Love Me Do Photography

There is something about a rainy day that makes photos look so good! Luckily for us, for Laura and Phil’s wedding at Bartram’s Gardens, we had perfect luck with weather. The rain stopped about 45 minutes before the ceremony was scheduled, so we got the best of both worlds: gorgeous light and an outdoors ceremony!
Laura and Phil live in West Philly and really enjoy the neighborhood and the nature that surrounds it. So Bartram’s was perfect because it is so remote and beautiful, but still right in the city and full of rich history.
Laura and Phil wanted it to feel like a backyard gathering and it did! They got their flowers from David King (Triple Tree Farm) who has a stand at the Clark Park Farmer’s market. He pulled together beautiful arrangements and filled them in mason jars Laura and Phil provided. Nature’s Gallery florist made the gorgeous bouquets. Friends of the bride and groom, Zoe and Brennan Lukas of Whipped Bakeshop made the amazing cake.
I really loved that Laura and Phil gave everyone a little bit of themselves at the wedding. Laura is a ceramics artist and made the adorable ceramic favors for everyone to take home. Phil is a musician and really got into organizing the performances and the mixes for the reception. The West Philadelphia Orchestra played music for the ceremony and parts of the reception. They have an amazing sound and it really added to the ambiance. A good friend of Laura and Phil sang one of their favorite (and mine!) Magnetic Fields songs during the ceremony.

All in all it was wonderful day and we had a great time. Thanks guys for having us along!

Carrie and Jake’s wedding at her family’s cabin was one of the most beautifully crafted weddings. Carrie is a great friend of mine, and a fellow photographer, so I was so honored she chose me to photograph her big day! Packed away in the hills and forrest, Carrie’s wedding was at her parent’s magnificent, modern cabin in Shade Gap, PA. Everything was hand crafted by Carrie and her friends with a vintage, old world, sea theme. There were field of grass, a wagon to take the bridal party to the ceremony site on a hill overlooking the cabin, and Carrie and Jake were even taken away on a Amish inspired horse and carriage. There was homemade BBQ cooked on site, a coin toss with vintage finds they found at thrift stores, an awesome band named Garrahan’s Ghost, and Japanese paper laterns that flew away ay night. Carrie’s friend also made these beautiful handmade flower crowns for the bride and groom. And check out those amazing flower bouquets! To top it off, Carrie found this great vintage couch that fit perfectly with her vintage inspired theme.

Thank you Carrie, Jake, and your wonderful families!
~Nadine

Lisa and Travis were married at Ash Mill Farm about a month ago, and I must say, it is one of my favorite places to photograph a wedding in! The house and the grounds are so quaint and beautiful, perfect for an outdoor casual wedding, equipped with a dog, sheep and Billiejean, the goat! My friend and fellow photographer, Jess Roberts, second shot for me. Lisa is an incredible artist and vintage shop owner. Her style really shown through in the wedding. The theme of this wedding was definitely “handmade” and “vintage.”

Lisa wore an amazing vintage 1930s embroidered organdy gown with matching jacket that she found on ebay. The lace bow in her hair was another ebay find. Flowers were assembled by Wall Flowers, and the reception was catered by Linda Jacobs of Soup To Nuts LLC. Nishat Akhtar, friend of the bride, designed all of the paper goods — invitation, rsvp, program, placecards, table numbers, thank you cards. the whole shebang!

Lisa is a d.i.y. fanatic. She made all of the accessories for the wedding party — her necklace, her mom & mother-in-law’s brooches, and both sister-in-laws’ necklaces. Her mother-in-law & sister-in-law quilted the photobooth backdrop. The tablecloths, napkins, milk glass vases, & crates were all collected from yard sales, ebay, and etsy, as well as from Unique’s in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pat, the owner, kept a watchful eye out for linens and sweetly collected (and painstakingly laundered & pressed) them for her.

A little quote from the bride herself, “the whole day really was so special to us. my prevailing memory of the day is just being so overjoyed that we got to have all of our favorite people in the whole world in one place all at the same time. eating, drinking, talking & dancing with them… it was all just surreal & better than i ever could have imagined.“

Autumn and David were married last month at the Philadelphia Ethical Society with a cocktail reception at the Sumo Lounge in Downtown Philadelphia. My fellow photographer friend, Emily Wren, second shot for me on this wedding. We did portraits in Rittenhouse Square before and after the wedding. Normally, I worry about shooting in a public park because of the volume of people as spectators, or being distracting in the background. We did have to wait for another wedding party to finish up their pictures before we could use the optimal amount of space, but over all, Rittenhouse Square is an awesome place to take photos! There are so many classic elements to the park, as you can see in the photos. We also stopped in the middle of Broad street to get a picture of the couple in front of City Hall. The Sumo Lounge is a really great little sushi restaurant and lounge, the perfect location for a small modern wedding reception. Though, we couldn’t have had the day run any more smoothly if it wasn’t for Autumn and David’s awesome wedding coordinator, Jeffrey Cesari from Shimmer Events!

Thanks Autumn and David for having me shoot your wedding! It was beautiful and such a blast!

Liz and Paul’s wedding was at the Full Moon Resort in the Catskills over the fourth of July weekend. They live in Missouri, but wanted a place where they could celebrate all weekend with family and friends, and Full Moon had it all: a beautiful setting, with great food, and comfortable rooms. Their wedding was classy with lots of little vintage touches, like the style of Liz’s Rosa Clara dress and the vases they had collected from estate sales and yard sales. The vases were filled with flowers from a Korean grocery store in Bronxville, NY. One of the owners, Jenny helped them choose dozens of blooms, stored them in her fridge for us overnight until they could pick them up, and then gave them a discount for buying in bulk.
Liz and Paul’s wedding was also very much about the family and friends they love so much: Liz’s sister Marian made all the handwritten place cards; her friend Rick put together a party mix and DJ’d the whole night; others friends made her garter, the fascinator, did her hair and makeup, and brought an easel and paints so the guests could make a community painting; Liz’s brother and sister-in-law wrote and sang a song during the reception; of course, Liz’s mom made sure she had tissues handy. So many people contributed to make their day perfect and personal. You could tell how close these two and their families are by the beautiful ceremony where all their siblings stood up with the couple and blessed the rings and gave them bits of wisdom on love and marriage.
Thanks Liz and Paul, we really enjoyed your wedding!

Matt and Kim are good friends of ours, so of course we were excited to photograph them! What is so special about this wedding (aside from how awesome they both looked) was how all their friends really pulled together to help set up, decorate, tailor, cook, bake, DJ, play music, photograph(!!), cater, bartend, and cleanup. Literally everything (except for the linens and tables, those were rented) at this wedding was made or done by friends.
Since they were on a budget, we took photos before the wedding in the horticultural center and the ceremony and reception were both at Circle of Hope’s big open space in South Philly. Friends were able to bike there and write messages to the bride and groom outside on the sidewalk.