I mentioned the connection to Meghan & Jordan's to my last post, but I will elaborate: Back in 2006, Chris and Lauren (Bromley) were married in Naples, Florida at the Port Royal Club, and had their rehearsal at the Naples Beach Club. Their wedding was published in the 2007 issue of Inside Weddings.
Lauren's sister (Kristen) got married 2 years later and her wedding was also published in Inside Weddings. And almost one year later on Kristin's wedding anniversary, I was shooting Meghan and Jordan's wedding, and they had their rehearsal also at the Naples Beach Club, as well as the ceremony/reception at the Port Royal Club, and almost all of the same wedding professionals were there: Milda Vaivada from Soiree (whom I've now done 3 Naples events with!) Hair (with lovely stephanonis flowers) by Randy Burke and make up by Tracy Gravois; amazing lighting affects and colored lanterns by Frost lighting; Luis Torres did a great job as always from Utopia Video; beautiful gerbera daisies bouquets and displays from 50/Fifty Floral Art, delicious and moist (really- I always sample my reviews!) cake by Daniella's Cakes- all great professionals to work with. Theme colors: dark muted blue bridesmaid dresses by J.Crew, navy blue jackets/light blue shirts for the men and a bright blue wedding cake (blue representing the sea and sky) made the main opposite colors of orange and fuscia really pop. Very Floridian! Meghan's flowy dress by Anne Barge. Invitations and menus by Arabesque of Naples.
The weather threatened rain and it was steamy, temps the 90's made my lenses fog up when we left the a/c, but the rain held off for a great outdoor ceremony and sunset pictures on the beach. They had a midnight afterparty with mini hotdogs/ buns, mini egg and cheese croissants, and my favorite-- mini 'milkshake' shots of ice cream blended with Bailey's and Godiva liquor- refreshing and sweeeeeet!
I did somehow manage to get poison ivy at the rehearsal, and I started scratching my face thinking I got a few mosquito bites...Carlton and I flew back to Boston on Sunday and by Tuesday my face turned into a swollen, itchy gross pizza, and I could barely see out of one eye..It made for difficult editing and I was taking Benadryl and wearing gloves for 2 weeks. I'm still scratching a bit as I type, but most of it's gone now from my face at least... but it was worth it to capture such great images and colors... Meghan and Jordan are big country music fans (they named of their dogs Johnny Cash and Hank Williams), so I incorporated some of their music selections, including their first dance song, 'Forever & Ever, Amen', but I didn't think the original Randy Travis version worked as well as this other romantic version I found by Anne Lise.
Watch their rockin' rehearsal party and 13 hours of their steamy ceremony and colorful reception condensed into 8 amazing minutes of their Love Story!
Congratulations M & J!
