Trash the Dress

Trash the Dress photo sessions have become VERY popular!

It usually does not mean actually trashing the dress, but it means doing this in the dress that you might not want to do on your wedding day -- going to the beach, walking on the street, lying on the ground, getting on a  horse, -- or in this case getting on tractor and getting in a bucket loader. The dress might get a little dirty during the "Trash the Dress" photo session, but you are going to dry clean your dress and store it away anyway, perhaps for a lifetime, perhaps for decades if your daughter or niece wears your gown when they get married.

The Trash the Dress photo session is a way of expressing your personality and hobbies, a way of breaking away from the more traditional images captured on the actual wedding day. Some brides get dressed back up the next day, some do it when they return from their honeymoon. Grooms often wear a nice suit, or even something casual, or something fitting to the scene like our groom did here.

Here are some of our favorite images from Ashley and Mike's After the wedding session, you can view and/or purchase images from their session here

The Wedding of Ashley and Mike

Ashley and Mike's wedding was a dream. We photographed Ashley's brothers' wedding a few years ago, so it was great to see Sean and Kelly, and their brand new daughter. We knew that Ashley and Mike had a strong connection and great personalities because we had such a fantastic time photographing their engagement! They were wonderful to work with. Photography was important to them and they mapped out day to include lots of time for photographs. 

It was quite refreshing not to have to be rushed and forced to miss awesome shots of a wedding couple. That is the only time I am ever frustrated at a wedding, when the bride and groom spend all this time planning a spectacular day at a  spectacular church and have a grand reception but do not leave any time to create these lasting memories that will persist for generations to come. That was definitely NOT the case for this couple! Wahoo!


Tom dropped me off where Ashley was getting dressed, and one of the images of her looking out the window is one of my favorite all time wedding images! Tom had lots of time, and lots of fun, with Mike and the groomsmen and Dads at the church before the ceremony. Their ceremony was full of meaning and the priest stressed the importance of everyone "being present" at the wedding. they had lots of time for formals, and fun photographs outside the church. Their was a great tree outside the church and a wonderful water/bridge area too -- and we got to use both!! 

Then we went to the Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge -- wow!!! What a place! We had great light too, soft bright cloudy makes for wonderful portraits. 

"The Old Drake Hill Flower Bridge in Simsbury, Connecticut is an example of 19th century metal-truss bridge construction. Originally designed and built in 1892, it spans 183 feet and carries a 12-foot roadway suspended 18 feet over the beautiful Farmington River. It was originally designed as a one lane, one way bridge used for vehicular traffic. It was replaced by a modern 2-lane bridge a few hundred feet to the North in 1992. In 1995, it was restored as a unique bridge. In 1996, inspired by the Bridge of Flowers in Shelburne Falls, MA, groups began to develop community gardens on & around the historic Old Drake Hill Bridge. The picturesque 48 flower boxes, 32 hanging baskets and Cottage Gardens are planted and maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers."

After the flower bridge we went to their reception location, The Riverview, where we took more photographs and lots of family photos before they were introduced. The Riverview is spectacular inside and out and we made sure to bring Ashley and Mike back outside once it got dark. 

Ashley's Dad, Tom Brady, also sang to her and Mike at the reception, can you say goosebumps...

You can see the photos from their mini-album here in this gallery on our website, a little sneak peak.

Little did I know when I was capturing Ashley looking out the window that Tom was capturing Mike looking at the church window, as if they were longingly waiting to be in each others arms. 

  

The entertainment was provided by (Emcee/DJ/Coordinator) Sal Fusco who not only provided awesome entertainment and music, but who communicated with us and kept us in the know for what was to transpire next.

The awesome lighting at their reception was done by: CJC Event Lighting

and the flowers and fabulous table arrangements were created by Sylvia Nichols, Cheshire Nursery

Ashley and Mike -- Engagement session

We photographed Ashley and Mike two weeks ago for their Engagement session. Wow, what a session! They wanted the portrait session at Quinnipiac because they both graduated from there and the grounds are awesome so we met at the Mount Carmel Campus and afterwards went to the York Hill campus. Ashley and Mike were so easy to work with, and that fact combined with the awesome venue, meant that we took a few hundred photographs! You can view the highlights here in their  video

You can view our top 100 favorites here in their gallery on our website and all of the photographs from their session here in his this gallery on our website.

Ashley's father also surprised her and purchase a few printed photographs and gave them to the wonderful couple yesterday at their Engagment party at the Victorian House in Cheshire. One of the photographs was this bottom image of the two of them on top of the QU marble. The original image (top) was SOOC (straight out of the camera) while the bottom image was the final result of merging three images and creating a High Dynamic Range (HDR) photograph.

This next image looks like something on the cover of a magazine...Tom took this with that awesome 70-200,, f 2.8 lens -- gotta love what that lens can do for selective focusing! Love it!

This next image had a "fairytale" effect applied to it and I really like the way that it turned out!

These next two photographs were Tom's idea.

He had Ashley and Mike sit and look a tthe blank black screen in the York Hill campus center, knowing that we would add in a photograph of them via Photoshop! Fun!

We had an absolutely great day photographing Ashley and Mike! What a fantastic couple!