I actually hadn’t seen Ellen & Antonio since I photographed their wedding 7 years ago!  It had been quite a while…..  Anyway, their son, Ami, is so adorable!  I had so much fun photographing him.  I could have stayed there all day.  But, alas, I wore him out and he eventually fell asleep.

Anyway, just for fun…. here is a photograph from their wedding!  I couldn’t easily find one of us as together as kids… though that would surely be funny.

This is the first photograph I took of Ami.  We were indoors and I had to use my flash.  It definitely scared him a bit at first though he did warm up quickly.   Clearly, he wasn’t expecting the partially blinding light!  Sorry, Ami!!

After a bit of playing, it was snack time.  Ami chewed on a banana and I tried to make him laugh at the other end of the table.  I love kids because they actually laugh at my jokes. 

This may be tough to see… but it is actually a squirt bottle with water.  Antonio squirts it at Ami and he loves it.  Too funny!

Time to do a little reading.  The Never Ending Story…. always a good choice.

More playing…..

And then, just like that, all worn out from playing, he fell asleep.  Maybe dreaming of Fantasia?? 

There were some looming clouds in the sky that day that were threatening rain.  Happily, the rain did hold off and everything worked out perfectly!  As many of you know, I love a cloudy day and happen to think that the day was just beautiful.

I’ll start with a few details….

Men have no idea how much work these dresses can be!  Thankfully, Kim had lots of help.

This is the moment just before Kim & Jon first see each other that day.  I took this shot very quickly as I knew that they were both extremely anxious to see one another!

We headed outside for some photos before the signing of the Ketubah and the ceremony.  Because the ground was a little wet, we were sinking into the dirt a bit.  The closer we got to the river, the muddier it seemed to get.  Needless to say, we didn’t venture all the way out but you can still see the river in the background.  Thanks to Kim especially for braving the elements in her heels!

Ceremony!

I was just taking some test shots before the ceremony to check my lighting.  While looking through the camera, I saw this couple waving at me.  I figured that their enthusiasm deserved to be blogged. 

And on to the reception!

Photographing the Hora is always exciting!  I love the energy and I especially love that all of the guests are actively involved.  I usually end up dancing around too….while photographing, of course. 

Judging from her expressions, I am fairly certain that Kim wasn’t overly thrilled about the chair lift part of the dance.  She did do it though and she looked great!

Parent dances:

And, of course, the fun party shots…

Towards the end of the night, “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey was played.  During the song, a large group gathered into a circle and started singing loudly.  An “air microphone” was provided by the woman in the middle of the group.  It was quite entertaining!

If you didn’t click the link above, I know you are at least humming the tune by now.  Nobody can resist Journey!

Kim and Jon, congratulations again and thanks so much for letting me share in such an important day in your lives.  Oh, and…. “Hold on to the Feeliiiiiin’!” 

Anyway, here is a link to the latest blog:

http://lafflerphotography.com/blog/?p=4862&cpage=1#comment-10005

And, here is the original blog from our wedding day…. in case you didn’t catch it:

http://lafflerphotography.com/blog/?p=2936

That said, I had been wanting an opportunity to work with them.  They had their first baby boy about 5 months ago and contacted me about photographing him.  I was delighted!

Baby Jack is adorable!  We started out in his Easter outfit, complete with a baby jeff cap.  So cute!  As it was a gorgeous day, he soon got warm and ready to get out of those clothes.  The best part was that he LOVES Lady Gaga.  His parents mentioned that this would instantly make him happy, and they were right!  The funny thing is that this isn’t the first baby that I have heard to be a Gaga fan.  Then I thought:  genius! her name is lady “gaga”.  She speaks their language.  Haha! 

Here are some pics!

This red blur is elmo.  : )

And, of course, no baby blog is complete without little hands and feet:

]]> http://melissahassey.com/2010/03/jack/feed/ 0 http://melissahassey.com/2010/02/snowy-wedding-stuff/ http://melissahassey.com/2010/02/snowy-wedding-stuff/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:26:52 +0000 melissa http://melissahassey.com/?p=2307 So…. when the last major snowstorm hit, I was SEVERELY disappointed.  It was my plan and intention to photograph the “getting ready” stage & details of a friend’s wedding in Glenside, PA. That same day I was supposed to photograph a first birthday party too.  I knew it was too dangerous to drive as I stared at the snow drifts covering my car and witnessed several cars get stuck on our street.

**  BTW, 9 days later, our streets are still a disaster.  I have not driven my car yet (thank you, SEPTA!) and thinks that Mayor Nutter forgot that Fishtown and South Philly exist.  **

ANYWAY!!!

The wedding couple completely understood and did, indeed, have a local friend photographer that was able to make it for the rest of the wedding.  I had only planned to be there for about an hour.  If I was to be their only photographer for the day, I would have skied there for sure!  Word is that it was a beautiful wedding and that mostly everyone was able to make it.  The birthday party was rescheduled and I am looking forward to that next week!

Anyway, being that I was looking forward to the wedding and birthday party, I decided to do a few “detail” photographs in my backyard with some details from my recent wedding.  Anyway, here are the results!
I love that my shoes were called “Melissa”.  

and also that they had big red hearts….

for our wedding, we made 1,000 paper cranes.  my Mom then got me these beautiful and unique crane earrings from ETSY (sorry don’t know the seller as they were a gift!).  they are handmade and folded silver.  really beautiful and thoughtful.  i love these and wear them often!

a set of  my Grandmom’s pearls.  I, apparently, love the way pearls look on snow.  don’t you?

just an fyi:  this was on snow that was over 2 feet high.  at one point, they started sinking into the snow.  i had to dig them out. shhhhh, don’t tell my husband!

i also love pearls in trees….

yes, my engagement ring was a surprise and yes, my husband designed this one himself….. i love it!

i first met nina & josh in august when i photographed their newborn son, zachary. they told me about the beach wedding that they were planning and i knew right away that it would be fun. basically they rented a stunning home in brigantine, nj, got married on the beach and had the reception inside the house. we left before midnight…. though i am sure the celebration was still going on long after. it was such a fun, laid back and emotional wedding. everything about it was perfect!

a few details….

while nina was getting her hair done i noticed her mom watching and kind of drift off into a daydream. it was really sweet….

what the girls were doing….. what the boys were doing….

the beautiful beach ceremony… only a short walk from the house

both josh & nina wrote their own vows. they were beautiful. it was an emotional ceremony with more than a couple of tears…

i mentioned little Zachary, and here he is! every time i have seen him he is so pleasant.
beautiful baby. beautiful family.

the super fun bridal party!

these crack me up!

i knew nina & josh were going to be great for photographs and they were. they didn’t hold back at all and were up for most anything. they are so in love and that really shines through.

apparently everyone wanted a peek at the bride.
how cute that in the one i told them both to look at the view…. and they did. haha

off into the sunset! …and on to the reception!

it was so dark outside that basically i was just taking pictures and hoping for the best. i especially love that in this one, one of the guys has 2 sets of glasses on his head.

a broken glass…

led to some massive mid-party cleaning! they all look so good doing it too….

the night was absolutely beautiful. the ocean was still warm. there was a cool breeze. and so many stars in the sky….

congratulations, nina & josh!! thanks so much for letting me be a part of your day!!!

below are just a few pics that Todd Laffler, our fabulously amazing photographer, took for us!

FOR MORE, CHECK OUT HIS WEDDING BLOG ABOUT US:
WEDDING BLOG!

us jumping into this marriage thing (buddum-ching):

we actually do this one more often that you would think…

Carl is always making me laugh! gosh… i love him!

the dress circa 2009:

me in the dress ( a rare glimpse!)

and all of the wonderful details!

anyway, the ceremony took place at the Long Beach Island Museum, a unique space indeed! and… the reception was at The Gables just around the corner. The entire day was beautiful and unique!

(side note/ shout out:: major kudos to both s&j for helping with our wedding! jason, a talented origami artist, not only helped to fold our 1,00o cranes but he, along with sarah, helped to decorate them around the mansion where carl & i got married. thanks to you both!! congrats again and again!)

here’s some photos from their wedding….

anyway the invites took me a while to design as i wanted to convey both our sense of humor as well as a bit of romance…. oh, and some information about the wedding of course!  ha!

anyway, here are just some of the ewok photos::

and, of course,…. our invitations….  they are tri-fold invitations.  i added the black lines to show where the folds are….