Emily and Josh

Just before their wedding, Emily gets a present, delivered by her maid of honor, Andrea, from Josh, her very soon to be husband.

His present to her (gonna be hard to imagine how he’ll ever top this one), was a journal he kept ‘to my future wife’. She never knew he was writing it. The first entry, June 2nd, 2009. Their first date? One month later. 

I mean think about it! On June 2nd, 2009, Josh looked at this woman and said ‘this one’. ‘I’m going to marry this woman’. And he did. And so sure that he would woo her, he wrote to Emily all the while, unbeknownst he her, his thoughts, his feelings while they were dating, all kept for her, for Emily on their wedding day.

Kinda makes the Jim Gaffigan tickets I got for Casey on out anniversary seem... well, a little trite.

Emily and Josh’s wedding was a real honor to shoot because Josh’s mother, Andrea is a photographer herself, and not a bad one at that. She helped them find me. And when I met her at the rehearsal dinner (that the family generously invited Casey and I to), she was all smiling eyes and gratitude and pride and a bubble of giddiness. 

Imagine that, a great family like theirs, wanting me to be apart of their pride and joy of days.

Makeup by MAC store, Naples

Hair by Jennifer Ludeman from Stilista Salon, Naples

Reception hosted and catered by the stunning Quail West Country Club

Video by the awesome Christina and James of InMotion Video Productions

The dance floor literally never cleared because of Scott and Tina Dean of A Sound Choice Entertainment

Flowers by Elaine Boucher

Meet Ella, This was the coolest baby I've met in awhile

 Emily's dad, Roger

Sarah's Bridal Session

Summer vacation for my kids means beach days, driving mom and dad crazy, getting in lots of lego time, and road trips.

Summer vacation for teachers means that they become the most relaxed, congenial and happy people you've ever met, or at least that's true for Sarah, a music teacher near Tampa. Setting up hair, make up, schedule and location with Sarah for her bridal session was literally one of the easiest interactions with another human being I've ever had.

It's summer, she's getting married, she has time, and the world is her oyster.

Her mother came out to assist, so I put her to work right away, carrying bags and setting up lights. Kidding, I'm kidding. But she was a ton of help to Sarah, and a really pleasant person to pass the time with while we waited for Sarah to get all prettied up.

Sarah and Chad's wedding is this weekend in Sarasota, at the *what what* Powell Crosley Estate, can't wait!

 

 

Jamie and Eddie

You know a movie is epically bad when it’s used as a hyperbole during wedding vows.  “I remember watching Indiana Jones & the Crystal Skull, sitting next to you when we were dating”, said Jamie to Eddie under the overwhelmingly blue sky on a private stretch of beach at Manasota Key, “thinking to myself ‘this is such a bad movie’, but I would watch it every day if it meant I could sit next to you”.

Jamie & Eddie’s vows were like that.  They wrote them themselves and they were funny and touching and personal all at the same time.  Those were the hallmarks of their whole wedding, like the rows and rows of flip-flops made available for the guests walking over the hot sand, all different sizes, clipped up and hanging like fresh laundry on a sunny day.

Even the very place the ceremony was held at was deeply personal, her grandmother’s (when I introduced myself to her, she told me to call her ‘Baba’, like the rest of her grandchildren) house on the water.  It has been a place for the family to gather at for thirty years and it was full of memories, some recent, vivid and cracklingly crisp, others from early childhood, faded and worn around the edges. 

Their family partied like few I’ve seen, all the way to the end of the night.  Beaming, Jamie came over to me and asked me why I hadn’t danced yet.  Half joking, I replied “they haven’t played outkast yet”.  She laughed as she turned and walked to the dj.  Yup you guessed it, hey ya was the next song. 

Reception hosted by Nikki Swanson at Pelican Pointe of Venice

Floral by Elegant Designs Floral Art Studio

Hair and Makeup by Natalie's Salon

DJ Black Tie DJ's

Jamie was having a hard time bustling her dress, so the guys thought they'd bustle Eddie, to sympathize

guess which artist Katie (in the blue bridesmaid's dress) is dancing to, haha