I’m so lucky I got to spend the day with Claire, Spencer and their families on their wedding day at Foppema’s Hilltop Orchard in Sutton, MA. They had a beautiful lavender wedding on a rainy June day at a privately owned friend’s orchard. The orchard’s farm stand is in Northbridge, MA.

I got to Foppema’s a bit early to scope out the perfect location for Claire & Spencer’s first look. Spencer and his son Jake arrived shortly after. I brought Spencer to a perfect hidden spot when Claire pulled up with Hannah, her maid of honor. Umbrella in hand, Claire was all smiles as she walked up to her groom. This might be the sweetest first look I’ve seen so far. I always start out capturing the groom’s face first during a first look, so I didn’t notice Claire was crying until I started rotating around them. It was so emotional I almost had a hard time keeping it together! First looks are the best, the couple gets to have this (semi) private moment all to themselves before the craziness of the rest of the day.

Then we moved onto Bride & Groom portraits with some help from Jake. Jake was the best umbrella assistant. Family photos were up next and then the full wedding party. First looks are also great because getting all the formal photos done and out of the way before the ceremony makes the rest of the day way less stressful for everyone. And the wedding party can actually enjoy the cocktail hour and mingle!

We we’re pretty ahead of schedule according to our timeline and since it was raining, we decided to head to the church to get everyone out of the rain and relax a bit before the ceremony. They had some snacks handy for the wedding party to munch on in a back room. It’s easy to forget to eat something and end up starving…no one wants a hangry wedding party!

After the beautiful and emotional ceremony, everyone went back to Foppema’s for the reception. They had very necessary tents set up and some delicious homemade chowder ready for everyone right when we got back. It was perfect for a rainy day. Spencer’s sister Michelle made gorgeous stationery for the wedding including the escort cards that were strung onto mason jars. They had handmade corn-hole set up for a tournament custom painted for all the Boston sports teams. Tournament winners got to keep them as a prize! For their guest book they had a giant Jenga game laid out for people to sign! Even though that game gives me anxiety I think it’s a cool idea, haha.

Smoke and Squeal BBQ Food Truck was there for dinner with amazing BBQ and mac n cheese, followed by an impressive dessert spread. It was so pretty, I might have taken too many photos of it? It was full of macarons, lavender cake pops & carmelitas. Oh my god, did those look good. It was almost torture editing the dessert photos without have a carmelita to eat at the same time.