Often when I meet with potential clients, they ask me what a typical wedding day is like photographically.  I thought I’d use Lindsay and Alex’s wedding to illustrate how the day usually goes, and to showcase their super adorable wedding (there were pinwheels!!!).  Special thanks to Linda and Courtney for all of their hard work and photographic awesomeness!

We started the day off at Lindsay’s parents’ house in Malden.  When we arrived, the bridesmaids were all ready and Lindsay was getting ready to put on her dress!

From there we headed to the Martha Mary Chapel, which is part of The Wayside Inn.  We met up with Alex and the groomsmen, who were waiting to get into the chapel to decorate it.  Lindsay and Alex added many personal touches to the chapel, including books and stones and pinwheels.  They also handed out super cute crossword puzzle programs to their guests and flags that said “Yay!”

Then it was time for the ceremony!  Lindsay and Alex wrote their own vows, and are so very in love.  The ceremony was very sweet, and everyone was so happy!

Lindsay and Alex disappeared for a few minutes after the ceremony, while we headed to the grist mill across the street to prepare to take their photos.  Our grist mill plans were foiled by mushy terrain and ants, so I took advantage of the beautiful light that was coming through the trees to the right of the mill.  It was the best light ever, and Lindsay and Alex were pros at posing after their engagement session!

After taking a few photos of Lindsay and Alex, we met up with the wedding party at the reception site and had fun taking photos!  More pinwheels!  Yay!

The reception started with Lindsay and Alex’s first dance, which was very sweet.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the reception.  Love the cake topper!  And reappearance of “Yay!” flags!   And pinwheels!

One really wonderful thing that happened during the reception, which is something I’ve never seen before, were special dances for family members.  Lindsay’s parents danced, Alex’s parents danced, Lindsay’s sister danced with her husband (to Something Good from The Sound of Music!!!!) and then Lindsay’s mother played a special song for her daughters.  Alex then surprised Lindsay with a special second dance for the two of them!

And then… my favorite part… the dancing!  The music selection was awesome, the crowd was energetic and ready to go crazy, and I really wanted to drop my camera and join in on the fun! 

Congrats Lindsay and Alex!  Your wedding was amazing, and I hope you are enjoying your honeymoon!!!

Here are my Celebration highlights (in no particular order):

One Man Star Wars Trilogy (I think this was the best part – if you ever get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it!)

Mark Hamill interview

Anthony Daniels interview

Robot Chicken panel discussion

Watching kids (younglings) go through Jedi training and then seeing them each fight (and take down) Darth Vader

The costumes!!!  (Star Wars fans are super crafty!)

Storm Trooper helmet art exhibit

Lifesize Jabba and Max Rebo band, lifesize AT-AT, lifesize TIE fighter

Legos everywhere!!!

Toy dioramas!

Toys in general!  I could have photographed just the toys for two weeks straight!

Droids moving around the Celebration – I have decided that I need my own R2 unit to be my assistant at weddings.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the Celebration.  Enjoy, and May the Force Be With You!

Mini hot-air balloons with wishes written on them.  It was absolutely beautiful!

On the following day we walked around Alma a bit to check out the low tide.  The tides on the Bay of Fundy are very dramatic, and vary significantly from low to high tide.  We happened upon a boat that had been in water the previous night and was now on land.  I walked to it through the mud so that I could get a close wide-angle shot of it, and I felt like I was walking on quicksand.  Small islands started appearing in the bay, and we decided to get a closer look.  As the tide kept getting lower and lower, the little islands eventually formed a walkway out into the ocean!  From there we headed to Cape Enrage, which is an awesome cliff with a bed of rocks below it.  We were then onto the Hopewell Rocks, which were amazing except for the mud and the fact that, as usual, I was without appropriate footwear.

After the rocks we began our journey to Nova Scotia.  We had a nice dinner in a town called Truro, after which… wait for it… our car starting acting crazy (battery light went on, other lights were flashing, the engine started overheating, etc).  Under normal circumstances I’d have been very concerned.  In fact, I’d have been angry.  Instead of feeling nervous and angry, I felt grateful and relieved.  For the previous two hours of driving in Nova Scotia there was nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  No people, no houses, no streetlights, no cell phone reception.  Nothing.  We happened to break down approximately 1/4 of a mile from a VW dealership (we have a 2007 Rabbit), which happened to be right next to a Comfort Inn.  I looked it up, and there are only seven VW dealers in all of Nova Scotia.   If we’d broken down anywhere else during our drive through Nova Scotia we’d have been stranded without cell phone reception, light, or a place to stay for the night.  It was cosmic.  We drove to the VW dealership, abandoned the car, and stayed at the Comfort Inn for the night.

We woke up early the next morning and went to the dealership.  Turned out something was wrong with our alternator belt (something about pulleys and tension).  The battery wasn’t charging, and basically the car was shutting down.  Since the shop wasn’t open until Monday, we left the car behind, got a rental, and headed to my friend’s wedding!  The wedding was at a lodge in Liscombe Mills, on the east coast of Nova Scotia.  The drive there was lovely – once again we drove through beautiful land and coastline, and saw signs like “Last Restaurant For 45 Minutes.”  We arrived at the wedding site starving but happy!  The wedding was so much fun!  It was slightly different from an American wedding, and had FIVE FULL HOURS OF DANCING.  Amazing!!!

We ended up staying at the lodge again the following day since there was no point in leaving since we were without a car.  I did a whole lot of nothing.  I read a book on our room’s private deck overlooking the river, went kayaking, ate lots of food, and watched Something Something Something Dark Side on my laptop.

On Monday we headed to the dealership to retrieve our car, and they said “We rush ordered the part – it will be here tomorrow afternoon” and we freaked out, because my husband had a ton of work waiting for him in MA (and also we didn’t want to be stranded in Nova Scotia – as I have already mentioned, there’s a whole lot of nothing and while that is nice for a while, at some point one wants to do something other than sit in a hotel room).  The owner of the dealership (much like everyone in Canada) was super nice, and offered to take the part out of one of their cars.  Yes!  We waited for about three hours, and were on our way back to the States.  We crashed at a hotel in Bangor on Monday night, and came back yesterday.

All in all, it was a positive trip.  I am sort of bummed out because the “Return” portion of our road trip, which was supposed to be on Sunday and Monday and involve stops in Maine and Acadia, didn’t get to happen due to our car troubles.  But it could have been far worse, and the bright side of this story is really really bright.

I didn’t take many photos on the trip.  Lately I’ve been focused on having experiences instead of documenting them.  Plus, this was mostly a scenery trip and landscapes have never been my forte.  Nevertheless, here are a few of my favorite photos from the trip.  There are some photos of Cape Enrage, the Hopewell Rocks, and the cool ocean walkway that formed before our eyes in Alma.  Enjoy!

We had a great time running around the courses, having a near ice cream fatality, and drinking lime rickeys.   We were also lucky because it was not 12,000 degrees on Sunday night as I’d feared it would be.  Here are a few of my faves from the shoot!