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Carrie & Jon

In honor of Carrie & Jon’s one-year anniversary, I wanted to write up a little post about one of my favorite weddings from last year — and one of the best I’ve ever been to. Carrie was my college roommate at the University of Maryland, where we bought matching bedspreads, shared crushes on various Maryland basketball players, crammed a little Christmas tree into our dorm room for the holidays and worked way too many hours at the campus daily newspaper, The Diamondback.

Now a reporter and editor at the New York Daily News, Carrie is an extraordinarily talented knitter, crocheter and seamstress. For her Brooklyn wedding to fellow Daily News reporter Jon, she and her crafty self created all kinds of personal, homemade touches — shawls for the bridesmaids, a wrap for herself, a cake topper, boutonnieres for Jon and the groomsmen and — best of all — hundreds and hundreds of pompoms in her choc-qua color scheme. (For the uninitiated: chocolate brown + aqua = chocqua.) But more on that later.

Carrie & Jon’s nuptials presented an exciting first for me. They asked me to shoot some engagement pictures for them in hopes that their wedding announcement would make it into The New York Times. And it did! Here it is:

Since I was a bridesmaid at Carrie & Jon’s wedding, I wasn’t their official photographer. But I couldn’t possibly leave my camera gear at home when my college roommate was getting hitched! Here are some of my favorites from their wedding weekend:

Starting the evening before the big day, a few from the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner…

The groom’s emotional brother, Joe, during toasts…

The morning of the wedding dawned overcast and foggy. Worried about rain, Carrie had bought aqua umbrellas for all the bridesmaids so we could still do photos in the park by the Brooklyn Bridge. We girls started getting ready early with make-up artists and rollers and all kinds of fun.

I love this image of my friend — how happy she looks and how excited she obviously is for the day’s events.

Yes, she continued crafting on the very day of the wedding — here, a few repairs to those boutonnieres.  I can’t say I’ve ever seen another bride wielding a hot glue gun on her wedding day…

At the church, Carrie’s dad.

My husband shot these next three from his seat in the church. I handed off my camera to him before I headed down the aisle. I love the looks that Carrie & Jon exchanged during the processional. They are so perfect for each other…

And now for those chocqua pompoms…

Then, it was off to the park for photos. Although there was no rain (yay!), we decided to play with those darling little blue umbrellas anyways. Here, some cute bridesmaids in those cute shawls that Carrie made us — each one a little different to reflect our personalities.

Scheming brothers…

And some groom details — including the boutonnieres that Carrie made for Jon and all the groomsmen. And check out their fabulous chocqua ties.

My silly husband, performing all kinds of silly stunts with my bouquet.

The groom’s brother was on crutches from — if I remember correctly — a whiffleball injury, maybe? You’ll see later that he didn’t let it keep him off the dance floor…

After Carrie & Jon were finished with their official photographer, I snagged them for a few shots of my own.

Could they be any sweeter together?

This is one of my all-time most favorite bride & groom photos. I love everything about it — their expressions, the mood, the slight fogginess behind them.

And on to the reception… I can’t remember what Jon was talking about here, but this look is classic Carrie.

The cake topper she made: Yup, it looks just like Carrie & Jon!

Some of my friends joke that I should offer up my husband as an a la carte add-on option in my photography packages. His service? Dance floor party starter. He’d be great at it, don’t you think?

The very end of the evening at the after-party…

Congratulations, Carrie & Jon. It was oh so much fun to be a part of your wedding. I hope you have a fabulous anniversary and a lifetime of love and happiness ahead of you. As Carrie put it in her Facebook status, “One down. Forever to go.”     : )