Tags: 091909

Things I Love:
*Goofy Grooms
*Crafty Brides
*Sassy Redheads
*Fluttery dresses
*Laughter at Wedding Ceremonies
*Adventurous People (hey, let's go hike out on those rocks over there)
*Marble Cake
*Hip Mamas
*Wallet Chains
*Peonies & Ranunculus
*Chris & Jillian's Taste in Music (Cat Power for a first dance and the slideshow theme song for a last dance- that's our lady of total insanity, your love and mine- Bjork if you can't tell)
*This picture:


(click!)

(As you may or may not know: AVR's wedding band has lyrics from this song engraved in it)

Amy and Chris had their whole day at the Wayside Inn and Martha Mary Chapel - rustic, fun, re-enactors, and a big red waterwheel to boot! They chose one of my all-time favorite officiants for their ceremony and she brought out their personalities so well (as is her talent). They had a quaker-style anyone moved to speak may speak section and then did rock paper scissors to see who would do their vows first. I'm not telling who won, but I'll tell you that the winner threw rock-- you'll have to keep an eye out for it.

The song that their slideshow is to is their first dance- I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not all that into country music, but I definitely got a little wet around the eyes listening to the lyrics.


(Click!)

I'm a large, so it's a little different than the small:
2 heads romaine, 2 heads red leaf, 2 heads chicory, 2 pounds sugar snap peas, 1 bunch carrot, 1 bunch turnips, 1 bunch mustard, 1 bunch chard, 1 pound broccoli, 1 bunch arugula, 1 bunch radish and 1 bunch pak choi.

Yay Vegetables that aren't salad greens. :)

Emily and Sam were married at one of my new favorite venues - the Essex Retreat and Conference Center. It's a beautiful and serene space full of sculpture and gorgeously maintained landscaping.

The ceremony was sweet and seemed more intimate because it was across a little pond from the guests, and the reception had such a laid-back, home-grown atmosphere. The swags of paper cranes that the bride and groom folded together before their wedding were a great decoration, but also carried such incredible energy with them- they each seemed to have their own little personalities imbued by Emily & Sam.


(click!)

Also, the music video for this song (Hoppipola by Sigur Ros) is one of my all-time favorite music videos, so I have to share that too:



(Watch the wedding slideshow first or you'll never get the vid out of your head!)

I went to futureme.org last year and wrote myself a letter that I just got...I'd totally forgotten about it:

Dear FutureMe,
Well, today is June 9th. You just got back from Maine last night where it was foggy and you could see your breath. Here today, you can feel yourself sweating the water as you drink it. The dogs are panting on the living room floor and your garden is just getting going. It's Monday.

You graduated from photo school on Friday and now it's just you and the business you started in 2005 and...a wing and a prayer. You nearly tripled your receipts between 2006 and 2007 and you paid for school out of pocket. You have a hard time being proud of yourself, but everyone around you tells you all the time. So you remember that.

Also significant, you think your girlfriend will propose sometime this fall. You're pretty sure of it. You talk openly about marriage and she hints about rings. Is your dress done? If it's not too hot, you should put it on and twirl around in it.

I wish for you at this moment - health, love, success, and a gorgeous garden. I hope you got yourself that pop-up greenhouse and started everything early. I hope you've raised your prices. I hope you have started gathering frequent flier miles. I hope the dogs know how to sit and to lay down. I hope you still manage without a "job." Most of all, I hope you're happy.

Love,
PresentMe

Krista and Dan got married on a gorgeous May day in Quincy, MA. My assistant started the day by locking my keys in the car-- and of all the days to do it, it was the best. Dan and several of his groomsmen are towtruck drivers and have slim-jims on them at all times. We all got a laugh out of one of the groomsmen in shirt sleeves saving the day!

The couple had a quick ceremony at the St. Mary Parish church followed by a great reception at the Tirrell Room in Quincy. Their families and many friends vacation together in the summer time and the camraderie and love was evident through the whole day


Slideshow Here.

I just got an email from Krista letting me know that the slideshow made her cry more than she did on the day of her wedding-- that's one of my favorite kinds of email.

Click!

Jake had his Bar Mitzvah back on May 9th-- transitioning to mahood like a champ. His reading was excellent and he even looked like he was having fun at the mostly-adults-only reception. I wish I could have been at the kids party with them, they're always so much fun-- but I had other commitments that day. Mazel Tov to Jake and to his entire family, you have an awesome kid.

I've been remiss in posting to my journal lately....it's been busy over here and we're in the middle of moving, but:


Click

Megan and Dan got married on one of the hottest April days I have ever witnessed! I got a new telephoto lens and had a lot of fun playing with it-- the above shot was taken from a church balcony - oh yes. They had a sweet ceremony followed by a cocktail-ish reception all within walking distance of the Boston Common where the early courtship took place (Megan and Dan both work under that big golden dome).

Her Dress: Miss Maggie
Ceremony Location: The Paulist Center
Reception: The College Club of Boston
Photographer: That's Me! - on the web : on facebook : on twitter : and now in your inbox once a month!

http://tinyurl.com/ccpNews

I'm: productive

One of my teachers from NESOP asked AVR and I to come and pose for her portraiture class and we decided that it would be fun. The images that we got were from four different students. They're good-- definitely not great and I ended up re-editing them, but free student photos are like that, and it was fun to wander around on the beach on a Monday.

Some selects:



( walking in the sand )

Tags: 091909

I had a dream last night that AVR's parents converted to Hindusim and they didn't approve of our lifestyle and so they took the car away and tried to steal Gertie. Very strange night.

Alex & Karen (not Janet as the JP would have had you believe) had a quiet elopement as the magnolias were opening in the arnold arboretum followed by a meandering portrait shoot by yours truly. Then Alex "sneakily" opened a bottle of bubbly and the couple had a toast.

I really want these:

(which may look strangely familar to you - but are discontinued)

Should I buy these instead:


I'm trying to find a shoe similar to wedding shoes to wear to dance class, but also I really want red high heels. They're both peep-toe d'orsay style. The heel on the Luichiny is about .5" higher than the heel on the Fluevog....which means, I guess, that if I can dance in those, I can dance in my wedding shoes. Undecdided whether I should keep looking or not.

Ebay Purge 2009 Continues:
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/*tigerlily_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

Also, are my children going to want my atheltic trophies? Will they bring me joy in my golden years? Discuss.

Hey all, we're downsizing apartments and so I'm creating an ongoing eBay yard sale for the next few weeks. The beginning (mostly yarn and a tequila dispenser) is here: http://tinyurl.com/cwdfm9

AVR and I decided to keep it simple and have one song for each side of the processional...rather than one for her people, one for her, one for my people, one for me. Not sure what she's picked yet (or if she's picked yet, we have time)

I had been thinking about doing Sarah Vaugh's version of The Best is Yet to Come...but I her lyricism in that song is a little..droopy sounding(?). And hers is my favorite version of it.

Lately I'm thinking of a song called Love and Kisses that Ella Fitzgerals sings. It's got a long musical intro, which I like.. and only a real small handful of lyrics, which I think if timed right would be my entrance. Also the lyrics are totally gender neutral, it's not sad, and it's pretty up-tempo...which is a hard to find combination in the genre. There are a lot of let down and sad songs, and lots of found my man songs, and a bunch of lovey slow songs...but this one, fits the bill.

If you want to listen to part of it, it's here on amazon.

The lyrics say (as best I can transcribe):
Love and kisses, never misses making a heaven for two.
With a tender sweet surrender coming from somoene like you.
Your perfection to affection creates a perfect design.
Love has bound us, sure has found us planning a future divine.
No indecision, I know that my vision is clear when you are near.
No need for sunlight for you are the one light I see so real to me (?)
Love and kisses, that's what bliss is: loving whatever you do.
Full completeness, whispered sweetness, coming from someone like you.

We haven't talked about it yet, but my vote for the recessional is Dinah Washington's version of Destination Moon which starts out with a little trumpet flare and is also gender neutral...I'd toyed with suggesting it as our first dance, but I think it's too slow. More amazon listening.

Tags: 091909
I hear: Love And Kisses-Ella Fitzgerald

I had so many pictures from this wedding that the editing took me longer than expected.


(click!)

Erin & Kevin were married in Philadelphia with Celtic flair. Kevin, his brother and father all are sporting clan McCallister tartan kilts, the groomsmen are in rentals (we weren't sure whose Tartan they were flashing) and Erin's dad was in Irish National. The boys on Kevin's side were wearing kilts for the first time and so definitely got a little cheeky because of it. :) Also-- I just love Erin's dress, the blue peaking out at the shoulder and hem was just beautiful. After the ceremony and formals, we all headed over to the Rosewood Caterers where we were fed well and entertained throug the afternoon.

The Church - St. Katherine of Sienna
The Photo Site - St. Katherine Drexel Shrine
The Reception - Rosewood Caterers

Ha



There were no short dresses...and only one bouquet. Oh, the knot.com. How strange you are.

Vermont just legalized gay marriage-- the first state to grant legal rights to LGBT couples is now the first state to grant full marriage rights by legislative process rather than a judicial process. Basically-- most states have gay marriage becuase a couple sued the state- Vermont created a bill and made it a law (with or without their governor's support).

So to show my support for all couples to marry and also for Vermont-- a state I called home for almost 10 years-- I'm doing a little promotion.

The next LGBT couple to book me and bring me up to Vermont for their legal marriage gets 15% off of any package and no travel fees.

And consider checking out my good friend (and the Day of Coordniator for my wedding) It's About Time Weddings and Events-- Bernadette started her business when MA made its landmark decision to allow marriage and continues to expand as the rights of all people to get married expand. She specializes in LGBT, as well as green, and unique weddings.

I also should shout it out to Iowa- if anyone wants to bring me out to Iowa to photograph your legal gay wedding, I'll give you the same 15% off-- you do have to get me there, however. :)

Hazel's First Year

It's amazing to watch the babies grow. And it's amazing the difference that a year makes. From a screaming little bean into a toddling, babbling, cutie pie....with favorite foods, toys she loves, songs to dance to, and mommies who love her.


I love it.

( click for a few more )

So I've been sick for about a week..raging sinus infection...and I've been having a little nip of Nyquil to help me and AVR sleep at night...well last night I had a doozy of a weird wedding dream.

I had a dream that I was in college again and like 21 and planning my wedding, that my dad cheated on his second wife and I had a sister that I didn't know about and I felt like she had to be a bridesmaid. We were in my dorm room getting to know one another a little and then all of my bridesmaids showed up and everyone was all freaking out about this and that about the wedding. And then I think her name was like Sorcia or something-- she got on my computer and friended us on facebook. And I was in the bathroom doing something and when I came back out, she had disappeared with all three pairs of my true religions and I was really mad about it. So I called my Dad and got all mad and he was like, listen there's some things you need to know about Sorcia...but there was too much going on and so I couldn't listen.

I went into the common room (I lived in an apartment style dorm) and one of the girls had pulled out her bridesmaid dress (which was a halter like the unique vintage one that I'm waiting on right now) but made out of this green and white sheep fabric (which is really 1970s sheets that I got at a thrift store and made a bathrobe out of at some point in college). It was hung up next to my wedding dress and everyone was oohing and aahing.

We were getting ready to leave for the fair...which is labor day weekend every year (this year it would be about 2 weeks before the wedding) and I couldn't find my keys and I was afraid that she was going to come back and steal my wedding dress if I couldn't lock the door. So I think I'd decided I was going to stay home...especially since I now didn't have any cute jeans to wear...and then I woke up.

Tags: 091909, dreams

So in December, AVR, FMIL and I went scoping out the hotels in the Brockton, MA area. We'd decided to check out three hotels the Residence Inn by Mariot, the Holiday Inn, and the Country Inn.

The Residence Inn was easy, checked off, and room block made.

The Holiday Inn smelled like...mold....so we decided to go on to the Country Inn.

We liked the Country Inn and so called the next day to make a room block---for our wedding--- of 140 guests-- 90% of whom are coming from out of town.

I called and left message after message to no response. I finally called the front desk and asked what else I could do and they gave me the manager's cel number-- he picked up the phone and said, "Yeah, what do you want?" Which took me aback...and then we had this conversations about blocking rooms and he said that he'd have to call me back. Which he didn't. Then I sicked AVR on him and she finally got him on the phone and he said that he couldn't do anything "this far in advance" (9 months) and to call back in March.

So March rolled around, we called back...and again....and again...and finally I had AVR call and she got hold of him and he offered us $5 off the room rate (the Holiday Inn had offered us $20 off of theirs) and told us we had to know today how many rooms we were going to need...they couldn't give us a flexible block like other places had or had offered.

So she called and told me this...and I decided to call corporate because they didn't seem to be handling us well and I wanted someone else to know about it.

So I called corporate, told them what was going on, told them I suspected that we were being treated in such a way because we are gay. They lodged the complaint and then gave the manager 48 hours to respond to us. About 5 days later we heard back from corporate that the manager had said that - hotel industry wasn't really hurting due to the economy and they didn't need to give us a discount and we are really just small fish..and mid-September is peak foliage time so there will be a lot of leaf peepers...which peak foliage is in October, we have 140 guests, and I'm sure that there will be a lot of leaf peepers this fall....or not.

So then corporate said he had a week to get back to us and then they would follow up. This was almost a month ago. So AVR called them today and they said that the Country Inn Brockton had "declined our business" - and she said that she really felt discriminated against and they said "that is between you and your lawyer."

I am totally, totally totally shocked.

Now we have to find a new hotel- there are a couple places like a super 8 and a motel6-- but I want to be able to offer my friends something nice. I mean we could also consolidate all of the guests into the Residence Inn- but it's suites and I don't want my friends to have to get a whole suite if they don't need to. I also don't want to put all of our eggs in one basket.

Ugh, stupid stupid stupid man.

I'm super into the boston terrier topper...obv.

AVR likes this:



She also wants her vows to include "I love you more than robots."

Tags: 091909