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Nicole & Haven: Married 09.10.2011 | Driftwood Inn Wedding, Bailey Island ME

Per­fec­tion.

There’s no other way to desc­ribe Nicole & Haven’s wed­ding day. The loca­tion, the weather, the peo­ple, the ambiance, the everything. It was simply an affair to remember.

I found my way back over to the Drift­wood early after­noon and met up with the girls get­ting ready. They glos­sed and spra­yed and laughed and cried. From the next cabin over, Haven sent the most per­fect gift and swee­test card ever. Nicole’s hair was ama­zingly intri­cate, yet sim­ple and and com­ple­tely com­pli­men­ted her already natu­ral beauty. She saw her dad. Ever­yone took their turns being overwhel­med and speechless.

The cere­mony began and folks gathe­red around. Each and every one of them impar­ted hap­pi­ness and lon­ge­vity into their wed­ding bands before they said i.do. And did they ever!

Ring bea­rer!

We took a ride to the spot where they wan­ted to do for­mals, only to find there was another wed­ding lite­rally about to hap­pen in the EXACT spot! There are a lot of ‘rules’ I’ll break, and pla­ces I’ll tread, but step­ping on another bride’s day was NOT in the recipe for per­fec­tion. Bai­ley Island, howe­ver, is full of per­fect spots so we drove to the Land’s End and had our way with the edge of the world.

The boys and girls came in sepa­rate cars. The boys snuck beers into their car, and didn’t bring enough for the whole class. So while I was ‘tor­tu­ring’ them with their pic­tu­res, the girls were snea­king sips of the beer!

Nicole had one request — a fun pic­ture of each of her girls’ per­so­na­li­ties. mis­sion accomplished!

Love love love these nautical boutonnieres!

The recep­tion was spec­ta­cu­lar. Full of class and whimsy, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for the guests to leave more than just their name in a guest book. The wishing bott­les hold sec­rets and whis­pers for Nicole & Haven to expe­rience on anni­ver­sa­ries for years to come. What a bri­lliant idea!

Nicole’s wor­king towards her dream is to be a wed­ding plan­ner. She’s hel­ped out here and there before and effort­lessly did all the plan­ning for her own event. It loo­ked like something straight from a maga­zine! She’s star­ted her own busi­ness and if you’re loo­king for a little extra help on, or before your wed­ding day, you should abso­lu­tely check her out at Nicole Mower Events! Not to be outdone, Haven’s mom & family crea­ted ALLL the sweet treats, except the cake, which Haven had sta­yed up baking and deco­ra­ting the night before as a sur­prise for Nicole!

DETAILS!

Puppy kept a watch­ful eye on everything.

BBQ in a wed­ding dress? Of course — when you have a cus­tom bedazz­led apron!

Every time you catch a glimpse of them, even when they don’t know they’re being watched, they’re in love with each other. they’re that genuine. its phenomenal.

Des­serts with a view!

Fan­tas­tic sce­nery and grounds for the guests to min­gle and enjoy the amazingness.

Of all the pla­ces for the bou­quet to land — it chose the lan­tern. Crys­tal found a ride though and grab­bed it down. I think it might be chea­ting because she’s already enga­ged, and had already boo­ked me to shoot her wed­ding before Nicole’s wed­ding day, but it can’t hurt to have rein­for­ce­ments ;)

The eve­ning went splen­didly. I was so SO hono­red to be a part of it.

These two sweet folks took a few minu­tes to write some kind words about me on wed­ding­wire:

Melissa is so fan­tas­tic! Not only is she an ama­zing per­son with a great per­so­na­lity and sense of humor but she’s an inc­re­di­ble pho­to­grapher. She became a fast friend to my hus­band and I and we feel very lucky! When I first met Melissa and saw her work it was obvious how pas­sio­nate she is about this job and I was con­fi­dent she would cap­ture every spe­cial moment of my wedding. 

Melissa went out of her way to help me with everything! She hel­ped my wed­ding party correctly tigh­ten the cor­set in my dress (thank you), she hel­ped me keep the event time­line run­ning smoothly (pho­tos, speeches, etc) since I did not have a DJ or a wed­ding coör­di­na­tor. She also hel­ped my hus­band and I by giving us ins­truc­tions on how to begin the cake cut­ting! 
Also, I can’t remem­ber what it was because the day FLEW by but I reme­me­ber while we were get­ting ready she whip­ped out at least three magi­cal items from her bag of tricks to help me and my wed­ding party. 
It has only been two weeks since my wed­ding so I can NOT wait to see the pho­tos. I’ve only seen a cou­ple of sneak peak pho­tos and I’m dying for the rest! =)
I already have a cou­sin and an old high school class­mate using Melissa for their upco­ming wed­dings and I won’t stop rec­co­men­ding her so book fast if you have an upco­ming event! ?

I’m so exci­ted to work with her friends and family and can’t wait til our paths cross again!

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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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Tara & Brian 09.27.09

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

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

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

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

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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