New York is a very special place for Mandy and Bekah who traveled all the way from Canada for the weekend to get their engagement pictures and pack wedding planning into one little weekend! I got to go on the venue tour with them and am drooling over the thought of their wedding next month at Gary’s Loft.

And please wish for Mandy’s speedy recovery. She broke her foot shortly before this shoot and should get her cast off juuuuust in time for the wedding.

I realized the other day that in July I will have lived in my first house for a year. A year!!

And it feels so incomplete. Sooo not done. And messy. I feel like the rooms in my house aren’t functioning how they should. And the biggest thing I want? A dining table. I don’t have a dining table. It’s sad. We eat on the couch and can’t have people over for dinner because they would have to eat on the floor.

The main reason for this is because I use the traditional ‘dining’ room space as my client room. It’s perfect. It’s cozy and is just the right space to hang out with couples. I made it my mission when I moved in to make the space perfect before anything else- and it is. The console is a dumpster dive find that I made Natalie help me carry 5 killer blocks. It was so heavy. I honestly didn’t know if we could make the 5 blocks and secretly didn’t know if the piece was worth it. But I painted it white and love it. Then we have the couch that’s too small for the console but who’s pattern I love too much to ever give it up. And my huuuuge coffee table I picked up for $5 at a garage sale and painted a shiny black.

But the room next to it? The living room? It’s yelling at me to pay attention to it. And more than anything, I want to put a big dining table in it. I don’t know what it is about super hugenormous dining tables, but they always tug at my heart strings. They say “You could have a big seder here!” or “You could invite Natalie’s grad student friends over!” or “Putting a big table in your house means you’re an adult and can have people over and feed your family and not sit on the floor to eat” So ya.

image via Crate and Barrel

When Crate and Barrel came out with the Big Sur a few years ago I swooned. Natalie swooned. We swore when we had a house we would buy it. A real piece of furniture. But the price is making my stomach hurt. I rarely get new furniture, instead relying on garage sales and craigslist. And when I do buy new, it’s almost always Ikea. So it’s a big price to swallow.

For less than half the price, I found another table I’m in love with. It’s from CB2 and the raw wood and metal legs of the table feel just right. But I’m still a little stuck on the Big Sur. Hm.

image via CB2

Christy and Lynne came all the way up from Florida to get legally married. New Haven is my new home so doing my first civil ceremony of the year here was a lot of fun. I must admit as the morning inched closer and closer to the time of their ceremony, I started getting a little worried. It was pouring cats and dogs and hippos and everything else. And they really wanted beach shots! But after a small ceremony at the United Church on the Green with a lot of tears, we did get a chance to run out to the docks of New Haven and take a few shots. I was so pumped after shooting their ceremony…it feels so good to be shooting every weekend again. I can’t wait to upload all the pictures. Then I can’t wait to edit them all. Then I can’t wait to email the couple their slideshow. Then THEN I can’t wait to get their email back. I totally run off the high of excitement from the wedding for days!

I love the marble floors in the hall of this church!

Yes, in the pouring rain this Tuesday, Christy and Lynne got legally married in downtown New Haven, CT.

Here’s a sneak peak of their civil ceremony: