When Sam and I were married, we hired two of our students to shoot our wedding.  Alyssa did the opposite and hired her photography teacher to shoot her wedding, she was one of my very first undergraduate students at VCU.  I remember her work quite well, she’s very talented so I showed slides of her photographs to the department chair in a plea against a policy that would restrict all but photo majors from registering for photography classes.  I lost the argument but never forgot just how much non-majors like Alyssa brought to my classroom.  I missed the misfits.

I was thrilled when Alyssa wrote to tell me that she and Ryan were finally tying the knot.  As it turns out, they have been renovating a house in our neighborhood as well so we had to bust out and do a good job since they know where we live.  They were married at the amazing Cathedral of the Sacred Heart near VCU’s campus.  I have no idea how I have never been to the Cathedral before: I was raised Catholic, have lived in Richmond for 8 years and have been shooting weddings here for 7 years… Huh, what?  I was blown away by its magnificence.

After the ceremony we headed down to the Canal Walk and Havana 59 with the wedding party to take a few photos.  The urban concrete made a perfect backdrop for the silver dresses and suits and especially Alyssa’s gown.  I might have drooled on her dress a little: made by Nicole Miller, the fabric had a subtle, warm silver tone to it and I loved the flirty ruffled edges.  It was perfect against her embroidered, cathedral length veil.

The reception was held at Main Street Station where Mosaic outdid themselves once again with “His” and “Hers” food stations.  I was especially fond of the attention to beverages:  there were 3 different infused vodkas and the cake was served with milk boxes just to make sure it was properly enjoyed.  As a restaurant manager, we knew Ryan would do it up right with both food and entertainment: a friend spun from a turn table to keep the dance party live.

It was an amazing and beautiful event, I felt so honored and lucky to shoot for an artist I greatly respect.  Congrats, Alyssa and Ryan, thank you so much for inviting us to be witnesses to all the emotion and joy.  Here’s a slideshow with some of our favorite shots from the day and if you are were a guest and would like to be notified by email when all the photos are available for viewing, click here.

Posted by Mel @ 5:40 pm, in Weddings | 2 Comments | Permalink

Sorry for the gap between Part I and Part 2 of this post, I had to get old school and scan this page from the magazine because I didn’t have a PDF version to share.  (Did I just refer to scanning as old school?  Sadly, I did…)

In Part 1 we shared the feature on Keri & Andrew’s Wedding in DC/MD/VA regional edition of The Knot magazine for Fall 2008.  Our work actually appeared twice in the mag and we challenged our readership to find it.  A photo from Katie and Todd’s first dance was chosen as the cover image for the article titled, “Your Wedding Soundtrack” by Michele Zipp on page 197.  Here’s the mediocre scan from the mag that we made on our fax machine, the spread looks a lot better than this!

Katie and Todd had a beautiful fall wedding on the grounds of Ford’s Colony Country Club in Williamsburg, Virginia last October where they both danced the night away.  On the way home, Sam told me that when he was 12 of so, his father told him that if you want to be popular with the ladies, all you have to do is learn how to dance.  Like most good advice passed down from parents to their pre-teens, it was tagged with “my dad is wrong” and filed in the back of the rolodex of wisdom.  Which is too bad, because his dad was very right. 

So back to lucky Todd, who could dance with any lady in the room, but got to swing around with the prettiest one to Ray Charles’ “Deed I Do” during their first dance as husband and wife.  Congrats to Katie and Todd for catching the editor’s eye at the Knot.  I think you can tell from just one photo how much fun the rest of the night was too!

Posted by Mel @ 12:48 pm, in News, Uncategorized | No comments | Permalink

Christina and Merle’s wedding brought us to the waterfront town of Hampton, Virginia.  Hampton University Chapel is one of our very favorite historic churches, it stands tall with grand domes, tall arches and an interior made warm from wood and brick.  

As much as I loved the shades of mint, sage, grass and gold that formed the color scheme of the event, I found myself gravitating towards black and white when it came to the pictures.  Maybe it was that magical late afternoon light or Christina and Merle’s timeless and elegant sense of style.  Everything was just classic.

We were especially appreciative of Christina and Merle’s patience with all our picture taking, Christina looked radiant and even though Merle admitted that he hates having his picture taken when we first me, he did great.  The ballroom at Hampton Roads Convention Center looked amazing.  Tanya Frazier not only coordinated the wedding but did all the flower arrangements in towering displays that included pale green, variegated cala lillies and palm fronds. Check out this style swatch to see how it all came together: 

Here’s a slideshow with some of our favorite shots from the day and if you would like to be notified by email when all the photos are available for viewing, click here.  Congratulations, Christina and Merle, it was a pleasure!

Posted by Mel @ 4:52 pm, in Weddings | 4 Comments | Permalink

One of the many things that has made working with the Trende family such a pleasure is Emy and Sean’s healthy sense of humor.   I believe that a lot of joy and laughter got them through this first and monumental year of parenthood.  Recognizing that Judson quickly rose through the ranks to become Commander in Chief of the Trende household, they decided to celebrate his first birthday with an inaugural theme to commemorate his entry into his second year of office.  A playlist of American favorites played in the background and Emy created a game where the adults had to guess which famous President Judson is posing as, see the bottom right of the swatch below!

Even better than the presence of plentiful grilled goodies and all-American salads were the cabinet of honorable attendees at the President’s side.  Judson was lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents as well as his great grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin in attendance.  Emy’s family traveled from Kentucky and Vermont to be a part of it and even brought homegrown veggies with them on the drive.  Judson’s cousin Caitlin, who is just two weeks his senior, may not have wanted the crown of Miss America but is a veritable beauty queen:

Judson is a quick study and here’s what he learned: birthdays are wicked cool!  You can tell by the blue icing all over him that he had a good time.

And the gifts!  Who could forget that part?  The family remembered his favorite things, which are currently dogs and anything with wheels.  As you can see, the fascination with wheels continues:

As many of you know, I have been following Judd through his first year and at each incremental shoot we have taken a picture of him on the living room couch for scale.  I thought it would be cool to finish the couch series with his whole family around him:

Emy and Sean, thanks so much for inviting me to be part of such a special birthday.   While I’m sad that the first year is officially over I’m excited for all that begins, including the book we’ll design to chronicle our shoots.  I know we’ll continue to stay in touch as the Prez gets older.

Here’s a slideshow of my favs from the day set to, what else but Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A”.  If you would like to be notified by email when all the photos are available for viewing, click here.

Posted by Mel @ 6:57 pm, in Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink