Well first off – thank you so much for hiring me without ever meeting me!  I really appreciate it and even though I got a chance to meet Marisa before the wedding, I felt I knew Tom just as well from  our phone calls and emails!   Anyway, it was a great day that started in my home town of West Hartford…

One of the first things I learned about Marisa is that she loves sunflowers.  Here is the entrance to her room as the girls get ready:

I thought her handmade veil looked really cool from below:

We took some portraits in Marisa’s parents’ back garden.  Marisa was up for any type of direction and we had a lot of fun with this!

Marisa’s dad IS the fastest kisser in the East!

The ceremony was at St. Mark’s in West Hartford with a full mass.

The girls:

The brothers:

The reception was at The Bond Ballroom  in downtown Hartford.   But first, we had decided to do an urban street shoot – just us, Tom and Marisa and Tom Hickman, the videographer.

I had scouted this alley ahead of time and it made for some really cool pics (if you like gritty city):

Tom and Marisa were great collaborators and Tom found great chairs to use everywhere we went:

Now we are in a pretty deep, dark alley.  This light is actually made by a motion sensor light that our assistant had to keep stepping in front of to keep it lit!

Back on the street – yes, I also have pics of Tom throwing Marisa on the hood of the pickup off to the left with the guys inside pointing and laughing (hard to see on the blog though!)!

We also made it up by the capitol:

This is behind Black Eyed Sally’s.  The owner came out and wants one for the restaurant wall!

Great creative collaboration!  Thanks guys! 

Then it was on to The Bond for the reception…the light was really cool when we arrived:

The first dance:

The cake in the light at sunset (not photoshopped…actual color of the light!):

One of the highlights of the reception was a little surprise from Tom.  Tom, the artist who never sings in public, surprised Marisa with a song that he had written for her, aptly named "Sunflower Girl".

Here’s Marisa finding out:

Here’s the actual performance:

To all the guys out there … here’s what you can expect following a surprise (of any type I’m sure!) for your bride–what a great moment!

By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned but even though Tom doesn’t normally sing in public , he did great and has a fantastic, haunting voice, writes music, plays piano, guitar, etc. and is basically incredibly talented.  If you’d like to see him sing, here is a video clip that I was able to get hold of — please send this to all your music producer friends….

Tom Singing "Forever We are Bound"

You can check out his "Landslide" cover and an original piano piece, "Here We Are" there too.  And if you feel like a laugh, check out "Dogs cannot play the piano!".

But back to the wedding…I just want to close on one of my favorite shots that happened just as I was saying goodbye to Marisa – the wind just took her veil perfectly!  It reminds me that it’s good to wear the camera until I get in the car and drive away – you never know what shot might just appear when you think the night is wrapping up!

Thanks guys!  It was such a pleasure!