Weddings Redefined

One of my favorite photographers, Kat Hempel, is shooting the wedding of a few different clients this year.  I always encourage my clients to ask their photographer to shoot an engagement session.  It's informal, fun and gets couples loose in front of the camera.  This week I'll be highlighting a few different engagement shoots by Kat Hempel.  

Here are my handsome grooms, Mark and Jody, who are marrying this upcoming April 30.  The shoot was around their home, the Aquarium and their wedding venue.

Tim and Mark live in California and when they decided to get married, same-sex marriage was not legal in their home state.  It was important to these grooms to bring their guests and their story to a place where their relationship was equal so they chose to marry in Massachusetts and hired 14 Stories to make it happen.  After a full day of visiting Boston's most unique wedding venues with us, they settled on the Boston Public Library as the perfect place to tell their story.

With the library in mind, together we developed a design theme that revolved around stories and books.  You'll see some of those details in the images below - even the table names were named after book genres (romance, mystery, etc).  We also worked with an illustration of a wolf and a fox, adorably drawn to represent each groom.  You'll see lots of that artwork in the details below, even in the wedding favors (the journals).

The wedding brought together the grooms' nearest and dearest who gathered here in Boston to pay tribute to two amazing gentlemen.  Enjoy the beautiful photos by Kat Hempel.  

I am long overdue for a blog post.  I apologize for the delay, but Jen and I have been busy with a baby!  If you subscribe to our newsletter, you may know that our baby was due on October 24.  Our little son, Patrick Flaherty Coveney-Smith came a week late, on Halloween, which happens to be Jen's favorite holiday.  We like parties so we decorated our room at the hospital in Halloween decorations and all of us were dressed up on Halloween, including Patrick.

Both he and his mom are doing great.  It's been a big adjustment for the whole family, of course, and I've taken a bit of a maternity leave in that I'm keeping up with emails and phone calls but haven't been blogging or working on my other projects.  I'm not very good at sitting still and not working a lot, so I've been trying not to beat myself up over not working a lot, and just enjoy all this great quality time together.  I'll be resuming a close to full schedule after Thanksgiving.

We're very grateful for all the love and support that has come our way from our friends, family and community of current and former clients and wedding industry colleagues.

Shannon and Mandy came all the way from the Bay area to marry at Walden Pond after booking our Destiny Platinum package.  Two teachers, they chose Walden Pond specifically because of their love of Thoreau and other transcendentalist writers of his time. 

Kristin Korpos was the photographer.  Janet married them.  It was a perfect day for these two brides.  

Here in Massachusetts, it seems if you want a formal chair for an indoor wedding, there's no alternative to the Chiavari ballroom chair.  No matter the array of colors and seat cushions, and no matter how elegant or comfortable, my gay clients are getting sick of the Chiavari.  In fact, it's so ubiquitous, I have about a dozen other photos similar to the one below, from other weddings!

Help me out here, rental companies!


Photo by Gretje Ferguson

I should tell you that gay weddings almost never have receiving lines.  In fact, I urge my clients to disappear somewhere secret for a few minutes after the recessional to avoid an accidental receiving line.

These 2004 brides wanted to greet their guests so immediately after the recessional, they headed into the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (following the ceremony in the courtyard) and waited on the steps for guests to slowly follow.  There was no bottleneck, no prolonged greetings - and it was quick and painless - just the brides welcoming guests to their party. 

Inside awaited cocktails, tea, wedding cake, mini sandwiches and live jazz.  That was just the beginning.  90 minutes later trolleys swooped all their guests up and off to the real reception at the Harvard Fogg Museum.



Photo by Zoom Photography

This week's photo comes from a client's wedding back in 2004, one of my very first weddings.  The couple enlisted an army of friends to help them with DIY projects.  Each dinner table had a gorgeous hand-made red table runners (not shown).  The ceremony program was designed to be a fan - clear and utilitarian on that hot day.  The couple bought charger plates for each centerpiece at the Christmas Tree Shops and scattered some polished river rocks around the potted orchid plant (not shown). The favors were those cootie catchers from elementary school in a variety of great colors. 

All in all, a lovely tablescape, completely DIY.  I admire this in particular as a not-very crafty person myself. 



Photo by Casey McCormick

This week's photo is from a 2005 wedding we planned for two brides with 110 adults and 70 kids!  How do you entertain 70 kids?  We figured it out and brought in a children's entertainer, children's arts and craft leader, tons of high chairs and booster seats - and lots more to make sure the kids were having as much fun as the adults!

I'll reserve an entirely separate post for my suggestions on kids at a wedding.



Photo by Beth Kukucka

In honor of the crisp fall days we've been having somewhat prematurely in New England, this week's photo of flowers is from a gorgeous fall wedding about two years ago, out in Western Massachusetts.  LOVE the use of seasonal colors.

The flowers were designed by Dwyer's Floral in Northampton.



Photo by Derek Goodwin

Andy and John's wedding ceremony was very formal, at a Congregational church.  It was followed by a change into custom bowling shirts and a party at our neighborhood bowling alley, the Milky Way.  Their families who didn't know each other, mingled over bowling, pool, pizza and beer - and a great time on the dance floor.