gwyneth colleen photography » portsmouth, nh wedding photographer

the last several weeks (when i’ve been in town) i’ve been attending probably the hippest, happening-est church in the seacoast, nh area. seriously…chances are, you have never been to a service like this.

everyone is super friendly, and they ply you with snacks and after your first visit…a little goody box that includes a gift card to an area restaurant. and a few weeks after my first visit, i got a letter in the mail with a gift card for a free chipotle burrito. (granted, i don’t really love chipotle, and if i’m going to eat a burrito, it’s loco cocos all the way, baby.) but still!

anyway, they’re preparing to launch their new site (i’ve seen a preview…it looks sweet!) so they asked me to do some headshots of the men behind the ministry.

i don’t want to spoil the big reveal, so i’m only going to post one…(which is my favourite not b/c of WHO it is…but b/c i love the tones and clarity! photographer nerd alert!)

so, click back on www.nlc.tv i think…sunday? saturday? and come check it out.

i’ve already designed my beloved raegan & joe’s wedding album…so i’m going to post those layouts in lieu of a more normal gwyn-style wedding post.  this is quite possibly my most very favourite wedding album design EVER.  thanks again to tammy for coming to shoot and contributing some of these incredible images!

we started off shooting the rehearsal dinner…she wanted complete coverage of the weekend in her album.

(there was an error in the layout rendering…they’re all supposed to be b&w…oops!)

these are all tammy’s.

(these are all tammy’s, too.)

(another good reason to hire a 2nd shooter…this moment from 2 perspectives!)

(i liked tammy’s shots of the kiss better than mine…check out that BLUUUUUUEEEE SKY!)

and last but not least…arguably my favourite spread…in the history of wedding album spreads.

so, guys…you should totally pick your wedding photographer before you propose.  here’s why:

sarah went on ahead of us…she has no idea what’s about to happen! (she DID say later that we were walking along talking very chummily. )

sarah & jeff are really good friends of mine. the circumstances around their wedding/engagement are pretty funny…jeff’s finishing up his PhD and just got offered a job teaching at his alma mater…so they decided in the space of about 3 weeks to get married in 2 months…the week before they move! so…they’re planning their wedding, they’ve made deposits (secured the photographer!)…and jeff still hadn’t proposed. sarah and i eat lunch every thursday, and i’ve taken to asking her every time we speak, “are you engaged yet?!” when i asked her yesterday, she said, “no. i really think he’s going to do it the night before!” i giggled in my head because *i* knew when he was gonna pop the question!

we planned to go ahead and do the engagement session anyway…which proved to be perfect timing for jeff. (and extra ironic for me! sarah and i actually discussed whether i should offer to hide in the bushes when jeff proposed…but she said she didn’t think jeff would go for it. so when i got his email a couple weeks ago suggesting that very thing, i was bemused and excited.)

she’s been wearing the ring anyway, so even though he asked for it back before kneeling…she was still surprised!

a gleeful post-engagement twirl…first it was sarah’s turn…then jeff’s!

stay tuned for a post with photos from the rest of their session!

oh oh!  additional fun trivia…like i said, they’re really close friends of mine, so when i was talking to jeff about possible locations, i said, “which beach was it where you first said, ‘i…’  wait.  am i supposed to know that?”  so, this is the beach where they first told each other, “i love you.”  even though it was a horrible, gross, grey, cloudy and cold day, it was worth it to go somewhere that had so much meaning to them together.

this past april i traveled down to the baltimore area with some good friends of mine (who’ve made many appearances on this blog) to attend a mutual friend’s wedding.

i didn’t even bring my camera, but i did email their photographer to ask for a couple of the funny dancing shots…my date was TOTALLY cute

becky and i are totally amused that we unwittingly made the same face/did the same thing…(also, yes, she DID just have that 5 month old baby in the picture.  and yes.  i DO sometimes hate her.  and yes, it does pain me to put a picture of myself next to her.  there…are you happy you dragged all that out of me?  i need a counseling session now.)