birchblazephotography.com » The Photo Blog of Kerry and Taylor Struble

I was pretty bummed when my bud Derek moved out to Colorado a few years back. We were bandmates and had some great times together and I’ve missed his wacky sense of humor and penchant for solving problems, especially mechanical ones (among Derek’s creations are a complete salt-water aquarium filtration system, a full home-brewing set-up and a video steadicam—all his own design and all from scratch!). Derek called me in July and told me that he was getting married, and wanted me to be his best man! Wow, what an honor! In usual D-style, Derek did it up when he proposed to Angel. He rented out an entire movie theater, produced his own video “movie trailer” and even hired nationally-known, movie trailer voice-over guy Al Chalk to be on it (Heard of Snakes on a Plane, Independance Day, The Fugitive, Madagascar? Yup, that voice-over guy). Derek arranged to have the theater slip his self-produced proposal “trailer” right in with the other trailers. After picking Angel’s jaw up off the floor, he proposed! Crazy…but SO Derek! (she said yes) I wish we had been there for that! Derek also asked Taylor and I to photograph his wedding, which of course we were thrilled to do, though obviously Taylor had to handle the ceremony. After the wedding we hopped in a limo and drove up to Jackass Hill (yep, you read that right) and got some awesome shots of the newlyweds with the sun setting over Denver and the Rockies in the back ground. SCORE! We had a blast in Colorado, and got lots of pictures while exploring the Rockies which we plan to share in a future post. Here are some of our favorites from the wedding…

To start the day off, Derek made us his special multi-grain waffles with fresh fruit and real maple syrup…diggity!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Derek’s kids, Jamie and Jason helped us decorate the bridal coach. What fun!

 

Arriving at the afore-mentioned, famed “Jackass Hill”…what an incredible spot for wedding pics, and we scored some dramatic skies to boot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the reception dinner we caught Angel’s daughter Eliza preparing for her new family by reading, what else? Parent magazine! Too funny!

 

Last Saturday, we photographed Jessica and Spencer’s beautiful outdoor wedding in Tuftonboro, New Hampshire. We first met Jessica in early June and right away we were giddy with excitement. She was beautiful and sweet, had a lovely family and a gorgeous location. It was going to be a good day. The ceremony was at Millstone Point Farm and the reception was at Jessica’s grandmother’s home on Lake Winnipesaukee just down the road. Jessica grew up visiting her grandmother’s house and as her sister said during the toast, ever since they could speak, they talked about having their weddings there. Sounds a little bit like a dream come true..

We got to meet Spencer a few days before the wedding and he was just as great as we expected…certainly a stand up guy. Unfortunately, the forecast was not looking so good for Saturday and we were almost afraid to look most of the time. It all worked out fine though and aside from a brief torrential downpour shortly before the ceremony, it was a rather nice day. It is a precious little nugget of honor when two people trust you to interpret one of the most important days in their lives and we were no less than thrilled to do that for Jessica and Spencer. They’re two great people and they make a lovely couple. To put it eloquently…they da’ folks! J&S…if you read this: happy 4th day of marriage and we hope you’re having an amazing honeymoon!! Enjoy…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What blast these guys were! Here they are having some fun in between the more serious formal shots…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We flipped when we found out Jessica’s Uncle was a bagpiper, complete with Kilt, and would be leading the bridal party down the beautifully lush New England country road to the lakeside reception. He lived up to his billing!

 

 

 

…and on their way they went, concerning themselves with the business of living happily ever after! –K&Tay

The Darby Field Inn is a great little get-away just off Rt. 112, otherwise known as The Kancamagus Highway, aka “The Kanc.” It’s in the town of Albany, New Hampshire, about 6 miles from North Conway. It’s a great New Hampshire Inn and many of the rooms have gorgeous views of the Mount Washington Valley. The place has a really cool vibe. The Inn-keeper Marc and his staff keep the Darby Field running clean and smooth, and we were especially interested to find out that they host weddings, including elopement packages (since Birch Blaze is now offering wedding photography) so you can get ‘er done! Here are some shots Tay and I took that day…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in February we did a food shoot for our good friend Kim Dion at Bella Tavola Catering. Kim was great to work with and we had a blast, not to mention getting to sample some of the incredible edibles we photographed! Kim is great at what she does, not only creating culinary masterpieces that taste amazing and look absolutely gorgeous, but she can wrangle any event, pulling it together and making it happen whether things go exactly according to plan or even if Murphy’s law rears its ugly head! We know because we’ve witnessed it with our own four eyes (six if you count my glasses). Kim catered our wedding in ‘06 and the location was a challenge for sure. We were married in a beautiful old barn (even had a bluegrass band!) in the middle of a field and everything—food, tableware, silverware, chafing dishes…everything—had to be hauled in—and out. No kitchen. Kim made it all happen seamlessly even though it was probably one of her tougher gigs. The food and the presentation were amazing(Alaskan king crab legs, come on?!) and our friends and family still rave about it! On another occasion my Band, Casual Labor, played a wedding that Kim catered and that went off without a hitch (at least to everyone in attendance) under similar circumstances as well. The Girl knows her stuff. So if you have an event that needs catering, give Bella Tavola a call. Kim’ll hook ya up. Cue the pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And at the end we snuck in a couple of nice ‘environmental’ portraits of Kim:

 

Thanks Bella Tavola Catering! Till next time…

Last month Taylor and I photographed Doug & Denise’s wedding in Haverhill Massachussetts. It was Valentines Day, so their theme was, what else? Hearts, of course! Denise’s girls were very cute, so it was fun getting to photograph them. We enjoyed meeting their families and making new friends. Here are some pics from the day…