I can still remember my first crush. I was in the third grade and his name was Mark P., an identical twin with lovely curly orangey-red hair, a face full of freckles and kind eyes. Mark’s brother, Michael, was the more outgoing of the two. A class clown prone to pranks, Michael would often convince his brother to take his seat in the other third grade class until the teachers finally noticed the switch a roo. Mark was quiet and shy and I never understood why the teachers couldn’t instantly tell them apart.

My crush on Mark never went anywhere and by the end of coed baseball later that summer, I had a new crush. I think it’s safe to assume that most childhood crushes don’t last very long. But, sometimes they do….Sometimes they go the distance, as is the case with our super cuties Rachel & Paul, whose third grade crush eventually led them to want to say, “I do!”

Paul told us that despite his affections for Rachel, it took her a while to notice him. “She didn’t have time for me back then,” he said. “We didn’t really become friends until the late high school years.”

A high school trip to Italy firmly established their friendship. But, still no romance. Rachel had a boyfriend. The friendship continued to grow after graduation, even when Paul moved to New York. After college, Rachel began visiting Paul in the big city. “We even took a trip to Iceland together..but no real romance yet,” Paul said.

Rachel moved to New York and soon their relationship also moved to the next level. Still, things didn’t immediately stick in the ‘I’m stuck on you!’ kind of way. As is often the case in life, the timing just wasn’t right. So our love birds separated for a while.

It didn’t take very long to realize they were better together than they were apart. “And we never want to be apart again,” they told us.

We had the pleasure of spending the day with Paul & Rachel recently when we got together for their Bello love session. We still find it hard to believe anyone follows this blog with regularity, but for the one or two of you who do, we’re sure you’ve been anxiously awaiting more photos after a long winter of album designing & production and not much image-making. So, without further ado…it is with great pleasure that we invite you to meet Rachel & Paul:

As is sometimes the case, our love session was the first time we met Rachel & Paul in person. We’d had several wonderful conversation over the phone, but because they live in NYC and Paul travels a lot for work, we didn’t get to meet before they decided they wanted us to be a part of their Cape Cod wedding.

In our early conversations, we learned that one of the things Rachel & Paul share a passion for is traveling, something for which Andy & I also have a great deal of passion. So, we took them to a little airfield to play amid the brightly colored biplanes. Right away, we knew we were going to have fun spending time with these two sweeties!

It’s always a little nerve-wracking for our couples when they first get in front of our cameras. I mean, how often in life do you have two people running around watching your every move, sticking cameras in your face and asking you to snuggle up with your honey? It can be intimidating, but these two seemed completely comfortable with each other and with us. And, that’s when the magic happens…

Awww….

Getting cozy…

Normally, my favorite photos are when our couples are smiling and enjoying themselves in a way that is easy to see. When we’re editing and I see moments we capture of our couples in the middle of huge grins, I can’t help but smile myself. But, sometimes those quiet moments, where you can see that a couple is so comfortable in each others presence that there’s nowhere else they’d rather be, can just take my breath away, like this next photo. (Paul, I knew as soon as we met you that you were full of crap when you said you don’t take a good picture….now we have proof…seriously, Calvin wants his model back!!!)

Here’s a perfect example of my favorite kind of photo…..come on, how can you not smile looking at these two?

Thankfully, we had the perfect April day for photos when we got together. Spring carries a crispness to the light that I just love…

Love this one…

A different perspective…

Another smile-inducing moment…

Paul+Rachel=love

We decided to hit a couple of other locations to mix things up and I love the classic clapboard background for these next few…

I’m a big fan of this kind of perspective…

Poor Rachel was getting chilly toward the end of our session as the sun was heading down for the day. But, sometimes the cold makes our couples snuggle even more tightly, and the results….lovely!

Getting really chilly now….but ooooh, how I love the way Rachel is holding her hands in this next one. It’s so perfectly feminine. Love it!

The Sandwich boardwalk is a great place for a walk on a crisp April day…

I thought I’d try something different with this next image. The first is enhanced using our classic bello look. But, with all of the old brown beach grass not yet having given way to the green lush beach grass that the next month will bring, I thought the image called for a more vintage worn sort of look. Which do you prefer?

This…

Or this…

This post is the first of many soon to come. We thank you our faithful blog readers & comment leavers (Candice…we love you!) for bearing with us as we got our ducks in a row this winter and took a little break from blogging. Rest assured, we’re back now and this season promises to be a fabulous one. We hope you stay with us on this journey…and as always, please leave us some love. It makes us sooo happy!

Big thanks to Rachel and Paul for trusting us to document this incredible time in your lives. Thank you for a wonderful afternoon, for all the great chats in between and for opening your hearts to us. We look forward to getting to know you both even better over the coming year and to being there with you when you, after years of waiting, finally say, “I do!” With love & hugs, Chris & Andy xoxo