Wedding at Willowdale Estate :: Linda + Tom (Part I)

My last but most certainly not least wedding of 2009 was the phenomenal wedding of Linda and Tom at the beee-u-ti-ful Willowdale Estate in Topsfield, MA. As usual, I can't seem to limit myself to showing you just a few pictures of their wedding so I think I'll do another multi-post.

Without further ado, let's begin with some stunning details and behind the scenes - oh, and if you'd like to know more about Linda and Tom and how they met, click HERE to see their engagement photos at the Boston Public Library:

Linda & Tom stayed at the Inn at Castle Hill on the Crane Estate, it's just spectacular and very romantic:

Linda was totally calm when she arrived back from a little sandwich run; nothing better than a relaxed sandwich on your wedding day; I believe I had a grilled cheese and tomato before my wedding. You don't want a rumbly tummy when you're saying your vows. And can I just say how much I LOVED Linda's white feathered headpiece, it set off her gown to perfection:

The suite at Crane was just perfect, all duck egg blue and white with a soft day bed for curling up on and a window seat to enjoy the view. Here's Linda's wedding ring on the window seat:


We made our way over to Willowdale so the girls could get dressed. The guys were in another wing of the building (doesn't that sound fabulous? I might try that out tonight "Sorry Darling, I didn't hear the phone, I was in the other wing...).

Here is Tom's wedding ring sitting on his neatly typed vows - more on those later (it may be prudent to have a tissue at hand). Photo by the ever-brilliant Derek Morin of Morin Photography who was second shooting for me:


And here is Tom, he was carefully reading the instructions on how to fold his handkerchief. He finally started to laugh and gave up. Between you and me, I think he was just really excited to head downstairs and see Linda for the first time:


The rooms at Willowdale are amazing - old and wood paneled with a bathroom large enough to live in and a bath big enough to swim in. As this mostly a wedding blog rather than a bathroom fixtures blog I'll show you Linda's shoes instead of the tub:

I love that moment that happens as the dress is fastened, the veil goes on, the bride is holding oh-so-still, just perfect:


A program for the ceremony on a seat reserved for a parent:

I'll close this post with some shots of the wish tree draped in crystals and wishes for the newly married couple that greeted guests on arrival at Willowdale:

More to follow today/tomorrow - the first look, the ceremony, the toasts and the fabulous reception....

More fabulous engagement pictures in the snow...a little more Jonathan and Lunda

I'm sitting here editing Linda & Tom's wedding (more on that in the next day or two) and I'm feeling very festive, the pine smell of the tree, the twinkly lights, Paul making some Cornish pasties (??), a glass of Bailey's at my side and the Christmas music playing. My Christmas mix CD has a lot of songs that are not neccesarily classed as songs of the season but they were released around this time so they're forever Christmas songs in my head. And as "It's oh so quiet" by Bjork started to play I thought it might just work well with Lunda & Jonathan's pictures...

If you haven't read the story of how these two got together, read it HERE and if you've already read it but you'd like to see a little more then click on the little white "play" triangle below to see a little movie.

Merry Christmas from the Superlambanana dachshund version

My hometown is Liverpool - the 2008/9 European City of Culture - and the location of the Superlambanana (giant sculpture from cool Japanese artist combining a lamb and a banana), Seriously, click on the link - it's just like it sounds.

My dogs are miniature dachshunds - Coco Chanel & Tiger Woods. Much as I love them, I'm not one of those doggy people that have all sorts of dachshund knickknacks in our home.

But I'm totally making an exception for the Superlambananadachshund which may be the best Christmas present I didn't know even existed so couldn't even wish for. Thank you to Julia from our non-family for finding it.

So wishing you a very merry Christmas and hoping you got all the gifts you didn't wish for because you didn't know they even existed...

Tiger Woods commits another trangression...

Many of you know that we have two miniature weiner dogs; we named one each. So that's why we have Coco Chanel and Tiger Woods (she's a girl) - can you guess which one I named and which one Paul named?

Our Christmas tree has been sitting bare and forlorn in the corner for a week now but yesterday we finally got around to decorating it and had a celebratory glass of Bailey's whilst doing so. Tiger Woods broke four rules when she broke through the baby gates to get into the living room (1), jumped up on the sofa (2) and decided to try to lick up last bit of Baileys (3 - she's not 21 yet) out of my glass (4):

I should have punished her of course but instead I grabbed my camera. Cesar Milan would be most disappointed. There is no such thing as a bad dog, just a bad owner.

Winter Engagement Pictures :: Lunda + Jonathan :: What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay there

Imagine if you will the scene up on the roof bar at Tao Nightclub in Las Vegas.

A batchelorette party is celebrating the impending marriage of the bride-to-be.

There's drinking and dancing and maybe a table of Russian guys involved....what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas right?

A batchelor party is celebrating the impending marriage of the groom-to-be.

Of course it makes sense to get some picture of the bride-to-be with the groom-to-be. And the batchelor group starts talking to the batchelorette group.

Lunda is introduced to "Romeo" who asks if he can buy her a drink. Lunda politely declines, in her words "who in their right mind accepts a drink from a Romeo?!" Little did Lunda know that his name really IS Romeo - Jonathan Romeo. Jonathan is a gentleman and he gets Lunda a drink anyway and they start talking. Fast forward a few hours, the club is closing and Jonathan and Lunda are still talking. Lunda thinks "Uh oh, I'm in trouble as I kind of like him"

Jonathan/Romeo texts Lunda and both groups meet up at the pool. Jonathan is on the phone - trying to change his plane ticket to stay longer in Vegas but it's not happening. Later on that night in Planet Hollywood Lunda and Jonathan talk and dance. Jonathan leaves at 7am for his flight after they spend all night talking some more. Before I continue this story, let's have a little commercial break and check out some winter engagement pictures of the aforementioned couple - yes it is possible to do engagement photos in the snow!

Taking some inspiration from the current j.crew catalogue:

I'm quite a big believer in NOT having crazy actions and effects and textures on your photographs - wedding pictures are obviously for you but they're also for your children and your children's children - so they should be somewhat timeless. But engagement pictures are a whole other category of fun - getting you comfortable in front of the camera, kind of like a dressed-up date with the paparazzi (me) in tow. With all the snow, I went for a sort of whimsical winter wonderland effect - thoughts?

Rocking it out with a little late afternoon sun flare:

Let's get back to our story - did I mention Lunda is engaged (don't worry, she wasn't the bride-to-be in Vegas!) and lives in TX and Jonathan is in a relationship and lives in MA so nothing happens other than some pretty intense talking and they agree to just keep talking on the phone until his plane takes off - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas - remember? And they agree to keep talking until he lands in Boston...and then until Lunda leaves Vegas....and then until she lands in Texas.

Fast forward one month later. Lunda and Jonathan are now both out of their relationships and Lunda visits Boston to stay with one of her best friends from college, Courtney. Long story short - Lunda decides to get a new job and move to Boston to room with Courtney.

Jonathan takes Lunda to Saratoga Springs to watch the horse racing and meet his parents and sister. They tell each other "I love you" but wait - we're coming up to the best part of the story! Paul and I went to Saratoga for the races (Paul works with Jonathan and has a share in a racehorse with Jonathan's dad) and so we got to meet Lunda too! I bet if you asked Lunda what she remembers best about that weekend in Saratoga she'd tell you it was meeting me and Paul. In fact, perhaps that's why they're getting married there in August next year.....and I was delighted when they asked me to photograph their wedding!

Sometimes it's good that what happens in Vegas moves to Boston....

And back to the pictures...how cute are these two?

Here's an example of a paparazzi style shot, I think I was kneeling in the snow behind some stupid big tree for this one but I like the framing:

After some sitting in the snow and then some lying in the snow for snow angels, I figured we had just a few more minutes before hypothermia set in.

Lunda is great because she laughs at pretty much everything I say (regardless of whether I'm being intentionally funny). In the middle picture below I was all "Oooh - I know - do an upside down spiderman kiss" which I guess is harder than it looks in the movie. That Toby Maguire obviously has some mad upside down kissing skills. Lunda asked if Eskimo kisses might work instead and this was just the final straw for Jonathan who declared he was done with this whole picture thing. Good job for lasting as long as you did Jonathan!


The sun went down about 15 minutes later and Jonathan had warmed up a little bit so we took advantage of the twinkly lights in Plaistow, NH...

Backyard + Snow + Twinkly lights near the town hall + Cute couple in love = Magical pictures :)


In the picture above and the next one I'm rocking the video light plus a Brinkmann xenon gun light:

I cannot WAIT until August to shoot Lunda and Jonathan's wedding at Saratoga National - it's going to be spectacular....

Help-Portrait Boston :: We didn't take photos. We gave photos.

On 12.12.09 over 3000 photographers and 4400 volunteers in 511 locations in over 40 countries photographed over 36,000 people who wouldn't ordinarily have had professional pictures taken. I was lucky to be part of the event in Boston and although I'm not posting of the girls' portraits for confidentiality reasons here's a little look behind the scenes...

Fifteen photographers met up at Germaine Lawrence, a residential treatment center for adolescent girls. Huge thanks to Jeff, Brian, Rich & Darcy for all of the planning and organization that went into this event. Rich of In the Viewfinder captured this shot and kindly let me use it here:

From left to right (I'm usually pretty good with names but if I've messed up please let me know!): Brian, Meg, Jeff, Lisa, Chris, Julia, John, Darcy, Jess (who also blogged about Help-Portrait HERE) Schuyler, me, Marshall, Nathan, Jason and Rich

We set up 4 stations (when I say "we" I have to thank all the other photographers as some prior commitments meant I didn't really do any set up or breakdown - I know - who do I think I am right?). Me and Marshall were on station #4 and we had a lot of fun with the fabulous subjects. Here's Marshall doing a little dance whilst I'm getting my light figured out or maybe he's about to punch me for making him do all the set up alone :)


Paparazzi by Lady Gaga was playing on the ipod when I took this one - seemed somehow fitting:


I don't do a lot of studio shooting (for some reason people seem to prefer to get married in ballrooms, at vineyards and beaches...what's with that?) but the girls were so full of personality that they made it easy. I was encouraging people to "smeyes" also known as "smile with your eyes" a tip often given by Tyra on ANTM. Here is my attempt at smeyesing (thanks to Marshall for taking this one), I so need to get some Botox:


Much laughing was done by all:


I had just finished a session with one of the girls and grabbed a slice of pizza when my subject came back with a friend she wanted to get a picture with. So I shot a few more with the camera in my right hand and the pizza in my left. I think Lisa has a picture of this and I'm hoping it never gets out :)


Jason having a pensive moment:


Huge thanks go to:
- Nikki from Germaine Lawrence for keeping us all in order on Saturday
- the amazing team of hair and make up artists from the Empire School of Beauty in Warwick, RI who worked their magic and made the girls look even more beautiful
- to iprintfromhome.com for generously donating the free prints
- Cara from a great local blog called The Small Story was interviewing the photographers, the girls and their families and I'm looking forward to reading her story
- the other fourteen photographers, it was fantastic to meet you all and thanks for letting me duck out early
- and to our subjects for being so full of personality and fun and for rocking it out like professional models! We had a blast with you all.

Help-Portrait might just become an annual event and I can't wait to get involved again next year.