While traveling in Spain, I met a Spanish girl named Marina. She is beautiful and full of life and possibly the most photogenic person I’ve ever met. She’ll be coming to the US this fall to study, so I’m sure this won’t be the last you’ll see of her on this blog :)

After the ceremony, all wedding participants and guests headed up to Central Park for pictures. I got to lead a group of 40 people through Central Park! The newlyweds got so many congratulations from passers-by, it was unbelievable.

Without further ado, here are the photos from Rute and Peter’s wedding, straight from Sweden (where I’m currently traveling – I couldn’t wait to post them, I was too excited!):

And if you’d like to book a New York senior portrait session, you can read more about it and contact me for more information! :)

We started the day bright and early with portraits at the Anderson House in Washington D.C. Jill and Esrael decided to have a ‘first look’ and got to see each other before the ceremony. I could write a whole blog post dedicated to why couples should always try to do this on their wedding day – it’s an excellent, excellent idea. Getting portraits taken at the start of the day meant that they were free to enjoy the rest of their wedding day without having to leave any part of it to go get pictures taken. A couple should not have to miss any part of their own party!

But oh, what a gorgeous venue the Anderson House is. We could have spent the entire day exploring it and taking pictures!

One of the many reasons why this wedding was so awesome was that they had TWO receptions! Two VERY different receptions, at that. Jill has the biggest sweet tooth of anyone I have ever known. It’s not unheard of her to replace entire meals with some sort of dessert, or incorporate a bakery trip into every city visit. So, not surprisingly, Jill had a dessert reception at her wedding. I have never seen so many different sweets in one room! Cookies, cupcakes, babka, fondue, chocolate, candy, and pretty much any other dessert you can think of… you name it, she had it. And at the end, all the guests got to fill up a bag with treats to take home.

 
Kelsey took the shot below of Jill and I on stage. We thought it’d be funny if I took Jill’s “throne” and she had to stand next to me :)
 

Reception #2 was the Eritrean reception, with hundreds of Esrael’s friends & family members in attendance. Lots of music, dancing, and most importantly – FOOD. Eritrean food is so flavorful and veggie-friendly, and meant to be eaten with your hands rather than with utensils. More specifically, you typically cover a thin, spongey bread with servings of food, and then rip off pieces of the bread to pick up the food with and then eat. It’s pretty fantastic.

Look at the gorgeous jewelry adorning her hand!

Congrats again, you guys! :)

But oh man, I can’t even tell you how excited I was for Jill and Esrael’s wedding. I even had two engagement shoots with them in the months leading up to their big day (which you can see here). I wanted nothing more than to spend their wedding day doing what I love, for people I love, who are so very in love (how’s that for an overdose of love?).

And that’s precisely what I did :)

Here is the first part of their wedding photos, from getting ready through the ceremony (which took place at Mosaic Church in Washington D.C.). Part 2: portraits & receptions (coming soon!).

There was a red carpet!! Had to incorporate that into some shots, obviously:

What I really loved about their wedding day was how it was a celebration of two cultures coming together. Esrael’s family is from Eritrea, so they had Eritrean prayers and songs incorporated into the ceremony.

Congrats, Jill & Esrael! I am so, so happy for you guys and hope you come up to visit me again soon!

Also – special thanks to my friend and second shooter, Kelsey Fain, for roadtripping with me from NYC to DC and shooting their wedding with me :D

Their shoot took place at the National Mall, the site of their first date. We went from the Lincoln Memorial, past the Reflecting Pool, to the WWII Memorial, and ending up at the Jefferson Memorial. I had a blast on our whirlwind tour of the Mall, and Sarah and Ali were so much fun to photograph! I’m SO excited for their wedding this fall – and this time we’ll be closer to my home turf, as they’re getting married in North Jersey :)

Whoops – what’s wrong with this picture?

Where’s the Washington Monument?! I swear it was there, haha… :D

 
 
In case you were wondering, I’m based in the NYC area but I LOVE to travel! Love love love it. It doesn’t matter where in the world you are – if you want me to photograph your wedding, I’m there! :) So please do contact me!

Here’s a sneak peek of their wedding day – and trust me, many many more photos to come! :D

Afterwards I headed back to Queens with the wedding party on a party bus, which ended up breaking down on the highway back – whoops! Thankfully a replacement bus was sent right away to pick us all up, so we didn’t miss much of the reception. Talk about luck!

Congrats to Tiffany and NiiOkai!

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I’ve actually never had a cat of my own, but this year I decided I was finally ready to adopt one. I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than my kitty soulmate, though! I started looking at shelters and thinking of names (for awhile I was set on naming her Chubby Checkers, though I can’t remember why exactly…). The plan was to hopefully adopt one this summer, in July or August after a jam-packed month of June. But hey, you can’t always plan when you’ll find your (kitty) soulmate! Thanks to the wonders of Facebook, I learned that a friend of a friend had rescued a little tabby cat on the streets of Newark, and that she was so sweet and cute and desperately needed a home. There literally was no decision-making process, I just automatically made up my mind that I had to see her. I told myself that I’d think about it afterwards and if I wanted to take her, I’d wait a week or two until the dust started to settle in my hectic life. I also picked out a name for her before even meeting her: Chib Jr, after my family’s gorgeous tabby cat back home who’s my favorite cat of all-time.

Well, guess what happened? I went, I saw her, and I had to have her that night. We lugged her back to NYC in a cardboard box that she almost busted through at least 20 times on the train. She spent a week camping out in my bedroom while we kept her separate from my roommate’s cat and I tried to cram in her vet appointments to make sure she was healthy. She nearly escaped when she climbed out my window one day through a ripped screen while we were at work – thank god our neighbor saw her!

But oh, she’s so adorable! She purrs, she plays, she cuddles, she likes to lick my arms/hands and nibble on my hair. She often wakes me up at 5am to play (as if dragging a toy into bed at that hour is really going to get me up!). She’s the most easygoing, chill kitty I’ve ever seen. Yeah, she’s pretty much my kitty soulmate :) … and definitely worth the wait I’d say!

And with that, I present: Chib Jr!

(She’s probably about 6 months old here…)