Her dress was beautiful. The priest at the church comment on how pretty her veil was in his closing remarks. To me, it looked a little like that beautiful covering the grandmother in the movie “An Affair To Remember” wore. It was so traditional and Spanish looking, like from the “old country”.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder right? Behold:

Her fiance John,  sent a note to her and it was setting on the pillow for his bride to find:

Which is really the bling in the truest sense of the word, the picture above or the picture below

Last minute touches before going to the altar.

Getting the first glimpse of his bride. Always one of my favorite moments – he sees her for the first time o their wedding day, and she is wearing her bridal gown that she has been hiding in a special closet for months. All this for her husband-to-be. After waiting all day long, finally he sees her . . .

And she sees him. In Romeo and Juliet it was a tragedy, in this story today, it is  marvelous victory:

And the traditional Greek ceremony begins. A very colorful and symbolic ceremony in beautul & meaningful surroundings. A photographers paradise

First rings, then crowns, then communion. Then the new couple, considered a new king and queen in the eyes of the church, takes their first steps as a recognized new family right there in the house of the Lord. The sacrament of marriage, both in the Orthodox Greek Church and the Catholic church starts at the Holy Altar and extends all the way to the bedroom. This is why  it is considered a good thought to remember for every married couple too never say anything to each other in the bedroom that cannot be said while standing in front of the Holy Altar. Sounds like a great plan for a happy marriage to me

In an unusual moment, all the ceremony had to stop for a personal conference. This made the day for everyone. What can anyone say – nothing, but to chuckle and smile. it was something I have never seen before.  And the bride and groom, and the priest were so graceous and about it. Any tension anyone was feeling was totally gone at that point and the whole congregation laughed. Apparently, whatever needed to be said took care of it. The little boy is her new nephew from the grooms side of the family and he had something urgent on his mind. After the conversation, all resumed and went as planned. I will remember this forever, it caught me off guard and I almost fell over trying to grab the shot. My shuuter speed was set too slow to get the beautiful lights of the church recorded onto the film (yes, digital I know) and this “action shot” needed a faster shutter speed. In a few seconds though it was all over.  I wish I had written it in the script myself, maybe for the next wedding

What happens when you get to great kissers in one picture??? You get a shot like this . . .

Married and here they come, one of the best days of their lives:

It’s not a part of the story, but I happen to like this shot   The colors in this Cathedral were just awesome and the photos look really super because of the surroundings. I took this portrait towards the end of the formals we took after the ceremony.

A nice ride to the reception which is a block away from the beach. Living in South Florida is wonderful

When I arrived at the reception, I found we were all going to the beach. I know, I know, it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it – lol. So off we went to the beach. the beach was packed with folks and we drew a crowd, but all I heard all around us was well wishers and people shouting “congratulations” to the couple as they drove by in their cars. It felt like the whole world was in “wedding mode” for those minutes – too bad it couldn’t go on for a few hours

Apparently Alicia loves to run in the sand, and once we got there it was hard to keep up with her. To call this a fun couple is definitely an understatement:

And off she goes – don’t worry, John will catch up to her in a second . . .

A quick run around the beach and some playing around and we would then be heading back to the reception.

Okay, now they really got into playing and joking with all the folk on the beach giving them good wishes and I think they just plain forgot we were there to take pictures. Call me blessed – lol

John is amazingly considerate, especially to his new wife. Here, he is helping get her shoes back on sitting there on the broadwalk as people are going by and going “Hey CONGRATULATIONS!!!”

Fresh from all the fun at the beach, these kids were downright ready to party. Off the beach and into the reception where family and friends were munching on the yummies at Giorgio’s and here is their grand entrance:

The First Dance. Beautiful.

See photographer Mel Englander in this next shot? He was a fantastic help that day. Of course he is using the Ultimate Bounce Card on his Canon flash, and I was using it on my Nikon flash – a good thing for other photographers to notice

I usually don’t blog with mother-son dance pictures. But his mom was so loving and so emotional in her few moments of dancing with her son, the whole place was mesmerized. I can hardly even spell that word, but it sure fits the moment. Mom also dedicated the song “Awesome God” by Rich Mullins to her new daughter-in-law, her son, her husband and the whole family including her grandkids.

Speaking of grandkids – here is one of mom’s grandkids all ready to party. I think it runs in the family. He is an incredibly sweet kid though and was eager to pose for pictures any time I asked. A special hello to George!!!!

The whole crowd must have taken lessons form george because once the Greek style party started it never stopped. First it was Greek, then it was Spanish, then it was greek – well anyway there were no breaks in the music the whole night, I can tell you that for sure. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

That is the Best Man, Jimmy, in the center leading a Greek line dance. The bride is the one in the big black hat with the red tassels next to him.

Now John has the “hat of honor” – lol. He is now leading a traditional Greek dance with about a million people in the line he is leading. The room was PACKED:

They gave him room to do a traditional Greek dance – I think someone has to be in really good shape to do a dance like that, my legs hurt just looking at it! But he went all the way back and never let his shoulders touch the floor.

Did I mention the room was a sea of people. This is quite a popular couple – and even that is an understatement

What do you call it when 3 ladies are seriously fighting over the thrown bokay??? I don’t know – but I got the shot! Those are broken rose heads falling to the ground. This was serious business.

In any century, John and Alicia would have  looked terrific. Here is a timeless traditional old warm black and white print that you would find in your parents wedding album.

It was an awesome wedding. My congratulations and blessings to the new couple. I can’t say “I hope they had a good time” – they darn well did! And that’s the way it should be

For photographers:  Wedding was done with mostly with a Nikon D3X and a 1Ds Mark III was always within reach as a back-up. Second photographer used a pair of Canon 5D mark II bodies. The Nikon was mounted with 24-70G, 50G, 35 f/2, and 70-200G lenses. The 1Ds Mark III had an 85L f/1.2 II, 24-105L, 200L f/2.8, and 85 f/1.8 on tap. It was not used, the D3X was flawless. Pictures are from ISO 100- 6400 with the camera free to make the choice everywhere except for the formals. The Flashes were the SB900 on mine, and 580 EX II on the second photographer. Both used the ABBC Ultimate and Mini-Light bounce cards and the formals were done with the ABBC StudioPro.  Everything was shot in RAW and developed in Lightroom. Jeff Ascough, Totally Rad, and Kevin Kubota actions were sparingly used. Because of the exceptionally high megapixel cameras being used, all noise reduction was turned off in the LR processing and also in the PS additional processing. Portraiture software is used to help older people look younger and younger people look even better