Genevieve and Jonathan - Happy New Year!

Over the course of eight years, Genevieve and Jonathan had never done anything particular for New Year's Eve. So, this year, they decided to ring in the new year with a new marriage. We met up with Gen over at her house and were looking for a cool spot to take some dress shots when we peered in her bathroom and spotted the sweetest shower curtain ever (old CBGB's handbills). It's the first time I've shot a dress hanging from the shower, but it worked pretty well.

Even though it was a bit of a snowstorm yesterday morning, everyone was really relaxed and excited at Gen's house.

Sooo...if you're in Buffalo on your wedding day and there's some serious snow on the ground, you're definitely not going to hike to the church in your good shoes...a bride in boots is our kind of bride. :)

Here's Gen's gorgeous bouquet as she waited in the narthex at St. Joe's.

Rich was waiting outside for the ceremony to start and got this cute "peeking" shot of Gen and her bridesmaids just a few minutes before the ceremony began.

Look at St Joe's!! The church is beautifully decorated every year for Christmas, and they left the decorations up. The church just looked stunning.

Sometimes rings are a little snug, which is really important so that years later you don't put it on your watchband, hand the watch to a toddler in the supermarket and then proceed to lose an irreplacable band that your wife's father made for you. (Rich: I have no comment about what may or may not have happened to my wedding band when Murphy got a hold of it.) Luckily, Jon has nothing to worry about with his!

The kiss.

Right after the ceremony -- Rich and I have mentioned before that this is often our favorite moment of the day, and Gen and Jon didn't disappoint.

Gen and Jon really wanted to get a shot outside of St. Joe's right after the ceremony - so we worked VERY quickly seeing as how it felt like 2 degrees (though I think it was actually 12).

Right after the ceremony we all drove down to Babeville for the reception - one of our favorite places!

The next few shots are from the first dances. Once of the reasons we love the Church is the balcony that wraps around the former worship space. We can do a bunch of funky things with our lighting thanks to the layout.

This one is Rich's favorite shot from the evening...

And he also rocked this one of Gen and her dad!

So, we've been dying to have a couple rent a photo booth for their wedding - and on our last wedding of the year, we got our wish! The photo booth is a lot of fun for guests AND photographers.

Then it was on to some more dancing as the guests celebrated the coming new year.

"It's Raining Men" -- of course!

Usually, we try to take our couple right after the family formals to do some casual portraits -- most of the time, it just makes the most sense to do them at that break right before the evening begins (and that's often about when our favorite outdoor lighting is occuring too!), but since Gen and Jon were just enjoying their night without any formal traditions, we were able to sneak off for a few minutes and wander Babeville for a few photos.

Gen and Jon were both film majors and were really excited about doing more modern portraits. We played around with some film grain and textures, and I was pretty stoked about this shot I took in a hall full of concert posters.

Then Gen, Jon and their guests danced for the rest of the year (sorry -- I had to throw it in there at least once!). It was an amazing night, and we were really so happy to ring it in with their amazing friends and family. Congratulations you guys (and just so you know, we proofread this darn post about five times because we know you'll see our grammatical errors immediately!).

We want to send a big, giant, extra-appreciative THANK YOU to all of our brides, grooms and families who made 2008 such an amazingly successful year for us. So much changed in our worlds, from Rich leaving active duty in the Marines, to getting our studio running as a full-time business, to Murphy growing up WAY too fast, that our heads are still spinning...but we can't wait to jump into 2009 with both feet! We'll have a brand new blog-site (it'll make sense - you'll see) within the next month and we just can't wait to keep on shooting for the people who work with us to make the great photographs we love.

Happy New Year!!!