I met Shira and Graeme on their wedding day - Shira with a black salon robe draped over her and Graeme with a big anticipatory smile on his face before I brought in his bride. These hip cats live in London, of all the swanky, desirable places to reside, but brought it on home so they could get married in Shira's temple, where her father is the rabbi. And let me warn you now, they rocked the reception at
VisArts so hard, I am showing just way too many photos from their klezmer dancing. Shira and Graeme:
We started the day at Shira's family home in Rockville and at the
Bethesda North Marriott. Apparently in England there is none of this "getting ready" coverage, so they thought the whole thing was rather amusing.
Then we scooted to
VisArts at Rockville so the heroes of our story could have a "first look" and do some portraits at the Rockville Town Center.
They were, needless to say, delighted to see each other.
Shira and Graeme, it turns out, are much sillier than I thought they would be. We'd had a couple phone conversations, one Skype call and plenty of emails, but none of that prepared me for how ridiculously cuddly and giggly and silly these two are. Picking up on the vibe, we paused to take some photos with this giant bagel. It's a wedding bagel!
And they wanted some "street" portraits, so I obliged.
I actually got them to do this for a split-second...
...because most of the time it was straight this. Shira has the best laugh and she employed it *all day*. Not sure I've seen a bride laugh more on her wedding day - good times!
Shira's father is the rabbi at
B'nai Israel, and he performed their marriage ceremony.
It had stopped raining by then, so we paused for a second in the garden to take some nature-y photos.
Back to VisArts, for their not-quite-but-very-close-to-farm-to-table wedding, complete with potted herbs.
People sometimes ask me what my ideal shooting conditions are - outdoors, bright lights, big weddings, small ones, etc. I now have my ideal shooting condition - half an hour of klezmer dancing, with a rowdy crowd and a ridiculously happy couple.
Okay so I've photographed a lot of weddings. I've seen the hora. This was the hora + 25 minutes of additional joyous, rambunctious, comedic dancing. It was so awesome.
It was rad.
Apparently in other parts of the world, it's traditional for the groom to give a speech at the wedding. I don't think Graeme realized this wasn't common in America until our drive from the temple to VisArts. "So do all the grooms start with 'my wife and I' during their speeches?" he asked. "What speech?" I said.
A second set of Seven Blessings.
And they declared the day a smashing success.
Congratulations Shira and Graeme!
Shira & Grame's vendor team:
Coordinator: Katie Wannen,
The Plannery (an awesome, awesome lady)
Ceremony venue:
B'nai Israel
Reception venue:
VisArts at Rockville
Getting ready venues: Shira - home; Graeme -
Bethesda North Marriott
Caterer:
Glorious Kosher
Florist:
Willow Oak Flower & Herb Farm
Ceremony musician:
Marc Irwin, piano
Reception musicians: Twilight
Hair & Makeup:
Elle Alise
Shira's lovely dress: J. Crew
Graeme's dashing suit: Daks
Heather got ready in this fantastic room with beautiful old mirrors. 
While Frantisek was in the main house.
True story, our daring, animal-loving bride survived a spider attack in this very spot. No spiders or humans were harmed in the making of these images.
Here's another true story: I saw all these kids looking adorable playing with an iPad. Then I saw an ant carrying a dead spider (more spiders!), so I attempted to pry them away from electronics. It worked! (And just in case you're wondering, H&F, yes, I included the ant-carrying-the-dead-spider in your image set.)
Go time.
Heather and Frantisek made their big we-just-got-married debut wearing Kate and William masks. Hilarious!
Receptions at Rosemont Manor take place in the Carriage House - a lovely clean space with plenty of A/C. Heather and Frantisek decorated with big white chinese lanterns, big floral centerpieces and tables with animals, not numbers.
Let me take a sec to publicly shout out to my more-or-less full-time second shooter Julia. A number of the images in this blog post are hers (including the one below) and she totally killed it at this wedding. We've been working together since early this year and I'm so glad to have her on board for many of my 2013 weddings!
Sometimes there's a good image in the room where they put your food. And while I'm doing public shout-outs, so many thanks to 
Heather's parents really cut a rug.
Congratulations guys!
Heather & Frantisek's vendor team:
Ceremony & reception venue: 
We started the day about 40 miles north in Charlottesville.
It was both hilarious and terrifying to photograph Kate's friends putting her contacts in. Kate was, as always, an incredibly good sport about the whole thing, even as she teared up.
We made the trek, then it was time for the bride and groom to see each other.
Kate and Daniel were married on a private residence near the town of Lovingston, Virginia. Their friends graciously lent them use of the house, but everything else occurred on the expansive field in front of the property.
There was even a small lake in the background for us to use as backdrop for portraits.
Kate is one of those epically happy people - always cracking up and giggling. Makes my job easy.
Could they have picked a more beautiful setting and set-up for a wedding? Apparently this incredible wood-planks-and-doorframe ceremony entrance piece came from Craigslist! I mean, seriously, look at this.
Go time.
Kate and her dad had a long way to walk.
The Virginia countryside is a really beautiful place for a wedding.
My kind of detail shot. It was a very windy day, but it helped to cool things off.
Cicada (I think)!
I freakin' love this image - managing to sneak a bit of street into family formals. Truth is, this was probably a happy accident when I was just testing exposure.
Their friend from South Korea couldn't make it, but she sent a life-size cardboard cut-out in her place, which, obviously, is awesome.
Smoking cigars because it's the country and you can do basically anything you want.
The wind prevented my backdrop from going up, but while it was still light out, Nature provided an even better one.
It was a bit too hot to dance much at first, but luckily Kate and Daniel had the forethought to provide cornhole and bocce ball to entertain their guests.
Somebody brought moonshine to the wedding.
Congratulations guys!
Kate and Daniel's vendor team:
Getting ready venue: Sleep Inn, Charlottesville
Ceremony and reception venue: a friend's field
Flowers, decorations, ceremony setup, uncounted pretty things: Daniel's mother and grandmother
Caterer: