Tiffany & Chris 09.13.09

June 24th, 2010 @ 12:58 pm | 0 comments

I don’t usu­sally start my blog this way, but Tif­fany & Chris were a last minute wed­ding and I think it best to let her tell it in her own words!

“Melissa was a life savor for my now hus­band Chris and I. Two weeks before our wed­ding we found out that our pho­to­grapher we had boo­ked could no lon­ger shoot us. I was in a panic. I was telling my hair­dres­ser about the situa­tion we were in, she recom­men­ded Melissa to us. She was won­der­ful, I called her about 10 days before the wed­ding, and she meet with me right away. She was super sweet and really lis­te­ned to what Chris and I had wan­ted and to what was impor­tant to us for our big day. She was in con­tact with us and kept us up to date on our photo’s. When we got our photo’s I was speech­less. I watched the slideshow’s not once but twice and cried every­time. Our pic­tu­res were BEAUTIFUL!!! She cap­tu­red moments I don’t remem­ber hap­pe­ning. I love love love our wed­ding photo’s. Chris and I can not thank Melissa enough for giving us won­der­ful photo’s of our spe­cial day. I would recom­mend Melissa Koren Pho­to­graphy to any bride and groom that is loo­king for a pho­to­grapher for their big day!!!”

That’s right — can you ima­gine? You have all your ducks in a row, you’re ready to get married, and wham — your pho­to­grapher just up and backs out. I was SO SO SO happy when Tiff called me. We were in the middle of pac­king & buying our house and it was a busy Sep­tem­ber. I remem­ber retur­ning her voi­ce­mail and saying I can defi­ni­tely help you out — but only if it’s the 13th. And it was! My thanks to her hair­dres­ser Amy, was one half of the fabu­lous Amy & Greg who were married at The Mar­gate in June 2008. 

Ok, enough story! More pic­tu­res! I arri­ved at Amy’s salon just as the finishing touches were being applied.

The youn­gest flo­wer girl was not quite sure what to make of me or my camera — she war­med up to me by the end though :)

Tiff & her sis­ters get­ting everything in order and ready to go.

She crept down the stairs to see her Daddy who was wai­ting there BEAMING from ear to ear. I totally cried. They are such a sweet and loving family.

Then it was into her dad’s truck to go to the Church. Little did her dad know that Tiff had a trick up her sleeve. P.S. Isn’t she too cute? She totally remin­ded me of Drew Barry­more — a great gig­gle & infec­tious smile and just happy and lovely.

Tif­fany told her dad she for­got something and had him swing back — where he found out she had hired this GORGEOUS car as a sur­prise for him to take them to the church. 

Being so last minute, this was the first chance I had to meet Chris. I gave him a quick hello and a reas­su­ring smile and watched him watch his bride walk down the aisle.

Married!!

This car was h.o.t. hot — my dad was part of the “Cadi­llac Club” when I was a kid so clas­sic cars are sort of part of my upbrin­ging. I don’t know the details but I can sure appre­ciate their awe-​someness! And I couldn’t resist a little fish-​eye fun — it looks like a mini-​mobile!

Then we hea­ded to The Oaks  in Somers­worth, NH. I was speech­less — it was so beau­ti­ful! We had a great time doing the newly­wed­ded pho­tos! :)

Tif­fany got Chris the watch as a wed­ding gift — and I love LOVE LOVE the brushed sil­ver cuff links. Class acts these two!

Thank you wind for get­ting in my shot ;)

Pink! I have to say these were the most fun & color­ful cen­ter­pie­ces I’ve seen. I love the candy & the vivid­ness of it!

These two docu­ment everything! He even had the video camera set up when he asked Tiff to marry him — I so cried when I saw it!!

Yay! Time for cake!

Such a proud daddy!!

And then it was time to get down! Get Funky!

I love the back­ground in this photo — body lan­guage can be a riot!

hmm… I won­der who’ll get the garter..

Tiff & Chris — I’m so so sorry you had to go through the stress of not kno­wing who your wed­ding pho­to­grapher was going to be, but I’m glad that Amy men­tio­ned me and that I was able to step in! I had a blast!! Thank you a million times over!

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

follow along on ‘the facebook’! 

Tags: , , , | leave a comment

Audrey & Justin 09.12.09

May 20th, 2010 @ 1:30 pm | 2 comments

Audrey & Jus­tin hos­ted their wed­ding in Ply­mouth, NH. The cere­mony was at the Greenhouse at the Ita­lian Farmhouse and the get­ting ready and recep­tion were at the Com­mon Man Inn, all part of the Com­mon Man family! These loca­tions were anything but common!

I arri­ved to the first get­ting ready room and imme­dia­tely spot­ted these two details — I don’t know which is bet­ter, the awe­some hair comb in Audrey’s bou­quet or the flo­wers in the wine bottle. 

Cheers!

The boys were get­ting ready in the same loca­tion, just one room over and they nee­ded to move Audrey to the final get­ting ready room to get dres­sed so they were all loo­king to see if they could catch a glimpse of an empty hallway — 

When the coast was clear they made a mad dash with Melissa guar­ding the boys’ exit next door. It was very ‘mis­sion impossible-​esque’ 

Made it safe and sound! This is such a great room! 

Audrey just loo­king stun­ning & her mom and sis­ter saying hello. I love good hugs. 

Some fun pla­ces to pho­to­graph the dress & shoes

Audrey’s gor­geous make-​up was a joint effort bet­ween her­self and her bri­des­maid Jamie :) 

After Melissa finished guar­ding the boys’ door she got all dolled up and came to the bri­dal suite. She was stop­ped in her tracks when she saw the smo­kin’ hot dress han­ging from the ant­ler chandelier. 

Her sis­ter Sarah helps get her into her dress while her mom & bri­des­maids look on. Mom is clutching on to Jen’s hand with a look of exci­te­ment and pride. 

More help from Jamie in get­ting finished up 

Gram loo­ked gor­geous! I like how well these two snug­gle together. 

Audrey’s mom had sco­ped out this great brick room so we detou­red through the inn before hea­ding off to the ceremony. 

Audrey’s brother, gram & mom and Jus­tin being escor­ted down the aisle by his folks. 

Wow. Just wow. This moment gets me every time but when I pai­red these two shots for the blog I felt like I was there again and I could feel how tan­gi­ble the look bet­ween them is as they pre­pare to say their vows. 

Their dear friend Ben per­for­med the cere­mony. It was so per­so­nal and heart­felt and full of anec­do­tes. Laugh­ter & tears came and went throughout the whole time.

How ama­zing is this venue!? 

I’m pretty sure Ben called Jus­tin out on something he’d done and Audrey agreed! 

One of the things that never occu­rred to me when I star­ted shoo­ting wed­dings is the immense con­cen­tra­tion it takes to adorn your loved one with a wed­ding band. In this ins­tance, Ben ope­ned the box for Jus­tin to take Audrey’s ring and ins­tead he reached for his and as he went to put it on her rea­li­zed that it was the wrong thing! I mean just look at the size of Justin’s hand hol­ding Audrey’s tiny dainty ring. :-D 

Once they got the bands right it was time to seal the deal. They’re so romantic. 

The sky had threa­te­ned serious rain a few times, but it knew bet­ter than to try and washout this bunch. 

High Five!

The girls had pre­sen­ted Audrey with these OMG cute boots & umbre­lla just in case and I can’t thank them enough for pro­vi­ding some extra fun shots! 

More roc­kin’ bri­dal party entran­ces — Go Long! (is that the right term? I’m about as sports illi­te­rate as they come) 

She smi­led this smile the whole night. WHAT A DIP! 

This was a first for me then — best man speech off the iPhone. He had a hard time hol­ding the mic and scro­lling at the same time. I bet he wished the iPad was out then! 

The cake was so deli­cate but I couldn’t resist pla­ying with my fisheye on the flowers.

They were equally as deli­cate with each other when they sha­red a first bite. 

I Love. Love. Love how Jus­tin can enve­lope Audrey’s whole tiny being with just one arm. She looks so safe and secure and he still has a free hand! 

Loo­king gla­mo­rous and Jus­tin dan­cing with his grandmother. 

Both her dad and his mom look lost in thoughts of their jour­ney with their kids through this point. 

Then it was time to get down! 

They tried to tell me that Sarah, Audrey’s sis­ter had just given birth to twins a few months prior and I refu­sed to believe it — then these little dudes made their cameo at the recep­tion. TOO CUTE! (and wow Sarah, wow.) :) 

It’s come to my atten­tion that I like to take pic­tu­res of crazy dancing. Thank you all for deli­ve­ring for me. 

They can’t all be crazy - but jud­ging by the other move­ment on the dance floor I’m not sure this was really a slow song, I think Audrey & Jus­tin were just lost in a moment. And I love that about them.

Audrey & Jus­tin — thank you both so much for hono­ring me with the oppor­tu­nity to be your pho­to­grapher. Your wed­ding was so full of love. It was a plea­sure to be a part of ~MelissaKoren

Thank you so the beau­ti­ful pic­tu­res! They came out gor­geous… I can’t wait to start sen­ding them around to people! ~Audrey

follow along on ‘the facebook’!

Tags: , , , , , | leave a comment

Chelsea & George 09.05.09

May 19th, 2010 @ 10:48 pm | 0 comments

And here we are at Sep­tem­ber! Chel­sea & George kic­ked off the busy month with a beau­ti­ful and f.u.n. wed­ding at Purity Springs in Madi­son, NH.

Chel­sea and the girls were just finishing up with final touches when I arri­ved. I love this photo on the right, its that look I some­ti­mes catch just when the rea­lity hits. When the dress is on and you look in the mirror and you think — today I’m actually going to be someone’s wife. And Stepha­nie looks so proud to wit­ness that moment too.

Their lake­side wed­ding was lovely — but no where near as lovely as how George gazes as Chel­sea. In the left hand pic­ture he was unsure if he should stay or go meet her. So cute.

Their parents watched in love and awe that their chil­dren were get­ting married! 

So pretty! 

Once these two were asked to kiss, they didn’t stop for the rest of the night! I snag­ged the right hand photo as they were wal­king away from the cere­mony com­ple­tely obli­vious to anyone else being even remo­tely close! (thanks telephoto lens) 

I don’t gene­rally post this many “for­mals” but as you’ll see, we had so much fun it was not the stan­dard for­mals ses­sion! It was hard for me to cut back to just this many! Don’t be afraid to have fun guys! Having peo­ple that make you feel rela­xed and happy in your wed­ding is so crucial! And if they can just about bench press you even bet­ter ;)

While they did get him into the hori­zon­tal groom posi­tion — this ‘get­ting there’ shot was priceless! 

In case you didn’t recog­nize it, they’re “Captaining”

One sweet and sim­ple. I love the girls ger­bera dai­sies the colors are so perfect.

Chel­sea makes it look easy! 

Where’s George? 

I love them all! 

I dis­mis­sed the rest of the group for a few moments with the newly­weds. … Still Kissing!

And then — just when I thought there was a cap to the group fun level — - they brought out the wheel­ba­rrow. HECK YES!

Yay wed­ding!

The co-​best man gave a tag team co-​speech that had the whole place in laughter!

Looks lovely and serene from the outside, no? ;)

Those gerbera’s again — such a great color scheme! And so much fabu­lous candy that matched!

I love this shot :)

Look at the deter­mi­na­tion on her face.

Duck! Pow — right in the kisser. 

As you might have noti­ced these two are a hoot so when I saw them over in the cor­ner gig­gling with the camera I had to know what was going on! 

Dan­cing the night away!

George looks pretty in pur­ple ;)

Wheeeeeee! 

As the sun got lower we snuck out for a few more shots. I’ll be honest, when this came up on my screen as I was edi­ting them I got a little teary eyed. It so sums up these two and how they desc­ri­bed to me what they wan­ted for their wed­ding when we first met.

Back inside the dan­cing was off the hook. (Off the hook? do peo­ple even SAY that any­more??) Well, I do.

The night star­ted to wind down but the dan­cing kept going. 

I took my leave of these two and the were still kissing!

Thank you Chel­sea, George & crew for having me at this ama­zing affair and making me feel so part of the pack and thank you so much for your lovely words below.

Melissa was fan­tas­tic! She was the second pho­to­grapher that we met with for our Sept 2009 wed­ding and we knew right away that she was the one for us. She was so easy to talk to, her price was just right for us, and she didn’t try to sway us with a salesman-​type approach (which we were really tur­ned off from with the 1st pho­to­grapher). When the big day came, Melissa was right there to cap­ture it all in such a non-​intrusive way. We had a very fun, somewhat crazy bri­dal party and Melissa see­med to be the per­fect match for them. We had such a great time taking the family and bri­dal party shots. Melissa recently sent us the link with all of our pho­tos finished and we were soo impres­sed! I didn’t want to stop loo­king at them! We would highly recom­mend Melissa Koren Pho­to­graphy to anyone loo­king for a great pho­to­grapher in NH!

Tags: , , , | leave a comment

Corey’s Senior Photos 08.30.09

May 19th, 2010 @ 1:40 pm | 0 comments

How to make me feel old -

1) Make a really good friend fresh­man year in high school and become close with her and attend her family func­tions and get to know her tiny cousins.

2) Tell me one of those tiny cou­sins is about to BE A SENIOR in High School. 

That’s about it. At least for this lesson.

Corey was a great sport and super pho­to­ge­nic (if you ask his mom he got it from her..;))

We met up at one of my favo­rite pla­ces, Great Island Com­mon in New Castle, NH on what star­ted out as a gor­geous afternoon. 

Then as we wal­ked out on the jetty this ama­zingly thick and fierce fog came rolling in! Yeah, rolling, like a bow­ling ball towards the pins. Ten pin not cand­le­pin. Because that’s how I was raised!

Whoosh — there goes the horizon! 

I think it sca­red the birds away. Yeah, that’s it. And no mat­ter what anyone says I was not at all con­cer­ned that that sea­gull was going to dive­bomb Corey and then come after me. Not one bit. 

It’s coming on shore now — see it eating the tree in the right hand photo? It was crazy!

We retrea­ted even further inland towards the cars and I asked Corey if he wan­ted to swing — he didn’t even hesi­tate and jum­ped right on!

Gra­dua­tion is just around the cor­ner and Corey will be off to monu­men­tal things I’m sure! Thanks for let­ting me cap­ture this moment in his life!

You did an AWESOME job. Thank you so much. ~Sherry

Tags: , , | leave a comment

Nicole & Tom 08.28.09

May 18th, 2010 @ 5:50 pm | 0 comments

After mee­ting with Liz & Jon for their enga­ge­ment pho­tos I hea­ded over to Kings­ton, MA to the Jones River Tra­ding Com­pany to shoot Nicole & Tom’s wed­ding. Having never heard of Jones River I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was one of the most uni­que pla­ces I’ve been!

I arri­ved as the cere­mony was just about to start and Tom was anxiously wai­ting for his bride to be. First though his son and to-​be brother-​in-​law hea­ded out to join the guys with the rings.

As I watched them I saw Tom break into a GIANT smile and little Tommy got this look in his eyes — - I knew Nicole must have made it to the door way

And there she was with her dad loo­king radiant!

The out­door cere­mony set­ting by the water was just gor­geous. I adore that huge tree.

I’m not 100% sure the story behind this but they were pre­sen­ted with this orna­ment at the end of the cere­mony by the captain/​officiant it was pretty cool!

Just after that — they were man & wife! It had been a long time coming for these high school sweethearts — Such a kiss!!

Tommy was such a cutie. He was so ready for his photo shoot!

A ladies man already — watch out girls!

The set up at Jones River is ama­zing — I was in awe of this han­ging appe­ti­zer dis­play (until later in the eve­ning when I acci­den­tally bac­ked into it and thought I was going to break it — - no harm no foul but yipes!)

I also loved these crea­tive river rocks for place cards and the wate­ring can in kee­ping with the ‘water’ theme!

The girls were doing Nicole’s bustle. They were so full of concentration!

While I wai­ted for the bust­ling and the rest of the fes­ti­vi­ties to get under way these two boys were ham­ming it up for me in front of the camera. And then, there they were, Mr. & Mrs!

They had put together a really heart­war­ming sli­deshow of their years as indi­vi­duals, a cou­ple, and then a family. Tommy had been dan­cing with his mom on the floor twir­ling her around and when this photo of the new­born came up on the screen he exc­lai­med “hey, that’s me!” it was so cute.

The cup­cake tower with Pink “N“s and Blue “T“s. These babies tas­ted like gour­met hos­tess cup­ca­kes. It was unreal.

Nicole & Tom had barely star­ted to cut into the cup­cake when Tommy rea­li­zed what was going on and ran up to them upset they were going to eat cake without him! They assu­red him he’d get his too and sent him back to his seat.

I love this pic­ture of Nicole & her father — he looks so full of memo­ries and love.

The cen­ter­piece givea­way was funny — the DJ made ever­yone dance with their flo­wers. It was inte­res­ting to see people’s inter­pre­ta­tions of that!

Then it was time to get down! Lots of dan­cing for young and old!

I think the jux­ta­po­si­tion bet­ween boys and girls some­ti­mes! Get funky? Nah, I’ll just sit and read thank you.

It was a fabu­lous eve­ning. These two are most cer­tainly sup­por­ted and surroun­ded by love and family!

Tags: , , , | leave a comment

Liz & Jon Engaged! 08.28.09

May 17th, 2010 @ 10:19 pm | 0 comments

I first met Liz & Jon at Rachel & Michaels’s wed­ding, Liz & Rachel work together with Kate & Mar­cus’ aunt. I saw them again at Melissa & Lonnie’s wed­ding — the next day I got an email from them asking me to shoot their June wed­ding in Ply­mouth, MA. I’m pretty posi­tive I actually squea­led in delight and jum­ped up and down doing a happy dance. But that’s a sec­ret, ok?

They wan­ted to get together at the gor­geous White Cliffs Country Club where they will be having their wed­ding so after mee­ting up and having a quick bite to eat for lunch we made the trek to the club and wal­ked down the 300 stairs to the beach. (I’m not sure I’m exaggerating…)

The photo on the left is one of my favo­ri­tes, trum­ped maybe only by the photo on the right. Liz & Jon are ADORABLE.

Their wed­ding is right around the cor­ner! Nothing like wai­ting til the last minute to blog about it. ;)

I love how he loves her. I also love that they stop­ped every lan­ding on the way up to “pose”.

After we made it to the top and they sho­wed me around the wed­ding layout we did something so ama­zingly sweet. We went down the road to Liz’s family’s house from when she was a little girl. These pho­tos are so per­so­nal and hold such ama­zing connections!

This cam­per had been out back and seden­tary for .. a long time. Ear­lier in the day Jon had men­tio­ned to me how he didn’t really get the pho­tos where not the whole per­son was in the pic­ture — but when I saw this cam­per and heard its tale, I asked Jon to humor me. He’s a good sport and I thank him because I love this shot!

Then we went inside this sweet cot­tage to a land where time stands still. The win­dows are hin­ged. And the cei­ling is just barely crop­ped out of this photo.

The art, the cutains, the Red Sox jer­sey, the lamp, the love!

I’m so exci­ted for their wed­ding next month! I spoke with them on the phone this wee­kend and the count­down is on! :)

Tags: , , | leave a comment

Dominique’s Senior Photos 08.25.09

April 21st, 2010 @ 9:49 pm | 0 comments

Domi­ni­que is one moti­va­ted girl. I couldn’t ima­gine a bet­ter per­son to win the free sit­ting I dona­ted to the my good friend Sue Kennard’s Relay for Life Karaōke for a Cure event last May. (This years Cureoke is May 8th in New­mar­ket, I’ll be dona­ting another cer­ti­fi­cate so make sure you stop by and sup­port the cause!)

We met up on a week­day mor­ning at the beach and Domi­ni­que totally roc­ked it out. This girl has mad plans — but because I’m such a slac­ker blog­ger I can’t remem­ber what they are! All I know is that come June she’s going to take over the world so you’d all bet­ter watch out!

Sass & Cha­risma. It’s the per­fect combination.

Also — she was game for my silly little tricks. ;)

These next two are my favo­ri­tes — I sat on the rock first to make sure it wasn’t going to make her filthy, but what I didn’t know is that once she was all up in posi­tion, she would have to use all her might to keep from sli­ding down it. It was a riot!

Our time together was over all too quickly but I loved wor­king out an early mor­ning ses­sion at the beach for this 2010 graduate!

Con­gra­tu­la­tions Domi­ni­que! Schools almost over! I wish you all the best :)

~Melissa Koren

Tags: , | leave a comment

Read previous entries

Copyright © melissakoren.com
wedding & lifestyle photography in and around seacoast, NH

Customization by Leah Creates
Powered by WordPress