Ya’ll know I’m a sucker for a good southern wedding. Especially if it’s in Charleston, SC. Tiffany and Richard had 200 of their closest friends and family join them to celebrate their special day from as far away as California, Colorado, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, New York and North Carolina… just to name a few. A traditional church ceremony followed by a cocktail hour with steel drums, and a Soul band to kick-off the reception kept guests on their feet. And when the night was over… there’s only one way off Shem Creek… boat. Love.

Beautiful bride by a beautiful tree

Vendors:
Ceremony/Reception Venue: St. Paul’s Lutheran Church / The Landing on Shem Creek
Invites / Programs: Invitations~ American Wedding Programs~ DIY
Flowers: Dale Wallace
Favors: DIY
Dress: Bridals by Jodi
Tuxes: Charpia’s
Shoes: Jean’s Bridal
Photographer: Chi Photography
DJ / Band: Cocktail Hour- Steel Drum/ Reception- Reality Show Band
Cateror: Café Catering

I can’t even begin to explain how excited I am to share this BEAUTIFUL wedding with you all! I wish I could show you all the photos from this wedding, but instead, you get just the snapshot best of the best from the super talented Becky Hill. Caitlin is one of my most wonderful friends, and one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen. And I’m not just saying that. You’ll see.

Seriously.

Right? And how about those bridesmaids… and the flowers!

I mean… beautiful. And even cuter together.

Seriously how cute are they?

It was a beautiful summer wedding, with clean, simple, classic decor to match.

And cake. There always must be cake.

Vendor Info:
Photography: Becky Hill
Dress: Pronovias
Bridesmaid dresses: Coren Moore
Men’s tuxes: Men’s Wearhouse
Venues: Sacred Heart Catholic Church (Winnetka, IL) and Chicago Botanic Gardens
Caterer: Calihan Catering

The wait was worth it… Here are some more amazing photos from Erica & John’s New England wedding. Part I just wasn’t enough. Credit goes to the superb ladies at Studio Nouveau. The rocked it.

Happy New Year! I know, I know… I fell off the world again. I’m sorry. I realized I was sucking out on last year’s resolution to blog every day when I got an email telling me to renew my domain name. Big fat Oops. Apologies.

I’m pretty excited about 2011. I’m not gonna lie. I have a whole slew of super fun things planned, and I cannot wait. This years wedding bring a whole lot of fun events in Baltimore, NYC, West Palm Beach, Virginia Beach, Saratoga, and potentially Utah. But I’ll get to that.

I kicked off 2011  with my beautiful friend Lisa’s wedding. She married an Aussie. A super sweet, wonderful, kind, smokin’ Aussie, she met while traveling abroad. I can say he’s “smokin’” by the way,  because that’s what he said…to her father… at the wedding.

“Joel, your daughter is smokin’… this wedding is smokin’.”

And it was.

I wonder if “smokin” is different in Aussie land?

Either way, this was one of the most beautiful ceremonies I have ever attended, and you know I’ve been to a couple. Lisa is Jewish. Jeremy is not. They had what I a traditional ceremony, peppered with all of the pieces that make up the two of them. It was personal, unique yet incredibly respectful to tradition. At one point, and I highly recommend this, the rabbi turned to the mass of guests, frantically raised cameras, aimlessly pushing buttons trying to capture as much as they could on film, and said, “Ok. Lisa, Jeremy, turn around. I want everyone here to take your pictures now. It’s wonderful that you are here to share this special day with this couple, and wonderful that you want to have memries of this moment. It is quite another to be present in a moment as special as this with these two people, and remember it because you were here.”

Bam. Well played.

The rabbi spoke about Lisa and Jeremy, giving guests snippets of what the day was like when they met, even going so far as incorporating what Lisa wrote in her journal the day they met, and  what Jeremy said to her before he left to travel on to their next destination after they met. But it wasn’t cheesy. It was very sweet.

They danced their first dance to Beast of Burden because that’s them, and it would have been wrong any other way. There were people that had traveled from Australia, Sweden, the UK, and down the block, around the corner and across town. It was wodnerful, and an excellent way to kick-off the new year.

So Happy 2011. Way to kick it off my lil Aussies.

A vintage bride, cool fall weather, and a seriously breathtaking backdrop.  Gloucester, MA in the fall. Add a wedding, and it’s pretty much perfect. It was an amazing day full of laughter, and dancing with old friends, and new (including the super amazing Lauren Donovan of Laurel Events. Love her.)  And of course, who better to capture the incredible shots of E&J than Kate and Lara from Studio Nouveau. They’re the ones behind E&J’s super sweet engagement shots, and in-person they’re on point, innovative and super fun! Love! More to come from them, but first, just a taste of E&J’s wedding, the finale to my wedding season this year.  A perfect seaside wedding.

When I met Natalie and she told me she was engaged, I couldn’t wait to see her wedding photos. The girl is GORGEOUS. Put her in a white dress and call her a bride… I knew these photos would be amazing, and per usual… I was right. These two lived so close together growing up, went to the same high school, but fell in love in Boston 6 years later! Their story, and amazing wedding day was featured on Shutterbooth Rhode Island, an awesome “Shot Box” photo booth concept based out of Rhode Island, who also happens to be life long friends with the bride and groom. Amazing. The day started with thunder and rain… dread. Every bride’s nightmare. But ironically, Natalie’s favorite part.

from the bride… I guess my personal favorite part of that day was the weather. It started off with thunderstorms and a very thick fog over Newport so I was a mess!!! But then the sun came out and we were able to have our ceremony outside.

Seriously… they are perfect. Here are some amazing shots from the super talented Bella Pictures. Love.

Turns out the bottle dance, that I experienced for the first time at Jenn & Jason’s New England wedding abounds… at least in other New England states.

Congratulations Natalie & Trevor!

This is a pretty special wedding. Not only does the bride share my name,  which is AWESOME, but the groom is one of my oldest and dearest friends. When Tom and Nina got married in Westchester, NY they had all of their friends and family present for their very special day, which lasted into the early hours of the morning. It was a great party, with wonderful food, and drinks, music and lots and lots of dancing.

From Melinda at the talented Milton Gil Photographers, here are some of the highlights from Nina and Tom’s summer wedding in Westchester, and of course, some commentary from the bride.

From the bride… I think I started planning the wedding about 5 minutes after Tom proposed. I can’t help it, I’m Type A. Of course my mom pulled out a stack of venue ads almost on cue, so that apple didn’t fall far. My parents offered us a destination wedding- take family and close friends to an island somewhere and make a vacation out of it, but Tom and I knew we wanted the big celebration with ALL the people who are important to us… and so 16 months of planning, organizing, appointments, and projects began.

From the bride… I was nervous the morning of the wedding- not about getting married but that something would go wrong after what seemed like endless planning. Ok, so I have a tendency to worry a little more than necessary. Once I was in my dress and ready though, all of the nerves kind of melted away and I just found myself enjoying every moment. I had this amazing feeling of genuine happiness all day long.

From the bride… It’s hard to choose a favorite part of the day, because over all it was a dream come true, as corny as that sounds. If I had to pick, taking pictures with Tom after the ceremony would be it. That was pretty much the only time all day it was just the two of us. Spending that time together before the reception and letting it sink in that we were MARRIED was pretty wonderful.

Oh, I just love me these destination weddings. I can’t even handle it. This beautiful Hawaiian wedding comes to us from fab photog Randi Voss. Love the super relaxed style Laura and Don wanted to incorporate into their destination wedding.

Laura and Don met through mutual friends seven years ago. The couple decided on a destination wedding because they didn’t want the hassle of planning a traditional wedding.

From the bride… We live in a small town where things can easily spiral out of control with regards to guest lists; also there aren’t many venues to choose from. We wanted something as unique as we are.  Donnie was always interested in going to Hawaii for a wedding and after talking to a navy friend who is stationed there, we started planning only in February for a may wedding…

The couple married Saturday May 8, 2010 at Wainmalo beach park by Hawaii Weddings, and is planning a 400 person luau in September with all the relaxed style of their destination wedding. They plan on featuring a picnic style reception at a golf course, allowing guests to filter in and out throughout the day.

From the bride… [Hawaii Weddings] were amazing with customer service; they provided license information, limo service, travel advice, etc….highly recommended…also, they are located away from the concentration of tourists, so the service was personal despite being held in a public setting (all beach access is public in Hawaii)

From the bride… The most important thing to us when we were plannning the entire trip was to keep everything from reaching planning overload. We went for simplicity and focused the day on us, not whether or not there were appropriate party favors and coordinating table linens.

From the bride… As far as vendors: Randi was the only photographer I considered from the start and was fortunate to be able to have her available on such short notice!  I bought my dress from David’s Bridal (from their destination wedding collection of course) but really complimented my style… it was custom altered by an independent Italian tailor in downtown Pittsburgh (I had worked with him before and he is absolutely AMAZING)

The thing I love about Laura and Don… they didn’t sweat the details. They wanted this wedding to be all about them, so the things that most brides stress over for months… they left until the last minute. How cool is that? Very cool couple.

From the bride… We did not purchase flowers or rings in advance to arriving in Hawaii. I used a foam hair clip sold in every convenience store in Waikiki…. also, jewelry stores were plentiful and extremely accommodating!

Another great thing about Laura and Don’s wedding, was good friends with good jobs. Laura’s friend Jen Show is an independent travel agent, and was able to work with her to secure a hotel, flight, car rental, and reception dinner reservations for their whole crew of family and friends!

From the bride… Jen made everything MUCH easier…. we would talk about my intentions, review prices, etc and she made it happen… I couldn’t have done it without her!!!

Special thanks to Randi Voss photography! Laura, thanks so much for sharing your beautiful wedding with us! Hope you had an amazing time in Hawaii!

You know how some people get really excited at Christmas? Yeah… I get that way when my favorite photographers send me incredible destination weddings from places like Turks & Caicos, and Nicaragua. Hello magical.

Yes. Stellar photographer Cindy Johnson is really, really amazing, and somehow always gets to go and shoot these incredible destination weddings. Seriously, what memo did I miss to have this not be my life? Sigh.

I was going to wait and show you these, but I can’t. I can’t, I’m just too excited! I’m just going to tease you with a little bit of heavenly wedding candy,  you only get three, and then you have to  go to bed and wait … Stay tuned.

So one of my favorite photographers, Randi Voss spent the last week in Hawaii.

“Doing what,” you may ask.

Shooting this beautiful, amazing, magical wedding.

Sigh.

This is her job.

Jealous.

More to come.