Larissa+Robert+hurricane Irene @ Harkness State Park

Larissa and Robert were married this past Saturday August 27 at the Eolia Mansion at Harkness State Park

You know?

The day Hurricane Irene decided to plow through.

I honestly did not know if this was going to proceed as the Governor had all state parks closing at sunset (of course if you based it on looking at the sky, it was so gloomy who could tell when sunset actually WAS anyway?…) But luckily for whatever reason, our park was allowed to stay open later. They decided to start everything 2 hours earlier to avoid the weather as much as possible and give people time to leave, and luckily everyone involved in the day (including Dana Bartone and Culinary Concerts staff) were able to accommodate.

But enough about the stupid hurricane – here’s their wedding!!

let me tell you – i was lucky that everyone was in such good spirits and open to any last minutes changes we needed to make…a tightly wound group would have made this day impossible. I suggested that the guys and gals all arrive earlier than we planned and that we do a First Look so that we could avoid any rain that might pass through–which worked out GREAT as we took ALL out photos outside!!!! We could not believe how we lucked out.

 

The oysters–the plastic shark? A long story…

 

…so the guys were ready way in advance (how about THAT?!) and hanging out in the lobby and Robert asked, “What should we DO for now?” I looked over and saw the Hilton bar was open and pointed them in that direction!

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the rubber shark even went for a ride in Larissa’s bouquet!

 

Larissa later told me how glad she was to have done a First Look, and realized afterwards she would have wanted it even had it not been arranged due to weather…

a tip for future brides: its 2011 and a GREAT IDEA!!!!!

 

I sent the good sports out into the wet field, umbrellas in hand—

 

I think this is my fave from the day

 

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I conspired with celebrant Mary Coburn to quickly move the ceremony from the foyer to outside under a covered area as it was not really raining–I thought- “If we can get outside for this lets DO IT!”

 

I swear: if I could order up fog at every wedding I would–makes everything look so COOL!!!

 

I just love this shot of her grandfather—

 

PHOTO TECH GEEK CORNER:

oddly, I managed to get several shots where i actually caught a guests flash from the side lighting them as they cut their cake. As fate would have it, it ended up actually being an interesting side light!

 

Larissas dad did a bit of a ‘skit’ to Paul Simons “Father-Daughter”, complete with signage!

 

be-gone foul Irene — we fought through it and ended up with an amazing day!! (by the way – I promised Larissa I could ‘fix everything’ in Photoshop and give her ‘sunny skies and unicorns’ – to see the result of that, click here!!!