Nicole Friedler Photography

Wow.  How did it get to be March 11, 2011??

Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of my engagement. So many things have happened since then, and I have now had the opportunity to go inside the experience of wedding planning, and have such an incredible understanding of what my clients go through in the process!!

With 22 days to go, I think everything has fallen into place.  We are lucky enough to live on Martha’s Vineyard and to have a strong connection with so many wonderful people in “the industry” here, many of whom have gone above and beyond to help us put on the wedding of our dreams.  Quite frankly, I think it will exceed our dreams, as our original intent was to have no more than 80 guests.  Oops.  Guess that didn’t happen. (In truth, Michael’s real desire was to have no more than 30, something that is a complete impossibility considering the number of dear friends we have).

In the next few days, I will try to outline my process in planning, perhaps providing some help to those of you who read my blog.  And maybe, just maybe, you’ll write to me.  I’d love to share my experiences with you.

To begin with, we attempted to choose a date! 

We had limitations as to when we could have our wedding as Michael opens his restaurant at the end of April and we wanted to have our anniversary at a time when we would always have the time to celebrate it, envisioning being somewhere special each year (that was Michael’s desire – he’s quite the thoughtful romantic).  We originally chose March 12th (tomorrow!) because it was close to our engagement anniversary and far enough away from the restaurant’s reopening to allow for a honeymoon.

Now here’s the thing: try to be as receptive to advice (even if unsolicited and from a parent) as possible: my mother commented that the weather might be crappy in different parts of the country, making it more difficult for our friends and family from farther away to reach the Vineyard.  I hemmed and hawed a little, but then realized that she was right.  We then chose April 2nd, which gave us enough time to take our honeymoon AND it was a much more “hopeful”-sounding date.  And it might be warmer.  AND daylight savings time begins on March 13th!  So, all in all, it was a great decision.

Once we had the date set, we made a list of what we needed to do.

Which I will share in my next blog entry.

Oh my – it’s been months since my last blog entry!  As promised, here is the album design for Skye & Ryan’s lovely New Hampshire wedding.

Click on the link below to view their album:
Annica-Orr3.mov

And yes, it’s about your WEDDING ALBUM!!  My clients, Skye and Ryan, who were married June 12th in New Hampshire, have already gotten me their favorites and the design is being put together now (will post it on the blog soon).

Today’s email was entitled “10 Rules For Every Bride”.  Here’s number 10:

I’ll make my photo album within one year of the wedding.

When
you come back from your honeymoon, putting together your wedding album
may seem like a daunting task. There will be so many beautiful and funny
photos to choose from, and after months of daily wedding-related
decisions, you may decide to take a break and do the album later. Not to
mention the fact that a nice album doesn’t come cheap, so it’ll be
tempting to wait until your funds have been replenished before shelling
out for it. But as many of your married friends who had similar plans
will tell you, the years slip by quickly, and it’s all too easy to wind
up with nothing but a proof book and some Snapfish albums on your fifth
anniversary. So bite the bullet and order your album while the memories
are fresh and you still have a little wedding planning momentum driving
you forward.

So that’s my advice for the day. 

But please don’t ask who’s photographing our wedding, because the jury is still out on that one!

There’s a saying that goes, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.”  I
have felt at times that it should have been “Always the photographer,
never a bride.”  Those days are over.  I am thrilled to share with you
all that I am engaged to be married to the love of my life, my one and
only, my dream come true.

And although I verge on being a
facebook junkie, I don’t usually like to divulge too much very personal
stuff about my life to the public at-large (and now the universe
at-large it seems, via the internet).  I will, however, be sharing my
thoughts and experiences about being a bride-to-be here on the blog for
the next however-many months until we tie the knot.  I thought it would
be a great way to get advice about things and to share in the experience
with the soon-to-be-marrieds (and marrieds…and singles) among you. I
must admit that I get hives just contemplating planning a wedding. 
After eleven years of photographing weddings, I have seen it all
from the casual to the most elegant, the simplest to the most elaborate,
the smallest to the largest, the easiest to the not-so-easy.  People
have said, “Well, you MUST know what you’d like for your own wedding.” 
No, I don’t.  I have some general ideas, but when I think I know what
I’d like, I have a completely opposing thought.

After the first
question, “Who’s going to photograph YOUR wedding?” comes the
inevitable, “When’s the date?”  I don’t honestly have an answer for the
latter.

More in my next entry about other things. 
Like the
engagement.  And then, of course, the ring.  But here’s a sneak peak of
that…

A month or so ago I wrote an entry about Lara & Ken’s wedding held at l’etoile restaurant here on the Vineyard in Edgartown at the end of November.  Well, Lara and Ken and I worked together, as I do with all my clients, to create the wedding album of their dreams.  I just sent it off to the album company for production, so I thought I would put a link to their wedding album design.

I was just doing some work and noticed a file that I didn’t recognize, so I opened it.  And then I decided to share it here on the blog because it is a slideshow from one of my favorite weddings from a few years ago. Click on the link to enjoy the scenery…

GreatGatsby.mov

Peter and Laura came all the way from England to be married on our lovely island – which gave the term “destination” in “destination wedding” a new meaning!  The wedding was expertly planned and coordinated by Lynn Buckmaster Irwin of Weddings on the Vineyard, the tent and all the rentals were furnished by Big Sky Tent and Party Rentals and the fabulous food was courtesy of Jan Buhrman of Kitchen Porch Catering.

Laura and I have kept in touch, and I’ll look forward to seeing them here on the Vineyard before too long, accompanied by their daughter, Lilly Megan! 

A dear, dear friend of mine, Joanie McCasland, whom I met on the Vineyard nine years ago, asked me to come to South Bend, Indiana at the end of February to shoot her wedding.  I repeat: South Bend, Indiana.  The end of February.  South Bend, you ask?  Ah, the home of Notre Dame University, you realize!  I have known many, many people who attended Notre Dame over the years, most of whom would not leave their houses or armchairs when it was football season.  That was all I knew of the place.

So I went to South Bend on February 26th, where I met up with my trusty second-shooter, Millie Figueroa, an amazing photographer on her own.  It was a large wedding (300 people) in the huge cathedral on campus, and I knew I needed assistance.  I hadn’t met Joanie’s fiance, Jim Blum, yet, but we had corresponded over the months regarding travel plans and such, and I already felt like he was family (that’s how I feel about many clients, especially after 9 years!).  Joanie very sweetly invited us to the rehearsal dinner on Friday night, and had me sit right next to her, which made me cry when she told me that a few days before my arrival – what a huge honor.

The wedding was on Saturday afternoon, but we were getting together much earlier to take photos around the campus.  Jim’s father is the head of development for Notre Dame, and, as such, he got us access to inaccessible places of incredible beauty and Notre Dame significance, including the roof of the library

We were out and about for two hours, and Joanie was a trooper to be outside in her dress for so long!  I promised her the goose bumps wouldn’t show!

In any case, the experience of being there, and being able to share in the joy of Joanie and Jim’s day was wonderful.  So many of the guests were Notre Dame alums (including the bride and groom) and the pride and honor attached to being related to the University is so huge that I get it now.  I almost feel like I’m a Notre Dame fan now, and was excited watching basketball the other day when I heard that the winner of the Kentucky/Creighton game was going to play the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Here is a sampling of the wedding to enjoy!  Congratulations, dear friends!