Leilani and Pete l Philadelphia Wedding Photographer

Leilani and Pete are the third veterans of the War in Iraq that I've photographed as a wedding photographer. As a newspaper photographer, I was often on the darker side of stories of soldiers. Whether it was about a then mysterious nervous system syndrome suffered by veterans of the war in 1991 or soldiers overcoming injuries at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina or an African immigrant serving the U.S. Army in hopes of gaining his citizenship and ultimately dying for a country he only hoped to be a citizen of. Now as a wedding photographer, I get to connect with veterans unaffiliated with their role as soldiers on a rather joyful occasion. Either way, it's always an honor to tell their story.

Theirs was my final wedding of 2008, two days after Christmas. It was a chilly night at Normandy Farm with lots of cross-cultural joking going on between Leilani's large and fun Philipino family and Pete's small Polish-Italian brood. I was also thrilled that Leilani donned that great hat and veil for the reception. It's one of those things that always make a woman look even more elegant and gorgeous.

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Their ceremony was full of all kinds of wonderful, and important, symbols in Philipino culture including a literal knot of rope draped over the couple by their mothers and the mutual exchange of coins.



Below is a stolen moment between the couple as their families gathered for one of the traditional family portraits. See folks, this is what you get with a veteran photojournalist, always looking for the unexpected moments that tell you something wonderful.

Whew...

Ok. That was a busy year. I just finished my first full wedding season in Philadelphia and LOVED it. I worked with some GREAT couples, got to some awesome venues and look to expanding to more upcoming in 2009. But I'm off to my annual New Year's dinner tomorrow of many courses of amazing food, great friends and splendid wines, champagne and port. So with that, here's my shameless pat on the back for the best thing I made this year.



And yes, he's really this good. (Most of the time.:)))))

Genny & Jake l Philadelphia Wedding Photographer

Genny and Jake called me soon after they returned from a global trek, and lots of pictures, and said they knew that they wanted a photographer who would be able to capture something real for their wedding. They're a couple who clearly want to experience life, not watch others have all the fun. And so, we were a perfect match for each other.

Their ceremony and reception were held at the Loews in downtown Philadelphia, the renovated historic 1932 PSFS building, the nation's first modern skyscraper.. The ballroom is a reminder that banks were once serious places. A very swank location for a swank couple.

From Genny's mother:

"You have captured the real spirit of my girl. There are shots of her that touch my heart because the little girl she was appears in her grown-up body. I just can't thank you enough for all of the beautiful prints, you caught every special moment, yet I don't even remember seeing you! thank you so much for being so good at your craft, I'm so glad she found you. "

Show (here).

Betsy & Geoff l Philadelphia Wedding Photographer

Betsy and Geoff's wedding brought me back to the Union League to continue this fall's run of great weddings and couples. After their ceremony at St. Augustine's we all got to walk around the Independence Mall area. One of my favorite times to photograph is dusk, in the fall, on a cloudy day. There's this beautiful period of time where all the shadows go blue and everything is super saturated and rich in tone.

I would've gotten the post of their wedding up sooner but I've been toiling away trying to get all their Christmas prints done in time. It's always awesome when a couple or their family orders lots of prints. It's a whole other level of enthusiasm when they start ordering prints within a few hours of seeing the images online. I love it!

So a few weeks before their wedding, I get a call from Geoff asking if I would have some time to shoot a picture of Betsy's favorite spot in Philadelphia along Kelly Drive. They do their daily run along the river here, as do many of my clients along with half of the under-40 crowd in the city, and this view is Betsy's favorite. It just so happens that Geoff's timing couldn't have been better as the leaves were at their peak of turning color which made for an amazing contrast of red against the blue sky at the end of the day. We did a canvas print, which arrived Friday morning in the nick of time for Saturday's wedding. You can see below as Betsy shares the print with her bridesmaids after Geoff had it delivered to her hotel suite on the wedding day.


Enjoy the show (here).













It's one thing to say a couple is nice and good hearted because you get along with them. It's a whole other thing to see them in action against a really unexpected and possibly unpleasant situation. So after doing the portraits around Independence Mall the wedding party hopped into their small chartered bus to head over to the reception while Geoff, Betsy and I waited for their car service to pick us up. And we waited, and waited and waited. The car never came. So after walking the streets for a bit looking for other possible places where the car and driver could have gotten off to, below, these guys didn't let it get to them, didn't get angry or flustered. They just rolled with it, and we hailed a cab back to the Union League. Now this is keeping what really important at the top of the list.