wedding task wonders: photographer

My friend Anish took this photo at Laura's wedding...maybe he should be my wedding photographer? 

In the first month or so after we got engaged, there was a flurry of lists and plans and emails. I set aside a notebook especially for all my half-thought out notes, most of which can be found written sideways and in a scribbled handwriting that thankfully my journalism experience has taught me to decipher. 

There was the buying of bridal books and magazines, the adding of new blogs to my Reader (under a new category and everything!), and there might have even been a Google Wave titled "Wedding Research" created. I had friends pass on Excel spreadsheets full of venue details and dutifully, John and I took all the 360-degree tours their websites offered.  

And then, in mid-February, we booked the venue. 

And then, the next day rolled around and we stopped thinking about the wedding. 

I mean, ok, I stopped thinking about the wedding. And our wedding, I should italicize, since I had no problem checking out Erica's invitations and helping other friends with their own venue selections—oh, and reading a million articles this one. 

Lots of people have asked for updates, sure, and I just keep feeding the line that we're in the process of looking for photographers and DJs. 

But now it's not just a line anymore. Since we have quite the popular wedding date, I think we need to get on this whole photographer thing, especially since it's pretty much at the top of our list of "Important Wedding Priorities," as determined by that random list we filled out in that wedding planning book. 

Which brings me to my problem: How does one go about finding a good (read: amazing, artsy, absolutely fabulous) East Coast photographer? 

Every blog I read has me falling in love with photographers that are either on the West Coast or in some other part of the country. I know lots of people who have their photographers fly in from somewhere else, but my anxiety has me wondering how it'll be to meet them at the wedding (what if we don't have that much-talked about click?) and what if, as Sabina mentioned, NY lighting isn't nearly as amazing as Southern California lighting? 

We're in the process of putting together a list now, and while we do have some good leads, I figured better to throw it out there and see if anyone else did, too, before I come up with some other wedding-related thing to distract me. 

By the way, have you seen this wedding dress made of cake?