Patrick Sweeney Photography

For weeks if not months leading up to this couples wedding I was getting a countdown from the brides father.  I bowl with him on my bowling night and I kept busting his chops back saying, leave me alone I have so many more weddings to do before theirs.

The weeks went by and it was now weeks and then days and then believe it or not hours he was counting down.  I had fun with him saying ok now you can tell me because their wedding is next.

This couple has been excited for the longest time.  I can't really remember a couple that was this excited about their wedding day.  They were kind of upset by the snow a bit I think but when I showed them some of the shots in the snow they were even more excited. 

I warned them, if it snows you can pretty much figure on walking in it one way or another.  They didn't mind at all.  I made Steven carry his bride to be and her weight doubled because of the dress.  He didn't figure on that.  They were troopers.  They got a bit cold and then came right in by the fire.

I played around with some of the images in photoshop to see what I would get.  Not bad.

This was probably the smoothest wedding of the year for me.  It was a long day, but it went smooth.  No little problems with flowers, or someone running late or the bling or the hair or the dress or tuxes.  It just went real smooth.

I have one more wedding to go which is this saturday and 2008 comes to a close for my weddings. 

This is Sean.  Talk about a child that keeps on laughing when you tell him to.  I get a kick out of parents when they think their kid is not being good and I sit there and say to myself, I wish I had this kid every sitting.  Then you get the parents that think their kid is doing great and I am looking for Plaxico Burress to borrow his gun for just a minute to shoot myself.

Sean was the type of child I could of just kept photographing and throwing new things in front of him and he would of just kept climbing on things and he would just sit on things and play with stuff.

I just started using the fireplace this year.  I am still trying to figure out ways of using it.  I put Sean in the fireplace and of course he thought he would get burned.  Then he realized no fire.  Ok so he sat there.  Then I said is Santa coming down there yet?  He looked right up and his expression was priceless. 

This child isn't even one yet.  (Well these pictures were taken last sunday so she is one now.  Her birthday was this past week. )  As I was saying, she isn't one yet and this is her second time for Christmas pictures.  Yes I did them last year as well.  She was just a few weeks old.

To say that she is a professional already would be stretching it, but it is usually difficult to take pictures of someone so young just learning how to walk.  Not her.  She likes having her picture taken and will probably always have a camera in her face since her mom loves taking pictures so much in general.  So she is pretty much used to the camera.  She just had fun stuff that she never saw before to use this time around. 

I usually just let kids be and do their own thing.  That is when you catch them at their best.  If you try to get a childs attention they just usually look elsewhere or look at the person that is trying to get their attention. 

Cassandra was just such a good kid and I hope she stays this way in the future because it would really make my job so much easier.

Just a few photos from the session.

Now for something totally different. 

A wednesday wedding.  Ok so it was the wednesday before Thanksgiving.  A good idea I thought.  Nobody had to work the next day and they still got to enjoy the entire weekend.

I took my normal shots at this wedding but I knew with this couple it was anything goes.  I thought that from the minute I met them and then when I did their engagement pictures, I knew this would be a fun wedding and I could do some crazy off the wall stuff and get to play around as well.

When I walked out back and lauren was already sitting on the ground I knew she didn't care if it was 100 degrees or 10 degrees. 

I figured I would put some different shots up and see what kind of reaction I get.  I used a lot of available light at this wedding.  Not easy when your pictures are taken at night and the first dance is nothing but video light.  I got to play around and this was some of the results I got.

A beautiful ceremony with Lauren and Rob both fighting back tears and wiped eyes through the entire time, it was nothing but smiles after that as the party kicked into high gear and went on even after the band was packed up and out the door.  They added another two hours with a DJ and let the party play into the early hours of the morning on Thanksgiving morning.