So you like me, you Really Really do!  Thanks to everyone who voted me a 2010 Wedding Wire Bride's Choice.

Muchas gracias.

“February 2, 2010 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced Lori O’Toole Images has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for photography!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds. Lori O’Toole Images is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

We are happy to announce that Lori O’Toole Images is among the very best in photography within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings.”

Baby Benjamin Hudson was born on Christmas day!  Kristen called me on News Year Eve to tell me the great news and schedule his newborn photos.  Which really wasn’t a minute too soon as  I don’t think he would have fit in the suitcase in another week at the rate he is growing.  Congratulations to Kristin and Hunter on a beautiful baby boy!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 3 years since photographing Sean and Pati’s wedding and another entire year since I photographed baby Adriana at 1 year old.  Now she’s 2 and running, running, running!  I don’t think she stopped moving for even one second of the entire hour we spent at Vanderbilt Mansion.  This was one of the last days for any fall color and Adriana had a great time playing in all the piles of falling leaves.  This baby never stopped moving, but she never stopped laughing either.  Love it!

Nope this is not Boudoir – this is a belly shoot!  Although I took a break from blogging last month, I do have tons of new stuff to show.  After shooting my last wedding of the 2009 season, I have moved onto a winter schedule of belly’s, babies, and families.  Add on tons of wedding album design from all the 2009 weddings, and hopefully some vacation time in the next month – then back to the weddings of 2010!

So you have a winter wedding, it’s cold and dark out.  Plans for photos had been talked about, but nothing came through.  Well, we winged it.  Just parked on Main Street Beacon and looked around for someplace cool and hoped they’d let us in.  I want to send everyone I know to the Chill Wine Bar!  What a gorgeous spot.  Beautiful brick walls, concrete floors, NYC lighting, comfortable sofas and great ambiance.  Plus all that wine….this spot was amazing and owner Jim Svetz welcomed us in and let us take some gorgeous photos of Megan and Dan on their wedding day.  We wanted to stay, I can’t wait to go back.  Big shout out to the Chill Wine Bar at 173 Main Street in Beacon – we will be back!

More on Megan and Dan’s wedding next week – I just had to post these and give thanks to our impromptu hosts.

Dress by Mikaella

Flowers by JoAnn

Shoes by Stuart Weitzman

Video by Jen Casarro of Masterpiece Video

Ceremony at St Mary’s, Washingtonville

Reception at The Clubhouse at Patriot Hills, Stony Point, NY

A touch of Irish and the NY Yankees wound it’s way around Erin and Dan’s late October wedding.  The Celtic cross decorated the church programs, menu cards and other elements of design in this beautiful fall wedding.  The grounds at Patriot Hills were gorgeous and popping with fall color.  Tall wheat colored grass with deep grey skies and the last light of the day made for a look that only the end of October light seems to create.  The bridal party and families were freezing after this chilly photo session, but that only seemed to give them more energy to generate some heat out on the dance floor as the party got going and kept going throughout the night.

Chondra and Claudio Sanchez had a whimsical ‘Once Upon A Time’ theme that mixed in perfectly with pieces of their rock n roll lifestyle.  Chondra’s feather bouquet was absolutely stunning and perfectly complimented the delicate lace in her Monique Lhuiller gown.The Kidrobot dunny’s as favors and in a giant size for the guests to sign just blew me away!    Claudio and Chondra years together on the road with Coheed and Cambria have made them a perfect compliment to each other.  Funny and sweet, the ceremony brought both laughter and tears to their crowd of family and friends.  Perfection.

Dress by Monique Lhuiller

Flowers by Painted Petals, Middletown, NY

Ceremony and Reception at The Gardens at Catlin Creek

Music by DB Orchestra

Pianist Louis Landon of Common Ground

Favors by KidRobot

Rain, well it happens.  Over the years I have come to love rainy day weddings, which is a good thing because there were alot of them this year!  The ceremony may have moved Robin and Adam’s planned outdoor ceremony indoors, but bright pink and purple umbrellas gave a beautiful pop of color to grey rainy skies.  And then just when I thought we could just give up on the weather that day, the rain stopped and a gorgeous sunset drew Robin, Adam and their guests outside for an unexpected display of oranges and reds.  Rain may not be in the plan, but it can bring unexpected fun and spontaneous moments if you just go with it!

Shoes by Manolo Blahnik

Ceremony and Reception at Dutchess Manor, Beacon, New York

Music by Steph and Jeff at The DJ Solution

Dress by Anne Barge

Flowers by Events by Ranita

Ceremony at Marist College Chapel

Reception at The Grandview, Poughkeepsie, NY

Music by Blazing Beats

All that color!

photos by Lori O’Toole

Lindsay and Corey were very clear that they wanted lots of fun photos.  That turned out to be an easy thing with the groomsmen – they were climbing walls, modeling fig leaves – I had a hard time just keeping up with them.   Lindsay and Corey couldn’t resist going for a walk in the field of Halloween scarecrows and pulling off some funny photos modeling with them.  First guinea hen wedding photos, now scarecrows – this has been a year of 1sts for me!  I do have to say, that regardless of the scarecrow photos, which had me laughing the entire time, this was a beautiful and elegant wedding at a stunning Hudson River castle location.

Flowers by Sunnside Flower Shop

Ceremony and Reception at Lyndhurst Castle, Tarrytown, NY

Music by AK Entertainment

photos by Lori O’Toole