Hurray for wedding number one of 2012!! My first wedding of the new was a very tiny affair and it was the perfect way to kick off the new year. Meet Natasha & Frank, professors and cat lovers. I’m not kidding when I say their wedding was tiny. It was just them, their two witnesses (also fellow university professors) and our notary….and it was perfect. They exchanged the most adorable, personal to their relationship vows in the Lecture Hall of the Bangor Public Library at the end of January. Not only did they vow to love each other unconditionally, but they also promised to lend their respective carpentry and plumbing skills to projects around their new house. After the ceremony at the Library was over, I had the pleasure of spending a little time with the newly married at their Bangor home where we had some tea, took more photos and had the most amazing chocolate cake…that Natasha made just for the occasion. These two were a joy to meet and I had the best of fun photographing their wedding. Congrats you two!!

Every week that goes by there seems to be something new and exciting that she’s doing. I just wanted to share two fun things that we did this week. First, for those of you that know my Olivia, you know ALL about her hair. It is quite something to behold. But as lovely as those curls are, she was having a little issue with her hair always being in her eyes. So, my wee one got her first hair cut this past week from my stylist, Gina. And yes….I saved the trimmings. Second, today was really our first chance to get outside and actually play in the snow. We haven’t had a lot of it this season and we certainly haven’t had any since she’s been able to sit up totally on her own and be pulled around in a sleigh!

Love you, little bean! You sure are growing up fast.

Hello happy readers! I hope you’re all having a fantastic start to 2012. I don’t know why people call this the “off season,” because I certainly haven’t shut off or slowed down since my last wedding of 2011. It’s been so busy that it’s taken me forever to actually blog about this wedding! But finally it’s here and I’m happy to share it with you. 

Laura and Nolan were Real Maine Weddings Wedding of the Year contest winners for 2011 and their was wedding was featured in the 2012 issue of that magazine. I blogged about being published in that issue a few weeks ago. There were four photographers covering this wedding and all of us had a different vantage point for the day. My pre-ceremony time was spent with Laura and her bridesmaids getting ready at the salon and in their hotel room where I was able to get some lovely portraits of the group. For the ceremony, I was staked out facing the audience capturing the faces of the guests. Then there were the beautiful details and things caught in between.

It was a lovely event and I was very happy to be a part of the very first wedding contest sponsored by Real Maine Weddings magazine.

As many of you know, I had the honor of being selected as one of the four photographers that shot the wedding of Laura & Nolan, RMW’s free wedding contest winners. Myself, Audra Welton, Nadra Edgerley and Michelle Turner all worked together to shoot thousands of photos for our lovely couple. Those photos were featured in a huge spread in the new issue. The below shots are examples of my work (excluding the first photo) I just wanted to show the cover page! This wedding was in October and I had to wait till it went to print to share all the goodies with you. Pheeww…that was a long wait!! To read the entire wonderful article and to see the work of all these amazing photogs, pick up a copy on newsstands now. You can also read the digital version on the RMW website.

In addition to the featured wedding, I also had a couple other images in the magazine that made me jump for joy when I was told they were being published. Ashley’s bouquet made by Sweetest Thing is featured in the Flowers section and my lovely Lanie and her cowboy boots kicked off the Trends page.

Thanks Real Maine Weddings for featuring me in this issue. It makes my heart very happy.

images on this page: top, middle and bottom

images on left page: bottom left & bottom right

images on right page: bottom left, center (gelato)

image on right page: bottom left

image on left page: bride in boots

I am so grateful to the wonderful couples who chose me as their wedding photographer this past year. I had a fabulous time capturing the moments of their big day and traveling to some lovely locations (including my first Canadian wedding!!). Thanks to all these brides and grooms for letting me into their life for the day. I had a blast. All my best to you in 2012.

The three of us met up in southern Maine the first weekend in November for their engagement session. First was a stop in South Portland at Willard Beach then it was off to the Old Port for some fun in the city. Liz and Matt are a very playful couple and certainly not shy in front of the camera. I loved that! I love it when couples can just pretend like I’m not even there. Thanks for being so fun (goofy at times) and incredibly easy going. Can’t wait for July!

Just recently I discovered that they are doing something similar with sunglasses. I could just go out and buy some crappy pair of shades that I would inevitably lose or break due to shotty craftsmanship. Or I could actually buy something of quality, take better care of it AND know that I was contributing to a great cause at the same time. Sounds like a win to me! The purchase of my sunglasses will provide a pair of corrective lenses OR eye saving surgery to a person in countries that could normally never afford either. A shocking statistic that I learned was that 2/3 of all people in poor countries who are blind or going blind are women.

Not only are these the best pair of sunglasses that I have ever owned, I am very happy that my little purchase was able to help someone else out in a big way.

What kinds of purchases do you make to help others? I’d love to hear. Post a comment below.