the celebrity filled bridal party (that’s Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel,  Gregg Bello and Martin Starr above) and guest list made things a bit interesting – i’m not really used to going on shoots in central park with a security detail and hiding in the rambles… but we love changing things up.

but i had sussed out well in advance that this hot dog vendor posed no threat…

and a great party – and one of my faves…  we all had a really great time working together.

many thanks to the multitalented (and even more importantly – fun to work with) Michelle Rago who did a great job planning the wedding.

more to come…

our many thanks to the always wonderful Ellen Kostman of Sidekick Events who did the planning and to Dejuan Stroud for the flowers.

check out this stunning hand calligraphied invite courtesy of Sloane Madureira Design.

Makeup artist: Lori Hamlin
Hair stylist: Courtney Benedetti

the bride’s dress was Elizabeth Fillmore from the incomparable Mark Ingram Bridal Atelier.  we love mark and his staff!

and some sweet blues from manolo blahnik.

and the groom’s custom suit was by Mr. Ned with groom and groomsmen’s coordinating ties by hermes.

it was a great day or everybody.  ok, almost everybody.

more to come …. in part 2

recently, we had the pleasure of working with jung lee and josh brooks and their wonderful team from Fete who were planning a wedding at the stunning and ultra-hip Eden Rock at St. Barths in the French West Indies.  Party central for the rich, beautiful and famous.

first, a little background on St. Barths – it’s a tiny little island off the coast of St. Martin with a postage stamp of an airstrip wedged tightly between a mountain and the ocean.  to get there you need to take a small plane that fills up at the local self-serve gas station.

and despite the fact that the planes are very small, they often end up in the ocean anyway (just check out YouTube).  which was underscored for me when I noticed this painted on the side of the plane.

i felt like i was in the cockpit myself.

excuse me, brian, would you mind helping me put the flaps down and giving me a little more friction?  sure captain, no problem…

it’s a really stunning way to arrive – unlike most Caribbean islands, St. Barts is basically a big rock – as are its many outlying smaller islands.

depending on how the winds are blowing, you can either approach the runway the hard way or the easy way.   the easy way approach gives you a great view of eden rock.

here’s a shot of the infamous airstrip and a plane taking off the easy way.  i think landing the hard way (coming in over this hill and dropping fast) results in some pretty bumpy landings as evidenced by the tire marks.

see?  postage stamp.

once we landed, we did a little recon…

the next day featured the rehearsal dinner…. and keeping with the little airplane theme, the brilliant placecards for that evening were balsawood gliders with the guests names and table on them suspended from the ceiling.

So here’s a funny little story about the value of being prepared for everything.  At this point for this event, my team and I have traveled hundreds of miles on multiple planes and boats – carrying our gear all the way since we can’t trust checking it or even letting someone else handle it.  We just can’t take the risk that something will get lost or damaged.   So I’m about 5 minutes into shooting cocktails at the villa and I hear this thud and crash of glass on concrete at the poolside.

Turns out the little clip do-dad that holds my camera to my rapid strap came unclipped and that thud sound was my Canon 1Ds Mark III hitting the ground and the smashing glass was my 24-70 lens.  Funny how $7500 of gear can be smashed because of the poor design of a $3 clip.  Fortunately, I travel with plenty of cameras and lenses so we didn’t miss a beat.   A special thanks to my amazingly patient associate, Chris whose flight arrived later that evening spent a half hour tweezering glass out of my lens.

After dark, the guests slipped into some flipflops to walk down the candlelit beach from the villa to the famed La Plage.

and the view of Eden Rock from La Plage…

We’ve worked with Karen quite a few times and were delighted when we were asked to contribute to her latest book.

We have about a dozen of our images (including the back cover) featured and helped her update her section on photography tips as well.

If you’re not having a planner – or even if you are – it’s a great resource for inside hints and tips on prepping for the big day.  We encourage you to check it out!

i love it when dads get misty eyed…

Alison and Bryce were married in Greenwich, CT with the day’s festivities starting at the Delamar.

Bryce came out for the ceremony to The Imperial March (aka Darth Vader’s theme music).  And the ringbearer sported a sweet corsage.

a quick retreat to Binny Park

and then cocktails….

The band, New York Edge, was great and they helped us get this shot at the end of the last dance.

“Ok. You finally get all of your family and friends together – dressed up and looking sharp. Everybody brings along a camera to take a group shot.  Oh, just let me get one picture… wait, let’s get her in this too… wait one sec…. look this way…. wait, put down your drink…. wait…look this way…. smile… wait, which button is it? Did the flash go off? Oh, you blinked… wait let’s do one more. Oh wait, do one with my camera too. And you never see them anyway. Not that that’s such a bad thing because they looked like crap. Our self-portrait studio is manned by a photographer, real equipment, real lighting, real fun. Guests take their own pictures with a remote and see the results instantly on screen. They keep going until they get what they love. They want a nice family formal – we’ll make sure they get it. Want a group shot of school friends – have at it. And after a few drinks…. they get kinda fun. High resolution files can be used to make great big images – not some little rinky dink strip that one person runs off with. No better way to memorialize your friends.”

And here’s what you get (I’ll skip past the nice family pictures to the, “sure we’ve had a few drinks” fun stuff) :

And then it starts to get out of control….

Early this morning, I met with Capitale’s Director of Catering, Larry Goldfarb and Amanda Len to chat about the upcoming year.  For those of you who may not know, Capitale is a wonderful event space in the old Bowery Savings Bank building on… you guessed it… Bowery Street on the Lower East Side.  If you want a grand Beaux Arts space that’ll fit between 200 and 400 people or so you can’t do much better than Stanford White’s stunning 1895 space.

I thought I would share some images from a wedding we photographed at Capitale in the fall.

They’ve got this great old mirrored brass elevator.

And there’s so much great culture to work with in the neighborhood!

Mike’s wonderful sense of humor…

It seems there’s someone trying to give The Naked Cowboy a run for his money….  he blows bubbles all day long at Bethesda Fountain.

check out the upside down reflection of the fountain in the left hand side of the bubble

and the right side up reflection in the right side….

Can’t wait to photograph their wedding at the Essex House this spring…