When clients become friends, I couldn’t love that more. That, and great love stories like this one. These two took a trip to City Hall on a Wednesday before their Virginia wedding that Friday. We then traveled to the West Village, their previous home, for some summer in the city love shots.

A little more about my couple:

Ben and Madeleine just moved to Williamsburg about a month ago, after three years in their teeny (but beloved) West Village walk-up apartment. They were sad to leave their beginnings behind, but now they’re thoroughly enjoying nesting in their new (bright!) space and loving their new neighborhood vibe — fully eating their way to Brooklyn assimilation. Ben’s originally from Cleveland, OH and Madeleine originally from Alexandria, VA (near where the wedding ceremony was). They’ve been dating since 2008/2009, but actually met through mutual friends at a party on New Year’s Eve in 2002, so a few months ago (on New Year’s Eve 2012) they celebrated their 10 year anniversary of the night their crush began. It took them a while (like, six years) to get themselves on the same coast and make sure their relationship statuses were aligned, but once they had their ducks in a row, they were full steam ahead.

From Madeleine: We love food, ranging from greasy to gourmet. We love to travel, near and far. In February of last year, we went to Patagonia and hiked mountains and glaciers and had an incredible time. The year before that, we went to Japan to visit friends and family and have been obsessed with ramen ever since. We went to Maine last fall, because neither of us had ever been and we wanted to eat oysters and wear yellow rain slickers and meet wet dogs and see the beautiful, rugged coast. We love spending time together, quiet or loud, fast or slow. And we really love spending time with our friends and feel lucky to have them as a second family, especially now that there’s a tiny new generation of them blossoming — lots of kiddo birthday parties in our calendar these days. But mostly Ben and I are just excited to have found each other — sometimes you just know — and to be making it official, forevermore.

Since their friends wouldn’t be at the wedding, they did a post-wedding lobsterbake on Nantucket the weekend after exchanging vows. How freaking adorable.

We ended with oysters & cocktails at one of their favorite spots in the West Village. Perfection.