This couple and this wedding were anything but traditional and right up my alley!! When I first met with Nicole and Mike and they told me they were getting married at the Beardsley Zoo I was really excited - even more so when they told me that there would be peacocks roaming free at the ceremony near the greenhouse and that their reception would be in the Carousel House with a huge working carousel in the center of the room! How fun is that?! Mike had his tuxedo pants tailored into shorts and both the bride and groom wore flip flops… perfectly fitting their fun and laid back personalities! During the reception everyone had a great time talking, dancing and or course riding the carousel! Rob from RJT Pictures, his assistant and I just had to take a ride and get in on the action too! Vicki Souza second shot for me and I cannot thank her enough for all her hard work! She did an awesome job and captured some great shots!

I have to give a shout out to Jeannine, the events coordinator at the Zoo, as she did an incredible job and was so much fun to work with! She really pulled everything together and she has an incredible personality - I actually thought she was a close friend of Nicole’s when I first met her!

I have never had a wedding (other than my own!) affect me as much as Vanessa and Rob’s. They are the warmest, funniest, most loving couple I have ever had the pleasure of working with - and that is saying a lot because I have worked with some really incredible couples! They had me in tears many times throughout the day and I still get misty eyed when I look through their photos. Words cannot express how much I truly appreciate being a part of their day and how honored I am to be their friend. Okay… I’m going to cry again just thinking about how amazing they are… time for the details!

We had an absolutely gorgeous day, an abundance of time and a fantastic crowd of people! I started with Vanessa at Salon Medusa in West Hartford and then onto the the Chanel counter at Nordstrom’s in West Farms Mall to get all beautified (not that she needed it!). She finished her preparations at her parents’ home in Granby and it was onto St. Joseph’s Church in Poquonock, where Rob’s fire chief dropped him off in a fire engine! After a beautiful ceremony, Jason and I went with Rob & Vanessa to the Pleasant Street Park in Windsor for some photos and then onto their reception at the stunning Golf Club of Avon. Deb Paine, the Golf Club’s Director, did the most amazing job on everything! Everyone crowded the dance floor for my favorite Connecticut band - Locomotion.

We shared so many laughs, cries, stories and even a dance when they made me put the camera down… Even though we just met last year, I feel like we have been friends forever and I can see us remaining friends ’til we’re old and gray!

Congratulations, Vanessa & Rob - I am so incredibly happy for you! I hope you had a phenomenal time in Italy!

Click here for the slideshow!

My favorite photo of the day - the amazing lighting made this look like it was straight out of a movie!

I found this on Steve DePino’s blog and Nikki’s blog and thought I’d take a look. I have no idea how they come up with this, but they say my blog is worth a heck of a lot! Now if I could only find a buyer! =)

I have known Chelsie since she was an infant… she is the daughter of my Mom’s best friend and I have watched her grow into a beautiful, funny and intelligent young woman. Man, time flies! While in Florida last month we attended Chelsie’s 16th birthday party and a couple days later I took her out for a photo shoot with 3 of her friends. Here are a few of my favorites:

Ahhh… after a totally awesome and exhausting week and a fabulous wedding, I am home and getting caught up! Chicago and the Pictage Partner Conference were incredible! Pictage is the print lab that I joined forces with back in December and Partner Con is a photo conference strictly for members of Pictage. The coolest thing is, they limit the number of attendees which is great because you can actually meet and talk to new and inspiring people and not get lost in a sea of faces.

I met so many fantastic people and got to hear some of the most talented photographers in the industry share their great insight with the rest of us! Nikki and I started the week with a big group dinner at a fabulous restaurant that I am struggling to remember the name of right now! There were so many people there, but off the top of my head, we dined with the fabulous Jessica Claire, Keats, Corey, Jonathan Thrasher, Leann Wrightsman, Justin & Mary, Regina Holder, Blake, Scarlett, Matthew J. Wagner…. I know I am forgetting people… and then we went to the lounge at the hotel and hung out with some more people! Tuesday morning kicked off the conference and the guest speakers. It was so hard to decide who to see as there were 4 speakers at the same time and you had to pick and choose! I had the privilege of listening to Jared Bauman & Bronson, Liana Lehman, Me Ra Koh, Pepper Nix and Mitchell Burt, Denis Reggie and Mike Colon share their knowledge. It was absolutely incredible! I just wish that I could have heard all of the speakers, though I’m lucky I heard any of them as I was sick and my ears popped on the plane, making me hearing impaired all week! Thank goodness for Powerpoint slideshows with notes on the topics and an awesome roomie that repeated the things I didn’t hear!

Nikki thoroughly enjoying two glasses of wine! The waiter poured me a glass and I don’t drink wine, so Nikki rescued it from going down the drain!

Corey, Shaun and Regina playing with the point and shoots
A game of pass the point and shoots - I think Corey may have taken this lovely photo of Shaun

Wednesday Nikki and I took off downtown on our own (I lived there for a few months back in 2000) and walked around shopping, sight seeing and taking photos of the city and eachother from about 5 PM to 3 AM! I cannot even begin to describe how badly we were both hurting after that! Note to self - don’t wear flip flops when walking around Chicago for 10 hours! Nikki and I stopped by a beautiful church on the Magnificent Mile for a photo session! We put some of our newly acquired knowledge from the one and only Denis Reggie to good use! Thanks, Denis!

NikkiWork it, girl!Nikki snapped these of me

My favorite city
Goofball tourists!

One of my favorite things about Chicago is the incredible architecture and sculpting






Nikki after our exhausting walk from Magnificent Mile to the Shedd Aquarium
But it was SO worth it for this view!


We managed to make it back to the hotel around 3:30 AM and hung out with Kevin Swan, Shaun Austin (photographers and KISS album guys!) and Nathan & Amber Holritz for a few minutes in the lobby before finally going up to our room and collapsing from sheer exhaustion! Unfortunately, we couldn’t sleep in too late since we had a flight Thursday afternoon… little did we know it would be canceled. After 7 hours in the airport dealing with terrible customer service from Jet Blue and figuring out what to do, we got a hotel, almost no sleep, and caught a flight back home on Friday. Between all the hustle and bustle, all the sight seeing and being sick, I was totally drained by the time we got home but it was totally and completely worth it! I can’t wait for next year! Mike McNitt, Pictage’s Event Manager, was hinting to me that they may be holding this conference in New York next year - how cool would that be?!

I know, I’ve been slacking in my posting lately. Things have been crazy since returning from Florida as I’m about to enter full swing into wedding season. Being sick the last week certainly didn’t help either. Thankfully, I’m on the mend and off to Chicago today for a photo conference - I can’t wait! I haven’t been to Chicago in years and I can’t wait to see some sites that I missed while I lived there. It’s funny how when we live some place we never take the time to see the sites and do the tourist thing! Of course, I am taking my camera with me, so I will have plenty of photos to post when I get home! I return Thursday evening and then Saturday is Vanessa and Rob’s wedding in Poquonock/Avon! We had such an awesome time with their engagement photos and I can’t wait to see them again! Have I mentioned what an honor it is to be part of such a special day?
Have a great week!