a winter day. a setting sun. six beautiful girls. golden light. light that is definitively warm & cool at the same time. radiant yet subtle. muted & vibrant. it was a duality that perfectly reflected a great bit about this day but it shone ever so strikingly on these young faces.

i’d tried a few different areas looking for one that’d catch the light and back light them. the trick was finding a spot where the houses that were behind the park weren’t visible. and then i found the area which is where i did most of them. as they all had their hair tied up in a cute little bun on top of their heads, i asked each girl to shake their hair out as the fullness of their hair and the rosy cheeks set against the setting sun was sublime. we did one for me (unsmiling) and one for their mom (smiling). very happy with them despite the branded clothing. it is a day of life with girls at this age – abercrombie, hollister and all!

a beautiful being i’ve known since she was born. one who’s outside reflects all the coolness that resides deep within. one who feels like a younger version of the lovely lady she calls mom. one who prefers a good book and quiet (& polka dots) over showmanship and attention. that she allowed me to photograph her in a very public space in the middle of a very busy day -and did so with grace and ease… well, it was more than a pleasure. choosing but a few to show proved evasive. too many please me for too many reasons. so here they are – a lovely light filled being in the most fitting of spaces. here at the boston public library & trinity church.

the first & last are the ones they picked; the rest are going into a book.

“When the ivy-tod is heavy with snow, / And the owlet whoops to the wolf below.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

though there was no snow on this bluish ivy, the sentiments feel in line with how things felt. it’s been a bit since i’ve been able to work with aepril schaille – actually since last spring. so it was nice to spend a little time together with no particular objective in mind other than feeling the shift of the season, as things are going to sleep and the veil of winter descends. interestingly, the ivy outside was far from asleep. & though we began inside with reflections, mirrors and movement, it was the outside ivy that most interested me. the soft light that filled the air with smokey haze. the ivy with its bluish tint. and bone white porcelain skin. it was as if we were in a magical forest far far away. it was a little slice of the divine.

by this time, most everyone had sort of forgotten that it was raining – i say sort of as well if you left the cover of the tent above the tables for dinner, you got wet! regardless, there was a profound sense of closeness; one i question the strength of if everyone present had not experienced all that had transposed up to this point.

we followed the path of bride & groom portraits in each of the spaces and opted for group portraits in one of the greenhouses (which note to self, would have been an ideal setting for dinner!) and then the reception began. i particularly appreciated that the bride & groom opted for ongoing toasts throughout the meal – after each course, there was a tribute and a toast – and the food, the feast was a meal that was freshly flavorful and delicious from start to finish.

i’ve elected to offer but a few fleeting images that hopefully offer a sense of the overall vibe & the scenes i saw. as the rain had pretty much left but one choice – a u-shaped table format around a dance floor – i was a bit limited to what i could do and how i could do it photographically so…i focused in on expressions and scenes – particularly those of the smaller guests in attendance…one who could not get enough of the rain as evidenced by his wet head and kind heart of holding the umbrella over servers as they went back/forth to the main carriage house, another who was a bugger about being photographed {turned her little head away every time she saw me pointing the lens at her} and a very tiny guest held by dad {who also happened to be a professional photographer!}

i have many more of the guests that will be shown privately first – perhaps a collage of them here later.

to cpp, mj, your parents, families and friends – thank you for letting us be a part of your day & for believing in art. much love – xxoo–p

“happy is the bride that rain falls on” ~ irish folklore saying (thanks to my mom for remembering this!)

one of the things i loved about this particular ceremony was the bride & groom’s vision for her entry – unlike the traditional ‘walk through the aisle’ they opted for something a little more artistic that make full use of the beautiful location – the idea was for the bride accompanied by her mom to meander through a few areas on the grounds…the tree & the lavender garden. the groom had a vision of seeing little peeks of the bride as she made her way to a vine-covered trellis for their ceremony.

as it was raining rather steadily by this point, guests stood in a semi-circle with umbrellas.

documenting this photographically was a little tricky for wherever i went involved two – one holding an umbrella ahead of me; made for a lot of umbrella bumps with guests who were rather kind and understanding save patient with me weaving in/out. i was mainly interested in emotions and expressions and truth be told, got a little choked up myself.

so here’s how this most important part of the day felt….deep, rich, beautiful.

the wedding was held at the herb lyceum at gilson’s in groton ma – a location that is well known not only for it’s beauty, but its food & a principal reason for why it was chosen {both bride & groom are foodies}. so we thought it’d be good to get a few of the chef’s preparing the meal earlier in the day before heading to get bride & groom getting ready.

the plan was then to photograph guests arriving and the groom placing keepsake items at various locations on the grounds. as the bride is an architect, she was very interested in creating little vignettes in five areas – a great tree, a meadow, a forest bench,  a cast iron open gazebo and the lavender garden. artistically, i envisioned a triptych for each space photographing the space, then the space with the groom, and finally with bride and groom. we also had creative ideas for group portraits in each area.

so after leaving the bride & groom at the hotel and heading back to the herb lyceum, we noticed a darkening sky – one that grew ever darker as we neared groton. as you might guess, by the time we got into groton it was raining; at the venue, it was a downpour.

it was slightly inconvenient on a few notes – one, the bride & groom elected to forgo additional tenting for aesthetics….as most storms that roll through new england at this point of the summer do so quickly & in an expedited manner, no one could really predict that on this day it’d rain – um downpour – most of the day.

while sure we felt badly for the bride, i felt in my bones that this is how your day is supposed to be and personally as one who loves rain {i did live in seattle for over a decade} – and especially east coast down pours – all i could think of were the words “playful, magical, intimate moments & spaces” – those words the bride & groom had given me to describe how they wanted their wedding to feel. and honestly, nothing is more magical than rain.

so we followed the same plan with slight adjustments here & there…during arrivals and in capturing the lovely setting.

cpp & mj – your arrivals and the setting you might not have seen as i saw it.