Happy Friday!! I've been working on this post for a while. Apologies in advance for how long this will probably end up being. A girl only gets married once you know! Here goes: Quick backstory - when Joe and I first got engaged, we had doubts about whether we wanted the "traditional" type of wedding. There were a bunch of ideas flying around. Small ceremony and dinner with family and open bar with friends somewhere after (the look of horror on Jan Dunbar's face quickly convinced us NOT to do this). Getting married at a castle in Ireland. It was all out there. The main things holding me back from the typical Long Island wedding were the expense (OHHHH THE EXPENSE!) and my feelings of self-doubt. Simply put, I just couldn't imagine myself being a bride. One night while at my parents house, my Dad said something that resonated: "You only get married once, just make sure whatever you decide to do, you won't have any regrets." My Daddy-O. Ever the voice of reason. That night, Joe and I drafted up a budget for the Long Island wedding I didn't know I wanted. It was ON like Donkey Kong. Most of the pieces fell into place easily. When I was first dipping my tippy toes into the wedding photography scene 4 or 5 years ago, I was assisting a photographer out East at a venue called The Old Field Club. When I walked in this place, the chorus in my head started singing and I thought "If I ever get married, I want to get married HERE." Surely enough, it was the only venue we visited. There were three decisions that I collectively consider the most important wedding-planning decisions we made. Old Field Club was #1. I literally cannot say enough about the level of service we received and the compliments are still rolling in. It has a very "non-Long Island" feel. A beautiful barn ceiling and hanging chandeliers, plus full service catering? No other place like it on Long Island. Ben and the gang got it going on. A fun party was always super high on our priority list. Work hard, play hard people. Again, we weren't interested in the typical "wedding band" type of band. I credit my husband with the initial idea to contact Drop Dead Sexy...and what an idea it was. Important Decision #2! When we were in our early-to-mid twenties (and actually left the house on weekend nights) we used to frequent the Nutty Irishman in Farmingdale. We happened upon the most infectious suck-you-in-whether-you-want-to-be-sucked-in-or-not cover band EVER. Drop Dead Sexy. These guys are so high energy and so much fun. Fast forward 8 years and it turns out, they DO play weddings! We were pumped but not prepared for what followed. Our expectations were exceeded at every moment. Paul was SO awesome leading up to the wedding and completely willing to entertain our thoughts and ideas regarding songs played, brother humiliating tactics etc. We have gotten more compliments about the music at our wedding than all other aspects combined and the dance floor was packed the entire evening. DISCLAIMER: Ladies, if you have any intentions of NOT looking like a sweaty, drunken disaster by the end of your reception, probabbbbbly don't hire them :-) This leads me to the big one. The most-asked question. But WHO will photograph YOUR wedding!? Easy answer: Morgan Trinker Photography. Decision #3. I have known Morgan would be my wedding photographer since before I got engaged. We have been photogafriends via email for quite a few years now and I look up to her and everything her business is about. Just having her there (and meeting her! I was completely starstruck...loser alert!) would have been enough, but she is the sweetest person ever. EVER. While manically looking through my wedding photos for the first time, there were shots that literally took my breath away. And made me cry. She listened to my concerns about my body-image issues beforehand and wrote back a heartfelt and caring email with similar experiences leading up to her own wedding. Main point? She made me feel beautiful. She made me LOOK beautiful. Girls, if you are getting married and live in the Birmingham area, you are CRAZY if you don't hire Morgan. The rest of the planning was filling in the spaces between #1, #2 and #3. Centerpieces, flowers, invitations, limos, hair, makeup, hotels galore. I can't take all the credit. My one and only Marmy was such an amazing co-conspirator. I feel so lucky to have shared this Mommy-Daughter experience with her. Most importantly, and I feel like this can get lost too easily in the planning process, I got to marry Joe. 10 years after we met in a college dorm room, we stood on an altar in front of the most important people in our lives and made promises to each other. If I could extend one word of advice to clients, potential clients or ANYONE currently planning: THAT is what a wedding is really about. One of my favorite memories from the entire day is Joe whispering (screaming) into my ear on the rowdy dance floor: "Look around babe...just look around!" To which I responded "How did we get here!?" His answer? "I led you here sir, for I am Sparticus." Joe Dugan NAILS it with the impossibly obscure movie quote. Oh, how I love that man. Here are some additional photos (a first draft of our album, to be precise) to take you on a visual tour of the best day of our lives. ***ALL photos in this post are courtesy of Morgan Trinker Photography***
Here are 30,000 pictures of our Ireland honeymoon. I tried to make them less boring by adding in some music (courtesy of an amazing Dublin musician named Stephan Fagan, who we were lucky enough to see on our first night) but I'm still aware that probably the only people who will make it the whole way through are my parents. When Joe and I first started talking about where we wanted to go on our honeymoon, we threw around the idea of laying on a beach somewhere for 10 days - and believe me, there were a few times on this trip where exhaustion set in and I wish we had - but ultimately we settled on Ireland. We are both from Irish descent and it just felt right. From driving through Dublin on the wrong side of the road (and on the wrong side of the car) to having a dance party at 2 a.m. with my Great Uncle the last 10 days were a GRAND and BRILLIANT adventure. It truly was the trip of a lifetime. I'm having a hard time verbalizing my love for this country, so I'll let the pictures do the talking: Hi Friends! Wowie it has been a LONG time (probably my longest silence ever) since I last posted - but I've been insanely busy.... First and foremost, I got married! I plan on writing an entire entry about our magical wedding day and sharing more images etc but here are a few of my favorites for now... ***IMAGES COURTESY OF MORGAN TRINKER PHOTOGRAPHY** After the wedding we celebrated Christmas and New Years (nbd) and then promptly jetted off for our Ireland honeymoon. We just got home today and I am too mentally and physically exhausted right now to elaborate but I will say that I left a piece of my heart in that country and I don't think I ever want it back. Again, a more thorough Ireland post to come in the next week or so but here are a few of my favorite pics so far... Oh, and on top of all of this I am in the midst of a MASSIVE rebranding and website overhaul project which I am SUPA DUPA excited about. Stay tuned for more details on all of the above and THANK YOU for hanging in there during this long lull. I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season!!! xoxo It has been a LONG time since I shared anything personal here on the blog, so I figured I'd post an entry with a quick update from my world: I'M GETTING MARRIED ON SATURDAY!? Hah - I don't think I've really mentioned much about the wedding since first posting our engagement well over a year ago. I remember when we first booked the date with our venue I set up a countdown on my phone and it was 500andsomething days away. I literally cannot believe (and it hasn't really sunk in yet) that it is now less than a week away. The passage of time is funny like that, it always seems to sneak up on me. When thinking about our wedding months ago I had all these high hopes of channeling all my super-chill brides and being one of those girls who is all laid back and whatnot. I cannot lie, these last few weeks I have been a BASKETCASE. As my Mother (oh, God Bless my poor Mother) says, "Catherine, you aren't a bridezilla, you are just a Nervous Nelly." Truth be told, I am literally phobic about being in front of a large group of people...combine this with my lifelong battle with weight, tomboy tendencies and a non-existent self esteem and I am one dress fitting shy of a straight jacket. How's that for keeping it real? As I've said many times to the recipients of my hysterical rants, the only thing I'm *not* nervous about is marrying Joe Dugan. So on Saturday, whether I feel like a "bride" or not, that is exactly what I'll do :-) I'll post a few pictures from the big day when I get them (oh, and my most FAQ from the start has been..."who is taking YOUR wedding photos!? Are you taking your own photos?"....MORGAN TRINKER, my photography idol will be there, all the way from Alabama, to capture the memories for us :-)
She made raising 5 kids look effortless. As the middle child, I never felt lost or forgotten. My favorite thing about my Marmy is that our relationship defies all stereotypes....we have never gone for manicures and we both hate the mall. I will never get sick of making her uncomfortable and laughie when I make self-deprecating jokes about my figure. My Mom has more friends than me and knows pretty much everyone in good 'ole Floral Park. She's where I get my big cheekbones, my early gray-hairs and my moody mornings. And even though I'm almost 30 years old, sometimes life gets me down and I just need my Mommy. And she's always there :-)
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY MARMY!!!!!! I love you! I had a spur-of-the-moment shoot tonight with my soon to be cousin Rebecca. She is a beautiful and talented dancer and I've had the idea for these shots rolling around in my head for quite a while.... Sometimes it's so fun just to relax and shoot for myself, with no pressure and no timelines. She is FIFTEEN years old. FIFTEEN. Say wuutttt? BEAUTEOUS! Thanks for modeling Bec!!
I upgraded to the 50mm f/1.4 lens from the f/1.8 a few weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to really play around with it. Some of these are soft because I'm not used to shooting at f/1.4 but I don't think Gillies minds too much :-) I am wayyyy glad you can't hear the howl associated with these first few. If you are planning on getting a beagle, I hope you have ear plugs. Still going... f/1.4 doggy nose. Our handsome pup! Really looking forward to getting the hang of this lens for my upcoming shoots...and YES, I'm aware that this was the most boring post of all time, OKAY!?
Fun Fact #1: When I was 362 days old, my brother Jimmy was born. That makes us, by definition, "Irish twins"...exhibit A: We were like peas and carrots growing up. Pretty much what I imagine it's like to be an actual twin...exhibit B: Fun fact #2: This Irish twin of mine is also very smart. Like scored a near-perfect on the SATs, goes to Ivy-League schools smart. But that doesn't intimidate me, because he can't tell the difference between Bob Dylan and Neil Young...and also because I scored 10 points higher than him on the English/Writing SAT II exam in 2001. BLAMMO! It never ceases to amaze me how easy I find it to work that favorite-factoid into ANY conversation :-) Jimmy is currently getting his MBA at Stanford Business school, if you feel like reading up a bit on how ridiculously competitive it is to get in to the graduate school, knock yourself out! Due to unexpected developments in my big-girl real career life, I had this week off. My Brother-in-Law awesomely offered to lend me some of his skymiles and got me last-minute tickets to San Fran to pay Jimbo a visit. YAY! The hideous entrance into the Stanford campus...kidding..the whole place was insanely beautiful. What a sport! Big man on campus... This guy was awesome. JAMES-BO-BOY! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Day 2: My real motives revealed. This being my only "full day" there, we packed about 40,000 touristy things into one day. The most important of which (to me) was to get some awesome pictures of the Golden Gate bridge. Which happened, but most of them were all or partially obscured by a dense fog which parked it's fat A$$ over the bridge all day and didn't.move.once. Good ole Jimmy kept driving back to the bridge (3 times, to be exact) so I could "check" and see if the fog had lifted. Needless to say, my disappointment regarding the fog was a major talking point that day. MUIR WOODS! Fun fact #3: The last time we were here together we were 10 and 9 and on our family's infamous cross country trip. This picture gives me a headache. For realz. Lunch in Sausalito! Back over the even-foggier bridge to San Fran. If you were a child of the 90s these next few shots need no introduction. On our way to the "Full House" houses, I decided that I was Uncle Joey (obviously because I'm quirky and lovable)...Jimmy then declares "Okay, I'll be Uncle Jessie" Ummmmm, presumptuous much? What a Danny Tanner. This reenactment was seriously lacking in enthusiasm... EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK!!!! The Pier Building... STUPID FOG!!!! We went back that night and it looks like the 3rd times the charm :-) Even though night-photography isn't really my thing and I didn't have a tripod, I made it work. No makeup, long flight, EW this picture is gross but I'm posting it anyways :-) So good seeing you brah!!
Yesterday was: a) A crazy blizzard snow day on Long Island b) My SIL's (sister in law) surprise 30th bday party c) All of the above :-) If you guessed "C" then yahooo for you! Here's a few shots of Casey G and my sister playing in the snow. Love these guys :-) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So I ALMOST didn't bring my camera to my parent's house and if I hadn't...these pictures wouldn't exist, and that would just be sad. Probably the only surprise party I've ever been to that I didn't have to ask the guest of honor "were you surprised?" hahaha so classic. Kathy and adorable Ava... Kathy and her Gram! Newlyweds <3 Blog, I'm going on an adventure this week! A BIG and AWESOME adventure!! Many many many pics to follow :-)
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