I had a great time with Erin and Brad at their engagement session. Engagement sessions are a great way to get to know each other and to get a feel for our client’s personality and interests. And, it’s just tons of fun - relaxed and playful.

For many of our clients, this is the first time they’ve been photographed by a professional and it does take a while to get warmed up….but, after a few minutes, it becomes old hat and by the end of the session, we’ve developed a great rapport which makes wedding day more relaxed.

I usually do a mix with some photographs looking at the camera for grandma, but my favorites are always those when our couples just interact and play, showing their love for each other.

Erin and Brad and getting married next August at St. Paul’s Cathedral and the PAA. They’re so much fun. - I can’t wait for wedding day!

Ellen and John were married on October 25th at St. Stanislaus church in the Strip District with a reception at The Pennsylvanian.

Their wedding was a perfect way to end our busiest month of the year. It was a fantastic day - wonderful families, great friends, a bridal party that was so much fun and an absolutely beautiful wedding.

Ellen and John got ready at the Hampton Inn, just down the hall from each other. That makes it great for us - Barb and I can bounce back and forth and capture all of the excitement.

St. Stanislaus, one of the city’s oldest churches, was renovated in the past couple of years. The not so attractive brass lamps fixtures were removed, restoring the original look, if not to the old gas lamps, at least to the feel of it’s old world elegance. Father Harry always does a wonderful, very personal ceremony.

With an early ceremony, we had a chance to go play with the bridal party and I think you can tell, we had the best time.

Ellen looked stunning in her Monique Lhuillier gown - don’t they make a cute couple?

Rainia as always did an excellent job with the food and cake. Allison McGeary provided the beautiful and creative florals and The Betsy Lawrence band had the crowd in a frenzy all night.

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Jenny and Jeff were married at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church with a reception following at The Senator John Heinz History Center’s Great Hall.

Jenny and Jeff first met while acting in a play at Point Park College. They both were hired as actors for Disney in Orlando where they now live. Most of their friends are thespians and were so much fun - outgoing and definitely not shy around the camera.

Jenny and Jeff are still pretty young but even so, they have an almost childlike outlook on the world which so many of us seem to lose. They didn’t want a stuffy or pretentious wedding and chose fun food for their reception - nachos, hamburgs and hot dogs. I would venture to say that was a first for the Common Plea who with The Duquesne Club caters all of the events at the History Center. It’s probably more difficult to make an awesome burger than a great filet.

The History Center has two very different ballrooms - the Great Room on the first floor and The new Mueller Center. The Great Room has a lot of character while the Mueller Center has a balcony with a great view of the city. It’s a wonderful venue for a reception.

Jenny and Jeff took a Disney cruise on their honeymoon, something I’ve always wanted to do. Here’s a small sample from their wedding day.

I have such a great job, sometimes I have to pinch myself. Oh, it’s very long hours, 7 days a week during wedding season, but the rewards of meeting such wonderful families like Emily and Jack’s families, make all the work worthwhile.

I’ve photographed Emily’s sister Katy and brother Josh’s wedding and it’s been great to see them start their family - it just seems like yesterday when we they were planning their wedding. Katy has a beautiful daughter Sadie and Josh and Kathleen have a daughter Shannon and a new little guy, Brennan - they’re such wonderful, cute kids.

Emily and Jack were married at St. Vincent DePaul church in Wheeling with a reception following at Oglebay in the Pine Room - very different from Glessner hall and very cool in it’s own way.

Emily and Jack were both beaming all day long. They have a fun group of family and friends - Jack has 4 brothers and Emily is one of 5 including her twin brother Chris. We had some time for photographs between the ceremony and reception at Wheeling park and we always like to make sure that the bridal party has a great time and gets involved in the fun. That wasn’t too hard with these guys. We had a blast.

Ambience catered the reception, the cake was a Masterpiece bakery creation, florals by Margo and Dave Penn did a great job with the tunes. Jay Morris was the filmmaker for the evening.

Emily and Jack honeymooned in Riveria Maya - a very popular destination - and are enjoying married life in Cincinnati.

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Manisha and Bernie were married in a Catholic ceremony at Duquesne Chapel followed by a Hindu ceremony and reception at The Omni William Penn Hotel.

Barb and I come from very different backgrounds - Jewish and Catholic. Merging two very different cultures on and after wedding day is always a big decision. I think it’s really cool when couples bring elements of both backgrounds into their wedding day festivities, although it involved many hours of preparation and 3 outfit changes on Manisha’s part.

Hindu ceremonies are fascinating, typically 4 days of festivities. The mandup that was created in the ballroom was absolutely beautiful. Starting with Aaarti, Manisha’s mother welcomes Bernie by placing a tilak on his forehead. Continuing with blessings by parents and elders, Manisha and Bernie walk around the ceremonial fire in 7 steps, each with significant meaning such as the provisions for health and energy, food and happiness.

With 5000 red roses by Kerry Kennedy of Pittsburgh, their reception arrangements were the talk of the local florist’s community. Malcom’s House of Flowers in Indiana, PA did the beautiful ceremony presentations. DJ Layda from New Jersey provided the music at the reception with lots of upbeat Indian pop. It was really a storybook wedding.

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Jeana and Lee were married at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox church with a reception following at The Carnegie Museum’s music hall foyer, one of the most beautiful venues in the city.

Jeana’s Melissa Sweet was beautiful.

Greek Orthodox ceremonies are fascinating. Jeana and Lee’s koumbara or sponsor Jenna holds a very important roll in their marriage. She exchanges crowns, signifying virtue and holiness.

Led by the priest, circling the table 3 times is a symbol for eternity and their eternal bond in marriage.

It’s something new at every wedding. I went outside to take a few photographs of Jeana and Lee in the limo and they locked up the church and left, with my equipment bag and car keys. I’m sure the expression on my face was priceless.  Luckily Barb usually drives separately and we always carry two complete sets of equipment, so she drove me to the reception and we retrieved my equipment bag later and the Sunday - a good excuse to do some shopping at the Galleria, across the street.

Parkhurst caters every event at The Museum - they always create beautiful cakes.

Greek weddings are always so much fun and greek dancing mesmerizing, their greek band Grecian Flames shared the evening with DJ’s Josh and Scott.

Jeana and Lee are so nice - we had a wonderful time with them both at their engagement session and on their wedding day. They spent their honeymoon in Italy and had an amazing trip.

This is always the busiest time of year for us - weddings every weekend along with finalizing as many albums as possible before our November 1st deadline for Christmas delivery. It’s also a busy time for family portraits and holiday cards.

It takes a couple of hours at least to do a wedding blog post and I’ve been using every free moment to work on our album projects, so we can order as many as possible before the deadline.

Keep an eye out for Sarah and Blaise (The Omni), Jeana and Lee (The Carnegie Music Hall Foyer), Manisha and Bernie (The Omni), Emily and Jack (Oglebay) and Jenny and Jeff (The History Center), our 5 last Saturdays. We’re also really excited about Ellen and John’s wedding tomorrow - their ceremony is at St. Stanislaus in the Strip District with a reception following at The Pennsylvanian. It’s going to be so much fun!

Many of our clients aren’t aware that every wedding collection includes our portrait-for-life program with no portrait art fee. We’ve had a lot of clients use the program for maternity and baby portraits along with family portraits, especially around the holidays.

We absolutely love babies and love to see our wedding clients with their new bundle of joy. Stacy and Marcus were married in May of 2005. They had a destination ceremony in Hilton Head and a reception in Pittsburgh. We just photographed Bradyn on his first birthday.

Bradyn is so cute and what great expressions! They’re having a blast with him - it’s something hard to describe until you have your own and we remember like it was yesterday, when David was born - and Nina and Kate.

Bradyn is a cruiser and is one active little guy - it looked like a hurricane went through the studio after he left. I’m going to start calling him Bam Bam - he managed to break one of our indestructible toys that made it through 3 kids and lots of our little clients.

It’s really heartwarming to see the joy on Stacy and Marcus’s face - it’s always something new and exciting with every new stage.

On October 1st we photographed Timeless - A Night of Style & Fashion, a Philip Pelusi hair and fashion show to benefit  Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Pittsburgh which was held at Privilege in the Strip District.

We learned of the  event when we were contacted by friends Adam & Jake Miller.  They are both active in the local Teens for the Cure chapter, which helped collect and organize donations for the event’s raffle.

Each Philip Pelusi salon worked as a team to create a timeless look for their models - every one representing a different decade.  The transformation of the models was incredible - see for yourself!  As impressive, was the spirit of cooperation and the dedication that it took to put this show together and make it work.  And work it they did!

I share with you the latest random photo from my cellphone.  How hot and nasty are most parking lots? This one is no exception; but check out this hearty little flower growing from a crack in the pavement.

Here is my latest piece of cellphone ‘art’.  I drive past this view of the new Children’s Hospital every night on my way to pick up Kate’s carpool from rowing in Millvale.   On more than one occasion I have noticed the sun shining only on the hospital - it glows like fire.