Well first off – thank you so much for hiring me without ever meeting me!  I really appreciate it and even though I got a chance to meet Marisa before the wedding, I felt I knew Tom just as well from  our phone calls and emails!   Anyway, it was a great day that started in my home town of West Hartford…

One of the first things I learned about Marisa is that she loves sunflowers.  Here is the entrance to her room as the girls get ready:

I thought her handmade veil looked really cool from below:

We took some portraits in Marisa’s parents’ back garden.  Marisa was up for any type of direction and we had a lot of fun with this!

Marisa’s dad IS the fastest kisser in the East!

The ceremony was at St. Mark’s in West Hartford with a full mass.

The girls:

The brothers:

The reception was at The Bond Ballroom  in downtown Hartford.   But first, we had decided to do an urban street shoot – just us, Tom and Marisa and Tom Hickman, the videographer.

I had scouted this alley ahead of time and it made for some really cool pics (if you like gritty city):

Tom and Marisa were great collaborators and Tom found great chairs to use everywhere we went:

Now we are in a pretty deep, dark alley.  This light is actually made by a motion sensor light that our assistant had to keep stepping in front of to keep it lit!

Back on the street – yes, I also have pics of Tom throwing Marisa on the hood of the pickup off to the left with the guys inside pointing and laughing (hard to see on the blog though!)!

We also made it up by the capitol:

This is behind Black Eyed Sally’s.  The owner came out and wants one for the restaurant wall!

Great creative collaboration!  Thanks guys! 

Then it was on to The Bond for the reception…the light was really cool when we arrived:

The first dance:

The cake in the light at sunset (not photoshopped…actual color of the light!):

One of the highlights of the reception was a little surprise from Tom.  Tom, the artist who never sings in public, surprised Marisa with a song that he had written for her, aptly named "Sunflower Girl".

Here’s Marisa finding out:

Here’s the actual performance:

To all the guys out there … here’s what you can expect following a surprise (of any type I’m sure!) for your bride–what a great moment!

By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned but even though Tom doesn’t normally sing in public , he did great and has a fantastic, haunting voice, writes music, plays piano, guitar, etc. and is basically incredibly talented.  If you’d like to see him sing, here is a video clip that I was able to get hold of — please send this to all your music producer friends….

Tom Singing "Forever We are Bound"

You can check out his "Landslide" cover and an original piano piece, "Here We Are" there too.  And if you feel like a laugh, check out "Dogs cannot play the piano!".

But back to the wedding…I just want to close on one of my favorite shots that happened just as I was saying goodbye to Marisa – the wind just took her veil perfectly!  It reminds me that it’s good to wear the camera until I get in the car and drive away – you never know what shot might just appear when you think the night is wrapping up!

Thanks guys!  It was such a pleasure!

Thanks Lisa and Jeff for letting us be a part of your wedding!  I love to shoot a daytime wedding because it’s a whole different light all day and makes for different and interesting shots!

Although, everything started early in the morning and this was the scene first thing:

Lisa got ready at Avon Old Farms Hotel.  I spent a lot of time shooting the bride getting ready and really liked the hair/make-up artist, Dana Bartone of Dana Bartone Salon (203-250-7709) — Lisa’s make-up looked great, Dana used top products, and was really friendly, yet unobtrusive.

It’s fun to shoot shoes:

Some moments with family in the morning:

Great eyes and window light:

The morning light made for a really romantic feel:

It’s probably hard to see on the blog, but I love it when grown men cry when they see their bride!  (sorry Jeff!:))

Jeff and Lisa saw each other before the wedding so we could shoot all the portraits before the wedding – I loved Lisa’s dress mixed with the trees–very fashiony:

Then we went across the street to Avon Old Farms Inn for the ceremony, cocktail party and brunch reception.

I loved this shot of Jeff and his dad during the Ketubah signing.  Please note that all the orange kippahs have Mickey Mouse on them.  Once again, the personal touches throughout a wedding really make it unique!

Guests are always asking me camera questions and I got several questions on how we shoot the wedding when it is backlit with windows.   Probably a lot of point and shoot cameras will meter off the windows and the couple will be too dark.  We definitely shoot this on manual settings and we expose for the couple, so they are the correct exposure and this blows out the background (which I like).  There’s no way to get both correctly exposed unless we added lights or a lot of flash so that the existing light on the couple was equal to the light level outside the windows which would be a little annoying during a ceremony!  Fascinating, huh?  But here’s the result. 

By the way, this is my second favorite tradition in Jewish weddings – the breaking of the glass – Mazel Tov!

Here’s my first favorite tradition – the Chair Dance!

Everything was done in fall colors – perfect for an October wedding.  The flowers were a major part of the design and were done by Bouquets and Beyond.

There was a great swing orchestra from Boston called White Heat – real pros:

The toasts:

Jeff’s napkin went to his face less than a minute after his dad started his speech–very moving!

Jeff’s parents:

A great take-away for fall – candied apples!

Thanks guys — you had a beautiful wedding!

The weather has been great this year for October weddings and Christian and Rachel’s day was amazing!

Christian and Rachel got married in Mystic, CT at St. Marks, just off Main Street.  I loved this aisle shot of Rachel’s dad looking at his daughter:

and Rachel and Christian enjoying the moment:

Hugging mom right after the ceremony:

Rachel’s sister was her MOH:

This is one of my favorite shots of the day…Rachel’s brother throwing rice and we can see both her brother and Rachel in the window too:

Here’s Christian’s family cheering them on (with mom leading it!):

Catching up with them on the highway on the way to the reception:

The reception was at The Branford House in Groton.  I loved this shoot of the couple’s portraits – an easy walk to the ocean and back and we got a ton of different shots. 

The lighting and sky were awesome.  Please note, these shots are all in their original shot color and I haven’t done any photoshop tweaks to make it look more dramatic (which I’m the first to admit, I sometimes do!)…so, basically it really did look this way!!!!!  The only things that changed were the directions that we were facing and the sun quickly setting.  We were probably out there about 30 minutes, right at sunset.

Appropriately dubbed "Gone with the Wind" lighting by Rachel:

Rachel’s shadow on the sculpture:

A silhouette:

Sometimes when the flower girl doesn’t want her picture taken, you get a more interesting picture:

The cake had real roses on

Rachel and Christian had special wine with labels with photos of their families on the bottles:

I love funky lighting and flares to make an image unique.  Here’s a first dance shot with Christian’s parents looking on. 

Rachel and Christian, thank you so much for such a wonderful shoot and such a great day with you and your families!  Talk to you soon!

I loved this wedding for its intimacy and all the personal touches that Darci and Rob put into it…it was held at The Hopkin’s Inn, an inn/winery in Litchfield County in NW Connecticut, overlooking Lake Waramaug. 

Darci, in her bridal suite before the wedding…

And in the groom’s suite, typical guy hi-jinks…

…and a Courvoisier toast.

Great to photograph great friends…

Darci looked amazing and I loved the shadows of this portrait and how the strong light was really lighting up her eyes:

Rob just before his jacket and tie went on…

The littlest ones in the bridal party:

Darci with her father starting their walk down the aisle:

All I will say is "Didn’t I give them to you?"

I loved that the winery let us shoot in their factory with all the wine barrels and vats:

The music of this wedding really stayed with me afterward.  Entertainment was provided by Ambience Inc out of Washington Depot, CT ( info@ambience-inc.com) with a trio and then a DJ…and Rob.

Rob serenaded Darci with Pink Floyd’s "Wish You Were Here"….

He serenaded his mom with a song they’d been singing together for years, "Ripple" by the Grateful Dead.

And their first dance was "Green Eyes" by Coldplay (which I downloaded the next day!)

  
Thanks Darci and Rob for sharing such a unique and personal and fun and elegant wedding with us.   We hope you like the pics!

Thanks Michelle and Ed for a fun early evening engagement shoot in Elizabeth Park in West Hartford, CT.  It’s amazing how totally different the park looks between a few weeks of shooting.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the shoot.

The dailias at their peak:

Dramatic sky…

Here’ s one for the newspaper…

Just kidding.  Actually, here’s one that really shows off Michelle’s cool eyes:

Thank you Michelle and Ed for being up for some fun:

The gazebo really had turned to autumn colors:

Michelle was really interesting to shoot as she had a lot of different looks and really cool eyes. 

This one was suited to a little bit of drama:

These are some of my favorite expressions from the shoot.  I love my Canon 70-200IS lens for being able to be far enough away that I’m not intruding in what’s going on:

and zooming in while still being far away:

Great working with you guys and I’ll have the rest available shortly!

What a beautiful night it turned out to be at the Mill on the River.   Jen’s son walked her down the aisle and her kids were such a special part of the ceremony and night. 

The willow tree:

Jen and Tom – I told you guys this shot would look very paparrazzi with the flash but I really like it…I hope you do too:

Mill on the River had this bridge they called the kissing bridge – I love a little kitsch!

and I thought their reflection in the bridge window was really cool:

Jen channeled old Hollywood to me so I loved that she was up for some dramatic shots:

The new family toasts:

I love this moment between mother and daughter:

The head table had Jen, Tom and the two kids:

Sliding across the dance floor:

Love to capture couples laughing:

and kissing:

Thanks guys for a great night!  Really nice working with you and best wishes on your new family!

Well Elizabeth Park in West Hartford has become a second-home to me for engagement shoots and as I was on my way there to meet Aaron and Leslie, I knew I wanted to mix things up a bit and not just do the obvious shots in this beautiful park.  So, before I even arrived, I thought, I wonder if they would agree to lay down in the grass in their nice clothes.  Thank you, Leslie and Aaron, for being so adventurous!