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Those who don’t believe in love at first sight have never met Cassy and Tristan.  Cassy got her first taste of Tristan in a cooking class and knew from the moment she met him that Tristan was the man she was going to marry.  This was a rather bold prediction for a sophomore in high school.  How Cassy knew in an instant that this would be the man that would become her very best friend, be her soul mate, and that would travel the long and windy road of the ups and downs of life by her side, I will never know…but I am sure glad she did.

Cassy is a big believer in Carpe Diem.  When she finds something she wants, she goes after it with gusto, be it Tristan, or even ME! Back in 2012, I was in Falmouth shooting Tristan’s brother’s wedding.  Cassy was a girl after my own heart and danced the night away with me.  She pulled me aside that night and asked for my card, and said, “Someday I am going to marry Tristan and you are going to be our wedding photographer.”  I was flattered, but figured what were the chances she’d remember me come the day Tristan proposes.  Little did I know, that evening Cassy slipped my card into her bedside table, and kept it there, waiting to send me an email once Tristan popped the question.After the fun I had with Cassy and Tristan at the last wedding I was beyond excited to get to shoot their wedding.

Shawn Black was with me that day to capture the oodles of fun details that Cassy and Tristan had created.  I absolutely adored the personalized champagne flutes Cassy got her bridesmaids.  I also loved the birdcage veil she had, it made her look so old Hollywood, but before going out for the big reveal, she took it off, so that she could really be herself in that moment.  In the end, I was so glad she did because there was nothing to hide the joy on her face as the two saw each other for the first time in all their finery that day.

That same look of joy was on Cassy’s face during the ceremony.  She was FINALLY getting to marry Tristan! They elected to forgo the traditional wedding vows, and wrote their own instead.  Tristan went first, and his sweet, heart-felt words brought his “beautiful Cassandra” to tears.  As it turned out, he had written almost EXACTLY what she had written for her vows.  It was adorable.  The ceremony also symbolically unified their two families with a unity tree planting. Cassy and Tristan had mason jars filled with soil from their childhood homes that they added to a potted tree they will keep at their own home to represent the foundation of love and caring that brought them to where they are today.

The wedding decor showcased Tristan and Cassy’s crafty sides.  Tristan made a magnificent rustic cake stand with their names and the wedding date engraved into the side of a slice of an enormous tree he felled himself.  Cassy designed all the fun signs and created a unique take on a guestbook. She spray painted open wine bottles and made custom labels for them for their 1st through 40th wedding anniversaries and asked that their guests place messages in the bottles for them to read on those anniversaries.

Once the sun started to set, Cassy indulged me and put back on the birdcage veil for a quick photo session.  She looked so glamourous, I felt like I was back shooting at New York Fashion Week! Then in the bat of an eye, Cassy transformed from model to the dancing queen I remembered so fondly.  She and Tristan surely seized the day to its fullest, and will continue to do so for all the rest of the days of their lives together.

Notes:

• The couple had planned to spend most of their cocktail hour with their guests, but instead spent most of the time getting Cassy’s dress bustled.  It was the most complex one I’d ever seen.  Luckily they had taken a video of it being bustled at the dress shop and had it on Cassy’s iPhone.  This is a great idea no matter how complex the bustle on your dress is.  It will give you an idea of how long it will take and will provide your bridesmaids with a priceless visual aid when sticking their heads up your dress.  The iPhone can also act as a flashlight to help find those pesky bustle loops.
• Cassy’s choice of happy sunflowers for her bouquet was perfect, they gave the wedding a great summer feel, and they mirrored her sunny disposition.
• The Coonamessett Inn provided food stations for the wedding guests instead of a seated dinner.  I found this to be a great setup for a wedding.  That way no one was waiting on the food to come out to get the party started, and the guests could get a much wider variety of foods.  I was a big fan of the made to order pasta.
• The bridesmaids had the most fabulous dresses that they could actually use after the wedding.  They are infinity dresses by Henkaa. I totally want one!
• Susanna Withers of Brookline Photo Editing did an AMAZING job with the post processing on these images.  I could never turn around these beautiful images so quickly without her skills and talents.