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I am titling this a “classic” wedding because of the 2 prominently feautred classic cars.  The purple one has been in the brides family for YEARS.  The blue truck belonged to the groom’s best friend who is no longer with us.  His twin brother brought the vehicle to the wedding as a tribute, saying it was sweet is an understatement.  I had never been to the Roger Williams Park and Casino before, and frankly had no idea what to expect.  I pictured slot machines, waitresses with big fluffy head pieces… yeah its not that kind of casino.  At least not anymore…

The DJ asked me while I was taking this next image, “So this is what you have been reduced to, taking pictures of CD covers?”  I shrugged took my picture and walked away.  It is by no means what I have been reduced to its a found object.  Maybe this b&g had no idea that their favorite songs from the day were on 1 cd and that they would be getting it at the end of the night.  Maybe this image will make an awesome background image during the party section of the album.  Maybe it was a waste of time, nah.

I don’t often blog about the garter toss.  Let alone the removal of said garter from the bride’s leg.  There is something about the ritual that isn’t really blog worthy to me.  Well enjoy the next sequence as you have NEVER seen a groom retrieve the garter quite like this!

Last Friday I had the pleasure of photographing a beautiful wedding. I know I say this all the time and each and every time its true! I had been to Lake Pearl before. Its a very nice place, but the true beauty is the grounds. Sprawling lawns, and if you ask nicely the staff will get this little golf cart and take the bride and groom to a little private beach. The light at sundown is perfect no matter what time of year!

The bride and groom were pretty relaxed getting ready. There was plenty of time, nobody rushed or stressed even when the caterer said they had the wrong chair covers. The bride just shrugged it off and we went right back to work.

After a beautiful ceremony in the Gazebo we spent a little bit of time doing family portraits. It was painless for everyone involved. After that we had time to do some lifestyle portraits with the bride and groom alone, just the 3 of us…

I would love to show you hundreds of images from the portrait session, but I would be neglecting the reception. All star DJ was the entertainment and lighting provider. I love when clients do a package upgrade to include uplights at a wedding. It really adds dimension and life to the room, and to the photographs.

The party was amazing, and everyone EVERYONE had a great time. It was a wonderful way to send off this couple onto their journey into married life.

Some of you will remember this couple from their Portsmouth NH e-session, for some this may be the first time seeing them. Becky and Chris were married back in February in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Sadly I was not able to make the trip, but they did have an amazing photographer capture their day.

Because I was not the only person who could not make the event down in the sunny, warm Caribbean they planed to have a small reception state side. They chose the LOVELY and I mean absolutely gorgeous Tupper Manor in Beverly MA.

We did some family shots, some brief coverage of cocktail hour, nothing too over the top as they had done all of this before for the camera. What they had not done was read their vows for their grandparents. That was the heart of this special occasion.

Ok so the heart of the party was allowing the grandparents to hear the vows, the rest of the party was about DANCING! Becky and Chris did a very formal dance they had rehearsed in their kitchen.

After dinner Becky changed into this lovely little green dress and they did another routine they had pre-rehearsed, this one not so formal

By the end of the evening everyone was SPENT… especially the groom. I mean who could blame him, this crowd danced and danced… it was an amazing way to celebrate with family and friends!

Well most brides in fact I would say 99.9995% would be pissed off that it was snowing on their wedding day. Not this young lady, she was PSYCHED! All she could talk about was snow portraits and snow pictures… she said the more snow the better! It didn’t hurt that the snow was falling in huge fluffy picture perfect snow flakes.

Of course the bride had some amazing shoes…

But of course the bride and bridal party were also prepared quite nicely for this eventuality…

After the ceremony, which was in a little chapel in the middle of a cemetery…

We managed to get down to the fun part!

The reception was held at the Tewksbury CC a gorgeous venue, and one I have had the privelage of going to several times now.

All things considered with the weather, I couldn’t have asked for a more fun and adventurous bride!

Ok here we are at part two! Part 1’s images are now on FaceBook too. I tagged Candi and Tj, but if you appear in an image feel free to tag yourself!

So where was I rambling on… Oh yes! the party! I mean what goes better with an emotionally charged wedding ceremony between two loving people, a ROCKIN’ PARTY. So after Candi and Tj exchanged rings,

they had some fun. First they had a beautiful first dance…

Then they danced with their parents. Its a really wonderful tradition that honors where they came from. Candi and her dad did a sort of jitterbug which was lively and up beat. Tj and his mom did a more traditional dance during which his mom spent the bulk of it in tears, it got me chocked up once or twice.

After the dancing we played a game. Now you ask what kinds of games do we play at weddings. Well the NEWLYWED game of course! Candi and Tj stood back to back they had a bouquet in one hand and a Red Sox hat in the other. The DJ would ask questions and if they thought the answer was Candi they raised the bouquet and so forth. It was really quite cute and it got EVERYONE laughing. Especially Candi’s mom, the picture below is after a particularly funny question, I believe it was “Who is always right?” Both of them raised the Red Sox hat…

And then we danced, drank, laughed… All of the things you do at a fun party. I’ll shut up now and leave everyone with some more images. If you are waiting to see the entire catalog it will be up when Candi and Tj get back from their trip and have seen the entire thing first. If you want to register on the website feel free, or if you just want to email me I will add you to the email announcing the whole catalog.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

I have thought about what I am going to write about this couple since well, I booked the job! There is so much I could say, I got to know them pretty well. Candi and Tj have been together for quite a while, and yeah sure I could make a dig (like many people did) about how long, but it is this amazing courtship that lead to such a great wedding. Often the journey gets lost when the destination is so glamorous… not with this couple.

So lets get started… My very lovley 2nd shooter and I arrived at the Woodbound Inn just before noon. I don’t want to go into detail about the Inn because it was so awesome, so there its awesome if your looking for a good weekend getaway check it out.

Ok back to the day, gesh I can get myself off track too easily. The day was shaping up to be a killer November day, and there was questions about where to have the ceremony. Tj was trying to get guidance, he wanted it to be perfect but nobody had their cell phone on! Sure he’s laughing below, but he was trying every number he knew to get SOMEONE on the phone.

After we had the ceremony site all set, Tj set off to get dressed with his dad (also the person who married them, pretty damn cool).

Then he had a very private moment with him…

We checked with the official “ring security” and with his ok we were ready to depart… Yeah he fell asleep on the job at one point but was after his “duties” were fulfilled.

I left to go meet up with the girls and my very lovely 2nd shooter stayed with the guys as they departed for the venue.

So with the flowers in toe I took off to see Candi. She was so full of excitement/nervous energy when I showed up, she was litterally bouncing off the walls, it was so cute. There was one rule, no crying. As you can see one minute she was hugging her very attentive sister/maid of honor, and the next smacking her to keep the 1 rule intact. Jill almost lost it several times…

Before we knew it, (and on time I’ll have everyone know) we too were ready to leave for the venue. Candi had a limo but…

We arrived at the Shattuck Golf Club Candi waited in the limo while everyone went down to the ceremony site, then the limo drove her down over part of the course right up to the start line. I mean the bride gets privileges on her wedding day.

There were a lot of people ready and waiting for this momentous event to offically start…

While the ceremony is one of the shortest parts of the actual wedding day it is at the center of the event. Without those magic words, we are all just dressed up for fun. I could post 50 pictures from this ceremony, but in the interest of editing the story I am showing everyone the one that sums it up completely.

Candi and Tj were so excited that he almost forgot to stop on the glass as they ran down the isle! Then we had some fun together with their families and bridal party.

Remember this little guy? This was just before he went “off duty”.

Then Candi, Tj and I had some alone time…

Well this has been a MONSTER post, and we haven’t even touched on the party yet! Stay tuned later this week (more likely the beginning of next week) for the second half of this story.