We could not be more excited to announce that everything will now be under the KGM Expressions name and we’ve updated our entire look and website to reflect the change. Please take the time to check out www.kgmexpressions.com. We both absolutely love our new updated look and hope you will like it too.

As far as past and upcoming Crushed Box Photography couples, nothing will really change at all. We will still photograph every job together just like we do now and you will all have just the same experience as you have already had or are expecting in the near future. This website will still be maintained here for past and near future clients to view their photos and keep up to date with us. I have updated all of the pages of this website to point to the corresponding website at www.kgmexpresions.com so feel free to head over there to get the most up to date info and see our new shoots.

If you have any questions feel free to still contact me at ray@crushedbox.com or you can now get in touch with us at kim@kgmexpressions.com or you can always call at 609-204-3030.

I arrived at my parents house to get myself together. My sister had flown up from her home in Florida and both of my parents were there while I got myself together. As is the norm in my family there was constant laughing and ball busting from my sister, always a good time in my book. I had plenty of time since I had to leave our house a bit early so Kim could start getting herself ready. I hung out at my parents for a while before my next task of the day, going to get the flowers.

We decided to have our ceremony at Batsto for a few reasons. First off it was the location of one of our first dates together. Way back I had invited Kim to go with me to Batsto before sunrise to take photos of the area and of each other. We had such an amazing time that day wandering around and taking pics of each other all day. It’s also just a really beautiful location where we have photographed many engagement sessions. When we first started planning our wedding we both decided that would be a perfect location for us, especially since we had a small history there.

After picking up the flowers I met up with our photographer Cliff Mautner at Batsto Village. Since Kim and I are both photographers you could imagine that one of the most important things for us on our wedding day was the photography. Kim had the pleasure of taking a class with Cliff a while before our wedding so he became our first choice for our wedding photographer. Cliff and I both arrived at Batsto a bit early so he asked me to go along with him to check out the area and pick out some good locations. Cliff was so polite and down to earth it was really nice to meet him personally and get a chance to chat with him for a bit. Kim and I chose to see each other before the ceremony so Cliff picked out a great spot for our first look and we planned how I would see Kim.

As soon as I went to the area where I was supposed to wait for Kim to arrive it really started to hit me. My heart started beating faster and I became so anxious, I literally couldn’t wait to see my bride. There was a small window through the building I was hidden behind that I could see through and I couldn’t resist to sneak a look. Kim was far away but she was standing there in the sunlight and working with Cliff rocking out some photos! I got the signal and I walked, actually I almost ran, up behind Kim and she turned just before I got to her (she later told me she heard me walking up behind her). She was and still is hands down by far the most beautiful woman I have ever seen and she looked so absolutely amazing in her wedding dress. I love the smile I get from Kim when she is incredibly happy, her eyes get kinda small and her cheeks lift up and I love it. I told her that the dress would have been worth twice as much and we kissed and hugged for I don’t know how long.

After our first look Cliff took us around the grounds at Batsto and we took a lot of portraits before our ceremony, it was great working with Cliff and he is so calming and reassuring. I remember not being able to keep my hands off Kim and I think I was kissing her too much but hey, can you blame me? Once we finished up with our portrait session it was time to get the ceremony rolling. I had met up with our officiant and we had everything ready to go. Just before our best man and maid of honor where ready to go down the aisle I noticed that I had forgotten the rings! Thankfully they were just in the car and we were pretty close to it so I sprinted to the car to go get them. Everybody at the ceremony I’m sure was wondering why I was running towards my car but as I ran back and held the ring box in the air, I could hear them all laughing. Somebody even managed to grab a blurry shot of me running with the ring box in the air. My soon to be wife took it in stride and laughed it off with me and we walked down the aisle to begin our ceremony.

Our ceremony was short and sweet and we both said “I do” and that was it, I was married to the woman I love and the one person who I have the most fun with every day of my life. I knew I was going to be happy but I have to say I was filled with more emotion than I expected, it truly was a great moment to become married to Kim. After the ceremony we finished up with more portraits with Cliff and then headed to our reception at Blue Heron Pines Golf Club. We had our close family and friends there and it was perfect. A friend of ours, Chris Garrow who owns Unforgettable DJ’s was kind enough to dj our reception and he did a fantastic job. He took the time to get to know some names and managed to make our reception very personal as he spoke to specific people and kept us laughing and entertained with great music.

From the time I proposed to Kim I knew our wedding day was going to be great but it certainly exceeded my expectations and I had an absolute blast. Everybody involved helped to make our day very special and for us I think it was just right to have a small, personal, and special day together with them. I am so happy to be spending the rest of my life with Kim and for us to be able to share our happiness with other couples on their special day is another wonderful result of our marriage.

Kim, I love you so much and thank you for always being the smart, challenging, beautiful, funny person that you are. I still can’t believe that I was lucky enough to marry you!

Below are some of my favorite photos from Cliff Mautner and you can check out Kim’s story of our wedding at her blog.

Crushed Box Photography was also just given a “Bride’s Choice” award from Wedding Wire which apparently means I was in the top %5 over on their site. That’s really exciting and they should be promoting all the winners on their website soon. That’s pretty much it for the winter update, be back soon.

Thanks,

Ray

For the people that have followed my blog and website I’m sure you’ve noticed that I also tend to post quite a few nature photos that I’ve taken on my own for fun. I’ve decided to split that off to another website that I have going and I’ll be posting most of my nature pictures at www.naturesdomain.us/blog. I’ll still occasionally post some here but if you like to see that type of photography you can see much more of it at Natures Domain as well as some other photographers that will be joining that soon.

Since it’s been a while since I’ve updated the galleries on my site today is the day for that. You can view all the updated galleries in my portfolio section.

I’m really looking forward to another year of meeting more new great people and hopefully getting to photograph some again. Thanks to each one of you.

Ray

And just another piece of news, my father and I recently entered a local southern New Jersey photo contest and he was just announced as a winner in the “animals” category today. You can see his photo at www.pressofatlanticcity.com, just watch the short video below to see all the winners and keep an eye out for the great cardinal photo with “Larry Hennessy’s” name on it.

I’ve gotta say this has been an incredible ride so far, this whole photography business thing. I created my business at the same time as Kim this past January, which coincidentally probably wouldn’t have happened without her. She has been so supportive, helpful, and just all around perfect for having as a business partner and soon to be MY partner (we’re engaged, wedding is in May) – to which I can’t wait. Business has been incredible. Every one of my clients has told me they were happy and I couldn’t have been happier with each and every one of them either. I wanted to start this business to have fun with photography and I feel like I’ve completely surpassed my goal of making it fun and I can’t wait for it to continue. Thank you to every person that I’ve been lucky enough to work with and I look forward to meeting more people just like you.

I may have mentioned before on my site that I actually work a 9-5 (well actually an 8-4) job, in which I’m a digital retoucher for an amazing architect photographer in Philadelphia, Barry Halkin. It’s been a great learning experience, I actually get to work with images from a 39 megapixel camera – that’s right 39!, and he is such a great boss. The other great part about working there is that it’s in the photography business but it allows me to work at my wedding and portrait photography because it’s not competition. So I’ve been incredibly busy, which is great and tiring at the same time, I’m just starting to figure out how to schedule and manage it all, but thankfully I enjoy every bit of it.

Kim and I are also house hunting right now (actually condo hunting) which is another incredibly time consuming task that can get very frustrating at times, but I’m sure it will be all worth it and I honestly CAN NOT WAIT to wake up next to Kim every morning, that always makes my day better when I do. Kim is such a perfect fit to me and I know I’m going to enjoy the rest of my life with her beautiful smile and beautiful attitude, she truly is special to me.

As I’m sure most of you who follow my blog know, I also really enjoy nature photography. That is kind of what got me into the whole thing, and I try to post some of that here once in a while. Well another project that I’ve been working on with my dad is a stock photography website in which we can post some of our images and sell them to anybody who would like them. The website is www.naturesdomain.us and people can buy prints, digital files, or a few other products of some the the nature images my father and I have taken over the past few years. We are hoping to add some other photographers so that we can have a large collection of excellent nature photography in one place for people to search through and purchase. Check it out if you have some time and let me know what you think.

I guess that will about do it for now, I’ve got to get back to edit more photos. Thanks again to all my amazing clients and stop back soon to see some more photography.

Ray

Fall will be here before we know it - goodbye summer

Ray