We absolutely love the opportunity to capture more than “just the wedding day!” There is always so much that goes into a wedding celebration and it is usually those moments before and after the big day that hold such a special place in our couple’s hearts! For Katie and Ben, that is especially true!

We joined Katie and Ben and just a few of their family and friends on Fire Island on Thursday before their Saturday wedding. We photographed their engagement session that evening and then joined up with 5 of their family members and friends for an intimate dinner party! Greg and Rob, Katie’s uncles, welcomed us into their home in such a spectacular way and treated us to the most AMAZING dinner to kick the festivities off!

As we sat around the dinner table, we laughed harder than we have ever laughed! I am pretty sure that is not an exaggeration, but the truth! ;) That evening was the perfect example of what to expect over the next two days!- a lot of laughs and certainly a lot of celebration!

After the incredibly AMAZING dessert of grilled peaches and ice cream, Ben quietly got up from the table and whispered something into Sergio’s (the caterer) ear. Without skipping a beat, Sergio nonchalantly started placing champagne glasses on the table. I am pretty sure I was the only one to notice as everyone else was so focused on their cheeks hurting because they were laughing so much! ;) I quickly excused myself and went downstairs to grab our camera because I had a feeling something big was about to happen. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Ben had a special announcement to make. As everyone got quiet, Ben read an email from his phone stating that the offer he and Katie made on a house was accepted and they were now homeowners!!!! How incredibly exciting is that?!?! Their housing search had been going on for quite some time and they were about to move on without even hearing back from this offer because it technically had expired. But the night before their wedding festivities officially began, sitting around the dinner table with some of their closest family and friends, they received the exciting news and started the celebration early! ;)

I am so grateful we were there to capture that happiness! I am sure when they look back on their first home buying experience, that dinner will be one they remember full of stress relief and complete joy! ;) It was the perfect way to kick their wedding weekend off! ;)

Although it was over two years ago now, I still remember receiving the email from Katie’s mom that Katie was getting married! The picture I had of Katie in my mind was from when I used to babysit her and her younger brothers. She was still about 12 in my mind! ;) I can’t even tell you how excited I was to hear from Katie just a few months later asking us to photograph her wedding! What an honor! Katie and Ben’s Long Island wedding took place on Fire Island… just a boat ride away from Sayville, NY. As we boarded the ferry for their wedding weekend celebration, it hit me. We were on a boat to capture the AMAZING memories of this incredible time in Katie and Ben’s lives. Their closest family and friends would soon be taking that same ferry to come together to celebrate! How incredibly special to be able to photograph this beautiful young lady that I grew up with and her handsome groom that brings out the biggest smile in Katie on a super quaint island in NY? We are certainly blessed and so incredibly honored to be a part of this celebration! Katie and Ben, we are beyond happy for you! Your smiles, especially when you are together, are endless and absolutely beautiful! Thank you for the opportunity to capture this AMAZING time in your lives! It means more than you know! Congratulations!!! The logistics of Katie and Ben’s wedding have been in the works for over 2 years! Planning a wedding on an island does come with a lot of challenges, especially when working with island time! ;) But Katie and Ben pulled it off without a hitch with the help of so many incredibly AMAZING people – especially Katie’s uncles, Greg and Rob! Greg and Rob, your hospitality was beyond AMAZING! Thank you for making us feel at home and going above and beyond to make Katie and Ben’s weekend so incredibly special! Huge thanks to all of the wedding professionals who helped along the way too:

Hair & Makeup: Denise Connor, friend of the bride | Florist: Bayport Flower House | Ceremony Location: Fire Island Pines Beach | Reception Venue: Private Residence | Caterer: Billy Carroll Events | Cake: April Conley, friend of bride & groom | Transportation: Sayville Ferry Service | Bride’s Attire: Caroline DeVillo, ceremony, Alice Sioux Bridal via Etsy.com, reception | Bride’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin | Groom’s Attire: Custom tuxedo by Nordstrom | Wedding Bands: Blue Nile | Photographer: Liz and Ryan

This wedding has been one we have looked forward to for so long! Katie and Ben have been engaged for longer than they have been dating! They have been planning their Fire Island wedding for quite some time and we certainly were excited about that! But I think what we were most excited about is the fact that we were going to be photographing a beautiful young lady that I actually babysat many many years ago! CRAZY! ;)

Yes, that made me feel a little old. But even more excited! Seeing Katie grow into such a beautiful young lady and find love and so much happiness is so incredibly heartwarming!

We could’t wait to meet up with Katie and Ben to kick off their Fire Island wedding weekend with a Long Island Engagement Session! Here is just the beginning of more wedding weekend goodness to come!

One of the MANY things we love most about our job is the ability to travel and explore new places together. We have shared this story before, but when we started our photography business, we dreamed it would provide a side pot of money that would help us explore the world. Today, we are so grateful to say that our photography business gives us an excuse to travel and see this world! ;) Our couples take us to the most AMAZING places and share their favorite hidden gems with us! ;) This past weekend, we explored Fire Island (a tiny super quaint island off of Long Island) for Katie and Ben’s wedding weekend and we cannot wait to share this beautiful place along with this AMAZING couple with you all soon! ;)

In the meantime, there is more…

One of the other main reasons we LOVE our jobs is that it provides an opportunity to dream. We dream out loud often and share those dreams on this very blog & over at AMAZING Life Together too (In fact, we just did a post about this in the AMAZING Life Together 30 Day Challenge!)! One of the dreams we have shared in the past is our dream to photograph a wedding in Italy! Well friends, we could not be more excited to share the news that we will be photographing a wedding in Puglia, Italy next May! ;) Dreams come true, friends!!! So please, keep dreaming! ;) What is even more exciting is that the wedding we will be photographing is the wedding for this incredibly AMAZING couple! Meet Casey and Alex:

I am really not kidding when I say I feel like Casey is my soul sister! ;) I just happened to be responding to emails at the time she emailed us inquiring about engagement photos. When she shared the news that she and Alex were planning a wedding in Italy, I pretty much poured my heart out to her in an email! ;) I shared our dream of photographing a wedding in Italy and after about 10 emails back and forth in a matter of about 10 minutes, we were ready to leave for Italy with them the next day! ;) Casey and Alex have this incredibly adventurous spirit that inspires us! They are such an AMAZING couple and we could not be more excited to be able to document this AMAZING adventure in their lives!!! Casey and Alex, thank you for helping to make our dream come true!!!

As Lesley was getting her hair and makeup done for the wedding, Kelsey, one of her beautiful bridesmaids, shared the news that the wedding flowers had arrived! Lesley was so excited to see them! She said that she had absolutely no idea what they were going to look like because she did not give the florist any direction at all! She just told her to do her thing. ;)

AMAZING! Seriously. I almost gave Lesley a high-five right then and there when she told us that… without even seeing the flowers! She had so much trust in the wedding professionals she was surrounded by that she knew she could be hands off. She didn’t have to worry about them not coming out as she had planned because she had complete faith that the professional florist she had doing her flowers would do an AMAZING job!

And an AMAZING job she did! I have said this so many times since Lesley and Clayton’s wedding: We have never seen wedding flowers that were so absolutely perfectly fitting for that day! Anne from Charleston Stems wowed us in so many ways! The florals were so perfect…. so so perfect. They were not over the top or distracting, they were just perfect accents to Lesley and Clayton’s amazingly beautiful nautical day.

We share this as a lesson learned and perfect reminder to all of us: We hire professionals for a reason! They are professionals at what they do and when given the autonomy they will likely do a better job than any of us could ever dream it to be! ;) I know sometimes we even struggle to take a step back when hiring a professional for different things, but we are the first ones to celebrate when we know our couples and clients have 100% pure confidence in us! As a professional, that is the best feeling in the world! ;)

Anne, thank you for wowing us and helping to make Lesley and Clayton’s day even more beautiful than we could have ever imagined! You are quite talented and it was such an honor to work with you!