Seriously, are you kidding me with those shoes?!  If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know I’m a big sucker for awesome shoes. These went  outside the definition of awesome. I was totally in love!

Krystle’s beautiful lace dress

Putting on the final touches

See, told you she was beautiful!

Unfortunately, the day turned out to be quite dreary. Krystle waited in the car until the last possible minute to see if the rain would let up, with no luck.  I was glad to see her smiling anyway! Nothing was going to spoil this girl’s day!

The ceremony took place in one of the rooms at Burgundy Basin. I enjoyed seeing a few different traditions performed here, and also that her dad stood there with the rest of her wedding party.

When you have such a sunny disposition, how can it stay dreary? The rain stopped as the ceremony was winding down, and we were able to go outside for family formals and fun bridal party shots.

I have a thing for billowy dresses. I often ask brides to twirl for me

Isn’t she the cutest flowergirl EVER?! And also twirling!

She’s bringing sexy back. Just so you know.

Cutting cake with the newly minted hubby.

First dance

Krystle is actually a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Steel Drum Band and they graciously agreed to play at her wedding. How awesome is that!

Thanks Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin for a great day, for chasing the rain clouds away, and for being so much fun!

I shot my first Burgundy Basin wedding this month (and then promptly proceeded to shoot a second one there the very next week).  The day was overcast – which is perfect for pictures! – but also very humid and threatening to rain. It seems like we’ve had a lot of those days here in Rochester this year, no? The “i think it’s going to rain, but it may not” kind of days. Sigh.

Mimi got ready at Brookwood Inn, where we noticed two more brides and their entourages walking around – later we figured out that all three weddings were taking place at Burgundy Basin!  Anyway, Mimi got a beautiful room with huge windows, which we were able to use for some naturally lit portraits. I arrived early enough to take my usual pictures of the details – the dress, the shoes, the fan and umbrella.

Her wedding dress was beautiful and fit her perfectly

Relaxing for a while (oooh la la wedding gloves!)

This was taken outside Brookwood Inn on a little bridge that Mimi found. Gotta love adventurous and creative brides!

Meanwhile, Joe was pacing around his hotel room, waiting for festivities to start.

The couple opted to have their ceremony indoors due to heavy rain clouds coming our way. I must say I wasn’t a fan of the dark venue and the fact that guests had to sit at their tables. However it’s much better than getting soaked in the rain! Mimi looked radiant as she walked down the aisle. I love how in this pictures she is all smiles while dad is holding on real tight and probably thinking of the moment he will have to give his daughter away.

Married!

Someone recently said “I don’t see many (any) formal shots in your portfolio, why is that?” See, I photograph them at every wedding, but if you’re not family, these will not have any meaning to you. I’d rather blog more fun stuff. But yes, I do shoot family formals every time.

Bridal party “informals” are way more fun. I asked the bridesmaids to show more hip, and Mimi thought I was talking to her

They had the hardest time trying not to smile.

My fantabulous assistant Amanda shot from a different angle than the teaser I showed you last week, and got this awesome image.

Then it was time for reception inside Burgundy Basin – and toasts from Joe’s dad/best man.

How cute is this cake topper?!

Dance with dad

There are at least three things of significance in this shot. I love experimenting with rings.

The bouquet toss took three tries and the garter was tossed twice. Some people just aren’t meant for sports.

The highlight of my night – the Polish unveiling. Being a Lithuanian myself, I have a soft spot for traditions that hail from my part of the world. It was a wonderful ceremony to celebrate Mimi’s heritage.

The bride’s veil gets removed and a matronly cap is put on, which symbolizes the bride becoming a woman. I have no clue what the funky hat with the fruit and sausage on Joe’s head means!

Congratulations to the Manfridas! It was such a pleasure to photograph your wedding, especially since we never had a chance to meet beforehand. I may just have to come out to Arizona to visit you guys sometime! I hope you enjoyed your honeymoon.  And for guests and family who were at the wedding, the whole wedding is posted in my PhotoKisses online proof gallery. Enjoy!

Last weekend I had my first wedding at Burgundy Basin. I came home with almost 2500 pictures! Definitely one of the most “shutter-happy” weddings I’ve done. I couldn’t help myself – Mimi and Joe were such a joy to work with. Because of this, I am estimating my edit time to be a bit longer, closer to 2 weeks this time – so if you were a guest at the wedding and picked up one of the event cards, come back on July 26th to see all the pictures from this wedding. In the mean time, here’s a small teaser. Thanks Mimi and Joe for being so enthusiastic about your photo time! I couldn’t have asked for a more fun couple.

In other news, I recently joined Wedding Wire, which is a service that helps brides pick the perfect vendors for their wedding. I would really appreciate if my past brides and grooms would leave me a review!

Review PhotoKisses at WeddingWire

At long last, here are my favorite wedding dress pictures of the year!

Coming up next – favorite celebration pictures

Thanks for your responses and requests to see brides’ dresses! I will get to that in my next post – but first, BRIDESMAIDS! What would you ever do without them? I absolutely adore colorful bridesmaids dresses, and I’m so thankful they don’t wear poofy sleeves and poofy cinderella skirts anymore. The modern dresses have such a classy yet fresh and youthful look. And of course lots of color!

So, continuing the saga of my favorite photographs from my 2008 weddings, here are some cute and colorful bridesmaid dresses.

Next up – brides dresses!

Now that I have shown you some of my favorite ring shots from my ’08 weddings, let’s move on to SHOES. Elegant, funky, white, red, sky high, flat… I’ve seen them all!

And bonus – totally rad groom shoes as well!

What shall I do next? Cake shots? Dresses?  What would you like to see?

I shot 33 weddings in 2008, each one fun and unique! I have decided to do a small photo series of some of my favorite shots. First up in line – the rings. I love photographing the rings, because they are such a beautiful symbol of the couple’s promise to spend their lives together. I usually ask my brides and grooms to give me the rings for a few minutes during the reception, and I find interesting places to photograph them in.

…as close ups on the hand

On flowers…

On ribbons…

On wedding favors…

Even food and drink…

And then of course there’s totally random places…

And even hidden in the maid of honor’s sash.