in keeping with the trend of weddings

I realized also that I never posted the pictures I took at our friends Mike and Aiyana's wedding! That was way back in June. Steve and Mike were college housemates and Mike was a groomsman in our wedding, Steve was a groomsman in theirs.

Warning: I have a TON of pictures from this wedding... there is a reason for this, I was infatuated with the fact that this was the first wedding in years that I had attended as an actual guest! I took pictures of whatever I wanted, because I wanted to. Not because someone was paying me to. And the coolest thing about it all was that I could have not taken a single picture and it would have been ok. I just wanted to play around in some ways I may not have if it was one of my own weddings {kapiche?}





lest you think that I went in and commandeered her dress as I would have being the photographer, I did not. In fact, her actual photog was taking pictures of the dress in this same spot, I just stole a shot too :)





















Call me a cheeseball but this was the first time I got to see my new name written in type like this :) It was a special moment lol



I can't believe it's been 4 months since our wedding now! When I look at other people, I think 4 months is a long time, but when I look at me, I think it was like yesterday! But so much has happened since then. Amazing...

Anyways, Mike and Aiyana are actually coming up to visit us in 3 weeks! We are going to try and show them everything fall about NY. I can't wait to see them again :D

friends getting married

This year I've been to 10 weddings.

5 as the photographer
3 as a guest
1 as a bridesmaid
1 as a bride :)

And I still have one more next week! In Texas no less. That's right, I'm photographing a wedding in Texas on South Padre Island. I could not be more excited honestly.

But right now, I am sharing some pictures from the September 10th wedding that I was a bridesmaid in. My friends Laura and Danny got engaged a couple months after I did, leaving about the same amount of time I worked with to plan their wedding. It was at the Woodcliff in Victor NY and it turned out to be a spectacular day for an outdoor wedding.



The gorgeous bride!



her stunning dress. I hesitate to even say this, because there's really no way to tell from this picture, but there was a serious tailoring fiasco the day before the wedding. The only reason I am mentioning this is to give a very stern thumbs down to Quick Fix Tailoring in Marketplace Mall. I will forevermore speak of how poorly she was treated there and pretty much ruined her dress... which we fixed. But the day of your wedding is not the time you want to be fixing a serious mess up :(









This is Laura's daughter, Naomi, who was the flower girl :)







Almost every formal event we've gone to since getting married we have (slightly intentionally unintentionally) matched. Oh just wait til we have kids... ha!

Anyways, congratulations to Danny and Laura aka Mr and Mrs Castro! I love you and am so very happy for you :)

NYS Fair - oh the things you will see

Guess who had never been to the state fair before this year.

Oh, that would be me.

Why no, I haven't ever seen a butter sculpture before.



and as a matter of fact, I've never seen mutant hybrid chickens before either.



and I'm especially glad that they put a sign on the bunny cages alerting me not to stick my fingers in there to pet their soft fuzzy fur because let me tell you, I would have.



the things you find at the fair... well I made a list of things I thought I might see there beforehand, but I didn't expect to find this. no sir, that was not on my list. would you like to see the list?



doesn't really matter if you want to or not, because here it is. In fact, it's not just a list, it's state fair BINGO! I made one for everyone!



I got BINGO like 3rd which kinda womped, and this board isn't even accurate. If you'll notice I never crossed off "butter sculpture" which I clearly did see. But I was depressed that I had already lost so I just stopped after a while. Boo.

would you have also guessed that you could see a bass with lipstick on it?





If you go back up to the BINGO board you'll see one of the boxes says "animal other than dog on a leash" and you'll also notice that it is in fact crossed off. It was a baboon. Yep.



Why noone else was excited about salt water taffy at the fair, I have no clue. I love this stuff and even made it once when I was a kid. It's not worth it, just buy it.



If there wasn't a weight limit on this hamster ball thing, I totally would have done this.



All in all, the state fair was a blast. Steve and I met up with his sister Becca and her husband Steve. We ate Dinosaur bbq for lunch and then walked off the calories back and forth, around and around the fairgrounds.

I wonder if all state fairs are the same?

random roadtrips to buy cars

One hot summer morning, last year 2009, I sat at my desk working away when my brother came in and asked if I wanted to go on a road trip to New Hampshire. Ummm, sure...?

Turned out he had been looking for a specific car and finally found one with all the right qualifications but it was in NH and he needed another driver. So away we went! We left about a half hour later and arrived at 9:30pm. The dealer had waited for us to get there and it was raining, but we checked out the car decided it was all he wanted and we closed the deal.

Fast forward to this year, 2010. I get a text from Steve telling me he found the car he wanted to buy. He was almost sure of it. Made a few phone calls to see if my brother in DC would check it out because lo and behold, the car resided in Arlington, VA.

{road trip}

We headed out at 5pm that evening and arrived at Rob and Dyan's house about 11pm. The next morning we were up bright and early to navigate our way through the city and down to Arlington. The car lived up to what we expected and we closed the deal.

Where should we buy a car next summer???