Ned Jackson Photography Blog

Stephanie and Andy got married on a crystal-clear, crisp fall day at the absolutely STUNNING Turner Hill Mansion in Ipswich, MA.  When my wife and I quickly toured the mansion a few days before the wedding, I literally started getting giddy with the prospect of photographing at such a beautiful location.  The ideas were just overflowing!  However, what made this day even better was this simply down-to-earth, funny, and madly in love couple!  Stephanie and Andy treated me like a guest (or even an old friend) and allowed me to share in the intimate moments of their day.  The day was filled with laughter and happiness – and hopefully you can see that in the pictures I selected.  So sit back and enjoy!  (A short warning in advance – I don’t know why but so many of my favorites from the day are vertical – so this is a LONG post!)

When I showed up at Stephanie’s house to begin my day with her, I almost immediately felt like I was part of the family.  Everyone was just so welcoming and relaxed and Stephanie was just so joyful.  I had fun using the gorgeous natural light pouring into her parent’s house.  Here the dress is framed in the front hallway:

Getting help with the shoes in her bedroom:

I just love this picture.  To me it encapsulates Stephanie’s mood the entire day.  The bridal suite at Turner Hill just feels so elegant.

We stopped for a moment to take a few bridal portraits in the front entry of the mansion.  It made me feel like we were in a castle in England.

And even thought I tried to go serious – like the one above – Stephanie’s energy was just so contagious.

I was joined by the talented Douglas Levy who took a few minutes to capture Andy getting ready.  Here he is in the groom’s room (an amazing library of the mansion’s original owner) in a moment of downtime.  Great shot Doug!

I grabbed a quick portrait of Andy in the glowing natural light pouring in through the windows of the mansion.

Sometimes it takes a series to capture the real emotion of the day.

If you want to feel like a princess on your wedding day – get ready in this room!  I felt like I was shooting for the cover of Vanity Fair.

Stephanie descending the mansion’s main staircase on the way to the ceremony.

How can you not feel elegant here?!

Ceremonies at Turner Hill take place in front of this old pergola.

This should give you a glimpse into Stephanie and Andy’s personality.  One of their readings began with a quote from The Princess Bride.  “Mawidge…. Mawidge is what brings us together.  Mawidge, that bwessed awangement.”  “Luuuuvvv. Trwu luuvv.”  Love that scene.  Her reader did it perfectly.  Doug grabbed this great shot of Stephanie cracking up during the reading.

As usual, this is one of my favorite moments of the day.  I sent Stephanie a copy of this a few weeks ago, and this is what she replied, “I love how you can tell that we’re not just looking at each other, we’re saying something to each other with that look!”

Gorgeous flowers.

After the ceremony we snuck away for a few moments to get some portraits of the two of them together.

You can’t fake this!

A few moments from the evening’s dancing.  Doug snapped the one on the right.

I love natural light!

Doug grabbed this one towards the end of the night.

At the end of the night, I remembered that we forgot to get a shot of the building from outside at dusk (too busy having fun capturing the dancing), so Doug was nice enough to set up a tripod.  The first couple of shots were interesting, but the building was just too dark.  It needed a little supplemental light, so I grabbed a flash and ran around like a crazy man, manually popping the building and grass with my flash during the long exposure.  There were some gaps in my first few attempts, but after a couple of tries – I had the pattern down (and was running fast enough) and nailed it with this frame.  If you look in the foreground, you can actually see my silhouette in the grass (oops!) – not to mention, once up by the lower left window.  I decided to leave them in there for fun!  Cool huh?

I know I probably over did it with this post – but I really enjoyed editing this wedding and loved these pics.  Hope you did too!  For more, be sure to check out the slideshow below.  (if it doesn’t work, just keep double clicking on it)

Stephanie and Andy – thank you so much for treating me like an old friend and for allowing me to capture all of these wonderful moments!

The first time I bumped into Matt, he was actually escorting his grandmother to a wedding I photographed back in 2006.  I remember thinking that it was one of the sweetest things I’d seen in a long while.  Fast forward a few years – and I meet Caitlin, only to discover that she’s every bit as lovely as he is sweet.  I was so pleased when they asked me to photograph the wedding because I just knew that it would be a ceremony filled with lots of smiles and emotion.  The ceremony was held at Our Lady of Victory in Boston and the reception at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Caitlin and Matt are avid runners, so they had these runners bibs made up for Save the Dates.  How creative is that?!

I loved the deep blue of their invitations with the crisp white flowers.

Caitlin getting prepped:

I just love Caitlin’s mom’s expression as she got her veil put on.

The rain outside did not dampen Caitlin’s spirits!

Just enough time for a few quick impromptu shots of Caitlin before we had to leave for the church.

The beauty of having a talented second shooter- you always get a second angle.  Thanks to James (from The Feds Studio) for helping out.

One of my favorite shots of the day goes to James.  I just love the little toes curled over the stair.

Perhaps my favorite moment of the day was when Caitlin finally got to see Matt face to face at the altar.

The beautiful church:

Because of the size of the wedding, I was joined by two excellent photographers, James and Tony from Team Yu Photo.  They tag teamed this kiss – how awesome to get these angles.  Great shots!

In the trolley – Caitlin couldn’t help but show off the new hardware!

When we got back to the hotel – Matt took us up to their AMAZING suite with these great floor to ceiling windows.  Beautiful light.  As I was flagging images for the blog, I noticed so many of them were portraits… but can you blame me?!

The light in this room was just spectacular.

I love this shot:

Check out the size of this dance floor!

And of course – you’ve got to check out the slideshow.  Double click to play… and if it doesn’t play, just click it a couple more times.  That usually makes it work for me!

Matt and Caitlin – Thank you so much for allowing me to share and capture your day!  Also a special thanks to Tony Yu and James Federico!