Meg and Rich || Camp Cheneo || Athol, Massachusetts

No wedding party, no bridesmaid dresses, no programs, no boutonnieres, no aisle runner, no limo, and no wedding cake.

So, what did Meg and Rich have?

Just a Grammy-nominated band, a ceremony on (almost in!) the water, fireworks, lobster, smores, and a ton of fun.

Meg and Rich live in New Jersey, but had their wedding ceremony at the lakehouse her great-grandfather built where she has been vacationing with her family her whole life. I was so glad to be included!

Meg's sister did her hair...


Rich doing some last-minute prep.




Meg's mom's one request was a shot of her on the swing in front of the house.




The ceremony was held at the end of the dock - they had guests on boats and docks surrounding them, and overlooking them from the house. Here's Rich making his entrance -












Cooling off after the ceremony....



Probably quickest formals of bride and groom yet.......here's the first one at 4:37











and by 4:41 we're done!


Everyone was boated across the lake to a tented reception at Camp Cheneo. I'd include a link, but I don't think there is one! Anyway, from across the lake, you could hear the band, and you knew you this party was going to seriously rock. It was a Zydeco/Cajun band Geno Delafose and French Rockin' Boogie.
They were
so.
much.
fun.







Hellooooooo.....lobstah!


New England Clambakes Company took care of dinner and it was delicious!




Meg's dad told a story about how when she and her brother and sister were young, they thought it took ten minutes to drive from New Jersey to the lakehouse because they fell asleep in the car when they left, and woke up in Massachusetts! As the kids got older, they realized that the drive was pretty long, so to break up the trip, they would always stop at Randall's Farm & Greenhouse for Strawberry Shortcake. So, in honor of that tradition, they had them come and make a shortcake for each table!





I couldn't resist this light and took another 30 seconds for a few more pictures....




Meg and her dad danced to "Dancing on Daddy's Feet" - adorable.




Meg's sister asked the band if she could play the rubboard for a song...








Meg & her siblings...


I was in love with this little guy all day...





Hope you guys are having a great honeymoon! Feel free to leave a comment for Meg and Rich below.......

anne & gordon - lyman estate, waltham, massachusetts

I spent a very hot, VERY fun saturday with Anne and Gordon and their families.....Everything took place at the beautiful Lyman Estate in Waltham.







Anne and Gordon chose to see each other before the ceremony to have a little time to themselves, and get all of the family pictures done so they could enjoy their cocktail hour. Here's Gordon waiting for Anne at the bottom of the stairs -







Gordon's niece made a lovely flower girl....


Gordon & the boys..


Anne with her mom & sister...


So, Anne and Gordon totally indulged me and climbed through these tall grasses to get some cool pictures in the middle of these trees. I'm just glad no one got any tick bites!! (you didn't, right??)





How amazing is this place?


So, as I mentioned before, it was HOT, so there was lemonade and iced tea for the guests during the cermony.



I love this look Anne is giving her sister during the ceremony -


Making it official....


Ok, so I got a little carried away photographing the food, but it was all so beautiful! I didn't have any of these, but they looked beautiful. Tables of Content took care of all the treats.







After the cake-cutting, they presented both grandfathers with oreos & green Jell-O. I never did get the whole story behind it, but it was a big hit.



I love seeing past clients at weddings! The groom's mother is friends with Barbara, who was my most super laid-back mother of the bride ever last August at Castle Hill, and also Richie Vanderwarker, married to Peter who I worked for right after I graduated from NESOP.





The groom's mother Susan is a potter, and made all of the centerpieces. Lucky guests got to take them home and plant the flowers in their gardens and keep the pottery.



Their first dance was to 8 Days a Week - adorable.










Anne & Gordon made their departure in Gordon's dad's MG....





Congratulations!!!!

fabulous/not-so fabulous - #15

Well, I knew that Jennifer would have some good comments.....turns out she already has them posted on HER blog! (just scroll down about a page for the wedding stuff)

Here are a couple of my favorite entries......(I'm partial to Vows, because that's where I got my dress, too!


"So you became engaged, and you don't have anything to wear? That's what I said. At first I thought I would try to have my mother's gown altered to fit me since I grew up admiring my mother's beautiful bridal portait on the wall of our house. It's a beautiful dress, but as design would have it, I felt it looked better in the box than on me. A friend of mine told me about a place called Vows, a bridal outlet store located in Newton, Massachusetts that specializes in sophisticated designer wedding gowns for much much less.

Fortunately, unlike most of the other shops I had visited, I was able to fill my dressing room with many gowns that not only were beautiful, but were also within my budget. This shop had a very homey and relaxed atmosphere, with wonderful assistance. Vows been written up in the Best of Boston by Boston Magazine as the best place to go for your wedding gown for the past 5 years. I also used their searchable website to virtually pick out gowns before I visited to try them on.

As a result, I found a gorgeous ivory silk Ulla Maja gown that had a very simple a-line cut, and gorgeous cascading train in the back. My good friend Pamela Berberich let me borrow her beautiful veil that fortunately was the same hue of white. With shoes Ron had helped me find at Filene's ($19!!!), and flowers for my hair taken from a vase in our dining room, I was prepared to walk down the aisle in my finest. Hey, I clean up alright, don't I?



Here is a perfect recipe for place card holders: Chocolate boxes!! This allowed us to make a wedding favor, place card, and food-choice indicator all in one:

We used nice little white boxes I got out of one of my jewelry supply catalogs (100 of them for about $24), we filled them with chocolate coins (for good luck wishes) and then tied them shut with smart li'l black bows. To each box we tied the person's name using none other than the luxe papers from Paper Source - and each tag was color coded:

• Pink for salmon
• Checkered blue for chicken
• Sage green for vegetarian

Hope this helps you if you are looking for place card ideas."


Love all your ideas Jen! Has it really been two and a half years.........wow....

fabulous/not-so fabulous - #12

Next up is a story from Sue. She says that she's not comfortable speaking in public, but I had no idea! She made a great speech about her dad with the cutest story of the two of them doing a paper route together.

"For my father/daughter dance, I had known for years that we would dance to "Unforgettable" by Nat and Natalie Cole. The song meant something to me and I had a story to go with it that i wanted to share with my family and friends at the wedding, just before our dance. Days before the wedding, things were of course hectic and I thought about skipping the speech. I had enough on my plate and really didn't like getting up in front of crowds to talk. I kept going back and forth about writing the speech. Finally, 2 days before my wedding, I put it together. I practiced, printed it on note cards, the whole nine yards. I didn't tell anyone about the speech because I wanted it to be a surprise for my dad but also if I chickened out no one would know. I can't tell you how happy I am now that I made that speech. I think almost everyone there came up to me and told me what a wonderful speech it was and how they had tears in their eyes. The speech was really about my father and how lucky I was
to have him as my dad. It meant a lot for me to have him hear this. You know, life's too short to worry about the little things. My wedding day was the one day where I could do whatever I wanted and every single person in that room was someone special to me and my husband. I got over my fear of public speaking (for that moment!) and I am so happy. I have that speech on video and I have my family's reaction to it. I am just so happy I didn't pass up this great opportunity!"








Thanks Sue!

fabulous/not-so fabulous - #9

Next up are some tips from Meredith and Chris who definitely had a relaxed, fun day. I absolutely loved her nephew who had a green lollypop in his hand coming down the aisle. He didn't wear his fancy shoes, but in the end, it doesn't really matter!!

"There honestly isn’t much we would have changed about our wedding day! Fortunately, we both had a “whatever” attitude about the small things that did go wrong (note to future bride and grooms – things will go wrong – so just plan to go with it!)

Here are some of our favorite moments:

We were so glad my sister carried our not so thrilled ring bearer down the aisle. It was so important to us to have him be a part of the day. Now we have funny memories of him not wanting to put on the shiny shoes he was so excited about the day before… and of course him munching on a bag of marshmallows during the ceremony. What else would you expect from a 2 ½ year old!!


We absolutely LOVE the photo of all of our wedding guests that was taken at the end of our processional. It was a fun way to ensure that we have a photo of all of our guests, even the camera shy ones!


We wanted to do something slightly different for our centerpieces – and since I really don’t like the table numbers that you so often see popping out of the vases – we decided to have words to identify the tables. Each word was related to love and marriage - for example our table was “amore”, others were honesty, patience, devotion. And the simple arrangement the florist (A Whole Bunch in Burlington) put together went perfectly with the idea!


We were very happy with all of our vendors… from Nancy and her assistant (of course!!), to our DJ Shannon (Red Hot Entertainment), as well as, Lucille and the caterers from Vinwoods. Our goal was to have a fun, relaxed reception and these people helped to make that happen! We loved the beautiful ceremony given to us by Reverend Elizabeth King. We were very fortunate to have found her. The tone was perfect for us – everything was very personal and relaxed.

My favorite moment of the day was during our first dance. Feeling everyone’s love and happiness for us in the room was really amazing. We were just looking at all of the smiling faces looking back at us – it was a really beautiful moment. All of the planning and bits of stress along the way were well worth it for that feeling!


Our advice to future brides and grooms is to try to relax and to take a step back – a moment at some point during the day to stop and look around to take it all in. Chris and I keep saying we wish we could have another wedding because not only does the day go by so quickly (like everyone warned us it would), but it was also so much fun! I mean really, really fun!

-Meredith and Chris"

Thanks Meredith and Chris!

always a photographer......never a guest.....

not anymore!

As many of you know, one of my very dear friends got married last october, and i was very happy to attend strictly as a guest! I had been looking forward to this all season. It's not easy watching everyone dancing and having a great time every weekend and not being able to join in! My associate photographers took care of all of the photography, and as expected, did a fabulous job!

The ceremony was in the very beautiful Cathedral of the Pines in New Hampshire, with the reception at the Colonial Hotel in Gardner, MA.
Kelly and Joe make such a great couple, and we are all so happy that they found each other!!




Her nephews were so adorable!!










I loved Kelly's invitations & place cards, everything was aqua and brown.




Yup, that's me on the dance floor at last! My husband Stephen was there, and it was so nice to be able to relax and enjoy the day!

Me & all my favorite people!!!!!

Kelly's dad was a madman on the dance floor....



Congratulations Kelly & Joe!!! Sorry that it took me so long to get this up on the blog, but I'm glad you are enjoying all of your pictures.

sue and mike

Sue and Mike and their ginormous wedding party had a great time at the Saphire Manor. They opted to see each other beforehand and do all of their pictures.

I love these bags she bought for all of her (TEN!) maids......







This little guy almost stole the show!




Just married!

About 10 minutes after we got this sunset picture it started pouring!



Everyone loved the chocolate fountain - they even had mint oreos.

I don't know what it is this year, but everyone has been going nuts on the dance floor, I love it.

silly putty & glow sticks........

how could that not be fun?
emily and jon had a fantastic day for their wedding at wachusett village inn. emily is a hairdresser, so of course her hair looked fabulous. all of the guests had a great time, and the kids were equally entertained!