My weddings this year took place in Boston, of course, and all over New England.  And two in Seattle (yeah!)  Some of my favorite venues below include Belle Mer in Newport, RI, Saltwater Farm Vineyard in CT, The Towers in Narragansett, Turner Hill in Ipswich, MA, Castle Hill Inn (another beautiful Newport, RI venue), Taj Boston, Boston Marriott Cambridge, DeCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, The Liberty Hotel, Museum of Science Boston, Four Season Boston, Omni Mount Washington Resort in the White Mountains, The Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Wentworth by the Sea Country Club, Rockport Art Association, Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA and a lovely backyard wedding at a private residence.  Enjoy – and let me know if you have any favorites!

In 2011 I had the good fortune to photograph in some amazing places, and the photos below came from Seattle (a super cool indie wedding no less), Wentworth by the Sea Country Club, The Connor Family Retreat, The Liberty Hotel (and the Cambodian ceremony the day before at a private home outside Boston), Turner Hill in Ipswich, MA (possibly my favorite estate venue in the area), Belle Mer (my new favorite Newport, RI venue), The Paulist Center in Boston, a private home south of the city, a winter wedding on the beach in Plymouth, MA, Le Meridien in Cambridge, The Boston Marriott Cambridge (an amazing Indian wedding!), The Taj Boston (love that rooftop terrace), The Omni Mount Washington Hotel in the White Mountains (a fairytale venue if ever there was one), Cambridge City Hall (my most intimate wedding of the year with just the couple, myself and the officiant present), an old favorite – Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, MA, and a number of cute churches dotted around the New England area.  Enjoy!

The photos below come from weddings in grand hotels, such as the Four Seasons Boston and Taj Boston, from couples’ homes, parents’ homes, even tiny rooms in the most modest of hotels and inns … The weddings took place in Boston and all over New England … even two in Seattle … and I photographed Jewish weddings, Christian weddings, my first Indian wedding, my first Cambodian ceremony, and a ton of multi-cultural and non-religious weddings. I’ve experienced the full gamut of emotions, and I hope some of them are apparent below. I’ve seen a whole lot of nervous anticipation, emotional tears, but most of all, excited and delighted couples, full of laughter and huge smiles. Enjoy the highlights reel – with more coming soon!

The aisle was nice and long, meaning I could capture the processional from half-way up the aisle – I prefer this to blocking up the end of the aisle and being in full view of the entire congregation!

There were some sweet – and funny – moments during the ceremony:

Alissa got choked up during the emotional vows – this made me so happy!

I’m always drawn to repeating patterns as a photographer … do you like this next shot on the left?

The next photo is one of my all-time ceremony favorites! The room to the side of the alter was open for use during the ceremony and I found a nun hanging out back there, peering through the gap in the door, watching intently as the ceremony unfolded. I found it pretty funny to watch.

How happy are these two? So very happy!

As soon as the ceremony was over, I bombed over to Jones River Trading in Kingston, MA to get some room overview and detail shots before the first guests began to arrive. It’s a really unique venue, filled with antiques and boating memorabilia.

Cocktail hour was buzzing:

Pete and Alissa opened dinner with a wonderfully emotional first dance:

Toasts came from Pete’s brother, and Alissa’s sister.

Dancing started during dinner with some slow dances; I love having the opportunity to capture couples enjoying sweet dances like this:

After dinner came cake …

… followed immediately by the parent dances, again brimming with emotion (yay!)

The rest of the night was filled with drinking and dancing and a lot of crazy on the dancefloor. These guys were pretty awesome to photograph!

And a couple of sweet slow dances to end with (that’s Alissa’s brother Matt and his wife Judy in the photo on the right; I photographed their wedding last fall – love that!) Thank you all for the incredibly warm welcome; I loved documenting your special day!

The girls got ready at Alissa’ sister’s gorgeous home in Cohasset, and I arrived a little early to take some photos of all of Alissa and Pete’s pretty details. They had chosen a strong color palette of red, white and black for the day, perfect for wintertime. I have to give a little shout out to Alissa’s good friend and bridesmaid Jessie Zerendow who took their engagement photos – she did an awesome job and the save the date cards were super cute!

The ladies arrived back from the salon and suddenly the house was filled with people and activity. I love this sweet moment I captured between Alissa and her mom:

A few more details – love the bright red shoes that Alissa chose for herself and her bridesmaids:

Alissa got dressed upstairs in the cutest bedroom I’ve ever seen! It reminded me of my childhood bedroom back in England – those sloping ceilings are so romantic!

There were gifts galore that prompted a lot of emotion – first a beautiful necklace from soon-to-be hubby Pete:

Alissa’s mom also gave her a very special gift of jewelry that had been passed down through her family:

Once everyone was dressed, we headed out to Cohasset Yacht Club for the first look and portraits.

Such a gorgeous location … these guys did me proud!

There were a TON of kids in the wedding, and they had me in stitches – love this one!

And one last pretty couple’s portrait to end today’s post … And I can’t wait to share the beautiful church wedding and super fun reception at The Jones River Trading later this week! If you’d like to be the first to know when that post goes up, head on over to my Facebook business page and hit *like*.

I started the day much earlier, at The Langham Hotel in downtown Boston where Heather was getting ready (and in fact where the couple put up their ten guests for the weekend). Some fun details to start – I am so happy that they took my recommendation of New Leaf Flores for the beautiful bouquet and boutonniere:

Heather was all big smiles and excited chatter as she was having her makeup done.

I love these two photos of Heather and her friend Sarah:

Time to get dressed! And what a gorgeous dress it was – the Waterfall Gown from J.Crew’s wedding collection.

While Heather was at the hair salon, I snapped some photos of Peter getting suited up:

Despite the chilly breeze, we held their look outside in the tiny park across from the hotel. Heather was so excited to show off her shoes.

Some sweet moments – and some funny ones – followed. Don’t these two kiss like movie stars?

After the first look, we all headed down to Plymouth to the boat launch. I arrived a little earlier than the wedding party, so snapped a few photos of the beach. It was so beautiful …

Led by their fantastic British celebrant Lucille Wymer, everyone made the short walk down the steep hill to the boat launch. Spirits were high:

This was the third smallest wedding ceremony I’d ever photographed and it was perfect. I hope these photos capture some of the intimacy and emotion of the event.

There were beautiful readings, and an emotional account of Peter and Heather’s lives together thus far.

I love this:

It was just the perfect setting … *sigh*

Towards the end of the ceremony, each couple wrote a message which they placed inside a bottle and threw into the sea. It made for great pictures, and lots of laughter.

Rings! And more happy tears …

Peter had prepared a surprise reading for Heather in the form of a poem – it was beautiful:

We stayed on the beach for a few more minutes to take some portraits and detail shots. I can’t get over the bouquet by New Leaf …

These guys were so excited to be married!

The reception was split between post-ceremony drinks back at The Langham Hotel and dinner at L’Espalier. I stayed for the first part and had fun playing with lighting up the crazy dark bar without freaking out the staff there – it was a challenge! But I love the photos we got:

We made a little outing to see the Christmas tree at Faneuil Hall but my very favorite portrait of the night was actually outside L’Espalier – the emotion was perfect. Thank you all so much for a beautiful day, and for trusting me to capture the story of your wedding. I hope you’ve enjoyed the teasers! The full set will be ready in a couple of weeks.

Love these next three too:

Some cute photos with the bridal party under the willows in the Public Garden:

And a few last couples photos – the light at the end of the afternoon was so pretty …

The reception was held at the Museum of Science in Boston, and before cocktail hour we grabbed a few photos with the exhibits there. Here are some of my favorites:

Dinner and dancing were held at the very tippy top of the Museum in the Skyline Room. The decor and colors were gorgeous – and hurray for uplighting! The room had such a welcoming, warm feel with the orange and gold lighting. Happy days!

There were two guest books; my favorite was actually not the one with my photos but rather the wooden puzzle of Massachusetts – guests were invited to take a piece, write a note, and drop the piece into a Boston Baked Beans pot. Cute!

Some happy looking guests pre-dinner:

The first dance was beautiful – Danny and Kate were gazing into each others’ eyes throughout. It made my job very easy.

During dinner there were toasts …

… then after dinner were the sweet parent dances:

Cake cutting – and what a unique cake it was!

And here are the photos you’ve all been dying to see (or maybe dreading, haha!) Huge thanks to my favorite DJ of all time, Nate Oinonen of White Label DJs for keeping the party rockin’ all night long!

Thank you Kate and Danny for a wonderful wedding day. I loved meeting all your family and friends, and I hope you’ve enjoyed your teasers. The full set will be along at the end of the week, yay!

Kate’s sister Susan did Kate’s makeup, and she did a spectacular job. Also, these two looked so cute throughout the process:

A few more details – I am so diggin’ the Ball & Chain custom purple Converse that Kate and Danny wore for the reception, and I love that Kate bought custom hangers from Etsy for all of her girls as well as herself:

Love these black and white shots of Kate …

Hair stylist Lulu Locks of Providence Pinup helped Kate’s mom with her fascinator … and I have to share a couple of photos of Kate’s awesome and totally unique J. Crew gown hanging in the lobby (and a special shout-out to fantastic videographer David Long of DL Video Productions here too – he was super to work with!)

And here’s Kate getting helped into her dress:

We held the first look at a tiny park right next to Hotel Marlowe. Danny was looking pretty fly.

Such a cute first look!

Danny and Kate have a tradition of writing each other multiple cards on special occasions – here they are reading through their wedding day wishes:

And we had a few minutes to spare for some sweet couples portraits before I headed over to the church:

The ceremony was held at The Paulist Center in downtown Boston. It’s a gorgeous chapel on the east side of the Common:

The Catholic ceremony was filled with big smiles. I love Danny’s face as he watches Kate process down the aisle with both parents:

Huge thanks to my fabulous assistant Erica Robinson who got a ton of great photos during the ceremony, including this next one – there are a couple more of hers below too.

Love this next one!

There was a full mass, which made me happy; Communion is a great time for photos:

A couple last photos to end with – the lovely reception at the Museum of Science will be along early next week! And if you’d like to be the first to know when the post goes live, please come over and like my Facebook page!

Huge bridal parties are fun for photos! Plus, they look spectacular.

It was *really* windy out, and quite cold, so we didn’t spend too long outside … but I had to get a couple of photos along the pretty white wall with the dramatic sky behind:

Time for a few couples photos with Scott and Jen – how cute are these guys?!

The white on white decor at Belle Mer is beyond beautiful, and I loved that Jen let the surroundings shine with her choice of colors – soft pink, whites, creams and a hint of gold:

The gorgeous escort cards – and all the wedding stationery, in fact – was by Vera Wang. Love!

A few photos from cocktail hour:

When I saw the cake table I squealed with delight. The five cakes were made by Confectionery Designs with Jen’s input. I am in love with this display! The cake toppers were hand made by Jen’s mom, too – she’s a talented lady.

Scott and Jen opened dinner with a very sweet first dance:

There were some great toasts; Jen’s dad’s toast was incredible, and it’s the first time I’ve seen a standing ovation at a wedding. He hit on all the emotions and had us all laughing and crying throughout.

After dinner, there were some lovely parent dances:

And then the party really started. Kudos to band Mystique of Entertainment Specialists for rocking that dance floor all night long. These guys had a GREAT time.

Thank you all for a fantastic day – I hope you love your teasers! The full set will be available in under a week, so shoot me an email if you’d like to see the gallery when it goes live!

“Hi Kate!  Just wanted to say thank you for everything!  You were amazing!  Everyone loved you.    We cannot wait to see the shots you got.  It was such an amazing day for Scott and I and it was so nice to really like our photographer … Thank you again.  Xoxox, Jen and Scott” 

Anyway.  I started my day with Jen and her ten (!) bridesmaids and mom at the Newport Marriott across the water from Belle Mer.  They had a great bridal suite which was buzzing with activity all morning.  I spent my time flitting between two rooms, getting detail shots and photographing Jen and her girls getting ready.

The lovely and talented Jennie Kay did Jen’s hair and makeup. She was very fun to work with and Jen looked absolutely stunning:

A little teaser of Jen’s gorgeous lace Jim Hjelm dress and veil, and one of the items from the welcome bag for out of town guests:

And a few more details – I love the sparkly theme going on here.

Once Jen was dressed, her dad came in to the room to see her – I am in love with his expression!

It was one of the windiest days we’d had all year, so we decided to play it safe and take photos indoors at the Marriott rather than risk messing up everyone’s hair. We found a great spot with cool light patterns playing on the wall … it was perfect for the soft, light colors Jen had chosen. Look at these cute ladies in their gorgeous Amsale dresses!

The picture-perfect florals were by Broadway Florist. I’m such a sucker for a sweet father-daughter photo: – and I love Jen working it in the photo on the right:

After we’d finished portraits with Jen and the girls, I had my awesome assistant Erica drive me over to Channing Memorial Church. I got to meet Scott finally, and took a few fun photos of him with his guys:

Time for the ceremony! This was the shortest church ceremony I’ve ever seen … it was something like 17 minutes long!

There were two readings (thank you Erica for the great shot above right!), then the vows and ring exchange …

… and then Jen and Scott were pronounced husband and wife. I love these shots of them leaving the church:

I jumped onto the trolley with the bridal party (thanks Newport Wedding Trolley for your incredible service) and off we went to Belle Mer for some more photos and a super fun (and ridiculously elegant) reception. Those photos will be along in a few days, so watch this space! Or better still, come on over and like my Facebook page and you’ll be the first to know when Part Two goes up.