I met Shira and Graeme on their wedding day - Shira with a black salon robe draped over her and Graeme with a big anticipatory smile on his face before I brought in his bride. These hip cats live in London, of all the swanky, desirable places to reside, but brought it on home so they could get married in Shira's temple, where her father is the rabbi. And let me warn you now, they rocked the reception at
VisArts so hard, I am showing just way too many photos from their klezmer dancing. Shira and Graeme:
We started the day at Shira's family home in Rockville and at the
Bethesda North Marriott. Apparently in England there is none of this "getting ready" coverage, so they thought the whole thing was rather amusing.
Then we scooted to
VisArts at Rockville so the heroes of our story could have a "first look" and do some portraits at the Rockville Town Center.
They were, needless to say, delighted to see each other.
Shira and Graeme, it turns out, are much sillier than I thought they would be. We'd had a couple phone conversations, one Skype call and plenty of emails, but none of that prepared me for how ridiculously cuddly and giggly and silly these two are. Picking up on the vibe, we paused to take some photos with this giant bagel. It's a wedding bagel!
And they wanted some "street" portraits, so I obliged.
I actually got them to do this for a split-second...
...because most of the time it was straight this. Shira has the best laugh and she employed it *all day*. Not sure I've seen a bride laugh more on her wedding day - good times!
Shira's father is the rabbi at
B'nai Israel, and he performed their marriage ceremony.
It had stopped raining by then, so we paused for a second in the garden to take some nature-y photos.
Back to VisArts, for their not-quite-but-very-close-to-farm-to-table wedding, complete with potted herbs.
People sometimes ask me what my ideal shooting conditions are - outdoors, bright lights, big weddings, small ones, etc. I now have my ideal shooting condition - half an hour of klezmer dancing, with a rowdy crowd and a ridiculously happy couple.
Okay so I've photographed a lot of weddings. I've seen the hora. This was the hora + 25 minutes of additional joyous, rambunctious, comedic dancing. It was so awesome.
It was rad.
Apparently in other parts of the world, it's traditional for the groom to give a speech at the wedding. I don't think Graeme realized this wasn't common in America until our drive from the temple to VisArts. "So do all the grooms start with 'my wife and I' during their speeches?" he asked. "What speech?" I said.
A second set of Seven Blessings.
And they declared the day a smashing success.
Congratulations Shira and Graeme!
Shira & Grame's vendor team:
Coordinator: Katie Wannen,
The Plannery (an awesome, awesome lady)
Ceremony venue:
B'nai Israel
Reception venue:
VisArts at Rockville
Getting ready venues: Shira - home; Graeme -
Bethesda North Marriott
Caterer:
Glorious Kosher
Florist:
Willow Oak Flower & Herb Farm
Ceremony musician:
Marc Irwin, piano
Reception musicians: Twilight
Hair & Makeup:
Elle Alise
Shira's lovely dress: J. Crew
Graeme's dashing suit: Daks
Big shout-out to Katie from The Plannery, who helped make Emily and Zach's day totally beautiful and flawless. She is such a great planner, guys - hire her.
Thanks, as always, to the wonderful Julia for all the great extra angles and chilling-with-the-boys time.
The "bridal suite" at Woodend is really pretty and it has this ginormous mirror for excellent composition and also checking-yourself-out-ness.
A few hugs before Emily rushed off to first look.
Zach is an avid birder, so though I always love taking pictures with these awesome stuffed birds, it actually made sense from the perspective of who this couple is. I may not get that chance again! He could name some of these birds.
Unfortunately, with the heavy rain, we had to stay inside the house. Fortunately, Woodend is completely beautiful, so we had some nice spaces to work it out.
Go time.
Love this one. Babies are funny.
Zach's dad gathered all the bearded men.
We snuck outside during open dancing for a few rain photos. Many double thanks to Julia for being the only one without an umbrella. I torture that poor girl.
Congratulations guys!
Emily and Zach's kickin' vendor team:
Planning, execution and everything in-between: Katie from The Plannery
Ceremony and reception venue: Woodend Nature Sanctuary
Catering: Main Event
DJ: Evan Reitmeyer with MyDeeJay
Florist: B Floral and Event Design
Officiant: Maureen Burke
Hair & Makeup: Modern Bridal Studio
Emily's beautiful dress: Kleinfeld (Romona Kavesa)
Zach's dashing suit: Brooks Brothers
Transportation: Reston Limousine
Ben and his guys started the day at the 
Debbie got ready at home with her family and a couple close friends.
There is a wall in Debbie's childhood home filled with her family's wedding images. I took this picture for Debbie but I also took it for me, because this is the most important part of what I do - documenting a piece of history that fits into a larger narrative about our lives. It's very humbling and exciting to start the day knowing I will make an image that will hang on this wall.
I love Woodend because it's got great big spaces and beautiful light and a seriously amazing grove to get married in. But my very favorite thing about Woodend is this wall of taxidermied birds. Some of them are extinct.
Woodend has made huge improvements to the bridal suite since I was last there. Used to be small and ugly and now it's ridiculously pretty, with this huge antique-looking mirror right in the middle of the room.
This is neat. Debbie didn't want her dress to be so heavy, so she had the seamstress remove the material under the lace overlay, so that you can see through the dress at the train part. It was so pretty running over the grass and such.
One of the sweetest first looks of all time.
Debbie's mom quilted this chuppah.
This image occurred to me with one circle left to spare. I changed my settings as quickly as possible, guessing on exposure and let her rip. It makes me happy.
In Jewish tradition, the bride circles the groom for protection. Debbie and Ben circled each other, then took the last circle together.
The second kiss, the one where everybody is looking elsewhere.
I normally make people put down their glasses for formal photos, but the gentleman on the left wanted to keep his, so Pop asked for his glass back.
And then it was time for one of my all-time favorite things to photograph, the hora. Debbie and Ben did it especially well.
This was something I hadn't seen before. The mezinka is a dance honoring parents celebrating the wedding of their last unmarried child.
Congratulations, you guys!
Debbie & Ben's vendor team:
Coordination: