While we've been doing this crazy thing called wedding photography, we've had brides pick their wedding date around our availability, which is insanely flattering!! We've had a few brides choose us before they had a venue or church. We've even, believe it or not, been hired by multiple couples for their second weddings - their first was in secret and the second for their families and friends. But only once have we had a bride hire us before she was even engaged. And that brings us to Delaney + Adam. When they first came to meet us and we asked how they got engaged, they told us they weren't. Which was, to say the least, a little surprising, but I get it. Rich and I had been talking about getting engaged and knew we were getting married without an official engagement, but I think they'll probably continue to have the honor of being the only couple who's ever booked us before being engaged. :)

I couldn't be more excited that they did, too. I don't know if you guys are back from St. Lucia yet, A + De, but I can't wait for you guys to see your photos. Adam is one of the most relaxed, kind, friendly dudes I've gotten to work with and Delaney was kindof the perfect bride. She knew exactly what she wanted on her wedding day, who she wanted to have close around her, how she wanted the day to progress and she made it all happen pretty effortlessly (well, I know it obviously takes a TON of effort to make it all look that effortless - but that makes it all the more impressive!).

Hah! You pulled this for the blog?? The makeup artist, Chrystal, turns around while you were shooting details and says, "Hey, can I see a quick photo of Delaney?" I've never been asked that before, so I was like, "uh, okay, :click:" But the crazy part is, this all happens within a second and Delaney just real quick turns to me and is like, LOOK AT ME, I AM AN AWESOME BRIDE AND I WILL STARE YOU DOWN! As Tyra would say, that was totally fierce.

Haha! You just publicly admitted an intimate knowledge of what happens on ANTM!! I think sometimes you forget this is available for people to read and isn't just us talk/writing in the living room. :) But yeah, she killed it. And I liked that the mua asked that - I knew she was rad when we walked in and saw her doing the makeup in a room with just window light - a lot of times, we see people getting makeup done under fluorescent lights which can make makeup look completely different than it'll look say, outdoors, so it's super rad to do it in natural light.

I loved their details - and Delaney had this KILLER gray bag with a peonie on it (her gorgeous wedding flowers, too!) - Etsy, of course. I can spend so much time (and money!) there.

Delaney was the last to have her makeup done while her girls were ready, and I walk out into the other room, and a bunch of them have a Scategories game going. One looks up and says, "I know, we're an exciting bunch, huh?" Actually, I thought it was so rad - I love that game, and it was against every competitive bone in my body to jump in - luckily we were shooting, though - and I pretty much want to do nothing else when we're shooting!

Scategories! That's how you know it's going to be a pretty epic wedding day :).

And, FINALLY, we got to shoot inside a church we drive/walk past pretty much every day of our lives - the Unitarian Universalist Church on Elmwood. We've had weddings initially planned for there a couple times, and then the church venue changed.

This old church is a joy to shoot in. And if you take a wrong step coming down from the balcony, you will break 37 different bones. Which I almost did twice during the ceremony. Seriously - if you go in there, look for the stairs to the balcony, they're a death trap.

But also, just look at the place - it's a killer church and the ceremony was incredible.

Yeah - I was definitely more than stoked when we finally (FINALLY) got inside. It's gorgeous! And it was a beautiful, perfect ceremony on a beautiful, perfect day.

You guys were so much fun to shoot - they had a great timeline with everything located downtown, so we had time to hit up a couple different spots before heading to Pearl Street.

We had planned to hit up a couple spots D+A wanted to go to, but we spotted this awesome street and called Adam to see if the limo could bring them over to us - and I was so, so, so excited that not only was the timeline relaxed enough we could stop here, but luckily Adam answered his cell, so we were able to make this work, because I'm in love with the shots here!

Communication is key. Especially when your wedding photographers are prone to seeing shiny stuff and stopping for more photos.

So, I have to say I'd forgotten there was a festival at the waterfront when D+A said they wanted to stop here - and as soon as I saw the plushie walking toward us, I started saying, "oh no, oh no, oh no," under my breath, but he literally just walked in to our photos, so now D+A will always have a wedding photo with a plushie fish with legs and a baseball. Thanks, random guy, for that. (And thanks, D+A for not being as totally weirded out as I was!)

Oh, no - De was definitely weirded out. If ever someone were to make a cute, little pepper spray dispenser for brides, I think we could market it with those photos. JUST SAY NO to walking into some wedding photos uninvited if you're wearing a giant whatever-the-hell-that-thing-is suit. That was odd.

And then to Pearl Street. And it's been said before. And, surely, we're going to say it again. Natalie and her crew at Pearl Street are wonderful. And available and around all night to make sure everything is going perfectly. That's a hell of a well-run establishment, but I don't have to tell you that if you've ever been there. I'm psyched we have it here in Buffalo.

Yeah - I'm definitely never disappointed when folks tell us they're planning there. There's just no where else around that has the industrial-like feel with the exposed brick and wrought iron and wood. It's just great textures, but as you said - the folks there are what makes it so awesome. The run a pretty epic wedding day.

And speaking of people making a great wedding. There's something really important I notice at successful wedding receptions (i.e., everyone has a great time, it's a good balance all the way around of fun and family, etc). The couple is being out-going and getting around the room and dancing and showing everyone else what they want their reception to be. Nothing is more true at a wedding reception than the fact that guests will always take their cue from the couple. And Adam and De worked the room and had a KILLER reception.

Oh, and we snagged them as the sun was getting beautiful and warm. Because you can't have that fourth-floor balcony and not use it...

I can't even begin to tell you how in love I am with that photo of D + her dad above. You KILLED it babe. Seriously, I love it. Thanks for being so awesome to work with and live with.
You're cool.
I dig ya. ;D

Hah - okay, I swear I didn't write that myself, even though Alyssa just had to run out the door this morning with the boys for a lunch date. But thanks, in absentia :).

Delaney and Adam had Biggs Sounds and Entertainment Djing, and those guys were great. The dance floor got going in a hurry and didn't stop. I love this stuff and I love shooting nights like this.

Thank you both, so much, for booking us what seems like a lifetime ago and for being such a classic couple to work with. You guys are smart, funny and super talented. Thank you again :)

"We figured it's more of a hassle with the canoe back there...so we nixed it." And with that one line in an e-mail, Megan officially crushed me. When she and Brian came to us with the idea of shooting their e-shoot in their canoe and in the woods, two things that are big for them, we were, to say the least, excited. And by excited, I mean, we were giddy. And by giddy, I mean the kind of giddy that comes when a tweener meets the Beibs, giddy. And without warning, Megan sent off an e-mail saying they changed their minds and were thinking of just going to a park. And I imagine if you were within a couple blocks of our home that morning, you heard a "Noooooo!" wail coming from our little studio.

So, immediately Rich and I started talking about what we might be able to say to them to change their minds back. You see, at the end of the day, we will happily shoot anywhere anyone wants to shoot and we'll help with ideas. But if someone comes to us with a really killer idea and then changes their mind, we'll also do whatever we can to change their minds back. :) Because, really, how often do you think it comes up that a couple wants to shoot in their canoe? I'll tell you - once. Once in the five years we've been doing this crazy thing, and it was one of those moments for us that we just fell in love with not only the idea of the e-shoot, but also the idea of becoming kayakers.

We'd been talking about buying a kayak for, literally, years. My sister's family are big paddlers, and we love going out with them when we visit them, but we'd not yet bought a boat of our own. We had a bunch of excuses not to - but here was the perfect reason to finally buy our boat. And with one quick e-mail, we were suddenly back on the kayak-on-the-back-burner-maybe-next-summer bandwagon. When we went out to shoot them, one day after the official one-year-til-the-wedding day (we'd been postponed the day before, or it would've been exact - adorable, right?!), Megan said that she and Brian thought it was a bit extreme for us to buy a boat for their e-shoot. Now, I see how it comes across as that's exactly what we'd have been doing, and I don't know if they'll ever believe it wasn't that, but really - crazy, we are... but not that crazy :) So, I'm sure you're wondering, since these shots look like they're on land, did we do the shoot in their canoe? Did Rich + Alyssa finally become kayakers?

Hell yeah, we did!!

I don't remember a time before you were typing that. Not only did we drive out past Rochester to buy a sweet deal of a kayak that can fit our whole family, but when we pulled it off the roof of our car (imagine, if you will, a 15-ft kayak on our old, beat up two-door-and-two-suicide-door Saturn Ion - it's ridiculous.) Megan says, "Oh, wow - I see you guys got the 'divorce special!'"

You see, there are a million special moments in any relationship that define them and make you understand and further reaffirm why you married the person you did. Trying to paddle together in a large tandem kayak is not one of those moments.

So I paddled out from Beaver Island behind Megan and Brian, and my lovely wife photographed until we hit Strawberry Island. Also, I bet if you went to summer camp pretty much every summer a a kid like I did, you can't get "A boy and a girl in a little canoe" out of your head.

Yeah, about two seconds in, you were like, "so, just don't paddle - you take photos; I'll paddle." :) Worked well for me - it was definitely one of the most relaxing shoots we've ever done, getting to shoot from the princess seat. At the same time, though - it was one of the most incredibly difficult shoots - with the exception of maybe 20 minutes we were on land, we shot the rest of the shoot from the kayak. So, it was constant adjustment with an inability to control the angle I was shooting from (sorry babe, you did a really good job getting me close to where I wanted to be, but I'm so used to being able to get on my belly, climb up on something, move a foot to my right, and that's not how it works from a boat). At one point, I congratulated myself and Rich was like, "yeah, congratulations - you took photos. You're a professional photographer." So, that was kind of embarrassing :) Next time, I'll just congratulate myself in my head :)

Anyway, for as tough as it was to lose the ability to move around, I'm totally smitten with this shoot - and that is mostly because of how adorable Megan + Brian are. Seriously, it was early. Real early. And they were so sweet and happy and comfortable, it was so much fun to shoot them.

Brian is super into paddling, to the point where he was telling us about crazy-long trips he and his dad have taken, battling chest-high waves in their kayaks and generally being super hardcore. I don't know if we'll ever get into the kayak scene quite that deep, but it is definitely addictive and we've only had a kayak for a couple weeks. We haven't had the kids out in the Necky yet, but that needs to change, maybe even later today. (We have a ridiculously adorable infant flotation device "thing" for Dexter and a full UV 50+ suit. He looks ludicrous and amazing in his little protective cocoon of gear.) There's just something about being out on the water. I've always loved being out in a boat, any kind of boat (ask us about our ill-fated purchase of an old sailboat in Hawaii sometime - THAT was a divorce special, and we were only just dating then). I think if you're into it, there's just always an undeniable urge to get out there.

And Megan, well, I wore my hipster-bear-holding-a-speed-graphic-camera shirt on our shoot because Megan is a real, no kidding bear zookeeper. That's about as awesome a profession as I can imagine. I know it's a ton of hard work and data collection and long hours, but at the end of the day, you also kindof get to say, "These are my bears." And that's a pretty amazing thing to get to say, right?

I think being a zookeeper is maybe the coolest job ever. Probably in a I've-romanticized-it-well-beyond-it's-reality way, but it's so amazing. Guys - thank you a million times over for letting us shoot you in your canoe. We had an amazing time and cannot wait for this year to fly by (and it will!).