There’s so much to say about Ellen and Will’s wedding.  But just look at Ellen’s smile in these photos, oh my gosh, her smile says more about the day than I ever could!  I double dog dare you not to smile back at Ellen in these photos, go ahead, just try and keep an acrid frown on your face.  The photo below cracked me up because its such a literal rendering of the power of Ellen’s smile, amplified in the reflection above her.  Sometimes serendipity is good to me like that.

So here’s the deets:  the forecast, once again, threatened rain that didn’t hit us until later in the day.  And once again, we had the pleasure of shooting in a beautiful, historic place of worship in the Fan.  If you’ve never been inside of Temple Beth Ahaba, its absolutely gorgeous…

In the limo, Ellen’s family asked if we had shot many Jewish weddings and I responded that indeed we had.  What I didn’t say is that Jewish weddings make me a little jealous that I didn’t grow up within the tradition myself… aside from my love of dancing the hava nagila, I’m deeply moved by the symbolism in the ceremonies that form a Jewish marriage.  The Bedeken, a ceremony where the groom lifts his bride’s veil to look into her eyes and see the person he is marrying, was particularly sweet and probably our favorite part of the day.  The rabbi asked that, first, Ellen and Will look into each other’s eyes and share blessings with one another for their marriage.  Then each family member present was invited to come and whisper a blessing to Ellen relevant to becoming a wife and, especially, for becoming  a mother.  The rabbi said it will be a journey between this very moment where Ellen and Will sit in these chairs to the time that they come back to this ceremony to witness their children sitting in these chairs.  It was such a beautiful understatement that left me wishing every bride who plans to have a family could have  a ceremony like this.

After the wedding ceremony, an amazing reception followed at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.   The VFMA is an especially unique spot for a reception since the entire museum is open for guests to enjoy throughout the night.  The sky blue and peach hues bounced beautifully in the dinning area set up in the Great Marble Hall.

Lariza of Detail by Detail did an amazing job choreographing everything from the ceremony to the cocktail hour to dinner to dancing in the Atrium!  The 70’s cover band Right On! gave guests good reason to put on their boogie shoes, hot pants, go-go boots and all…

Gotta give props to Ellen and Will on their first dance, truly.  Many couples take lessons in order to soup up their first dance, but few remember to smile, enjoy, and have a blast doing it!

To the Jacobs family, you know we’ve got much love for you.  (Statement accompanied by two fist pounds to the heart)  And to the Frank family, we’re so happy to bring you into our photo fold!  Thanks to everyone for their hospitality, there’s way too much good stuff to share so please stay tuned.  Here’s a slideshow with our favs from the day and if you would like to be notified by email when all the photos are available online, click here.  Congrats, Ellen and Will!  Oh, and Will, you’ve got a pretty nice smile too.

Posted by Mel @ 8:11 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink

The forecast was not looking good, all week long it was rain, rain and more rain in the forecast.  Not that it seemed to worry Meris or Jimmy much and wouldn’t you know?  Sunlight poured through windows and doors at the beautiful Grace Covenant Church on Monument Ave, formerly the historic Grace Street Church.  The sun stayed with us after the ceremony, giving us a window to take a brief walk up Monument Avenue.  I was so glad we could get outside to take some distinctly Richmond photos of this couple, who currently live in Texas but have their own version of history here in RVA.

Then it was off to the Dominion Club for the reception where the lovely blue hues of the bridesmaids dresses and flowers carried into the tablescapes arranged downstairs.  Oh, and Meris’ sisters made the hydrangea displays with the votives, how cool is that?

The skies started making threats but the wedding party wasn’t daunted as they made a very fun entrance via golf cart.  Almost on cue, guests returned indoors for their first dance and the rain came down.

(nice pan, Sam)

After dinner, quite the dance party commenced among kids and adults alike… including a pretty fierce limbo competition!

I wonder if Jimmy is scheming in this shot, perhaps?

Here’s a slideshow with our favs from the day and click here if you would like to be notified by email when the gallery with all the photos is available.  Congrats, you two!

Posted by Mel @ 1:18 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink

Elizabeth is such a beautiful name.  Classic, regal, timeless really… a name any girl or woman would be glad to have.  But in our circle of friends, Baby Elizabeth is more likely to hear herself referred to as Lucky, the name her big brother bestowed upon her back when she was still renting uterus space.  Even now, at 6 months, the family can’t help but call her Lucky…

Recent events have had me thinking a lot about luck, happiness, and oddly, time conversions.   You know, just like there’s a conversion for dog years to human years (7 to 1), I’ve been thinking that there ought to be a Richmond year to regular year conversion since, with every person I meet here, I feel like I have known them much longer than I actually have.  I guess I have known Shannon for awhile, eight years? nine years maybe? but it feels like much longer than that.  And while we don’t get to hang nearly as often as I would like, time between us is never really lost so it doesn’t much matter – the same as how it is with your childhood friends.  You just start talking and the hours pass and eventually someone, whether it is a client or a child or a spouse, interrupts your chatter and tells you that its time to come home.

So it was a treat to come over and spend the afternoon with Shannon’s family.  If you read this blog often, you have definitely come across a Shannonism since  I am always borrowing from her poignant and humorous observations on parenthood and the rest of the world.  It definitely takes a village to raise a human being and she wears one of the grand pooba hats in my village.

We started shooting while big brother Temple was still at preschool, just to get some pics with Lucky and her parents.  As the second child herself, Shannon could never find pictures of her alone or with her parents so it seemed like a good thing to do.  Lucky was so smiley and a total camera ham, I see some very entertaining performances from this little girl in our future…

When Temple came home his momma whisked him to the bathroom to “comb the rooster”.  I love this shot of momma primping and Temple’s hands buried in his pockets.

Then it was outside for some family pictures on the deck and Temple took right to the task of making his little sister smile.  Temple really loves his sister, he has since he named her Lucky.  He’s so sweetly affectionate and  just loves to entertain her.   You gotta love on the sibling love here…

So I know that this isn’t the shot of Temple and Elizabeth, the shot I will display just below, but this one stood out for me immediately because it reminded me so much of a photo I had taken of Temple at 10 weeks, back in his potato days (footnote: potato days, Shannonism).  Its amazing how there are aspects of each of us that are there from the day we are born and stay with us.  I think that Temple will always have a soulful stare, the kind that sees right in.  Which makes me wonder, what am I going to see in Elizabeth four years from now that I photographed today?

Can we call this one the Lucky lounge?

This one had me laughing out loud when I found it.  So, kids, what’s it really like to have a photo session with Mel?

It was a day with some goofiness,

and a lot of beauty, Temple showed me some sprouts he was growing from school.  Beautiful and full of spring.

There’s so much I want to say but I’m trying not to show too much favoritism.  Here’s a slideshow and a gallery to check out, thank you so much, Shannon and Nate, for sharing your family with me.

Posted by Mel @ 10:25 pm, in Portraits, Wee Ones | 1 comment | Permalink

Erin and Kasey tied the knot at First Presbyterian Church and celebrated at the CCV James River Clubhouse.  It was a gorgeous spring day, Erin looked gorgeous, everything was perfect.  Or pretty close to it, anyway – the story is much better the way  Erin tells it so I’ll just say that we really bonded with everyone at the church.  Once the ceremony was over and the dust settled, Erin, Kasey and their crew were ready to move on and celebrate but there was one itty, bitty problem – the cups for the champagne never made it onto the trolley.  Problem solved, easy peasy…

The mood of the event was bright, set off by hot pink details and best of all, a table stocked with every kind of candy imaginable and stocked with take away boxes so that guests could nourish their sweet tooth both during and after the reception.

Here’s a slideshow with our favs from the day and if you would like to be notified by email when the gallery is available for viewing, click here.  Erin and Kasey, congrats and thank you for choosing us to shoot for you.  We hope to hang soon, I think we owe you a couple margaritas… and I’m definitely ready to get in on that!

Posted by Mel @ 6:50 pm, in Weddings | No comments | Permalink