Category: Weddings

The CSP Class of 2011.

A lot of you know I used to be a teacher. When you’re a teacher, you have a class of about 25-30 kids a year (plus their parents). You have initial meetings with them before the first day of school, then you batten down the hatches and go through the year with occasional consults in between. At the end of the year, you say farewell and hope they’ll stop by your class again as they get older.

Photography is not unlike that. I have about 30 couples (for weddings) a year (plus their parents…haha). I have initial consults with them, and then we batten down the hatches and go through the wedding planning, wedding photographing, wedding editing process. At the end of the year I bid them farewell and hope that I’ll see hear from them again down the road, either for a session or for coffee. :) Then I look at the list of the names on my Class of 2012 and think about all that we’re excited for.

So goodbye, Class of 2011! Each and every one of you were fabulous. We went to some incredible places and photographed some of our loveliest weddings yet. Better still, we made a lot of close friends out of some of our clients this year… which is probably the thing that I treasure most out of this job. We’re sooo excited to see what next year brings. Here are our favorites from the Class of 2011 (one picture from each portrait and wedding session we did).

As an added bonus, we’ve decided to show some outtakes of ourselves from some of our portraits and weddings. We take a lot of pictures. And, let’s face it, these are our weekends and weekdays too… so documenting your shindig is essentially documenting our lives… no matter how disheveled we look. ;) And trust us, we look pretty disheveled in some of these. But typically these are after a 10 hour work day with occasionally no food but lots of caffeine, so I’d say we’re looking pretty okay considering! ;) :P I find the evolution of my hairstyle and Geoff’s beard particularly amusing.

Happy, happy new year everyone…. here’s to a healthy, happy, and safe 2012 for all our families, friends, clients, and blog stalkers!

Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer: Morgan+Jim

You know you’ve known someone for a long time when one of your past experiences with them involves going to see Oasis in concert.

Morgan was a few grades older than me, but close friends with my sister. It turns out that she was also close friends with Geoff’s sister at the same time in some weird Twilight Zone-y way. Anyway, I used to see a lot of Morgan until I got to the point where I would stop pestering my sister to hang out with her and her friends. :P They graduated, I graduated, etc (in closer proximity to Morgan’s younger sister Randi), and our relationship turned into Facebook friends, as so many relationships do these days. When she asked me to shoot the wedding of her and her fiance Jim back in Pittsburgh and about 10 minutes away from our hometown, I was very excited… excited to see her and her family again, and excited to meet Jim, because I was pretty sure he’d be pretty cool.

And of course he is (and I welcome another groom who has GREAT hair and excellent music taste), and of course they are, and of course their family and friends are. In fact, it was one of the coolest assemblies of people we’ve met in a long time. There were cats involved, an old family house, Tom’s wedding shoes, alleyways to shoot in that I’d never thought to visit even though I grew up ten minutes away, lots of Hall and Oates and Phil Collins, a videographer who used to be my band teacher, a Glen’s custard visit (a Springdale staple), and… perhaps best of all… a totally decked out Steelers bar who yelled at our newlyweds from across the street: “Hey, yinz guys come over here and we’ll give you a drink!” Of course, the drinks actually were accompanied by the owners and local bar residents blasting The Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling” while playing along via jugband (i.e. banging whisks against beer bottles) in celebration of Morgan and Jim’s soon-to-be marriage. I’m not sure what could have been better, but upon wading through and editing their pictures later, I’ve determined that nothing could have been better.

First Dance Song: “Something” – The Beatles

Bride’s Occupation: Pricing Coordinator – GNC Corporate Headquarters

Groom’s Occupation: Project Administrator  – Siemens Energy // Soccer Coach

How You Met: Well, we were born in the same hospital 2 days apart and were in the nursery together – our families even visited with one another (her Mom and his Aunt were bffs in high school).  But we don’t really remember that.  25 years later our mutual friends unknowingly reunited/introduced us.

Interesting Bride Fact: 100% certified crazy cat lady, and avid bookworm

Interesting Groom Fact: Has an extremely extensive record collection, shuns most modern technology, and hopes to one day open a used book store so that he can go to work barefoot every day.

Date: November 19, 2011

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Springdale Veterans Association // Springdale, PA

Officiant: District Magistrate Carolyn Bengal

DJ: Craig Brown // DJ Goodtimes

Florist: Springdale Floral

Cake: Oakmont Bakery

Caterer: Patti Luffy // Ranieri Catering

Hair/Makeup: Ashlee Pici Seger // Ashley DeMasi Hair Salon

Videographer: Brian Querry // Querry Music Productions

Raleigh Wedding Photographer: Jen+Rob

Jen and Rob met when Rob was playing in bands during the period of Jen’s life when she “used to go see a lot of death metal shows in Fayetteville.” She said this to me while wearing a beautifully layered wedding gown with a veil on. :) I literally lol’ed… just because at that point in her wedding day, I really couldn’t see Jen going to see death metal bands in Fayetteville. She’s so genuinely sweet and has a quiet speaking voice and is so nice to everyone around her that it’s hard to imagine her headbanging away. But here Jen and Rob were on their wedding day at Caffe Luna in downtown Raleigh surrounded by friends, family, and most importantly – their newborn son Rob Jr… whom they affectionately refer to as R2 and whom I affectionately refer to as RDJ (both his initials and a homage from myself to the great Robert Downey Jr.). Jen got an R2D2 groom/son cake that she surprised them with and that Geoff wanted to steal. You’ll see in addition to RDJ the plethora of adorable children who were present at this wedding, and the beautiful and wonderful bridal party that accompanied our metalhead newlyweds. 

Date: November 13, 2011

Ceremony and Reception Venue: Caffe Luna // Raleigh, NC

DJ: Mike Morse

Florist: Fresh Affairs // Lyn Graves

Wedding Cake: Cake Dreams by Sally

Groom’s Cake: Cinda’s Creative Cakes

Officiant: Rev. Robin Renteria

Hair/Makeup: Images by Denise