On Saturday, I got the worst sunburn I’ve had in a long time. I met Brad & Megan and their wedding party at Lakewood Beach (Chautauqua Lake) at 12:45 for pictures, then photographed the ceremony from 2-2:30, then we did family pictures til a little after 3, so I was basically standing in full, direct sun for 2 1/2 hours. I’m fair skinned, folks. Big time. I now have a painful inverted triangle on my chest from the blouse I was wearing, and the tops of my shoulders are about 110 degrees. I digress; the wedding was awesome.

I’ll start with this. Can you believe this is Chautauqua Lake? Someone from the board of tourism should be ringing me, for real.

This was the house next door. Yeah, that’s right. What an awesome place to photograph a wedding party!

Megan’s hair was SO beautiful – if Joe and I got married again (which I would love, due to the fact that Etsy exists now!!) I would take this photo to the salon and say, “Make it happen.”

I had never seen a pocket boutonniere before. It was like a pocket protector with flowers sticking out of the top and honestly, it was pretty darn practical vs. trying to pin one onto a dress shirt!

Her flowers were just gorgeous, and I loved the fact that none of the bridesmaids’ bouquets were the same either – everyones was different, and they were so very pretty.

Megan had to go hide in a car while we waited for guests to arrive and take their seats… this is her maid of honor who I was told “never makes a normal face in pictures.”

The caption for this photo (bride’s grandpa to bride’s mother): “If you stick me, I’ll punch you in the face.” All in jest, all in jest. Right?

I always love the smiles of people coming down the aisle.

The sky was so insanely blue. This photo is not tweaked at all. It really looked exactly like that.

The reception was at Roberto’s (the old Ironstone) and the food was yummers. The alcohol, was apparently even yummers-er. Nip slip? Check! Mullet wig? You bet! Drinking warm bourbon out of a bottle on a public sidewalk? Believe it!

I’ll end with saying that I’ve done almost 200 weddings (I counted and came up with 195) but I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen pretend jumprope – and Megan absolutely rocked it with her sparkly silver Chuck Taylors.

For a reception that ended at 8:45pm, you guys packed an awful lot of fun into a few hours. I’m so glad I got to be there, and I wish Megan and Brad and both their families the best!

On Saturday I was so excited about shooting at Timberlodge at Arrowhead Golf Course for the second time. If you read the post immediately preceding this one, you’ll get the joke. After having such a great experience the first time, I was raring to go for round two, and again, the weather did not disappoint. We had different light, which is awesome because it gave me freedom to do new things. I love going with the flow. It’s my happy time.

Let me start the picture posting with this. Look at this. Gor.geous. Abby & Nick – you guys rule. They had this ampersand strung between the chairs at their sweetheart table and I said, “I know I said posing was done, but you guys have to come outside with me.”

Okay, now back to the beginning. I started the day with Nick & the guys at one of the groomsmen’s condo. All the guys had matching custom suits made by Nick’s uncle in Rochester, and they looked awesome. There is nothing like having a suit made for you. Plus, Nick’s was personalized – check out the tag inside his coat. If you can’t read it, it says “Return to Abby.”

From there, I headed over to the Garden Place hotel to meet Abby & her girls. When I got there, Abby gave me one of their invitations to photograph – she MADE them. Designed them, screenprinted them, embossed them… holy crap. I wanted to take one home just so I could trace my finger across it as I drift off to sleep. I would love to show more photos, but a lot of them show address info & stuff that I don’t feel comfortable putting up on the blog, but trust me… they were amazing. Everything was Buffalo themed and Sabres colors, and Abby had either done or overseen the doing of it all. Perfection. I told her if she ever gets sick of her day job, I’d recommend her as a wedding planner in a heartbeat.

Abby had a minor freakout and called Nick and suggested eloping. I’m glad they didn’t go through with it.

From the hotel, we went to the Clarence Town Park on Goodrich Rd – sorry about the goose poop.

To fit in with her yellow theme, Abby rented a short bus to take the wedding party from point A to point B to point C to point D. It was perfect. Plus, way to go Nick.

We got to Arrowhead for the ceremony and everything was so beautiful. Hiccups or no hiccups, it was gorgeous. The light was perfect, no one fell down… it was all good.

Perfection.

Inside the reception, two words: GO SABRES.

Nick & Abby even rented a photo booth to create a guestbook with the photo strips. It was so great. I couldn’t resist.

Saxman Slim kept everyone thoroughly entertained (highly recommend!) and when a night includes the groom’s grandmother playing air guitar on his outstretched leg, I’d call it a win.

You guys were amazing and I can’t wait to see you sometime in the future, whether at someone’s wedding, at a Sabres game, or opening up your own wedding planning business! Best of luck to you & your families, and thank you for a wonderful Saturday night.

On Friday I was so excited about shooting at Timberlodge at Arrowhead Golf Course for the first time. I had driven by and knew that it was a pretty location, and I was just hoping for good weather. Mother Nature was good to us – sunny blue skies, not a drop of rain, and temperatures below 80. Right on.

We started out at St. Mary’s in Swormville, where I was surprised to find a beautiful new AIR-CONDITIONED church! The last time I shot at St. Mary’s it was 3 years ago in the old church building which was on the dark side and HOT. The new church is gorgeous – the light is awesome, the pews are this gorgeous wood, and I was so happy to shoot there.

After the church, we went straight to Arrowhead and got our poses on. I apologize to the groomsman (Matt?) who asked to do a pyramid… I forgot. Next time.

Yes, there is a story behind this photo, but I thought it was just as funny uncaptioned. Thank you for your help, Rob.

Cupcake tower – brownies in cupcake form! Delicious.

Why yes, that IS a barcode on the sleeve of Steve’s tux. Why yes, he DID know it was there. When one of the groomsmen pointed it out to him during the ceremony, he just shrugged. Steve struck me as that kind of guy, and you know what? That’s not all bad.

Steve & Emily did their first dance to a song played & sung by Emily’s maternal grandparents – that’s them in the background.

When the dancing started, it got going fast. The band that played (I forget the name) did a great job of getting people out on the floor.

Sometimes “drunk” just isn’t a descriptive enough word. This guy was uber drunk. He started talking to me and asking if I was having a good time. I said yes, and he said something about there not being anyone to dance with, and I said, “The floor is full of pretty girls!” He said, “Yeah, but like 95% of them are my cousins.” Bummer, dude.

Steve plays bass in this band that took over when the hired band took a break – think Ramones & stuff like that. It was definitely a departure from the wedding music I’m used to, and it was a welcome break!!

I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of the patio as I left – ISO 6400 and some definite post-tweaking, but I like it anyway:

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Duckworth! I wish you much, much happiness!