Amanda Wilson, Author at Photos by Amanda Wilson

Mar 29

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Wedding Album Registry – the perfect gift

By Amanda Wilson | Products, weddings, What to do with your images | No Comments

Spring has arrived and before you know it, wedding season will be in full swing! That means that right now it’s bridal shower season, and if you know someone getting married this year, you’re looking for a wedding gift. I would like to tell you a story about a toilet brush. In 2009, my husband Sean (who was still just my boyfriend at the time) had a friend who was getting married to an awesome girl. Sean received an invite for us with information for their registry, and like most men completely ignored the RSVP date and gift information. By the time they called asking us to RSVP and I found the invitation, nearly every item on their registry was already purchased. Every item was marked off except one, a toilet brush with matching toilet brush caddy. Why was it the only item left? Because no one wants to walk…

Mar 24

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Pittsburgh Winter Engagement Session | Megan & John

By Amanda Wilson | Engagements | No Comments

We waited three months for snow this winter to shoot Megan and John’s pittsburgh winter engagement session. It was the fourth and final installment of their four season engagement series that began last spring in Washington DC at the Cherry Blossom Festival. After rescheduling many times, either because there was no snow, or because the windchill was below zero, we decided to take the last week of winter and make it work! Our plan was to revisit the site where Johnny proposed in front of the Hard Rock Cafe Christmas tree in Station Square. Since the trees were already down, we explored the nearby Smithfield Street bridge. I loved the way Megan’s red peacoat looked with the blue bridge supports! Don’t let their comfortable smiles fool you, it was FREEZING! Just when we thought we were going to succumb to hypothermia, we discovered a campfire burning outside of Bar…

Feb 20

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Pittsburgh winter wedding | Courtney + Matt

By Amanda Wilson | weddings | No Comments

I’m going to warn you right at the beginning of this post, I am sharing a TON of photos from Courtney and Matt’s Pittsburgh winter wedding ! Though Mother Nature didn’t give us any snow, she did bless us with a beautiful 50 degree day at the end of January! It was a real treat to have sunshine, clear roads, and blue skies over the city! The day started off with a brunch at Courtney’s parents’ house for the girls while everyone got their hair and make up done. Courtney’s mom and her sister, Lindsey, helped her into her dress. The photos during this ‘getting ready’ portion of every wedding day are always some of my favorite. We always make time for a few family portraits before the excitement of the day takes over. The ceremony was held at Calvary United Methodist Church on Pittsburgh’s north…

Feb 14

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

By Amanda Wilson | Engagements | No Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day! This morning I woke up with this image on my mind! Sometimes the behind the scenes story of an image is just as good as the image itself. I actually spotted this heart shaped tree on instagram when searching hashtags last year to keep up to the minute on when the cherry trees were blooming in Washington DC. I knew we had to find it! Just a few weeks later, the stars aligned and we drove 245 miles from Pittsburgh to DC for photos at sunrise on the tidal basin. We were shooting in a beautiful grove and in the background of the shot a few hundred feet behind them, I spotted it. There was the tree! We could not believe that out of the thousands of trees on the tidal basin that we found this one. Just a few more months till Megan &…

Jan 25

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Courtney & Matt | Hartwood Acres engagement photos

By Amanda Wilson | Engagements | No Comments

Courtney and Matt are getting married this Saturday! I know that they are hoping for snow, but here’s a look back at their summer Hartwood Acres engagement photos. I asked Matt to describe Courtney in three words. His first response was Mother of Dogs. He was kidding! *sort of* Even though they are a family of five including their three pups, Koda, Tootise and Tanner. Matt says Courtney would save every dog she met if she could. “Loving, pure-hearted, and genuine,” is how he describes his future wife. Proof that Courtney can be serious! For about 2 seconds 😉 We all know she’s a giggler. Courtney said the first thing she noticed about Matt was that he was so tall! Then she fell in love with his wit and his dry sense of humor and he charmed his way into her heart. (Who couldn’t love a guy that wants…

Jan 04

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Bruckner Family | winter family photos

By Amanda Wilson | Milestones | No Comments

I first met Amy and Ryan three years ago. They were newly engaged and planning their wedding for early spring 2013. Ryan had just pulled off an amazing proposal by carving out “Will you marry me?” onto a rock on the banks of the Youghiogheny River, and then taking Amy on a fall hike to the rock and surprising her by dropping to one knee with a diamond ring. She said yes and a few months later Ashley hung on to the back of my pants as I dangled out over the frozen river shooting their engagement photos at Ohiopyle. We all nearly got hypothermia but it was worth it! They were married that April before the leaves popped and now three years later I had the privilege to meet up with them again just in time for their first baby’s first birthday. Since December was so mild this year,…

Dec 31

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Behind the scenes in 2015

By Amanda Wilson | Personal | 3 Comments

New Year’s Eve is here and I thought it would be fun to do a look back behind the scenes in 2015! We did a post earlier this year about the rough life of a photo assistant and what they have to do in order to get the awesome images we show on our website. The rest of 2015 was no different! Every day is a reminder that what we do is always always a TEAM effort. We did a fun engagement session all over Pittsburgh’s north side and Point State Park this summer. It was a gorgeous night to be at the fountain and we witnessed a live proposal just a few feet away! Ashley and I grabbed a few test shots while our client couple was changing outfits. Instead of moving the car and looking for a parking space in the middle of the regatta, we decided…

Dec 28

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Christmas traditions

By Amanda Wilson | Personal | One Comment

Since we were kids, our family always had one special Christmas tradition. We never had an artificial tree. A live tree was one of the most special parts of Christmas. It was like bringing a piece of the woods into the house. The way the needles smelled when you walked into the living room in the morning, or came home through the front door after school meant that we had entered that time of year when there was something nice to look forward to. Going to find the perfect tree always started with one of us standing up on top of my mom’s hope chest (this was where the tree always went because our living room was very small) to see how big of a tree we needed to find. They would use my height that year as a measurement (I was the tallest for many years) and when I…

Nov 19

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Justine & Chris | fall engagement photos near Portage, PA

By Amanda Wilson | Engagements | No Comments

When you find the one, you just know. I didn’t believe it till I met my own husband, but I can tell you that if you aren’t sure – then you haven’t met the one yet. Justine and Chris met just a few years ago and the first thing she noticed about him was that he smiled all time. A fortune cookie from one of their first dates of take out Chinese forecast the future. It read, “stop searching forever, happiness is right beside you.” For their fall engagement photos, Chris and Justine invited me to Chris’ family home near Portage, PA. We explored acres of woods and fields, visited Wilmore Dam for photos by the water, and ended at sunset on top of the hill underneath the tree where Chris proposed. We even included the third member of their family, their golden retriever puppy, Camo. From the tree…

Oct 13

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Keely & Todd | fall engagement photos in a cornfield

By Amanda Wilson | Engagements | No Comments

Sometimes the road to love is long, even for the best people, and Keely and Todd are two of the best. They are always willing to help out a friend and value family above all else. Life threw a lot of curve balls their way before they met each other. Happily ever after had to work hard to track them down, but it didn’t give up. This saturday they will say their vows on top of the hill at Keely’s parent’s property in the very spot where her sister Afton was married a few years ago. It’s the spot where Keely had imagined her wedding long before she and Todd even met, and that her family has enjoyed many thursday night campfires over the years. Last fall we took a rambling drive around all of the dirt roads near their home. We visited the hill where they’ll be married, the…

Amanda Wilson

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