New Hampshire Farm Wedding, D&L

I am still pinching myself. Last weekend in New Hampshire with L&D was unbelievable. L and I have known each other online for years. YEARS. I’m not ashamed to say that our cyber friendship spans 5+ years. I’ve always wanted to meet her in real life. I was so nervous to finally be face to face with this girl I’d been talking to for so long — she was almost larger than life in my mind. L is so hysterical and so sweet online, I reaaaaally wanted us to be friends for real once we met.

And I’m happy to say that now we are At least I think so. L, if we aren’t, don’t destroy my illusions!

Changing the subject completely. You know, photographers talk a lot about how much their clients need to trust in them. We all work better when couples put complete faith in us and give us total creative freedom and blah blah blah. But I don’t hear a lot of photographers talking about how important it is for us to have trust in our couples.

For me, that’s such an integral part of what I do. I can go into a wedding excited about how I’m going to make art that represents the couple and their love and happiness when I have complete trust that they’re the right fit for me and I’m the right fit for them.

I trusted L not to be a bridezilla.

I trusted D not to totally punch me in the face every time I took his picture even though he’s a little camera shy.

I trusted that their families would be laid back and cool and happy and non stressed on the wedding day, even if it rained.

I trusted them to be amazing people and inspire me to take amazing photos.

They were and they did. 

Thank you , L and D, and thank you to your families. For putting your trust in me and allowing me to put my trust in you. (Cheeseball alert!) The weekend, and your love for each other was so wonderful and I am honored to have been a part of it.

PS. I also have to give a massive thanks to Brit, from Brittany Esther Photography, for coming all the way from Calgary to shoot with me. She’s one of the most talented and lovely people that I know, and it felt so right to have her at this particular wedding with me! Brit also has a personal blog with travel photos that are STUNNING. Seriously, she blows me out of the water! Check it out here.

Click on the first photo to watch the whole slideshow. I know I took these pictures BUT IT MADE ME CRY BIG ALLIGATOR TEARS. D and L are so sweet.

The wedding was held on L.’s family’s farm where she grew up. There were 25 guests in attendance, including Brit and I.

The sky was a bit drizzly but that was no worry. We all hung out in the living room until there was a break in the rain and then headed out for the ceremony! It didn’t patter a single drop again after that for the rest of the day!

All the decorations were DIY. The families spent hours the day before the wedding hanging fairy lights and gourds, all grown in L’s mom Barley’s garden.

All of the flowers were also from Barley’s garden, with the exception of the Lily’s.

D.’s aunt made L.’s dress using lace from her great grandmother’s wedding dress — that means the lace in L.’s dress is 89 years old! L. was named after this grandmother and she also wore her opal ring and pin in her hair.

A wedding in a childhood home is always special, but L.’s dad built this house for his family with his bare hands (and the help of some good family friends). How amazing is that?!

This photo is a little abstract but I am completely and utterly obsessed with it. L. is from New Hampshire and D. is from Australia. They’ve been living down under for the past couple of years but obviously their lives involve a lot of travel so when I saw this map in the computer room I really wanted to figure out a way to include it in a photo of the bride and groom.

The guests walked out with umbrellas just in case, but luckily, we didn’t need them! No rain at all while we ceremonied!

And I’m sure couples hate when photographers say this on their rainy wedding day — but the light was fantastic, haha!

And the fall colors were stunning.

L. handmade the Ketubah that they signed!

How cute is she?! I told her to hold the kiss for a couple of seconds to make sure we could get the shot and right after she looked at me and said, “Was that long enough?!”

L.’s dad Rick was the ceremony officiant. He did a lovely job.

We made this special collage for Barley. Her garden was gorgeous and they’ve lived off of this land for years, so we photographed the rings on as many of the different vegetables out there as possible!

Beautiful, L.

This shot of L. feeding D. the cake absolutely cracks me up! By the way, the cake was gluten free, as was all the food and as much of it was local and organic as possible. The caterers did such a great job!

In the evening, we pretended to be pyromaniacs and played with fireworks for quite some time. Only one photographer was almost killed in the making of this photo