Jen & Marty's Plantation Wedding: Mandeville, LA

My second consecutive plantation wedding weekend took me down to New Orleans.

I stayed with Semmesey and Katie and Stella (gasp! I didn't take any pictures! Stella is soy big now!)

They left after a day and I spent the rest of the weekend house-sitting.

On Friday we had the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner at City Park in New Orleans.







For the wedding on Saturday we drove across Lake Pontchartrain on the Causeway - a 30-mile bridge, the longest bridge in the world until 2011 - to Mandeville, where the bride's mom and stepdad have a little plantation summer home.



The Causeway is pretty awesome...it feels like you are crossing an ocean, it takes about half an hour to cross the whole thing without traffic.



Oh. My. Agod.

This property was crazy gorgeous.

You enter the main gate into a long circular driveway that circles a beautiful fountain. (This is a view from the 3rd floor window of the house)

And then behind the house is a massive "lawn" that extends all the way down to the water.

Giant oak trees surround the house, covered in beautiful Spanish moss.

It is other-worldly.

(And they only spend a few weeks a year here. The rest of their time is spent at primary homes in Carmel, Montana, Charleston........sounds awful.)

There were lots of pretty wedding details.

And I was really happy with this semi-staged shot I got when the bridesmaids saw Jen for the first time.

Guests started arriving around 5pm, just as the sun began to set.

Each and every guest gasped as they entered the property marveling at the beautiful surroundings.

And look who came! Mrs. Grutzmacher and Millieeeeeee (Doug's mom and niece).

(I got the gig because I photographed Doug's sister Annie's wedding to Gary a couple years ago, and Gary is the brother of Marty - the groom.)

The ceremony was held down the lawn over by the lake...

It was booootyful.

Friends gave funny speeches and readings...

Marty, an artist, read a poem he had written for Jen...

Which brought everyone to tears...

Yay!!!

Loves the Machado family!

And LOVES these Machado sister-wives!

MILLLLIEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Millie and Gus are cousins and they are soyyyy cute.

There were so many beautiful spots to take pictures.

And OMG Marty's mom is the NICEST lady ever and kept making sure I was drinking.

SOY LOVELY.

Congratulations Marty & Jen!!!!

The End.

Back to New York!

Amazing New Orleans Wedding!

So I was down in New Orleans again this past weekend for Sam & Aliisa's wedding.

The event was awesome. It was Gatsby-themed, which at first I wasn't sure about...but once I saw all the details and work they had put into it...it was actually pretty awesome.

Their first look was THE CUTEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN.

I was pretty proud of the way I got them to pull it off. If you want to see a mini-GIF of it, it's on my instagram (@denniskwanphoto) and it was retweeted by The Knot (@theknot) and actually made it to the front page of Instagram.

The bridesmaids all looked gorgeous in Monique Lhullier bridesmaid dresses.

There were so many groomsmen!

Loved taking pictures right in the French Quarter!

The ceremony was beautiful.

At one point, after Sam read his vows, which were sooo sweet, Aliisa instinctively leaned in to kiss him but then stopped herself just in time, realizing she wasn't allowed to just yet, and jumped back in the cutest way ever and the room erupted in hysterical laughter...

After their first kiss...

We did a second-line down Bourbon St. which was EPIC. The entire wedding followed a marching band and people screamed and cheered and threw beads from the sidewalks and balconies. It was so cool.

Since Sam and Aliisa both went to Brown, lots of my friends were on hand.

Charlie and Caroline were there...

Oh, and Allan, my newest BFF, came down to shoot the wedding with me as well.

(We were all INCREDIBLY lucky Allan was available. He normally charges like 12K for a wedding, but I was having drinks with him last Monday and he had never been to New Orleans before, and thought it'd be fun to come along and take some pics, so I convinced Sam & Aliisa to fly him down.)

I also promised him that I would have lots of friends there to introduce him to and that it would be SUPER fun. Which it was!

I love when my job involves hanging with my favorite people from around the world. Even Teebags came over from Thailand for it!

Farshid and Semmesey had a little bromance brewing...

As these little ones were cute as always...

Such fun!