Sue and Ryan work in the creative industry, so of course, designed their elegant invitation suite that used iconic images inspired by the BPL

In the afternoon Sue got ready at her friend’s house in Winchester

I watched Sue wash her hair and hum “I’m gonna wash that man right outta my hair”. It was one of my personal favorite memories from the day

Most of the afternoon was spent with everyone in the room fawning over the flower girl. This was a quick moment I caught as she showed off her curls to her father

Apparently this was the same day as when President Obama was in town for a rally. I booked it over back to downtown Boston to get photos of Ryan and his groomsmen and his father in the courtyard while we still had daylight

An autumn wedding meant that I also was able to push myself with more creative off-camera lighting.  Thank you so much Christina for helping out!

The talented team at Table and Tulip was behind the gorgeous floral design of the wedding. Moss, tree stumps, and these really cool silver vases created a fresh look that felt like it was breathing

If you want an inspiring hall to study in, check out Bates Hall in the Boston Public Library. It’s one of my favorite places in Boston

The ladies arrive! They had these cute feather-accented shoe clips which coordinated with the headband that Sue wore

Did I mention it was very windy that day?

This is one of my favorite portraits of Sue. She looks like a goddess!

The following two were completely candid captures as she accompanied the flower girl down the stairs

Sue and Ryan chose the Abbey Room for their reception. The Abbey Room is well-known for its gorgeous murals. I was extremely pleased to see how ALPS provided uplighting and spotlights to show off the murals and wood paneling. Tip for brides-to-be: consider using uplighting to accent the beauty of your venue, especially if the venue’s own lighting is not adequate. The staff commented how this is the most well-lit they’ve seen the murals during a wedding!

Sue and Ryan had their ceremony in the Chavannes Gallery

We grabbed some quick portraits back in Bates Hall

Let’s get the party started! Sue and Ryan were all smiles for the rest of the evening, dancing their way into the night. At the end of the night, Sue ran around the room and high-fived her guests – so awesome

And yes, details! Check out the rings – you can make out a fingerprint on Ryan’s band. Too cool

The cake, provided by BPL’s in-house caterer, The Catered Affair, was decorated in these gorgeous leaves and then Table & Tulip adorned it with succulents… and smelled so good!

Top row: Escort cards, moss terraniums, detail of escort card setup
Row 2: Succulents, Sue’s gorgeous (and heavy) bouquet, my dinner
Bottom row: Escort card table – those are real blocks of fresh moss!

Mmm mmm, The Catered Affair sure had delicious food! They operate a restaurant inside the library during business hours

Thanks you two for such a great evening, and congratulations!!

Shang Chen’s assistant: Christina Lee Photography
Venue: The Boston Public Library
Catering, cake: The Catered Affair
Dress: Amy Kuschel
Hair and make-up: Salonika
Uplighting: ALPS
Florist: tabLe & tuLip
Suit: Jil Sander
DJ: DJ Spinelli
Rings: Lorinczi Jewelry

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If there’s one crazy event to experience in a lifetime of wedding planning, there’s nothing that can quite top Filene’s Basement’s semi-annual Running of the Brides, happening this year on February 19th, 2010 in Boston, MA. Check their website for the fall date as well as dates in other cities. (The Boston Running of the Brides is going to be at the Hynes Convention Center, official details are here)

For the uninitiated, Filene’s Basement basically gathers lots of extra inventory, sample sizes, of designer wedding dresses, and sells them at a heavy discount to the masses twice a year at an event called Running of the Brides. Dresses that used to be thousands of dollars can now be grabbed for $699 or less – all dresses are priced from $249 to $699. It’s truly a steal, allowing couples to use the money saved to invite more guests, add decor, have a nicer honeymoon, or just not go broke.

I went last year with my roommate Christina to help her find her dress. We did not do the running part in the morning. According to the website: “When the doors open, they run full speed towards the racks. In less than 60 seconds, the racks are stripped bare (store employees have to hold on to the fixtures so they don’t topple). The women grab whatever gowns they can, haul them off to a corner, strip down to their underwear and start trying on dresses. Minutes later the trading begins. Every dress, no matter what size, style or color, gets bartered for another, as each bride tries to find the gown of her dreams at a cut-rate price.” Yeah.. I’m 5’2″ and weigh less than 100 pounds, there’s no way I’d survive that kind of situation. We opted for midday instead.

Here are the lessons Christina and I would like to pass on:

- Go in at 10AM rather than door opening. By that point, many of the dresses have already gone back up on the racks and you will not be caught in what can only be described as a crazy, screaming, opening of the floodgates.

- Bring a mirror and 2 – 3 helpers. Dresses are heavy, sometimes the plastic wrapping is hard to take off, and you want to save time taking them off the racks and have more time trying them on

- Make your helpers easy to identify. Have fun and make team T-shirts, whistles, bring walkie-talkies, whatever will make communication easy for you.

- Wear a body-hugging underwear or swimsuit or even track gear, or wear the underwear that will closely resemble what you will wear on your wedding day. Most people change on the spot so you want to be comfortable walking around. Keep in mind that there will be a few brave men at this event.

- The majority of the dresses on the racks will be popular sample sizes – I saw mostly sizes 8 – 12 (wedding dress size, not street size). Buy a dress that’s larger, not smaller. Alterations will be able to size them down, but keep in mind that a difference of greater than 2 sizes may lead to a drastic change to the style of the dress.

- As great a discount they can be, sale prices still can lead to impulse buys. Therefore, make sure you think hard before you pay because all sales are final

The roommates back then – Lusi, the beautiful Christina, and me at Christina’s wedding! (photo taken with a Canon SD800)

Anyone else been to a Running of the Bride? Got any additional advice to pass along?

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In other news, I received word today that I’ve won the Bride’s Choice Award 2010 from WeddingWire! This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service and professionalism. The Bride’s Choice Awards™ are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds (brides and grooms) through extensive surveys and reviews! A big big thank you to all my 2009 brides for making this possible for me!

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Some details and getting read… I placed the rings against one of the colorful pillows in the lobby. Thanks to my friend Sam Lipoff for lending me a couple of his lenses and his D700 for this weekend (my second camera is coming in about a week). The rings were shot using a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens

Meanwhile, downstairs, the ceremony was getting set up.

One of the flower girls was a little shy before the ceremony!

The ringbearer was enjoying the bubbles

The gorgeous Ada walking down the grand staircase in the hotel towards the ceremony

Other shots I usually try to get during a ceremony is the groom watching his bride come down, and the father clasping their hands together

Cute flower girls!

Going in for the first kiss

We went to the hotel pool to take these formals. I’m LOOVING the color of the drapery!

Beautiful!

A typical Chinese wedding reception is not complete without…. games!

A very energetic first dance =)

Bouquet toss

Detail montage. The colors of wedding included yellow, green, and white

Congratulations Ada and Qizhi! It was incredibly fun to be a part of your beautiful wedding, and I have to say, you guys are such great sports throughout all the crazy games! See additional photos here

Vendors!

Reception + catering: Woburn Hilton
DJ: New England’s DJ

We first got ready by the Westin by the waterfront, a giant hotel near the World Trade Center with an impressive lobby

Did I mention talented family? Josh’s mom did all the florals, here is Maureen’s mom providing some touchups

I actually spent most of the getting ready time with the men. We started with portraits in the Westin’s lobby

This is Eddie. There’s some kind of inside joke about this little monkey…

We then moved to the AFH and I had a lot more time to take detail shots and some more photos of the men when they all arrived. Check out that sky!

Get the movie refernece here? Josh and Pat (far right) are movie makers

Josh’s sister decorated this cake!

Back to the women’s side… the only place to get ready was upstairs amongst tons of computers and art supplies and art pieces. Maureen did not break a sweat

I really wanted to showcase Maureen’s beaaautiful long train… this was where I had the most room to put it at the time

To make the background disappear,  I shot against a dark background, I used my longer lens, and further darkened the background in Photoshop

Maureen’s cute nieces were the flower girls

A laugh with grandma before the ceremony

A radiant Maureen coming down the aisle

Love the raised arms!

A couple of formals

I love Maureen’s hair and makeup, everything stayed on so well given it was a HOT and HUMID day. See the vendor love below for more information

Josh just couldn’t help but keep kissing his beautiful bride!

And he couldn’t wait for their first dance…

Father-daughter, Mother-son dances

These are only a couple of the hundreds of shots I got from the reception.. this blog is getting long so I’m only going to show a couple…

I spent most of the night dancing with the crowd! Hahhaa, it was pretty hot, we all worked up quite a sweat. Then someone was able to take this photo of me

Last but not least, some details

Oh man! So I was exhausted by the time I got home, but thank you, Maureen and Josh, for such a fun wedding!

Vendors!

- Dresses: PartyDressExpress.com
- Rings: Engagement – Descenza’s, Wedding – Deprisco’s Jewelry
- Tuxedos – Mr. Tuxedo
- Venue: Artists for Humanity
- Cake and dessert: Elizabeth, sister of groom
- Catering: Fine Catering by Russell Morin
- Florals:  Centerpieces provided by Sue, mother of groom
- Make-up: Special Day by Carolina
- Hair: Special Day by Carolina, flower girls’ hair by Kathleen, sister of bride
- Justices of peace: Willian and Adrienne, friends of the couple
- Paper goods: Emerald Invitations

Cara and Rick were married on a beautiful, beautiful August day. In fact, all my August weddings had awesome weather, but I think the temperature was a lot cooler on their wedding! Cara really loved photos, and so we made sure we left pleeenty of time for portraits – nearly 2 hours! In fact, I helped Cara go over the wedding day schedule prior to make sure that we could get all the photos in. Cara planned her wedding from Texas, so major props to how smooth the day went! Her wedding party was HUUUGE and we also wanted all the family combinations covered. I’m so psyched to present this set of photos. Enjoy!

Cara waiting

Cute shoes and absolutely gorgeous dress!

The men were pretty good with getting ready on time. I told them they had to make sure to get those boutonnieres on =D

I love this shot of Cara’s hand coming out

Portraits of Cara – is she not GORGEOUS!

Rick is waiting for the First Look!

*tear* look at how happy he is!

So.. the wedding party had 8 on each side plus a flower girl and an attendant! I made sure I got a wiiide lens for this wedding! (28mm f/2.8)

Such goofy men!

Work it ladies!

Rick and his wacky siblings

Rick and Cara are absoluuuutely romantic when they’re together. I didn’t need to give them much direction, they’re just so in love!

Aw aw cute flower girl!

More of the ceremony

What an awesome kiss!

I wasn’t able to stick around the reception – but Steph Stevens covered the reception and from my preview here, it looks like it was a BLAST! I think they did a Michael Jackson choreographed dance later in the night

Congrats Cara and Rick, and a special thank you to Cara’s mom, Lynne, for finding me. You guys are unforgettable and I wish you all the best down in Texas!

Vendors!

Reception Photographer: Steph Stevens Photo
Dress: Wendy’s Bridal, Cincinnati, OH

Rings: Nazar’s Fine Jewelry, Houston, TX
Tuxedos: Classic Tuxedos, Walboro, MA
Cake: Frederick’s Pastries
Florest: A Belvidere Florist, Lowell, MA
Make-up: Elizabeth Arden, Macy’s in Nashua, MA
Hair: Atmosphere Salon, Westford, MA
Venue, Catering, and coordinator: Westford Regency
Ceremony: St. Catherine’s Church, Westford, MA
DJ: New England’s DJ