Hockey season is right around the corner!!! Which I know because…one of my couples is gearing up for it to start! Clarke plays left wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. So if you follow hockey (and even if you don’t!)  keep your eyes out for Clarke MacArthur!

Every single thing about Jessica and Clarke’s day, from Jessica’s breath-taking dress, to her shoes…

From their ceremony at Chapel Hill to their beautiful reception at Casa Larga – everything was wrapped in elegance, style and sophistication.

When Jessica and Clarke and I first met, we had tossed around some ideas about something unique to do after the ceremony. They finally decided on a dove release, which was SO much fun to watch, particularly just to see their faces! I had the pleasure of shooting with Kristi Hedberg as my second shooter, who captured this priceless image from release…Clarke’s face just makes this image for me!

LOVE.

But one of the things I loved the most about Jessica and Clarke’s day was that amidst all the hustle and bustle (we had a full day!), amidst the hectic-ness of knowing they were going to move soon, and in between the fun, the laughter and some wicked dance moves…Clarke and his mom ROCKED it out!  OMG I sooooo enjoyed watching the energy and fun during this dance!

Not to mention the obvious closeness and sweetness of Jessica’s family during the father/daughter dance.  Yup.  I cried too.  I’m not ashamed….

When Jessica and Clarke were together, it was just them…and the tenderness they had for each other was so beautiful.

Thank you Jessica and Clarke for letting me share your wonderful day! Now go and kick some hockey butt in Toronto!!!!

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Sooooo…..there are more stories about this wedding to come. I can’t tell them all now. But this image was SO fantastic, we had to tell its story right away!!!

It was the wee hours of the morning at Allegria Hotel and Spa on Long Island. A tired but very happy wedding party and I rolled out of bed to catch the early morning light. And we all got in the water. Yes…I stood in the ocean with all of my gear. With the tide coming in!! And…well….

It was so worth it. ::grin::

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Soooo I might be a little cavalier about parking rules.  And…maybe….I don’t pay as close attention to where I should park during a photo session because I get so excited about the light…that all I’m thinking about is getting to it!  So when I finished at a location with Colleen and Mark — there was a little present under my windshield wipers.  Yuck.  Sorry parking lot people.  I didn’t notice it wasn’t an “everyone can park here” lot…I promise I won’t do it again.  ::sigh::  I couldn’t resist snapping this image though!  Funny, right?!

But that’s not the important part of the story.  The most important part was the ENTHUSIASM Colleen and Mark displayed for Sugar Mountain Bake Shoppe (on Alexandar St).  They insisted it was amazing and could not believe I hadn’t been there.  Colleen even went so far to post today’s special cupcake on my facebook!

So I had to go.

I brought my mother.

And guess who was sitting on the porch eating cupcakes?!  Yup.  Sugar Mountain’s BIGGEST FANS IN THE WORLD! ::laughing::  Here’s what they look like without cupcakes:

So.  Then I had to try them myself.  One of the owners approached us with a sample of their vanilla cupcake…

Oh.  Em.  Geee.

So…SIX cupcakes were purchased.  And they are so beautiful I had to drive straight home and document them for all time…

Say hello to today’s dessert:    Rootbeer Float.  Very Vanilla.  Caramel Apple.  Lemon Raspberry.  Pink Lemonade.

They are sweet.  yummy and Colleen and Mark were absolutely right.  They are DELISH.

Here is my unbiased foody review:  They.  Are.  Yummy.

(My mother likes them too.  Her opinion is worth more than mine.  She cooks.  I don’t.)

Also — I didn’t tell anyone I was writing this.  I wasn’t paid to promote Sugar Mountain.  I just liked them.

Now I have to go walk around the block 158 times.  Cuz.  That’s. a lot. of.  sugar.

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I love first looks. There is something so intimate, so tender, so magical about a bride and groom seeing each other for the first time on their wedding day, quietly and (almost) alone. There is none of the pressure of standing in front of hundreds of friends and family, no particular time-line to get on with (so if the bride has to take a few minutes to bawl her eyes out and then get her makeup fixed, it’s okay!). But mostly there is the opportunity for them to hold their husband/wife-to-be and really soak in the beautiful enormity of what they are embarking on that day. In those moments nothing else exists. No details to finish up, no flowers, no color palettes, no menus, no guests lists, and…dare I say it?…no photographer…which is one of the things that I loved to watch most of all. There is no awareness of being in front of the camera at all. Everything – EVERYTHING – else melts away and it is just them and their love. It is very hard for me not to cry. Which, of course, is why I do. Every time.

When I first met Deb and Gary I was struck by the warmth and intense affection that they had for each other. It was truly wonderful to witness that again in their first look.

Deb and Gary worked closely together to design a wedding day that was so personal and full of details that really expressed them as a couple, from their artistic, quirky personalities to their cultural backgrounds and world views. They wanted their wedding, on a visual level, to reflect a kind of vintage/industrial feel (which they also incorporated into their engagement shoot, in downtown Buffalo), and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time for portraits that captured that look.

Thing is, there are added practical benefits to first looks as well. Since the bride and groom have already seen each other, it opens up the opportunity to do couple (and even family!) portraits before the ceremony even starts. This is especially a plus for weddings with later ceremonies (which get increasingly tricky as the summer winds down).  Since Deb and Gary’s ceremony and reception were in the same room at Pearl Street Brewery in Buffalo, and they wanted to glide seemlessly between the two, we took advantage of the time and light before the ceremony and rocked out portraits!

The tenderness that these two shared overflowed to their friends and family, whom they brought into every aspect of their day.  I never get enough of watching two people be so incredibly happy!!! It is absolutely one of the best parts of my job.  From their first look to the end of the night both Deb and Gary literally glowed.  I love watching days like that unfold.

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