First, thanks so much to Teri, Gus and their family and friends for their patience: while we usually blog within a week of a wedding, we took a family beach vacation that knocked us off schedule by a week!  Yikes!  So thank you, everyone, for hanging in there with us…

After so many years behind the lens, camera operation is fairly rote for us, its pretty much second nature now.  By that token we should be bored with, or at least disengaged from what we do:  we should be able to do it in our sleep.  Truth is, we’re always challenged, always affected, always a little changed professionally and personally with every passing wedding.    Its become a frequent topic of conversation for us: how having a baby made us relate to weddings in an entirely new and perhaps more significant way.  We find it strange since we have both been very close to our families our entire life and felt like we were pretty well tuned in to the family dynamic as photographers pre-kid.  But somehow the experience of becoming parents ourselves propelled us into the middle of the emotional experience of a wedding.  We look at the couple getting married and know they may become like us by start a family and hammering out a new life together.  We look at the parents of the bride and groom and know that we will become them, inevitably faced with the process of letting go of our adult children whether they choose to marry or not.  Suddenly, we are able to see marriage full circle.  Its both exciting and a little terrifying.  I think this is part of the reason we loved this particular wedding so much.

As beautiful as everything was at Teri and Gus’ wedding at the gorgeous Bluemont Vineyard, its the celebration of family that really stood out for us.  Teri’s Polish heritage was celebrated through pierogies, polkas and song and Gus’ Swedish roots through… you guessed it… some pretty fantastic meatballs!  My personal favorite detail was the cake table, where a very traditional cake stood among family wedding photos, beckoning guests to come and look.  Teri pinned her great grandmother’s brooch to her bouquet, making a lovely accent while keeping her ancestors close.  In addition to honoring family, they honored their own relationship too and celebrated a love of baseball, beer and travel through special cuff links, drink service and destination themed table assignments.  The barn was decked out in lights, lanterns and fluffy pink hydrangeas:

So here’s where my words begin the slippery slope towards totally cheesy and I know I ought to stop typing and let the photos speak for themselves.  I will say this though: we shoot a lot of weddings, and there was a tear or two on the keyboard.  Everyone wants to be part of a marriage like this, of a family like this.  Everyone wants to be loved like this.  And you bet your dupa that everyone wants to dance a polka like this!

Here’s the slideshow and if you would like to be notified by email when the gallery with all the photos is available, click here.  Congrats, Teri and Gus!!!

Posted by Mel @ 9:53 pm, in Weddings | 1 comment | Permalink

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

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