Hillary & Peter's Wedding! Mon. July 28, 2008 i do
I arrived in Boston and it was raining. And not just a little bit of drizzle, no way can I straighten my hair, nice cool misting--actual pouring down rain. "Oh no", I thought, as I made my way over to the salon to start shooting Hillary getting her makeup done. I shouldn't have worried though--nothing could stop Hillary and Peter's smiles that day!
This wedding was unlike many others I've shot. It was small--there were only about 10 guests--and in truth, HIllary and Peter would have been just as happy to be married with no guests on a deserted island. It was also completely free of pretense. There were no elaborate decorations, no formalities of tradition, nothing involved that wasn't very important and very sentimental to Hillary and Peter. I doubt there would even have been a cake if "Cakes" wasn't one of Hillary's nicknames from Peter!
This day was about two people committing their love and their lives to one another simply, sweetly, and truly. It was my absolute pleasure to be present at this union, and I hope you enjoy the photos! There's a gallery at the end, so stick around.
A HUGE thank you to Candice Brooke for making the trek to Boston with me and working her butt off. Another huge thank you to my cousin Steven & Megan for letting us stay in their gorgeous new house! Steven isn't a very good scrabble player, but he's a very nice person.
Hillary is a fashionista, so of course she had her Manolos:
After a makeup job at the salon
Hillary checking to see if it was still raining....it was. So the wedding was moved to inside and that was that. Not to worry, we shot a crazy day after shoot at several different locations the next day which I'll be blogging soon!
I love these shots. HIllary and Peter were telling Candice and I their story. They reminded me of the couples in "When Harry Met Sally" who are talking about their relationships:
They got ready together, which was really cool to shoot. The finishing touches:
I love this one:
So handsome!
Grabbing the bouquet to head down
Our one portrait of the day"
Peter's bowtie was so perfect! They walked in together:
The ceremony was so personal and sweet:
They they all went out to dinner! I shot a lot of BW, because the outfits, the weather, the location all just felt so old school. The dinner was held at a restaurant called Pops:
None of these are posed, just great moments at dinner:
A post dinner drink at Aquatane, a bar across the street:
I know people are going to ask, so here's a detail of Hillary's bling & purse:
Check out the gallery below--and just wait till you see the day after shoot!
I know it's not my birthday anymore Sun. July 27, 2008 my life
Yes, I realize that it's not my birthday anymore and trust me, I wasn't trying to prolong it. I've had a nightmare of a travel experience and am sitting in the Denver airport as we speak. Due to a series of unfortunate events, I will probably be home sometime in the middle of the night tonight, and tomorrow all normal blogging will return to it's regularly scheduled programming. In the meantime, congratulation to Hillary and Peter, who were worth this trip 100 times over!
I can't believe I'm 29. For the last few weeks, I've been throwing myself a little pity party, doing some kicking and screaming leading up to this day. There's no reason for it really, by many people's standards, 29 is young! The prime of my life! So why is it that all I could think was, "this isn't what I thought 29 would look like".
You see, I had a plan. It's so strange, I didn't realize that I had a plan until I woke up one day and realized that my life didn't look the way I thought a 29 year old woman's life would look. Growing up, 29 meant married, owning a home, maybe a child (although I've always been ambivalent about that), and a sort of SETTLED-ness that I haven't seem to acquired. That isn't to say that having chosen or lived another path is wrong or worse--more than anything it's just...unexpected!
Today though, I was wandering through the mall looking for an outfit to wear to dinner with friends tonight when I realized that just because my life isn't going exactly according to the plan I thought I had for myself, doesn't mean that it's any less awesome! It's more of a readjustment of thinking, a sense of being happy with my place in the life I do have, instead of comparing it to a life that never existed anywhere but in my head.
I think that this is going to be the year that I work harder on focusing on others, on living in the moment, and being happy with what's on my plate and not on anyone else's, even the parallel universe Jessica that lives a settled family life somewhere in a noisy house with her husband and dog. This is going to be there year where I find out how far I can push myself to do the things that are already in my life WELL--grow my company, treat the friends and family I do have well, and spoil myself when I deserve it.
29, after all is just a number, and when you think about it, it's a good one :)
Thanks to Mark Brooke for shooting these photos super last minute for me! They're actually for the SHOOTSAC email blast going out tonight--in honor of my birthday there are some big sales going on over there--just check out the SHOOTSAC BLOG for more details!
Hillary & Peter's Oklahoma Engagement! Thu. July 17, 2008 will you
So, I wasn't just in Oklahoma City for kicks, although I did have a lovely time there and am looking forward to returning in September. No, I had an actual shooting reason to be there, which is Hillary & Peter's engagement session (and Hillary's bridal, but that's another post).
I first met Hillary and Peter last June at Lauren & Scott's wedding at the Four Seasons in Maui, my favorite location. I had communicated with Hillary quite a bit, because she works with Lauren's father, and one of her responsibilities at the time was helping to coordinate some details for the wedding! So Hillary and I went back and forth a few hundred or so times over contracts and plans and details, and when the day finally came, it was perfect in every way. Such is everything Hillary has a hand in planning.
One thing Hillary didn't plan though, was Peter. For a long time, Peter worked one floor below Hillary and they rarely talked. Word of his increasingly impressive work ethic and creativity did find its way to her though, and when he was considering leaving the company, she was one of the people who ended up convincing him to stay. He did end up working back in Boston though, and their relationship was built on progressively longer and more in-depth emails, phone calls, and eventually visits. It wasn't long before they knew that they were going to be together, and I happened to notice it at Lauren's wedding as well--I'll show you all a photo from that wedding in my next post and you'll see it too.
In any case, I am so excited to be shooting Hillary and Peter's very intimate, casual wedding in Boston next week, and even more so now that we've gotten to shoot these photos!
Hillary and Peter recently bought a beautiful 100 year old home which is decorated in the perfect blend of classic, modern, vintage, and funky! They have really cool art and color schemes, and it was the perfect place to start the shoot.
This one sets the mood for the whole shoot--check out Hillary's shoes--the first of FOUR pairs she wore that day! She says, "It's my thing":
**by the way, every image in this set is processed with the TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS, so if you don't have those yet, go get 'em!**
Isn't this little vignette area of the house just darling?
Such a beautiful couple:
This kitty (although I am not a cat person) was very sweet looking, although camera shy for the most part:
The upstairs bedrooms are painted these beautiful, vibrant colors!
This is the master bedroom--it's all yellow, black, and white:
So cute! I love the red shoes. My friend Beth says you can never have a bad day when you're wearing red shoes:
We took the second part of the shoot out to a field. Before I came out to Oklahoma, I had this vision of shooting them out in a beautiful field of tall grass and maybe some bales of hay or something. Hillary and Peter tried their best to explain to me that Oklahoma City is a CITY and we'd have to go looking for what I had in mind, but I was not daunted--I knew we'd find it!
Hillary and Peter have a very special connection. The love between them is almost tangible. It's this intensity between them, a comfort. Peter is so kind to Hillary--he opened the car door EVERY time, and it was so clear that his first priority was making sure that she was taken care of and comfortable. It was really sweet to watch:
There was some discussion about the two of them not knowing what to do with their hands....a few of the more interesting options:
Back to prancing around the field:
This is one of my favorites:
And this one:
This series makes me so happy! And Hillary's outfit is just so Dorothy!
This might be my favorite of the shoot. It's shot slightly out of focus (not on purpose), and has the following Totally Rad Actions: Pool Party (set 2), Warm it Up Kris (set 1), POS lens faded to 40%:
A warm BW is fun too!
I love the way Hillary looks at Peter. She just adores him and is always smiling and laughing so much whenever she is around him!
Look! It's the scene from Oklahoma that was in my head before I got there:
I have a secret about this image--I shot it in RAW. It's the only one. The sky was just SO good, and I couldn't have gotten them and it exposed correctly without the recovery available in RAW. Every other image on this blog is Jpeg though.
Except this one. This was a RAW one also. I love how calm this image is, and how relaxed:
A little sneak peek of the bridal! I'll be posting that later this week:
By the way, this is my BIRTHDAY WEEK! There's going to be a BIG SHOOTSAC sale coming probably starting on Tuesday, so keep up with the Shootsac Blog for more details on that.
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