Crazy Wedding Weekend: Maine to St. John

I just got back the other day from the CRAZIEST wedding weekend I've ever had. Crazy in terms of the miles I had to travel to get where I needed to go.

Wedding #1 was taking place Sunday at a place called Camp Vega in Maine.

Wedding #2 was taking place MONDAY at a place called Caneel Bay in St. John...in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

We drove up to Maine on Saturday, leaving NYC at 930am and arriving in Maine at around 6pm. We made frequent stops and there was a ton a traffic. A 6 hour drive took almost 9 hours. Not fun.

We got some rest though and Sunday was wedding day and the wedding was BEAUTIFUL.

They decorated the lodge all pretty-like. 

And the ceremony was held at the side of the lake and the bride arrived on a floating pontoon escorted by her father as violins played Pachelbel's Canon and EVERYONE CRIED because it was THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WEDDING ENTRANCE THEY HAD EVER SEEN IN THEIR LIFE.

The groom cried...

It was awwwwwesome. And look at all those DK Brides!

Sarah is the last of the original group to get married. A few years ago Sam's wedding was one of the very first weddings I ever shot.

Since then, all the other bridesmaids have gotten married and they have ALL been DKBrides!

Sarah is #7!!! (Liza, #6, was last weekend. Fabulous wedding outside Boston. Didn't have time to blog about it. Oops.)

Congrats Sarah & Seth!!!

It was SUCH a fun wedding. It was NUTS. KatieK (below) is the funniest wedding guest ever.

EVER.



LOVE seeing all my DKBrides!!!!

The wedding ended at 11pm and at 11:10pm I had said my goodbyes and jumped in my car with Ian (who was helping me as my wonderful assistant/copilot) and we booked it back to NYC in order for me to catch my 8am flight to St. Thomas.

We sped through the night and actually made it back into NYC by 5:15am. (Drive took just over 6 hours.) I was surprised. I honestly thought there was a 20% chance I was totally going to miss my flight. But no, I even had time to run home, take a quick shower, and re-pack my bags so I could travel sans checked luggage.

I was at the airport by 6:30am. And at 8am I was taking off to St Thomas.

I landed in St Thomas at 12pm but nooooo the journey does not end there.

From St Thomas airport I had to take a 45 minute cab ride to Red Hook where I had to catch the 1pm ferry (it leaves every hour...had I checked a bag I totally would have missed it and would have had to wait until the 2pm ferry. Also, keep in mind my bride is at this very second getting hair and makeup done and anxiously awaiting my arrival since the ceremony is at 5pm.)

This part of the journey was most stressful because I was cutting it so close.

But I made it on. And was on St. John by 1:45. 

Whew!

From there I went to Caneel Bay where the bride and my trusty bestie Allan were awaiting my arrival. (Allan flew in the day before to help me cover getting-ready shots (or to cover the whole wedding in the event that I missed my flight.) I needed an insurance plan because this whole adventure was PRETTTTTY risky and A LOT of things could've gone wrong...)

The bride got a great deal out of it though! Two great photogs for the price of one! (Allan agreed to help me at a fraction of his regular $12K rate since it was a Monday wedding and he is the best friend EVER.)

The wedding itself was gorgeous. They did the ceremony overlooking the ocean. And then the reception was at the Sugar Mill Ruins.

The first dance was beauuuutiful and the bride's momma cried.

It was a small wedding (about 50 people) so by the end of the evening everyone knew and loved us and we partied with our wonderful new friends.

By the time we got back to our room after the wedding, I was DEAD.

We took Tuesday to chill at our resort.

Then Wednesday we went back to NYC.

And I can finally breathe.

Now I was supposed to have this weekend off. First weekend off in months. And I was GOING to just chill at home in NYC...

But on Thursday the sweet baby jesus dropped some tickets to the MTV Video Music Awards in my lap. So I booked a last minute flight and am taking off for LA tomorrow for the VMAs Sunday followed by the Emmys the following day. (Don't have tix to those...yet...but hoping to have the hookup on some sweet afterparties or something! We'll see!)

Crazy life! YOLO!

The Giver: World Premiere

Whoever said "Mondays Suck" obviously did not have a movie premiere to go to that night!

A handful of superstars were on hand last night to introduce their new film THE GIVER.

Jeff Bridges, Taylor Swift, Katie Holmes, and MERYL STREEP all showed up to the NYC world premiere.

I was lucky enough to have had drinks with Ms Naia (who is a producer on the movie) last week while in LA and got invited as an afterthought.
 Yayyyyy!

The lady in purple there is the author of "The Giver" Ms. Lois Lowry.

And the young not-yet-household-name stars of the movie arrived first to cheers from the crowd.

Across the street all the fans waited and cheered.

Those of us attending the premiere were dressed real purty-like.

Meryl showed up and I was immediately starstruck from several hundred feet away.

Here's Miss Naia being all Oprah-like (without the fatness) passing out tickets to the premiere.

Taylor Swift arrived and the energy of the entire block changed. There was a roar of cheers from the crowd and every single person - young, old, famous, and not-famous - turned to gawk or sprinted over to snap photos.

It was so crazy she didn't even go to sign autographs, but instead hurried into the red carpet/interview area...it probbbbably would have been a security hazard.

The streets were packed with onlookers.

And paparazzi lined the red carpet.

Those of us NIPs had to walk behind the red carpet and into the theater. No interviews or paparazzi-walls for us! #feelingfabulous #not

Once inside the massive theater, we watched a live stream of the red carpet arrivals.

It was also in here that we got the news the Robin Williams had just died.

Jeff Bridges was literally on-camera being interviewed when it happened and broke down in tears talking about his friend.

OMG Meryl!!!!

Katie Holmes looked FIERCE.

AND THEN (no and then!) the A-listers entered the building...

"MERYL!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"KATIE!!!!!!!"

Harvey Weinstein took the stage to introduce Jeff Bridges.

And then Jeff Bridges introduced the rest of the cast.

Miss Taylor...

Meryl...

There was a lot of star power on that one little stage!

And then we were treated to a surprise performance by OneRepublic, who had a song that was featured on the movie soundtrack.

It was a very entertaining movie. There were some lines and situations that were hilariously and unintentionally gay and molest-y though.

Like when the kid goes, "If I'm The Receiver...what are you?" 

And Jeff Bridges goes, "I guess that would make me the Giver."

(If Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers still did that SNL skit "REALLY?!?!?!" their appearance right now would be very fitting.)

So excited to see Miss Naia's name featured prominently in the credits!

Remember this time 10 years ago when we were just starting out as lowly Hollywood assistants?

Makes me want to revisit my IMDB page!

Thank you Naia for the Hollywood hookup, as usual!