We bought a house!

Wow! It has been a long time since I have posted! In the past 2 months my hubby and I purchased our first home, worked on fixing it up for 5 weeks, and finally moved in 3 weeks ago. This is all while being 4-5 months pregnant and doing it with an energetic little 2 year old who has decided to potty train in the midst of it all! We have been trying to unpack but now I am fully involved with a very busy wedding season. Whew! I'm just glad we're in our house! I will try to post a few sneak peeks of each of them, as well as other fun sessions, on Facebook over the next couple weeks.


The first wedding in my fall series was a blast! It was a perfect day for an intimate Erie wedding ceremony at the Market Place Grill Atrium. Afterward we hopped on a trolley and went to Frontier Park for more formal and fun portraits. Their reception was held in the ballroom of the Masonic Temple where the food was great and the guests had a lot of fun. The bride and groom's daughter was such a little cutie. I'm so glad I was there to share the day!

Here are a just a few but you'll need to visit my Facebook page for more!

Yewebdar & Fekadu's Wedding

So, I'm finally getting the chance to blog one of my longest, but most favorite weddings ever. When this couple met with me for the first time I knew it was going to be something special. To make it easier I'll use their American nicknames, "Mimi" and "Frankie" (hope I'm spelling them right guys!)

Their parents and their entire families are all from Ethiopia so much of their heritage and traditions where incorporated into the wedding. I spent the entire day with them on Saturday from the salon in Edinboro, Frankie's house in Erie, Mimi's parents to formally present her with a bouquet of roses, the Greek Orthodox church for a beautiful ceremony, Frontier park for family pictures, and finally Zem Zem Shrine Club for the reception. This made for a long day but everyone had so much energy that it kept me going. I have never been part of a wedding, or any event, where there were so many people that had that much joy and happiness to share for that long. I also went back on Sunday for another part of their traditional ceremonies. This was a smaller, more intimate affair where Mimi and Frankie wore their traditional Ethiopian garb.

I took sooo many pictures and it was way to difficult to choose only a few for the blog. So I will include one here and about 100 or so on Facebook (because I just can't choose!) I will also have the whole set of pictures up in my gallery as soon as the bride and groom get to see them.

I am so grateful to have been there to capture this wedding. It was truly a unique experience for me.

Kelly & Rob's Wedding

What a fun day I had with Kelly, Rob, and their fantastic family from Poland. Rob's parents were born there so of course a large amount of their guests were here for the big day. I'm sure it was wonderful for them to have them all here.

Kelly and Rob got married at the Mary Seat of Wisdom Chapel on the campus of Gannon University. With the majority of the wedding party being alumni we got to go all over the campus for some great photo opportunities. We also stopped at the Erie Art Museum for some quick shots near the wonderful pillars. There are so many images I want to share but can't fit them all here. Please visit my Facebook page for more.

Some guys just aren't big smilers. (I guess that isn't a word, but I'm using it!) I tried hard to get some good ones out of Rob and so did Kelly here. I think she tickled his side a little hard but it made for a good shot! Still no smile though.

Finally a great smile!

You would think we live in Chicago. I have one of these shots with the brides veil flying in the air from every wedding I've done this year!

This couple, Konrad and his date Magda from Poland, were so much fun! They were there shooting beside me a few times. But instead of getting in the way and being annoying, as some guests can do, they were very polite and respectful. When I came out of the church to get on the coach bus "they" were taking shots of me so I got a few of them. Love em!

Lacy & Jon's Wedding

On May 16th, 2009 I spent the day with my friends Lacy & Jon who celebrated their union in Girard, PA. Lacy used to be in my small group so we have known each other for a long time. I am so excited to see her with a great guy who makes her happy. The two seemed to be so much in love and are very cute together.

Their wedding and reception were at the Girard Alliance Church. The weather was once again your typical spring day in Erie County PA. It started off raining but thankfully gave us a break for some nice outside portraits at the right time.

Here are just a few from the day but there are many more on the Facebook page.

Ashley & Sam's Wedding

To start off the wedding season for the year I photographed Ashley and Sam, a really fun couple in Girard, PA. The weather was not great that day with high winds and a little rain which made it difficult to capture anything outside. But these guys were hardy! We stopped at the Erie Courthouse on the way to the reception and grabbed some shots in between the sprinkles. I'm glad we had the chance to do that because those are my favorites.

^I love the look of love on Sam's face. He seems so proud that he just married a beautiful lady!

This last one is my favorite because Ashley looks like an angel. One good thing about the wind is you might end up with some neat veil movement.

The wedding was beautiful and I had a lovely day. Thanks guys!

"Show of the Dress" Bridal Portraits

Not long ago I had the fortune to take portraits of a few recent brides in their wedding dresses. This is a fairly new concept with wedding photographers and it's usually called "Trash the Dress". I don't really care for that title because we're not going out to "trash" the dress. We are just going to go to places we may not go and pose in ways that we might not on the wedding day. It could be something like sitting in the grass...a big no-no on the wedding day...or posing in non-traditional ways. This allows for me to capture many beautiful portraits of the bride in her dress to have and share. You paid a lot for it, might as well Show it Off!

Here are just a few samples. There are many more on my Facebook page.

Tenney Family Portraits

A few weeks ago I photographed a wonderful bunch of siblings. 4 kids from 10 years down to 6 months old along with their dog Baloo was quite a challenge. But with the help of a great assistant we pulled it off. The oldest son has Cerebral Palsey and was a delight to work with. All of the kids were full of energy and we had a great time. I put together a few montages that Mom was pretty happy with. My favorites are the baby portraits. She was such a cutie!