Photo-A-Day #1898

My cousin Erin got married today. Her husband Danny is a great addition to the family. They are such a wonderful couple. I had the privilege of being the wedding photographer and it was so much fun. I am so lucky to do my first wedding with Erin and Danny because they are so laid back and relaxed. They just stayed calm and rolled with everything. Not that anything was an inch out of place, as far as I could see. They had a intimate ceremony in the back yard of my Aunt and Uncle’s house. It was a wonderful ceremony and I hope I captured it well.

I got to the house around 10:30am and started shooting the setup and things like the cake, Erin getting ready, the beer boat being stocked (yeah an entire rowboat filled with 40 cases of beer and ice, it was awesome) and other final touches before the ceremony kicked off. I filled up three 4GB memory cards, the 2 flips, the Kodak PlaySport and two mini DV tapes. I had to offload the photos onto my laptop between the end of the ceremony/photo session and the start of the reception. My initial battery held till just after the actual ceremony and I had to switch the batteries in the Flash once. So, in all I was prepared for the event.

Erin had a beautiful and elegant white dress and Danny a stylish tuxedo and the groomsmen had deep purple/plum vests. The bridesmaids had beautiful dresses and everything matched so well. Many personal touches were evident all around the house and it made for a very special day.

The challenge for me was to find the right place to do the post ceremony pictures. We remained at the house and luckily between My Aunt and Uncle’s place and their neighbor’s place there was some nice spots to get some decent shots with good backgrounds. I used a stepladder so that I could shoot down at everyone and catch a nice garden and fence behind them without getting the houses behind the fence. I enjoyed how those photos came out. It was also out of the sunshine so we didn’t get anyone squinting and there is something very nice about everyone looking up.

The reception kicked off with the first dance and Erin and Danny had taken secret dance lessons. They showed off their moves to a cheering crowd. We had a delicious dinner and I got to relax a bit. The thing is I was perfectly fine running around with 7 cameras making sure that I got this shot and that one. I may have looked frantic and frazzled but I was loving it. So I did thoroughly enjoy myself. It was a wonderful day.

I captured the father/daughter and mother/son dances, as well as the cake cutting. There was a little frosting on the cheeks but done very playfully and with care not to mess up anything. They looked cute with their matching frosting stripes on their cheeks. And the cake, oh the cake was amazing. My aunt Cindy made it. It was white/chocolate with a raspberry flavored frosting between the layers and a vanilla frosting on top. I loved it even with the raspberry because it was flavored and not filled with fruit, the flavor was a subtle compliment to the deliciousness of the overall cake.

I think that everyone had a very nice time, the dance floor was packed much of the night and everyone helped bail that beer boat so there was no worry of it sinking. Such a wonderful day for two very wonderful people. Congratulations Erin and Danny.