For Bragging Rights!... THE MGM GRAND!

So we did it, its official. The first Wedding Reception held inside the MGM Grand Hotel. Up to this point, they were all held over at an adjacent country club.
















We were given this cool opportunity by our Bride and Groom, Carissa and Steve.

I doctored up the sign image above to make it look like the Casino was actually running it. Carissa thought it was cool.














They pulled out all the stops for this one. The pre and post ceremony pics were held at the Father of the Bride's house. Partially perched on a stone ledge overlooking a lake, he constructed the stone stairways and walls that lead up from a beautifully landscaped lawn area to the main house. No shortage of areas to shoot formals here folks.

We just had to put the Guys on the ledge for this pic.














After the mass we returned to the Bride's father house again for all the formals.

From there, we headed over to the MGM Grand at Foxwoods.




We hit the lobby first and met with Ella the Event Coordinator who graciously allowed us a few moments to use the main lobby for some wedding party pictures (I could have spent an hour here easily). The decor inside was in fact...well...GRAND! The really cool part was the wedding party became the entertainment. Every time we would turn around we had a crowd of people watching.

We walked the entire wedding entourage (and I do mean entourage...9 ladies, 7 men, 5 children and the Bride and Groom) through the casino and up two escalators to the function room for the cocktail hour (funny, I don’t think I have ever worked a wedding with an escalator in it...huh...)



This presented us with a "D-ice" sculpture if you will, with built in Martini luge.













The reception hall was easily the largest we had ever worked with something like 15000-20000 square feet. I needed a fish eye just to get the whole head table in the shot! Remember it needed to accomodate 18 adults!

And yes, they partied it up.

After all the main reception events were covered, Gail sent me out on a "walk about" to find a nice spot to photograph the bride and groom to close out their album. We wanted to put them on the Casino floor, but you can not even point a camera in the general direction of the casino or it might be confiscated--we didn't test this theory.

So instead, and with a little help from one of the security guards, I found the front lawn that has a great view of the tower. Though a little foggy and rainy, I thought it would work. I made the call and Gail brought Carissa and Steve out to me. We snagged a couple of shots...I think it works...


We hired the two best men (yup, twins)to sport a little advertising ink for us and Carissa joined in.

After the last dance, we all headed over to the Shrine night club (which was right off the Casino floor) for the after party. What was really cool was that our wedding party got us the VIP treatment and we were whisked past the huge line to get in. Thanks guys!



After the club, we did get a little frivolous and gambled away about $5 in nickels at the slots machines = ).

I don't think we went to bed until about 4AM. Don't forget, that casino is jumping 24-7 and we had overnight babysitters! = )

We woke up at 8:30am that same morning to meet the Bride and her Bridesmaids over at the pool for our first "Trash the Dress" shoot. I jumped in first and got set-up with a camera while Gail shot long. By the time they were ready to go we had a crowd gathered around the pool (staff included). 1...2...3! SPLASH!





As we found out later, a lot of people were looking down from hotel tower itself! We spent the day checking out the establishment, ran into a few people we knew (one of which was our LandLord at the Studio!) and then headed home.

What an event!
















A big thanks to Carissa and Steve for a lot of great
firsts = ).


Bets Wishes!

Kerry and James - Our Newport Newlyweds

Another great wedding weekender.

Gail and I decided to stay overnight for this one.

As beautiful as the wedding location was, we were both physically and technically challenged in ways we have not ever been.

The Bride and Groom were married outside on the water with the sun setting behind them and STRONG winds blowing right in our face (you might remember the “Mothers Day” winds). The wind was so persistent that at one point the bride and groom switched places just to keep the veil from beating up the Groom! Never the less it was a great ceremony!

I think we still managed to pull off some nice shots as well.


We were able to play off the sun for some great shadow shots.

The Ocean Cliffs is a beautiful facility with gorgeous woodwork inside.







The band they had rocked the house. What was really cool was when the brass section ventured out to the dance floor!



We were also blessed in the sense that we got to hang out with another past Bride and Groom who now have beautiful twin girls. Man starting to feel OLD! It was great to see them…ALL four of them = ).




Best wishes you two!








So the next day, taking full advantage of Nana (at home wioth the boys) and our location, we did what any married couple would do when the have a chance to get away without the kids for a weekend……WHAT EVER THE HECK WE WANTED! = ).



We went to the cliff walk and saw some of the mansions, then headed out into downtown Newport on foot--with cameras.




We came across this beautiful firehouse. No doubt one of the most unique ones I have seen. The wedged shape of the building meant that only one truck could pull out at a time or they would get stuck in the doorway. Hmmmm....sounds like one expensive game of chicken if you ask me = )

















The guys there were cool and let us snap a couple of shots of them. They were pretty used to it being in such a cool station in such a historic city. I would venture to guess that we were not the first cameras to stop in for a visit here.
Thank you guys!



















We finshed the day off at an awesome burger joint and enjoyed our first taste of Blueberry Beer! Sounds weird, but it was REALLY good!

That's a Wrap! -Another Theater Season Comes to an End

Our Theater troops and Schools knocked down some great shows this year. Some of which were even state final contenders. Let's see...."The King Stag", "The Terezin Promise", "Angels in America", "Beauty and the Beast", "Rent", "Aida","Peter Pan", "I Never Saw Another Butterfly", "Jungle Book", "Bugsy", "Aladin", "Honk Jr." and "High School Musical 2".

Just think we saw all these shows at least twice!


I have posted in this blog just SOME of my personal favorites...

Needless to say I have more than one show tune kicking around in the back of my head!


Here I am (left)with our Seniors from Tyngsboro High School for there last performance of Aida. We have been photographing them since middle school! We will miss all of you! Make sure to come back and visit us. You know where we will be.







































Gail and I attended Westford Academy Awards and for the first time we showed up at the Tyngsboro Theater Banquet. It was nice to say goodbye to all our seniors. We enjoyed, like the parents did, watching these kids mature into young adults and see how their talents sharpened and matured.

















This shot (right, despite the obvious watermarkings) was taken by our good friend Mr. John Schreiber. He has been working with us a bit to learn some of what we have about the theater photo business. "Nice Shootin Tex". Thanks for the help too!









Gail and I would also like to send a special shout out to Anna and Kelly, a couple of very ambitous young ladies, who ran a local independent theater troop called of A&K Enterpises. We have been shooting there plays for a couple of years now. They pretty much did it all, amazingly. Well, they our now headed off to High School. We wish them well and will keeping an eye on them for sure. That kind of drive will yeild them sucess in whatever they do.