“You be the the anchor that keeps my feet on the ground, I’ll be the wings that keep your heart in the clouds.” ~author unknown

Every girl’s dream is a tall, dark, handsome man. We all know that! How about adding in funny, kind, and successful too? Now you’re talking! What if your dream boat has a boat and you whisks you away to exotic locales like Cape Cod and Newport? Sign you up, you say? Sorry no can do … said “catch” is taken by an equally catchy lady!

Alex and Andrea caught each other’s eyes when Alex was friends with Andrea’s brother in college. Scandalous! Relax, no bro-codes broken here because they are married now!

I thought the anchor quote was appropriate given all of Alex and Andrea’s adorable nautical touches. We had some amazing vendors making Alex and Andrea’s day especially fabulous, including: Blackstone Caterers, Sperry Tents, Sayles Livingston Flowers, Jennifer Hodge from Spectrum Makeup Artistry, DJ Luke Renchan. Last but certainly never least the amazing ladies {Margaret and Ann} from Fancy Pants Event Planning, we are so grateful to you for introducing us to this amazing couple!

Sometimes I fantasize about a wedding photographer reality TV show. Probably the only people who would watch it would be other dorky wedding photographers though. So, the next best thing is to bring you what I have decided to call…wait for it… BEHIND THE SNAPS!

In the midst of the wedding day I sometimes sense that our couples maybe fear a little bit that the photos are going to be a hot mess. There’s a lot going on… weather, crowds, traffic, unruly family members, wardrobe malfunctions, camera happy guests, and all the usual roller coaster ride of emotions. Trish and I try to reassure and tell them “It’s going great!” but they’re not always convinced…until they see the photos and then they can’t believe it. What can we say? It’s magic! Well starting today I’ve decided to pull the curtain back a little, back up a few steps and take a wide shot… show you what’s really happening all around those pretty clean shots you are used to seeing on the blog… here we go!

The “backstory”… Trish and I had scoped out a spot on lower Thames to take the bridal party in keeping with their nautical theme. We were very excited! We told the trolley driver to follow us and pull over when we pulled over. “No problem!” he said. Problem. We pulled over, and he kept right on going all the way to the very end of Thames. It panics a photographer just a little bit to actually lose the bride and groom. We got back on track… trolley following, only we can’t go the same way we just came because it’s a one way street and the trolley can’t make tight turns. Then we take a wrong turn and it sends us past where we want to be… AGAIN! Do we give up? NO! We park it and walk to our location even though Alex’s brother has a broken foot {sorry Alex’s brother}! We stop at this spot {pictured below} because Trish spies something she likes the look of. The photo she is taking is the shot of Andrea with the wreath around her head, a pretty little portrait. Here’s what the scene on the street {literally} looked like and felt like to Andrea and Alex}!

We’ve finally make it to our glamorous destination! Now all I have to do is duck behind the dumpster to get my shot. All I can say is I LOVE Andrea and Alex for not only understanding our vision but completely embracing it. Sometimes in life you just have to look past the dumpsters, even when you are wearing a really fancy wedding gown. We would do anything for Alex and Andrea to have unique, cool photos that reflect what they are all about {short of climbing in that dumpster of course}.

I’m happy to say that no bride, bridesmaid, groomsmen. groom, photographer, videographer, rat or seagull was harmed in the making of these photographs.