gwyneth colleen photography » portsmouth, nh wedding photographer

i’m going through and making sure i’m all caught up on blogging 2008 weddings…and i just discovered that i never showed any of the photos from jonathan & caroline’s wonderful prospect park wedding…in may 2008. that’s right…like…20 months ago. and i’m still gonna put ‘em up here. it will make my dichotomous disorganized list-loving self feel good.

jonathan is jeff’s brother…so i first met jonathan & caroline at halida & jeff’s wedding in june 2007. (and of course, halida & jeff were at this shindig…it’s always great to catch up with past clients and see how they’re doing!)

anyway, jonathan and caroline had a casual and elegantly playful (can something be elegantly playful? i’m pretty sure it can) affair at the picnic house in brooklyn’s prospect park.

i loved the little name tags on each bouquet. the florist paid such wonderful attention to the little details.

this stuffed crab was given to caroline as a child by a very dear family friend, and it weathered lots of life’s ups and downs with her over the years…so of COURSE it had to be present on her wedding morning.

this shot of the bridal party and close friends so perfectly encapsulates the ESSENCE of who they are together, and how much fun they have…

caroline’s nephew was impossibly adorable…

caroline and her dad (who, if i recall correctly, is a high school principal) tore it UP on the dance floor.

i really enjoyed being a part of their celebration…it was beautiful and very representative of who they are as people…and, of course, it was a GREAT party!

florist: emily white
dress: wai ching
venue: prospect park picnic house

(please forgive the formatting errors; i’ve been fiddling with it for quite a while, and i can’t work out the kinks…soon we’ll be back to more recent weddings where the images are formatted for my current blog dimensions. )

as a teenager, and in college, i explored south america, oceania, and southeast asia…i just…didn’t really CARE about europe. i don’t know why. it didn’t seem exotic, romantic, or mysterious enough.

but that switch has been flipped, and after this trip, europe seems like the most wonderful and intoxicating place on the planet. (well, maybe not MOST…but it’s my current geographical craving.) i fully intend to return to europe for longer than 5 days and let the history and cobblestones seep through my shoes and into my soul.

day 5 started off on top of the alp with that crystal clear view i’d been hoping for.

from inside the room.

then had to grab one last pain au chocolat for breakfast before descending the alp.

i won’t tell you how many shots i took or how long i stood there waiting for the flag to unfurl JUST RIGHT.

i went to 3 h&m’s looking for a particular jacket…which, i could have gotten for less in the US, but i bought in switzerland on principle. i needed to have SOMETHING from my whirlwind trip to europe. i did find it, though! (mine’s red.)

after my shopping was completed…i set about exploring geneva. i only had about 4 hours until i needed to catch the train back to the airport for my flight out, but i managed to cover quite a bit of ground.

(this one MIGHT be my favorite from the day…and the water really is crazy blue.)

i love this one and the next one a whole lot as well.

these two totally don’t go together. the first one is all, “yay, pretty europe,” and the second…well, it is wrong on about 100 different levels.

pretty much the entire day was spent in the car, with a few enjoyable resting interludes…which is not to say driving wasn’t fun. i think driving on the autobahn was on my mental do-before-i-die list. (i think i’ve started about 16 written lists, but i never manage to get past about 10 things. and, of course, none of them say the same things. sometimes it’s more fun to catalog the things i HAVE done.)

JP suggested swinging by strassbourg on my way back to switzerland…in theory, this was good advice…which i intended to take. however, google maps decided that i should go through strassbourg on the way to germany…and enjoy their rush hour traffic…but it sent me back south through germany. so, on a whim, i got off at an exit. and followed signs i couldn’t read, hoping i’d find something delightful to see. i was most definitely successful…and not having ANY IDEA where i was or the name of the town added a bit of spice to my adventure.

the church on the left is in the town i came to first on my detour…it had a map just next to it…there was a castle icon, so i decided to see if i could meander my way there…i’m still not sure if i wound up there or somewhere else. ? the one on the right is in neuleiningen, the town where i finally wound up. (i figured this out by taking a picture of every sign i saw and googling when i got home.)

picture perfect german town.

wouldn’t you eat germany countryside flavored ice cream if ben and jerry’s invented that variety?

i was very happy to be standing in front of a german castle.

if these two images don’t make you want to explore, i don’t know if we could be friends.

godzilla’s practice run before he took on tokyo.

i like to think this was a prison pit. i mean, any self-respecting german castle would need one, right? on the right is the view through the bars looking up.

i am a giant dork of a wedding photographer, and i can’t help looking at this and thinking that it would be a super cool spot for a ceremony.

postcard! (seriously, fall colors…tile roofs…there is even a freaking river wending its way through the valley.)

i think this is the first hint of blue sky i saw the entire trip!

got a LITTLE too into driving european style and failed to notice that i was very nearly out of gas. don’t worry…this was taken at the gas station when i turned the car back on to show the dangerously empty tank.

every day i was there, i prayed that i’d get to see a clear view from the balcony. the night before i was due to leave…God said, “ok.” and it was still clear in the morning when i woke up! stay tuned for those images. they’re pretty freaking spectacular.

hey everyone…i’m leaving in a little over 12 hours for a trip to the bahamas with my sister. i’m not bringing a computer, so i don’t expect to have email access. i will be responding to all emails as soon as i am able upon my return 1/26. thanks for understanding!

(and i bought an underwater point and shoot to play with while i’m there…i’m sure i’ll have a few vacation snapshots to share!)