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Tara & Brian 09.27.09

August 10th, 2010 @ 10:26 am | 0 comments

I met Brian & Tara at an 80’s night in Decem­ber something like 32 seconds after they got enga­ged. Tara and I clic­ked and she really com­mit­ted her­self to the foot­loose dance (com­plete with brui­ses) .. I knew that I really really wan­ted to pho­to­graph their wed­ding and I was SO Exci­ted. And I just couldn’t hide it. When she emai­led me and fir­med up her plans with me :)

I arri­ved at Sear­les Castle with all my fin­gers and toes cros­sed that the rain would let up so Tara & Brian could have their out­door cere­mony - unfor­tu­na­tely it wasn’t to be but the day was glo­rious none-​the-​less.

Tara’s son, Jared is a heart brea­ker. I’ll start with that although it will become quite obvious by the end of the post. I got to the get­ting ready room to find them all pee­ring out the win­dow and Tara all wor­ked up because she’d just seen Brian arrive. “He’s here, he’s here” she said. And Jared loo­ked at her very matter-​of-​factly and said “Mom, it’s JUST Brian”. Just Brian indeed Jared :)

Then the final pre­pa­ra­tions started..

Tara was BEAMING ear to ear 

As I said the cere­mony nee­ded to be moved inside des­pite all our best fin­ger cros­sing. It was a bit small for all the guests but it defi­ni­tely led to a much more lite­ral fee­ling of being surroun­ded by love! 

Brian was so overwhel­med by the sight of Tara. And right­fully so! 

AYKM? l.o.v.e.i.t! 

The rain kept us inside for the for­mals too but the castle has some great spa­ces and there was no shor­tage of smiles! 

Jared!

I love the way they love each other.

Parent Dan­ces 

Then a dance with her son. In which I lost it completely. 

So the DJ did this thing I’d never seen before. He lined up the bri­dal party to do a spe­cial dance for the bride and groom. He gave each Tara & Brian a sash, taught the dance steps, and told T & B the catch was they nee­ded to be blind­fol­ded to do the dance correctly.

But in rea­lity, the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on is the best man. Who has to per­form the whole thing solo. HILARIOUS. 

It was way bet­ter in per­son than my sad sorry story­te­lling 11 months later, but I pro­mise you it was a riot. And they were all still friends at the end too ;)

I love how Tara laughs. She never holds back. And..uh..I guess neither does Brian ;) 

A quick, well plan­ned toss of the bou­quet and I was sad to see my time with this bunch come to an end. 

Oh Tara, Brian & Jared! I’m so glad I tra­ded my pride for peg­ged laven­der cor­du­roys & a side pony­tail and met you back in the 80’s (night)!

Be well. Be loved. Be happy!

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

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Lizz & Andrew Married! 09.19.09

August 7th, 2010 @ 9:51 am | 0 comments

Lizz & Andrew met with me well in advance of their 09.09 wed­ding. Lizz’s per­so­na­lity is stu­pen­dous. She’s effer­ves­cent and kind­ness per­so­ni­fied. And Andrew soaks up every second of it.

When I arri­ved at her parents’ house, it was again obvious that Ame­rica run’s on Dunkin’s — more spe­ci­fi­cally — New England Bri­des run on Dunkin’s!

While Lizz was get­ting her hair did (yes, I said that), her sis­ter and crew birthed the dress down the stairs. It was quite the feat and there was no way for me to help, so I just had to take pictures.

As it turns out — Lizz’s mom makes cakes. And not just any cakes — abso­lu­tely exqui­site ones. I was lite­rally dumb­foun­ded when I found out she made both the wed­ding & groom’s cake! (Oh and they made all the bou­quets too. The details in this wed­ding are OTT!)

Once Lizz’s sty­lists left she hel­ped the other girls pre­pare. It was the most fun atmosphere of exci­te­ment and girliness.

Hi Lizz’s mom! You’re AWESOME!

There were some VERY ado­ra­ble flo­wer girls — this sweet pea was not too thri­lled with having to have her hair done, but she’s pretty plea­sed with the result! (And I helped!)

Meanwhile her youn­ger sis­ter was ready in a jiffy — that is after she got all her vehic­les to the star­ting line.

And here’s yet another flo­wer girl chec­king out the dress. I can only ima­gine what’s going through her head. I remem­ber being her age in my first wed­ding and won­de­ring what all the fuss was about. Boy do I ever get it now. :)

One tiny girl, one gor­geous (humun­gous) dress coming up!

Lizz — you’re beau­ti­ful. Like just out of a magazine.

While I’m posi­tive the dress weighed more than she did, she had NO pro­blem maneu­ve­ring that thing. Total ama­zing­ness. Although — I’m quite drawn to her sweet sweet father hol­ding her bou­quet and watching over her. (*sniff.tear.sniff*)

There were scads of chil­dren invol­ved with this wed­ding. And they were the best, most well beha­ved, coö­pe­ra­tive chil­dren ever. And OMG can you STAND the coör­di­na­ting?! (I can’t obviously. It’s too perfect)

You can tell how impor­tant family is to Lizz & Andrew. With a foun­da­tion like that they are bound to go far.

Steal the show why don’t you? ;)

Married! (p.s. I love bub­bles, I highly recom­mend them at all occa­sions ever.)

Hello Bri­dal Party!

Candy buf­fet win!

The photo on the left is one of my all time favo­ri­tes ever. Everything about this wed­ding was thought out — down to the mono­gram on the floor. And there’s a story about someone slee­ping in the tent and lea­ving unmen­tio­na­bles, but lucky for them it’s been so long I can’t remem­ber exactly what it’s all about. ;)

‘Oh no you’re not about to shove the cake my mother made us in my face!’

After for­mal cake since he was nice… enough… Lizz pre­sen­ted Andrew with his grooms cake. I think it was a hit :)

Ok, Ok, I know - it’s a big post already. But. But. THESE KIDS! AYKM!? Sus­pen­ders and a blonde curly fauxhawk?!

Uh oh — I think the girls are about to have a feather boa throw down. The boy on the right is hol­ding on to his stead­fastly and not going to get involved.

Wor­min’ it.

Honest to Pete I could have follo­wed these two around for days. And props!? Hey Mr. DJ — mad props man!

Not to be out done these kids had some moves to show off too!

Ok, ok, moving on. And did we ever move on. That’s right. We lim­boed. Ok, I didn’t limbo.. that just wouldn’t have been pretty.

And then just as my time with them was win­ding down, Lizz chan­ged in to this most stun­ning party dress!

Lizz & Andrew — I wish you the best that life has to offer. I was so hono­red to be part of your day and a momen­tary part of your family.

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

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Sukey & Bob 07.24.09

January 30th, 2010 @ 3:40 pm | 0 comments

Just last week I sha­red with you Sukey & Bob’s enga­ge­ment pho­tos. The weather this sum­mer was just mean. A rainy rainy June and July only got slightly bet­ter. Howe­ver, these two eeked the most out of their day!

I arri­ved at the Went­worth while they were finishing up Sukey’s finishing touches. She was Stun­ning. This was not a sur­prise as she’s an ama­zing and gor­geous per­son, but it still took your breath away.

The beau­ti­ful flo­wers by Ambro­sia Gar­dens in Ports­mouth, NH. So dainty and I love the splash of blue.

Shortly there after some of the girls piled into the car to head over to the cere­mony site.

The rain was a little too threa­te­ning so they had to make the deci­sion to move the cere­mony in the tent, which pro­ved to be a good idea as it did rain for a bit during their nuptuals.

It made ZERO impact on the hap­pi­ness though. This family is glowing!

I love that they both wal­ked her down the aisle. And that they both got to kiss her cheek to help set her at ease.

The swee­test bri­des­maids, they were all so cap­ti­va­ted by the cere­mony, but how could you not be with this gorgeousness!

The tent was great — it was very visually appea­ling, I love the lines.

They had a great sand cere­mony — I bet it makes a great addi­tion to their home!

Future pho­to­graphers of Ame­rica! I love it!

I love these two — this photo of Bob was actually when I arri­ved at the tent before the cere­mony and let him know that Sukey was here and we’d be star­ting in just a bit. He was BEAMING!

Sukey did something very uni­que — she has a lot of very spe­cial won­der­ful women in her life and so she asked them all to pick dres­ses of their choo­sing in a spe­ci­fic color and hono­red them each with a sin­gle rose. In addi­tion to the young bri­des­maids — it was a fabu­lous crew!

The men weren’t too shabby themselves!

The won­der­ful staff at the Went­worth Country Club took us golf car­ting to their beau­ti­ful bridge -

And back again to the ocean side -

Then it was time to get down and enjoy the recep­tion! The sun sho­wed up and sta­yed around and it was perfect!

Their soft blue stri­ped theme was per­fect for this July sea­side wedding!

As with everything else that day, and I’m sure in Sukey’s life, her parents sha­red in their speech together. I love the way her dad looks at her mom.

Each of Bob’s grooms­men took a stab at a speech. They were ban­ned from saying one par­ti­cu­lar word. But uh, I can’t remem­ber what that word was. It made it a lot more fun though! 

They all had a dif­fe­rent approach — from stan­dard paper -

To notes on the back of their room key. HA!

Time to cut the (tasty tasty!) cake.

And a dance with dad.

While mom watched every second.

Then it was time to toss the bou­quet — I love the look of con­cen­tra­tion on Sukey’s face!

This lucky lady caught the bou­quet but the little girls were MUCH more inte­res­ted in having a turn with it.

I can’t express how much I enjo­yed wor­king with Sukey & Bob on their wed­ding and mee­ting their family and friends. They cer­tainly have a foun­da­tion of, and are surroun­ded by, so much love and sup­port I’m sure they will be together for as long as they can imagine.

~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

These pho­tos are SO ama­zing!! Wow! I chec­ked your web site last night and we found the gallery that way and spent the eve­ning remi­nis­cing. I can’t get over how many of these 900+ pho­tos are abso­lu­tely outs­tan­ding! I’m a little overwhel­med with work at the moment to make this as elo­quent a tes­ti­mo­nial as I would like to but — wow — am I SO glad we had you cap­tu­ring the day! You got so many moments that I mis­sed, and pic­ked up so many little details.

Here’s a telling remark which is attests to your abi­lity to be all seeing, all kno­wing. We were loo­king at some of the pho­tos you got of the guests and Bob com­men­ted “Oh, she must have taken these while we were doing pho­tos outside” He quickly rea­li­zed the error of his logic since you would have had to have been outside with us taking the photos, but it kind of speaks to how well you multi-​task and how unin­tru­sive you are too.

I think someone with 2 assis­tants would have been hard pres­sed to get the same cove­rage. I will write more later because I have so many thoughts on how great you are for about 1,000 reasons!

Again, you did such an ama­zing job with the pho­tos. I’m so, so glad we went with you as our pho­to­grapher. If I can ever be a refe­rence or help pro­mote you in any way, please let me know! ~Sukey

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Keith & Taylor 10.18.08

December 2nd, 2008 @ 8:58 pm | 0 comments

As I men­tio­ned when I pos­ted their sho­wer pho­tos your baby brother get­ting married is .. weird!

I don’t know why exactly, it’s just.. ama­zing that that snot nosed little bratty brother that you used to loathe and pick on and fight with relent­lessly is now a grown up, and a father, and a husband. 

The day had come, and the weather was ama­zing (a bit chilly, but it was mid–Octo­ber). Taylor’s brother Ben had come up and he knew where it was at!

The INCOMPARABLE Dori set up shop in my mother’s living room and wor­ked her magic. Seriously, she is THE BEST hair­dres­ser ever. (And I’m not just saying that because she’s done my hair for 5 years and made my wed­ding day hairdo to die for!)

Our friend Chris­tina made this cake, and the log stand it’s sit­ting on. It couldn’t have been more per­fect and we’re all still in awe of it to this day!

My brother is 6’2″. Tay­lor, is not. Not even in these shoes but it did cut out some of the nearly 1′ height dif­fe­rence :)

Ins­tead of a ring bea­rer pillow, my brother grew some moss in a pot and my son, ring bea­rer extraor­di­naire, carried the rings in here. 

The beau­ti­ful cere­mony location.

The grass was SO green! Per­fect, since that was the wed­ding color too!

The dress

Tay­lor get­ting she­llac­ked.

gor­geous. 

Our nephew, Killian! All tuxed out and ready to rock!

The cere­mony

I think this is when they asked Keith if he would take Tay­lor to be his wife. He had to stop and think about it. Twit. er, I mean, see? He’s still my baby brother. 

Ben­ja­min kee­ping the rings safe.

Notice anything wonky about this photo? He offe­red her the wrong hand for the wed­ding ring. After about 2 minu­tes of it not fit­ting, they figu­red it out and switched off. We laughed!!

My grand­pa­rents with their youn­gest great-​grandson

Seriously? Wow. My brother is now a husband. 

Family!

Have I men­tio­ned how much I love October?

My parents dancing

Tay­lor & her baby boy!

My grand­mother dan­cing with my brother

Nichole pulling dou­ble duty as MC and hel­ping out and 2nd shoo­ting with me!

Everything was crisp and earthy. Beautiful!

Lemon cake, YUM!

Nichole & baby Reed — he looks SOOO dapper! 

The green pet­ti­coat & shoes!

The end of the night– a clas­sic look!

I’m very exci­ted to report that I we will be Aunts again as Keith and Tay­lor are having another baby in May! I can’t wait pho­to­graph her(?!)

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Heather & Dave 09.13.08

November 20th, 2008 @ 2:27 am | 0 comments

I met Heather and Dave as the DJ’s at Kitty & Pat’s wed­ding in May. A few weeks later I had a mee­ting with a cou­ple through a wed­ding coör­di­na­tor and ima­gine our sur­prise when we saw each other again! I guess I made a good impres­sion though, because they boo­ked me on the spot!

Their coör­di­na­tor, Jen­ni­fer, did an ama­zing job with all the details!

And Heather has an elec­tri­fing smile — she was so excited!

With this ring… 

The wed­ding was held in their back­yard, which ajoins with their parents back­yard. It was very nicely set up and Jen­ni­fer had made this fun direc­tio­nal signs. 

Heathers daugh­ter — what a GORGEOUS family!

Papa­razzi!

Heather’s dad gave a speach and it was so sweet and touching. He had mad a manual on rai­sing a daugh­ter, it was a great and idea and fabu­lously exe­cu­ted. We were all brim­ming with tears. 

First dance!

Heather’s mom during the father daugh­ter dance. 

Mis­sion Accomplished!

Heather & Dave — thank you for having me at your wed­ding. It was full of family and love and it was won­der­ful to be there. 
~Melis­sa­Ko­ren

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Myriah & Tim 08.30.08

October 30th, 2008 @ 5:38 pm | 0 comments

Myriah & Tim were married on a gor­geous pro­perty in North­port, ME. The weather was abso­lu­tely per­fect and the details were were wonderful!

Myriah was stunning!

Fore­ver in each others hearts, and hid­den inside their rings.

There were many tears of hap­pi­ness shed!

Then it was off to a pri­vate beach for the for­mals. The boys wan­ted to emu­late ‘the cap­tain’ I nee­ded to change it up a bit so I asked them to ‘cap­tain’ in the other direc­tion — then they hurrahed that I made it a verb.

What an ama­zing location!

I loved her dress! So gorgeous!

More tears during the father/​daughter dance — mine inc­lu­ded! Yay for autofocus!

What an ama­zing day! Thank you to Myriah & Tim and their fami­lies — I had a great time!

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Monica & Rob 08.16.2008

September 18th, 2008 @ 12:44 am | 0 comments

Monica & Rob and I met last Novem­ber to do some low key enga­ge­ment pic­tu­res and talk about their wed­ding in August. The time FLEW by and before I knew it, I was at an ama­zing ‘back yard’ wed­ding. The guys cons­truc­ted a red car­pet for Monica & her girls to walk down to the plat­form they cons­truc­ted under the huge old willow tree. It was glo­rious! They also had the lar­gest tent I’ve ever seen! Not to men­tion the amount of fun. 

I arri­ved at the groom’s family’s house as all the boys were get­ting ready. I grab­bed a few shots of them and then went two streets over to the bride’s family’s house to get them in action!

Monica hel­ped ever­yone out with the final touches on their makeup after she art­fully did her own. Such GORGEOUS girls!

Monica’s plan had been to be promptly ‘fashio­nably late’ to the cere­mony, she wan­ted to make sure that ever­yone had the chance to show up! 

Well, mother nature thought she do one bet­ter — just as we were get­ting the dress to climb in the limo and head to the cere­mony site, the skies ope­ned up. Sheeeeeeeeeeets of rain — SHEETS! But it pas­sed and clea­red and the guys set about clea­ring up cere­mony site to pro­ceed as plan­ned, if only a little later. 

The limo pulled right up to the end of the ‘red car­pet’ and let the ever­yone off — it was SOO Cool.

The guys had been rib­bing Rob about shed­ding tears, but we were all more than moved when we saw Rob see Monica for the first time - 

After for­mals it was time to party! I love the black & red — its SHARP!

Ok, Ok, I know — this is a whole mon­tage dedi­ca­ted to the cake — but it was SUCH a cake. A moose, a raft, a fishing bride — I could have taken more pic­tu­res than this I tell you!

This was my first true smashing wed­ding — I love the reac­tions of the cou­ple in the background.

Did they ever dance the night away! But at one point there see­med to be a lull on the dance floor.. I went out to inves­ti­gate, and what did I find, but a keg toss in action! I relize the pic­ture of the bride isn’t the cris­pest, but the form, the poise, the style! (and the last of my flash bat­te­ries and sta­ying far away from the inco­ming keg)


OMG I abso­lu­tely love all the pic­tu­res! You did an awe­some job!!! Thanks again for everything, I couldnt have asked for bet­ter!! PS: One of the girls that was in the wed­ding party wants to have you as her pho­to­grapher for her wed­ding when she gets married!! ~Monica

This is Monica’s Dad. Wow you did a fan­tas­tic job on the wed­ding photo’s, thanks for everything Melissa, job well done ~Joe

Thanks to you all for your warmth and hos­pi­ta­lity — I had such a great time!

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