As much as I love traveling around, I'm always grateful to come home to New England; and more specifically my home state of New Hampshire! Nothing beats our 4 seasons- sometimes experiencing all of that weather in one day!  The stunning mountains, waterfalls, lakes and forests, covered bridges and quaint little towns.  There are SO many venues to consider for your wedding or elopement in NH.  Here are just a few of my favorites-

Flag Hill Distillery & Winery - Lee

Mohawk Falls - Colebrook

Grand View Estate - Jaffrey

Omni Mount Washington - Bretton Woods

Allrose Farm - Greenfield

Franconia Notch Guest house - Franconia

Sky Meadow County Club - Nashua

Seacoast Science Center - Rye

Waterville Valley Resort - Waterville Valley

St Gauden's National historic site - Cornish

Lake Shore Village Resort - Weare

Christmas Farm Inn - Jackson

Mount Sunapee Resort - Newbury

Dell-Lea Events center - Chichester

If you're considering New Hampshire for your wedding day, I'd LOVE to help you out with photography!

please inquire by e-mail at Shanoahphotos@gmail.com or fill out our welcome form HERE

Happy planning!!

Hey there!!

I've had a few amazing sessions lately and wanted to share.  Typically the winter is "off season" for us photographers, but I've had a few brave souls embrace the cold which resulted in some awesome images.  Here are my TOP 5 reasons to try a winter shoot!

1. Embrace the season!   Living in New England has so many natural wonders. Sometimes we can see all 4 seasons in one day! We tend to coupe ourselves up, some fresh air and exploring will do you good, I promise!! 
2. Less crowds for popular places - As a photographer, or a really shy couple - this one is the best!!  I don't have to worry about getting folks out of my shot, and you don't have to worry about having an audience while you're getting your photos done.
3. Snow is a natural reflector/winter light is flattering - Oh man, the light!! Winter light can be really gorgeous.  When there's snow on the ground it's a natural reflector so the light will bounce back up into your face and make a really nice even lighting scenario that us photographers just love!
4. It's cold - so you have to cuddle up! - What better for a couples or engagement session right?! Let's feel the love and heat it UP.
5. Getting your photos done early - for save the dates etc will save you stress! - This has been super helpful for my couples who use their engagement photos for save-the-date cards or to have nice printed photos for a guest book at the wedding etc.  Doing an engagement or warm-up session before the wedding will help you get comfortable in front of the camera and get to know your photographer better; so when the big day comes you'll be more relaxed- WIN!

Hope this was helpful!!  Here are some recent favorite WINTER Engagement/couples sessions

xo,

Shanoah

Hello, Hello!!

I am trying to get better about posting more frequently to the BLOG! I had some time today and wanted to share with you one of my favorite weddings from last year (and and all time favorite for sure!)

September 7, 2019 was a hot date!  I swear if I could've duplicated myself 10 times I would have had 10 weddings to shoot. BUT, Veronica was the lucky bride to snag the date and I'm just SO happy she did.  

Alec and Veronica were dream clients from day one.  Literally the sweetest people with amazing friends and family surrounding them.

They are both videographers -so they know all about this business and wanted the best photos and videos of their day. To be chosen by them was a huge honor.  We hit it off quickly and became fast friends.  

I was able to surprise them and travel to Connecticut for V's bridal shower which was so, so lovely.  I was able to spend time with some of the family and bridal party. Everyone was so kind and inviting.. so when the wedding day came around it was like I was a part of the fam.

Working with my friends/planner-coordinator extraordinaire Everlasting Affairs LLC is always a great time.  Every facet of the day was so well organized and every last detail was perfect to photograph.  Alec and Veronica's love for each other and connection with their loved ones is a joy to witness.

And my, my...When it comes to unique venues - 19 Main is where its AT!  They are a gorgeously renovated BANK turned must see wedding venue.  The architecture, intact vaults and beautiful restorations they did make it a dream venue right in downtown New Milford, CT.

There are literally hundreds of photos I could share from this dream day. But I worked on the difficult task to narrow it down to just a few favorites to share with you all!!

Enjoy!

xo,

Shanoah

Vendor Team:

Photography- Shanoah Madison

Venue - 19 Main

Coordinators- Everlasting Affairs

MUA - Lapage Makeup

Hair - A Russo CT Hairstylist

Flowers - One fine day

Dress - Lovebird bridal shop

Best of 2019

Hey guys!   

Here it is.. my first TRAVEL Blog!

Traveling has always been something I've loved and I've been fortunate to be able to visit quite a few states, but this was my first International trip. Well, I've been to Canada but that was before passports were needed and I drove so this feels different. I think I'm aging myself here, lol.

I've been dreaming of Ireland since I can remember.  I've always been fascinated with everything about it from such a young age and I honestly couldn't tell you why.  Maybe it's just in my bones.  I have a yearning for it, I found the words Hiraeth and Fernwey and they best explain the feeling I have.  A type of homesickness for somewhere you've never been.  And that's exactly how it feels. Ireland feels like the home I'd never been to. Where my soul is from.  I was always told we had some Irish in our blood, but after doing an Ancestry DNA kit last year I became even more interested finding out just how much.  Between the Ireland and UK they make up 96% of my DNA whoa.  So it completely makes sense now why the Emerald Isle would feel like home to me. 

Even with those feelings, for some reason I never really looked into traveling to Ireland, I guess I imagined it was totally unreachable/out of budget.  Life was happening and for the last crazy decade Jason and I we were getting married, starting a family, building a business etc etc.. Traveling is definitely a luxury and one we could rarely afford.  

One day I got an email from Groupon Getaways (which I did not use ironically), but because of that e-mail it opened my eyes to the possibility and a realization that Ireland was totally reachable.  I dove into research and the dreaming became a hardcore hobby of mine.  Ireland was on my mind constantly and I totally drove people crazy talking about it (probably). 

I loved making fake itineraries and drooling over every Instagram account I could.  I followed so many Irish photographers and businesses that they started following me back, lol. I must've popped up in the suggested people to follow for that reason. 

Things started to fall into place one day when I looked up tour dates for one of my favorite bands, The Lumineers.  I had recently visited with my brother Jake who is a super fan of theirs. He had never seen them in concert and after working so hard this year and pouring his life savings into starting his business ( a super cool cigar shop in Laconia called Etiquette Cigars - go check it out!) I knew he could use a little break.  They had a couple of dates - one being Dublin.  The light went on -- two bucket list items in one trip!   So I called Jake up and asked if he could take a long weekend, he said yes!  So the real planning began.

I knew it would be a short trip, almost as if to get my feet wet, knowing I'd want a bigger trip and more time to visit, especially with my husband.  He's not always the biggest fan of traveling, but promised he'll come with me next time :) 

My brother was such a great travel buddy.  He once backpacked through Norway for a month with no itinerary.. Crazy? maybe.. Brave? definitely.  He was the perfect person to bring along. 

Traveling to Ireland at the end of November was perfect!  It's their "off season" so there were not that many people.  It was cold, but being New England kids we were totally used to it.  We really lucked out with beautiful weather.  It only really rained on the first day, just long enough to show us a magnificent Irish rainbow!  

We traveled with Aer Lingus. Absolutely recommend.  Service was great, smooth flight. Meals and soft drinks included as well as in flight entertainment.  We both watched a couple movies each..and I'm currently on the high scoreboard for Tetris in Flight LOL. 

We rented a car ( my first time ever renting a vehicle!) right from the Dublin airport. We used Budget - highly suggest! They were reasonably priced, friendly and helpful!  The car was great. Looked brand new and clean. It was fun to zip around once I got used to the whole left side thing.  It wasn't as much of an adjustment as most people made it sound. Maybe it came more naturally to me because I'm left handed.  Jake and I were both very impressed with how well the highways were labeled with signs and painted lanes.  It was super easy to navigate.  The only issue we found was in the city.. people do not use crosswalks and literally jump right into the road without looking- so be careful! 

Day one was spent in Dublin City.  We got in SO much. Mostly because we arrived at 5am and couldn't check into our airbnb until 3pm lol.   In retrospect it may have been a better plan to check into a hotel that would accomodate us at any hour. But hey, it's a story to tell. We slept on the streets of Dublin, lol. We ended up parking on a side street and took a little nap in the car.  We walked about 8 miles that day all around the city. Being used to Boston and NYC ourselves, traffic felt like nothing and the city felt small.  We quickly recognized landmarks and found our way around without maps.   We stopped by famous sites like The Temple Bar, Grafton Street, Trinity College, The Ha'Penny bridge etc and Jake found every cigar shop in town. 

That evening we went to 3Arena which was a great venue, bigger than I expected and right near the water with pretty views.  The Lumineers were perfect. They sang all of our favorite songs and it was a really good time.  We chatted with the folks around us while waiting for the show to start and it was so cool to find that no one around us was actually from Ireland.  We met folks from the states, Canada, Sweden, Argentina, England, and Italy! Music really is a great equalizer and brings so many people together.  A great band like the Lumineers can do that!  Bucket list item one -CHECK.

The next day we drove across the country to the west coast.  It took roughly 3-3.5 hours. Easy drive, basically straight the entire way.  Again, everything was labeled really well.

We stayed in a beach house "cottage" on the Clahane Shore in County Clare. Absolutely stunning. I could live there.  It was such a beautiful home with an ocean view literally on our doorstep.  I found this property on airbnb also.  I really, really suggest trying out airbnb.  (I'll link my referral code at the bottom)  We found beautiful places to stay for a fraction of what a hotel would cost. I would 10000% stay here again.  The country side in Co Clare was just beautiful.  I chuckled to myself a few times over just how excited I was to see Sheep.  I'm from a pretty rural spot in NH and grew up with horses literally at the end of my road.  But for some reason seeing them in Ireland was just so exciting.  I'd shout "sheep! cows! horses! sheep!"  every time we passed them and many times I pulled over to say hello to them haha. 

We went to visit my personal #1 bucket list item - the Cliffs of Moher.  It was about €17 for the two of us to park.  It included access to the visitors center but we arrived late in the day so we didn't go in.  It was the perfect time of day. The tour busses had gone and only a handful of other visitors were there.  The cliffs were everything I hoped for.  Such a breath taking view.  We hiked up the coast to take it in from all angles.  We were very careful, but ventured passed the warning signs, the cliffs can be very dangerous.  We met an adorable couple from Ukraine and I got their email address to send them a picture I took of them.  It was a great visit to the cliffs and I would most definitely go there again and again.  Basically if you do nothing else - do the cliffs. It's worth it. That night we had dinner at a local pub with traditional irish food and a pint of Guinness.. When in Rome. Neither of us are drinkers, so we took a few sips and called it a night.  The water was great HAH! 

We had no plans on the itinerary for our last day. We ended up walking our little neighborhood at Clahane Shore before having to check out of the airbnb.  We drove a bit north to check out the little fishing village of Doolin.  It was adorable and I loved the little sweater shop there.  We went down to the Doolin pier to watch the surfers on the wild atlantic way.  The waves were awesome.  I took a moment to look out at the ocean knowing I was looking back towards home.   Since I was little I looked out at the ocean knowing Ireland was just on the other side of the "pond".  It was nice to finally be standing on the other side.  There was also a great view of the cliffs from the pier which I enjoyed.

After that we were on the road to Galway!  We had ourselves a fun road trip and had a nerdy moment rocking out to Ed Sheeran's "Castle on the Hill" and "Galway Girl" ;)  Gotta get that content for the 'gram right? lol 

We both really enjoyed Eyre square and the Claddagh area of Galway.  There was a beautiful sunset that evening as well and we enjoyed strolling around the shops.

We drove back to Dublin that night only taking about 2 hours from Galway and caught a flight the next morning!

Definitely give yourself plenty of time to get through security and customs. I was one of the lucky ones to be picked for random selection so it took a really long time to get through the line. 

It was a short trip but well worth it.  There's SO Much more to explore, I can't wait to visit again!

If you have any questions or need help planning your own trip to Ireland I'd love to help!  And I'm 1000% down to shoot an adventure elopement or destination wedding there. So please, please reach out if that's something you want to do. I'm down for another Irish adventure!! 

Here are some favorite images from the trip

Cheers, 

Shanoah

>>Sign up for AirBnB<<

The places we stayed:

Dublin City - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/28983082?source_impression_id=p3_1575494039_WP5%2BEyNJEwSS2d9t

Co. Clare - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20753991?source_impression_id=p3_1575493939_9fZMhF3tYoRwcV1U

Dublin Airport - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/39578383?wl_source=list&wl_id=639163536&role=wishlist_owner&adults=1&children=0&infants=0&source_impression_id=p3_1575494078_9wwxAWYsG1vk3KvH

At the beginning of the season I had the wonderful opportunity to shoot an editorial/styled shoot at a brand new GORGEOUS venue - The Grove in Rowley, MA.  It was such a great experience and a nice warm-up to the 2019 wedding season. 

This lovely shoot was hosted by the amazing ladies at Top Knots CoWorking. Every detail was just exquisite!  I could not have asked for a better day.. It truly was a photographer's dream.  Hashtag -Swoon Worthy-.

It was a privilege to work alongside these legends and capture the stunning work by the following :

Lead Photographer: @annmarie_swift
Planning/Design: @tammygolson
HMUA: @stylesbycallie @makeupbysarah.lord
Floral: @karlacassidydesigns
Cake: @sweetcheeksbyrenee
Videography: @aeropexmedia
Dresses: @shopbellasera
Rentals: @partyrentalltdBallon Install: @figballoonco
Musician: @speechlessmusic
Stationery: @fxa_calligraphy
Venue: @briarbarninn @groverowley
Models: @hannah_glaser @danrm611 @outcold18@emilychreiman

Here are some of my favorite images from the day - 

xo, Shanoah

I made this little promo video to celebrate the start of my BIGGEST SALE EVER!!!

All year 2020 weddings will start at ONLY $2,020!!  For the 6 hour package. That's a savings of $675!!  The same discount will apply to larger packages as well. WOOHOO.  I'm so excited for this offer, 2020 will be our best year yet!  

Sharing these memories with my clients and giving them photos to treasure and hand down to the grandkids one day is truly such an amazing feeling. I love my job SO much.  I get to spend the best days, with the best people who are celebrating LOVE... It truly can't get much better than that. 

If you're still on the hunt for a photographer and think we might be a good match...

Please fill out the contact form right here on my site >> http://www.shanoahphotos.com/contact/contact-form

I look forward to hearing from you <3

xo-

Shanoah

I'm a little slow to the Blogging game.. but I do LOVE sharing my weddings with you all and today I have a fun one :)

Last year I had the awesome opportunity to FLY down to FLORIDA in the Tampa Bay area to capture Ryan & Natalie's wedding day!  It was mid July and HOT but...I had so much fun... the venue was gorgeous and all the palm trees made my heart happy; Almost as happy as seeing the smiles on R&N's faces ALL day long.  These two were as sweet as could be, and they were so excited to share the day with their family and friends.  

Venue - Fox Hollow Golf Club

Officiant - Pastor Clayton of Trinity New Life Church

Cake - SugarDarlings

Florals - DIY by Bride & Bridesmaids

Here are some of my favorites - 

xo, Shanoah

Nicole and I attended the same high school, but didn't really know each other.  A few years later we started working at the same company and became fast friends.  In a super small world fashion we discovered that I would be shooting her best friend's wedding a few months later!

*Super fun fact - her best friend is also named Nicole.. and she married Anthony's brother, Jeff! How cool is that?!*

So, after patiently (or not so patiently - as Nicole would say) waiting.. it was finally their turn to be engaged!!  Nicole tells me the story of their engagement in which she basically said "yes!" and then "We need to hire Shanoah for the wedding!"  HAHA.. wow, what a compliment!! <3 

Anthony and Nicole both worked so hard to put this wedding together.  They took a big open field and transformed it into an amazing wedding venue. The super sunny day turned into a truly magical evening reception with glittering lights inside the tent and twinkling stars out in the field above a massive bon-fire.  Truly a fun and laid back event where you felt like family.  Their friends are so kind and they made it a day about not only them; but all of the special people (& their DOG Coco) in their lives, even those who left us too soon.  

Well it was an honor to be able to capture this day. Let me tell you Nicole was a photographer's dream client from start to finish.  They graciously let me continue to practice my video skills (it's a lot of work to try and do both! props to my videography friends!!)  But I had a lot of fun capturing the day in this way, and I'm so happy to share their video below along with some of my favorite images from the day.

Enjoy!

-Shanoah

Pat & Heather have to be one of the most genuinely sweet and loving couples I've had the pleasure to work with.  The emotion of their day was JOY.  There were a few happy tears, but mostly big smiles and lots of laughs.  They are clearly so very loved as they were surrounding by amazing friends and a big family.  I immediately felt their inviting warmth - it was truly a beautiful and very fun day.

Publick House was the perfect backdrop with its blend of elegant, historic charm with a rustic flair.  The ceremony took place in a garden like setting and the reception was under their enormous tent.  All of the details of the day were perfect; my favorites being the Polaroid station and the Sweets table.  

Heather's AMAZING bouquet, definitely a favorite of this season, along with all of the other gorgeous floral arrangements were made by Sarah Haile at The Bog Maple.

The trumpet silhouette gown by Cristina's Bridal was a perfect fit with stunning lace detail, and the unique and lovely floral printed bridesmaid's gowns were made by Bella's Bridesmaids of Boston.

Aaron Denny lent his musical talents with acoustic guitar for the ceremony and then DJ'ed the night away with a packed dance floor.

The Vendors:

Venue - Publick House Historic Inn

Photographer - Shanoah Madison Photography

DJ - Aaron Denny Productions

Florist - The Bog Maple

Gown - Cristina's Bridal & formal wear

Tux - Men's Wearhouse 

Bridesmaids - Bella's Bridesmaids Boston

Hair & MUA - Simple Indulgence Day Spa

Catering & Cake - Publick House Restaurant