Atkinson Resort and Country Club NH Wedding Photographer :: Katy + Sean (Part II)

If you missed Tuesday's blog post then you missed Katy & Sean getting ready and their beautiful wedding ceremony at St Francis in Dracut, MA. Katy and Sean are very smart, not only did they pick each other to spend the rest of their lives with, they also picked Atkinson Resort & Country Club in Atkinson, NH as their wedding reception venue.

Atkinson is probably my favorite NH wedding venue (we actually had our post-wedding reception here back in 2007, essentially a wedding minus the ceremony):
- Nicolette and the whole wedding team are fabulous
- The ballroom is beautiful. Katy added uplighting for extra drama and ambience but even without uplighting it's a stunning room which makes for extra nice pictures!
- The grounds are stunning, all kinds of walkways and ponds (you can also have an outdoor ceremony here)
- The food is delicious and there are SO many great options (we skipped the wedding cake and went with an martini bar made of ice and ice cream sundae station)
- The golf is great too!

Atkinson Resort is literally 10 minutes from our home too so if you're planning your wedding there and you're looking for a wedding photographer, you totally need to call me!

Anyhoo, back to Katy & Sean who I just adore. They had a receiving line after their ceremony with lots of happy congratulations and hugs:

Receiving lines are great but you should allow AT LEAST 30 minutes for every 50 people (kiss, kiss, hug, you look great! thank you for coming! - it all takes time!). Katy & Sean had lots of time but sometimes couples underestimate the time needed!

Best NH wedding venue:


I know a lot of photographers don't show family pictures but I love family pictures! I do them quickly and painlessly and you still get totally mantel-worthy images. As you'll see in a few pictures from now, Atkinson has beautiful gardens but when we arrived it was like 100 degrees and crazy bright sun (which makes for hot uncomfortable families squinting in the light) so we found a nice shady spot:



I figured if Katy and Sean were kissing their eyes would be closed - bright sun not a problem now!



Sean and the guys:


Katy and the girls:


Katy and Sean wanted to find time to see the ballroom before everyone else came in and it's a great idea.


You've worked so hard on all of the little details that it's nice to have a moment alone to see everything come together:


And it seems only fair to be the first to take advantage of the candy bar:


I loved how incredibly colorful everything was. Bowler and Jones Fine Floral Designs were beyond lovely to work with and the flowers were beautiful:



Once the sun dipped a little, we headed back out to the beautiful gardens to do some couples pictures. Ideally I'd have an hour with each couple on their wedding day...more time = more pictures :)


I have no idea what's going on here, I think it might be a Sean & Katy thing :)



Time for the first dance, I struggled to pick just one favorite so here are 5 (and I could have happily shared 15 but figured you might want to see some other good stuff too!):



Awesome toasts from Katy's dad Steve, Maid of Honor Missy and Sean's brother and best man, Matt:


Mmmm cake from Jacques Fine European Pastries:


I might get details of the next part of the evening wrong as even I had to wipe my eyes. One of Katy's aunts presented her with a "Katy Doll" made by Katy's grandmother that she never got to meet (OK, I have a lump in my throat even writing this):


Parent dances:



And then the dancefloor was opened! All Star Entertainment kept it packed with all sorts of crazy games and dance-offs:



Dirty Dancing is probably one of my all-time favorite movies. With classic lines like "I carried a watermelon" and "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" how can you not love it? So when "I've had the time of my life" started to play I was all "Ooooh, I wonder if they'll do the lift?" and they did!!!


And Katy & Sean lived happily ever after....


If you're sad that the pictures are over don't be! Meghan Simone made a wonderful little film! Why not go get a coffee and watch it now? There are literally only 2 videographers that I recommend for their unobtrusiveness and professionalism and Meg is totally one of them!

View on ExposureRoom

Katy & Sean - you two are amazing. I am SO happy you chose me to be your wedding photographer, it's been so great getting to know you both! Wishing you limitless love, laughter and happiness and I want to come to your 50th anniversary party.

Say congratulations to Katy & Sean in the comment if you like! Or if you'd like your own wedding pictures email me at leah@leahhaydock.com Quick! Quick! 2012 dates are booking fast and I'm already over 50% booked up! And if you're on facebook you should totes head over to "like" my official photography page to see the latest...

Atkinson Resort & Country Club NH :: Wedding Photographer :: Katy + Sean (Part I)

I was planning on posting this earlier but Sunday night brought me face to face with a flying squirrel IN OUR HOUSE and after much drama including talking Paul out of letting Coco loose on the squirrel and culminating in driving the flying squirrel away from the house in a Monopoly game box at 3am in the morning I wasn't fully with it yesterday.

Anyway, enough about me and flying squirrels I'd much rather talk about Katy & Sean's wedding!!! Their Catholic church ceremony was at St Francis in Dracut and the wedding reception at Atkinson Country Club in Atkinson, NH. Katy and Sean are real high-school sweethearts and you can see some of their engagement pictures **here**

Let's start at Katy's parent's home. This is not their home. Obviously. This is a model of Katy & Sean's new home that they've just bought together. A model that Sean spent the night before the wedding working on instead of drinking shots with the guys. The house that Katy found when she woke up that morning containing a card and watch from Sean. Sean is a keeper :)


Speaking of Katy, here she is with her bridesmaids getting ready in her parent's room - gotta love wedding pictures on the wall. Maybe in twenty or thirty something years some other photographer will be taking getting ready wedding photographs and Katy & Sean's picture will be on the wall. I'm such a sap...


Actually, let me backtrack with some details. I like that Katy had church shoes and party shoes. One can never have enough shoes. Loving the flowers too!




It was time to get dressed and Katy's mom helped her with her jewelry:



A message for Sean on her shoes:


Both Sean and Katy's families were SO welcoming. Katy's mom was checking on me all morning - water? sandwich? - so kind. Katy is one of three but the only girl so I wanted to make sure I caught her parent's reactions seeing their little girl as a bride for the first time:


Off to St Francis Parish in Dracut, MA for the wedding ceremony:


Here's Sean :) On the right are Alice from Australia's hands.


I asked my second photographer Julia to stay back to catch Katy and her Dad coming up the stairs:


Sean's expressions as the doors opened to reveal Katy on the arm of her father:



Argh, look at these two looking at each other. I can't stand it. Seriously, I'm not even going to try to explain how much I like Sean & Katy because I won't do them justice. I'll just say that I got to know them both over the wedding planning process and they truly are meant to be. It's awesome.



Vows and ring exchanges are best when accompanied by giggling:


Assuming I'm not banished to the back of the church (which does happen - always make sure to discuss photography restrictions when choosing your venue!) I love long church ceremonies with a full mass. After the appropriate amount of time in silence Katy and Sean started looking at each other. Then Katy was twisting around trying to see everyone. And that's when I got this series that I shall entitle "Sean with Wedding Ring"


And by the power vested in me by the state of my blog I now pronounce you husband and wife, you may kiss the bride:




How ridiculously happy are these two? Just wait until we get to Atkinson Resort for the wedding reception, it get's even better - Photobooth! Candy bar! Toasts! Brandon the groomsman! Dancing! Say hello in the comments if you're feeling chatty :)

NYC Engagement Pictures :: Central Park, Times Square and the High Line :: Daniella + Mark

Third post of the day! I'm on fire! Blogging fire! This is an epic engagement shoot to end the week. I'm photographing Danielle & Mark's wedding at the Taj Boston next year and they live in New York City so a few weeks ago I hopped a jetblue flight from Boston to JFK and spent HOURS with them for an extended engagement shoot hence the gazillion pictures I'm about to share with you. Was that the longest sentence you've ever read? I don't have time for punctuation...

But wait, before you read on, hop on over to my official facebook page **here** and hit that "like" button because I post extra sneak peaks there (and you'll want to be the first to see the wedding pictures next year of course)

So we're somewhere in New York, I LOVE NYC, seriously I even have one of those t-shirts but I have no clue where anything is so my commentary is going to be a bit vague. I do know that we tried to get into a locked private park and despite my best polite British act we had no luck. So we settled on these lovely steps:


I know what you're thinking. You're wondering if we're in front of an art installation for the next picture. But no, it was the window of a mobile phone store - maybe Sprint? Daniella and Mark were all kinds of awesome to photograph, especially when you get expressions like these from Daniella:



It wouldn't be a New York engagement photograph without a yellow taxi right? Gosh, I'm such a tourist ;)


Samantha, one of Daniella and Mark's friends had kindly offered her apartment up for an outfit change (loved the welcome poster! you can see it on my facebook page...) so after getting past the doorman who was yelling at the Fedex guy (did I mention I love New York?) we were back for more pictures in front of interesting store window, well actually, this was through the window:


Daniella and Mark were just friends forever. They used to hang out and play scrabble.


A dress like this deserves a little spin:


We're in Central Park now (I do know at least that much) and the light was just starting to fade...


I know what you're thinking again. You're thinking that Daniella looks very sophisticated and she can probably be found having dinner with Mark most evenings in Per Se or Le Bernadin. Umm - wrong. Mark told me all about Daniella's 25th birthday - he'd planned a special dinner out at a top restaurant and just as they were about to head out Daniella admitted she'd really just like a hot dog. So hot dogs it was. Daniella laughed and told me that each year she looks forward to getting McDonald's gift certificates from Mark's mom :)



I'm not sure whether they were laughing at the boot camp exercisers or me or each other but I love it:




This might be my favorite picture of day:


Do you see what I mean by Daniella's brilliant expressions?


We hopped into one of the yellow taxis and went up to the High Line to get some sunset city pictures. Ahhhh:


Daniella and Mark thought they'd have a go at recreating the famous Eisenstaedt image in Times Square:


Daniella & Mark, I can't begin to explain how much fun I had with the two of you! Thank you for being SO easy to photograph and for the subway ride and introducing me to that fabulous bar (I've forgotten the name now but the wine was lovely) and I can barely wait for your wedding next May!!!