Alyssa + Mark = Married

After their guests had been seated from cocktail hour, Alyssa and Mark welcomed the group with a few words. I think Mark said it all when he said, "I've been wearing this ring in my heart for a long time, and today I get to show the world how I've felt for years."

Alyssa and Mark were married at the Cambridge City Hall on a Friday morning. Just the two of them, in a beautiful dark courtroom, with the lights off but the sun quietly pouring through the windows. It was exactly what they wanted.  Matt and I were there to capture the event on camera, and despite the fact that we were the only ones in attendance except the Justice of the Peace, the room was filled with love. We cheered when they were pronounced husband and wife,  Alyssa and Mark both beaming.

We parted ways with them after their intimate ceremony, and joined them again the following night for a close knit group of family and friends to celebrate their union at the Barn at Gibbet Hill. The evening was so cozy, and felt much more like a large dinner party than a wild reception. Alyssa and Mark have two beautiful children, so we of course were following them around like the paparazzi. They also had a few friends who gave congratulatory toasts. Each speech that was given brought the room to tears, and then to laughter, and then to tears again. What an amazing group of friends and family they have! Alyssa and Mark, we are so happy for you! Congratulations!

Susan + Tony = Engaged

We met up with Susan and Tony at Walden Pond over Thanksgiving weekend, which meant we had the whole park to ourselves. Lucky for us, the weather was still hanging onto the briskness of a fall morning (versus the chilliness of a winter one!) so we were able to explore the area on foot without any cold extremities problems. We had only previously met with Susan and Tony via Skype, so we were very much looking forward to meeting them in person. They are a hoot! (Sorry, I may or may not have the vocabulary of an 80 year old). We were instantly charmed by Tony's willingness to try anything. In fact, I think we may bring him along to other engagement sessions as the posing master. They were so natural in front of the camera. Tony with his charm and Susan with her model-esque camera confidence. Even more - we were smitten to watch how well they complimented one another. We hope you enjoy their photos as much as we do, we can't wait for their July wedding - it's going to be gorgeous!

Lauren + Jay = Married

The love Lauren and Jay have for each other is infectious. When we met them last spring, it was clear that they shared a special bond. When we shot their engagement session this summer, we had the privilege of getting to know them even better and it seemed as though they had always been a part of each others life. Lauren and Jay. Jay and Lauren. They were so natural together. When we shot their unusually warm December wedding a few weeks back, it became clear that their love was rooted in a larger picture. Both of their respective families were just so loving and warm. As an outsider, we often don't' know who's family belongs with what side of the bride and groom - but we can honestly say that the entire party just seemed like one large family fun fest. Everyone was there to shower their support on Lauren and Jay, and it pretty much left a perma-smile on our faces throughout the entire day. After getting ready with their respective bridal party and family members (with rooms exactly next to one another! The anticipation!) they each got on separate wedding trolleys and headed for the sweetest little church in Littleton, MA. Jay's eyes welled with tears as Lauren walked down the aisle with a huge grin on her face. The ceremony was filled with laughter and ended in song, as so appropriately stated by their officiant after their kiss: "Lauren and Jay felt that the only appropriate action after this moment was to celebrate with music." The celebration continued with a fun bridal party trolly ride (this trolly was decked.out....a fireplace...fog machine...light shows....need I say more?) and a gorgeous reception at the Barn at Gibbet Hill in Groton. One of our favorite moments was Lauren and her dad's first dance, which they decided to go a bit further and personalize the tradition by replacing it with a duet, with Jay as the lead guitar. Talk about sweet! There wasn't a dry eye in the house. We had a great time shooting and even decided to snap a few portraits of them with some twinkle lights since the sun had long past set by the time they were able to have a moment to themselves. Congrats you two! We know you'll share many years of happiness together.

The J Family

Since our new site launched, we've been experimenting with not including text into our blog posts. Our thought behind this was mostly to create a viewing experience where you guys could learn about the couple through images only. Since we are photographers, and we tell stories through photos, we wanted to try this out for a bit to see if it might be a good fit with our business. We did a little facebook poll and asked a few of our clients for their thoughts on this, and it was an overwhelming consensus that you guys like our text! So we're back....in written word. Like I told the previous few clients whose sessions were bloggged without text, it wasn't that we couldn't have gushed about them, it was simply an experiment.

We couldn't think of a better session to start writing than this one. The J family is expecting a fourth addition this winter, and we decided to take advantage of the final warm sun of the fall and capture their life before their new baby girl comes into the world. We met Mendy and KJ at Sarabina and Andrew's Wedding and enjoyed chatting with them during a few free moments at the reception. We were immediately drawn to their warmth and love they shared for each other, their little girl Jordyn and their excitement for little girl number two to enter their lives. During the family session I snapped a few photos of Mendy with her ultrasound photos (couldn't resist the black and whites for this series!) and then we jotted down the street to the elementary school that Mendy attended as a child where Jordyn played hard to get photograph until the last few moments where her true personality came jumping out (literally!).

The J family was an absolute pleasure to work with, and we can only hope that you'll be meeting their newest addition here on the blog after she's born (wink, wink..Mendy).

Courtney + Matt = Engaged

Morgan + Peter = Engaged

Thankful

As I sit here and start to gather my thoughts on one of the most beautiful holidays, a recording of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" plays in the background of my computer. For those not familiar with the old hymn, the first four lines are so telling for today are: "Come, thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise." I am nearly brought to tears in the amount of gratitude we feel for getting to call this our job. Not only are we blessed to have such a creative and engaging career, but the people we get to share it with make it what it is. Today we are thankful for our clients. Each and every one of them. From the families we get to photograph, to the seniors brimming with excitement as they embark on their journey to adulthood. And our weddings clients. How we love getting to know their love. You've gotten to see a few of our awesome 2012 clients through their engagement sessions (and there will be plenty more in the spring) but for a moment we'll focus on our 2011 clients.

It has been an immense honor to capture their love. We are humbled by your willingness to share it with us.

karen and blair

claire and andre

danielle and jared

abena and edwin

maggie and seth

carolyn and sean

sarabina and andrew

jessica and shaunt

bianca and mike

marisa and andy

jennifer and edward

lauren and neil

maglen and louis

ly and kieran

marie and mike

cathy and andrew

katie and john

sarah and chris

liz and jimmy

 lauren and jay (their wedding is in december!)

and

alyssa and mark (another december wedding, no photos of them yet but you'll see them soon!)

We are so so thankful for our past, present and future clients. Thank you for letting us capture your lives!

Katilyn + Ryan = Engaged

Contest Winner

As promised, we are giving away a free photo session in celebration of our new website. The entry details were posted here and today is the day to unveil the winner! In the effort to keep it as fair as possible, we used a random number generator for the comments and counted from the top commenter down to pick a winner.  

Drum roll please.........

Congratulations to Jacquie!

Thank you to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for another adorable engagement session later today. Happy Friday everyone!

Samantha + Ben = Engaged

Editorial Shoot with Whim Events

If this day wasn't already exciting enough with our new site, photo shoot giveaway, and the super cute engagement session we posted earlier we thought it would be fun to end the day on the highest note possible. A few weeks ago, we had the honor of shooting an editorial shoot with the ladies from Whim Events - set inside a whimsical garden. Natalie and Moria were amazing to work with and the shoot (and weather) could not have been more perfect. Styled shoots are an excellent way for vendors to work together since at real weddings it's often chance of who we get to work with, and even when we know them, their process doesn't usually involve us until the day of the wedding, so this gives us a bit more time to control the environment of a shoot and just have fun doing what we love. We had a great time and left with a feeling of absolute gratitude. We feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to work doing something we love, and on top of that, with people that are downright awesome. Being a photographer can be a lonely life, editing in front of the computer most days, but having opportunities to work with such great vendors and clients always leaves a smile on our face, and for that we are blessed.

The bride's and flower girl dresses were provided by Flair Bridesmaid Boutique, hair and makeup were done by the amazing Ashley of Ashley Brecken Hair Styling & Make-up Artistry, located at Salon Marc Harris, the birdhouse escort card design was done by local artist Jill Hoy, the venue was Weezie's Children's Garden at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, floral design, styling and coordination by Whim Events and photography by us.

Laura + Peter = Engaged

We thought we may as well break in the new blog and introduce you to one of our 2012 couples - Laura and Peter! We'll be posting one more time after this today with yet another fun shoot, so check back later! Laura and Peter win the most trusting of your wedding photographers title. Since they live and will be getting married in Connecticut their engagement session was slated to be in Boston, but they didn't have many leads of exactly where to do their session. Typically we suggest couples pick a location that is meaningful to them, and sometimes, if they don't have a location that jumps to mind, we'll refer to our 'top secret locations list' - which isn't really that top secret - but essentially are spots that we have not done shoots in but are hoping to cross off our list in the coming year. You can see where this is going. When they approached us about where to shoot, we suggested the Forrest Hills Cemetery.  A cemetery isn't exactly what most people have in mind when it comes to a romantic place to have a photo shoot (unless you are into twilight) but we had been there for a Japanese lantern festival a few years back and were delighted how it was more like a park than a cemetery. There is a little pond, rolling hills (with forests! imagine that!) and dozens of amazing burial sculptures. It's a peaceful and beautiful place. Naturally, it was on our list. You'll see that Laura and Peter quickly warmed up to the location. They are cute. Really cute. They were even willing to climb a giant tree for that last shot, so we can't wait to photograph their wedding at St. Clement's Castle next September.

New Website!

  Welcome to the all new Summer Street Photography website!!! We're delighted you stopped by, and we hope you take a moment to explore all of the new parts of our virtual home. It's still the same Matt and Kendra, but we've been working with some personal trainers of sorts to get our new site looking like a total and complete makeover. (psst....You'll want to read all the way to the end - there is a surprise down there as well! )

Let's start at the beginning. Meet Melissa and Jonathan, the master minds behind the Brooklyn based design firm, Makewell. They are getting married next June at her step-dad's farm in New Hampshire, and guess who gets to photograph it? Yep. That's us. Check out this too cute for words photo that Jonathan's brother took:

Photo by: Jordan Motzkin

Aren't they cute? When they contacted us this summer about shooting their wedding next June, I couldn't help but notice their work title line on the very bottom of their e-mails. Graphic designers you say? I clicked into their site. And fell in love.

And so it began. Our site was in need of something a little more cohesive and professional. A little more, 'design-savvy'. So We hired them. Well, actually, we hired each other. We started working on the new site in July, and now, almost four months later to the date, we have a new baby. A new, virtual baby that is. Melissa and Jonathan were amazing to work with.  We got to help with the fun stuff, but they really were the masterminds behind the entire site. We love that the website is now much more technically fluid and functional; incorporating our portfolio alongside our current work as well as has handmade details like Melissa's calligraphy in our new logo and other parts of the site.

In short, we couldn't be more happy. Read on for a few new features, and then go see them in action! (p.s. if you're my mom, remember these images below are just screen shots, and you'll have to go into the main site to see them in action).

Here's the home page. Happy.

Oh hi. It's us. Bet you didn't know Matt does Karate. Venn Diagram for the win!

Jessica's dress and Abena's perfume. Part of the Portfolio sections. See that little portfolio icon to the left of our logo? Let you mouse rest on that and a drop down menu of various portfolio goodies will appear for your choosing.

More portfolio. Claire. Pretty, pretty Claire.

The new blog! We'll still be posting all of our recent work here, so this part of the site will be constantly updated with our new work. See those cute little handwritten links on the side? All Melissa. If you click on categories, a little genie will show you the various post categories. Nice and tidy.

The thing we're the most excited about with our new blog is the 'See More' feature. We'll be posting a single image from our shoots, and then you can click 'See More' to see the rest of the shoot. If you want to 'See Less' you can, with a click of a button. Also, something that we really really wanted was the ability to expand and collapse the posts without leaving the main blog page. On most blogs, when you click 'See More' or 'Read More' you're redirected to a new tab or window, and then you need to hit the home button or the back button to go back where you were. Not here. You can expand and collapse as many posts as you like without leaving the page. Amazing. Totally amazing.

Our contact page. Pretty self explanatory. This is how we get most of our inquiries, so now we're comforted by the fact that there is a nice photo of Jay and Lauren in a field instead of just text. win win.

So fun huh? We are head over heels in love with this new little baby. To celebrate the new website's arrival we've decided to do a GIVEAWAY!

We will be giving away one photo shoot to a random lucky recipient! If you win, here's what's in it for you:

-A 1 Hour Photoshoot with Summer Street Photography

-You'll receive 50 edited images on a high resolution disk with a photo release to use the photos for personal use

-Can be used for an engagement, newborn, maternity, head shot, senior, pet or fashion photo session. If we are shooting your wedding in 2011 or 2012, you can also enter to win an additional hour of photography coverage on your wedding day. Don't want to be in front of the camera? Gift your sister a maternity session! Win an extra hour of photography for your friend! You can gift your prize as well as use it for yourself. Shoot must be in the Boston area - but we will also be in Minnesota and South Dakota this winter, so if you're out there, you're eligible as well. As always, if you live in France, just fly us out and we'll shoot all day for free.

-Here's how to Enter:

-Like Our Page on Facebook, or invite three friends to 'Like" Summer Street Photography on Facebook. Once one of the three people you invite follow through, you have your golden ticket. Then those people can enter the contest as well.

-Leave a Comment here telling us what your favorite part of the new site is

A winner will be drawn at random and announced next Friday November 18th - or when we reach 1000 likes, whichever comes first.

Now go explore the new site! And come back this afternoon, we'll be posting two more fun posts!

The S Family

It’s not all that often that we get the privilege of taking family portraits. Like most of our work, we try not to take these sessions too seriously, especially when there are kids involved! Maybe our approach is relaxed due to the church directory family photo forever stamped along the wall of my parents house…me with overgrown bangs slicked back with more jel than the early 90s deserved….my brother, bowl cut and all, with one eye almost blinking…. Yep. That’s probably it. Those formal photos can be nice, but let’s be honest….kids look their best when they are in their element. The S Family has plenty of energy to go around with two spritely twin second graders and one adorable little brother.  We enjoyed a summer saturday morning together at one of our favorite parks enjoying some croquet, swings and the good ole game of tag. It started sprinkling rain as we were wrapping up, which we think just added to the fun.

Sarah + Chris = Married

Sarah and Chris are the type of people everyone loves. They are the true definition of kind-hearted, and their hobbies span a wide range of admirable activities. For example, Chris proposed to Sarah at mile 24 while running the Boston Marathon. Sarah and Chris planned almost their entire wedding this summer while she was researching in India and he was back in Boston. They will be hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this spring as their honeymoon. So it came as no surprise when they wanted their wedding to boast the proud Vermont colors of fall and they decided to forgo a traditional DJ for a Contra Dance. Even though it rained for most of their wedding day, it only made the foliage brighter and the mood cozier as the exchanged vows under a picnic shelter. The rain stopped just in time to capture a few vibrant portraits of the two of them – just Sarah and Chris, out in nature, and happy to be married.