Butterflies...

For the last 5 years (or more!) I've wanted a flower bed with Zinnias, I saw them in Old Mystic Village one day when we were down there... well, I finally got what I wanted this year and they are gorgeous! The coolest thing, though, is that the butterflies LOVE them! My son took this pic with his Sony point and shoot digital camera, I didn't do a thing with the picture even though it looks like the butterfly was added!

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

...but who cares? Not Sherrie and David! The oppressive heat and humidity finally broke and just poured rain all day on Friday. So the ceremony was still on the North Lawn at the Seamen's Inn, it just got moved inside a tent, the groom bought lots of umbrellas for the guests and it was still perfect! Who says you can't still get great pictures in the rain?



I was humming "Singing in the Rain" when I shot this.....



Samantha, Ian and Jordan



A Peartini? Hmmmm.... I'm going to have to try that!





An awesome couple and family... thanks for letting me be part of your day!

~Val

Dirty Dancing!

Ya gotta watch this video....definitely something different for the first dance!

AOL Video Blog

Jaime and Patrick - by Bruce

On July 28th, Val and I were able to shoot together (and you know how we LOVE that!) at the wedding of Jaime and Patrick. What a crazy weather day! We went from sweltering heat and humidity to mean and nasty summertime thunderstorms. But luckily Fantasia in North Haven is well equipped to handle these types of situations and they were able to move the ceremony inside.

We started the day at Jaime's Aunt's nursery in Vernon for some shots of the girls before the ceremony. What a fun place to shoot! There are manicured gardens outside and from what the manager was telling us, it's a popular spot for wedding parties to stop for photos. But we didn't just stop there! Nah, we went INSIDE and did some shopping with the girls ;)

Here's one from outside:



After lots of outside shots, we headed inside. Here's Val hard at work. Where am I? Shopping for tools, of course! What else do you do at a wedding?





It was sooo humid. This is the first time I've ever seen bridesmaids try to refrigerate themselves!



Jaime's Grandmother's ring, safely tucked away inside her bouquet.



We finally made our way down to Fantasia, driving in a monsoon the whole way, but we made it! The guys before the ceremony. Red Bull and vodka, breakfast of champions!!





How cute is the flower girl? :)





And cute ring bearers too!



This one is my favorite...





Jaime and Patrick thanks very much for sharing your day with us! We wish you all the best! (And special thanks to Tricia for hooking us up!!)

-Bruce

We are the CHAMPIONS!

My wife Laureen's softball team played for the league championship last week. It had been an amazing season, they played great ball, won a lot of close games, and played real hard to get to the finals.

So the night of the big game, the wheels came off the bus. They were down as many 7 or 8 runs at one point. It was painful to watch after the season they had and how hard they worked. They deserved to win, but they just couldn't seem to get it together. There were a ton of people there too, cheering them on since it was the last game. One thing I have to say about Portland is it is very tight knit. The game was against a Middletown team in Middletown and man did we yell our heads off all night! I lost my voice and at one point and my 8 year old son Roland turned to me and said "Dad, will you PUH-LEEZE stop yelling in my ear!"

So bottom of the last inning, they're down by 4 or 5 (they had been down the entire game), last chance, and they get a little rally going. By the time they had one out they had tied the game. They have a runner on third and the other team intentionally walks 2 of our batters. I guess they figured they would load up the bases and hopefully get a double play to go into extra innings. Not sure what they were thinking to be honest...

The batter they walked 2 batters to get to was my wife Laureen. That's like walking Julio Lugo and Dustin Pedroia to get to Big Papi. She drills one right back at the pitcher, who had no chance getting a handle on it and drives in the winning run! Holy cow, it was bedlam! What a way to win the game!! So now we're calling her Big Mami! (Sorry for all the Sox references, but hey, get yer own blog!! GO SOX!!)

Ladies I just wanted to officially say congratulations!! You made us all so proud that night. You had an awesome season and deserved to win but I think the baseball gods just wanted to make you earn it. They knew you'd pull it together like you did all year and get the job done! And speaking as a parent of two young boys who eat, sleep, and breathe baseball (your biggest fans and practice helpers Roland and Brett) I can honestly say there couldn't be a better team for them to watch and learn from. You guys carried yourselves so well all year, played the game the way it should be played and were role models. Right up to the end when you taught them how never to give up. Thank you for a very memorable night! Can't wait for next year!

-Bruce

********************

Bailey and Kate. (You might remember Kate from some pics I did last year.)



Portland Dental Lineup, 2007 Middletown Women's League Champions! (DA GIRLZ!!!)



*Photos courtesy Jeremiah Adametz.

Here stop and spend a social hour...

I want to live in a Castle... and I'll have this sign too! :-) (it was actually in St. Clement's Castle in Portland, so cool!!) I'm now finishing the editing the photos from Michelle and Rob's wedding that was there...what a gorgeous place!

Misquamicut Engagement Photos!

I had an awesome engagement shoot down at Misquamicut Beach in Rhode Island recently, it was great! We had all of 30 minutes before a huge storm started... complete with thunder and heavy rain. This is Laura and AJ....they are getting married in October, so watch for their wedding photos too!

A quick post!

I had a beautiful wedding last night in Mystic and we are heading out now to shoot in Vernon and New Haven today, I promise to catch up on some of the weddings from the past couple weeks... but for now, this was from last night... the Mystic River. If you want it for your desktop, send me a note and I'll send you the file! :-)

Sharing the love!

I received this email a little while ago from one of our brides from last year and wanted to share it with you....

Hi Val,

I have been meaning to send you an email to thank you again for the beautiful job you did with our wedding photos. Our one year anniversary was not too long ago. I can't believe how fast time has flown by, but whenever I visit your site and see our wedding slide show, it really reminds me of how beautiful our day was. The pictures you took are so beautiful. I can really feel the emotions of the day each time I look at your photos. Thank you so much for helping us to capture the beautiful memories of our wedding.

Best regards,
Erin

This is why we do what we do... and love it!

Thanks, Erin... and Happy Anniversary!

~ Val

Kelly and James, Part 2

More shots from the ceremony. Here's a couple from Laureen:





Here's a great example of why we love shooting weddings with 2 photographers. And why we ask all our brides to at least consider it when they choose a package. The ability to get multiple angles at the same time. Here's my shot:



And this is Laureen's. Gotcha covered!




A toast in the limo after the ceremony. I love how newlyweds can go directly from a serious, tender moment...



...to a total case of the giggles! ;)



We went to Elizabeth Park in Hartford for pictures after the ceremony. A few random shots...





Suddenly humming Rod Stewart's "Hot Legs" to myself for some reason...







Cool tat! A different twist on one of Val's classic ring shots that we do with the bride and groom. I totally warned James I was gonna blog this shot! If you're a Jesse James fan, you get it. If not, well it's still funny right? ;)



Not only were we seated with the guests for dinner, we even had a place card! Cool!



Kelly and James, we want to pass along our sincere thanks for sharing your day with us. You guys were great and we had such a good time! We wish you all the best in your lives together.

-Bruce and Laureen