I figure that the biggest wedding of the year deserves the biggest blog post – so here it is, in all its 70+ picture glory!

My assistant photographer Shone was with the boys while I was with the girls.

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The ceremony was held at the beautiful St. Stanislaus Church on Hudson Ave.

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We were very lucky to have more than two hours in between the ceremony and reception, so thanks to Jillian’s mom who had some great connections, we were allowed inside the Century Club of Rochester for bridal party pictures. What a wonderful place! The Century Club is the oldest private women’s club in Rochester.

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Since it was sprinkling all day, the bridesmaids found a great use for their umbrellas!

I couldn’t believe my luck when, just as we turned into the Cobblestone Creek Country Club, it stopped raining! We took a few golf carts out into the golf course, and took lots and lots of  pictures with just the happy newlyweds.

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The following sequence reminds me of their engagement session in Balboa Park in San Diego!

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Thanks to the fabulous wedding planner Jen from Events by Jen, the reception hall looked immaculate.

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First dance

Toasts

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Paaaartay!

Aaaaugh! Can these rings BE any awesomer?! Will I ever tire of ring shots? NEVER!!!

THE BIG SURPRISE!

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Mmmmm food coma… wedding cake, candy table, cookie table. Sweet tooth heaven!

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I’m not gonna lie, I had a warm fuzzy feeling when I saw people writing in their awesome guest book that I created from the San Diego pictures, and later, when I noticed my images being used on the wine bottle favors.

Thanks to DJ Rich for taking this final picture of the night – and thanks to Jillian and Kyle for having me as your wedding photographer, I had such an amazing time! This was truly a wedding I won’t ever forget! So many great memories were made that day!

I will have the rest of the wedding edited and up on the Online Proof Gallery hopefully by the end of next week, so until then, a teaser:

More images and an online gallery coming in about 2 weeks!

I met Julie two years ago when I photographed Larissa’s wedding. Julie was her maid of honor then – and Larissa was her maid of honor now. What a great turnaround! The whole day was absolutely perfect weather-wise and emotion-wise. We had so much fun!

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Julie’s dad was ready with his own camera – sorry, can’t beat mine!

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Thanks Julie and Eric for such a wonderful celebration! Mike and I enjoyed documenting your day, and I loved doing your goof booth. More folks should have backyard wedding receptions, yours was truly a fabulous experience.

With love,
Kristina
(Rochester wedding photographer)

Thank you guys for having me and Michael at your wedding – I can’t wait for you to see the rest of your wedding day images, and to create your wedding album. And thanks for all the wine!

If you are a future bride of mine, and would like a Goof Booth at your wedding, please contact me for more information. If you were a guest at this wedding, your photo booth images are already up in the PhotoKisses Online Proof Gallery for your enjoyment – you can purchase prints or  download 4×6 size print-ready files!  (The rest of the wedding images will be uploaded in 2-3 weeks, so check back again soon)

As promised, here is a new installment of Brides for Brides. As previously stated, I’m starting a new segment on my blog titled “Brides for Brides” where I will have brides answer a few questions about their wedding and give advice to newly engaged couples how to make their day absolutely perfect and amazing. I bet every new bride gets overwhelmed once in a while, so here’s hoping that “Brides for Brides” will help someone! If you are a prior PhotoKisses bride, feel free to answer these same questions with your own experience in an email, and I will post them here for other brides to see!

Channon got married on September 6, 2009 at St. Ambrose Church in  and had her reception at the Webster Golf Club

What was your favorite part of the day?
My whole day was amazing.. But the moment that I first saw Todd waiting for me at the end of the aisle is when all of my nerves disappeared and I got really excited.

What did you think of your ceremony?
I am definitely thrilled with our choice in venue.  We had contemplated having the ceremony outside but I knew I would worry too much about the weather leading up to the ceremony so we decided to have a church wedding.  I was nervous about having a Catholic ceremony since my family is not Catholic.  Father Bob Werth went out of his way to make everyone feel comfortable.  I loved the memory flowers and candles that we did.  While our cantor was singing Ava Maria we lit a candle for each of our grandparents and Todd’s sister who were all there in spirit.

Did everything go as planned? If not, how did you or your bridal party/family help you deal with the mishaps?
Everyone told me leading up to my day that “something will always go wrong” and to not let it get to me.The only thing that didn’t go as planned was that the florist forgot to bring the vases for the head table for the bouquets to the reception location.  I figured if that was the most horrible thing that went wrong then I was pretty lucky!

What was your vision? What advice would you give to brides looking for wedding themes?
I didn’t set out with a “theme”.  I knew that I wanted pretty colors and to make everything as personal as possible.  Since I love photos and have a ton of Todd and I together, my sister and I made photo centerpieces.  I thought it was a neat way for our guests to see current photos of us as well as pictures from 10 years ago when we started dating.  I have always loved purple so I knew that I would incorporate that somehow.  But while shopping for bridesmaids dresses I wanted something with a little more “pop” so we chose a fuchsia sash.  Then we kinda ran with fuchsia as an accent color.

Did you have any surprises for your guests? How did you make your reception fabulous and memorable?
A couple months before our wedding we met with our videographer and shot a “Love Story” video to be shown at our wedding.  Nobody knew that we had done it and everyone got to watch it right before dinner.  It was the first time that Todd and I got to see it as well.  So many people told me it was their favorite part of the wedding. They had interviewed each of us separately so it was so fun to see what each other had said.  It was a great way for everyone to get to know us as a couple as well as it is something that we will have as a keepsake forever.

How did you choose your vendors?
My main determining factor when choosing my vendors was to go off my “gut feeling”.  I spent a lot of time surfing the internet looking for different vendors, ideas and price ranges.  When I finally sat down with the people that I chose, I had a really good feeling that they understood what I was looking for and were just as excited as I was to make our day special.

What advice would you give to newly engaged ladies just starting to plan their wedding?
Most importantly I would say that this is YOUR day.  Don’t make decisions just to please others.  Also, figure out what is most important to you.  If you love flowers then splurge and get the florist you really want and then maybe cut back a little on another expense that isn’t as important to you.

What advice would you give to the couple on their wedding day?
Enjoy each other.. and spend as much time together as possible.  The day will fly by!  Don’t sweat the small stuff.  This is the beginning of the rest of your amazing life together.

Thanks Channon for helping out!

Channon’s wedding vendors were:
Wedding Ceremony: St. Ambrose Church
Reception: Webster Golf Club
Wedding Photographer: Kristina – PhotoKisses
Florist: Bouquets by Bonnie
Wedding cake: Gruttadauria Bakery
Entertainment: Phenomenon Sound

The girls got ready at home. We were able to use natural window light which made me very happy since I don’t enjoy using artificial light too much.

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The wedding ceremony was held at the beautiful St. Ambrose Church. It was sweet and touching, and the newlyweds had some good laughs.

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Don’t you just love the purple/pink color scheme? Or, rather “eggplant” and “fuchsia”

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We took the bridal party to the Webster park and Arboretum (even though it was closed for renovation, no one stopped us from going in)

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When we got to the Webster Golf Club, we took some family and friend pictures outside while the cocktail hour was going on indoors. Channon’s great mood never faltered, even though it was hot and humid and we had been outside for what felt like forEVAH.

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Thank you guys for having me as your wedding photographer! I had a blast working with you. Both of you are an inspiration to me, carrying on throughout the day with a terrific energy and positive attitudes, lots of smiles and laughter. It was a fantastic celebration!

I am preparing a Brides For Brides post in which Channon answers some questions about her day, so hang tight for a few days and all your questions will be answered, including other vendors I had the pleasure to work with on the Loiacano wedding.

With Love,
Kristina
(Webster Wedding Photographer)

Yelann and Kevin’s wedding in Bristol Harbour was on September 5th, 2009. They got married outside at the gazebo, with wonderful views of Canandaigua Lake in front of them, and had their reception in the newly remodeled Great Room. I arrived in time to catch the girls getting ready and Yelann was just about to get her wedding dress on. I snapped a few quick images of the dress, shoes, bridal bouquets, and other details while the girls were putting on the finishing touches.

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One of my favorite images from the day:

The gorgeous bridal bouquet and bridesmaids flowers were courtesy of Wegmans. Impressive!

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The handsome groom Kevin:

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The ceremony

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Ring exchange

After the perfect wedding ceremony, we took some family formals and then had some fun with the bridal party.

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My associate photographer Will shot this image while I was photographing the guys.

You may have seen this image already, it’s on the header on top of my website. Favorite!

Little Bakery provided the wedding cake

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First dance (you can see how different the ballroom looks from how it was at Kelli’s wedding – gotta love creative minds and different ideas!)

The newly minted Momots and all their wedding guests were able to enjoy an unexpected fireworks show which I have now seen twice at Bristol Harbour.

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For this shot, I placed the wedding rings on a Chinese fan that had a bright red/orange cover. Ring shots are my favorite!

With love,
Kristina
(Rochester Canandaigua wedding photographer)

The day started with the bridal party arriving from the hair salon to finish getting ready at the house. Even though slightly sick, Shari was completely calm and relaxed.  There was no need to rush, which everybody appreciated. We slowly got ready, took some relaxed bridal portraits, and calmly waited for the ceremony to start.

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The ceremony was held in a shaded area by the pond. Shari and Josh’s two awesome dogs participated in it, too! My favorite pastor Jack Porcello officiated.  It was nice to see some familiar faces (just like recently married Dana, we all worked at the same Wegmans together)

Josh’s expression was priceless!

Gorgeous day for a wedding

Shari and Josh kept smiling all during the ceremony.

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Ooops, you got some lipstick there.

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My Wegmans girls from the accounting office.

The bridal party

Sit! Good dogs!

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Josh’s sister gave a very nice toast.

And so did Shari’s sister.

During dancing, we went outside for some photos around the Senator’s Mansion. This was my favorite.

As always, I’m gonna finish with a ring shot. You know how much I love ring shots!

(I’m still playing with this new blog layout, so please let me know if the vertical images aren’t showing up grouped together for you. They should.)

Without further ado, here are my favorites from the 3+ hour engagement session with Jillian and Kyle:

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While in Balboa Park, I saw a perfect spot where it was shaded and the sun was shining just so. Unfortunately, there were about 150 people there gathered for a magician’s street show. Thinking quickly, I positioned Jillian and Kyle in behind a family and in front of some tourists. It looked like the spot was deserted – and yay for that perfect sun spot!

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After Balboa Park, we traveled to Ocean Beach for sunset photos. We managed to get three outfit changes accomplished in less than 30 minutes – all while the sun was racing us to the horizon.

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Jillian is a ballerina in the San Diego Ballet, and Kyle likes to surf. I love it when couples incorporate their personalities into the shoot.

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I enjoyed the trip! Even the blisters on my feet and the nasty cold I brought back with me were totally worth it. Can I drop everything and just move to San Diego already? I love California.

With Love,
Kristina
(Rochester San Diego wedding photographer)