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

I’m super excited to share this amazing wedding with you all! The fabulous ladies at Studio Nouveau are behind this vintage inspired New England wedding. Erica and John got married near the ocean in Gloucester on a beautiful fall day in October, and thankfully Studio Nouveau was there to capture each and every moment.

Stay Tuned for Part II of this beautiful wedding!

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.

So my super fab friend Erica and her hubby John (who are also stellar foodie bloggers) are getting MARRIED! Can you tell I’m excited? Well I was even more excited after I saw their amazing engagement photo shoot  from the super amazing ladies at Boston based  Studio Nouveau.

Engagement photos should be absolutely be 100 percent unique to you as a couple. Generic looks fat on everyone.  Just don’t do it.

Be you.  It’s so much more fun.
And , if you knew Erica and John… you’d know that these are absolute perfection.

Read More…

Congrats E & J! Can’t wait for the wedding!

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!

Ok ladies… here it is. I have been coveting these photos selfishly and having serious wedding ENVY for days because well… they’re just that amazing. Cindy Johnson is INCREDIBLE at what she does, and Laura and Jason’s stunning destination wedding in Turks & Caicos was one of the most beautiful weddings I’ve ever seen… and I’ve seen a lot.

Laura & Jason (who have been together for 8 years!) were married at the Grace Bay Club in beautiful Turks & Caicos (also where Jason proposed) on April 3, 2010.

Before deciding on a destination wedding, the couple went back and forth trying to figure out what to do for their big day. They finally decided on a small and intimate destination wedding with immediate family, followed by a post-wedding reception back in New York City.

From the beautiful bride… It was important to us to have everything leading up to our ceremony be as easy as possible. As our coordinator in Turks and Caicos would say “easy breezy”.  Planning a party for  many people naturally comes with a certain amount of stress and anxiety. So doing it this way we didn’t have as much to worry about and we were able to focus on enjoying some time away, enjoying time with our families and most importantly enjoying the time together.

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.