Sarah & Rich: Married! 08.27.11 | Cape Cod Wedding Photographer

Sarah & Rich are per­fect for each other. Two warm, gene­rous peo­ple with humon­gous smi­les and fan­tas­tic hugs. We had a blast at the enga­ge­ment ses­sion in New Castle, NH and I knew their wed­ding day would be equally as fantastic.

The day star­ted like any other late August day. With the threat of a hurri­cane. Irene was not exactly on the guest list! There was fear of bridge clo­su­res, power outa­ges, and oh yeah — heavy wind and rain. But that didn’t stop this hardy New England crew. They bat­te­ned down the hatches and got all gus­sied up for the big day! Luc­kily, we timed the breaks of rain well and they had a good plan B for the cere­mony. The wed­ding party was full of color and per­so­na­lity and Bally­meade Country Club is gor­geous inside and out!

From Sarah get­ting ready at her parents’ house, to the first look, to the Ferrari pins in place of bou­ton­nie­res, this wed­ding was full of touching details and dan­ces resul­ting in a com­ple­tely won­de­rous day that, as I pre­dic­ted at their e.session, was over­flo­wing with love.

And with that, some of my favo­ri­tes! (I can’t tell you how hard it was to pick favorites!!)

Rich & his son Jake — GQ and GQ Jr.

The great can­vas guest book they had made from one of their enga­ge­ment photos!

Hey — who’s that catching the bou­quet? None other than Becca; Sarah’s sis­ter, who’s now the next one engaged!!

We finished off the night with a little sere­nade on the piano.

And we all made it home safe, with no bridge clo­su­res :)

I’ve already seen this family once since the wed­ding and I hope to see them again and again over the years. They’re abso­lu­tely spec­ta­cu­lar people!

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Ressel Family Photos! 08.26.11 | Cape Cod Vacation Photography

From Beaches to beaches. <3

My life­long friend Liss and her family invi­ted me down to spend the night with them at their ren­ted house on the Cape in honor and cele­bra­tion of her parents wed­ding anni­ver­sary. And to com­me­mo­rate the occa­sion, it was time for upda­ted family pho­tos! We star­ted in the lovely yard and then wan­de­red down the street to the beach. It was a rela­xing fan­tas­tic time. And I got to trade wea­ring my came­ras, for wea­ring baby Caleb! Fair trade!

Thank you Ressel’s for a fan­tas­tic mini-​vacation! It was great to see you all together again after all these years!

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Elizabeth: Class of 2012 | Senior Yearbook Photos

Intro­du­cing Eli­za­beth! Class of 2012. This well poi­sed, gor­geous girl is ready to take over the world. Hmm, that sounds sort of like an Ame­ri­can Dolls intro or something. Regard­less of it’s cheesy feel, it couldn’t be more true!

Thanks to you and your mom for coming down to the coast and han­ging out for the after­noon! It was lovely to meet you both!

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Sara & Scott: Married! 08.13.11 | NH Wedding Photography

It’s always nice to start off the new year with an inquiry, and Sara’s was in my inbox before the sun even rose on January 1st. Sadly for her, her inquiry stem­med from a mishap with her ori­gi­nally boo­ked pho­to­grapher no lon­ger avai­la­ble. Thank­fully — I was! After some fun over­seas emails, I was thri­lled she and her fiancé Scott, chose me.

Their wed­ding was held at the Mas­sa­be­sic Audu­bon Cen­ter in Auburn, NH. It was like a big gar­den party — and squi­rrels were most cer­tainly welcome.

The cen­ter is full of great stuff to see and was the per­fect place for this family wedding!

Another first look! Yahoo!! Scott was SO ner­vous, it was adorable.

And was left fully speech­less when he saw his gor­geous bride who was com­ple­tely over­come with emotion.

He’s so ten­der with her beautiful spirit.

I wasn’t kid­ding when I said it was a gar­den wed­ding. Only the gar­den is run by loads of pro­fes­sio­nal and volun­teer gardeners!

smokin’!

Never a dull moment with this troupe ;)

I love how fully Sara expe­rien­ces everything. Just as we finished up the first look and wed­ding party, her father arri­ved, and the emo­tions floo­ded back. (one of my favo­ri­tes from the day!)

Meti­cu­lously dainty flo­wer girls and a bea­ming groom. I can’t rei­te­rate enough how the first look doesn’t take away from that spe­cial moment of seeing your betrothed walk down the aisle. They’d just seen each other not 5 minu­tes before and he’s still bow­led over by her beauty and the rea­lity of ‘this is it, we’re going to be married!’

s.w.a.k! and a rose for their loving parents.

they did it! p.s. — the bot­tom photo is another favo­rite — the way he looks at her melts my heart!

We made the most of the grounds for pho­tos throughout the day. It was all so lush in it’s August splendor!

love it!

After a quick cos­tume change while ever­yone sett­led into their seats, it was time for kind, love filled words, from who­me­ver might like to speak.

and perhaps a few emba­rras­sing tales from those who know ;)

And they dan­ced like no one was watching.

do you SEE this cake top­per? Cus­tom made — orange tie and all?! SO GOOD!

It all star­ted out inno­cently enough, then she smashed him, and laughed about it. So he grab­bed her face to lay one on her, and ins­tead, smea­red his face ALL over hers.

And it was GREEN.

Willing to run for it, the flo­wer girl lan­ded the bou­quet — and then sweetly pas­sed out a flo­wer to all the guests.

A birth­day piñata!

And our last walk around the pro­perty. Where this totally happened.

ok, we might have had to use our magic ima­gi­na­tion wand a little bit — but wha­te­ver, it’s HILARIOUS.

And right back to roman­tic. These two give love a good name.

*swoon*

What a magi­cal way to spend a sum­mer after­noon. Thank you Sara & Scott for fin­ding me, and to your other pho­to­grapher for losing you (haha). I hope you’re still being sho­we­red with love and hap­pi­ness daily!

Sara took a moment to review me on Wed­ding­Wire and for that I am eter­nally grateful.

Well, let me begin by saying you will not find a bet­ter pho­to­grapher in this price range in the whole New Hampshire area. Believe me, I loo­ked. I was plan­ning this wed­ding from over­seas, so I spent hours goo­gling pho­to­graphers, loo­king at web­si­tes, rea­ding reviews, etc. Well, let me tell you, if you are con­si­de­ring using Melissa, just stop! Stop loo­king for other pho­to­graphers, I mean. Because, you found her. She was so much more than a pho­to­grapher. She hel­ped me get into my dress (who knew you were sup­po­sed to lace it from the top?) had food on hand in case I had for­got­ten to eat (which I did) and was just gene­rally so sup­por­tive and kind. She was friendly, but also very effi­cient. She was so so nice, but knew how to get peo­ple around for the group pho­tos without soun­ding over­bea­ring or bossy. She was so unob­tru­sive, I barely even noti­ced she was there for the whole wed­ding! After get­ting through the group shots in much less time than I thought it would take, she mel­ted into the back­ground. But, loo­king through my ama­zing gallery of 600 pic­tu­res, she did not miss a THING. Loo­king through my pic­tu­res was like reli­ving the won­der­ment and beauty of the day, and seeing some bonus mate­rials! You will be ama­zed at how many little moments she cap­tu­red that you mis­sed. So, please, stop loo­king. What you will get here is so much more than a pho­to­grapher who takes great pic­tu­res. You will get someone who genui­nely cares about you, and making your day won­der­ful. Melissa’s love of pho­to­graphy is clear to anyone who meets her. I never even once got the fee­ling that she was just doing this for the paycheck, and I have never been hap­pier to pay someone for their ser­vi­ces than I was with Melissa. I could pro­bably go on lon­ger, but I’ll stop it here. Seriously! Hire her! You will NOT regret it!

Thank you friends!

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Liz & BK: Married! 08.12.11 | Portsmouth Harbor Events Wedding Photographer

Have I men­tio­ned recently how much I love my job? If not, I’ve been remiss. I get to meet the most ama­zingly won­der­ful, kind hear­ted, hila­rious peo­ple. Some­ti­mes, I get to pho­to­graph wed­dings for ama­zingly won­der­ful, kind hear­ted, hila­rious peo­ple I already know. Enter: Liz & Brian. I was SO exci­ted when Brian called me to tell me that he and Liz were plan­ning their wed­ding, and even more exci­ted when the day finally came. The rain clea­red, the tem­pe­ra­ture was per­fect (a miracle for mid-​august in new england) and Liz was STUNNING!

With the recep­tion plan­ned for the newly built Ports­mouth Har­bor Events Cen­ter, it only made sense to get ready at the chic new Resi­dence Inn that’s right next door! And how nice of them to have cur­tains that coör­di­na­ted with Liz’s spec­ta­cu­lar! spec­ta­cu­lar! shoes.

And the gor­geous details of the dress!

One of my favo­rite get­ting ready moments was when the little flo­wer girls came in and saw Liz in her gown. I was in a few wed­dings as a little girl and it’s such a won­drous thing to see this woman you’ve known in the every­day gla­mo­rous and in love.

This is pro­bably one of my favo­rite shots from the whole day.

While Liz was get­ting help with her shoes and final touches, Brian was downs­tairs teaching the grooms­men how to tie their new adi­das snea­kers. SO much bet­ter than uncom­for­ta­ble tux shoes!

After everyone’s foot­wear was secure, it was time for the first look. Brian and I hea­ded out to find “the spot” and then he called Liz and told her where to meet us. While we wai­ted I made him work on his GQ model action. He did a pretty good job, though that’s easy for someone so dapper.

Then it was time. Liz’s MOH hel­ped her to the path and then retrea­ted back indoors.

I love this part. I can feel the anti­ci­pa­tion in the air. I told Brian to look at me, but didn’t inc­lude that he could turn around when she arri­ved, so she just put her arms around him and hug­ged him from the back, all the while he’s trying to follow my ins­truc­tion and sneak a peek at the same time.

I finally rea­li­zed he was wai­ting for my com­mand and told him he could turn around and fully take her in. I think he was pleased.

very very pleased.

After they loo­ked and saw, it was time to board the tro­lley and head off to Great Island Com­mon to get the ‘for­mals’ knoc­ked out and off the list before the cere­mony (and oh yeah, THE PARTY!)

I love the bright blue and the ocean and sky. And oh, remem­ber when the grass was green and the trees were lush? (soon it will return!)

We still had some time before the cere­mony so we drop­ped the troops off at the hotel and zip­ped over to Pres­cott Park to take advan­tage of a change of sce­nery. Those gar­dens are such a sight to behold!

If I had a stu­dio, this would be a big can­vas on the wall.

What? Marr­ying time!? Let’s get it done. This was an extra spe­cial cere­mony for me. It was held at the North Church in Ports­mouth, which is not only my emplo­yer for the past 9 years, but also, where we had OUR wed­ding ceremony.

Tra­di­tio­nally, most New England churches are not equip­ped with a ‘cen­ter aisle’ so you have to get crea­tive when you want head on pho­tos ;)

Ah! SO CUTE! I love the bub­ble hem­li­nes on the flo­wer girl dresses.

S.W.A.K!

What now? I don’t even know what’s going on here, but it’s com­ple­tely and utterly the epi­tome of the two of them. ado­ra­ble, fan­ta­blous, and silly as all get out.

Brian and Liz saved plenty of time for pho­tos together. After the cere­mony we took our time wal­king back to the the recep­tion hall and duc­king in and out of a few pla­ces for shots along the way.

Pro­bably one of my favo­rite ring shots to date.

And then the time had come. The time to get down and cele­brate at the afo­re­men­tio­ned newly built, com­ple­tely swanky, Har­bor Events Cen­ter in Ports­mouth.

It was a beau­ti­ful cake, but the little blond hea­ded beau­ties com­ple­tely, and right­fully, ups­ta­ged it ;)

All of Liz’s friends crow­ded around her to see the bling and con­gra­tuate her. While Brian, did this.

But then he did this too. They make ele­gant look easy.

I loved that before the speeches and din­ner began, they took a moment to whole-​heartedly thank their friends, and family, for sup­por­ting them and cele­bra­ting with them.

Then they were toas­ted. Or in Brian’s case, roasted.

Both of them come from ama­zing families.

Shake it like a pola­roid picture!

Or, wha­te­ver this is…

I would have dan­ced all night with this crew, but with another wed­ding the next day I bid them fare­well and slip­ped off into the night.

Thank you, my friends, for such a high honor.

Til we cavort again!

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Jesse: Class of 2012 | Exeter, NH Senior Yearbook Photos

Jesse was great fun. Poli­tely laughing at all my stu­pid jokes and get­ting shor­ter when I couldn’t quite get the right angle because he’s so tall.

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoe­ver you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whe­ne­ver you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet peo­ple with a dif­fe­rent point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”  -Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Ben­ja­min But­ton screenplay

Some­ti­mes, someone else has already said something bet­ter than you could ever come up with.

To all the gra­dua­ting Seniors, with love from m|k|p

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Frankie: Class of 2012 | Exeter, NH Senior Photography

Class of twenty-​twelve. What a trip! My first seniors were the class of 2008 — that means they could be gra­dua­ting for college this year. And con­gra­tu­la­tions to any who are!

Fran­kie was first up for the 2012 group. Hec­tic as most senior sche­du­les are we met up for a quick shoot around town so his mum could have something to show off, and put in the yearbook.

He’s got such a great smile!

Thanks for put­ting up with me Fran­kie ;)

Hope senior year is going well!

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