According to the always-wrong-men, I mean weathermen, we’re expecting anywhere from 3-12 inches of snow this weekend in Western Mass. Say what? Don’t get me wrong, I love snow. In fact, I very much look forward to the first snowfall of the year. In December. Not October. It was 80 degrees at the beginning of the month. I folded laundry just this past weekend that had shorts and t-shirts mixed in. Now I’ll be pulling out the thick socks and winter jacket. (I’m so not prepared for this.) And the camera. The puppy’s first encounter with snow ought to be a treat. That is unless the weathermen live up to their name and are wrong about this storm as well. Time to go dig the shovel out of the closet. Just in case. Until Monday…

What we indulged in this week…

{On Monday} Jamie of Viva L’Event‘s country nautical engagement shoot photographed by Macon Memories Photography can only be described as jaw-dropping gorgeous!

{On Tuesday} Our pumpkin decorating tutorial (complete with glitter and puff paint) was a mega hit!

{Tuesday’s 2nd} The “Love Your Story, Love Your Wedding” Photography Giveaway with Live View Studios is ON! Now through December 2nd! Brides, get your inspiring love stories and unique wedding details to us today!

{On Wednesday} So much deliciousness in this week’s rustic country harvest wedding inspiration board!

{Wednesday’s 2nd} The vendor spotlight is on the one, the only, the fabulous Christi Falls Photography this week! Because happy moments deserve beautiful photography!

{On Thursday} Adorable, red barn and sunflowers engagement shoot with a recreation of the couple’s proposal from Live View Studios!

{On Friday} Let’s talk turkey and other favorite fall foods for wedding receptions! Your guests are sure to get warm fuzzies from this menu selection!

{Saturday Snapshot} With a kiss let us set out on an unknown world.

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{Newlywed Recipe of the Week} Oh, how I wish I hadn’t seen these snickerdoodle cheesecake bites!

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Vendor Love…

Gorgeous bridal portraits of a bride in a fabulous black and white dress on Christi Falls Photography!

Loving Something Borrowed NY‘s posts on how you can incorporate their jewelry pieces into your Halloween costumes à la Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Portman in Black Swan!

Head over heels for this wedding on Simply Bloom Photography! I can’t decide what I love more – the stylish, dapper groom, the colorful vintage decor, the obviously very much in love couple, or that INCREDIBLE(!!!) cake!

Adorable engagement shoot on Shannon Kelley Photography with lots of fall colors!

This black, white and blue wedding by Gina Zeidler kind of rocks my world! Love the colors, the flowers, and the bride and groom portraits are breathtaking!!

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Happy Weekend!

xoxo

A picture is worth a thousand words . . .

One Photographer. One Snapshot. One Quote.

One-thousand words and emotions.

“With a kiss let us set out for an unknown world.” – Alfred De Musset

Photo Credit to Michelle Gardella Photography

The other day I was talking to a newlywed bride and she shared with me her love of all things Thanksgiving and how she incorporated all the warm fuzzies and comfort foods into her wedding. After thinking a little further, I thought what an absolutely fantastic idea! Who doesn’t love Thanksgiving, right? Holiday season is rapidly approaching so we gathered some inspiration to help plan a Thanksgiving or Fall wedding with all the trimmings.

First up, soup!

I think most of us can agree that as fall approaches and the air gets cooler our thoughts turn to something warm…like soup! I can remember when my best friend got married in late September in a classy backyard wedding and she served butternut squash soup in little pumpkin bowls. This is not a new trend, it’s just been reborn. This wedding was over 20 years ago but I can tell you that it was one of the most memorable parts of the wedding and talked about by all the guests. It is so darn cute, yes, cute and fun to be eating the soup from a carved out little pumpkin. Oh, and I forgot – outrageously yummy!

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Here’s a great idea for an autumn salad…I’ve made this one myself. Fresh and full of flavors and different textures. Dried cranberries, pears, walnuts and gorgonzola cheese with poppyseed and balsamic vinaigrette – not your ordinary salad. Delicious!

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Of course a Thanksgiving wedding must have turkey! How much fun it would be to have  the groom start off a new annual family tradition by carving the turkey and offering his bride the first bite. Not only do we have the first look, now we have the first bite!

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Now let’s not forget all the turkey related fixings such as stuffing and gravy. And what goes better with gravy than mashed potatoes. Mounds of buttery, whipped potatoes. Oh my! Whipped potatoes not your thing? How about asking for sweet potatoes? Yum!

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Now we need to toss in some vegetables. Carrots, peas and green beans are always a safe bet since most family and friends will more than likely like at least one of these. Don’t try anything too exotic because you want your guests to enjoy their meal and rave about how good it was for years to come, not rant about what were they thinking by serving rutabaga casserole! (Please no hate mail from the rutabaga lovers of the world.)

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And lastly, dessert! Just because we’re talking Thanksgiving doesn’t mean you can’t have your cake and eat it too!  Wedding cake that is. But there are lots of additional yummy desserts that you can offer your guests too. How about pumpkin bread, pecan pie or even bread puddings and apple crisp. Really, there are so many awesome choices including these amazing apple cupcakes with caramel buttercream. And what about this uber cute DIY apple pie in a can. To die for!

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And let’s not forget some great drink offerings like mulled cider, hot toddies and even creative ways to serve up a cold drink. Another great DIY!

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So what do you think? Does a Thanksgiving wedding with all the wonderful comfort food fill you with a warm fuzzy feeling? What are some of your favorites? If you’re doing a backyard Thanksgiving wedding (clearly not in New England), are there any favorite family recipes that you would like to cook up?

Happy Thursday!

xoxo

My love for Brent and Anna Deitrich of Live View Studios goes beyond their incredible talent for capturing love, art and fashion in photographs. These two are seriously awesome. And not just because they’re sponsoring the “Love Your Story, Love Your Wedding” Photography Giveaway going on now! (Although that’s seriously awesome too!) But they also sent us this adorable, rustic barn and sunflowers engagement shoot (with a recreation of the couple’s proposal) to share with you today!

After seven years of being together, Faith says it’s hard to pinpoint the very first time she and Adam met because it was more like a series of first meetings. They shared a mutual friend who worked with Faith at the fire department who brought Adam around from time to time. One very specific time she remembers meeting him was while she was babysitting at a neighbor’s house. She remembers Adam wearing blue jean overalls, no shirt, and a straw cowboy hat. Their mutual friend convinced Adam to sing that day and the moment he did, Faith knew he was a man she wanted to date. (There’s that woman’s intuition we keep hearing about again.)

But they didn’t date immediately. In fact, Faith says that Adam was the first guy she became really good friends with before dating. They hung out a lot, meeting up in town here and there, hanging with his friends at his place and her friends at a favorite hangout. It was eight whole months before they even kissed! {Whew! Talk about a special kind of build up!)

On March 24, 2005, Faith’s friends threw her a surprise birthday party. That same night, Adam finally asked her out. One first date down with many more that followed, he later took her to her first and only senior prom. (Aww!)

Seven years later, Faith and Adam have gotten engaged and said their I Do’s! They tied the knot back in April!

Faith says that she would never have guessed seven years ago that Adam would be the one she would marry. But from the very first day, there was something different about their relationship. (It was meant to be!) Neither could see themselves with a more perfect match! :)

{Behind the Lens with Brent and Anna of Live View Studios} We consider styling a session part of our trademark. It’s a more relaxing experience for our clients when they have something in their hands to hold, a small prop of some sort, or things to interact with. We try and keep it all very light and fun, as if they’re on a date with each other.

We love to incorporate some things into the shoot that the couple loves .. most of all, we look for some ways to make it absolutely unique to them. If they love Volkswagens (like us!), let’s get one into the shoot somehow. If they like music, we look for some ways to add that into the shoot. Maybe their personal vibe is hippie, country, or retro. We’ll look for ways to make the shoot unique to them and their likes, and even help with wardrobe ideas if the couple wants some assistance. In the end, they wind up feeling awesome about the way they look and the fact that their session with us was unique and not like any other! Since the styling will be based around something that’s important to them, they go into it with more confidence and have greater satisfaction when they see the intimate moments we’ve captured, and how great they look!

We gain so much from working with our couples. By the end of a session, it feels like we’ve become great friends. And the satisfaction of helping a couple feel beautiful, revealing their love for each other, and creating a memorable, romantic experience, makes what we do so worthwhile.

Adam and Faith .. we knew they were both very country at heart, and love the outdoors. Also, the story of how Adam proposed was unique and we wanted to retell it in a way that would create some cute photos for them as well. An old barn with chickens wandering around seemed to be the perfect backdrop for their shoot, and they had requested to have their shotguns in the shoot somehow. Once we saw Adam’s shotgun, we figured it would make the perfect backdrop for Faith’s ring shot. Adam had that photo as his Facebook profile photo for the longest time!

Faith’s favorite flower is sunflowers – it’s what she had in her wedding as well – and we loved the pop of color with the red barn. Faith is also a photographer – and is used to being behind the camera instead of in front of it – but with her and Adam interacting naturally with each other, we captured some really great moments between the two. Some of it was spontaneous – like the plaid blanket wrapped around them at the lake. They brought it as a prop, and we were originally going to shoot them laying on it, but she was cold, so they ended up wrapping up in it together. It made for some really intimate and cute photos as well.

They really are adorable aren’t they? Taking pretend photos with those vintage cameras… wrapped up in a blanket and smooching by the lake… recreating his obviously adorable proposal. Love it all!

Congratulations, Faith and Adam! You both deserve all the happiness in the world and we wish you that, love, and so much more in the years to come! And thank you, thank you, Brent and Anna of Live View Studios for sharing their incredible talent and behind the lens insight with us again today! We can’t wait to have you join our family here at Heart Love Weddings!

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And, brides, don’t forget, we want to hear all about your wedding planning and love story in the “Love Your Story, Love Your Wedding” Photography Giveaway going on now! :)

Happy Thursday!

xoxo

It’s time to shine the vendor spotlight on the one, the only, the fabulous Christi Falls Photography! With a camera in hand, Christi effortlessly captures moments. Happy moments you will want to remember for years and years to come. Moments of pure love like that of a bride and her groom and of new parents and their sweet bundle of joy. Moments like these are at the heart of what Christi Falls Photography is all about. Be sure to see her vendor inspiration board in our Vendor Boutique.

{Christi Falls Photography} is all about happiness. Christi loves to be around happy people and who is happier than a couple in love? (Except perhaps new parents in love with the life they just created.) Beautiful happy moments deserve to be photographed. Christi wants to document all of those moments (from love to marriage to the baby carriage) for you to share with the generations to come. She’ll treat your happy moments as if they were her own. And it shows.

{Christi} fell in love with photography at an early age. And after working with local newspapers, assisting local wedding photographers, working in a photography studio and at a photo processing lab, Christi found where her heart truly belonged. Weddings. From the way the groom looked as his bride walked down the aisle toward him, to the beautiful details all around, to the perma-grin on everyone’s faces, she was hooked.

After much encouragement and support from her husband, she took a leap and started her own business. Christi considers herself a photojournalist, artist and fashion photographer all in one. She loves to travel, spending time with her gorgeous family (her baby boy is hugely adorable) and her dogs.

{What Inspires Her Most} While Christi can find inspiration just about anywhere, her biggest inspiration comes from her supportive husband and sweet baby boy. They inspire her to always try to be better in every way.

{Best Wedding Ever Attended} A wedding she recently photographed in Blowing Rock, NC, at the Chetola Resort was the most fun wedding she can remember. The bride was from Columbia, as were many of the guests, and they all had a blast. The cocktail hour included a steel drummer, paddle boats, and a ping-pong tournament! And when the power went out at the reception, they simply picked up candles and kept right on singing and dancing until the power came back on.

{Advice for Couples} RELAX! The wedding day is going to fly by, remember to take a deep breath and focus on what the day is really about – your love for each other. Don’t stress out over the details. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you married the love of your life.

{Love Song} Because she loves Phantom of the Opera so much, one of her favorite songs is All I Ask of You.

Thank you, Christi, for being a part of Heart Love Weddings! And for sharing your talent with us (Purple & Green Classic Modern Wedding) and will again (coming soon!)! You have captured our hearts as well as the hearts of your couples with your talent for capturing the happiest of moments!

xoxo

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Love Christi as much as we do? Leave her some love here and over on her inspiration board! And because we know there’s so much more to see and do, be sure to check out her blog filled with lovely wedding, maternity, family and newborn inspiration! You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook!

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All images property of Christi Falls Photography