And just so you don’t think that things were too prim and proper…

Without further ado (as there’s been way too much ado already), I give you Pam & Jon’s Topsfield Commons Wedding…

The details:

Wedding coordinator: Johanna at the Topsfield Commons

Florist: Audrey’s Flower Shop

Cake: Sugar in Roslindale, MA

Band: Mike Paganelli, C Zone Music

First look!

Pam & Jon's good friend did the ceremony- from his ipad!

I love the facade of the Topsfield Commons

Pam's sister owns an etsy shop and created these cute little guys for the reception

I love this shot of the flower girl during the ceremony. She looks so thoughtful

Such a fun ceremony!

I love that the sun came out for the post-ceremony photos. It made the photos to bright and fun!!

The topsfield Commons is such an elegant venue.... not to mention they're super nice!

the the party began!

I am very, very sneaky. (Pardon the Mr. Deeds reference… which really just confirms my bad taste in movies…)

I love this photo (the first, not the second) because the first is actually just creative use of the second. It just took a little forethought and a lot of wedding experience. Does that not make sense to anyone outside of my head? Let me elaborate…

When I first started shooting weddings I was quite timid (who, me?!) and I didn’t want to interfere with people’s stuff, people’s moments, or just people in general. But as I evolved over the past 7 years (wow!!!), I have learned when I can – and should – insert myself. This is a perfect example of that.

I really love to get some classic bridal portraits before the wedding. I only have a couple of not-so-awesome photos of me standing in my wedding dress in front of a fountain in my parent’s backyard. They’re not very flattering, though I am beaming with happiness (and I like to try and hold on to that happiness instead of the sadness I feel at the technical aspects of the photos.) But I digress. Most of the time, before the wedding, it’s a little crazy. Ok, most of the time it’s a lot crazy. It’s basically crazy-town. I love it. But I don’t love the mass chaos that this craziness leaves in it’s wake. See exhibit B. (I’m sorry Julia for the not-so-flattering photo. You didn’t know that I was planning to show this to the world!! But I know you won’t mind since you heart the WILTP feature so much!!)

I loved Julia’s sister’s orange chair with a strange passion (Jesse can attest to my weird love of chairs. Especially tufted chairs in offbeat colors. There is a moratorium on chair buying in the Ciras household at the moment.) I was eying it all morning. I mean, how perfect?! It matched her wedding colors and the fall theme! So when Julia was all dressed and ready, I promptly took her to that chair. I moved a bunch of stuff out of the way and moved the chair into some nice light. I cropped it so that you can see that her flowers match the chair… I had her scootch (is that a word?!) to the end of the seat so that she could show the back of the chair and sit up nice and straight easily. Her veil cascades down behind her and over the arm of the chair. You can see her necklace, earring and bracelet. The light pours in the window. ahhh. I love this photo! And I’m so sneaky, you’d never even know that it was anything other than peaceful and serene as Julia sat in that chair for all of 5 minutes to get a couple bridal portraits.

So, if you want to skip the first four paragraphs of this rambling post, this is why I love this photo: Because even in the midst of the crazy-town chaos that is getting ready on one’s wedding day, Julia looks like a goddess bathed in divine light.

These things don’t just happen. They take someone very, very sneaky.

To read Julia’s own post about her favorite wedding photo, see here: http://cirasphotography.com/blog/index.php/why-i-love-this-photo-guest-blog/

To read all the Why I Love this photo features, go up to categories, and scroll to the bottom.