Last week, the president took a step toward opening that path to all couples. At Ryan Richardson Photography, we'd like to reaffirm our support for all couples that want to share the rest of their lives together - whether their wedding has a bride and groom, two brides or two grooms.

Late March is risky for a Cape Cod Wedding, but as Sarah and Tom stood in front of their gathered family and friends at the Brewster Ladies' Library they knew it had been a risk worth taking.

The truth is that there are only five truly important questions you need to ask your wedding photographer. More importantly, I'll let you know what answers you should be looking for to help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

In fairness, I might be biased (sometimes I like to think of myself as a professional cake-eater who takes pictures, rather than a wedding photographer). Still, the wedding cake stands tall amidst our wedding traditions in New England even as others wax and wane with fashions. A wedding cake also looks amazing nestled amidst a wedding a album, a tower and edible work of art amidst the thousand other details that make up a wedding.

So how do you get the most out of your wedding cake?

Valentine's Day, love it or hate it there is no avoiding it when February 14 rolls around.

For those of us outside of relationships, most of the day is spent bemoaning how commercial the holiday is and how cloying everyone can be with their grand gestures of flower snad chocolates delivered ostentatiously to the office. Those within the warm embrace of a relationship - new or old - are faced with a different dillemma.

The spirit of romance is forced into the atmosphere like a cat into an embarrassing sweater and everyone is expected to play along. Like the cat, romance doesn't like to be forced into anything. It's best when it's spontaneous and enigmatic, coming at you by surprise. Valentine's Day is the opposite of that, it's the same day every year with virtually the same trappings hanging off it. Flowers, check. Chocolate, check. Red, check. Cupid, check. Hearts, check. Difficulty getting a seat at a restaurant, check.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

If my recent foray onto Pinterest is to be believed, the truth today is that a single lady in possession of an Internet connection, must be in want of a wedding. There are boards festooned with dresses, flowers and a million little pieces that will one day be whipped into a wedding like cream into butter. Unfortunately, one thing stands in the way for women in want of a husband and men in want of a wife.

Your terrible self-portraits.

In the last book we tried to make sales a little less intimidating for photographers. It isn’t enough to not be frightened by sales, successful wedding photographers need to embrace sales and their identity as salespeople.

Like it or not, the moment you put out your shingle as a photographer you became a businessperson. That means it isn’t just your job to take pictures, it’s your job to keep the lights on, make sure everyone gets paid, manage customers and a thousand and one other things that make sure that business can survive.

What do a Massachusetts snowfall and your bridal gown have in common?

In both you should avoid anything that comes in yellow. White is the traditional color for a bride to wear on her wedding day, and even as couples are creating new twists on the old tale it still predominates. There's just something about slipping into an elaborate white dress on a warm New England summer that turns a day like any other into a fairytale.