Do you remember those lazy summer days when you were just a kid…7 or 8 years old? School was out, the weather was warm and the only plans you had were to meet your best buds on the corner at 10am. Then you spent the day hanging out in each other’s yards, waiting for the ice cream truck to come by – the familiar repeating song making you all run screaming for mom to give you some change. Inventing new games, laughing, gossiping…until the street lights came on at night and you all had to run back before mom started shouting that dinner was ready. Dirty, sweaty, sticky from ice cream and popsicle drippings….but completely happy and exhausted. And you couldn’t wait for the next day when you’d see your best friends and do it all over again.
Those are the memories that are absolutely priceless now that we’re all grown up. What about those best friends of yours? The ones that you met every morning, the ones that you walked to school with every day, the ones that you stayed up with ALL night during Friday night sleep overs. Are you still close to them? For most of us, we’ve grown up, moved away from our neighborhoods and have slowly lost touch with them. Or maybe all except 1 or 2 of them. But even though you’ve lost touch, you’ll always be bound together by those childhood memories.
So imagine how incredibly special it would be if you HAD remained close for all those years. How many more memories you would have if you were together through elementary school, through high school and then even through college. There’s a group of friends that grew up together in Hanover that have done exactly that. And we’ve had the honor of knowing them all now for almost 5 years. When Ashley and Ryan were married in the summer of 2005, they booked us for their wedding and that was when Ashley first introduced us to her Hanover friends. And we fell in love. Soon after, Kristin and Jon were married in 2006, followed shortly after that by Nicole and Ryan. Almost one year later found us on Martha’s Vineyard for the weekend for Jill and Allen’s wedding and finally just a few short weeks ago, we all made our way to Providence, RI for the very latest “Hanover” wedding…Meredith and Richie’s. To say that these friends are a part of our lives is a huge understatement. We love them with all our hearts and consider them great friends now, too.
When Meredith and Richie asked us to photograph their wedding, it was a tremendous honor for us and we couldn’t wait to see them again. The wonderful thing about all of these girls is that even though they have known each other all of their lives, they all have very unique personalities and tastes. And their weddings were all perfect reflections of that uniqueness. From casual beach weddings, to elegant country club settings to beautiful old world hotels…it’s been so much fun to see the differences between them and yet that beautiful single bond that brings them all back together again.
The time that we normally spend getting to know our couples was spent on just getting to know Meredith and Richie better. On a recent trip to New York, we scheduled Meredith and Richie’s engagement session at the same time so that we could photograph them right in their own TriBeCa neighborhood.
Finally their wedding day arrived….sunny and perfect….and Rene and I made our way to downtown Providence to start the day. Both Meredith and Richie were getting ready at the beautiful downtown Providence Biltmore hotel which is also where their reception was going to be held. The suites at the Biltmore are huge which makes it so wonderful to have everyone you love there with you while you’re getting ready.
The Hanover girls have a very special tradition….they have a beautiful lace-edged handkerchief, and whenever one of girls gets married, her initials and wedding date are embroidered onto the handkerchief along with everyone else’s. Today it was Meredith’s turn to receive this special gift. And there were her initials and her wedding date freshly embroidered along with her best friends. It’s now in the safe hands of Meredith to lovingly care for until the next wedding:
By this point in the afternoon, Rene and the boys had already left the hotel so they could go spend some time together taking portraits. While the girls waited for the limo to return to pick us up, we had a few extra moments, perfect timing to capture a few of sweet, gorgeous Meredith on her own as well:
Meanwhile, Rene and the boys arrived at their destination – the prestigious Brown University. Also where Meredith and Richie went to college and where they first met. It was only appropriate that they would also get married there and so their ceremony was held at a church on campus, while the formals were also held right on campus, too. Before the ceremony we all made our way to the quads where Meredith and Richie’s dorm rooms were located while they were in college and it was the perfect backdrop for their formals – and adding yet another beautifully sentimental detail to their day.
One thing that can’t be denied was just how hot it was that day….a detail that will probably never be forgotten thanks to this capture by Rene as the boys started walking over to the church before the ceremony:
Soon after the girls and I also arrived to the church for the start of the ceremony….on time as always (you would never expect Meredith to be late for anything!)
Meredith and Richie have impeccable taste and I absolutely loved their matching custom made letterpress invitations, programs and menus. They even took the time to place an invitation along with a fan on all of the seats where their family would be seated inside the church:
As a bride, I can tell you that one of the most emotionally charged moments is the few minutes right before you walk down the aisle. The musicians have started playing, you’re watching your closest friends walk down the aisle and you have just a few minutes to stop and say to yourself, “This is really it!!” It’s the most excited, nervous, happy feeling you’ll ever experience. And as Meredith waited at the bottom of the stairs, I think you can see all of those emotions coming together for her all at once:
We didn’t get to meet Richie’s family until the wedding day, but we heard so much about them. Richie and Meredith tried to explain to us just how close his family is and how much fun they like to have with each other….but there was no way we were ever going to get a sense for how true that was until we had the honor of spending the day with them. What an amazing family that just took us in as if they had known us forever. Richie’s grandfather is probably one of the funniest men I’ve ever met in my life. He never gave up an opportunity to tease or joke around with us. And he and Rene brought the house down when they teamed up and began teasing me while we were taking family portraits. There was no need to worry about trying to coax genuine smiles out of this family! But I digress….
During the ceremony, the Mormile sense of humor made an appearance again when Richie’s brother and best man did a little fake out when the minister asked for the rings:
If you’ve been reading the blog regularly, I know you’ll be shocked by this news, but I have to create two separate blog entries for Meredith and Richie’s wedding, too. I can think of worse problems to have than having a hard time trying to narrow down our favorites! But make sure you check back for part 2 of their wedding where I’ll share some of the images from our portrait session with their wedding party, from our private session with Meredith and Richie and from their crazy fun reception!
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