I love it when a couple works together to make the wedding an expression of themselves, and few anywhere have done that better than Colleen and Steve. Of course, it didn’t hurt to have a family camp available as a setting, since it made the day both pastoral and intimate, a place where the couple and many of the guests had already whiled many days away on the lake. Steve’s father completely restored a 1948 Chris-Craft boat just for the wedding, dutifully earning the captain’s hat they gave him as a gift. Every aspect of the day was a heartfelt, playful delight, from Colleen’s polka-dotted wedding dress, to the men’s boutonnieres labeled with descriptions like “Groom” and “Sinner,” to, most importantly, the couple themselves.

All you need to know about the feeling of this wedding is that the couple and the guests couldn’t even wait for the reception to be over to strip out of their clothes and don swimsuits, with everyone, even some of the parents, diving into the waters of Green Pond for an immediate afterparty.

It was too epic a story to tell with words. So I took pictures.

Who knew that a hurricane was exactly what it would take to blow in some good weather for Labor Day weekend?

I’m skipping to the end of an epic story.

This isn’t from an engagement shoot. This is from a wedding day.

What kind of wedding could lead to this? Stay tuned…

It was a scorching day in the hottest New York City July in history, but that didn’t slow down Jennifer and Richard one bit. The entire wedding party seemed up to run around and try new things, 98 degrees in tuxes or not.

The day was a mixture of their devout Christianity and Chinese heritage, with a heartfelt church ceremony followed by a full banquet in Flushing. I always love Chinese banquets — yes, because of the food, but also because of the focus on family and the connections between the bride and groom and the people who got them to where they are today. And the food.

Congratulations, Richard and Jennifer!

I have always been a chocoholic, so I was very excited to shoot Lindsay and George’s wedding at the Hershey Hotel. And it’s true that the streets in Hershey, PA are paved with chocolate. Or at least they’re colored brown.

Lindsay and George are new transplants to the area, and we’d already had a great time with them and their dog in a NYC engagement shoot, so I expected a low-key, fun, beautiful day — and that’s exactly what I got. The ceremony was in a gorgeous stone alcove, making for a long and dramatic processional. They’d selected the officiant in part for his lively personality, and he delivered in spades with a ceremony that was in turns touching and hilarious: You can see in the photos below Lindsay reacting to his emphasis on “until DEATH!” in the vows.

The ceremony and reception paid homage to Greek heritage, from dual crowns to a slow folk dance that builds to a huge crescendo.

And yeah, there was kind of a nice sunset. You’ll see.

Congratulations!

Charity, Adam and I snuck out of the reception for a minute to get some photos while their friends chatted above.

Luckily my clients trust me. “So … we’re using the light of a vending machine? Haha, OK…”

What better way to spend Independence Day than with Heather and Jordan at their Ritz Carlton Battery Park wedding? You may recall that we’d already had lots of fun together, with an engagement shoot stumbled across by Dave Chappelle. The day was extremely hot and windy — the moment Heather stepped outside her gorgeous cathedral veil almost went flying off the edge of the building — but they couldn’t have been having a better time. They were so excited that every time they saw each other in key moments, from the first look to the ceremony and kiss, cake cutting, anything, they would just keep bursting out in gales of laughter.

Of course a wedding at the Ritz was classy and gorgeous, with a fantastic cake that marked the day in another way, looking like fireworks exploding over the city. We never did see the fireworks display, which was on the other side of the city, but they had plenty of their own. Congratulations!

I love shooting weddings in California. Not just because the cities are great (although there is a special place in my heart for San Francisco), but because you can’t throw a 5D Mark II without hitting three great wedding photographers there, so when a couple says “We want to fly you in to shoot this,” I know that their styles and mine will mesh perfectly. That was true with Karen and Kamil, and it was oh-so-true in the case of Valerie and Matt.

I mean, all you really need to know is that they Rick-Rolled their ceremony. After the gorgeous and heartfelt ceremony (with vows that Val, of course, read off her iPhone), the strains of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up came over the loudspeakers, and the crowd went nuts as the wedding party danced their way off.

I don’t have to tell you how much fun I had; just look at the photos below and the slideshow. Their love, their awesome friends, and their care for their guests having a good time was constantly palpable. Congratulations Valerie and Matt!

Elizabeth had said the one thing she always pictured about her wedding was a last dance set to "Modern Love." It was a poignant end to a gorgeous Brooklyn Botanical Garden wedding.

I have been blessed with a full shooting calendar for a very long time, so I don’t get to second-shoot much. Which is a shame since I don’t get to just mess around with low-hit-rate but cool techniques, such as just playing with freelensing during the formals. So I took this time to have some fun with it.

Yes, as the best man noted, their names rhyme. And frankly, I think that’s kind of awesome — it shows the natural chemistry these two have. Wedding days can bring stress and worries, particularly when the weather threatens rain on and off and whenever the words “highway traffic” is involved. But the moment that Karen saw Aaron, that was it. He was it. Smiles and connection and pink socks. And you know what? The rain held off, leaving only a gorgeous sunset over Manhattan, which the Water’s Edge has a great view of.

As someone whose name starts with Ryan Kelly can attest, the Irish throw some good parties. Mix that with Karen’s Greek heritage, including traditional dances at the reception, and things really get going. But their deep affection for their friends was represented in yet another way — a close friend of theirs, the amazing singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim, performed at the reception, a performance both touching and fun.

This day was so important and meaningful in ways that are theirs alone, so for a public message I will just say congratulations to you both.

Colleen and Steve take a moment on the dock after getting married at his family’s camp.

I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about tricks like flash composites or the Brenizer Method, which I tend to use to open up new possibilities in portraiture. But my real love in photography is storytelling, and Elyse and David knew that they wanted photojournalistic coverage that would just let them enjoy their day. And why not? Elyse started her career in journalism … usually I’m the one telling stories about having to explain myself to officials on a photo-shoot, but her journalistic adventures came up several times during the speeches.

I always enjoy temple weddings, because you combine all the importance of ceremony and ritual to the marriage process, from the separate receptions of the Kabbalas Panim, to the (rainy) march to the b’deken, and the ketubah signing all before the public ceremony, but you also have the relative calm that comes from having every moment of the wedding day in one place. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the temple is gorgeous. Fitting, of course, with these too. David, no one pulls off a Snoopy yarmulke like you do.

Congratulations!

Sarah and Michael had a gorgeous, elegant wedding in Columbia University’s Saint Paul’s Chapel, with a reception at the Faculty House. With the fantastic help of Nerissa and Jennifer at Private Receptions, every detail was stunning, from Sarah’s unbelievable dress to a cake with some of the finest detail work I’ve seen anywhere. The black and white theme added to the urban Manhattanite feel. Yet these two sophisticated New Yorkers both originally hail from Canada — warmth and kindness are the right kinds of stereotypes for a country to have, and Sarah and Michael and their families more than lived up to it. Not having grown up in America, they are making up for lost time, now on a tour of all the lower 48 states — a fantastic idea and something I would love to do.

Words don’t do justice to how gorgeous St. Paul’s Chapel is, the fun of an endlessly energetic band, or the relaxation of guests smoking hand-rolled cigars on a terrace in the summer night. Luckily I took some pictures.

Did you know that Caroline was Old French for “bringer of the sun?” Probably not, because that’s completely untrue. But it should be. Everything was laid out and looking gorgeous at the OceanCliff Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, with a view that lived up to the name, but the weather showed nothing but ominous rain clouds. That is, until right before Caroline was announced for the ceremony, when they had pared into brilliant — and actually, blinding — sunlight. Nice work!

The wedding was intimate and as peaceful as a wedding can get with a gaggle of gregarious children, including countless adorable flower girls, each with white dresses and ballet slippers. John and much of his family are from Ireland, which made for an interesting cross-cultural gathering that later included a Chinese tea ceremony, and Caroline changing into a traditional Chinese wedding gown. The wedding also featured culinary delights such as a gelato station, where I, at their urging, discovered that tirimisu gelato is probably the pinnacle of human achievement.

A gorgeous day I was happy to share in. Congratulations!

There are few couples I’d rather get lost in the woods with than Mary and Mike … which is good because that’s exactly what happened.

They’d just finished a classic, emotional Catholic ceremony on Long Island, and we were all excited to head out and take some pictures with them and the extremely fun wedding party. So we went out to a forest reserve they’d heard was nice (with the groomsmen picking up drinks along the way, ensuring that the wedding party was getting more fun all the time), and it was great, but required a lot of walking along winding roads. We photographed some relatives … and then they left. We photographed the wedding party … and then they left. This left us with the opportunity to take intimate portraits with Mary and Mike, which I loved.

“Great!” I said. “Which way is out?”

“Hm, we’ve never been here before either…”

So the adventures continued for a bit, and we took some more portraits along the way. (There’s always a silver lining). But we got them back to the cocktail hour right on time, important because Mike was understandably excited about a full-sized rowboat filled with seafood that was the centerpiece.

The reception was incredibly raucous and fun — I’ve never seen such choreographed entrances, including a groomsman who borrowed some of my gear to pretend to be me, photographing the bridesmaid playing America’s Next Top Model. The giant dance floor was filled to capacity all night, mixing between modern and ethnic folk music with twisting and turning line dances that eventually took them outside into the night.

A wonderful time, congratulations you two!

You know you’re going to have a gorgeous, classy wedding at the TriBeCa RoofTop, and Ellen and Jeff’s fantastic affair was no exception. After all, one of the biggest arbiters of style in Mahattan is how many random letters are capitalized in the middle of a place name, and no one beats TriBeCa RoofTop. We started the day at the new Trump SoHo Hotel (see?) and had a gorgeous, sunny day shining down on their ceremony. I don’t need to tell you how clearly in love these two were; all you have to do is look through all the different expressions below or on the slideshow. Tears to laughter in two seconds flat.

Ellen spent most of the day in a gorgeous gown, then joined her mother and aunt in a colorful, traditional Korean Hanbok. I was joined on this day by Kenny Pang, a friend and fellow NYC wedding photographer with great energy. As always, the photos below and in the slideshow are just the ones I took, since I use them for promotional purposes, but he did a great job covering the guys and the wedding day.

Congratulations, Ellen and Jeff!

I knew Alicia and Jason were awesome. I just didn’t know how awesome they were on the dance floor.

It was a hot, humid Memorial Day weekend for the two of them — as I took the flash composite group photo (in the slideshow), at any given time half of the party was in the shade fanning themselves. But that didn’t stop everyone from having a great time throughout the day, whether it was the carefully choreographed wedding party entrance, or Jason doing the Kid N’ Play routine from House Party.

A gorgeous couple and a gorgeous day (at least, when you look back in the photos and don’t have to feel the heat), but in the end it all comes down to the fun you have and the love you share. At the reception, the DJ asked a woman who had been married for more than 60 years to give advice to the newlyweds. She paused for only a moment: “Just keep dancing!”

Congratulations, you two. I’m sure you will.

Matt and Val’s wedding reception featured Rock Band as entertainment, so I figured we’d work with it.

Flash composite, one SB-900 camera left at half power. through a Lumiquest Softbox.

I can’t really overstate how much it meant to me to be able to document Missy and John’s wedding. It goes without saying that I love weddings. No one can see me bounding around a reception after a 16-hour day without knowing that. And it’s incredible to even attend the wedding of a friend you’ve shared so much with. Here were two of my closest college friends who, after so much searching, finally found each other (they didn’t even start dating until years after college).

Really, all you need to know is that that guest who cries at the wedding? That was me. Thank you, autofocus.

Now, there’s a lot of debate about shooting a friend’s wedding. Photography is a bit different than singing a song at the wedding (it was a stellar rendition of “the Origin of Love,” that did me in) — you are working non-stop every moment you’re on duty. But I know exactly what my friends want, and if I don’t do my best to give it to them, my recommendations would be … interesting for the budget. (“Hey! How do you feel like flying in a few people from across North America, and someone from Australia? Hello? Still there?”) So I work something out like this: I will shoot the heck out of the start of the day, portraits, and the ceremony … and as the night goes on and it’s time to dance, watch out. Remember that I pulled a hamstring this winter not out on a field somewhere, but doing a jumping high kick and landing in a split. Yes, it’s on.

John and I met on the first day of school, freshman year. He walked into my room and insulted my musical taste. Obviously, we became fast friends. For that, he was punished by having to room with a 19-year-old me sophomore year, and my endearing habits like getting chinese food on his B-52′s CD and letting my snooze alarm ring as much as 37 times in one day. But perhaps he will forgive me a bit, given that I also dragged him kicking and screaming onto the newspaper staff, where he would first meet Missy.

Missy is a force of journalistic nature. It’s kind of scary how fast she can knock out pieces — and this comes from someone who wrote his 75-page college thesis in a day and a half. I can’t even count how many different old and new media publications she writes for, so let’s just say all of them. She has seen me through so many ups and downs (we used to call it the Brenizer roller coaster), and I used to hang out with her so much after I had graduated, when I was living five hours away, that some of our mutual friends thought I was still in school.

The wedding was fantastic, and so very them, from excellent food and dancing at the Clarendon Ballroom in Arlington, VA, to countless quirky moments. Trust me, I don’t ask most brides to let me stick their ring inside a chicken nugget, nor the opportunity to shoot wedding shoes with The Cheat from Strong Bad web animations.

So here’s a taste of my crazy, wonderful friends:

The ring-bearer plays with flower petals after the ceremony.

More nostalgia. This was from the first wedding I ever booked, though I shot it four months later than the wedding from yesterday. Confused? That’s how I was before I got used to knowing exactly where I’ll be on a Saturday two years from now.

Here’s a bit of nostalgia, a nice moment from the first wedding I ever shot as the primary photographer. The ceremony was out on a little island, and the groom, an extremely athletic Man of the Mountains, rowed them both out there in their own canoe. I think I may have been standing up in another canoe to get this shot, which shows that I was never very bright with my equipment.

The threatening rain was worrying for a bit at Karen and Aaron’s wedding, but the timing worked out perfectly, cooling the day down and giving us a great sky.

We had about five minutes to do group photos at Brooklyn Bridge Park, so I did a quick, three-shot flash composite of the wedding party and then a very quick flash-free shot with the kids in it. I talked a lot about flash composites and the possibilities it opens up at my Adorama lecture yesterday, so I thought I’d show a quick comparison from two sorts of shots in the same place and conditions:

How cool was yesterday’s wedding? The bride and groom danced to Langhorne Slim. And I don’t mean a recording … he performed for them.

If you don’t know who Langhorne Slim, is, well … Bruce Springsteen’s a fan of his. That’s a pretty good recommendation.

I’ll see some of you at my talk today at Adorama!

Tribeca Rooftop is a gorgeous venue for anybody, but it was uniquely perfect for Allie and Vilas — they live about 20 feet away. There’s nothing like the convenience of being able to stop by your (awesome) apartment if you need something during the day. And what a day it was — the rain held off, allowing a gorgeous ceremony on the roof, and the reception hall was stunningly decorated, including hundreds of carefully hung tea lights over the dance floor.

There were enough little touches that even some of the venue operators (who have seen a LOT of events) were marvelling. “How cool is this?” One of them asked me about a plaque that spelled out their new name, entirely using architectural detail from around the city instead of letters (watch the slideshow to see it — consider that the director’s cut).

There was a personal emergency for the couple before the wedding (that I won’t describe for privacy reasons), and it made the day and the throng of loving, joyful friends and family all the more poignant. It was a joy to document the day for them. Congratulations!