We met Dan from Due Amici Italian Grill & Catering while working a wedding a few years ago and have been having a blast working with him and his crew ever since. He is a wonderful guy with a great attitude, he is incredibly nice and always laughing. In addition to being great to work with the man knows how to run a wedding. Every time we are working with him we know the day is going to be an easy one. He keeps everything running smooth and takes care of his brides.

A couple of weeks ago we finally set some time aside to stop at his restaurant in Cinnaminson, NJ. We highly recommend you do the same. They recently remodeled and of course the best part is the food, which is outstanding! It’s a wonderfully cozy place to stop for a meal on a cold winter’s day and they have a beautiful outdoor area that we are sure is a great place to enjoy a summer evening dinner – we’ll let you know since we will definitely be going back again.

Our good friends Helena and Mark recently asked us to photograph their daughter Brya and we all met up at the beach in Sea Isle, NJ. It was a perfectly warm day as Brya ran herself all over that beach. As we always like to do with children we let Brya pretty much just do her thing and she did it perfectly.

Hey all it’s Ray here for a post with something a little different than your used to. I’ve always photographed all types of different subject matter when I have free time and lately I’ve been lucky enough to photograph some really good trick bicycle riders. A good friend of mine, Jesse has helped me organize a couple of outings to give me the chance to photograph this cool sport. The first time it ended up raining but we were able to grab a few shots at night in the streets of Philadelphia before it rained too hard. More recently I made a trip to FDR Park in Philadelphia to photograph some friends and some strangers. I hope you enjoy the photos and I’d love to do more shoots like this.

Ray

Jesse-Jambox-Johnston

Nick Todak

Vince Discala

Carl DeBeauclair

Ian Delfiner

Vince Discala

Drew Leshko

Hey all it’s Ray. We are still surprisingly busy for this time of year but overall it’s slowed down a little, we are certainly not shooting as much now in the winter months. Now that I have a little more free time I’ve been going through some of the photos and video clips from our honeymoon that Kim and I went on this past spring. In March of 2011 we went on a two week trip to Florida where we swam with the dolphins at Discovery Cove, then we spent a few days in Cocoa Beach. We wrapped up the trip with a short cruise to the Bahamas. It was an awesome time and just right before the wedding season started.

Ray

Florida Honeymoon from Ray Hennessy on Vimeo.

A few weeks ago, when it was around 70 degrees on a Monday in late November I was itching to get out and shoot. I posted on Facebook that we wanted volunteers to play around in the city. Ray told me I was crazy and that no one would respond with only a couple hours of notice. Well much to our surprise and luck, he was WRONG! Thanks so much Jaki and Jason for being willing to drive into the city to be our models and let us play around with our lights and holding poses for ridiculously long periods of time.

My cousin Janice and her husband Trent had a beautiful baby girl! She was born on February 8th, 2011. They live in Long Island so I went to visit them in April, and of course I took some pictures. Isn’t she adorable!

One of our favorite brides from 2010 opened her own cupcake shop in Ocean City NJ! If you’re ever in the area you definately need to stop by Sandcastle Cupcakes. The cupcakes are absolutely delicious and they even do wedding cakes as well!

They offer a wide variety of flavors, and when I heard Katie makes chocolate covered bacon I just had to stop in! Being a crazy bacon lover, I had to try it and I must say it was fantastic!

Sandcastle Cupcakes has clearly been Ray approved!

After lots of research we finally found a sign-in album that we love. It is available in 8×8 or 10×8 and each spread has a photo on the left side and parchment paper on the right for all your guests to sign. We love the full wrap around photo cover and the pages are nice and durable to last through the years. If your wedding is coming up and you are interested, just drop us a line, we would love to make one for you.

Ray and I were married on Thursday May 6th at Batsto Village. Cliff Maunter was our photographer. My dress was from Wedding Belles. My flowers were from Betina’s Garden. My hair and makeup was done by Kristine from The Little Touches. Our reception was at Blue Heron Pines. Our DJ was Chris Garrow from Unforgettable DJs. You can check out our engagement pictures by Dinofa Photography here. And our honeymoon pictures by Tracey Buyce here.

I must have written this post in my head about a hundred times already, and it gets longer every time. I’d love to say that our wedding was better than I imagined, but that’s just not the truth. It was nothing like I imagined. It was a lot harder to plan then I thought it would be. I forgot things left and right. I changed my mind a hundred times over. I had no idea how stressful finding reliable vendors was. Or how crazy some vendors get when you don’t hire them. I had no idea how crazy families get. I mean I had seen some crazy things happen on weddings before, but I never saw the behind the scenes things that happened in the months leading up to a wedding. And even though I see all the emotions brides experience, I wasn’t prepared in the least for my own emotions. I must say I have a whole new understanding and respect for all of my clients.

All in all our wedding was wonderful. They had called for thunderstorms that day, but they never came. Ray was completely giddy, and so cute. Ray and I had a first look and I’m so glad we did. He was able to put all of my nerves at ease instantly. I spent a lot more on my wedding dress then I had planned and the first words out of Ray’s mouth were that he would have spent double on my dress. We only had 19 guests and we were worried no one would dance, but everyone did. Married life since has been wonderful. I will say that being married to Ray is better than I imagined. I know, I know, I’m terribly corny. He never ceases to amaze me in the ways that he gets and understands me and my ridiculous humor. I still haven’t gotten used to my new name but I’m sure I will eventually. =)

So after my first year of business, I received an award. You can color me happy. =)

So happy in fact, I jumped out of a plane during my vacation in Florida!
Ray’s sister works at the drop zone in Sebastian Florida and she offered me a great deal to jump that I couldn’t pass up. This doesn’t really have anything to do with my award, but in a way to me it pretty much sums up this last year for me.

Starting a business, is SCARY. I’ve always wanted to run my own business, and when Ray and I started to get serious, and started talking about buying a place of our own, I thought, it’s now or never, because there was no way I would try this AFTER I had to start paying for a mortgage. However, trying to convince people to trust in you when you aren’t sure you trust yourself, is nerve-racking. I’ll admit it, I’m insecure. So my plan was to try not to convince anyone of anything. I sat back in interviews, I showed people my work, and I answered questions. I crossed my fingers, and just hoped for the best. I completely sweated it out every time I didn’t get an immediate phone call.

When brides called me or emailed me to tell me they were booking me, I told them how excited I was. When I got thank you cards, I jumped up and down and ran through my house like a sugar high child. Some people, and a few other professionals have told me to seriously consider changing my “about me” section. However, I have gotten so much more positive feedback from that, then negative. I’m honest, sometimes I’m shy, sometimes I’m silly, I make couples on their engagements spin in circles, I half dance while taking pictures at receptions, that’s just me. I love re-reading my reviews, because they make me feel so ACCEPTED. I love running my own business, and I love my clients for letting me be me.