Sam and Stephen are one of the most wonderful couples I’ve met, and I had been looking forward to their winter wedding in the pretty New Hampshire countryside since meeting them at another wedding early last summer (the moment I saw them, in fact, I asked them to have me be their photographer!) They are sweet, funny, and kind … and so incredibly passionate about each other, their families, and their friends. They also laugh together constantly, and I hope a little of their wonderful personalities shows through in this post.

I wanted to change things up this year and post a smaller number of images per wedding, focusing on the photos that I really love. I’m trying to keep it to no more than thirty photos … we’ll see how I do with that as the year progresses. 😉 I’m also hoping to talk a little less. No promises, but I’ll try. Anyway, back to our grooms – they got ready together in a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nashua, NH. Sam spent the morning doing the girls’ makeup (seriously!) and Stephen popped in and out, running errands. Both guys were the epitome of cool, calm, and collected.

I loved watching them help each other … with their hair, their ties, their cufflinks … everything.

Once they were ready, Stephen and Sam exchanged gifts. They went for personal hand crafted gifts with meaning (I don’t want to share too much here) and there were some incredibly emotional moments during the exchange …

After that, we headed out for an extended portrait session in the surrounding area. Huge thanks to Stephen’s family for scouting some great spots for us, and to his stepdad Al in particular for playing chauffeur! We got a TON of great shots, and it was hard narrowing down the selection for the blog post … so today is a little portrait heavy. 🙂

The yellow wading boots were hilarious.

The ceremony took place at the utterly adorable Alvirne Chapel in Hudson, NH. Sam’s mom officiated, and the short service was filled with emotion.

After the ceremony, we headed over to Nashua Country Club for the reception. We grabbed a couple of portraits with the bridal party outside – and these guys were troupers; it was coooold by then!

The grooms started the reception with a dance party (yeah!) I love how excited Sam looks here. 🙂

Their traditional first dance followed a few minutes later, and the mood was once again intimate and oh so sweet:

The rest of the night was filled with a ton of partying … and a visit from the fire dept.! A huge shout-out to my favorite DJ, Nate Oinonen of White Label DJs, for keeping the party rocking all night long, despite the unplanned interruption. And to my lovely, gorgeous and sweet-as-can-be grooms: thank you. I can’t wait to share your full set of images with you in a few weeks!