I will admit that I do have some weddings from last fall that I still have on my list to blog. But after having shot my first wedding of 2012 over the weekend in Providence, RI I was just too excited not to share this one right away even if I’m going a little out of order. I was very fortunate to already know this family, having photographed Candas’ brother Ton’s wedding to the lovely Blythe in Virginia back in 2007. So 4.5 years later I was so excited to catch up with everyone and hear about all of their life updates.

Now getting to Providence was not easy…and any wedding photographers out there who think that destination weddings are glamourous have obviously never seen me schlepping 60 pounds of camera gear through the airport while dressed very much like a homeless person. Or the small but plentiful internal panic incidents as I worry and fret who on earth is going to heave my ThinkThank roller bag into the overhead bin for me. This bag is not enormous but it holds a shockingly huge amount of gear…which is awesome until you have to lift it over your head. So a quick piece of advice? If you need help lifting your gear into the overhead bin…always ask for help from another passenger. Do NOT ask a flight attendant for help as they may find a reason to separate you from your bag.

So after one big plane and one small plane, I made it to Providence in one piece…a great start. And although it turned out to be cold, super overcast and even a little bit sprinkly, this wedding was just a perfect storm for me…chock full of beautiful beautiful emotion all day. And that made me unbelievably happy…hence the rather large selection of images below. Enjoy!

My dearest Candas & Nat, I can’t even express to you how happy I was to spend your wedding day with you. I look forward to seeing both of you and your incredibly lovely families in the future. xoxo

Gown: BHLDN
Coordinator: Andria Medeiros of Inifinite Events
Hotel: Renaissance Providence Downtown
Ceremony Venue: Roger Williams Botanical Gardens
Reception Venue: CAV

And of course a huge thank you to Stacey Doyle for coming out to shoot with me!

I first became acquainted with Mike Eller when I stumbled across his beautiful wedding film-making in the planning of my own wedding back in 2008. Perhaps one week later I had booked him and so started what has turned out to be a truly beautiful friendship and working relationship. What a pleasure it was for me to return the favor in photographing his wedding to the most darling girl in the world and his long-term love, Chelsea at Brittland Manor in Chestertown, Maryland.

The wedding day weather looked ominous in the morning but held out for a beautifully emotional outdoor ceremony followed by a tented reception. The day was sprinkled with the most charming and delicate of details which have already been featured over on 100 Layer Cake.

Any excuse for a party is always a good one, right? Well it’s even better when that’s all rolled up into a night with old friends, new friends, cream puffs and a magazine launch hosted at a super cool new LA Venue, Unici Casa in Culver City. Last night Your Wedding Day was relaunched and revealed as CA Wedding Day Magazine and the first issue is truly beautiful and features a cover and editorial spread by my very good friend Michelle Beller , who also shot all of the pictures of yours truly on this site. I was very happy to see my own feature of Lauren & Chris’ lovely wedding at The Colony Palms in Palm Springs, perfectly designed and executed by the incredible Kristeen Labrot.

If anyone made any sort of attempt to contact me last week, it was one of the few times of year that I am pretty much off the grid. And my apologies. But once a year, myself and another 20,000 or so wedding & portrait photographers from all over the world convene at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the annual convention and tradeshow and well, big huge party that is WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International). This was my 10th year in a row attending this particular event. And while that partially just makes me feel just a little bit old, I’d rather say that it allows me to call myself experienced instead…so we’ll run with that.

Aside from the seminars and trade show, to be honest my favorite part of WPPI is always seeing my friends. Imagine being more or less isolated from your co-workers and peers for 95% of the year. When you finally see one another, there is so much catching up to do…and with friends from all over the world. What has also been really fascinating to see over the last several years is the way that social media has affected those friendships and offered a new avenue to building new ones. I can’t even count how many people I met last week whom I had previously considered “Twitter friends” who then became “IRL (in real life) friends” after some chance meeting in passing or over a cocktail at Rouge or sushi at Shibuya. The real challenge is to actually recognize someone from their online avatar…since, in which (and let’s be honest)…we all look about 5 years younger and 10 pounds lighter than we actually are in real life. But hey, what’s the point in having so many talented friends if you can’t find one person to make you look far better in a photograph than you actually do in real life?

The final night of WPPI always wraps with awards night in which a handful of photographers are rewarded for their efforts in that year’s 16×20 print & album competitions. This year I was thrilled and surprised to find myself with a 3rd place trophy in the Bridal Party category for this portrait of Mike Livanos & his groomsmen which I shot in November at Union Station in Los Angeles.

Now way back when, I was one of those kids who probably would have been well pissed to receive a 3rd place anything. But I must say, that placing at all in this print competition is one of the greatest honors my industry has to offer and I was happy to add my trophy on the shelf next to the one I received in 2010 for bride and groom together.

Out of thousands of entry prints sent in from all over the world, only a few dozen prints are awarded with a top prize. So perhaps for now being at the bottom of the very top is something I’m quite pleased with. Until next year. After all, we photographers are fiercely competitive beings…and if there’s one thing my recently late father taught me was “good enough isn’t good enough”. Well that and “always be kind”. If I can manage to pursue those two valuable pieces of wisdom left to me, then I can say that I made him proud in business and in life.

It’s rare that you get to bond with a couple in the very special way that I bonded with Nicole & Mike over the course of just a couple of days together. And I’ll get into that in more detail in some other blog post when I can pull my thoughts together enough to be articulate. This wedding was very special in so many ways. And I got so much love and hugs from Nicole & Mike’s parents over the course of this weekend that I thought my heart just might melt or explode, I wasn’t sure which. But this particular wedding was just so full of raw emotion that I decided to show the entire highlights slideshow in black & white. Just to cut right through everything else to what was really going on, the good stuff, the stuff that matters in life. The people, their relationships with one another and their interactions. So that’s what I’m going to show here as well. Just the the feelings and none of the stuff. I hope you enjoy!

Here is where things really started to get emotional. Nicole’s sweet father could not even glance in her direction without weeping. I remember his wife eventually saying to him “Felix, pull yourself together. You need to have a drink.”

Thank you to Joey from Artisan Events for his always flawless decor and coordination and for Chris Arnold for 2nd shooting with me!