Sean called me from work yesterday (he was in Ohio) and told me that it was snowing!  SNOWING !! 

I can't believe another year come and gone so fast!  Since I'm headed to Lenape today for Jayme and Dave's wedding, I thought I'd share Jessica and Jaison's wedding from Lenape last year.  And it has a snowflake theme :-)

We started the morning at Jess's parents house where everyone was getting ready.  Jessica's dress had the most beautiful beading that picked up all the light in the room and made little rainbows.

Jess with her Dad :-)

The ladies wore a striking shade of irredescent blue.  MAMOSAS!  It's a wedding morning tradition.

You can't tell from the photos, but Jess woke up with the worst head cold the day of her wedding.  She took some medicine and tried to relax as much as possible before the ceremony.  It was one of those chilly November saturdays where if you had nothing to do you might stay in your PJs all day.  But it was a wedding day!!  She was a real trooper and looked beautiful :-)

Now there are several things I have to tell you about Jaison and the groomsmen.  #1 They are a seriously handsome bunch.

#2 - Jaison bears a striking resemblence to a certain hardcore celebrity.

#3 - Jaison's last name is Norris.

CHUCK NORRIS

Look closely.....distant relative perhaps??

Their ceremony was held at Jessica's family church, Holy Martyrs.  They decorated with snowflakes and tulle!

Top right and bottom left images by Anna.

Afterwards a cozy limo ride to Lenape Heights Golf Course for the reception.

Lenape has the greatest tree out back at the top of the course.  It's like a Lion King tree.

The new Mr. & Mrs. Norris

I love shooting with Anna, while I was catching the image on the left, she was standing by with the spy lens to get the image on the right !

Another favorite by Anna.

Inside, the room  was decorated in the irredescent blue like the girls' dresses and every table had snowflakes and ice cubes!  They used images from their engagement session to decorate their chocolate bar favors - they even had an ice sculpture in the shape of a snowflake which I used for the ring shot!

Image by Anna.

First dance :-)  See that bridesmaid in the right hand photo?  That's Jessica's sister - she just had her first baby a beautiful little girl, and I get to meet her in a few weeks !!

Super bouquet toss just missing the chandelier!

We busted out our case of sparklers for some romantic after dark shots :-)

It won't be long now and you'll be celebrating your one year anniversary!!  Congrats !

Ceremony:  Holy Martyrs Catholic Church, Tarentum PA

Reception:  Lenape Heights Golf Course, Ford City PA

We're baaaacccckk!  Anna and I have made it safely home from the beach wedding over the weekend!   The weather was great - sunny and 85 with a strong breeze and big waves!  Welcome home to pennsylvania to cool gentle rain showers and rolling hills.  It was a great trip, but there's nothing like coming home :-)

Sean and I are headed out to breakfast for the post wedding re-cap !

This shot was from Lenape Heights golf course last year - it's a beautiful place to get married!

Lena and Cole held their ceremony at St. Margaret Mary church in Lower Burrell.  The weather was warm and everyone was in good spirits - the girls said a quick prayer after they stepped off the elevator, Jeff (Lena's Dad) gave the ring bearers a pep talk, and then they all lined up for the procession.

Beautiful 'backstage' images by Anna.

Lena was all smiles - even if the rest of us were emotional.

The church was bright and beautiful - I loved that they asked the wedding party to stand facing the congregation.  Normally we only see the sides or backs of everyone's heads - this was great!

They exchanged their vows and left the church through a cloud of bubbles.  FYI - if you are doing bubbles for your ceremony exit get the big bottles like these.  The little tubes just don't do the trick.  These bubbles were AWESOME!

Please indulge me in my attempt at being informative and humorous at the same time.

And now - I wanted to say THANK YOU to all the guests at Lena & Cole's wedding because they were great!  And also talk about photo etiquette at other people's weddings.  You'll see this is in the form of a football diagram.  The green zone is a good place to be while taking pictures as a guest of a wedding ceremony.  You can see all the guests here are AWESOME and made my job easier!  You will also notice the yellow zone - it is not cool to jump out in the aisle to take pictures during someone else's wedding.  I'm all about guests taking photos!  But - this is my job - I'm at work here.  Church guidelines dictate that the photographer needs to be stationed at the back of the aisle behind the guests.  We do this out of respect for the service AND so we can respectfully not block the guests' view.  So this is my shot - try to imagine if Uncle Bob or your mailman picked a moment to jump out and get that perfect shot - such as exchanging the rings or worse - the kiss!  When this happens, we can't even see the bride and groom up there!  I can't tell you how many times I've seen a really beautiful moment pass by and we missed it because instead of seeing the bride's father lean in to give her away - we had a great shot of Uncle Bob's good side while he crouched down to take his picture.  During a ceremony, moments happen one time in a fleeting second and they're gone.  We're working hard to capture as many as possible because I know how precious a memory can be.   Next time you are at a wedding, remember - friends don't let friends whammy other people's photos.

Stay out of the yellow zone ;-)