I’ll follow these two images with my favorite looking-at-the-ring-after-the-ceremony shot of the season, just because this picture makes me happy. If you’re a real Weddings by Two fan (hi, Mom!), you’ll recognize Melissa and Vince, who got us our very first blog posting on 100 Layer Cake, way back last year.

So here are Jen and Chris, again, doing freestyle.

Jen and Chris came out to our country home Memorial Day weekend, and we zipped down the street to the nearby Black River and Western Railroad. This location makes us crazy! For those interested, they actually host parties, and I am just waiting for the day that I get to shoot a wedding there. Most of the charm is outside, but there’s actually one old train car with a bar and upholstered furniture that looks very 1920s. I want to sit in there with fancy gloves and drink a martini, even though I don’t like martinis. Anyway! We had no access to the interior of the train this day, but we did have some fabulous light and tons of fun.

Check our posting tomorrow to see Part II of the shoot! Jen and Chris spent the weekend out here, and on day two we went over to Stockton, NJ, to shoot on a farm complete with trampoline, and many of Jen’s adorable handcrafted props that we’ll see again at their wedding August 7th at Martha Clara Vineyards in Riverhead, Long Island. Obviously, we can’t wait for that.

We are happy too for our posting on 100 Layer Cake today—a tiny preview of this engagement shoot.

Christina and John, who are featured on Once Wed, borrowed a friend’s loft in Ft. Greene for their intimate celebration. Christina is a paper/installation artist and John is a graphic designer—being quite a papivore myself, I knew even before we met that I would love to shoot their wedding.

The day itself was perfect. Beautiful people, check. Beautiful dress, check. Great decor, cool loft, stylish guests, T-shirts. Yes, I said T-shirts! John designed one of the best take-home gifts we have seen—T-shirts with an amalgam of the couple’s last names (”GRAFSKY,” from Graf and Pinsky) printed on the front and a sweet little heart on the back near the neckline. Picture coming soon, in my next post.

Our recommendation for a nice, economical book (especially for parents) is to go to Kate’s Paperie or some other place with nice albums and make your own! A homemade book can be the nicest kind. And now there are Apple Books and all kinds of digital options that are quite cute if you are working from scans and digital files.

Anyway, I have gotten away from my point, which is to introduce a new line of books that we just found. Please note, these are not cheap either, but they are oh-so-exciting and I imagine they are worth every cent! They are called Couture Books, and if you go to their website, be prepared for a heavy dose of glamour that is a little much for our humble selves, but DO look at their books, which are absolutely stunning and make me want to save all my pennies to archive ten years’ worth of personal photos into the various kinds of books they offer.

Download their catalogue here. We are particularly smitten with the Victorian, the Piccadilly, the French Line, the Himalayan, the Jaipur, the Tokyo, and the Madrid books—but oh how we would love to see them all in person. We will certainly be making some sample books this year, so ask us more about this if you share our sensibility on this!

We are also thinking about offering people a credit to swap out their proof book and get a small credit toward a more finished product like this. Something to think about….

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