Munroe Photography: Jessica and Mark

This is only the second wedding I've done that took place entirely in my home borough of Brooklyn. Jessica and Mark are both originally from out of town, but now call Brooklyn home. Good choice guys!!

"Le Petit" set the stage for the beginning of this wedding day. Here Jolene and I met up with Jessica and her friends Lindsey and Maria as she got her hair and makeup done. Lindsey....., I must admit that I was at first fooled by her mild mannerism, sitting there next to Marie, with her short (finely tuned, low maintenance) hair cut. I guess I didn't notice the sign around her neck that read "Break glass in case of celebration."

Jessica and Mark got ready in separate rooms of Bed and Breakfast on the Park, which is located in Park Slope. The ceremony and reception took place at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, which is located about 3 blocks up Prospect Park West from the B&B. The BSEC resides inside and a mansion built in 1900, a really beautiful building.

The voes were exchanged in the garden, where Jessica was escorted by her father as two of their friends played a banjo and violin. Now before we left the mansion I asked Jessica, Mark, their family and friends who they thought might end up turning on the water works. Of course everyone denied any tears would flow. But with a pre-ceremony speech by Jessica's parents, and another by her brother Mike, I guess some dust must have flown into her eyes. Just a little dust I would say. Mark on the other hand must have left some shampoo in his eyes that worked on a delayed timer triggered by listening to his mother's speech. And then of course there was Michelle, a friend of Jessica's who'd been crying off and on since I met her in the B&B. A very consistent woman. Don't get me wrong, it seems a number of guest must have been hit by the same dust as Jessica, or used the same brand of shampoo as Mark.

With family and friends from almost every corner of this country and Norway, (Jessica is half Viking) the party was on. Jessica's father led the family in a recital of the University of Kansas fight song, which was pretty cool. There was also a sort of Norwegian tradition where the family did a toast, drinking a shot of a Norwegian drink called "Aquavit". Maybe it was the faces made by everyone, and the speed in which they chased those shots down with anything handy, that leads me to believe it didn't tasted all that good.

There were speeches and toasts given by Lindsey, Uncle Kurt and Mark's best friend Joe. Seeing a stack of 5x7 postcards in Joe's hand you knew it was going to be a long one. But you'd never guessed it would be so good. Deep and funny, you can tell Joe took some time putting it all together. But it didn't take too long to realize that most of that deep thought probably took place in a movie theater while watching "The Transformers," where Joe must have been inspired by non other than Optimus Prime himself. All in all, it was a great, great day.