christine + kevin (part 3)

This is not the last of christine + mike. I have a TON of dancing pictures to go through and I'll do an entire post on just those alone. This was one of the most awesome dance parties ever!! There is one dancing shot in this post that shows the crowd participation during Michael Jackson's, Thriller.

christine + kevin (part 2)

Catering: A Thyme to Cook
DJ: Jeffrey Slogesky of Connecticut DJ
Florist: Zu Zu Petals

SIMPLIFY + ORGANIZE: Declutter your home

I have a tick...not a nervous tick...a purging/organizational tick. ;) I'm proud of it. It's not an obsession, just something I do well. Keeps me sane (we'll see how long that lasts after the baby is born). I like to share tips on keeping yourself, your home, and your business organized. One of my favorite organizationally inspired blogs is Unclutter.com. 

A quick bio: :"Unclutterer is the website for home and office organization. It’s not just for the helplessly disorganized who would lose their heads if they weren’t attached, and pack rats looking to put their stashes on a diet, but also for obsessive compulsive neat freaks looking to squeeze even more order into their lives. We hope we can make getting and staying organized fun and informative."

I thought this post from February 17, 2009 is appropriate for the summer time. Many of you are probably out enjoying the weather, but the summer is also a great time to open up the windows and CLEAN HOUSE! Here is a blog post by author Alex Fayle with tips for decluttering your home:

"Again we want to welcome guest author Alex Fayle, the writer behind the helpful anti-procrastination website Someday Syndrome.

One of the most frequent questions I ever get asked about organizing is the process. How do you make the decisions to get rid of things? While there are many tips and tricks you can use to ease the streamlining process, it all comes down to 5 easy steps:

1. Set yourself a goal “I am going to sort half this room before bed” or “I’m going to streamline the contents of this one box.”
   
2. Figure out broad categories and where you are going sort each category into.
   
3. Sort your stuff, moving systemically through the space, and not bouncing back and forth.
   
4. Purge what you don’t want.
   
5. Stop when you’ve reached your goal.
   

Use the sorting time to reminisce about the objects — don’t make any decisions at this point. Allow the emotions to come up and clear themselves out so that when it comes to the streamlining stage you are free from the emotional ties and can make more objective decisions about them.

If the idea of sorting overwhelms you, give yourself some early victories and do a walk-through of the space, choosing to remove a few large things that will open up the space quickly.

After sorting:

• Take one category and if you can, move it out of the space in which you are working, and into a clear space (like the dining room). This allows you to concentrate on the one category and not have to face the rest all at once.
  
• Ask yourself two questions: Need it? Love it? If you can’t say yes to either then get rid of it. Life is too short to fill out our spaces with things we’re indifferent to.
  
• Take the things you are not going to keep out of the house as quickly as possible. The longer they stay the more likely they will come back into the house.
  
• Give yourself rewards – for example out of fifty childhood books you’ve never reread but have kept for sentimental reasons, keep five and store them in a place of honor where you can see them and appreciate the memories associated with them.
  

There are two instances in which you stop for the day even if you are not done:

If you find yourself hitting a “brain fog” where nothing makes sense or you find yourself holding on to everything you are reviewing.
If you have hit a manic state and start tossing everything without looking at it.

*link to original article: here

Vendor Spotlight: Fleur de Lys (New Haven, CT)

I have been meaning to start this series of blog posts for a long time...and can now proudly check this first entry off my blogging to-do list. I have had the pleasure of working with amazing vendors over the last few years, both as a second and primary shooter. I'm am amazed by the work that goes into weddings and want to give props to the many professionals that make our brides happy when it comes to bringing their wedding vision to life.

I chose to start this series with Fleur de Lys because I had the chance to work with them twice last summer: for the weddings of Lisa + Sean and Alex + Jeremy. I'm speechless at how beautifully the flowers tied in the design and style of both weddings days. Yes, these images will look familiar, seeing as I blogged both events last summer, but I decided to combine the two to showcase Jennifer's amazing creative talents. Alex's wedding was bittersweet, because she works with Jennifer at Fleur de Lys and her flowers were a complete surprise from Jennifer.

These images are a compilation of shots by myself and my amazing second shooter, Julia.

christine + kevin (part 1)

Jonathan Edwards Winery in North Stonington, CT
ZuZu's Petals in Mystic, CT

INSPIRE: Reading as Brain Food

Love these bits of advice from my babyfit.com emails.  I've been doing a lot of reading lately and know the value of this quote.

"To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting."

- Edmund Burke

The benefits of a lifelong love of reading are endless. However, these benefits diminish greatly if you neither read productive works nor let the words sink into your mind. Reading the funny papers over a classic novel is almost incomparable. Do the books, papers, and articles you read nourish your mind? Do you reflect on the material you are taking in? Often discussing a passage with a friend or journaling about it on your own can leave a lasting impression on your mind. Make sure that the information you are taking in is not only full of "nutrients" but is also being properly digested.

Beautiful Christine

christine + kevin (teaser)

If you are a fellow photographer reading this blog post, let me pose (pun intended) this question to you. Have you ever shot a wedding and immediately from the get-go you knew it was going to be some of your best work? This was that wedding for me. A combination of elements made that happen on this one: location, weather, time of day, ambiance, people, fellow "vendors", the Dr. Scholl's gels in my shoes perhaps?...all of it. This is not to say I am not always "on" when I shoot, but for some reason, I was totally feeling the vibe and the energy of this couple and their vision for their day and it played out beautifully in the work I was able to achieve.

With that said, here are a few sneak peeks :)

Katie + Eric: Reception

The Saybrook Point Inn recently did a remodel and it looks fabulous! If you haven't been there in a while, you'll be impressed by the changes.

Congratulations to Katie and Eric. Cheers to an amazing party and wedding day! I'm so happy you were able to have a sunny wedding day in the midst of all the Connecticut rain in these last few weeks. A quick shout out to Keith Alan Productions for his awesome DJ services. He kept the people happy on the dance floor :)

Katie and Eric: Getting Ready + Details

Saybrook Point Inn and Spa in Old Saybrook, CT
Assisted by the second shooting skills of the fabulous Julia of Salty Grapes.