was one of my favories that I shot - and the second and third are from Alyssa. The second one is the priest and some pretty stealthy "other-people's-flashes" use by Alyssa. The third makes the cut because of Muralee's giant smile. Most of the ceremony was serious and everyone obviously put a lot of time into making sure it all went exactly right - but there were moments when Abhi and Muralee's pure joy to be together broke through like the sun. Cheers!

We'll have even more photos later in the week. We're in our massive wedding-season crunch right now, so the blog posts should get a lot more frequent!

Little Adelaide

Back when we shot Maureen and Mike's "belly shots," we weren't sure if the baby was going to be boy or girl. Two weeks ago, we got a call that little Adelaide had arrived! We couldn't wait to take photos of her for the first time.

Shooting a two-week-old is absolutely amazing. We've been super busy the past few weeks with weddings and various portrait shoots, but photographing Adelaide was one of those, "everything slows down," moments. Our son will be two in September, but it seems like it was just yesterday we were coming home from the hospital and adjusting to everything. Mojo and X and going to be awesome parents. They gave us kind of a crazy look when we explained the next shot, but I'm really happy with how it turned out (Mo is slightly off-camera to the right, ready to pounce - Adelaide is remarkably strong, but that's no surprise given that her parents are some of the most ridiculously in-shape people we've ever known).

Dana and Brian

Dana and Brian (aka, "The Doctors") have some serious extended family with diverse ethnic roots - evidenced by their beautiful wedding ceremony with readings in at least five different languages! Their wedding day was hi-lighted by what were easily the largest "group formal" shots we've done this summer (thanks for being patient, everyone!).

As you can see, they make a great couple and it was wonderful to be part of the wedding. The ceremony and reception were both held at the Saturn Club in Buffalo this past weekend, just a few blocks up from our studio

Thanks, Dana and Brian, and we can't wait to get you the rest of your photos this week!