claire & ben: engaged

i have a problem. i'm not very good with exclusiveness. i SAY i have favourites...but it carries a bit less weight when i tell EVERY NEW COUPLE they are my favourites.

so. claire and ben are my favourite couple getting married in february of 2008. the fact that they are the ONLY ones who've hired me for a wedding that month (thus far) should mean nothing to you, because if they were not awesome, they would not have earned the favourite title.

claire is a minister and went to harvard divinity school...she's very unassuming about it, and i had to ask her directly where she went to seminary. smarty-pants. i can't remember what ben does, but he is very nice, and he likes claire a lot...there is little in the world more endearing than a guy thoroughly wrapped up in his girl. maybe baby fingers/toes, but...that's a close one.



anyway, they met at...wait for it...adult kickball. isn't that the most amazing thing you've ever heard? it made me want to run out and join a league, but the closest ones are portland, me and the boston area, and neither of those are really close enough. so. i will sit here, living free instead of dying, in nh...kickballless.

but you didn't come here for that. you want to see photos, yes?

we met in newburyport, ma for our session...grabbed a few shots downtown, and then headed out to maudslay state park. there just HAPPENED to be a playground right near where we met, and apparently they were swayed by my pathetic longing...i've been dying to do some playground e-session shots for...many months. they were totally up for it and laughed right along with me at the logistical difficulties of positioning two adults in a child-sized crawl-through tube.


anyone who does photos with me in newburyport will have "the coke wall" shot. it is basically my favourite thing in the entire town.

(this was their favourite, but i think i like the next one just as well.)



one of the things i love about my job is getting to know the different couples who hire me...another wedding photographer friend of mine once described the relationship as something like...temporary best friends. i get to see lots of intimate moments and they've got to trust me to capture those things. i am genuinely interested when i ask about their stories...how'd you meet, what are your "things"...funniest moments, etc. claire's got one of the cutest "things" i've seen yet. she likes to smell ben's head. she pulls it down towards her, closes her eyes, and breathes in deep. "pheremones: they're real," she announced to me.



(kissing down by the river is better than living in a van down by the river, right?)



one last thing i love about these two: they've both got hyphenated last names...so they're picking one from each and creating a new hyphenated identity...just for the two of them...to start their new family. fabulous.

so, this one time...i actually ATTENDED a wedding.

my friends hannah and zach got married. and then they got married again. and then they had a wedding. we all find that quite tremendous. (he's in the army, so...the multiple marriages/ceremonies were for logistical AND sentimental AND tradition purposes)

their wedding-wedding was in oklahoma, and it was the first one i've attended...in a non-involved (ha!) capacity...maybe ever.

i went to my babysitter's wedding when i was little, but bek-the-sister and i wore our special jessica mcclintock outlet dresses and passed out programs. the flower-girl consolation prize...we were ok with it, because we got frilly pink dresses. i went to my honourary brother jeremy's wedding in 1998 and held the cup for communion...hey...i had to wear a pretty pink dress again and stand on stage, so...that counts as involvement, right? then bek-the-sister got married in 2003, and i spent the morning of the wedding frantically trying to finish my dress...and wishing to GOD i actually LIKED margaritas so i could relax. i've managed to not attend any of my college/hs friends' weddings because they get married in far off and ridiculous places like calgary, or south bend, indiana, etc...

i've gone to countless weddings in the last couple years...but when i'm behind the lens, it's quite different. so. this was an experience. i learned how to use floral wire and tape and made some really cute corsages and boutonnieres.


got to photograph the bride on the loo (i am extremely eccentric, and there is something about the disparity of the huge white dress, and the very non-ceremonial call to nature...combined w/ the fact that said white dress is SO HUGE that it renders the delicacy of the situation basically non-existent--that just cracks me right up!)


the distracted little flower girls walked in to "concerning hobbits"...hilarious AND apt.


the groom is a west point grad, so of course they had a saber arch...i had a sleeping flower-girl on me at this point as i was given child-duty so mom and dad could play their respective parts in the ceremony, so i didn't actually take this photo...i just directed. :-D


i love the light on this one


oh, and me...with sleeping flowergirl...who didn't get her nap that day, so it's a good thing i had snacks and toys and several years of childcare experience under my belt...no crying during the ceremony!


i totally helped design this bouquet. well...why not...i've seen one or two this year. :-D


the bride has 6 younger brothers...who decorated the car. this window says, "guess what we're doing tonight?" ha.


then some friends asked me to take a few pictures for them during the reception...doesn't really matter that i wasn't the official photographer, huh? 's ok. it's what i do.


hey look! i got them all to look...and the baby isn't crying or grizzling! i must be a magician.


course...sometimes the moments they don't know i'm watching are the best


then we had a little fun in the pastor's study...churches sometimes have...INTERESTING things in their closets. like john lennon wigs.


lastly...the afterparty...at which the army fellows demonstrated how long they can last before all the bud lights catch up with them. heh. (some of them did quite well. the one on the floor...did not.)


i'm feeling extremely motivated to catch up on TONS of things i did not blog about this summer/fall, so...stay tuned. and hound me if you don't see regular posts. nagging: it works!

that's just what i wanted to hear

i changed my hair fairly recently...(went UBER blonde.) i've had a few client meetings/engagement sessions since then, and i was mildly concerned that they wouldn't be able to recognise me because the photo on my website (and here) is me with darker hair.

but all of them said, "oh no...i could tell it was you from your glasses."

NICE.

have i ever mentioned how much i love my vintage cat-eye glasses? because...i so do. i spent an embarrassing number of hours searching ebay for JUST THE RIGHT ONES.

anyway...here's me w/ blonde hair and my awesome glasses. (taken w/ le macbookpro. please note the kitty litter to the left side of the photo. awesome.)