i can’t think of a better way to start of my week than looking at these pictures of my beautiful couple Brandon and Lindsey, who are getting ready for their wedding this September. last thursday we met up at the Hamilton House in Berwick, a stunning homestead built by a shipping merchant in 1785. it looks as if it is right out of the pages of Gone with the Wind…magical! the light was perfect, as was Lindsey and Brandon of course, and it was just a great night. they even climbed in the tree for me! i love it when my couples get adventurous.

Daily Mantra: a Haiku on Love

my face is waiting

to smile back with yours in so

many photographs

daily mantra: there are only two ways to live your life. one is as though nothing is a miracle. the other is as though everything is a miracle…{albert.einstein}

everything is.

readers, sometimes i don’t even know where to start. i am so blessed with my couples. so, i guess i will start there….with my couple.

jordyn.and.jeremy

saturday was my first wedding of the season…after a long winter of anticipation, excitement….out of my mind nervousness {i’ll admit it…i get so nervous…my poor family and friends}, the day was finally here. and when i saw the sun at 5:18am as i was heading out the door, i was already feeling better about the day. it was a day perfect for shooting. a little hazy, no bright sun, but still warm and glowing.

Jordyn’s dress is so timeless and antique looking. by far, my favorite dress of any wedding ever.

we were probably on the most amazing piece of property in new hampshire. i couldn’t have chosen a better location if i picked it myself. and all of Jordyn’s bridesmaids are  just as sweet and amazing and beautiful as she is, and they just added to what was already an great day.

they ceremony was in an absolutely stunning church. what i could not get over was the pure joy on everyone’s faces…so happy to see these two get married and join together.

i love kissing

after an beautiful ceremony, everyone headed over to the reception and i was able to catch a few photographs of the happy couple..

the groomsman are all brothers…and they have all gotten married in the last 2.5 years…

as you can tell…a really fun bunch…

reception…

some were ready for a party…others for a nap.

i have to say that Jordyn’s dad is probably the most awesome dad ever on the dance floor

apparently i am not the only one who loves cake.

not only is Jordyn’s dad an amazing dancer, but wow…can he sing! just amazing music from his band. everyone was dancing.

yup…happens to everyone when you dance too much in those pretty shoes. poor sweety!

and…one more…sigh.

daily mantra: when i saw you i fell in love, and you smiled because you knew….Shakespeare

dear Mikki and Katie…

when i was 16 years old, i experienced perhaps the worst possible, yet predictable, tragedy that one that age can possibly experience….a break up. i shouldn’t say that it was just ANY old break up because it wasn’t. my first ‘real’  boyfriend and i had been together an epic 10 months 15 days 10 hours. (no…not counting those middle school drama fests on the play ground where i am pretty sure i got married to a couple of people near the swings…divorces still pending in Thomaston Grammar School District Court). it was surreal, the way it happened… and the moment can still swallow me even though its been (gulp) 14 years. he told me on the  phone (classy, huh?), and after i hung up i closed the door to my bedroom, and puddled onto the floor. i stayed there for hours and disintegrated emotionally….i wish that was an exaggeration, (as i am known for extravagant abundance especially when it comes to the discussion of teenage hormonal imbalance) but alas this is not one of those times, and anyone who has had a relationship fall apart knows this to be true. my father came in from mowing the lawn, his curly black hair still damp from the sweat under his baseball cap, to find me motionless in the same place, creating a spot wet with tears on the carpet. When he pulled up my shoulders and face from my lap and saw the black stains that Maybelline had created on my face, he didn’t have to ask what had happened…he just knew.

“Oh…honey…..” nothing more was said for a long while and his last word drifted into the ugly baby blue paint of my bedroom and into sticky silence. he picked me up effortlessly with his strong arms, and sat me on the edge of my twin bed…he plunked down next to me and let me bury my head into his LL Bean Flannel until dark spread over the hillside and curtained the town in night. before getting up he stroked my hair with his large hands, rough and gentle at the same time, patted my back, and tucked me under my covers as if i was six years old again and i had just had a bad day on the play ground.

“love brings you to your knees, Mand….it always will. and, some time soon, it will bring you to your feet again. its funny like that….” he left it at that but i always felt he wanted to say something more. my father is not an overspeaker…anyone who knows him knows that.

my ribs hurt from violent sobing, and i can honestly say at that moment, his words didn’t make one, single, solitary thing or feeling better.

but time did.

and love did.

its just funny like that.

all my love darlings,

p.s. “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart). i am never without it.”  {e.e.cummings}

p.p.s. girls, i don’t understand love. i never will. i just know it feels good most of the time, and hurts just some of the time.

daily mantra: every life has one true-love snapshot…{mitch.albom…from The Five People You Meet in Heaven}

i have to admit…i fell in love with this amazing couple at first sight at our meeting last fall. perhaps it is their tender sincerity towards each other, or the comfortable sweetness that is so evident when they are together. i can’t help but feel attached to my couples…especially when they are as beautiful and genuine as Sam and Tim. I just cannot wait for the wedding this summer!