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 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.

After a little while, the girls started doing their makeup.  I loved that Karrie helped a couple of her bridesmaids with makeup – that’s a sure sign of a happy, relaxed bride!

Some of my favorite photos from the day are these shots of Karrie getting into her dress.  Her expression here says it all – too cute. 

The bridesmaids looked picture-perfect too of course – I loved that the soft blue of their dresses was given a little pop with killer silver shoes.

Stay tuned for more photos in a couple of days … including a very emotional first look and some killer portraits.