By Mariah Ashley

Hold on to your hats, Britt + Carl’s Castle Hill Wedding in Newport RI will be an epic blog post because it was an epic wedding. Let’s count the ways in which this wedding was epic. First off, Carl and Britt are “epically” in love. Being around them is like being wrapped in a {pink sequined} fuzzy blanket.

Guillem {Britt’s son} and Carl are hilarious and their good natured ribbing of each other is epically entertaining. There were an epic number of flower girls (Carl’s granddaughters and Britt’s nieces) in fantastic tulle ballerina-esque dresses. Watching them flit around the wedding like fairies all day was so sweet.

Speaking of dresses, need I point out how unique and amazing Britt’speach gown is? How about those sparkly Louboutins too? Britt is as sweet and soft as her pretty peach veil. She’s truly a loving person and an attentive and protective mom to Guillem, who is by the way epically charming.

Although the weather wasn’t optimum Britt and Carl and their brood braved the chilly sea air and insistent drizzle to capture some truly stunning portraits. Inside the tent at Castle Hill it was another story altogether…. warm, pink, sparkly, and luxurious. Britt’s choice of decor and color palette was an extension of her glamorous feminine self.

Exquisite Events draped the ceiling of the tent in airy billowy fabric giving it a softness that made it feel very intimate. They also provided the beautiful furniture rentals for the cocktail hour and the amazing linens in all shades and textures of pink. Stoneblossom created the jaw dropping centerpieces and bouquets which highlighted then blooms of spring at their finest.

The to-die-for cake was made by Chef Soliday {hi Mark!} of Confectionery Designs. The pink petals of the cake were a perfect addition to the pink blooms of the centerpieces. I also love that Britt and Carl chose to display their cake in the center of the room, where it belongs!!! The cake is a focal point and should not be an after thought in the corner of the room. Let’s move that cake front and center from now on people!

Britt’s natural makeup and blonde hair was perfection, styled by the talented team of Jennie Kay. The luscious cream and pink invitation suite was by Ceci New York. Seems like it was a fun party? It was! Entertainment was provided by Luke Renchan. Last but certainly not least, our good friends Meg and Dave of Meg Simone Wedding Films helped us to document Britt and Carl’s Castle Hill Wedding in Newport RI.

Wedding season is here and it’s time for another installment of … BEHIND THE SNAPS! We are drawing back the curtain “a little” to show you how we get our snap on!

Getting ready locations are often a HOT mess. In this case Britt had 2 makeup and hair artists, 4 photographers, a Maid of Honor, a sister in law, a bridesmaid, 2 Jr bridesmaids, four flower girls, and her son in a 400 sq ft space. Tight quarters! Best advice? Find some pretty window light and go in for a tight shot. Continuing with the Hot mess theme… I often forget what it must look like to our subjects when they are looking back toward us. Sometimes clients will express doubt about how a scene is going to look. Wonder why!? As photographers, it is easy for us to see past the distractions and the chaos to choose a nice clean backdrop so we can focus on the emotion. Britt and Carl were pretty wrapped up in each other in this moment and probably not paying much attention to the crowd but I could see how they might worry about how these were going to come out. Trust that we have seen the garbage can/ tourist/ stray coyote etc… in the background and we are working around it!Q: How do we move the formal photographs along smoothly and efficiently? A: Team Work! During the formal photographs portion of the day Trish and I split into very distinct roles. She becomes the artistic director, organizing and posing the couple and the group photographs of the families and bridal party. I’m in charge of technical things like composition, camera settings and snapping. Trish has a pre-determined list of photos and the people who belong in them. She’s excellent at wrangling the groups which makes the time spent taking formal photographs speedy and dare I say, FUN!

Let’s all take a page from Britt’s book… is the weather on your wedding day cold and drizzly? Ignore it until your lips turn blue and you will be rewarded with amazing photographs. {Notice Meg is wearing mittens!}You may be wondering… is Castle Hill really as amazing at it looks in your photos? Yes it is! Not only because it’s beautiful but because the staff is stellar. Normally we gush over Joslin and Ryan but they’ll have to take a backseat today to this guy… Jeremy! He doesn’t enjoy the attention and will probably scold us the next time we see him, but we’ll give it to him anyway. Jeremy runs a tight ship at the reception making sure the bride and groom our pampered, the meals are hot, and the snapgirls are always kept in line {though he’s not always successful with that last one}.All I can say is sometimes you meet people that you feel like you’ve known forever and sometimes you are even lucky enough to work along side them. Meg and Dave are quality people, so talented at their craft and we love it when we get a chance to shoot with them!It’s a wrap. Thought for the day… don’t take yourself to seriously. Seriously.