Stacy & Michael met while attending Princeton University and decided to tie the knot on campus.

Lori & Jeff had an intimate wedding with 50 of their closest friends and this week will celebrate with a “Wedding Vacation” as Jeff put it. They rented an amazing home in Surf City on Ocean Ave. and had the ceremony on the beach and dinner and dancing on the deck. With a full moon and lots of candles they brought a casual elegance to a “backyard” wedding. Check out all the amazing small details they added.

I had so much fun working with Samantha & Kevin they had a great day in Long Island.

This week I have a guest blogger my friend Cassandre form “Cassandre Snyder Events”. Cassandre is not just a wedding planner she could be a life saver from many brides until I got to know Cassandre I had no idea exactly what a planner did. So please welcome Cassandre Snyder and her post “Why should I hire a wedding planner”

A common thing that we hear in the wedding industry is that there are a million reasons why you should NOT hire a wedding planner… And I am sure you’ve heard them all.

“You can do that yourself!”
“Don’t waste the money!”
“Your mom can do it.” or “Your maid of honor can help!”

The reality is you CAN plan your own wedding. You can choose a venue, you can pick your wedding professionals, you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. But can you manage and execute it all? How would it look for you, on the day of or the day before your wedding to be setting up a venue, or to have to manage all of your wedding professionals. If the photographer is late, what will you do? Flip out? Do you really need to know that the DJ is stuck in traffic RIGHT before you have to say your wedding vows? It’s 100 degrees outside and you are having an outdoor ceremony and you are 45 minutes late – what do you do? What can you do? Your planner would probably be handing out bottles of water and those fans you didn’t want, but she made you purchase, just in case! The purpose of the wedding planner/coordinator is to relieve the stress and the burden from you. There are a million little details that you can and will forget, and there are another million little details that you will NOT want to have to deal with when you should be in the joy of the moment that is the greatest day of your life. Trying to manage and execute on the day of your wedding shouldn’t be on a brides to-do-list. Sipping mimosa’s, chatting with the girls while getting hair and make-up should be a priority!

The next thing you will hear is that it’s a waste of money. A qualified wedding planner/coordinator will know how to SAVE you money. A good planner will have the negotiation skills you need to work with your venue and all your other wedding professionals. They will know the cheaper tricks and tips to keep you on budget. They will not allow you to make mistakes of purchasing or buying things you will not need. Yes, a qualified wedding planner can be costly, but think of it like wedding insurance. IF something goes wrong, you are covered. If you are scheduled to have an outdoor ceremony and reception and Hurricane Tammy rolls in, what will you do while you are getting dressed? PANIC? Most likely. With a wedding planner, while you will panic for a few minutes, she will be on top of it. Watching the weather all day, and making sure you have a contingency plan. THEN, all the money you spent on flowers, DJ, dresses, linens and lighting won’t go to waste.

Oh, the infamous: “My Mom is going to help me with everything cause she is retired and she loves all this wedding planning stuff!” Is your mom a negotiator? Has your mom ever planned a wedding? Does your mom have dozens and dozens of contacts? Does she already have a list of preferred vendors that she knows and trusts will do a good job and she will not have to worry about them on your special day? And again, do you really think that your mom is going to want to run around and manage and execute everything she plans on the day of your wedding? The answer to all of those is probably NO! How is Mom going to manage watching you get dressed, getting her make-up done and spending time with you, while managing the venue, photographer, DJ, florist and rental companies to name a few? She’s not going to be able to, and this will upset you. Hiring a planner alleviates that stress.

I can go on and on all day about why you should hire a planner. Not because I am a planner, but because I was once a bride too. I didn’t manage my own wedding. I woke up late, hung out with my bridal party and Mom, had a nice breakfast and sipped champagne while I got ready. I knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to look. I, along with my wedding planner, met with all my wedding professionals and made sure they all knew what I wanted and then I left all the details in the capable hands of my planner. THAT is what a wedding day should be like.
My twitter friend Antonia Christianson of Antonia Christianson Events had a blog series appropriately titled “Your _____ (fill in the blank) is not a….” and it is basically about hiring wedding professionals versus allowing your family to handle; please take the time to read them… Her blog is http://antoniachristiansonevents.blogspot.com and you can read part 1 of the series here! She goes on with “Your Mom is not a planner”, “Your Mom is not a florist”, “Your Uncle is Not a Stationer” and “Your Dad is not a Photographer”. It’s a MUST READ series for any couple seriously considering allowing their family members to handle the details on their wedding day!

Congratulations and Happy Planning!!

I have had a University spree this past month with portraits taken at Princeton University, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Georgian Court University & Lehigh University. I love walking the grounds of the campus with the couples and hearing stories of how they met while going to school and how some even proposed while on campus. Here are some images from Alyssa & Leon’s Ceremony at Fairleigh Dickinson in Florham Park, NJ.

I had the pleasure of photographing Nina & Marco’s New Years wedding about two years ago. Nina & I bonded and always kept in touch and when she called me to tell me she and Marco were expecting a baby boy I jumped at the chance to take photos of Nina’s growing tummy. I also included some pictures from the wedding day!

Marcia, the assistant to my landlord asked if I would do some family portraits last year her children were spread all over and they would all be in the same place for one week to celebrate the graduation of her oldest grandson and to celebrate Father’s Day.

Joanna & Pete had a fun wedding at the Twin Brooks.

Sandy has an eye for detail and planned an amazing elegant country wedding celebration at the Perryville Inn. She really kept with the feeling of the county restaurant by including mason jars and seasonal fall flowers for her October nuptials.

One of the most fun and overwhelming locations to photograph weddings is in NYC it’s easy to go into overload with all the photo opportunities. I met with a future bride Lisa and we talked about her wedding that would be taking place in NY this year and after the meeting I got to thinking abut the weddings I have done in the past in NY and decided that I wanted to share some of my fav images from over the past few years.