Amy+Ben in New York City

Amy and Ben are awesome! We already knew this, but it was further solidified upon staying with them for a week in Brooklyn. :) We photographed their engagement session at Duke University and their wedding in Raleigh and now we’ve photographed their anniversary session near their home in Brooklyn, New York. :) They were living in New York City when we first Skyped with them about their wedding but then all of the subsequent photos involving them were taken in North Carolina were Amy was raised, so we thought it would be pretty rad to finally have some pictures of them taken where they’ve been living for so long. :) Since we were in Buffalo and Rochester for the previous weddings, shoots and visiting Geoff’s family, we were able to Megabus it from Rochester to NYC for $50 so it was a win-win for all involved. And they were so ridiculously gracious to allow us to stay with them in their apartment for a week while we ran around the city and spoiled their cats (who, it turns out, really enjoy balls made out of tin foil).

Their neighborhood is amazing and quiet. We were walking back from the subway at 1:30am one morning and we just saw a few people our age walking about and one elderly woman who was asking her dog which way he thought they should walk down the street. We were able to get everywhere… including the little great grocery store that had a lot of yummy gluten free things! And there was a place called the Farmacy that was basically a soda fountain and we both had our first NYC egg cremes! And some really nice woman in the subway gave me her water when I was about to pass out from heat stroke (it was really, really, really hot while we were there… even for people who live in the south)! We had an awesome time and want to thank Amy and Ben for being the BEST EVER!!

P.S. If you want to see our other New York adventures (including Geoff visiting the Ghostbusters fire house and us actually drinking the egg cremes), visit our Instagram page!

Ellie+Geoff’s Wedding at Griffis Sculpture Park in East Otto, NY

One Ellie. One Carolyn. Two Geoffs with the correct spelling(!). Two beards. Two RIT alumni. One hotdog tie. One R2D2 table greeter. Several amazon women sculptures. A few Princess Bride references.

Two months ago, one Ellie e-mailed one Carolyn to ask if we would be available to travel to  upstate New York to shoot their wedding on a Wednesday (well, it’s kind of southwesternish New York… about an hour south of Buffalo, but our Geoff claims that when he grew up in upstate New York that everything outside of the city is often referred to as upstate, so we’re sticking to it). In her e-mail, Ellie mentioned that she was upset because she hasn’t been able to find her Ace of Base cd lately, to which Carolyn enthusiastically mentioned that she used to roller skate with her sister in their parents’ basement to the Ace of Base cassette tape on repeat when she was younger. Ellie responded that she has a scar from roller skating in her parents’ basement and she then forwarded the e-mail to her Geoff, who responded that he also used to roller skate in his parents’ basement, but not to Ace of Base. An immediate bond was formed. We found out that Ellie’s Geoff also went to RIT (where our Geoff went) and also has a beard (so does ours!!). Clearly, this was very much meant to be.

They chose their date because they thought it’d be nice to have fireworks on their wedding anniversary every year. They based their wedding colors off of Geoff’s BMW M series. They bought old mattress springs online, cut and stained wooden boards to attach them to, and used them as vases for their awesome fabric flower centerpieces complete with random keyboard keys. They bought us Dharma Initiative pins to wear around as button-eres. There was a hotdog tie as a reference to the groom’s last name.

I think if it wasn’t for the possibility of a lot of ticks in the tall grass and for the shred of dignity that I’ve managed to hang on to, I probably would’ve rolled around on the ground like a puppy in the sun for a good while when I saw their wedding ceremony location at Griffis Sculpture Park. I never thought giant naked stone women would make for such an interesting or useful background but it did. I could type a lot more but I’m tired and you probably want to see the pictures. Ellie and Geoff – we are forever grateful for this wonderful experience that you kindly bestowed on us this summer and the absolute kindness you all showed us while we were there. We look back on it with big smiles.

Date: July 3, 2013

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Griffis Sculpture Park // East Otto, NY

Ellie’s Occupation: Research Assistant

Geoff’s Occupation: Part of the IT Crowd

How You Met: At work

Interesting Bride Fact: Never lived in the state I was born in

Interesting Groom Fact: Has never seen Titanic

Honeymoon Destination: Cancun

Vendor Credits: Officiant – Wayne Schultz, PhD | Cake – Paula’s Donuts | Caterer – Dina’s on the ‘Mont | Videographer – Helen Cook of Love Delights Cinematography | Bottlecap Pins – MyHoard store on Etsy | Veil – BrendasBridalVeils store on Etsy | Design of flags, menu board, paper airplane programs, thank you cards and hair and makeup all done by the “Best Sister Ever!” – Ruth Baratta | Actual making of centerpieces and menu boards and all the cool stuff you see is credited to Ellie, Geoff, Ruth, and other family members.

Ellie+Geoff’s Engagement Session at Griffis Sculpture Park, New York

We’re not going to ruin all of our fun and interesting facts about Ellie and Geoff and how/why they brought us to New York to photograph their engagement session and wedding (hint: it involves winning them over with roller skating in our parents’ basements, Ace of Base, beards, two mothers strongly believing that the British spelling of Jeff is better, some robots, and RIT). We’ll save that for their wedding blog (coming up next!). For now – you’ll have to deal with the pictures of the two of them romping around Griffis Sculpture Park during their engagement session in Springville, New York… which is kind of Buffalo, New York… which is kind of upstate New York but not really… it’s more kind of the middle of a field in the southwestern-ish part of the state. There were giant parrot-spider creatures and crabs and snakes and Geoff warned us that there would be amazon women in the woods and we didn’t believe him, but there were.