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What a lovely wedding this was at the Hillstead.  I had never shot there before and it was just so relaxed, classy and comfortable and Amy and Brendan added a lot of personal touches to make it truly unique.  Amy got ready at the Hillstead and I loved their bridal room for portraits and the fresh roses in Amy's hair:

 



The Maid of Honor:

Amy walked down the aisle to the guests all singing the Beatles, "All You Need is Love" – AWESOME!  Also, I think Amy laughed the entire wedding.

Amy and Brendan did a receiving line, then we took the family formals in the gardens.  My favorite shot of Mike's:

For Amy and Brendan's portraits, we took a walk around the house:

The reception was held in the barn/theatre adjacent to the house. 

I've now been to two weddings in a row with no wedding cake … may be getting more popular (will blog the other wedding next week).  Instead, Amy and Brendan's family members each made the dessert they are know for and Amy had these beautiful cards printed up, telling the story of each.  It was such a great personal touch:

We ended on a little late night portrait session:

Thank you guys for beautiful night!

As I said in the last post, it was such a pleasure to shoot Mary and Peter's wedding at the Du Pont Country Club's Brantwyn Mansion in Delaware.  Thank you guys!
We started at Peter's mom's home for the ladies hair and make-up. 

Mary's sister, Sally, made all the jewelry for the wedding.  You can see her website here if you are interested in custom jewelry for your wedding or yourself.

We then went on to Brantwyn for the final getting ready and the fashion  portrait session (see blog post below).  Sally and Mary's mom, Christine, helped lace the dress.

I wanted to do a dark portrait of Mary and her sister – this room was perfect:

Meanwhile,  Mike is shooting the details and the guys.  I love that he finds his way into the kitchen as they are shucking the oysters!

Mary gave Peter canvases of two of their engagement images as a wedding present:

Peter and his best man:

The ceremony was in the back yard, sunken garden of the mansion – the light was amazing:

Mary's brother sang Con te Partiro:

I love that I can see Mary's Grandpa in the very back…and who is that guy jumping in the back (probably hard for you to see on the blog!)!:

Formal Bridal Party:

Not so formal Bridal Party!

 

Peter and Mary in the garden:

Their first dance and the toasts were held on the lawn:

The cakes included a construction-theme groom's cake which was later cut by a sword that was presented to Mary by her grandfather!  I think they cut the cake to "It's a jolly holiday with Mary"!

I still love to watch the parent dances…here is Peter dancing with his mother, Joy:

Post Mary's Spirit in the Sky speech:

Then I found myself late night in the raspberry room!

Meanwhile, Mike found himself on the porch!

Evidently, Peter's Aunt Bonnie is an artist and leaves her mark as a sheep which Peter has discovered on the guest signature board!

This is one of my favorite shots of the night where my flash bounced off the wall to light up Mary:

There are so many more I love…but this blog post must end sometime…so I'll end with our late night sneak-away portrait session – Ken and Sally came along for the ride!

 

 

Thank you guys – you are both lovely!

Mary and Peter's wedding was so special for us – we shot Mary's sister Sally a few years ago and have become such good friends with Ken and Sally since meeting them that I've met Mary and her entire family a number of times over the last few years.  So it was so awesome that Mary asked us to shoot her wedding and getting to know her and Peter over the winter…and I love that she was into doing a fashiony bridal session beforehand.  We spent some extra time before the ceremony taking the time to play in Brantwyn Mansion in Wilmington:

 




 



Stay tuned for the wedding post…