Wait! Hold that thought and go and get a drink and maybe some tasty snacks while the pictures load because it's a mammoth blog post today! Or you could copy this url address http://www.facebook.com/leahhaydockphotography, open a new web browser window, paste the url into the address bar and hit LIKE on my official photography page to get sneak peeks of part II of the blog post....
Are you back? Do you have your tasty snacks? Did you hit LIKE on my facebook page? Well then, let me begin...
I met Catherine and Rob at the wedding of Diana and Jeff back in April. Catherine is Jeff's sister and when I saw her entrance into the reception with Rob I thought to myself "Now that's a fun couple. Their wedding photographer is going to have a blast."
Literally the day after the wedding, I received an email from Catherine asking if I was available on their wedding date. Now technically I was but unofficially I was at my 20 wedding limit. But I LOVE what I call "sibling weddings", I already know half of the families and a bunch of the friends and it's nice to have lots of familiar faces at the reception. Everyone's seen me in all my crazy action ;) and they want more of it so I was like "Yeah - let's do it!"
October 29th was fast approaching and in the days before the wedding, the news was full of tales of incoming Noreaster storms...scheduled to arrive immediately after the wedding ceremony. I was emailing back and forth with Catherine and she was so amazingly zen about it all and happily agreed to get ready a little earlier so we could get all of the family and wedding party pictures done before the snow arrived.
We started our day at the awesome Church Landing at Inn at Mill Falls in Meredith, NH, directly on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee and one of the very best wedding venues in the White Mountains:
The suite was buzzing with hair and make up and general merriment. Catherine had bought silk robes as gifts, purple for the bridesmaids and pink for the moms:
All of the "details" were ready in a box labelled "For Leah" which was awesome, saved me having to drag people away from hair and make up to pull everything together:
Purple wedding shoes:
Can you guess what the wedding rings are sitting on? It's one of the little bottles of maple syrup. They were labelled with the names of guests and as escort cards and also favors. Escort cards that also multitask on your pancakes. Mmmm.
Just down the hallway Rob was getting ready with his groomsmen:
Back in the girls room, Catherine's make up was finished perfectly ON TIME. Excuse me whilst I cut to a mini lecture on the value of professional hair and make up (skip to the next picture if you're not in the mood for my ramblings):
1. You're investing a lot of money on your wedding day and your wedding pictures will last a lifetime so you want to look your best.
2. Professional hair and make up will also make you feel your best, you won't be worrying if your hair is going to come loose or if your foundation is sliding off in the heat.
3. Your well-meaning friend who "does makeup" is probably not used to the pressure of make up on a wedding day. There are multiple people involved - bridesmaids, moms, aunts - and VERY TIGHT TIMELINES....
Hair and make up are usually the #1 cause of things running late on the wedding day - disastrously late in some cases causing key parts of the day to be cut short or rushed not to mention the stress that this causes. However I knew this wouldn't be a problem at this wedding because of the A-team of Joya Beauty and Hair That Moves. I can't tell you how much I adore working with Joanne and Lena. They're one of maybe three hair and make up teams that I feel 100% happy in recommending (and I've worked with a LOT!) Not only do all of the brides, bridemaids and moms look awesome but they're so calm, organized and they RUN TO TIME. A L W A Y S. If Joanne knows I'm photographing the wedding it's not unusual for her to shoot me an email asking "What time do you need everyone ready for pictures?"
Plus they think about little things like how the room is set up. Both Joanne and Lena know that the getting ready pictures are really important to most couples and so they'll set their chairs in great light and leave enough room for me to pass back and forth. Unlike the make up artist that shall not be named who set up a chair in the corner and refused to even turn it 5 degrees or let me through to get any pictures...you know who you are you naughty make up artist....
OK, lecture over. Thank you. So here's a beautiful and happy and stress-free Catherine because we're running to time. Hoorah, that means it's time to start getting dressed....
As Catherine was being laced into her wedding dress she looked over at her Mom, Yvette and they both had this awesome look of "Yay! It's happening!":
A final spritz of hairspray after the veil:
So Catherine (and Yvette) were worried that her dad (you may know him as Richard, I prefer Dr. V, we go way back, all the way back to his son's wedding in April ;) would get kind of emotional seeing her as a bride so - this is awesome - they took him to Madeleine's Daughter for the final fitting to try to prepare him. I'm not sure it worked, bottom left image kills me:
Time for the first look! Catherine bundled up for the short walk to the dock on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee to meet Rob:
No words needed:
It was FREEZING cold so we headed inside to warm up before wedding party and family pictures and as we walked back we saw the "audience" for the first look. Catherine's parents and brother Jeff snuck out on their balcony to watch:
Just realised I haven't shown you the flowers. Love the purple wedding colors with hints of orange and green:
I had the awesome Laura of Ruby Shoes Photography along with me for the day and the next picture is hers. More about Laura and her mad leaf throwing skillz in part II:
Some relaxed and happy "formal" pictures despite the sub-zero (well, at least it felt like sub-zero) temperatures:
Note to self - if groomsmen are wearing white pants, probably best to save the goofing off until after the ceremony (it's OK, no fall, no grass stains, although I do usually carry Tide-to-go)
And that's all for today! Next up is the beautiful ceremony, Catherine & Rob's crazy entrance and first dance (you wouldn't expect anything else from these two!), emotional toasts, Chinese lanterns, a fire at Mills Falls narrowly avoided, a massive snowstorm, a re-enactment of the Bridesmaids movie and other such hilarity:
There are literally not enough hours in the day at the moment :) I have a few more weddings to share with you and I'm editing like crazy interspersed with album design. It's a good thing Paul is away in Switzerland as I'm working 15 hours days breaking only to heat up soup and drink diet coke :)
Are you back? Do you have your tasty snacks? Did you hit LIKE on my facebook page? Well then, let me begin...
I met Catherine and Rob at the wedding of Diana and Jeff back in April. Catherine is Jeff's sister and when I saw her entrance into the reception with Rob I thought to myself "Now that's a fun couple. Their wedding photographer is going to have a blast."
Literally the day after the wedding, I received an email from Catherine asking if I was available on their wedding date. Now technically I was but unofficially I was at my 20 wedding limit. But I LOVE what I call "sibling weddings", I already know half of the families and a bunch of the friends and it's nice to have lots of familiar faces at the reception. Everyone's seen me in all my crazy action ;) and they want more of it so I was like "Yeah - let's do it!"
October 29th was fast approaching and in the days before the wedding, the news was full of tales of incoming Noreaster storms...scheduled to arrive immediately after the wedding ceremony. I was emailing back and forth with Catherine and she was so amazingly zen about it all and happily agreed to get ready a little earlier so we could get all of the family and wedding party pictures done before the snow arrived.
We started our day at the awesome Church Landing at Inn at Mill Falls in Meredith, NH, directly on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee and one of the very best wedding venues in the White Mountains:
The suite was buzzing with hair and make up and general merriment. Catherine had bought silk robes as gifts, purple for the bridesmaids and pink for the moms:
All of the "details" were ready in a box labelled "For Leah" which was awesome, saved me having to drag people away from hair and make up to pull everything together:
Purple wedding shoes:
Can you guess what the wedding rings are sitting on? It's one of the little bottles of maple syrup. They were labelled with the names of guests and as escort cards and also favors. Escort cards that also multitask on your pancakes. Mmmm.
Just down the hallway Rob was getting ready with his groomsmen:
Back in the girls room, Catherine's make up was finished perfectly ON TIME. Excuse me whilst I cut to a mini lecture on the value of professional hair and make up (skip to the next picture if you're not in the mood for my ramblings):
1. You're investing a lot of money on your wedding day and your wedding pictures will last a lifetime so you want to look your best.
2. Professional hair and make up will also make you feel your best, you won't be worrying if your hair is going to come loose or if your foundation is sliding off in the heat.
3. Your well-meaning friend who "does makeup" is probably not used to the pressure of make up on a wedding day. There are multiple people involved - bridesmaids, moms, aunts - and VERY TIGHT TIMELINES....
Hair and make up are usually the #1 cause of things running late on the wedding day - disastrously late in some cases causing key parts of the day to be cut short or rushed not to mention the stress that this causes. However I knew this wouldn't be a problem at this wedding because of the A-team of Joya Beauty and Hair That Moves. I can't tell you how much I adore working with Joanne and Lena. They're one of maybe three hair and make up teams that I feel 100% happy in recommending (and I've worked with a LOT!) Not only do all of the brides, bridemaids and moms look awesome but they're so calm, organized and they RUN TO TIME. A L W A Y S. If Joanne knows I'm photographing the wedding it's not unusual for her to shoot me an email asking "What time do you need everyone ready for pictures?"
Plus they think about little things like how the room is set up. Both Joanne and Lena know that the getting ready pictures are really important to most couples and so they'll set their chairs in great light and leave enough room for me to pass back and forth. Unlike the make up artist that shall not be named who set up a chair in the corner and refused to even turn it 5 degrees or let me through to get any pictures...you know who you are you naughty make up artist....
OK, lecture over. Thank you. So here's a beautiful and happy and stress-free Catherine because we're running to time. Hoorah, that means it's time to start getting dressed....
As Catherine was being laced into her wedding dress she looked over at her Mom, Yvette and they both had this awesome look of "Yay! It's happening!":
A final spritz of hairspray after the veil:
So Catherine (and Yvette) were worried that her dad (you may know him as Richard, I prefer Dr. V, we go way back, all the way back to his son's wedding in April ;) would get kind of emotional seeing her as a bride so - this is awesome - they took him to Madeleine's Daughter for the final fitting to try to prepare him. I'm not sure it worked, bottom left image kills me:
Time for the first look! Catherine bundled up for the short walk to the dock on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee to meet Rob:
No words needed:
It was FREEZING cold so we headed inside to warm up before wedding party and family pictures and as we walked back we saw the "audience" for the first look. Catherine's parents and brother Jeff snuck out on their balcony to watch:
Just realised I haven't shown you the flowers. Love the purple wedding colors with hints of orange and green:
I had the awesome Laura of Ruby Shoes Photography along with me for the day and the next picture is hers. More about Laura and her mad leaf throwing skillz in part II:
Some relaxed and happy "formal" pictures despite the sub-zero (well, at least it felt like sub-zero) temperatures:
Note to self - if groomsmen are wearing white pants, probably best to save the goofing off until after the ceremony (it's OK, no fall, no grass stains, although I do usually carry Tide-to-go)
And that's all for today! Next up is the beautiful ceremony, Catherine & Rob's crazy entrance and first dance (you wouldn't expect anything else from these two!), emotional toasts, Chinese lanterns, a fire at Mills Falls narrowly avoided, a massive snowstorm, a re-enactment of the Bridesmaids movie and other such hilarity:
There are literally not enough hours in the day at the moment :) I have a few more weddings to share with you and I'm editing like crazy interspersed with album design. It's a good thing Paul is away in Switzerland as I'm working 15 hours days breaking only to heat up soup and drink diet coke :)
have I ever told you how amazing you are???
ReplyDeleteAs usual Leah, you have a wonderful gift of making beautiful moments look outstanding. You even made my most weak moment of the day look good. We will be enjoying your pictures of our two special events this year for many years to come. It's obvious you enjoy your work very much. Hopefully you continue to bring such joy to others for many years to come. We only have one photographer to recommend to others, you.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Dr. V
absolutely breathtaking!
ReplyDelete