First of all, I cannot even begin to tell you how outrageous the snowfall was that we received last night.  I had great plans of blogging the play-by-play all Jim Cantore style right here - but alas the heavy snows took out the phone line, TV, and even the internet!!  After staying up most of the night listening to the police scanner about downed wires, debri and fallen trees blocking the road, disabled vehicles and accidents - we woke to complete silence before the sun came up.  I won't try to hide it, I kind of love bad weather.  And the only person who loves it more than me is Sean.  He wakes up to check the snowfall total like it's christmas morning and there's a mountain of presents to be unwrapped.  Both eager to turn on the news and see photos of the carnage - that was when we discovered the cable was out.  Instead we sat and munched on raisin bran and listened to the radio.  It's been a full day of plowing and shovelling all of this heavy snow - but I can say with certainty that we received 25 inches or more because first we were measuring it with a ruler last night.  Then the snow got so deep we almost lost the ruler.  This morning we found a yard stick and came out around 25 iches of snow depending on where you are standing.  I have lots of photos which I will share in a day or so.  Until then - the next chapter in Megan and Jon's fairytale: their first look.

Those of you who are not recently married or getting married or have not pored over the pages of The Knot are asking yourselves what on earth a 'first look' is.  Here's the shortened answer.  Standard traditions dictate that on their wedding day the bride and groom are not to see eachother before the ceremony.  The reason for this is that back in the day (back back in the day) arranged marriages were all the rage and couples never even met before the day of their wedding.  Marriages were generally arranged by the eldest members of the families like a business deal to gain property or social status.  (Imagine your great Aunt Ethel picking out your spouse because she liked his lawn.)  Why such secrecy?  If neither bride nor groom saw each other until they had already said their vows, there was no opportunity for them to get cold feet and back out. 

In this day and age, we pick and choose the superstitions and traditions we want to uphold when it comes to weddings.  Keeping the bride and groom apart until the ceremony no longer has anything to do with avoiding cold feet - (we know what we're getting into ladies, right?) - and everything to do with the "wow moment".  That moment when the man you want to marry sees you for the very first time in your wedding dress on the best hair/make up day of your life.  It's the day we as brides pull out all the stops and do whatever it takes to achieve our own movie start level of beauty.  Giving up bread and cookies for six months?  Easy.  Early morning trips to the gym and tanning salon?  No sweat.  The longest hair appointment known to man?  That's kids play.  Because it all comes down to our wow moment. 

We want to step into the sunlight for our moment to shine and have the love of our lives look at us with those eyes that say, "I am such a lucky man."  Maybe it's a girlish fantasy - but we all dream of being this perfect vision in our wedding gown so that on those early mornings years down the road when we rise and shine to make the coffee wearing sweatpants with bedhead and dark circles under our eyes that our husband will look at us and remember our wedding day and smile and know deep down no matter what that we are the most beautiful woman they have ever known.

Cynics - you can roll your eyes all you want.  (I can hear you!!)   But I believe every women deserves her Cinderella moment.  Every one.

And now - after all that build up - here are Megan and Jon who opted to do a "first look" BEFORE the ceremony.  Since their wedding took place late in the day on a January evening - it would be dark out after the ceremony and outdoor photos were very important to them since they were getting married in such a beautiful place!  I love it when couples opt to see each other beforehand.  It gives them a chance to have their wow moment privately without a hundred eyes watching to see their reaction - and often they react more genuinely because it's not rushed or scheduled.  They can really savor it for themselves.  It also really frees up the timeline for after the wedding and gives an opportunity for some truly special photos.  For their first look - we scoped out a spot at the venue (Stonehenge Lodge) that was out of the way and had great lighting.  We asked Jon to stand and the botto of the steps and wait for Megan to arrive.

Megan's sisters helped her carefully down the path and arranged her hair and veil at the last minute so everything would be perfect.

When Megan was in place, I told Jon that he could turn around whenever he was ready. . . .

It was perfect.  A moment frozen frame by frame in time.  I stood at the bottom of the steps and Sean was just off camera at the top of the steps.  Images of Jon by Sean.

They stood for a moment (by now I am shooting like crazy through my own blurry eyes not knowing whether I should laugh or cry because it was just so perfect) then Jon climbed the stairs to his bride.

You could see all of the anxiety and tension just melt away as they laughed and smiled and celebrated. 

From that moment on, everything was smooth sailing.  No one was nervous, no one was worried.  They were just happy in the moment.  The whole rest of the day just flowed.  I would recommend a first look to anyone who is comfortable bending that particular tradition.  Not only does it take a whole lot of pressure off the day and free up your timeline AND give you the opportunity to get photos you will cherish as memories.

Most importantly - it doesn't ruin your wow moment.  It gives you the opportunity to really enjoy it for what it's meant to be.

As we're bracing for the next SNOWPOCALYPSE to hit pennsylvania - I thought I'd do something radical to celebrate.  (Yes I said celebrate the 8-12 inches of snow that's bearing down on us at this very moment.)  I'm going to blog out of order. 

Just because today reminds me a  lot of the last time we were scheduled to get 8 inches of snow in one day which was for Megan and Jon's snowed in winter wedding.  I remember when we shot their engagement session last summer that we stared dreamily into space imagining light flurries falling like a snow globe as they said their vows and sighing:

"ahhhh i hope we have snow :-)  " 

Turns out we did - almost 32" of it at their venue!!  If you like snow - host your wedding in a ski resort area - it works!  You'll notice a lot of landscape photos in this post that we shot both the day of the rehearsal and the day of the wedding - not only was it spectacularly gorgeous - I think it's important to set the scene that there was not just snow.  Or a lot of snow.  There were literally FEET of snow.  The wedding party chose to spend the weekend staying at the Foggy Mountain Lodge in Stahlstown, PA which was just a mile down the road from their ceremony and reception venue.  The girls got ready in one suite and the guys got ready in the suite next door.  Although just getting up the hill was a challenge - since it was Anna's birthday weekend, she was at home celebrating and I was lucky enough to have Sean with me as my second shooter and hazardous driving expert.  We had to pull off in the ditch on the way up the driveway to let the snowplow squeeze by! 

The girls were in full swing with hair and make-up when we arrived.

The Foggy Mountain staff had shoveled pathways through the deep drifts for us all to scurry back and forth between locations and to the cars.  Megan chose a gorgeous royal blue color for the bridesmaids gowns that looked awesome with all of the ice and snow.  Top left and bottom right images by Sean.

This was what the drive looked like on the way up the mountain. 

But let's get back inside where it's warm!! 

This is Megan with her neice and nephew who were also her flower girl and ring bearer for the ceremony.

Then it was time to put on the dress - there is seriously never enough time to get ready for a wedding.  I think for my own wedding I may start hair and make up the night before just so we're not late.  Megan's sisters helped her put on her dream dress and when she walked out, everyone lit up at how beautiful she looked.

Megan's sister, Emma, placing her veil.

The snow stopped for a brief while and we actually thought the sun would come out - Image by Sean.

Over on the other side of the bathroom wall - the guys were getting ready deciphering the rental tux instructions.  (You should see the treasure map the rental shop gives you for folding a pocket square.)  Jon was a little anxious.  With the weather being extreme - we all hoped the guests would get there safely and on time.

More shots from the drive up - as we gained elevation we encountered a weather phenomenon known as 'freezing fog'.  You could see a line where 5 feet below that line there was no snow on the trees and five feet above that line it looked like mother nature had hit the forest with an 80s hair band dose of Aquanet.

Back to the story - the guys all dressed up with nowhere to go - took a very stately cigar break before they loaded into the trucks to four wheel over to the wedding.  Bottom and right images by Sean. 

Tomorrow's post - SNOWPOCALYPSE HITS PA - AGAIN - and Megan and Jon's ceremony by the fire :-)

February.  This is the next photo on my calendar.  The groundhog also saw his shadow so it's 6 more weeks of winter. 

If any of you are surprised by that - you are clearly not reading this blog from somewhere in Pennsylvania.

Also THANK YOU for all of the wonderful comments and emails we've received on our engagement!  Aside from the 17 comments here, I've gotten over 25 emails of happy thoughts!  It's been wonderful :-)

Now we just have to buy a house and plan a wedding.  No sweat, right?

After five years - my best friend asked me what I was doing for the rest of my life. 

Whatever it is, we'll be doing it together cause we're getting married !!  :-) :-)

I feel so lucky     :-)

Sean and I are packing up and heading out for a quick trip this weekend.  So I will be out of email contact and have limited cell phone service until monday - but I'm taking the laptop with me so I keep on trucking.  I've been enjoying my January - it's like the summer vacation of wedding photographers.  It feels good to be home, to answer emails in a timely fashion, to take apart and reassemble the working parts of my business in a way that is more efficient and neat.  Speaking of which - I am in the process of redesigning my website and plan to follow that act with updating all of my printed materials. 

It's nice not to be a million photos behind.  I've completed 5 albums since christmas and have Anna working on one too.  I'm starting another this weekend while we're away and will have all of Megan & Jon's wedding images finished and ready to post when we get back on monday!

I even have time to stop for a coffee with a good old friend now and again :-)

And because everything is better with photos - these are two twin sisters who I've known since high school.  At long last everybody is back home again.  It's good to catch up :-)

I can't resist!  I have to post a few images from Megan and Jon's snowed-in-winter-wonderland wedding from this past saturday.  (HELLO MAUI   :-D :-D  Hope you guys are having an awesome time!!)

Just a few moments after seeing eachother for the first time.

Late in the evening - fire and ice :-)

That's it!  That's all I'm giving away for now! 

Congratulations on getting Maui'ed    :-D  Big hugs !

A fresh take on the future.

 I've been wanting to make one of these lists for a while now, (they were all the rage a few years ago).  I'm late to get on the bandwagon as usual.  The beginning of a new year feels like the time to get organized, regroup, plan for the year ahead.  I thought 2009 went pretty well for the most part, but now I want to refine.  Take what I do and do it better.  Be more efficient, be more creative, be more effective, be more aware, be more organized, BE.  DO. LIVE.  

And I want to communicate more and better.  So say hello!

Here's how the list works.  You come up with 101 goals that you want to accomplish in 1001 days - it can be grand and difficult or something simple.  The biggest rule is NO WAFFLING OR BEING WISHY WASHY.  Things have to be clearly worded.  Vague-ness = being chicken.  That's something else I want to do for 2010 - take a page out of Jean Luc Picard's captain's log and boldly go where no one has gone before.   Will I accomplish all of these goals?  I dunno, some of them are pretty far reaching - but like dreams - looking up keeps you headed in the right direction. 

1 0 1   in   1 0 0 1

Start Date:  January 6th 2010

End Date:  September 12th 2012

1. Shoot a destination wedding
2. Open a studio space where I can sit down with my clients
3. Have my car detailed and keep it that way for a month
4. Plan a girl’s weekend away and take the trip with my friends
5. Learn and incorporate lightroom into my workflow
6. Take one absolutely fantastic group picture
7. Walk at least one mile per day for a month
8. Get some kind of affordable health insurance
9. Make apple butter from scratch and learn to can it
10. Buy a house
11. Update my website to show product examples
12. Do some kind of photo spread for GSUSA
13. Host a dinner party
14. Send a secret to PostSecret
15. Go to a Steeler Game at Heinz Field
16. Start a retirement plan
17. Attend a Halloween Costume Party
18. Fly
19. Take a ballroom dancing class
20. Get down to my goal weight
21. Participate in Race for the Cure
22. Visit the Pittsburgh zoo and new aquarium
23. Plant a tree
24. Go antiquing and buy something for my dream house
25. Plan a surprise birthday party
26. Do a photo shoot for an animal shelter
27. Get my passport
28. Re-do the 1997 road trip
29. Shower and wash my hair in a rainstorm
30. Back-up ALL the 2009 photos in external hard drive
31. Make a quilt
32. Register to vote and follow through
33. Photo essay on “Camps”
34. Show some work in a gallery
35. Attend WPPI annual convention
36. Spend a weekend at a Bed & Breakfast
37. Take my Dad to the Boundary Waters
38. Photograph the Amish
39. Pay off my student loan
40. Have photos done of myself that I LOVE
41. Save something from extinction
42. Get published in a magazine (with my name on my work this time)
43. Teach a workshop
44. Snorkel in the Caribbean
45. Take a bath (since we’ve only had a shower all my life)
46. Advertise for 1 month on a billboard over a major highway
47. Dance all night at a wedding where I am not the photographer
48. Spend an afternoon on a sailboat
49. Send out anniversary cards to my wedding clients
50. Play laser tag with 2 or more friends
51. Visit Dunton Hot Springs, Telluride, Colorado or Paws Up Resort, Montana
    
52. Carry out a random act of kindness for a group of deserving people
53. Streamline album design process
54. Win a photo contest
55. Start entering photo contests
56. Audition for survivor
57. Take a totally spontaneous weekend trip
58. Seriously look into laser vision correction
59. Update the layout of my blog
60. Set up kick-ass home office in a new house
61. Buy a new used car
62. Shoot images every month for the calendar
63. Finish my best friend’s wedding album
64. Photograph a bald eagle
65. Host a campfire cookout night
66. Participate in the polar bear swim
67. Take 30,000 photos in a year
68. Print and frame personal photos for new house
69. Visit Alaska
70. Go to yoga class once a week for two months in a row
71. Set-up and implement a customer satisfaction survey
72. Visit a National Park
73. Blog everyday for a month
74. Cook a whole thanksgiving dinner myself
75. Get a fancy camera strap
76. Buy a video camera and learn to use it
77. Start hosting PhotoEscape and get people to show up
78. Plant a garden
79. Spend a day at a theme park
80. Go to a drive in movie three times
81. Start recycling
82. Go snow tubing
83. Go tubing on the river
84. Compile recipes
85. Send out photo xmas cards for my business
86. Offer wedding photography away free to a give-away winner
87. Find out my credit score
88. Go camping with Jon
89. Get a dog
90. Get an eye exam
91. Personal goal
92. Visit the Baltimore relatives
93. Get some photos published in PA publication
94. Camp in a YURT
95. Go fishing
96. Get my kayak out at least 5 times every season
97. Take more photos of Sean and I
98. Take more personal photos of family and friends and I
99. Put a face to my name on my website
100. Go on one planned “date night” per month for a year
101. Update all written materials, contracts, print portfolio, etc.

 And now, because everything is better with pictures - here's some shots from this past summer's fireworks night at Saltsburg Canal Days.  That's the old grist mill on the right and the vendors were set up along the old canal walkway.

Happy New Year everybody!

I actually thought about posting a 'Best of 2009' post for the end of the year.  But that feeling only lasted about 37 seconds.  I opened my master folder of all the photos I've shot this year and checked the file size.  It contained 26,964 photos.

Which roughly averaged means I shot 73 photos per day, or 1 photo every 30 minutes all year long.

Actually I thought it would have been more than that....  but I guess when you figure in sleeping and driving with both hands on the wheel it all works out about even.

So what could I show you to represent a year's worth of work?  For the first time - this year I've released a 12 month calendar of images I've shot all over Pennsylvania.  Cool, huh?  :-)  I'm proud of it, and when you do sort through 27,000 photos you find a lot of hidden gems. 

If anyone would like to purchase a calendar, they are on sale for $28.57 each.  They are 12x18" in size and each page features on large and one small color photo.  The front cover is a poster size image.  I realize this is a little pricier than a kitten calendar you can pick up at the bookstore and I've wracked my brain trying to figure out how to make it cheaper.  They cost me $21 each to make, and because it's an odd size and has to be shipped flat the cheapest I can ship it is $5.95 - then you've got that good old sales tax and *poof* we've arrived at $28.57.  Every time I say it I have this "  wuh wah waaaa " game show loser feeling.  But I thought I'd put it out there just in case anyone was interested and might still like to get one.

If you would like to purchase a calendar, please email me at PhotosbyAW@aol.com .

Also - on the first of each month I'll post the calendar photo of each month here on the blog - so without further ado - here is January.   Happy 2010 everyone - here's to good health, good friends, and great adventures in the new year!