brett alison photography

jen & joe || wedding at sky meadow, nashua

brettalison — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:00:34 +0000

What a sweet couple! I was so thrilled when Jen contacted me about shooting her wedding, after I photographed her sister Sarah’s wedding in 2010. It’s always great to work with the same family again, and of course meeting Joe’s side was nice as well! :)

The ceremony was at St. Patrick’s in Nashua, and reception at Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua.

Love these flowers!

Sometimes a guest’s flash off to the side will produce a fun photo for me :)

Jen and Joe’s wedding was on one of the 100 degree days we had… But they look cool and collected, don’t they? So perfect together.

A good lookin’ wedding party!

So, the couple decided to surprise everyone with a choreographed dance… They started out with a nice romantic song…

And then changed to a dance number halfway through (I can’t remember, but I believe it was a Michael Jackson song)… Nice moves, Joe! But I especially like the surprised looks on everyone in the crowd.

Jen was more nervous about getting through their dance than the ceremony itself. But, it looked great to me! (And everyone else, I think :))

The DJ had the guests split in two for a sing-off between Jen and Joe. It got pretty intense!

Getting Ready Location: Crowne Plaza Hotel, Nashua, NH

Ceremony Location: St. Patricks Church, Nashua, NH

Reception Location: Sky Meadow Country Club, Nashua, NH

Florist: Denise Pelczar

Cake: Creative Cakes by Debby

DJ: Curtis Knight Entertainment

Hair/Makeup: Joyce Young for Mary Kay

Dress: Leoini by Maggie Sottero

kim & julien || wedding photobooth

brettalison — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:33:33 +0000

Last but not least for “Kim & Julien Week” – the photobooth! Lots of fun, glad the guests got into the action. My awesome second shooter Heidi was in charge of the photobooth for most of the night, so most of these shots are hers!

kim & julien || wedding at hawthorne country club

brettalison — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:46:39 +0000

Kim and Julien’s wedding might just have been the last one to be held at the Hawthorne Country Club in Dartmouth – a popular venue for weddings… I believe it was sold, and they’re not sure if they’re doing weddings and events there in the future. We will see!

Their wedding was filled with so many personal details – they wrote their own vows, had a friend officate, and another one play a song during their ceremony… Their centerpieces included books and their table numbers were records. So neat! Their day was full of emotion – mostly a lot of laughing (see below :)), but a few tears as well…

Without further ado…

(I love the purple shoes!)

Julien had his brother/best man bring Kim a special blue box before she started getting ready! Thanks to Heidi, my second shooter, for getting the shot on the right, of the infinity bracelet Julien gave Kim.

Guys have to get ready, too!… I love it when I’m able to get these shots…

My favorite part is Kim’s mom on the left, keeping the tears back…

I love this! They didn’t even say anything to each other – we were getting them together for a couple “posed” photos, and when Kim’s maid of honor stood next to her, they both just started cracking up.

The guys loved their funky socks.

Thanks to Heidi again for capturing these images of Kim and her dad right before the ceremony.

All the amazing details!

My second shooter Heidi got the shots on the left. Great moment!

Their cake was made by Kim’s cousins – I couldn’t believe it! It was a book, and it actually had frosting pages – Kim and Julien’s parents each wrote a special message to them on the pages – the image on the right is them reading the messages.

And then thanking their parents…

Then everybody else had to see it!

Catch the guys in the background? :)

Ceremony & Reception: Hawthorne Country Club

Florist: Arranged Occasions

Cake: Claudette and Richard Bassett (cousins of the bride)

DJ: John Cotti of Bedrock Music Company

Hair/Makeup: Stephen & Co.

Dress: Helene’s Bridal

kim & julien || fenway engagement session

brettalison — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:25:35 +0000

Happy Valentine’s Day!! To celebrate Valentine’s week, I am officially declaring this to be “Kim & Julien Week!” Today, their engagement session… Tomorrow, their wedding photos… Thursday, their photobooth photos. Why? Just because! They are an awesome couple, and I loved everything about their engagement session and wedding – they definitely wanted to put a lot of themselves and their personality into it all. I love it when a couple chooses a location for their engagement shoot that is significant to them in some way, and Kim and Julien are, of course, big Red Sox fans. I had never been to Fenway before their shoot – it was so much fun! And then we went to the Public Garden for some more “traditional” engagement photos.

audrey & eli || engagement session in ipswich

brettalison — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:42:21 +0000

I love love love this engagement session! Audrey and Eli wanted a “rustic but elegant” feel and I think we got it! We trekked around the Ipswich/Hamilton area in October, which is full of farms – we stopped by Russell Orchards, and Appleton Farms.

allison & marc || wedding at brooksby farm, peabody

brettalison — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:16:42 +0000

A beautiful June day, lots of plants and flowers, their dog as groomsman, a wedding at Brooksby Farm with Allison and Marc, what more could you ask for? Allison and Marc wanted lots of shots of the surroundings, as well as all the plants/natural elements they brought into their wedding. I know they are big outdoorsy-types because we did their engagement session on a hike – Marc wanted to show me where he hid Allison’s engagement ring along the path… They do geo-caching, so he hid the ring early in the morning and then had to convince Allison that they needed to go for a hike *immediately*! Then they followed the GPS to where this mysterious box was hidden… The rest is history!

Ceremony & Reception: Brooksby Farm, Peabody, MA

Florist: Wards Florist

Cake: Cakes For Occasions

Ceremony Music: Atlantic Strings

DJ/Uplighting: TSG Weddings

Caterer: Creative Catering

Hair: Untangled Hair Salon

Dress: David’s Bridal

wpja contest images part 2

brettalison — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:52:00 +0000

Here are the rest of the images I will be entering into the WPJA 2011 contest. Wish me luck! :)

2011 year in review || wpja contest images part 1

brettalison — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:42:48 +0000

I have to admit I’m generally not one for putting too much emphasis on trying to recap my life in yearly segments, but what the heck… 2011 was a great year! So many wonderful clients, from weddings all over New England (and one in Saratoga Springs, NY!), tons of great engagement sessions – I think I had more engagement sessions in 2011 than I have any other year so far, and awesome family shoots – all of which were former wedding clients, or return clients from previous years.

Every year around this time the WPJA (Wedding Photojournalists Association, of which I am proud to be a member!) has its last contest for the previous year’s images. So, what better way to recap 2011 than with the 60 images I will be entering into the contest? Since there are so many, I will do about half in this post, and the other half for a post later this week. :)

sherika & geoff || wedding at the arnold arboretum

brettalison — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:43:08 +0000

I was so looking forward to Sherika and Geoff’s wedding this past May – I knew it would be a blast after their super fun (despite the rain & cold) engagement shoot in the north end. And I knew it was going to be small and casual, with lots of fun details. When I arrived that morning to start the getting-ready photos, their family and friends were all packed into their apartment helping with the last minute preparations – including baking the wedding pies and packing picnic baskets!

The ceremony itself was at the Arnold Arborteum in Jamaica Plain, and we started there early to get a lot of photos of just Sherika and Geoff… I swear we walked all over that place! There are so many great spots there. And we ended up near this quiet little place that they had picked out for the ceremony, underneath a beautiful tree blooming with pink flowers, next to a small stream. After the ceremony we all headed over to Somerville – to Powderhouse/Nathan Tufts Park, where the picnic was magically all ready to go! There was croquet, candy mustaches and a lot of fun.

Florist: TF Murphy Florist

Music: Tom Pendergast

Dress: BHLDN

rebecca & eli || backyard wedding in merrimac

brettalison — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:58:21 +0000

Rebecca and Eli had an amazing backyard wedding at Eli’s parents’ house this past May… I couldn’t believe how beautiful and elegant a backyard wedding could be! They personalized the ceremony by having their friend as officiant, their parents do the readings, and writing their own vows. The landscaping was perfect for photos, but even better, the Merrimac River was a short walk away, so we headed down there for a few shots of just the two of them before getting back to the party.

Ceremony & Reception – Merrimac, Massachusetts

Florist: Bowler & Jones

Caterer: East Coast Grill

Dress: Nicole Miller