Buffalo Wedding Photography by Nickel City Studios

Ok, so our experiment in long-distance blogging was an utter failure. We attempted to blog with Rich in Baltimore last week while I was here, but it failed miserably. So, we're a little behind on blogging and are planning on catching up this week. To start off are Kim and John. They were married on a ridiculously warm and sunny day in Niagara Falls. I started off at the hotel with Kim while she was getting ready...

... and her flower girl stayed busy doing everyone's makeup. :)

Adorable! Actually, all of my productivity last week was an utter failure. I would like to take a moment and salute single parents. I have no idea how one raises a kid without a partner. One week absolutely whipped my ass, and Murphy is a good kid! We had super fond memories of Kim and John from their engagement shoot, and we couldn't wait to get started on the day. Check out this amazing little church in the Falls (St. Mary's of the Cataract).

Yeah, I walked in and Rich was like, "Surprise! Look at this amazing church I got you for today!" It really is a stunning church, and if you'd had a thing to do with it, babe, you'd get major brownie points... but you didn't :)

Favorite cute kim-face of the day, right here :)

I loved this quick moment with Dad before heading down the aisle...

Ch-ching! Awesome, awesome, awesome church.

By the way, we're watching Christmas Vacation on AMC right now during the squirrel scene. NEVER gets old :)

No, it really doesn't. I LOVE movies this time of year. So good. I loved this shot - getting all reflect-y on your ass!

Aaaand the cease-fire of making fun of the stuff you say on the blog? Violently ended. "Reflect-y on your ass?" Haze yourself.

Whatever. You're just jealous of my awesome reflecty shot.

A+++++ Love this shot!

We headed to this little spot by the rapids where the rail falls away and you can get right up tight next to the rapids. Honestly, this space is about 10 feet of grass between the rapids and the road. We get asked a lot about locations for photos, and truly, if the light is pretty, it really doesn't have to be a giant park or somewhere expected. Just a little patch of grass works beautifully!!

I love looking at these and remembering how I had to take off my sweater because I was sweating. It was an incredible day all the way around.

Double shots of hands holding the bouquet? What the hell :)

Our portrait shoot was rad - we really owe this bridge a lot - we're used it and it's stone-with-vines looked several times this year :)

That's my favorite of yours ^. Love it. Can I just stop for a second and say how gorgeous Kim looks! She has such a classic beauty, and I LOVED her dress. I was so smitten with the lace jacket. Yum!

This was my favorite shot of the day. (I think I've said that a couple times, now, but now I really mean it!)

Kim and John definitely rocked it out from the start of the reception. They were a super fun, tons of dancing, lots of energy group which was amazing to shoot.

Heck yes. I love receptions where I notice myself kindof half-dancing while I shoot. I mean, I always stop doing it immediately so you don't make fun of me or have a guest look at me all weird...but it happens.

That's all for us tonight (oh crap, the Star Trek:TNG Family Guy just came on - best FG ever!!). We really loved this wedding and this couple and their families and their friends and THANK YOU again for shooting with us :) Talk to you guys soon!

Gah! So, Rich is in Baltimore, and I'm here in Buffalo, so we were going to attempt long-distance blogging, but it did not work out, so I'm flying solo tonight on the blog!

We met up with Lesley + Ryan in Lesley's neighborhood. She grew up there, so we headed to this little park at the end of her street to start their session. It was warm, the sun was gorgeous, and these two are ridiculously adorable together. I couldn't ask for anything better!

I adore this shot of yours, Rich!

Thanks most gorgeous, kind, wonderful and gracious wife ever! (Okay, it's me, but that's about what he'd say...)

So, we're shooting here and one of Lesley's friends who lives right in the neighborhood as well wanders over. We were chatting a bit, and I turned around and L + R were still cuddling and generally being adorable, so I was like, oh guys, you don't have to keep doing that. And Lesley's friend was like, oh no, they are like that all the time! Seriously, you guys are too cute.

L + R wanted to shoot over at UB, so since it's a little tricky to get there from Lesley's neighborhood, we hopped in Ryan's car. Rich and I have a bad habbit of forgetting to eat before we go to shoots, and this day was no different. So when we hopped in Ryan's car and saw a bunch of red candies on the seat, we were like, score! We may have even high-fived. Ryan was like, guys, those are cold medicine and disgusting. Clearly, he was full of it, so we popped them in our mouths, and I have never had a more offensive experience.

Literally, my mouth started foaming. I'm so not kidding. It was foul. And then we took the scenic route to the campus, and I must have fallen over myself to get to the first butt can I saw to ditch mine. Rich, for no apparent reason other than he's crazy, decided he had committed to his and was going to for the whole experience. Worst. Taste. Ever. Just a head's up, if you ever find yourself in the backseat of Ryan's car, regardless of how delicious you imagine those cinnamon candies will taste, do not eat the candy. Just don't.

You're right! I am crazy! Crazy in love with this photo! (Okay, me again, but I know he'd say some AWFUL transition here like that)

We headed up to the library steps partially because they were super pretty, but mostly because it was so significantly warmer in the sun. Seriously, can I just say that it's Buffalo, Thanksgiving, 50 and sunny, and there are still leaves on the trees? This is awesome.

We were wandering about and saw this old 70s era building that we dragged L + R in front of. I know that most 70s era buildings are pretty un-fun to look at (with appologies to all 70s era architects), but they are super fun to shoot in front of. There's usually a ton of fun pattern, and I love the way this looks.

So, this is totally my favorite of Rich's. The light was gorgeous and golden and reflecting off the windows all perfectly, so we ran over here, and I have to give MAJOR props to L + R for being so relaxed and natural when there was totally a class going on on the other side of those windows!

And thank you Rich for being the best photographer I could get to work with. Seriously, you're awesome and this shot rocks my heart!

Since St. Joe's butts up against UB and Lesley went there, we wandere around the buildings and played there a bit.

Thank you both for being so fantastic and fun. We cannot wait to see you guys again (and I'll end with some helpful wedding advice - no Cold-Eze favors for your guests!!). Thanks, again!

I'm normally really on top of things. I have our schedule of what needs to be done when, we have our Google calendar of appointments and shoots and our whiteboard of where we are with each shoot. I am on top of things. But then, once in a blue moon, I'll get horribly sick, be unable to sleep, get up at 4 a.m. and decide to go edit since I'm awake anyway, be so tired I spill my water on the computer's modem, knocking out our internet connection for the day, and forget an appointment until the doorbell rings. And when I answer the door in my pajamas, I would never, ever, ever anticipate the poor girl I had a meeting with would be crazy enough to book us. But she did, and that awesome (and forgiving!) girl is Sheryl.

We were joking about our inital meeting, because, honestly, there's no way I would have booked me in the state she found me, and I said something about me being in my gumdrop pajama pants. Sheryl quickly replied that they were, in fact, girls in martini glasses (Rich's pants, but I stole them and am actually wearing them now!). So, clearly I made an impression on her! But we got together with her and Dan over at the Central Terminal, and I truly hope these photos make up for the initial impression. Beautiful light, a fun couple that trusts us to do some weird things and a rad location = a killer e-shoot.

She corrected you with the quickness about the pajama pants! And Dan said something about how she came home and he was like, "You booked them?" Ah, well, so much for branding and marketing polish. Sometimes you jsut have to go with your gut, even if it's wearing girl in martini glasses pajama pants. And, Alyssa, I want my damned pants back. You have 18 different pairs of pajama pants. I have TWO - stop stealing my stuff.

All that aside - this was my favorite engagement shoot pretty much ever - and I even spent most of it holding a light boom. That shot above? Proud of it. Going on the wall, it is.

When we started the shoot, the light was spot on and just continued the rest of the shoot being magic. A lot of people are concerned about where we take their photos, and, honestly, it really doesn't matter. We can find cool stuff anywhere - it's the light that really makes the difference and the sun definitely cooperated for this shoot.

We stumbled on this broken old building that was wide open, so clearly we had to play with it. It was WAY too cool to pass up. And thank you guys for trusting us. I know we push limits some times (Hey! Let's go shoot in this insert_awful_here!), so it's really awesome to have such great couples who trust us to play with things that are well out of the area of traditional portrait locations.

Hobo home, for the win! No, really, we got Dan up in that doorway with a homemade ladder we found and there were definitely spices and other, old cooking implements inside. I found a burned up thing of Mrs. Dash, and Sheryl was like, "We don't even have Mrs. Dash at home!" I don't think Amtrak has been letting anyone habitate here for a while, but if I have to make it through the coming zombie apocalypse not in our home, I now have another local and appropriately defendable crash pad. Bring it on, zombies.

We are NOT going to the hobo house for the zombie apocalypse. We're going to the armory two blocks from our house. I've told you a million times, in all zombie movies, you're safe once you're behind the military line. We're going to the armory.

(seriously, how cool was this place before it turned into the set of Life After People?)

Yeah - exactly, zombie movies are OVER when the infantry shows up. WHERE'S THE FUN IN THAT!?!?! (So, we may be partly on a zombie riff because Dan recently filmed a horror movie nearby) Seriously, I'm not that interested in safe, I'm interested in fighting zombies. You don't understand me at all (:sigh:). I love that photo so much - we have so much crazy decay in Buffalo, I figure as Buffalo wedding and portrait photographers that's something we have to honestly own. It's what the city is and it's what a lot of couples like as far as a funky feel.

So, we headed into the terminal (which was good, because the minute the light goes down these days, it drops, like 300 degrees) and played around a bit inside. For no apparent reason, there's church pews inside right now. Which makes me jealous - we have a neighbor who has one on his front porch, and they really are super cool.

When we start bringing lighting into our shoots, it's a lot of one person holding the light while the other shoots, so I had my face in the camera and Rich started tugging on my sleeve like a kid, going - we have to go there, NOW! And I looked over and the sky visible through the windows was just sick!

This is so pretty, Alyssa :) Dan and Sheryl - I love how you guys work together.

Yeah, I think that one ^ is my favorite...

So, before we took off, we did one more brisk shot outside - guys - thank you both so much for shooting with us. We had a ton of fun, and we promise we'll show up to the wedding in real pants.