Strip District

May

Pittsburgh Opera House Wedding | Kayla & Ryan

Weddings / 1 Comment / May 23, 2014

So happy to share these with you- my first wedding of 2014! I’ll be honest, the first of the year is always a little intimidating to me, if only because it’s the first– even if I can’t usually come up with anything more rational to worry about. “What if I forgot how to take pictures?” I ask Andy. “You didn’t forget,” Andy always answers. (Spoiler: I’ve never forgotten how to take pictures.) The thing is, I’ve been doing this job for years, and the most important thing to me is to do an amazing job for my amazing clients, no matter when the wedding may be. By the time I start shooting after a long break, it’s comfortable & exciting & everything is right again.

I couldn’t have asked for a better way to start off the wedding season than with Kayla and Ryan. They are enthusiastic, genuine, and a joy to work with. The ceremony was at St Stanislaus’ and the reception at the Pittsburgh Opera House in the Strip District, and Ryan and Kayla trusted me to get portraits in my favorite mildly-disreputable-but-gorgeous alley. The locations were perfect. The details were bright and beautiful. The wedding coordinator, Shayne Souleret, was not only responsible for so many of the details, but was instrumental in making the day run smoothly and easily, and she was wonderful to work with. There were kimonos and flasks and choreographed flash mobs and hanging out with Bill Mazeroski at PNC Park. I’m so grateful that my clients are awesome people, and so grateful that I got to work with Kayla & Ryan on their wedding day.

Apr

Pittsburgh Strip District Engagement | Brigid & Adam

engagement / lifestyle portraits / 2 Comments / April 11, 2014

I talk about this during consultations a lot, but one of the reasons that I love shooting engagement sessions is that it’s such a great way to get to know each other before the wedding. Especially in the case of Brigid & Adam, where we went somewhere that has deep personal meaning for them. We went to the Altar Bar, where they were first introduced by a mutual friend. We stopped at places where they had many first dates and still enjoy going to today, like the Allegheny Coffee Co. (I just love the smell of walking into that store) and tried their favorite truffles at the chocolaterie. Shooting portraits at the strip can be interesting- working with that many people around is certainly a challenge, and not for the shy- but totally worth it, for the architecture and the colours and the ambiance and, now, the personal meaning that they will have in their photos as well.

Also, Brigid may be one of the few people that I have found that smiles as much as I do. (If you’ve met me… you know I smile a LOT.) I loved her giggle and Adam’s humor and their daring to try things even in the midst of being in front of the camera for the first time. I think they did wonderfully. :)

Sep

Pittsburgh Strip District Engagement | Ashley and Nathan

engagement / lifestyle portraits / 0 Comments / September 30, 2013

Ashley & Nathan chose to do their engagement sessions in the Pittsburgh Strip district for a more urban feel. I honestly love shooting in the city, with the fantastic old buildings and yellow bridges, it’s a whole different feel than it is in the suburbs. And points to Ashley for choosing a fantastic outfit to go with that- bright yellows and oranges pretty much always look amazing against the brick and architecture. The strip ended up being even busier than anticipated, so we worked around the cars and found cool doorways and loading docks and the underneath of bridges. And these two are just adorable together, so fun day of shooting overall. :)

Ashley & Nathan are getting married north of Pittsburgh in just a few short weeks! An October wedding with little touches of Halloween (so of course we had to shoot outside of the costume shop, as well.)

Mar

Pittsburgh Strip District Engagement Portraits: Natasa + Steve

engagement / 17 Comments / March 27, 2011

Even though we were all really looking forward to it, this was like the engagement session that almost never came. We’d pray for two hours of sunshine, and then it would rain. Not nice spring rain either; the wintery kind that chills you to the bone and makes you feel like you never should have gotten out of bed. We’d reschedule it, the weather would clear up, and then the day would come, and it would rain again. This happened a few times before we finally agreed to just squeeze it into those precious few hours of between getting off of work and early sunset. Honestly, I’m glad we did. It was a fantastic day, the light was just amazing, and, well, Natasa and Steve would look good no matter when we did it.

They’re getting married this fall in a traditional Serbian Orthodox ceremony… I can’t tell you how exciting this is to me. Traditions! Crowns! Serbian music! (You might think I’m joking. I didn’t even tell them how much Balkan & Serbian music is on my playlist at any given time. Um… it’s a lot.) We spent practically a good hour at the consultation just talking about their plans for the wedding, and from the sounds of things, it’s going to be fantastic.

In the meantime. I have equally stylish engagement portraits to hold you over until then. :)

Pittsburgh Opera House Wedding | Kayla & Ryan

Pittsburgh Strip District Engagement | Brigid & Adam

Pittsburgh Strip District Engagement | Ashley and Nathan

Pittsburgh Strip District Engagement Portraits: Natasa + Steve