Salem, MA Wedding Photographer | Kim Indresano Photography Blog

Gloucester, Massachusetts is one of my favorite coastal places anywhere and I had two spectacular weddings in that town back to back, each with a very different feel and with couples who made my heart sing all day long. In Jess and Pete’s wedding at the Ocean View Inn I really appreciated the TIME we built in to create some special shots of just the two of them. They are hilarious together, full of laughs, and as you’ll see we even captured their love of football—for separate teams. And! They threw a bit of serendipity at me during the reception when Jess said, “Let’s run up to the top of the inn and do some fun shots in that cool bathroom!” Okay! A photographer’s dream. For the very last shot below I was glad for a whispering from a bridesmaid and so I climbed back to the very top of the inn to capture this thoughtful secret made by friends. Enjoy.

What a way to wrap up a wedding season with Kari and Dan. This was a long-awaited one, and you might remember back in November 2010 when we got together at a favorite trail of mine in Ipswich to make their engagement shots. On their wedding day we lucked out on that mild late November weather just after Thanksgiving. They each got ready in their respective childhood homes, a ceremony at Our Lady of Good Voyage (filled with interesting shipping details), and a reception at Cruiseport nearby. But one of my favorite parts of the day were the shots we made down on the Boulevard. The pressure was off them and we could relax and play awhile before heading to a lively reception. Our kindly limo driver, John, navigated those narrow Gloucester streets and we hopped out. I loved it when Kari pulled on her red coat and said, “Ahh, now I feel like myself!” Congratulations you two!

It’s the eight-day countdown for Teresa and Ben who are getting hitched next Saturday. On my recent voyage to San Fran, where half of my heart still lives after a 9-year era, I got to meet this funny duo. Funny because we kept cracking up during this shoot. We created these portraits in bright, overhead, mid-day sun—but with a little fancy footwork you’d never know it, right? I never tire of exploring simple ways to bend and shape light to work with what I have in mind.
Sitting in Teresa and Ben’s kitchen before we headed out to their garden of succulents, they won me over with a little video our mutual friend John Bela very spontaneously captured of Ben proposing to Teresa on a bridge in Paris overlooking the Seine. The Bateaux-Mouches is even passing underneath for added effect. I made them play it for me three times while I swooned.
I have worked with the Talented Teresa for nearly 2 years. We collaborated on several of my printed mailings, my blog, and soon-to-be-released new fangled and fabulous website (stay tuned!). But until our shoot we had only communicated via email and phone, so it was wonderful to be together in person and create these images. Be sure to check out Teresa’s company, Spindle Desco, for a glimpse of her thoughtful, well-executed design work.

Best wishes to you, Teresa and Ben, for a beautiful upcoming celebration and beyond.

Ah yes! Back to Kellian and Brian’s June wedding around Salem, MA and culminating at the Peabody Essex Museum’s East India Hall with the Beantown Swing Orchestra. Do go online and listen to their music, it’ll get you up and out of your chair. Or refresh your memory on some of my earlier shots posted here. The vibe of this wedding was so right on, partly because so many of the guests participated in dressing up 40′s style. For the wedding party, the fabulous hair and accoutrements were done by Anna Kathryn, who has a knack as you’ll soon see. Bride Kellian changed from a long, low-slung back gown to a whimsical swing dress with polka dots and red tulle underneath. This couple can dance! She and groom Brian offered a lesson during the reception, energetically offering tips to brave newcomers. Lots of guests already are regular swing dancers, some who surprise-jumped into a choreographed first dance. The band filled the room with gorgeous, lively music and when they took a break a few key guests toted out a ukelele and songs and personalized the reception all over again. And then. And then! The dance jam. After so much dancing already the jam seriously upped the ante on very fast, very athletic dancing. Kellian and Brian, in the center of a wide circle, took turns spinning and swinging with all the guests who landed themselves in the ring. It was like standing on the outside of a whirling, controlled tornado. And did I mention fast?! I was sweating just from the joy of photographing it all. And of course Brian and Kellian, at the end, had simply a mere trace of perspiration, big smiles, and were breathing normally like they dance with gorgeous abandon all the time. Actually they do. And they tell me they’ll teach me how. Meanwhile, enjoy what follows. It was one of those weddings I wish you could’ve been at too.

Wedding Coordination by Holly Harrington Stern of Harrington Events and Natalia Laskaris of the Peabody Essex Museum.

I’m delighted this image won an Honorable Mention at the upcoming Marblehead Arts Festival. I love this shot for many reasons. The main one though is the collaboration I had with my young friend Maeve. I asked her to bring something meaningful to the shoot, one of her favorite objects. She chose this blanket that was wrapped around her the day she was born. On the large print if you look closely you would be able to see some of the words embroidered around the edges. We were also in a meaningful location, in coastal New Hampshire, where her family memories are already many. Last summer and fall when I did  a lot of portrait shoots, I discovered how much I enjoyed photographing slightly older kids. We could really sink into making an image together that felt real.

Yesterday Kellian and Brian got hitched here in Salem in full 40′s style and with a bevy of swing dancing friends among the guests, many bedecked of the era. While I’m hunkering down editing here, intermittently cracking up and sighing, I couldn’t help but post a few as I go along. Mind you this is just the start of our day when Brian and Kellian see each other for the first time in the Federal Garden, a hint of our walk around town with the bridesmaids, and proof that we did stop in for an impromptu snack at Rita’s Custard on the way to the church. No sense in having a hungry bride at her own wedding.

Coming in a post soon you’ll see the evening’s swing danceapalooza featuring my new favorite band, Beantown Swing Orchestra, playing in the East India Marine Hall of the Peabody Essex Museum.

A special “merci” to Angela, my amazing, hard working, calm force of an assistant all day and evening, and to my sister Jeni, schlepper extraordinaire and another keen eye on the scene.

Enjoy peek number one…

Today, Odessa, who is 5, made a birthday card for her cousin Paprika, now also 5. Paprika is my sister’s eldest child and they all moved across the country in August and now live a short walk from us. Oh how we love having our family so close by now. Dessa described her drawing to me like this: “That’s Paprika with the curly hair and me with the straight hair and we’re wearing sunglasses [laughs] and that there in the middle is a heart. It’s exploding with love.”

So recently I said to Brian, “Love, you need to step it up this year with the camera. I want to be in some of the pictures. Just in case I croak early I want the kids to know they had a mother.” A couple of weeks ago he used my camera, rise and shine first thing in the morning. When I took a peek in the back of the viewfinder later I groaned, and I’ll tell you why in a sec. And then I just looked at them again tonight and had a different feeling, which was more in the peaceful category. Maybe that has something to do with the recent document that I’m part of this family in pictures, too.

I was surprised at my own reaction when I first saw the images. I did that thing that my clients sometimes do, typically the mamas over 40: I barely noticed the mood, the light, the everything, and instead went right to the details. My sunspots, and holy smokes I knew I had wrinkles but oh, and the unruly skin, and is that the makings of a double chin–while lying down? I was a little ashamed for thinking it, especially since I’m the first to council my photo subjects that that isn’t what we all see in the image, it’s more about the energy there, we’re our own worst critics, etc., etc. Let me just say it’s good for me to get in front of a camera once in a while and experience that little thing called empathy.

As much as I really want to say and believe that I truly don’t care about this stuff, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. But it’s not at all a melodramatic kind of thing, more of a quiet noticing, simply recognizing that heading towards 42 looks like this on me. It’s far from bad, and honestly I rather like my wrinkles and grey strands. It’s more that I don’t really feel this age, or what I thought this age would be. Or maybe it’s just that I’ll probably feel spry in body and a bit confused in mind about numbers and time moving so swiftly from here on out.

The next time my clients sigh and maybe disregard what I think of as a stunning image of them, I’ll let that space between their thoughts and mine linger a bit longer. I get it. But then I do want to reassure them.

Meanwhile, these pictures that Brian took grow on me. This is how we look in the morning, my kids and I. Playful, thoughtful, just happy to be together on this new day. Would I want to look untouseled and planned out, no. It wouldn’t show the us in us, and that is what I want my family to have a chance to peek back on down the road.

Okay, I’ll admit, this made me feel so proud. And honored. When Kari contacted me last month to say she was engaged to Dan it was so exciting to hear the news. (Her energy is infectious!) A very sweet thing too was that she hadn’t chosen the day yet and was waiting to see what my 2011 fall wedding schedule looked like. Awww! How I LOVE it when my clients care so much about the photography that they prioritize it. I know the venue and the tasty food and all the other preparations are so important but it’s the photographs, near and dear, that become the treasured keepsakes when all else fades into memory. I know I’m more than a little biased, but don’t you think it’s true?

Earlier this month Kari, Dan and I got to play with the cameras in one of my favorite settings, a trail along the Crane Estate. Open fields and tangly brush that lead to a beach. Making pictures like these, casually, is a great way for my clients and I to get to know one another better before the big day.