Everyone likes to open presents. I love to see the delight and wonder in people’s eyes as they wrestle with ribbons and pull off paper and ooooo and awwwww over what’s inside. And……I know my brides are going to be opening their fair share of gifts. The martini glasses and quesadilla makers, blenders and Le Creusets. There is so much wonder and excitement when couples first see their wedding images, when they can first relive their incredible day without all the hustle and bustle and nerves of the wedding day. So we thought, why not couple the wonder of opening an amazing gift with the wonder of receiving and seeing your wedding images??!!! Totally makes sense, right?! Right. So…a fabulous new husband and wife just received another wedding gift…
Wait. What? You mean you don’t know what this is?! ‘Cause you got to open it, Silly!
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You still don’t know what it is? Let’s open it a little more!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! And along with images and other sundry necessities, there are also a few little surprises. No. I’m not telling you what they are. You’ll just have to wait to find out. ::wink wink::
As the gang here at Tammy Swales Photography go about our day, our conversations and our (very VERY rare) silences are often punctuated by a cry from any one of us of OMG I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!! Which then of course requires everyone to stop and see what kind of awesomeness we have found today. So…rather than keep all these fantastic discoveries to ourselves we thought we’d share some of them with you!!! See how much we love you? That’s right.
So, for starters, I love this. Actually, I love everything in her entire store! So purdy.
I am currently OBSESSED with the Creators Project. If you have not checked this out yet, then DO IT! Do it now!!! But be forewarned…once you’re hooked there is no going back.
Any greeting card company that organizes its cards by the subjects of Food, Drink, Educational Sort Of, Work, Cheer and Pessimism gets my vote. Fomato has some amazing cards. Some super cute illustrations. And some seriously exciting salutations.
I am constantly calling Jess “Martha Stewart,” especially those mornings like today when she shows up with still-hot, crusty homemade bread. Seriously!!! And Martha/Jess is head over heals for these aprons right now. She just bought this one, and apparently is threatening to either not take it off, or go back for more. (And no. She hasn’t worn it to work yet. Thank God.)
Jess also tells me you can’t go wrong with anything that combines words and coffee, literally!!!
So here’s the thing about engagement sessions. They are SO. MUCH. FUN. I love how laid back they are. There is so much raw emotion at weddings. So much love, so much tears. But at engagement sessions you’ve got two people, completely in love, and it’s just them in their normal clothes and everyday habitats. There’s no crowd, no gowns, no wedding party, no pressure. Just a boy and a girl (and a crazy redhead yelling directions). And it’s all about THEM. About the love they share and what makes them such a unique and incredible couple. I can’t even tell you how much fun this is for me to watch!!!!!! And how much we LAUGH!!! I’ve literally come home from engagement shoots with my face sore from laughing so much. It really is fantastic to see couples open up and be their crazy, playful selves.
All that said, I’ve had a MAD number of engagement shoots lately. What an amazing way to start off the summer!!! I am PSYCHED beyond belief to shoot every one of these weddings. I am overwhelmed by how each of my couples “get” me and how I work..which is the MOST important thing in getting great photographs.
Sometimes crazy fun engagement shoots take a little extra maneuvering, and my couples really step up to the plate. Literally! Valerie had to do some serious pre-planning to get us into Frontier Field so she and Keith could incorporate their love of baseball into their engagement images. But what a great experience that was!!! And Jessica and Clark impressively managed to get their ENORMOUS (and gorgeous!) dog all the way up to my forth floor studio without event! Talk about hard core…
And Stephanie and Micah were right there when I started yelling “AH! There! Light! Underpass! Run! Now! Go!”
And we NAILED it!!!! We make a great team. ::grin::
I love my couples and I am SO excited for this summer.
I love my job. LOVE. And I feel so fortunate to be able to be right there for some of the most amazing moments of people’s lives. To be able to capture these incredible and beautiful celebrations of love and affection. There are times I come home from a wedding just bursting to talk about everything and then I sit in front of the computer and…and then there is just SO much to say, it’s hard to get down. Adam and Stephanie’s wedding was one of those weddings. I still don’t even know where to begin. But first let me give a shout out to James Bass who helped me so much as my second. There is nothing better…I mean NOTHING better than a GREAT second. James got some AMAZING images — and I can’t wait to second shoot for him in August! Woot!
There was so much love at this wedding. Both bride and groom come from big, crazy, tightly-knit families. But what was really amazing to see was how Stephanie and Adam’s love for each other brought their individual sides of the family together. The tender closeness of the two families and the obvious love that they have for Adam and Stephanie took my breath away. And made me cry. Multiple times.
As you can see, I wasn’t the only one.
As if the ceremony at Blessed Sacrament wasn’t emotional enough, Adam’s mom surprised him during the reception by having his best friend play a song live for the mother-and-son dance. Adam’s BF gave an INCREDIBLE speech written by Adam’s mom, picked up his guitar and started to sing the Beatle’s “All You Need Is Love.” Adam, crying, held his mom close, also crying, while they danced. And then they reached out and brought Stephanie into the the dance, and then her parents and then the rest of their families and then the entire party was on the dance floor. So powerful and so beautiful. Um…yeah. It’s kind of hard to shoot when you’re bawling your eyes out. I’m tearing up again just thinking about it.
All of that love also makes for so much laughter, and let me tell you, this was a hilarious bunch.
I’ve known from the start that Adam and Stephanie were crazy funny, laid back and ready for anything. When they insisted on bringing my couch to the wedding, how could I refuse?! I told them, you can carry it, we can shoot it, so my (apparently very hardy!) Victorian couch followed us around all afternoon in it’s own personal van! And…velvet couch + the grounds of Irondequoit Country Club = OMG.
The dancing and jokes and laughter, the GORGEOUS reception, the warmth and celebration that just filled the entire day…Adam and Stephanie, you are incredibly lucky. Thank you so SO so much for letting me share this day, and your family’s tremendous love, with you.
6.05.2010
so cool!!!!