Wow, I just received the most amazing thank you letter from Kate & Kyle I just had to share it with you. It’s one of the most unique thank you letters I’ve ever received and really made me glow inside and out. Thanks Kate and Kyle, I love you guys…you’re the best! And I want to thank YOU for choosing me as your wedding photographer.

Dear Jen,

Thank you so much for being our wedding photographer. We had a wonderful experience working with you and are thrilled with the results. In lieu of a more traditional note, we’ve decided instead to list the Top Ten Reasons Why We’re Happy We Chose You:

10. We were able to see proofs online days after the weddings, and not long after that all of the prints arrived in a hand-picked album and matching photo box along with a DVD with every set - in color and in black-and-white - to boot.

9. You got every shot we talked about prior to the event and managed to get a myriad of shots we hadn’t even thought about - but would have been sorry if they’d been missed.

8. Your “open door policy” was so helpful to us. We had lots of questions and ideas throughout the entire process, yet you were always able and happy to get back to us quickly.

7. We knew we didn’t want a traditional posed format of commemorating our special day, and your photojournalistic style captured the true spirit of our wedding perfectly.

6. You arrived on the day well prepared, with plenty of equipment and a well defined schedule and plan of attack.

5. In spite of best laid plans, not everything went as we anticipated, and you ability to be flexible in the moment and adjust for location and time changes ensured that we still ended up with everything we had hoped for…

4. …including large group shots in less than ideal places. Your creative use of our surroundings made impromptu arrangements into unique and memorable moments.

3. Going through all of our prints, we were surprised by the number of shots that we had no idea you were taking. Your ability to be discrete and blend into the melee that was our wedding while still getting beautiful photos is an amazing skill.

2. Your policy of covering the entire wedding day not only relieved the worry of missing all of the moments we wanted to remember, but also reassured us of your commitment to capturing our whole wedding rather than just the “Kodak moments.”

And the #1 reason why We’re Happy We Chose You:

1. Your awesome personality. Your easy-going, positive attitude and constant smile made it an absolute pleasure to work with you from the intimate engagement shoot right through to the raucous last dance.

Thanks again for doing such a fabulous job. We look forward to another opportunity to work with you in the future.

All the best to you and your family,

Kate & Kyle

Heather and Shane’s guest book is finished! I had such a great time photographing their e-session which you can see **HERE** I am so excited for their wedding in May! They’ll be getting married at St. Joseph’s Church in Portland, Maine and then celebrating at Keeley’s Banquet Center. Right now, their wedding will be the first to kick off the 2008 season…I can’t wait!!

Wedding Planning Websites

Wedding Planning Organizers

This is a list of vendors that I have personally worked with and highly recommend. I will continue to update this list, so please check back frequently. Good luck with your wedding planning!

DJ’s

Florists

I just LOVE this wedding trend! I had two couples have a “First Look” last year and it was perfect. I know many brides and grooms don’t want to break the tradition of seeing each other before the ceremony since supposedly it’s bad luck, but I can tell you it will make your wedding day so much more enjoyable. I would like to share with you some of the benefits of seeing each other before the ceremony with a “First Look” session.

1. Imagine your make-up and hair are fresh, perfect for pictures.
2. Imagine seeing each other for the first time privately without having hundreds of people staring at you. It’s just the two of you and your photographer discreetly off in the distance capturing your emotions during this amazing moment. You’ll still have that moment of having everyone stare at you as you walk down the aisle and your husband-to-be up at the altar nervously gazing at you, but some of the butterflies may have died down because the two of you have just shared this wonderful moment together.
3. Imagine not having to rush through formals and not have to worry where one of the groomsmen disappeared to or why Aunt Jane keeps trying to talk to you during the pictures. Typically you get an hour to get through formal portraits; the wedding party is just dying to get to the reception and everyone’s impatient to start celebrating. By setting aside more time before the ceremony to photograph the formals it can be a more relaxing and fun session and everyone gets to head straight to the celebration after the ceremony! They’ll thank you!
4. And then, imagine being able to enjoy the cocktail hour with your guests. Since formals typically take place during the cocktail hour, couples usually miss this start to the celebration.

So think about it…..

If you’re one of my couples and are interested in planning this for your wedding, please feel free to contact me if you need any assistance with planning the time line of your wedding day.

These are some pictures from Tara and Pradeep’s First Look.

It doesn’t matter to me:) No matter where you’re getting married I’d love to be your wedding photographer! This year I’m excited to expand my coverage to anywhere in the US and beyond. I’ll be photographing Kelly & Bryan’s wedding in Stone Harbor, New Jersey which I am so excited about!!

Right now I’m concentrating my marketing in Florida where I have family, so I recently started advertising with an online ad on Brides.com. I look forward to hearing from you no matter where you’re getting married.

It’s always good to come home!  We had a great time at the Grand Canyon, and getting away is a great way to relax, recharge and get excited for the new year!  But there’s nothing better to coming home.  I’m so excited for this year’s weddings and all the great changes for this year!!

We had a great time in Flagstaff yesterday, although I didn’t take any pictures, I was too busy shopping:)  I bought this beautiful Native American bracelet, plus some other fun stuff.

We had dinner last night in a really cool part of Phoenix on Mill Street.  If you’re ever in Phoenix this seems like a really great part of town, lots of shops and restaurants.  I just can’t ever image living here, our waitress told us it can get up to 120 degrees in the summer!  Right now we’re sitting in the airport waiting for our flight home, which of course is delayed:(

Today was our last day at the Grand Canyon. Tomorrow we drive back to Phoenix to fly back to Boston on Friday. On our way back to Phoenix we’re going to stop in Flagstaff and explore this historic city.

The Grand Canyon is such an amazing place and well worth a visit!

I thought this was such a funny picture. This was taken on our hike yesterday when it was so windy. The wind puffed up Brendan’s jacket and I thought he was going to fly away!

Today we drove out to Desert View which is in the eastern section of the park. This section of the park gets a lot less visitors, but there are some great views of the Colorado River from here. We walked out to Yaki Point which is only accessible by shuttle bus and is the starting point for the Kaibab Trail which is one of the trails down into the canyon. We were so bummed that we couldn’t hike down into the canyon because of the conditions that Brendan made us walk down to the first switchback just so we could say we hiked down:) Just as we were leaving the Grandview Point Brendan spotted this coyote on the edge of the road. I got a few pictures of the coyote crossing the road before he disappeared into the woods.

Happy New Year to everyone!!  2008 is going to be an amazing year, I can just feel it!

Today was extremely cold and windy at the Grand Canyon.  It felt like hurricane force winds on the rim, so the wind chill was very cold, but we still managed to hike about 4 miles along the rim from Bright Angel Lodge to Powell Point.  It was hard to take pictures in those conditions and I haven’t even downloaded my cards yet, so this image was taken yesterday.  It’s actually a panorama image that I made from 4 individual images and merged together in Photoshop…cool!  This is the view from Pipe Creek Vista.

Brendan and I decided to venture beyond the Grand Canyon and take a short drive down historic Route 66. Arizona still retains a large portion of the original Route 66 and we got off I-40 and drove down Route 66 to Seligman. There was tons of Route 66 memorabilia and historic sites in this small town.

This picture was taken in historic Williams, which is also along Route 66. You can take a train from Williams right to the Grand Canyon village, which I think would be kind of cool! It’s really easy to get around the South Rim of the Grand Canyon once you get there because they have an amazing shuttle system, so you don’t even need your car.