Andy & I had a blast photographing Osterville wedding planner Desiree Spinner this past Sunday. When Desiree first asked us about doing a session together, she said she was a little nervous because she doesn’t like the way she looks in photos. We think she is completely bananas! And, if you saw yesterday’s photos, you know what I’m talking about.

After having some fun getting photos of Desiree with the lemonade stand, as styled by the talented Jillian Clark of 100 Layer Cake, we decided to take the party to the railroad tracks.

Last year, Andy & I found this super cute loveseat at an estate sale. It’s been sitting in our office just begging to be used. We’ve got big ideas for it. But, for now, we thought it would fit in nicely with the vintage feel of Jillian’s vision for Desiree’s session. And, it did.

We decided to put the love-seat on the railroad tracks…fortunately, the tracks here on the Cape don’t exactly get London-like traffic.

Come on… Is that cute or what? And, how serendipitous that the love-seat fit perfectly between the tracks!

With a new, more subtle, sultry look by make up artist Katrina Hess, Desiree looked stunning!!!

Ga ga gorgeous!

Lovin’ the warm late afternoon sun….Desiree is completely glowing…

Hello Miss Thang!!!

Just love her beaming expression in this next one! Can you tell we were having a blast?

This could be my favorite portrait of the session. I love the more candid shot of Desiree with the cupcakes from yesterday’s post, because more natural photos are what we love most. But, Desiree just looks so serene, confident and so totally beautiful in this next shot. I’m crazy about it! And that light…..perfection!

Add a little sun flare and a smokin’ hot expression and……voila…..Supah-staaah!

Continuing on, our last stop in the day was this super cute farm stand. It made for the perfect backdrop to once again tie in the lemonade stand theme.

I keep saying “gorgeous” a lot….but come on….not photogenic, seriously? Desiree, you’re cuckoo!

Lemon-rific!

When she laughs it’s hard not to join her!! Love this next one of Desiree…who wouldn’t want this fun little bundle of energy as their wedding planner?

Adding a little bam-factor in this next one. Hola senorita! Que guapa!

Simply beautiful….

I’ll say it again, Desiree, you are wonderful and working with you is not only super fun and super easy, it’s a total pleasure! You’ve got great style and merged with Jillian’s fantastic aesthetic, you two gave us so much good stuff to work with, Andy & I didn’t want the day to end! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Big love, Christine & Andy xoxo

This past weekend we had the pleasure of photographing Cape Cod’s newest sensation…wedding planner Desiree Spinner of Desiree Spinner Events. We first met up with Desiree and the fabulous team she assembled for dinner on Saturday night at Five Bays Bistro in Osterville. Joining us were Desiree’s super sweet hubby, Craig, and fabulous assistants, Sara & Kaleigh and Kaleigh’s adorable hubby-to-be, Josh. Also joining us for dinner was with the uber stylish Jillian Clark of 100 Layer Cake, who’d come up from NY with her husband & photographer, Scott, to help bring Desiree’s vision for her shoot to life.

After a wonderful night of yummy food, good wine and excellent conversation, we met up with the team the following afternoon for the shoot. It was an all day affair and Andy & I had a blast. The first part of the shoot involved setting up a deliciously sweet lemonade stand.

Some details….you know how we looove the details!

I just loved all the vintage touches Jillian brought with her, namely the super cute mutli-colored tin and these adorable yellow glasses. And, can we talk about the hot pink striped straws?

Lemonade never looked so good.

Love the blue Ball jars!

And these super cute straw tags Jillian made…

Wearing a foxy white dress and too-cute-for-words apron from Anthropologie, with make up by the talented Katrina Hess, Desiree was delightful. We all kept joking about how if hers was a real lemonade stand she would have sold out instantly looking as good as she did. Check her out…

Seriously adorable…

If life hands you lemons, make lemonade!

A cheeky little look…

Gorgeous…

The light in this next one makes me giddy! I just love the natural hair light being provided by the sun poking through the trees. And, that expression…..momma mia!

Jillian brought along some clippings from the super sweet banner she made for the table and Desiree had a little fun with them. I love this series.

Is that a lemonade stand you’d want to visit, or what?

Some more details, including lemon cupcakes by Delicious Desserts…

Stay tuned as we’ll be posting the next two parts of our session with Desiree tomorrow. Till then, big BIG thanks to Desiree for trusting us to capture portraits for your new website. Stay tuned people, it’s due to launch very soon and should be amazing! We have loved working with you, Des, and can’t wait to do it again very soon! Thank you too Jillian & Scott for making our job not only a cinch, but a total pleasure! Jillian, we love your style and hope we get to work with you again on another project! Sara & Kaleigh…we wish we could clone you and bring you to Team Bello! Love and hugs all around! Chris & Andy xo

Every year, around this time, Chris and I leave the Bello homestead to meet with other married wedding photographers from all over the north east, to hang out, recharge the batteries, talk shop and, of course, have some serious fun.

This year’s venue for the this year’s We Click retreat was a 6 bedroom house near Killington, VT. A little skiing, a little hot tubing,  a lot of eating, tons of fun, some shop talk, and inevitably the cameras come out. This annual retreat - now in its 3rd year - is organized by our fabulous friends Matt & Enna of Grazier Photography. Thanks guys we had a blast! Here is this year’s cast of characters (Photo courtesy of the very talented John & Kim Sanderson of Sanderson Images):

Check out their blogs for more images from the retreat.

From left to right: John & Kim Sanderson of Sanderson Images, PA; Matt & Enna (& Jackson) of Grazier Photography, MA; Team Bello - that must be us! ; Justin & Mary of Justin Marantz Photography, CT; Paul & Laura Eaton of Laura Eaton Photography, PA; Paul & Crystal of Studiofoto, CT. Sadly, Larry & Tabitha Sherrell of Sherrell Photography, MA, were unable to make this year’s retreat, but they did stop by one day for a visit…unfortunately, just not this day.

On the last evening, all of the gear came out and the photo frenzy began!! Here, Matt takes a portrait of Crystal…hello close up!

Justin Photographing Paul & Crystal, with Laura & Paul getting in on the action

Laura showing off her one handed technique!! Don’t try this unless you’re a professional!

Paul chimping …

Chris chimping as Matt entertains Paul!

Crystal - with Chris & Mary - modeling the Eatons’ very sweet 50mm f/1.0 Canon lens. I’ll be asking Santa for that baby this year!

Matt finally got Chris in the spotlight for a portrait. Can you tell she’s not used to being the other side of the camera? It helped that Matt is a total clown!

Then i jumped in for a few. This is one of only a handful of photos we have of us together. Cheers Matt. It’s a keeper!

And thanks to the Sandersons, I have this cool shot of myself! I quite like it, if I do say so myself!!

All in all, it was another fun retreat. Cheers Matt & Enna for organizing everything! You guys rock! We had an awesome time and can’t wait for next year! Although, I think next year, I’ll be skipping the late-night dash out the hot tub climb up a snow-covered hill and race back down with a roll antics!!! You wouldn’t guess it, but icy snow will seriously cut up warm soft flesh. Ouch! It was fun though….and definitely funny to watch.

Check it out :

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video courtesy of Laura & Paul Eaton of Laura Eaton Photography & their cool 5D MkII

make sure the video players volume is on!

Happy First Day of Spring everyone! We don’t know about you, but we are soooooo looking forward to longer days, warmer weather and the feel of sand between our toes. Today was the perfect start to spring and we noticed in our garden some signs that promise greener things to come.

Spring’s first flowers…the crocus. Welcome, welcome, welcome!

With its flower blossoms, our pear tree is looking as eager as we are for warmer weather.

Hope you enjoyed today!

xo Chris & Andy

One of our favorite Cape wedding reception spots is the picturesque Willowbend Country Club in Mashpee. So, when we were asked by the management to do some photos for their website & brochure, we were honored and also excited at the prospect of doing something a little different for us.

We met the club’s very sweet and very talented head chef, Chef Paul Cunningham, who whipped up some of his new signature dishes for us to photograph….staring at these tantalizing tastebud treats made concentrating difficult. We were also there to capture members enjoying an evening at the club’s Grill Room. It was a fun change of pace for us and we even got to sample some of the delights from the kitchen. Next month, we’ll be doing some photographs for the club’s real estate division and fitness center.

We’d like to extend a big thank you to Randy VanTassel, Banquet Manager at Willowbend, and Catering Manager Ann Marcotte for making this happen. And, our thanks wouldn’t be complete without a big thank you to Chef Paul for filling our bellies so joyously!

Here’s a few of our favorite shots:

Chef Paul

Signature dishes….be warned…if you’re at all hungry, you may want to skip past these; they could put you over the edge!

Club members enjoying dinner in the Grill Room:

Willowbend at night:

Last summer, at the ridiculously fun Willowbend wedding of Molly & Guy, we had the pleasure of working alongside Hyannis-based make up artist Vanessa Lees. Vanessa recently asked us to take some headshots for her to use on her new website and in some marketing materials. While weddings are really more of our thing, we’re happy to help fellow wedding vendors, particularly ones as nice as Vanessa.

The session took place at Salon By Design, where Vanessa works both as a make up artist and esthetician. We had a great morning together and got some fabulous shots. During our time together, we came up with some ideas for a cool 5″ x 5″ tri-fold card/brochure, which is a product we also offer our wedding clients as unique Save-The-Date, Thank You and/or holiday cards. This was the first commercial product we have done and the results are pretty cool so we thought we’d share them:

That’s Vanessa’s face on the front of the card. Open it up and you see the pink page on the right, and the “Making Dreams Come True” page on the inside of the front cover. Open it up all the way and you now see a photo of Vanessa with her bio and contact info and all her pricing info is in the center spread…pretty cool, right?

And here are Vanessa’s favorite photos from our session together, both of which were used in the brochure.

Thank you Vanessa for being such a fun model!!