Camille and Keith

Camille and Keith have been together about, let's see if I can remember this correctly, about 53 years, give or take a month. If you check back with my blog in about 75 years, I'll post an entry about their 75th anniversary. Camille and Keith are two of the most beautiful people I've ever met. I know it's because of their love of God and the respect they have for and the guidance they've received from their parents. This couple will conquer anything placed in their path.

Jolene and I documented their ceremony at St. James AME Church in Newark New Jersey. It was in this church that their relationship grew into it's present day form. Could the well mannerism of Keith towards Camille have anything to do with the fact that her father is not only a member of St. James, but also a Minister there. Hmmmmmmm.

The reception was held in Verona, New Jersey at the Richfield Regency. The Richfield seemed to be the perfect location to hold Camille and Keith's family and friends. I think it may have been a little cold for some of Camille's relatives up from Barbados. Now..... maybe if they would have handed me a pan of fresh flying fish from home, I could have put the good word in for them. It's funny but every time I heard Camille's mother speak with her Bajan accent I got a craving for flying fish. If you've never had it, you haven't lived yet. Drop me a line and I'll send you Camille's mom's number so she can make you a batch (of course you do know I'm joking).

Don't forget to check out the slide show.

BlackJack any one?

Ok, so this weekend I went to Virginia with my girlfriend to attend the wedding of one of her relatives. It was cool, but that's not what I'm writing about today. On the way home up the Jersey Turnpike we stopped to get gas. As we sat in line this black car pulls up next to us. It was kind of dark outside, so we had tough time figuring out what it was. So we asked the owner as he stepped away to light a cigarette (way... away). He said it's a "ROUSH Mustang Stage 3 BlackJack." ROUSH Performance is one of best, if not the leading race car engineering companies in the racing industry. When he pulled the car up to receive gas he invited me to see under the hood. You can tell this guy was proud of his baby. The attendant asked if he wanted regular gas, he jumped and responded "Oh No, No, Only High Test," like a steak connoisseur being asked by a waiter if he wants catchup on his Kobe Steak. (If you don't get that, don't worry about it.)

Needless to say I've never seen a 430 horsepower engine up close before. There were only 100 of these cars built and the only come in a high gloss black. So I can say I got to personally check out number 51 of 100.

Yeah, I know this post had nothing to do with weddings, but the car was
HOT!!!

Sorry, but of course I decided not to travel with my camera, but I swear it looked just like that.

Jaclyn and Mario

Ok, Ok..... How should I sum up this couple. Let's see, 100% passion, 100% love, 150% fun and 50% knowledge of one of the greatest movies of all time "GLADIATOR." How could you not have seen .... "Focus Rob, focus" "Woosaaaaa, Wooo - saaaaa" Ok, I'll get back to that later.

I knew I was in for a fun day when Jackie decided to send me a text message with a snapshot of Mario and herself on Metro North coming to meet me. I arrived at Grand Central Station a little ahead of time, and ended up meeting them at T.G.I Friday's. Back into GCS we went, and you know, I never knew there was a Michael Jordan Steak House in there. Never ate there before, adding that to me list. While taking photos Jackie and Mario all of a sudden ran over to this trash can and started messing with it. At first I thought they were bugging out, then I said to myself, "cool, they want to move it to the center of the area and climb on it for photos." But it was then that I noticed the can was covered with the classy woman of WE TV's "Bridezilla." Can't believe they caught that before me. Don't worry, Jaclyn's definitely no Bridezilla.

We walked around the neighborhood for a while as Mario often made those faces that say "I'm up to something no good," or "my mind's in the gutter," or "hmmmm." This is the look feared by some and loved by others. At one point while they were posing on a lion figure, Mario made one of these faces, his hands weren't in view of me, but I'm sure the people on the other side of the glass behind them could have told me what was going on. We came across a group of circular platforms for sitting. I had Jackie and Mario sit on two of the smaller ones, while right next them this gentleman sat on a huge one while talking on his cell phone. Next thing you know he pushes off while still sitting down and the platform starts to spin. Now you know we couldn't resist. They both took a seat on either side of this stranger, and the three of them kicked off together and started going around and around. The stranger never missed one word of his phone conversation, that was really cool.

As we called it a day, Jackie and Mario invited me to have a drink with them at the Pershing Square Restaurant across from GCS. And it was here, while I savored the smooth taste of an ice cold Corona, that an unspeakable horror was revealed to me. Jaclyn has never seen "GLADIATOR." I never told Mario and Jackie this, but at that very same moment I felt the ground under my stool move. I can never be sure, but it felt like......., it felt like........, well it felt like General Maximus Decimus Meridius himself had just turn over in his grave. What is this world coming to? Check back in the weeks to come, their wedding will be a blast.

Check out the slide show!
"Strength and Honor"

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.

Congratulations Jessica and Mark, let's find an excuse to do it again.

I mean the celebration part.

And Thank You.

The Side Show is a must see, click "here"

Sabine and Steven

A few months ago I did an engagement photo session with Sabine and Steven. Well, their day has finally arrived.

On Friday, I began my day at the Queens home of Sabine, while Jolene photographed Steven at the home of his parents a few blocks away. I heard that Steven's father was pretty confident that with his marriage to Sabine, the chances of Steven trying to move back home dropped down pretty low. Their family dog was actually dressed for the occasion, but was unable to take part in the ceremony. Maybe that's why she looked really unhappy about being put in the wedding dress, which actually looked pretty good on her. She would have made one serious "Bridezilla."

The ceremony took place at St. Clair's Church, not to far from their home. Once my two friends were declared "Husband and Wife," Steven finally seemed at ease. You see he was a nervous wreck up to this point. Sabine did much better, only asking me for a time check about 64 times while she was getting ready. The reception was held at La Dolce Vita in Great Neck. The MC "Opera Steve" of Fiesta Entertainment, helped create a beautiful night of celebration for family and friends.

Check out the slide show.