For the past few years, we hadn't been taking New Year's Eve weddings - we have a few days that are off-limits for us for shooting while we have little kids, but we'd taken NYE off for us as grownups. Then we realized how totally lame we are and that we never actually go out for NYE and are usually completely asleep when the year switches over. So when Shannon + Tyler came to us with their fabulous NYE wedding at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, we immediately gave up our NYE to hang with them at their super cool NYE wedding.

Shooting really late in the year is worlds different than shooting in, say, June when our wedding season is usually at its peak here in Buffalo. That photo above of Tyler and his groomsmen is the only shot either of us did outside. Luckily for us and for Shannon and Tyler, we had a really rad venue that let us shoot all over it and Shannon and Tyler also worked closely with us to figure out how the timeline of the day was going to play out since everything was taking place at the museum after sunset.

For the ceremony itself, you couldn't ask for a better backdrop than S + T had. When a couple tell me they want a small, intimate and emotional ceremony, this wedding is what I'm going to think about going forward. I absolutely love that we get to do this stuff.

Yes to everything you said :) Though the setting wouldn't have mattered one bit if Shannon + Tyler hadn't had as much fun as they had. Seriously, Shannon was just glowing the entire day, and it couldn't have been a more fun wedding to photograph.

As we were driving back to Buffalo and talking about our 2011 wedding season, Rich said, at the end of the day, he really just wants to do a great job at every wedding because he genuinely cares about our clients. And I couldn't agree more. And that may seem silly or hokey or whatever, but he's right. People trust us to come into these amazingly intimate moments in their lives, and it's so important to us to give everything that we have at each wedding because while it may be the 33rd wedding we've been to this year, it's the ONLY wedding of the year that matters for our bride and groom. And we never forget that.

Somehow, we've been lucky enough to get to do this amazing job for the past six years, and we're so thankful for every couple that trusts us with their amazingly important day. While 2011 was a hell of a year, we cannot wait to get started in 2012.