The Barnum Festival Parade

The Barnum Festival began in 1948, as the city of Bridgeport was dealing with the catastrophic collapse of industries that had once been flourishing during the wartime economy. So with the unemployment rate through the roof and peoples spirits floundering, a select few individuals came together to create something to celebrate. Which is something we now celebrate every year with a series of events culminating with the Barnum Festival Parade and the Sky Blast Party!

This year was incredibly special for Jason and his entire family because his Uncle Armando Goncalves, had been named ringmaster of the 2011 Barnum Festival. For those of you who do not know this is an incredibly huge honor because not just anybody gets chosen. Armando would be joining the ranks of 61 men and 1 woman who have previously led the annual celebration and festivities.

Jay’s Uncle Armando arrived in Bridgeport with his family from Portugal in 1965, and among the many new and exciting things that were here for him in this new country the Barnum Parade was one of the first events to catch Armando’s eye and a mere 46 years later with a ton of hard work and long days and nights. Armando worked his way up to become the president of People's United Bank's southern Connecticut and New York divisions. This was not something that came easily and he worked hard for to get everything he has achieved including the title of Ringmaster. Jason and I, are so incredibly proud of Armando for this amazing honor that has been bestowed on him and after seeing him in action he did not disappoint as the Ringmaster. He was truly amazing and a sight to behold!

Armando is by far an example of how hard work and drive do in fact pay off. He worked long hours while simultaneously going to school and raising a family. Not an easy task by a long shot and where many would have looked at all of the obstacles in front of them and shy away; Armando took them all head on and his fortitude is what got him to become a very successful business man, and family man. Many people can take a lesson from this truly incredible man! Congratulations Armando!

So for the Barnum Parade Armando’s theme as the Ringmaster was “Cultures United” and as a theme it was amazing and he totally pulled it off! Check out some of the pictures from this years parade.

Jay’s Uncle Armando, Beautiful Aunt Nancy (who was totally rocking that hat!!), and his cousin Kevin

Doesn’t he make an awesome Ring Master!

The official signage

One of the cultural dancers

Bagpipers

Civil War Re-Enactors

One of the accordion players from the Portuguese Club

Nancy dancing with the Barnum Festival Royal Court

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This girl along with a little bit of help created this outfit!

Armando and Ronald McDonald

Les Diplomates drove to Bridgeport from Canada to take part in the Parade of Champions which took place Saturday night and to take part in the Barnum Festival Parade.

Another marching band known as the Brassmen all rocked out at the parade

Park City Pride also was amazing at both the Parade of Champions and at the Parade.

Jay’s Dad Archie and his Aunt Nancy

Jay’s Dad Archie and his Uncle Armando

Stay tuned for more pictures from the Sky Blast Party and of course the fireworks!!! More Pictures will be available to view on our facebook site facebook.com/jasonandmaggie in the next few days.

Krista and Jonathan Get Hitched

Jay and I were super excited and I’ll admit a little nervous to shoot Krista and Jonathan’s wedding. We were excited because we were getting to shoot another wedding on Cape Cod which we absolutely love doing!!! There is just something so relaxing about being out on the Cape, walking along the beaches, and of course stopping at Cup Cake Charlies (but we will save that for another blogpost). But as I said we were also nervous because we had never met! Seriously, they had seen our work and wanted to book! So we had booked this wedding and aside from emails, phone calls, and mail we had not met Krista and Jonathan face to face. Between our schedules it just was not in the cards to be able to meet sooner than the night before their wedding. Yep the night before!

Now for those of you who know Jay and I, we meet with our clients a few times before there big day between the actual initial meeting, the engagement session and just going out to dinner we can easily say we meet with clients about 4-5 times before the wedding. And with Krista and Jonathan we were meeting them the night before! Ahhhhh can I tell you the butterflies we had in our stomachs! These butterflies were on steroids floating around lol!

Anyways, we got to Ballymeade Country Club nice and early and the first people we met were the best man and groomsman! They were awesome and aside from the initial weirdness of who are these random people (the random people being Jay and I) they completely welcomed us in and were telling us about the couple we had never met and as the minutes ticked by we were getting more and more thrilled to meet Krista and Jonathan because we knew they were going to be awesome!! And they really were it felt immediately as though we had been friends for years and were not just random people with cameras photographing their wedding! We knew that the wedding was going to be a blast. And it really, really was! So thank you Krista and Jonathan for making us feel so welcome you two and of course Ruairi (there adorable son) were awesome and amazing to spend time with and we hope to hang out sometime soon!!

So without further ado we present Krista and Jonathan’s wedding

There were some awesome details! One of my faves being the pictures that were attached to Krista’s shoes of people and a furry best friend that she wanted to have close with her on her wedding day.

Check out these amazing flower girl dresses which Krista’s Mom Kim handmade. Yep I said it HANDMADE!!! I am so totally serious when I say they were simply amazing and a personalized detail I think that Krista and Kim will never forget!

Mom and the girlies getting Krista ready

Krista and Jonathan opted to do a first look! Which is something we totally recommend if the couple is up for it! So here is Daddy and Ruairi waiting to see how beautiful Mommy is as a bride!

Look at that smile! Jonathan seeing Krista for the first time!

Now Krista and Jonathan couldn’t kiss until the ceremony but there was definitely a passion between them when they were together it was magnetizing.

Ruairi the ring bearer walking on the beach with his cousins the flower girls

So after the beach we headed over to the Ballymeade Country Club for a few more shots and this has to be by far one of our absolute faves

And were going to the chapel and were gonna get married!!! And Bob the man presiding over the wedding was awesome and you could tell that he knew Krista and Jonathan he made the ceremony personal and even got a little teary at one point!

The sand pouring ceremony!!! What was uber cool about this particular one was that the sand that was poured represented Krista and Jonathan coming together. Okay I know that’s pretty standard but the cool part was that the sand Krista poured was from Cape Cod, United States and the sand Jonathan poured was from Ireland where he was born.

During the cocktail hour I stole Krista for a minute to do a shot at the massive windows!

The first dance as Mr and Mrs

The Flower girls watching Krista and Jonathan during their first dance and I am sure they were thinking I can’t wait for my first dance!

Okay the two groomsmen were quite the characters and you simply must check them out on our facebook site because they had a ton of fun at the wedding. But here they are serenading the groom with a little “Lean on Me”

And we will end this blogpost on a family note with Krista, Jonathan, and Ruairi celebrating the wedding out by the pond with some bubbles!!

To see more pictures be sure to check us out on facebook! And again congratulations Krista, Jonathan and Ruairi it was both an honor and a privilege shooting your wedding!

xoxo Maggie and Jay

Krista and Jonathan’s Wedding Ingredients!

PHOTOGRAPHERS: Jason and Maggie Henriques Photography LLC

CEREMONY/ RECEPTION: The Ballymeade Country Club East Falmouth, Massachusetts
BRIDE’S GOWN: Liv Harris design from Vows in Weymouth Mass.
MAKE-UP: Susanne Ricado MAC
HAIR: Colleen Foley
BRIDE’S EARRINGS: Etsy Lara lewis
BRIDE’S BRACELET: Etsy Aurora Jewelry Box
BRIDE’S SHOES: DSW
BRIDESMAID DRESSES: Davids Bridal
BRIDESMAID ACCESSORIES: Etsy, joojooland
FLOWER GIRLS DRESSES: Kim Bailey (Krista’s mom)
GROOM’S & GROOMSMEN’S SUITS: Mr. Perrys Tux
CUFF LINKS: Amazon
DJ: Cape Tunes
INVITATIONS: Paper Moxie
FLOWERS: Kat-a-lillies, Barnstable MA

Beacon Honorable Mention

So a while back Jay and I did a photo shoot at the North Haven Academy Paul Mitchell Partner School for some of the students that were interested in entering the Beacon Competition. “Beacon is produced by the Professional Beauty Association (PBA), a non-profit trade association. Led by industry volunteers, PBA represents the interests of the professional beauty industry from manufacturers and distributors to salons and spas. PBA started the Beacon program to help young salon/spa innovators gain an early understanding of the business side of the industry.” Even the actual process of entering Beacon is designed to help students really evolve into professionals. Students are required to submit a professional portfolio as a part of the application process which as much of you probably know is something that everyone needs to not only impress potential clients, but to really WOW future employers.

Anyways it is our great pleasure to announce that two of the students that we had the opportunity to work with have received HONORABLE MENTION!!!!!! Seriously how incredibly awesome is that.

So we wanted to take a minute to give a huge shout out to those amazing ladies.

Congratulations on your achievement!

And because you know we would never leave you hanging here are the models, and photos that won honorable mention!!!

Chelsea Morgan who really did an awesome job doing up the girls hair

&

Kristyn Ceruti who rocked the guys hair!

Again Congratulations ladies on your amazing achievement. You girls rocked it!

<3 Maggie and Jay

Side Show

So a few months back I started my last semester in college. Ahhhhh it feels good to say that!! A requirement of being a studio art major at Southern is to put on a Senior Show Photo exhibition. So Maggie and I sat and pondered about ideas to do as a theme for the show. With all this in mind I reminded myself that it’s the things like this that allow us to push our creativity to the next level and stay in front of the pack.

Personal work is super important to grow as a artist and a person. It allows us to build new relationships and open new doors. We are blessed to be able to meet new people and with each shoot there is a new starting point. With a top notch team of hair stylists, make-up artists, and friends/models we had a great time.

After determining that we were going to do the circus theme, research began. Most of the inspiration came from looking at old circus photos and side show banners. Maggie put together an awesome inspiration board that everyone worked from and we were all on the same page.

So without further ado

The Tattooed Woman

Sword Swallower

Check out the fortune teller!

The Harlequin

The Knife Thrower

And the Ring Master

A special thanks to everyone that participated and helped make this shoot everything I could have hoped for.

MUA: Tiffany Hall

Hair: Nicole Ziobo

Models: Sheridan Nicole, Vanessa Destiny, Kari, Julianne, Mikey, Jen Z, and Jamie J.

For more photos check out www.facebook.com/jasonandmaggie

Kayla's Sweet 16

A few weekends ago Jay and I had the pleasure to spend some time hanging out with a truly awesome 16 year old. Ms. Kayla is a very fun, unique and awesome young lady who by the way had a killer outfit for her birthday! If you don’t believe me check it out for your self!!

Seriously what an awesome outfit!!! The outfit was actually from Atiana's Boutique And the yellow shoes seriously… loving it!!

What’s a party without the staff and the staff at the Country House Restaurant totally rocked the party!

Happy Birthday Kayla!!! Ps the cupcakes were awesome!!!!!!!!!

Having some fun and dancing the night away!

Having some fun in the photobooth!

Oh yea we joined in on the photobooth fun!

Yep, yep we totally joined in on the action and rocked it out in the photobooth! We also want to give a huge shout out to Jess C. who rocked the photobooth for Kayla's birthday! Thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us for the evening!

Kayla it was such a pleasure being able to spend time with you and your friends and family! I hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did.

To see more pictures check out www.facebook.com/jasonandmaggie
And to see even more check out on 5/9/2011 jasonhenriques.com and click on proofing