PhotoKisses - Photography by Kristina Juodyte :: Rochester, NY

How can I even begin to describe the awesomeness that was Kate & Tim’s wedding day? WOW. I went to the wedding with a small but important mission - to coax the bride into a mini-photoshoot And she said “no problem, I used to be a model!” WHAT?! YAY! Mission accomplished! The following image will appear on the COVER of the Rochester Wedding Magazine which comes out August-October 2008.

She’s so cute!

And so were the guys.

Their ceremony was in the beautiful Notre Dame Retreat House in Canandaigua NY. Here’s a shot of the ring exchange. All the flowers and decorations were put together by Katelyn and her mom. I LOVED the gladioli displays!

During the whole ceremony it poured as if the sky knew no limit. We had planned to take family pictures outside because the House sits right on the lake, but we had to compromise and instead take all the shots by the altar - which I didn’t mind because of the beautiful decorations! It was funny how, while I was doing the formals, people around and behind me were picking up all the flower petals that had been dropped for the ceremony - and I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I accidentally tripped over someone crouched right behind me! That got a good chuckle out of the families, and everyone was smiley and relaxed for the duration of the photoshoot. And what do you know… right as we finished formals, it stopped raining! So we were able to go outside for some fun shots with the bridal party and the limo.

The sun was peaking through the clouds more and more, so we decided to chance it and go to the pier on Canandaigua Lake.

I haven’t mentioned yet that Katelyn’s veil was suuuuuuuuper long!

Yummy kisses

We had so much fun on the lake. We did jumping shots (look for one in the Showcase), kissing shots, girls AND guys showing off their legs shots, you name it! It was such a pleasure to work with such a relaxed and fun wedding party! After the lake, we went to Ravenwood Golf Club. They have an awesome garden in the back, complete with colorful flowers and even a waterfall.

From there on, the night progressed in a pretty standard way. Introductions, first dance, toasts, dinner, cake cutting, and dance dance dance!

Bottoms up!

A few minutes after the shot above was taken, I was hearing things like “you made our day so much fun!” and “we really enjoyed working with you!” I hope that wasn’t just the alcohol talking

Thanks Katelyn and Tim for such an awesome day! I’m so glad it stopped raining after your ceremony. Thanks for being such an awesome model Kate, and thanks for being so laid back, relaxed, and fun the WHOLE day!

Take a look at the SHOWCASE for more images of this awesome wedding. And if you are family or friends, also make sure to check out the full gallery of over 700 images!

Oh, and here’s one more shot of yours truly in action. What a handsome groom to work with! And that’s definitely NOT a big butt. I wear a waist pack that contains batteries, cards, and yes, even hairspray! LIFE SAVER I tell you!

Melissa and Dave got married in the town of North Tonawanda which my GPS says is close to Buffalo NY. First it took us to the Amherst Ramada hotel where Melissa had just finished getting ready and was snacking on finger foods and waiting for me and my assistant Kim to arrive.  The girls were very eager to get their pictures taken. Melissa had a great idea of doing some pictures on the big staircase and of course I took her up on it, because I LOVE it when brides have creative ideas! We also took a lot of pictures on the second floor landing because the light there was so yummy!

Sneaky sneaky Kim! Stealing shots of me in action again.

Here’s my perspective.

The ceremony was very nice. Melissa walked down the aisle by herself, but she was greeted by her mom at the end to be given a kiss and a hug.

There was a limo for the bridal party, but Dave and Melissa got their own awesome car.

One of the couple’s friends had suggested a nearby park as a possibility for bridal party pictures. You go, friend! The park was fantabulous, complete with luscious greenery and waterfalls!

Here’s a shot of Dave with his entourage…

… and a portrait of him alone.

The guys wanted fun pictures, so they decided that it would be a great idea to pick Dave up and have him lay across their hands. It didn’t work so well…

But it worked with Melissa! She was freaking out and laughing at the same time. It was hillarious!

We also got some jumping shots. See, told you they were full of creative ideas!

After a while, we let the bridal party go back to their limo, and took Melissa and Dave to a quiet spot near a pond under a huge tree. They hung out there for a little bit and just relaxed.

With just a bit of directed posing, we got this awesome shot. My favorite!!!

After the park, it was time for reception to start. So we drove back to the Ramada for the party. The hall was decorated beautifully, with blue accents throughout - just like the bridesmaids’ dresses. First up was cake cutting, which came dangerously close to being cake-smashing-in-face!

At this point I should probably mention that there were a lot of people that I recognized. We all went to SUNY Fredonia together (Melissa graduated a year before me and Dave was in the music program at the same time that I was). So there were a bunch of people I went to school with, which made the party a whole lot more fun! We were all very relaxed around each other and I was able to get great pictures because people didn’t mind posing for me and doing silly things - you’ll have to watch the showcase to see those images

Here’s a sweet moment… the members of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia singing the “Serenade To a Girl”

After some very energetic Polish polkas and very sweet slow dances, Dave and the guys went outside for some cigars.

And with that, the night was over. I almost wished that I could stay and party all night long (the music was fantastic!), but Kim and I had a long drive ahead of us to go back to Rochester. So we bid farewell and headed out - but not before we got big giant hugs from the newlyweds!

Thanks Dave and Melissa for being such an easygoing couple, for being “OK” with the ceremony/GPS glitch, for being so creative with artistic posing, for the amazing tip, and for being so stinkin gorgeous! And as usual, my parting words are: SHOWCASE (see a few more of my favorite pictures from this wedding) and PROOF GALLERY (if you are a friend or family AND have the access code AND want to see all 800 images)

Thanks guys! I had a blast!!!

Hi!!! Missed me? I missed YOU!

I’ve had a week’s worth of long and frustrating hours, because my computer is just too slow for this kind of work… grrr… move it, move it!!! It has decided that since I plugged in TWO external hard drives (a main one and a back up one) PLUS a bazillion gigabyte card reader PLUS a printer and other paraphernalia, that its USB ports no longer want to be 2.0 superstars. So for the whole week it has been chugging along - or rather, limping - to its own tune of 1.1 USB speed. Thus all my editing work took waaaay too much time! I get so impatient when I see amazing wedding images, and I want them on my screen NOW so I can edit them NOW and not 10 minutes from now when Photoshop finally decides to import them.

Anyway…. (breathe, breathe) I am finally at the last stage of this weekend’s wedding. I started out with 2300+ images, which throughout the process got narrowed down to 895 amazing shots. Everything has been edited, designed, and uploaded. I am now waiting for the print proofs to come back, at which point the whole sweet package will go to the happy newlyweds.

As always, there is a SHOWCASE for you to look at. It contains a condensed version of the whole day, and I will share some of the images here as well.

We started the day at Larissa’s house. She got ready in her fantabulous red room with lots of childhood memories and great natural light:

Isn’t she gorgeous?

Chris isn’t so bad looking himself!

We spent about an hour at the bride’s house taking pictures of her and her bridesmaids as well as her parents.

Larissa wore a simple yet elegant dress with a pretty lace back and a frilly train. It fit her perfectly.

One of the sweetest moments of the day happened when Larissa received a gift from her fiance. She read the card out loud which made all of us tear up. And she received a Yankees jersey which is what she has always wanted.

I got to work with amazing wedding professionals, which made the event go very smoothly and without glitches (I’ll include the vendor list at the bottom of this blog). Bonnie Goldsmith is an amazing florist who works with fresh wedding flowers, and you should’ve heard the girls oooh’ing and aaaa’ing over their flowers!

The ceremony was held in Browncroft Church.  This is the second time I’ve shot there, so I knew what to expect - I had to crank up the ISO and make sure I had steady hands, because the church is quite dark.

After the ceremony there was a flower toss which I thought was very cute and romantic!

After doing some formals in the church, we went to Shadow Lake where reception was to take place. I always enjoy photographing weddings at Shadow Lake because it is such a great location with lots of romantic spots for pictures.

My assistant snagged this gorgeous shot as the sun began to set

They are such an awesome couple and I went totally crazy with the pictures. I don’t have enough space here to show them all. I couldn’t stop shooting! :D  After an hour or so we finally had to stop because reception was about to begin. Everyone got introduced, and Larissa and Chris danced their first dance as husband and wife.

During dinner I borrowed the rings so I could play with them for a few shots. I noticed that both of them have tiny fingers. Eat more cake, guys!

And they did!

Larissa got a group of her girlfriends together for a memory shot

The bouquet toss was a success, and I’m saying that because there’s this big beam in the middle of the dance floor that could’ve easily been hit. What can I say, Larissa has good aim.

There was one other professional photographer at the event

There was lots and lots of dancing, wiggling, jumping, and flailing, thanks to Turner Productions.

Thank you Larissa and Chris for letting me celebrate with you, it was a great party and I had so much fun! What a great couple and a great way to start my wedding season.  Oh, and that dress looks like Trash The Dress material! Seriously! Let me know if you’d be interested in a TTD session

Don’t forget to check out the SHOWCASE, and if you are family or friends, the PROOF GALLERY for all 895 images.

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• Ceremony: Browncroft Community Church
• Reception: Shadow Lake Country Club
• Florist: Bouquets by Bonnie
• DJ: Pierre from Turner Productions
• Videographer: Deb from SE Video

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