It's Friday!!! TGIF!!! We're just a few weeks from the holidays, you're probably not that motivated to work this afternoon so why not make yourself a mug of hot chocolate and settle in for Meredith & Melanie's amazing wedding at Chatham Bars Inn on Cape Cod, MA.

I was SO excited for Meredith & Melanie's wedding and it couldn't have been a more beautiful and emotional day. A big shout out to the Hopple Popple team (phenomenal wedding planners) - President Linda and Event Planner Aya, Jim from Boston Wedding Films (love working with Jim) and Lena from Hair that Moves - it's always so fun to see familiar and talented faces at weddings :)

Chatham Bars Inn is SUCH an amazing wedding venue on the Cape. Actually, scratch that, it's an amazing place in general - vacation, honeymoon, whatever. From their website: Chatham Bars Inn has been an idyllic Cape Cod hotel family vacation retreat noted for its excellent service, fine cuisine and beautiful surroundings since 1914. The Inn is nestled near the heart of Chatham on 25 beautifully landsca ped acres overlooking Pleasant Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Melanie found this heart shaped rock on the beach, perfect place to rest the wedding rings:

Meredith's stunning hair piece:

Hello Vera!


Hair and make up was underway in Meredith's suite:

I had the awesome Katie Noble shooting alongside me for the day. Katie was over on the other side of the propery taking these pictures of Melanie attempting to get dressed and keep Luke occupied :)

Time for Meredith to get into her gown. Meredith's mom helped her with the million tiny little buttons. Adrienne stepped back to see Meredith all dressed, love these moments:

Meredith & Melanie decided to see one another before the ceremony. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. It takes a lot for me to get emotional at weddings but I most definitely had a little lump in my throat seeing how happy they were. I was kneeling in a lavender bed for most of the first look and the air was wonderfully perfumed with the scent of lavender. An emotional Meredith walked towards Melanie:


We had a little time before family pictures for some happy almost-newlywed pictures and we took a little stroll down to the beach:

Let's say it wasn't a wedding day and I was doing a family portrait session, I usually allow an hour or so to get everyone relaxed, get the children familiar with me, figure out a pleasing composition and then take multiple pictures to get some really awesome expressions.

On this particular day I had maybe 45 minutes to photograph over 30 different groups of people, many of the groups involving 10 small (unpredictable) children and babies. I knew it was going to be fairly chaotic so Audrey (most amazing assistant ever) and I brainstormed to make it go as smoothly as possible. We also had some secret weapons in the form of puppets and baby squeaker toys :) Here's the behind the scenes (that's me circled in red kneeling in another flower bed):

And here are some relaxed family pictures :) Meredith & Melanie both have the most wonderful close and welcoming families, it was a joy to see them all together, so happy to be celebrating the wedding: 

Love this picture of Meredith & Melanie with their boys:

Ketubah signing:

Alrighty, if I post anymore pictures I'll slow down the interwebs so that's it for today. Next up is the oceanfront ceremony and the most fabulous wedding reception...if you haven't already like the official Leah Haydock Photography page on facebook you should really do so now! I'll have a couple of bonus pictures going up AND you'll be the first to know when part II goes live!