Suzanne and Tim's Wedding in Brockport, New York (near Rochester) December 27, 2013

So why would I drive five hours from Union, New Jersey, to Rochester, New York, on December 26 to photograph a wedding? It was because the people I did it for were very special to me, namely the bride's mom and her boyfriend. They were good friends before the wedding; they became dear friends through the wedding. They are my friend Judy and Craig, and Judy's daughter Suzanne was the bride marrying a wonderful young man named Tim. Plus, I loved the family—a very spirited bunch in a tight-knit community. And they treated me royally.

The other reason was that I love to travel and hadn't seen Rochester as an adult—it's a fascinating place. More on that below.

Suzanne's dad is the fire chief of Brockport, about 40 minutes west of Rochester (where I stayed with Craig), so the rehearsal dinner was in the fire station, naturally enough. It was a family-style meal on long benches with lots of good fellowship. It was then that I started to feel like part of the family.

I was fortunate with the weather. Although I had encountered snow on the way up, it did not snow the whole time I was there, so I had no trouble getting around.

The following day, I visited High Falls, which is in the center of Rochester, which sports three more waterfalls within the city limits, all on the Genesee River.

That afternoon, Suzanne's preparations at her mom Judy's house felt like a party. Both her parents were there, and her father led the toast among the bridesmaids with shots.

I was also very touched by what can only be described as a shrine to Judy's dad, who fought in the Second World War. His military photo as a smiling sailor beamed out at me, surrounded by squadron photos, a toy jeep, a model ship, and the triangular folded flag that draped his coffin when he died about a year ago. The house was filled with family photos and mementos.

The ceremony and reception were at the Hickory Ridge Golf Resort in Holley, NY, a huge room decorated in rustic fashion. The place cards were displayed on individual pine cones. The ceremony itself was short and sweet, and the partying started almost immediately thereafter.

I had been hired by Suzanne's mom Judy, my personal friend, as a gift to her daughter. I took this as a great honor and very flattering. Suzanne & Tim were a wonderful wedding couple, obviously very much in love with each other, and their love spread over the whole company like a glow.

The spirited DJ, Tommy B, kept things moving, and so did the bar, so after the buffet meal there was lots of dancing. The DJ had a great light show, and at some point inflated instruments appeared, and Suzanne's mom Judy revealed her latent talent.

Towards the end Suzanne and Tim did a dollar dance, where guests lined up to pay a dollar to dance with each of them.

The following day I played tourist in Rochester visiting the Strong Play Museum and the George Eastman House. The first is a wonderful children's museum offering room after room of environments from children's literature, such as the Berenstain Bears, Star Wars, Sesame Street and Batman (no Disney), and the amazing Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden.

Then I visited one of the "holy" places for photography, the George Eastman House. Eastman (1854–1932) emerged from a hardscrabble childhood raised by a courageous mother who supported them with a boarding house after her husband died, to invent roll film and make photography available to non-specialists, that is, everyone. He grew very rich. He was on friendly terms with other great inventors, such as Thomas Edison and the Lumière Brothers, and a supporter of civil rights and historic black universities. His parents had been involved in the Underground Railroad during slavery times. He was a great philanthropist, contributing to the University of Rochester. He never married, and when his health declined precipitously at age 78 he took his own life. His magnificent house is kept the way he left it.

It's also  a museum of his inventions

and his life, with a small theater where a life sized cardboard cutout of Eastman almost makes it feel as if he's there.

Adjoining the house is a museum of photography, that features a permanent exhibition of still and movie cameras,

and a several galleries with rotating exhibitions. When I was there I saw an impressive collection of astronomical photographs.

I returned home the following day, passing through Watkins Glen, at the south end of Seneca Lake, where the park was closed due to unsafe conditions, which was a pity, since the cascade was doubtless stunning under ice.

That whole Finger Lake area of New York State is magnificent.

Joycie and Kevin's Wedding, Galloping Hill Caterers, Union, NJ, November 16, 2013

Joycie and Kevin's wedding this past November was a rich event with some very special delights. Joycie is a person who knows what she wants, and I was very touched that she chose my services to preserve her beautiful wedding.

The day started with a photo session with the wedding party at Mindowaskin Park in Westfield, NJ. The park had all the trappings of late fall, and the setting sun provided perfect lighting against the lake.

Also, the shoreline and trees and their reflections gave me the opportunity to frame a very romantic image of just the couple with the low sun illuminating the trees in the background. The magnificent flowers were by Clark Florists in Clark, NJ.

She attended lovingly to the details of the decor, producing an exceptional event at Galloping Hill Caterers here in Union, NJ. Every table had a framed 8x10 photograph of her and Kevin from their engagement session on the Jersey shore, in addition to a beautiful flower arrangement.

There was exceptional warmth and humor during the ceremony.

And their First Dance was, as it should have been, the height of romance.

 The highlight of the evening for the guests, however, was undoubtedly when Joycie changed out of her wedding gown and into her Zumba outfit to lead a 30-minute Zumba show, that featured her Zumba instructor and three of her bridesmaids. Her energy even outdid that of her Zumba instructor!

It was a full moon that night, so I brought her and Kevin outside and lined them up to silhouette an intimate moment against the full moon. I was on my belly in the parking lot with my telephoto lens, but we got the shot.

Destination Weddings: Accept Photographer in Destination Package, or Bring Photographer from Home?

         Brides who plan destination weddings often wonder about hiring vendors at a distance. Fortunately, the websites and agencies that help plan destination weddings offer packages in which everything or virtually everything is taken care of. The bride merely has to choose the location and check off what she wants, and she is frequently given numerous choices within those packages. See below for links to helpful sites and the names of two easily obtainable books that will help you cover all the bases for a destination wedding.

         The one service that might require a little more attention is photography. Unlike the menu, the dress, the flowers, the décor and even the video, with photography a bride has to rely on the particular vision of the photographer to capture her life-changing event. And these visions can vary widely.

         Sometimes these are spoken of as styles: photojournalist, romantic, edgy fashion, nostalgic, etc. But there’s much more to it than this. Every wedding photographer can get the family portraits right, but which ones know how to put you easily into romantic poses? Which ones are attuned enough to fleeing emotional moments to capture them? Which ones see relationships of perspective that can create dynamic and surprising compositions of you and your friends and relatives?

         Fortunately, you don’t have to know much about this to decide what you like. You can let your eyes guide you. So if you want something more than boilerplate generic, it really is worth your while to look at the work of a number of photographers. And look at how they lay out their albums, too. How well does it tell the story of a wedding? How much does it capture the atmosphere, the details, the excitement, the romance, the emotion?

         If you are considering accepting the photographic service that’s part of the package, insist on seeing the work of the particular photographer they will assign to your wedding, or better  yet, see if you have a choice in the matter. If you like what you see, fine. But it’s also a good idea to review the work of photographers in your area who are willing to travel to your destination. Some may even offer you a discount, since you’re giving them an exotic mini-vacation.

         The advantage of using a photographer from near your home are several: (1) you know and like the work, so you know what you’re getting. (2) you have a chance to get to know the photographer, to build up trust, and work together in coming up with ideas at your wedding; and (3) you can be in close contact through the creation and editing of your album, so you’ll get exactly what you want, rather than a generic layout. There’s possibly a fourth advantage: you can make a deal to get all your hi-resolution (printable) images, whereas they may charge you per image in the photo package you get from your destination—so a local photographer may actually end up less expensive!

         For example, Sandals, an industry leader in destination weddings, that has resorts in Jamaica, St. Lucia, the Bahamas and Antingua, offers four photography packages ranging in price from $1400 to $3000 (starting prices). They do not permit brides to hire outside photographers, unless that photographer is a friend and a guest at the wedding. I have no doubt that their photographers are experienced and competent, and know the classic shots to set up (e.g. bouquet in focus on the ground in the foreground with couple out of focus kissing in the background, hands on rings, etc.), and their packages may be adequate for you. However, the “PhotoBook” that they offer as an album is what is sometimes called a “coffee table book,” not a full wedding album. You receive a CD of all purchased images, that is, all the images in your book (which may be enough). Additional hi-res files of images are $20 each, so it would be prohibitively expensive to get the whole collection of several hundred images (at $2000/100 images!). If you have an particular ideas about the photographic style you want (e.g. with a fashion edge, dreamy-romantic, photojournalistic, etc.) there’s no guarantee of getting it. And if you want a hand in the presentation of your photos in your album (the layout) you can pretty much forget about it. So if you think you can be happy with good generic wedding photography, this may be for you. If you appreciate imagination in your photographs and their presentation, a little more effort put into actually evoking the experience, rather than just recording it, you might have regrets later on.

         I’m all for brides and grooms knowing exactly what they’ll get before they sign any contracts, knowing, liking and trusting the photographer to be there for them, to be inspired, to give a little extra—this kind of personal service based on a relationship and a style that you like, is priceless. It can increase the quality of your final album many fold and save you many regrets. It’s not only not that much more expensive, but may actually end up being about the same price or even less expensive, even if you include flying your photographer down and putting him or her up, since the add-ons in the set packages can easily drive up your final price.

         If budget is less of a concern, then you’re almost always better off carefully choosing your photographer yourself—whether he or she is local, or whether  you’ve seen his or her work on-line, fallen in love with it, and spoken on the phone. It’s an extremely personal choice, and the entire “future life” of your wedding day depends on it.

•Books to help you plan your Destination Wedding:

Destination Bride by Lisa Light

Destination Wedding Planner: The Ultimate Guide to Planning a          Wedding from Afar [Spiral-bound] by Allison Hotchkiss

Destination Weddings For Dummies by Susan Breslow Sardone

Destination Weddings by Isabella James

The Knot Guide to Destination Weddings by Carley Roney and          Joann Gregoli

•Links to help you plan your destination wedding:

http://www.destinationweddings.com/

This site will help you plan your flight and accommodations

http://www.mywedding.com/destination-weddings

Offers a complete planning system, connections to a large group of destinations, lists of vendors, advice, etc.

Mara & James's Wedding, January 5, 2012

I had the privilege of photographing the wonderful wedding of Mara Adler and James O'Kelly last Saturday. Most weddings are celebrations of love and support; this one was a festival of them. Mara's eyes were filled with love for her new husband James, her best friend, the man she had known she was going to marry and bear children with almost from the moment they met. And she had told him early on. I can see why: Jim is a strong, funny, loving, very smart person. He's modest and supportive, and extremely capable in what he does—he's a lawyer, who once introduced himself to her as a vacuum cleaner salesman. I liked him immediately. Mara is the daughter of a dear friend of mine, Seth Adler, who raised her himself after the tragic death of his wife when Mara was still a baby. She has grown into a fine young woman, committed to her career in classical music and opera, and full of love and generosity. I couldn't do enough for this couple.

And their relatives and friends were wonderful, too. Seth's mother came from California, a wiry elderly woman of great presence and beauty, dressed with flare, including a metal sculpture necklace. I could see where Seth got his strength of character from and his commitment to social justice. Jim's parents were there, as was his grandfather, and it was a pleasure to meet them.

The wedding party were a spirited bunch, and we had some fun with their group portraits, including one where the groomsmen held the bride off the ground—despite her misgivings—and she loved it.

Since this was an interfaith wedding, the couple had the luxury of two excellent officiants, Rabbi Bill, and Rev. Paul Mayer, a former monk who went on to co-found "Children of War," a ministry to teenage youth in war zones world-wide.

I did a projection of the photos from the first half of the day during the meal on a large screen provided by the Atrium. Afterwards, I was very gratified that some of the guests came up to me to ask for individual portraits with their friends. Although one can't linger over these, it does give me a chance briefly to find out about some of the people who love Mara and James and their family, which adds to the pleasure of my job.

There's a gallery of photos posted on my Joel Simpson Photography Facebook page. Here are some highlights, as well as a link to the music-video slide show, that I include in all my packages.http://video214.com/play/LT20OMxmLyW5IlDpLH3O1A/s/dark

Isabel & Joe's Wedding, June 23, 2012

This past Saturday, June 23, 2012, I had the honor and opportunity to photograph the wedding of Isabel Wall and Joseph Speronza. After capturing Isabel and Joe at their respective preparation locations, I proceeded to the magnificent St. Matthew the Apostle Catholic Church in Randolph. This church is exceptionally beautifully designed, with a very open sanctuary with a distinctly modern feel, and presided over by the brilliant Father Dan Murphy, whose love-infused spirituality touches people of all faiths—I certainly found it very moving, as I had a year ago at Danielle and Matthew Swiss's wedding there. The music ministry of the church is directed by Matthew Swiss himself, whose rich piano and organ playing, as well as his vocals in duet with Isabel's twin sister, made the wedding ceremony and mass a profoundly moving experience.
Isabel and Joe were greeted by a torrent of bubbles and silver streamers as they emerged from the church, and after taking family portraits, they drove off in Joe's fire-engine red Corvette, which he had had newly painted for the occasion. The reception location, Perona Farms, was half an hour away in Andover, NJ, in beautiful Sussex County. It was my first time there—and what a discovery! It is a sophisticated banquet facility and restaurant situated in a completely bucolic setting, with an orchard, a small lake with two fountains, an island in the lake with a festive bridge leading to it, and a big barn and two silos. We made use of all these settings for our photographs of the couple and their wedding party. The Joe added the Corvette, and we played with it.
The food was fabulous, from the cocktail hour on, and the staff was extremely gracious. Music was provided by Principal Entertainment (mrren@aol.com) and centered on classic rock. The dancing was very energetic, especially by Isabel's brother Martin and the children present, but guests of all ages got down on the dance floor. I showed a slide show of the photos from earlier in the day during the dinner, which is always popular with the guests.

Legs—always a good investment.

Isabel and her dad leave the house after the bridesmaids have been dropped off.

Father Dan Murphy talks to the couple and the congregation.

The bridge to the island at Perona Farms

On the island at Perona Farms

Fun with the wedding party in the orchard at Perona Farms.

Alone at last (except that I'm there).

Isabel is a fine artist, so everything—but everything—was beautifully color coordinated.

Back on the island.

"Going my way?"

The bauble-head dolls that are portraits of Isabel & Joe.

First dance.

Danielle and Matt Swiss, whose wedding I photographed in the same church one year ago, and who sent me to Isabel and Joe. Matt is the music director of the church, St. Matthew the Apostle in Randolph.

Isabel and Joe had had a bauble-head double portrait made of them to top off their cake, which delighted everyone present. Thanks to them, their parents, and their wedding party for being such cooperative subjects and having fun with the photos we did in the orchard. And thanks to Perona Farms for such excellent food and service.