This is one big reason why you should have your photographer at the rehearsal dinner

The Aurora Inn is one of the best S'mores places around

I was excited to shoot Jackie and Stephan’s wedding because it was going to be at the Aurora Inn and I love shooting there. The Inn is one of my favorite local venues and the people that work there are definitely at the top of my list for being attentive to every detail and extremely friendly. Heather Davidson is without doubt one of the best planner/coordinators I have met. Sometimes I think she is a mind reader because she doesn’t miss a beat and is usually getting something for the bride, groom or another guest even before the person realizes they need it. It really is amazing and I honestly think she can be in a few different places at the same time. I’m not sure how the Aurora Inn does it. They are kind of like the New York Yankees in a way because they continue to get better. Lauren Tillapaugh was the last planner/coordinator, and she was an absolute gem. I remember being so disappointed when she moved away. Heather has managed to pick up the reigns without skipping a beat, and all with the same wonderful charismatic attitude. Thank you Heather for the incredible job you are doing. The Inn has everything going for it visually as well. It is located about two thirds of the way up the east side of Cayuga Lake and the sunsets are spectacular! The food is always delicious, and Aurora is another one of those quaint central New York/ Finger Lake towns. The rehearsal dinner was at the Wells College Dock. This place is kind of under the radar. This was the first time I ever heard of it, and what a treat. It is definitely worth looking into if you are planning a wedding at the Inn. There are so many nice things in Aurora though that it is hard to go wrong with what ever you choose.

Thank you Jackie, Stephan, and everyone for making this a wonderful event for everyone. I wish you much love and happiness.

These kind of photos are special because they capture something (love) the bride or others may not have seen at the time

So I was looking around for the best viewpoint when the next series of images happened

I love this! It is one of my favorite sequences ever. He gets caught sneaking a peak at her and then turns away quickly. Then he goes back for one more look and she is waiting for him. It is pure magic for me to record something like this! Their expressions are priceless, and one of the reasons I do what I do.

One of my all time favorite reflection shots

Father and Son

John's Mom

It is a pleasure to see the groom’s Mom share a moment like this with the bride’s Mom because I know the couple will have a great chance for success when I see this.

Brother and Sister

Wow, I had a lot of great expectations going into this wedding and it lived up to everything I thought it would be. When I first met with Danielle and John I had the sense that they were going to be a lot of fun to work with. Their wedding was at The Mirbeau Inn & Spa in Skaneateles. The Mirbeau is a fabulous venue I had been looking forward to shooting at for a long time. It is located in one of my favorite, and prettiest areas of New York. They hired “Atlas” a group I consider to be, and have written about on here several times as being the best party band in the business. Danielle wore a beautiful dress from Gabriella New York Bridal Salon, and they brought in wedding planner extraordinaire James Abel Events to add his special . Basically it was all the best of the best coming together for a wonderful celebration. I could tell that they were both very laid back about everything, and what mattered most to them was to make sure that they, and their friends shared a very special day of fun together. The only request I had from them was to document the day for in the same photojournalistic style they had seen in my previous work. The fact that their friends and families are incredibly friendly and a lot of fun to be around made it even more delightful for me. It was a pleasure to do this for you Danielle and John. Thank you again for everything. I wish you much love and happiness.

Sarah and Martin’s wedding was a lot of fun for everyone. It started out with a beautiful ceremony at Sage Chapel. Then the bride, groom, and a band led a parade through the beautiful Cornell Campus over to the Carriage House Café for the reception. I have shot a few weddings at the Carriage House now and it really is a nice place for a wedding. Everyone there is very friendly and does everything they can to make it the most pleasurable experience possible. Plus the food is delicious, and there is a lot of beauty in and around the place. Martin also had these special Italian cookies flown in that were incredible. Thank you to everyone for welcoming me with open arms and making me feel right at home. I wish you two much love and happiness, and hope that you enjoy reliving your day over and over through the images we created.

I met Michal and her Dad when I was doing her portrait for a Cornell publication. She mentioned that she was getting married and asked if I shot weddings. I said yes, and that I would love to shoot hers. After describing what she wanted, I also recommended that she look into The Fontainebleau Inn. She booked me, the Inn, and then brought in Kevin Colangelo from Premiere Disc Jockeys for what turned out to be a wonderful party.

When ever I shoot a wedding with someone from Cornell there are at least a few guests that I have photographed before. It is always a pleasure to see people again after doing their portrait for them.

Thank you Michal and Alex for everything. I wish you much love and happiness on your journey together.

Okay so these two for sure win the award for most kissing, and that is definitely a good thing. Honestly, it really was a joy for me to photograph this wedding for Heidi and Nolan. The tremendous amount of love they have for each other is clearly visible in everything they do! It is such a refreshing thing to witness, and it fills your soul with a feeling similar to being bathed by the warm rays of the sun. They are also very friendly and care about everyone around them. They took me in and made me feel right at home from the beginning.

I knew we were in for a treat when I heard that the rehearsal dinner was going to be at a place called Tin Pan Galley in Sackets Harbor. The name immediately brought the great Blues song to mind for me and I couldn’t wait to see what we were in for. It was every bit as wonderful as I expected it to be. It even passed the bathroom test (the third, and seventeenth images were shot in the bathroom) and anyone who has followed my blog knows how much I love to shoot in bathrooms. The wedding and the reception were held at Robert Wehle Park. This place is on top of a cliff area with an overview of Lake Ontario that is phenomenal. The weather was incredible (even for stark daylight) and everything worked out perfect.

Thank you Heidi, Nolan, your friends, and families for everything. It really was a wonderful experience and I hope I captured all of the beauty it had to offer for you. I hope that your incredible love lasts forever, and I wish many wonderful times for you on your journey together.

When I think back on Amy and Mike’s wedding there was something that kind of stood out as proof of this being a good union between two people. The power went out at St. Alphonsus Church just as the ceremony started and it didn’t bother or stress anyone out. In fact everyone seemed to get a big laugh out of it. The priest didn’t miss a beat and the power eventually came back on. I don’t know, but it just seemed special to me.

It was a pleasure to work again with the amazing team of Ann Crowley and her daughter Andrea from Bellabrations. I have worked with them a few times now, plus shot a family wedding for them. They are both extremely talented, very friendly, and do a fantastic job. They have a knack for creating a wonderful atmosphere, and for anticipating what the bride and groom need even before they know it themselves. It seems like you think of something and before you even finish the thought Ann or Andrea are already there with what you were thinking of. I can’t imagine the amount of things they do that people don’t even realize they did. Please take my word for it, if you need a great event planner then look no further.

Dinner was family style (where the food comes to the table in bowls and you help yourself). This is my favorite way for a venue to serve dinner. The Owasco Country Club staff did and incredible job too. They had the whole tent served in an impressive seventeen minutes. The main course was Pollo A La Francesa. It was so delicious! My mouth is watering just thinking and writing about it. There was also a huge candy bar with the freshest candies and cookies. A lot of people really seemed to enjoy the cigar bar as well. It seemed like everything was well thought out, with a lot of consideration given to making it as enjoyable as possible for everyone.

Mike and Amy made a disk of music for the DJ to play between sets and I heard a great Talking Heads song that I don’t remember hearing before called “This must be the Place” (please treat yourself and check out the video). It reminded me of what a genius David Byrne is and how great his music is. He and Talking Heads were so far ahead of their time. Nik Lite did a great job getting people on the dance floor and flowers by Michaleens were spectacular as always.

A big thank you to everyone for doing such a wonderful job, and special thanks to Amy and Mike for making it all happen. I wish you much love and happiness!

I first met Masha when I did her portrait for a project at Cornell. I didn’t immediately recognize her name when Jen emailed asking about my packages and said that I had photographed her partner before. When I looked her up online I was delighted to find that she is using one of my images for her online bio, and on the cover of her new book “Body Against Soul”. The wedding was held at “The Barn” which is located about 15 minutes outside of Ithaca. The place being an actual renovated barn made it quite challenging to shoot in because of the high ceilings and dark wood everywhere. The weather didn’t make it any easier as it went from dreary overcast and rain to stark sunlight. Neither one is bad by itself and can be dealt with if you plan accordingly, but it can be tough to plan things in one direction and suddenly switch in the other direction. I overheard someone say, “It is Ithaca, wait a few minutes and it will change” how true that is. I think we really did a good job making the best of everything and it all worked out fine.

The food was catered by “Just a Taste” which is one of my favorite restaurants in Ithaca. They always have a way of surprising the palette with exciting combinations of foods. I was particularly intrigued by a watermelon salad with feta cheese and mint. Wow! This has to be the most refreshing new discovery of the summer for me. The sweet watermelon mixes with the salty cheese and mint to create a surprisingly delicious combination. I strongly suggest that you give this a try. I’m sure that you won’t be disappointed. It is always such a treat to be turned on to new things like this at weddings for me. Another new discovery from this wedding for me is the group “Magnetic Fields”. Masha and Jen did their first dance to the song “The Book of Love”. I have been a long time fan of Peter Gabriel’s version of this incredible song but to hear Stephin Merritt’s (from The Magnetic Fields) haunting baritone version was bone chilling. I am an instant fan and can’t wait to explore more music by this incredibly talented artist. I love all kinds of music and it really excites me when I find something new that actually makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Thank you Masha, Jen, and everyone for welcoming me with open arms and for turning me on to so many new things. I wish you much love and happiness together.

WOW would be an understatement for this wedding! I have been looking forward to working together again with Christina and Liam since we did their incredible engagement session. Sometimes when people hire me they ask if I think I will be able to work my magic for them. Can I transform them into one of the beautiful couples on my blog? This case was much different because they cast a spell on me the moment we met. In fact, everything they do is enchanting. They both have such incredible eyes and are so much fun to be around. We talked about a few locations I scouted beforehand so we could take advantage of every minute we had together on the actual wedding day. They were more than up to the challenge, and willing to try everything and anything I suggested. The end result is a ton of fabulous images, and a body of work that I’m sure any photographer would be proud to produce in one session. It was extremely difficult to narrow down the number of images for this post to a manageable amount. I couldn’t get it down any lower because there are so many I wanted to share. Christina and Liam really are a dream couple, both just as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. It has been a pleasure communicating back and forth for the last year and a half, and this is definitely a wedding I wish was ahead of me rather than behind me.

Another super nice thing about this wedding is that they choose to get married at St. Mary’s of the Lake in Watkins Glenn. The church is actually about fifteen minutes away from my house, so you can bet that was a treat for me. Especially considering that where I live, nothing is fifteen minutes away. The tough part was that Christina and Liam were planning everything from out of state and they weren’t too familiar with the area, or any of the vendors. I made a few suggestions that they ended up going with so they were in good hands. First off was the venue, and The Fontainebleau Inn is a Historic Bed and Breakfast located in Alpine, New York. The house/Inn has been a labor of love for owner/operators Terri and John since 1990. It is a wonderful place for a wedding, and I enjoy it more and more every time I am there. There are usually other great wedding vendors there with me as well which adds to the experience. My favorite local caterers Katie and Tina from Word of Mouth Catering are two of the nicest people I know in the wedding industry and they always do a fabulous job. As always, their food was incredible and there congeniality much appreciated. We were a little late because we had so many different places to shoot at between the ceremony and the reception but Katie, Tina, Terri, and John just rolled with it like the true professionals they really are. Again, I apologize for us holding things up a little and really appreciate how everyone handled it. To top everything off, or perhaps the pièce de résistance, was DJ’s extraordinaire Nicky Wood and Jeannette. Nicky is a huge favorite of mine. He and I have done a lot of weddings together now and I can say for sure that it is comforting to me when I know he will be there.

Well thank you so much for everything Christina, Liam, your families, and friends. It was a special treat for me to be able to do this with you and I hope we created many images and memories that will last a life time plus. I wish you the very best and lots of love now and forever.

I always love to capture this moment and expression for people

this one too, so real

the one before this was on a plate I found, this one was shot on the bottom of a vase

and these were shot in a candy bowl, aren't they a great choice for dance shoes?

J.T. sang to Liese. It may have been a little off key but more than made up for that in real emotions, feelings, and sincerity

Brothers

I love the realness of this kiss

It was nice to be back at Cornell University for Liese and J.T.’s wonderful wedding. Sage Chapel is a great place to get married, but it is even better when the amazing Rev. Janet Shortall is there to marry you.  Of course, the Statler Hotel is and will always be one of my favorite venues in the Ithaca area (we missed you Melissa), and this was also the second time in a row that I have had the pleasure to work with Bill from Black Tie Entertainment. Like I said in my last post, Bill is always on top of his game and makes sure that everyone enjoys the party.

The weather was incredible! Any time I can have people standing around outside without jackets in the middle of March is pretty amazing. J.T. and Liese were the best to work with too. They scheduled everything perfectly and left nice little windows of photo opportunities. The food of course was delicious as it always is at the Statler, and the service was spectacular as well.

Thank you Liese, J.T. and everyone for a wonderful day together. I wish you much love and happiness on your journey together.

I asked Liese and J.T. if they wanted to write something for my blog and here is their response,

Since we met years ago while in the Cornell University Marching Band, there was no better place than our alma mater for a wedding. Our engagement started with a proposal at Beebe Lake and culminated with a beautiful ceremony in Sage Chapel! Rev.  Janet Shortall and Fr. Daniel McMullin officiated and were able to incorporate both our Unitarian and Catholic upbringings. Our parents were happy and everyone enjoyed the lovely musical accompaniment provided by Dr. William Cowdery on the organ.

The staff at the Statler did a wonderful job with the overall coordination of our wedding and with the reception. They kept everything running smoothly and easily adapted to any issues that arose. Even though coordinator Melissa Hill was not able to be at our event due to the early arrival of baby no. 2 (congratulations!!!), Paula and Nicole were able to step in and handle things perfectly the day of the wedding. We got compliments both on the tasty meal from the Statler kitchen and on the delicious cake created by Leslie Muhlhahn at Just Desserts. The three-tiered yumminess was expertly decorated and accented with beautiful flowers from Michaeleen’s Florist. Blossom and the staff there provided all of our flowers and were able to get lots of gorgeous blooms even though it was just early March!
I think it has been said before but Bill from Black Tie Entertainment is really good at making an event a party. We had a wide range of ages in attendance at the reception, but everyone seemed to have a great time. Bill was able to go with the flow even when J.T. grabbed the microphone to give me an impromptu serenade of “Just the Way You Are,” or when he and his brothers performed an Irish “jig” to “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”
We can’t forget to thank Lynette and the ladies at Satori who pampered me, my attendants, my mother, and my mother-in-law before the wedding. They worked to make us all look our best and provided a warm, soothing environment in which to relax on what might have been a somewhat crazy time. Last, but not least, thanks to you, Frank, for being a presence during our special day. You became “one of the gang” and clearly worked hard to document a moment in our lives that seemed to go by in a blur. The pictures are wonderful and will be treasured.
It was quite the undertaking to plan a wedding in Ithaca while living in Arlington, Virginia. The situation was not improved by the fact that one of us is a full-time student with a tendency to procrastinate. Nonetheless, the long-distance planning and time constraints were worth it. Everything eventually got done thanks to all the wonderful, cooperative, and creative people with whom we worked in Ithaca. The weather held out and our wedding turned out better than we possibly could have imagined! Thanks so much to all!!
Liese and J.T.