Hello, friends. It’s been too long. How is everyone doing?

I have returned from the east in one piece (that almost rhymes if you don’t pronounce t‘s which, from what I hear, Coloradans don’t), a little more tired, a little more experienced, and a lot more grateful for getting to dive further into the world of wedding photography.

The wedding went beautifully. Truly. We are blessed to have brides and grooms who are easy to work with, warm and welcoming.

But we’ll get more into that later when I have more images to share with you.

For now, I have a quick, little, fancy phone roundup of the weekend.

Ready. Set. Go.

It started with a red-eye flight. No one slept and we arrived in Philadelphia at 6 a.m. EDT.

Exhaustion happened.

And then bagels followed (as shown above).

I was promptly freaked out by the very closed in, lush nature of nature as it appears out east. In Colorado (outside of the mountains of course), everything is very wide open, expansive, the view can be seen without so much vegetation getting in the way.

I sent this picture to my brother. We expected velociraptors, Jurassic-Park style to emerge at any minute.

On Saturday, wedding photog comrade, Dan, and I proceeded to the wedding. We met up with the bride and her bridesmaids at a barn in Pennsylvania for pre-wedding preparation (read: hair, makeup, mimosas).

We very nearly went to the wrong barn to meet our dear bride (who knew there were so many barns in Pennsylvania). On our way back down the hill from the wrong barn, I found these pretty flowers and fence.

I had a moment to view the splendor.

The area was really quite lovely. Just beautiful country all around.

Despite the Jurassic Park-type foliage and potential velociraptor attacks.

When we did find the right barn, we were in awe. This “barn” hadn’t been a barn for sometime. What once housed horses and hay now was home to a beautifully refinished cottage-like atmosphere.

All bedecked in reclaimed wood and decorated like a scene from a magazine, I instantly decided I could quite happily live here.

The above photo is the view from the kitchen window.

A few hours later, we progressed to the wedding site. All outdoors, the bride and groom had chosen a lovely setting for their day.

While they said their vows beneath nothing but an arch and the sky, the reception was held in this little, light-strung tent.

After dancing the night away, the maid of honor gave us one of the center pieces as a parting gift.

Twelve hours later I had managed to kill off half of it.

Let’s move on.

Following our full day of shooting, and a full, next morning of resting, we headed off to Princeton for a day of prestigious college town viewing.

First we needed coffee.

And the New York Times.

And more relaxation.

Dan, however, drank hot chocolate.

Yes, I thought it was weird too.

Hello, gorgeous.

Iced espresso.

Love.

Princeton!

Very academic. Smart. Covered in ivy.

Later that same evening, we went to a park for some pre-Fourth of July (practically pre-, pre-Fourth of July; these people were on top of their celebrating) festivities.

I have never seen a more impressive, small-town fireworks show. Those bad boys were up close and personal.

And the band – the 63rd Army Band – really rocked it out.

God bless our troops.

Finally, our last day on the east coast arrived, and in the hours prior to our evening departure we hit up the beach.

(Hello Atlantic Ocean!)

It was sandy and warm and lovely. And the seagulls were humongous.

I don’t know what they feed seagulls on the east coast but I think they could have taken me hostage if they just had the right, can-do spirit and commando gear.

And then, before we were quite ready for it to happen, it was time to leave.

And so we did.

And, scene.