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kristen & raul- bbq
I had the absolute pleasure of photographing Kristen & Raul’s wedding a few weeks ago, but before the wedding day I got to meet lots of family and friends at Kristen’s brother & sister in law’s house for a bbq in their honor. It was a great way to start to get to know the bride & groom and their families & closest friends before the chaos and fun of the wedding day.
*edited to add that it was SO TOTALLY HOT on the day of the bbq. Like I can’t breathe hot. Like there is no air hot. Like I’m gonna die hot. Like worse than Africa hot. But everyone was having so much fun that it doesn’t even show in the pictures. Its a very good thing I was behind the camera though, cause it was not pretty. At all.
The lovely bride & groom.
In addition to my photographing the bbq, Kristen and her siblings arranged for me to take a family photo for her mom’s birthday. So here’s the whole family!
Raul, his brother, his mom & his bride. 
And the extended family.
Mom & Dad and their 5 kids. 
Mom and her BFF- they’ve been besties since they were little girls.
Cousins from Stockholm. 
Cheers with Grandma! (that adorable little guy is the same baby that’s on my blog header at a few months old, smiling big for me!)
A few faces from the party that I just had to photograph!
The beautiful flower girl.
More from Kristen & Raul’s wedding coming to the blog soon. Still trying so hard to catch up! -
wyatt’s bar mitzvah
I met Wyatt’s lovely mom last spring at a pre-prom party, where I was taking photos of my “niece” Elizabeth and a bunch of her friends, including Wyatt’s older brother. Then we met again on the sidelines of the middle school football field where Wyatt, Jack & Patrick were playing Oceanside. I was so happy when she asked me to photograph Wyatt’s Bar Mitzvah at Central Synagogue and the reception at Coyote Grill. It was a gorgeous day with a fantastic family & lots of friends.
Wyatt did his best to tolerate me for as long as possible. He did really well. I know how annoying I can be, especially with a camera!
Wyatt’s mom is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met in real life, and she (and her husband, too) is as nice as she is beautiful. Did I mention she’s from Australia? And has the coolest accent!
Party time!
Dad and his childhood friends. How great that they are STILL friends!
Grandma flew in from Australia where she lives to celebrate Wyatt’s day. 
Dad, his twin brother and their sisters. Such a great and close knit family!!
A very nice and subdued candle lighting and blessing of the challah. 
A bar mitzvah wouldn’t be a bar mitzvah without the chair. 
Wyatt, thank you so much for putting up with me for the day. You were a great sport and a gentleman!
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jake’s little man mustache bash (aka 1st birthday)
Be ready for total picture overload! Jake is my first and so far only birth session baby so he holds a special place in my heart and lens! I was so excited (and honestly, a little surprised that he was turning the big oh-one already!) to photograph his day. Especially with his mom being a party planner extrodinaire, I knew there wouldn’t be one single detail missed. Jenn is starting her own event planning business, and as soon as I have a link for her website I’ll be sure to share it because you NEED to hire her for your next event.
He looks like the guy who answers the door in the Wizard of Oz with that mustache on! But way cuter!!
And some (ok, a lot) of the party details. They were too awesome to leave anything out!
Do you recognize those pictures?
The little milk bottles were my personal favorites.
Grandma and her boy.
Lots of very familiar faces at the party. 
The mustache painting didn’t work out well, but was a good try.
Someone was reeeeeeally enjoying her cake pop.
So big!
Time for cake! (he was pretty displeased with the whole cake thing. Not that you can tell by his face or anything…)
This may very well be my favorite photo from the whole party. Mommy’s gorgeous legs, Jake’s chubby cakey legs, and Ali smashing the cake.
You might die of the cuteness. 
Happy birthday Mr. Jake!! Can’t wait to keep watching you grow!!
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pretty, plum & luxe
I recently received a gorgeous album that I created for a client and wanted to share a few pictures of it with you. I was beyond happy with the way it turned out, and seeing my client pour over each page while smiling from ear to ear just made it all the more special!
Here’s the bsquared 10×10″ Luxe album in plum leather with a custom monogram. Taking pictures of pictures never comes out that great, but you can see how gorgeous the whole album is with it’s deliciously thick pages, sturdy binding and panoramic layout (so there’s no breaks in the middle of the two pages, giving it a totally seamless presentation). If you’re thinking about ordering a luxe album from your session or event, I have samples in the office to share with you. I promise you will see why the luxe albums are luxe!!
I’ll be back after the weekend with a ton of new posts (after having a 5 session week this week, I’ll have plenty of new material to blog!) Happy Friday! -
sydney’s sweet 16
A super fun and amazingly themed sweet 16 at the Garden City Hotel nightclub for a great girl. I’ve photographed their family once before- for the littlest sister’s christening. And now that baby is walking all over the place. Time certainly does fly and I’m sure Sydney’s mom feels the same way celebrating her daughters sweet 16! A little birdy told me that today is Sydney’s actual birthday- so happy birthday!!
Sydney’s whole court. Would have liked to get them centered in the room a little more, but there was a very rude gentleman sitting on the couch on the right who would not move. Still, a great looking bunch. You getting the theme yet?
Gorgeous girl. Love the multi colored hair the most!!
A big thank you to Charles who was assisting me and set up the below shot as well as helping during the whole night. 
Love this one- happiest girl in the crowd!
Hope all your wishes come true! Have a wonderful birthday!