I have been avoiding this topic like the plague ever since I had an amazing lunch with Kate, author of the Green Bride Guide. I felt I couldn’t talk about being green unless I was living in a yurt in Alaska, harvesting my own food, and chopping my own wood for a stove (you saw that couple in the New York Times home section about a year ago, right? After reading that, I was like ‘I totally suck. I’m killing the planet because I use heat.’)

But- f* it. I’m not perfect. My business isn’t 100% green. And it never will be. So I should be proud of the things I do because being a green home/business is important to me. I actually got into being more environmentally responsible through being an animal right activist. No, I don’t throw paint on people but I own that phrase because I believe there are sane people out there working to improve the conditions animals are in all around the world.

So it started with what I call “the bunny test”. Anything that comes in my house has to pass “the bunny test”- as in ‘did this product or company that made said product put this in a bunny’s eyeball or other body part?’. With three house rabbits, I couldn’t look *them* in the eyeball and be ok with buying a shampoo if it was tested on a fellow bunny- even if that means I have to cough up more money and not buy the Pantene Pro-V shampoo and go with the Nexxus shampoo. I try not to even buy products that aren’t tested on animals but are run by a company that still does so. So I spend more money on shampoo- fine. I don’t get new shoes. It’s a balance.

So everything that comes into my house, makeup, cleaning supplies, food, etc all has to pass “the bunny test”. And I realized in doing this, I was buying cruelty free products but also organic/green products as well. I use method soap and just buy the big bag at Target to refill the dispensers when they get low. Less packaging, less waste, green cleaning product.

Toby and Fern (2 of my 3 bunnies), hard at work yesterday, ensuring the bunny test is being taken seriously.

So my business is run out of my home, so my desk is cleaned using green products. I recycle like a mofo. All my lights are compact florescent. The cards I give my clients for their guests to access their wedding gallery are all printed are recycled paper. But I’m still a total paper whore and love to send my clients handwritten notes. I don’t have solar panels on my home. I use the computer all day editing images which sucks up energy. I buy a lot of cutting edge technology for storing and backing up images, which means electronics tend to be useless in a year or two.

I’m always looking to move forward towards even greener business practices. Sometimes it’s 2 steps forward, one step back. Like composting. I tried it and was soooo excited. I read a few books on it. And my compost pile became a giant, stinky, bug infested mess that never turned to compost. Boo. But I want my clients, friends, fellow photographers to know how important being green is to me. It’s something I have been doing well before the beginning of my business and continues.

Most couples don’t think too much about what kind of light, indoors or outdoors, will be happening during their ceremony. When I was shooting Becky and Jonathan’s ceremony, I kept thinking ‘THIS is perfect light! These ceremony pictures are going to be badass!!”

Obviously, I’m going to make ceremony pictures look good no matter what I’m given in terms of light. But in photography, everything is light. If your ceremony pictures are important, my best advice: go to your ceremony location at the same season/time your ceremony will be. Are you standing there squinting in the sun, barely able to see your partner? Is it kinda dark? Is the sun setting (then it’s way too dark)? All my clients have engagement sessions and I tell them I’m a slave to the light so we schedule sessions around the light. Same thing with your couple shots or ceremony shots. And this wedding is a great example of working with the light! Usually the best time for light from March-September is around 5:00-7:30. So don’t start your wedding at 7:30 if your ceremony will last 45 minutes; because by the end, it’s so dark, I have to whip out my flash. From September-December 3:30-5:30 is usually the best light. And as it gets to late October, the light is pretty much going or gone by 5:15.

I totally love it when couples have an arch, Chuppah, or something to decorate/define where the couple will stand. It makes for awesome pictures.

Ok, so you remember summer camp right? I’m sure you have all played “Chubby Bunny” where you stuff as many marshmallows into your mouth, one by one, and each time say “Chubby Bunny” until you literally can’t speak. Well Becky’s Uncle has been playing Chubby Bunny with Becky since she was a little girl. And her wedding was no exception. At the end of this game (he won) he presented Becky with a picture frame of them playing the same game- only as a little girl. I’m not going to lie, it was so sweet and touching after laughing so hard I could barely take a picture (stuffing marshmallows into the bride’s mouth is not the normal thing you see at a wedding- that’s why I love my couples).  And yes- that is the Waffle House. A few guests and the couple headed out to the Waffle House for the after-party and I just had to snap a few shots. This is at 2am which might explain the story about the random guy in waffle house massaging a bridesmaid’s foot. But I’m not saying anything. Nope.

Vineyards are kinda perfect for weddings with their rows of greenery and lot of fun opportunities to find cool stuff to photograph. But finding a vineyard in the DC area can be tricky- but Becky and Jonathan did! Lake Anna Winery was fun to walk around and had plenty of spots to duck away from the guests as they arrived early so we could finish the group shots. Becky had said they wanted fun group shots and when the bridesmaids lifted up their flasks for their group shot, I was pretty sure we got it.

I know I included a ton of images from their first look but I mean- c’mon! It was perfect! Cool scenery. Happy tears. That’s what it’s all about.

Sydney and Anthony got up extra early for our morning engagement session in downtown New Haven. Having lived here for more than a year, I have come to love Yale’s campus. It kinda looks like London 100 years ago to me sometimes, full of gates and old stone buildings. So Anthony got to relive Yale a bit as he went there as an undergrad and I got to learn a bit more about all the mysterious buildings of which I had no idea what went on inside.