Ali & Cory | South Portland, ME SMCC Wedding

Cory was 'that boy' in high school.  The boy that every girl thought was "dreamy".  He was a star on the soccer field and with his dashing smile and kind heart how could you not crush on this boy?  I remember thinking as Ali walked back down the isle as his wife "Sorry Fryeburg Academy ladies, he's taken!"  I've known Cory and his whole family for a long time.  His mom was not only my teacher and my director many times over but she was also my school advisor.  His sister was also one of my very good friends in high school.  The Fox's have always been a warm and welcoming family and when Cory contacted me about shooting his wedding I was just as excited to spend the day with his family as I was to be spending the day with he and Ali. Ali & Cory live in Baltimore, MD these days but decided to marry on the coast of Maine and they ended up with the most perfect Maine summer day!  The sun was shining, there was a nice breeze and the air was warm and smelled of salt.  The love these two share is the kind love for which stories are written.  Even the speeches at the reception touched on not only how much they love one another but how long they have been together and how happy everyone was to welcome them to their respective families.  The day was perfect... almost as perfect as their love.

Congrats Ali & Cory I was so honored to be a part of your wedding day!!! XOXO Spring

A honeymoon in Scotland Part III

I think I've been dragging my feet on this part III post partly because I don't want it to be over- this is kind of my last moment of sharing and  reliving those perfect 10 days.  I've also been busy catching up, cleaning up, shooting and editing weddings so that's a part of the delay as well.  But none the less here I am just over a month after our wedding and here is the last set of images from our trip to Scotland- enjoy!!! XOXO Spring

The first place we visited during our one full day on Skye was Dunvegan Castle .  It isn't the oldest castle we saw by any means but it was beautiful, and had the most amazing gardens of any that we saw.

It also has quite the setting...This huge tree is a Monkey Puzzle Tree (which Is a kind of Pine tree from Chile).  Let me tell you those little leave things are sharp!!!  It's almost like a giant succulent tree and I kept thinking the branches looked like snakes... very cool. The next set of images are all from our drive around the tip of the northern part of Skye- We drove all around and I just couldn't take enough photos.  Plus I finally got Silas to give me some time to get  a few photos of the sheep!!! :) I think they look like they have Dalmatian legs.Oh and a photo of a cow too :)These waterfalls are EVERYWHERE- so beautiful!!!! Some very cool rock formations The Old Man of Storr.  You can hike up to the Old Man but we decided not to get wet (it was raining) and we had more to see and just not enough time to see it all. This is Kilt Rock- normally there is much more water poring over the cliffs to the ocean but for some reason, even with all the rain there wasn't much water in the falls.  None the less it's a pretty beautiful sight. Incase you missed it- there are cliffs here... don't fall.A little town near the northern tip of Skye. They really do have these red telephone booths in the middle of nowhere. Another little town called Uig. Once we drove around the top 1/3 of Skye we walked around Portree a little which is the  largest town on Skye and has lots of little shops and this cute little harbor.More crazy beautiful vistas... they are just everywhere!!! Our last night on Skye we stayed at a very nice place called The Toravaig House and had a somewhat fancy dinner full of DELICIOUS food- it was such a nice night!!!  This was one of our last stops on Skye.  I had told Silas I wanted to stop at this artists gallery to see her work since seeing it in the little art book we found about Skye.  Her painting were just amazing and I had high hopes of bringing home a print of hers.  Not  bad spot for a gallery huh?  Well we did bring home a print which is off being framed now but check out her work here:  Pam Carter  She paints some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen!!!! Our last stop before the ferry back to the mainland was the Clan Donald Castle.  It is just a shell.  As recently as the 50's it was in good shape but after years of neglect, sometime in the 80's the roof fell in.  They are working on collecting money to restore it.  It has one beautiful setting. This is the view from the ferry headed back to the mainland- this coast reminded me a bit of Maine's rocky coast. View from the ferry across to the mainland.

After our ferry ride across we took a little scenic drive on another one lane road down and around a peninsula south of Fort Williams.  We had been told it was a beautiful drive with lots of untouched beauty and that it was! 

Yup I could live here.Driving through Glenn Coe notch reminded me a bit of the White Mt's of home.  Loch Lemond showed us where the end of the rainbow is.  Apparently Loch Lemond has a pot of gold down in those waters somewhere. When we were headed into Glasgow for our last night I realized that I had never actually booked our hotel room (though I swear I had).  So by the time we checked in all they had left were twin rooms... so by the end of our honeymoon, 10 days after being married we were already sleeping in separate beds.   This was truly a trip of a lifetime!!!!

Heather & Beech Fryeburg, Maine Wedding

Heather and I have watched Greece, Dirty Dancing and Men in Black so many times we can't possibly count.  We've been friends since the 4th grade and grew up in our high school dark room together.  Heather has always been my "photo buddy".  We got into photography together and even as recently as a year and a half ago shot a wedding together.  We've always had one of those friendships that even it had been two years since we had spent much time together we could pick right up where we left off.  When she first introduced me to Beech I knew there was something special about him.  The whole time we spent talking he was either talking about heather or looking at her or both.  The way that boy looked at my friend I knew he was in love, so when she told me they were engaged it was no surprise.  It was one of the greatest honors to be asked to photograph their wedding.  It may have been a hot, humid day in August but these two were on cloud 9 the whole day. Congrats Heather & Beech, I'm so happy for you two and can not wait to see the wonderful things that life brings for you.

XOXO Spring

A honeymoon in Scotland Part II

Are you ready for more Scotland photos?  The one day we did a full day tour started with a view of the famous rail bridge that goes over the Firth of Forth into the Kingdom of Fife.  It took me almost the whole trip to be able to say that correctly.   A Firth is like an inlet or bay and the name of this bay is Forth and on the North side of the Firth is the Kingdom of Fife.  Which apparently people from Fife are like Texans... they are from the US but they are 1st and foremost Texans... and thats how people from Fife are... They are from Fife and Scotland but Fife always comes first.

 

Our next stop was Dunfermline which is where Robert the Bruce (The Hero King) is buried.  Although his heart is else where his body is buried in this church.  Also in the church yard is where William Wallace's mother is said to be buried and because Wallace was drawn and quartered there is rumors that 1/4 of his body is here as well.

Our next stop was Bannockburn where Robert the Bruce fought a very important battle in Scotland's war of independence.  This statue of Bruce is said to be a very accurate representation of what he truly looked like as it was designed using a scan of his scull and computer programs to create what he would have looked like.

This is Sterling Castle:

After spending 2+ hours around Sterling we traveled south to Rosslyn Chapel- which by the way before you ask- i did not see the holy grail, they didn't let us see what is in the vaults and the library that is shown to be in the basement of the chapel in the movie isn't there- that was a studio in LA.  But it was beautiful none the less.

 

* you are not supposed to photograph inside the chapel which because I walked around outside first I didn't know and got this one photo before being scolded*  Glad my exposure was correct I kinda love this shot*

Silas did give me a little bit of a look when I made him stop and wait for me to take photos of a wedding dress designer store in Edinburgh the next day.  I couldn't help it- they were so pretty in the windows and I was still in the wedding mindset.  Caroline Castigliano makes some beautiful gowns.

Another dinner at The Granary- this time we sat by the fire place and had leather club chairs... such a great atmosphere- and my husband provides a good view too ;) 

Our very cute little rental car... Silas looks like a giant in it plus it's strange because not only do you drive on the other side of the road in the UK the driver is on the other side of the car- thankfully the gas and break are still in the same place.

Everywhere we went we saw "To Let" signs- which means "for rent" but the first time we saw one we were laughing because it looks like they just forgot the 'I' in toilet.

We took our little rental car up to St. Andrews and spent some time walking about the St. Andrews Castle ruins as well as the old Abbey and the town itself which is so cute!!!  Silas's favorite thing about the castle was the mine.  During a siege of this castle the attackers dug a mine to try to get under the walls of the castle, well the occupants of the castle figured out their plan and dug a counter mine to intercept them.  The coolest thing is that you can actually walk down into to mine still.  I was surprised at how "at your own risk" things in Scotland were.  They didn't seem to mind sending people down into a cold, dark, stone cave that you almost have to belly crawl through.  Once we were over at the Abbey we were so supposed that you could walk anywhere, no restrictions to paths or anything.

I'm hoping to find this cider somewhere in the states... it's from Sweden and it's delicious!

It's just amazing how old things in Scotland are.  We think about a house from the 1700's being old here in New England and this church tower is from the 12th century.

After 5 wonderful days with Edinburgh as our home base we took off in our little rental car and headed north west to the Isle of Skye.  On our way I wanted to stop in Fort Williams to take the Harry Potter Train (the actual train they used in filming the journey to Hogwarts).  Plus even though Silas isn't a huge HP fan like I am you get some great views, a fun train ride and we got to spend a little time in this awesome little fishing town of Mallaig.  Which is were we had the best lunch and possibly meal of our whole trip (sweet and sour shrimp, scallops with some cream sauce that was heaven and monkfish with a red pepper relish- ugh my mouth is watering just thinking about it).

I'd say this house is a little out in the middle of no where for my taste but talk about a peaceful setting.

This photo kind of sucks as I got part of the train window in the frame but I just loved the old church- I wish I had been able to stop and get a good shot but sadly I was not in charge of the train- so this is what ya get.

These beaches are known for their "silver sand".  Looks almost tropical.

Mallaig:

 

On the trip back I was able to get a good HP shot ;)

LOOK it's Loch Ness :)

We did not see Nessy but Loch Ness is absolutely beautiful!!! We did however see two girls trying to swim in the loch... and trust me it was COLD they didn't last too long.

Another Loch along the drive up to Skye.There are waterfalls EVERYWHERE- every hill side you look at you see these little white wiggly lines... all waterfalls.  This is Eilean Donan Castle which is one of the most photographed castles in Scotland, which might have to do with is' beautiful setting, you know that jutting out into a Loch with the stone bridge... 

This is the view from our hotel for the night up in Stein which is in the north of Skye.  This little town has about 4 buildings.  The food at the Stein Inn (which is the oldest Inn on the Isle) was wonderful, it was the only place that we had a king size bed, we had to close the curtains to sleep because it was still twilight at 10:45pm and while driving the one lane road up to the town we saw a Sea Eagle which was really cool- sadly no photos of him.Thats the whole town of Stein- quaint don't you think?

Don't worry there are still two more full days of photos to share!!! XOXO Spring