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Carrie + Dave: Engagement Session

The Olde Tater Barn

Covered Bridge Schoharie NY

We stopped to visit The Olde Tater Barn for a site visit with Carrie and Dave a couple of weeks ago. It’s a perfect spot for a Country Chic wedding. They even have a sweet tree swing which was perfect for a nice casual portrait.

We went over to the covered bridge while we were there. It’s just off the main road and closed to traffic so was a great spot for some fun portraits of our couple.

Another sweet swing on the bridge
 Carrie has always been one of our favorite models so expect to see a lot of this beautiful smile coming up. Their wedding is in just a few short weeks and these two are both a lot of fun so I imagine there will be lots of great party photos as well. 

                           

  And one more because, well, like I said…   

We are looking forward to your wedding day!
Love,
Tim and Dana

One of our Classic Images in Historic St. Mary’s Church in Albany NY. 
Tim and Ania were married on one of the coldest days of this past winter.  It was a nice sunny day but never got much warmer than about 10 degrees outside. We still took some fun out door photos of the first meet and one of my favorite shoe shots ever. I love a really simple image that tells a great story like this one does. We like to enter print competitions so we will often give an image a title and this one is “The Kiss”. (because even though it’s just their shoes, you have to know what is really happening here don’t you?)
We have seen sand ceremonies done as an alternative to a candle lighting ceremony but this wedding had little bottles of sand for each of the guests to add to the sand vase. What a great way to have everyone take a part in the ceremony and for you to have a great keepsake from your wedding day.

 The reception was just around the corner at Cafe Capriccio. It’s a great night spot for a winter wedding party and we all got a nice warm greeting from the hosts of the Cafe. It was like being welcomed to a great big family dinner party. Before we went in we took time to get this photo of our newly married couple.

 A little fun with the cake. Doesn’t it look amazing? All the food was wonderful. Definitely a place for a dinner date. Don’t wait for a wedding, check this place out soon.

  Time for the first dance. And this was just the beginning of a great party.

Thank you for having us photograph your wedding Tim and Ania. It was truly a pleasure. You were both a lot of fun to work with and your families were as well. We wish you much happiness, joy and
love,
Tim and Dana
Try these links for more  St. Mary’s and other Albany NY ceremony and reception locations.

We like to ask our couples to tell us a little bit about their relationship and why they came to see us so we know more about them and what they are looking for in their wedding photos. When Lindsey and her mom came in to talk about Lindsey and Josh’s wedding two things stood out. One was that their wedding photographs were really important to them. They knew our work – we had photographed Lindsey since she was a little girl taking dance class and all through school at proms, sports events, and her senior portraits.  The other was that she and Josh, high school sweethearts, loved to have fun. So our mission was to give them beautiful wedding photographs. Their mission was to have fun.  I think we knocked this one out of the park.
We started out with some getting ready photos which are always a lot of fun.  


It’s great to be able to get a three generation image of three beautiful women like this. I am so glad we had the time to set this one up. It turned out great and will be such a meaningful photograph for each of them.

When fun is of the essence, we know that couples want to get as much out of their day as possible. One of the things we suggest to make that happen is a “first look“.  This is an opportunity for the couple to see each other on their wedding day prior to the ceremony in a more private intimate setting.  With Lindsay and Josh it worked out really well as they wanted to be able to take as many photos ahead of time as possible so as to be able to enjoy their cocktail hour and wedding reception.

Lindsey’s dad escorting her to where Josh was waiting. I love all these happy faces sneaking a peek!

A couple more detail shots. Family is also really important to our couple and this is such a great way to keep the memory of loved ones with you on your wedding day.

We did a couple of our Classic Image group shots with the guys, but this is one of my top favorite set-ups of all time.  Anybody have a guess as to what we call this one? Think Al Pacino.  First person to guess correctly and put it in the comment section I will mail you a print!


So did I mention that this couple wanted to have fun? What could be more fun than a ball game? We loved watching these two play high school baseball and softball and they were both top athletes. I was a little nervous out there with a camera in my hand and not a mitt.

Father, Coach, Friend: Lindsey’s dad has always been her biggest fan.  What more could a girl ask for?

And the moment everyone’s been waiting for!

Right after the ceremony, Lindsey’s “Little Me” gives her the best kind of gift a kid can give.

And a few official photos of the new Mr. and Mrs.!

 A close up of the bride’s flowers, the detail on the dress, her rings all photographed where they should be photographed. I especially love details photographed in the setting they belong.

We try to take as many detail shots as possible because we know that a couple spends so much time planning each little detail and wedding day goes by so fast.  Johnstone’s Florist always does such a fabulous job with flowers.

This photo shows one of the reasons we love Lindsay so much. I could show a photo of the cake and remark on how beautiful it was but with that wonderful expression on Lindsey’s face and her body language, you just know that cake was perfect.

 Oh yeah… did we say fun? This was one of the best entrances ever.

 It started with the the bridal party entrance song “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis

Then the Bride and Groom entered to “Let Me Clear My Throat” by DJ Kool. 

 Lindsey says it best:

  “Our entrance was the one thing Josh was in charge of and wouldn’t you know that the first time we ever practiced it was in the hallway, right before we got introduced. I think it went pretty well, though”

  “The powder thing was another aspect we made up. I always joked with Josh and told him that I wanted to do the “Lebron James.” Every time before Lebron plays, he grabs a handful of chalk and throws it in the air, and thus, another part of our intro was born.” 

“We just really wanted to have a fun time and make people laugh, because that’s what we’re all about. We love laughing and we laugh everyday together, so we wanted to share that with our friends and family.” 

And so it began: fun, laughter and non-stop party from then on.

Toast!

 Lindsey’s niece was ready to party! She danced all night – and so did everyone else.

                                     

Speaking of high school sweethearts, Josh’s mom and dad were also celebrating their anniversary!

We did a series of the following image – it’s hard to say which one we love best. This is a great straight-on portrait but I also love the romantic version I used at the start of the blog.

Thank you Lindsey and Joshua for being such a wonderful couple! It was truly a pleasure photographing your wedding.

 We wish you much happiness and love,

Tim and Dana

And because we truly believe that when you hire the right professionals for your wedding that it’s when we all will work together as a team that we can make your wedding  the very best day ever,
 I want to send out a  little vendor love for the people we worked with that night.
 Big hugs to Dan Keese and his fiance (now wife!) Brooke. Dan shot video (check it out here) and Brooke ran the photo booth. They were awesome to work with as usual and they do a great job.

Johnstone’s florist. Tim and Chuck-We always know your work when we see it even if we don’t see you there. All those luscious, glorious blooms. Great job guys!
The very talented Leo Milman for the ceremony music.
All that great dancing? Thanks to Small Town Sound for keeping the party going all night long.
And of the course the staff at the Glen Sanders Mansion. Professionalism at it’s very best. As usual. Thanks All! T&D

It was a crazy summer 2013 for us. Our wedding and event season started out pretty great with a couple of proms and a few weddings. We figured we would take advantage of a rare free June weekend to celebrate a pair of birthdays on Cape Cod (both Tim and our daughter Tiegen share June 26).
It was rainy but we didn’t care: we were with family, we had lots of books, board games and internet service. But what we hadn’t counted on was just how much it was raining.
Our little village of Fort Plain, where our studio is, was hit with a devastating flood. The creek that runs through our town was seven feet above the previous high level. We had to leave our vacation and head home to assess the damage.
 Our basement was completely full of water and mud and water had seeped into our reception room. When the water receded we were left with branches hanging from the ceiling, inches of mud on every surface and no furnace or electricity. And if we thought we had it bad, all we had to do was take a look around the town. Many people lost everything: their cars, their homes, their pets.
But people are resilient and there are a lot of good, caring people in this world. Even before we were able to get home, friends had started helping us to get back on our feet. Within days strangers from all over New York State had started volunteering to shovel, carry buckets, and tear down in order to rebuild. Within three weeks we had our electricity back which allowed us to start shooting portraits again.
While it has been a slow process between keeping up with our regular work obligations and putting our business back to its pre-flood stage, we are looking forward to getting our new furnace hooked up just in time for our Christmas portrait and greeting card sessions.
I am also looking forward to blogging about all the wonderful wedding couples we worked with this summer and fall. Getting dressed up and photographing couples and families at one of the best times in their lives was great therapy for us as we struggled to put our studio back together.  As I told our first post-flood bride, “I am so happy to be here photographing such a beautiful event.” It was such a pleasure after all the not-so-pretty sights we’d been seeing.
While I know this is a photo blog, I just can’t bring myself to upload the photos that I took from that time except one Instagram image of the shovels outside the reformed church all cleaned and ready to go for another day. It’s there to remind me of all the good friends, neighbors and virtual strangers who cared enough to pick up a shovel, swing a hammer, provide a meal or give of themselves in many other ways to help us and our village come back even stronger.