We turned the heater on yesterday, and Rich and Murphy went to the Sabres game. We watched the Bills win (Whoo hoo) Sunday afternoon and went to the park and picked up beautiful yellow leaves. Which makes it kind of crazy to think that just two weeks ago we shot Beth + Daren's beautiful summer (read: hot!) wedding. Seriously, it was about five million degrees and a perfect summer day - apparently some of the last as it seems we're already in fall. Rich keeps telling me he's ready for winter, and Murph came out of his room the other day and asked if it was okay if he wore the parka and snow pants he'd found. :) Anyway, I'm rambling - so, we got to shoot this absolutely beautiful wedding day that we couldn't have been happier to be a part of!

I am SO ready for Winter. I didn't like it at first when we moved, but then I got to buy my first snow blower. I can't wait to snow blow. I get to gear up in 18 layers and put on my goretex Marine Corps coat that you hate and slog out like a winter zombie. And then I get to SHOW WINTER WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE. Flexing on winter like that is fun for a kid from Tennessee. Plus our shooting slows waaaaay down and the coldest winter months let us recharge and get ready to do it all again. I was in the attic yesterday with our contractor and I was eyeing Christmas decorations. CAN'T WAIT. Plus this is likely one of the last years where Christmas is 100% this magical, pure experience for Murphy. Maybe not though - I dunno, now that he's just turned five I feel like he's about to leave for college. It's amazing.

Anyway, I digress. It's 2011, right? Don't a very large number of us meet our soul-mate types online? Especially once you're no longer able to do the bar scene because of your job or life responsibilities, etc? Well, Beth and Daren met just like we did - at personals.theonion.com! Because, well, if you're going to go online to look for a date, you might as well insure that your date will have a wicked sense of humor.

Beth + Daren decided to do a first look and their portraits ahead of the ceremony. Since the whole day was taking place at the Saturn Club, we stayed in the city and wandered a bit downtown for some more urban-y portraits. And I'm so smitten with Beth's flowers - and I'm so sadly not-a-flower person. Seriously, I can tell you what a sunflower, rose, lily and dandelion (does that count?) are, but otherwise, I'm pretty gardening inept. We try to grow stuff every year, and the only thing we've been successful at is a cactus. Which is ideal for people who tend to forget about their flowers for months on end, but I digress. If I were flower savvy, I'd know what these gorgeous bouquets were, but I don't - I just think they're stunning.

I just got laughed at by my wife for knowing what at least five things in that bouquet were. I mean, seriously, though. We've shot hundreds of weddings, and you haven't picked up what various bouquet flowers are? Terrible.

This is the moment where I have to thank you guys a TON for trusting us to put you someplace funky before your wedding ceremony. At one point, Beth says to me, "Oh, Daren will love this alley - it looks just like 'The Wire'".

I know! I was like, "are you being sarcastic? Do you hate this?" Because, here's the thing, we're just the photographers. We just suggest what we think will look cool, and I think sometimes people are afraid of Rich and his giant beard and won't be like, "hey I hate that" if they, in fact, hate that. But Beth assured me that no, in fact Daren would really love it, so we went with it. And I loved it!!

What else do I love? The cabin room! Seriously, I'm shooting the girls taking a break before the ceremony, and Rich walks in and is pointing his camera up at this thing... and I sometimes notice the lovely folks we shoot noticing Rich doing something rather odd (usually with his camera pointed directly at the ground or up in the air - which kind of makes you look like I did that time we played the shooter game on the ps2 and I started panicing because I couldn't figure out what I was looking at on my screen and you pointed my character out on your split screen and I was running in circles with my gun pointed directly at the ceiling) and feel the need to apologize for him, but I do love this shot :)

Hah, thanks. And yes, if it's not Mario or Bejeweled or Angry Birds, you're not much of a gamer. I love a summer outdoor wedding. I know that as we all pull on sweaters and jeans today, this will seem a lot further away than just earlier this month, but it was a HOT, sunny day and it was gorgeous. It was said a few times at the wedding that Daren isn't the most heart-on-your-sleeve kindof guy, and I like that. He's a guy's guy. But even he got caught up a little. It was a powerful ceremony, and it was awesome. You guys had a hell of wedding.

One of the most-remarked on elements of the day had to be Daren's ring. How crazy is this: Beth was involved in an accident a while ago and had a titanium rod placed in her leg. But that's not the crazy/cool part. When the rod was removed from her leg, Daren and Beth's friend made a piece of the titanium into Daren's ring. That's about as personal as a ring gets. I love it.

It's a pretty wild ring story - I love it. Rich and I were just talking about personal elements being incorporated into weddings and how really special it makes things - and I don't think you can get anymore personal then that. :)

And then it was right into the fantastic reception that the Saturn Club puts on. It's funny - I'd never seen a wedding there with quite so many guests that they had to use two rooms, and I loved how they did it - B + D had salads in the first room, went table to table from the first into the second room and had a separate sweetheart table there for their main courses. Perfect!

Guys - it was a fabulous day. Thank you so much for allowing us to shoot it for you. You guys are amazing!