I’m in awe of the details from this wedding, in particular the way they displayed the engagement photos on a clothesline! Genius!
http://atsecondstreet.blogspot.com/2010/07/wedding-reception.html

We’ve had some pretty cool displays of engagement photos at weddings:
My favorite had to have been Erin & Dustin, who used photos I took at their Jamaican wedding as decorations at their New York reception. now the canvases they had made are displayed at home above their bed.

They even used photos from the wedding as favors at the reception

We’ve also done a lot of Guest books designed with engagement photos

Then there are small framed prints, which look nice on a gift table, on a mantle or near a guest book:

I think exciting is such an appropriate word for Cara and Nicole’s wedding. During the getting ready time, both were nervous excited, ready to see each other. They both were beaming during the ceremony, and the reception was buzzing with excited energy. No one was afraid to dance; the dance floor was packed all night. It’s so much fun to be a part of a wedding so filled with love and excitement!

Cara & Nicole are blog regulars: You might remember them from their Provincetown Engagement Shoot or from the SoYoureEngayged.com feature!

Here are the wedding stats:

Reception: Angelica’s
Dress Designer – Cara’s- Custom Designs by Florence Alvino,Wakefiled,MA…Nicole’s-Precious Memories,Malden,MA
Officiant – Cara’s aunt Roseann
Florist – Platinum Posies, Middleton, MA
Cake – Montillio’s
Band/DJ – Perfect Parties, Michael Gallant

Cara & her dad are such buddies. I love it!

The duties of a bridesmaid!

The flowers were beautiful!

Nicole was so happy to see Cara at the end of the aisle

I love the symmetry of this photo

Ah! This photo is awesome! Taken in front of a highway, but you'd never know it!

Ready to party!

They had an awesome chereographed first dance!

I love how the light surrounds them here...

The partying continues, but all they see are each other

just imagine this happening to a Michael Jackson song

For being a wedding photographer, I’m not really much of a mush-ball. I like a good kiss as much as the next girl, but I seem to prefer photos where people are laughing and enjoying each other’s company. or something dramatic; I love drama.

But! In honor of Valentine’s Day, here are kissy faces from all our weddings last year. Jesse and I are currently smooching our way through Spain, which is about as romantic as it gets. We loved our 2010 Boston weddings (and our Hawaii Weddings, our DC weddings), and this is our romantic ode to them

Mandi- it’s in and it’s amazing… and will be on its way to you shortly!

We’re so happy that we won the WeddingWire Brides Choice Award for the second year in a row!

(See last year’s award here: http://cirasphotography.com/blog/index.php/ciras-photography-wins-award/)

The press release:

WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce Ciras Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for Wedding Photography!

Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation.

Ciras Photography stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year.

“WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Ciras Photography for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.”

We are happy to announce that Ciras Photography is among the very best Wedding Photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information and to read our stellar reviews, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at www.weddingwire.com/cirasphotography

Living far apart is hard, so Chris and Monica had some photos taken so they could have beautiful photos of themselves together. We’re putting together little albums for the both of them right now. I can’t think of anything better.

And I am a home decorating blog addict.

I know this isn’t the normal wedding-photography-related blog, but sometimes I bet you need to get out of your wedding zone. Plus, this could help if you and your significant other aren’t yet living together, or if you want to spruce up your nest as an after-wedding project. I mean, come on, what are you going to do with all that time that once was filled with planning a wedding?!

To start, I am not an interior designer. These are not learn-the-rules-design blogs. I actually never really liked decorating (half because I am super frugal and half because Jesse and I would bicker over all the decorations until nothing ever was hung). But after we bought a house (which I’ll eventually unveil here), and Jesse and I found a nice decorating middle ground (to say the least, we somehow evolved into the same decorating style), I found myself reading home blogs all. the. time. It actually was a problem for a while, and then everything started to mash together in my head. After weeding out the blogs that I got little from, I now have a staple of them that I read a couple times a week. To save you the hassle of what I went through, here’s a good starter kit. Well, I guess it’s only good if you like the same things I do. So, take these as you wish

Under the Sycamore
This isn’t just a home blog. Photographer-turned-stay-at-home-mom Ashley talks about decorating, her cute kids, taking photos, life, and making stuff. I heart this blog because of Ashley’s ability to be so darn crafty without being “crafty.” In other words, when I make things, they look homemade, when she makes things, they look expensive. Also, I have a thrift store habit… search for her room tours. So inspirational.

Young House Love
A husband-and-wife-team (I have a soft spot for those!) of house renovators. There’s probably a million blogs that attempt to do what these two do so well- remake a house and blog the process. They’re funny, they’re frugal, they wing it and also over-plan. I love this blog and their adorable daughter and dog. Click “projects” in the top bar and see how to do anything home-related. Ok, not everything. But most everything that matters.

Apartment Therapy
This is a biggie, and how has break-out kitchen, kids rooms, and technology blogs. This one has less personality than the blogs above (where you jump into the lives of strangers), but that’s because it covers all different homes. There are regular home tours, how-tos, and where to shop. I particularly love their craigslist round-ups, but Boston always seems to have the least fun craigslist treasures. This is where I start if I have a home question (how to grow spices indoors, how to paint ikea furniture…)

Making it lovely
This blog is great because it combines my strange obsession with stationary with house decorating. I particularly like her home-made inspiration boards because they’re cute and fun!

Well, that’s the tip of the iceberg, but should get you off to a nice start… as if you needed more distractions in your day!

What are your favorite home blogs that I should be reading?

Oh, and the photo in our profile above is of us in our living room the day we bought the house!

When you’re in the house shooting out the door

Alison and Lon came to us through awesome karmic fate (and a sparkly little person named Sandy)- and we couldn’t have been happier. Not only are they super fun – as you can tell from the happy photos below – but they’re super nice. You can tell a lot about a person if they continually ask you if you’re ok on their wedding day.

I think the biggest standout from Alison & Lon’s Hartford wedding was their first karaoke. Alison said neither of them are huge dancers, but they love karaoke. It’s little touches like this that not only show your personality in your wedding, but really excite your guests. Everyone really got into it.

The stats:
Wedding Coordinator- Dana Montanari (w/the Society Room)
Hairstylist – Ms. Lauren Biancanelli (bridesmaid!:)
Makeup- Jayme (Alta Moda Salon)
Dress Designer(s) – Pronovias
Veil Designer(s) – borrowed
Florist – Agnes Corr
Cake – Cakes by Donna
Limo – Dattco
Wedding rings – Matinee Jewelers (NYC)
Band/DJ – Correlation Productions
Videographer – us (courtesy of a flipcam LOL)

Without further ado…

(BTW- while writing this, this song came on pandora.  The intro made me feel like I was in a movie, about to do something very important.)

Everyone laughed the entire day

Spoiler: This was all staged! The guys wanted cool "guy" photos... and what's more manly than poker? (Ok, maybe hunting is but that would have been too time intensive.)

I love that there's almost identical photos of Lon & Alison outside the hotel

Alison's dad and stepdad walked her down the aisle. How hysterical is this high five when they dropped her off with Lon?!

I always love the look on guys' faces when their soon-to-be wife meets them at the end of the aisle.

Nothing like a fist bump from a stranger on your wedding day

In the old bank vault

This is only the beginning of the Society Room's awesomeness

Wow. This place is absolutely gorgeous.

It's moments like this that show why I love when the b&g can go to the cocktail hour

The room looks magical with the uplighting

AWESOME

The aerial view- I love that there's two of us, so we can snag this angle too