They were married at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul and reception was at the Four Seasons.

We were lucky enough to have time to visit a couple of our favorite locations for portraits in between – the fountain at Logan Circle right across from the church and the Lemon Hill Mansion, which is a great place for getting a “country” look right in Philadelphia!

Win and Stephanie hired a fabulous wedding coordinator, Gina Sole of The Wedding Planner, Gina was a joy to work with, and her stylish taste carried over to all parts of this sparkling day! Their palette of lime green and bright pink was beautifully reflected in floral designs by Brittany at Petals Lane and the entertainment was EBE’s premiere party band, Paris, featuring the uber-talented Jonathan and crew.  And we have to give a big thank you to my friend Eric Allen, our catering manager at the Four Seasons who always keeps the reception running smoothly and consistently serves some of the best food in the city! We recommend the filet ; )

Since this is something that comes up fairly regularly here at Faith West Photography, I wanted to share that Stephanie and Win were an out-of-town couple planning a Philadelphia affair from afar and they weren’t able to come meet us before the big day, so this was our first in-person meeting after months of phone conversations and email.  This happens may often than you might think, and I always tell people that “don’t worry, it all works out, that’s why you hire a professional!” and as you can see below, it does!  Just another reason to hire a professional, experienced photographer and other vendors (see above) who knows how to get the best out of you on your big day no matter what – Stephanie and Win, we loved sharing one of the most important days of your life, thanks for being such great subjects!

You first saw Jackie and Adam in their fall engagement shoot we did last fall on location in Bucks County… Now we are excited to share some of our favorite images from their big day!

With the help of wedding planner extraordinaire and all-around pleasure Christina Lupo, one of the fabulous Queen of Hearts Wedding Consultants, the new Mr. & Mrs. Winter had a wonderful day full of love and excitement! Their wedding ceremony took place in Bryn Mawr, PA at the historic and beautiful Bryn Mawr Presbyterian, and we took pictures of the wedding party back in the city in Rittenhouse Square Park where the light was just right for some late-afternoon portraits.

The sunny yellow of the bridesmaids’ dresses was complimented beautifully by colorful bouquets by Eventricity and lush white table arrangements brought the ballroom at the Westin Hotel to life! Speaking of the ballroom, the band, Paris, from EBE Entertainment kept the dance floor packed all night!

Enjoy the photos below, and if you (understandably) can’t get enough of this event, we’ve posted a slideshow on our “Real Weddings” page!

For the behind-the-scenes images….Here is (clockwise from left) the lighting assistant, Hernease, packing up equipment after a fun reception, the 2nd photographer, Matt, shooting images of groups against a black background at the party, and me, Faith, taken by Matt against the background.

And here’s a cool photo shot by Matt at the end of our cab ride back from Broad Street to grab Jackie and Adam’s photo in front of City Hall….

]]> http://faithwest.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/01/bryn-mawr-presbyterian-westin-hotel-philadelphia-jackie-adam/feed/ 0 http://faithwest.com/blog/index.php/2010/06/25/mayfair-farms-wedding-anna-and-jeff/ http://faithwest.com/blog/index.php/2010/06/25/mayfair-farms-wedding-anna-and-jeff/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:31:00 +0000 Faith http://faithwest.com/blog/?p=517 The new Mr. & Mrs. were married at Mayfair Farms in West Orange, NJ on a beautiful sunny day surrounded by family and friends!

One of our favorite parts of this event was their fantastic band Nafshenu Orchestra – they were able to handle a lot of traditional Jewish music, plus standards and current dance singles, all with a tight sound and skilled musicianship.

And we were so impressed with (and delighted by) the food by Mayfair Farms’ staff – everything from sushi to baked chicken was inventive and delicious. There was even a cupcake tower instead of a cake! Yum!

Can’t forget shout-outs for my invaluable “A” team — Matt Bender was my 2nd photographer and Herb Way was our lighting assistant.  See if you can spot us below – that’s me of course, goofing off in front of the black background, that’s Herb helping with gathering groups for the background, and that’s Matt taking the photos against our studio-style black background!

Check back soon for the big reveal ; )

The ceremony was held at St. Mary’s Church in Lancaster, PA, and the reception was at the lovely Bent Creek Country Club in Lititz, PA.  Blooms by Vickery provided gorgeous floral decor, and Shumaker Design did the spectacular lighting. And the Don Eaton Orchestra was fabulous as always. Mary was stunning in an original creation by Janell Berté, the amazing designer and owner of Posh Bridal, based in Lancaster.

Since the wedding was held on the day of the Kentucky Derby they used it as a completely unique, fun theme – instead of place cards, guests received racing forms with their names and table numbers on them, and during the cocktail area guests enjoyed traditional mint juleps while placing “bets” on the big race, which was on several TVs in the bar area. Plus, there were red roses everywhere, another symbol of the Derby, and there were shamrocks everywhere to symbolize the luck of the race!

Many of the female guests played up the theme by wearing Derby day hats throughout the wedding reception. Even the bride’s dog wore a Derby day hat!

Last but not at all least, there was an artist capturing the ceremony on canvas as it happened! How neat is that?!

The reception took place at the Bent Creek Country Club, which backs up to the same golf course in Lititz, PA as the bride and groom’s house. Because the happy couple didn’t have to go outside the development to go back home, the bride and groom’s “getaway car” was a golf cart with a Just Married sign on it! (Although they did have an elegant old-fashioned Rolls Royce deliver them to the church and back.)

We love seeing so much thought and love put into a wedding and are so excited to share these photos:

Darlene at Precious Petals provided arrangements filled with luscious pink peonies, soft pink roses and fresh green hydrangea for the tables, beautiful feminine bouquets for the girls and more. We just love working with her, she makes it all look easy!

Conroy Catering did a great job as usual with delicious food and a friendly helpful waitstaff, not to mention one of the yummiest stations we’ve seen in a while – a hot/cold dessert bar with bananas foster and brandy peaches over ice cream!

To see more of this gorgeous day go to our Real Weddings page

As you may suspect, great pictures don’t just happen… that’s part of the reason we are so proud of our staff here at Faith West Photography.  In fact, we thought we’d share some behind the scenes shots to show what goes into making a great picture…

Brides paying attention and not being distracted by all the people ohh-ing and ahh-ing:

And check out this shot of Faith doing whatever it takes to get the shot (yep, that’s her laying on the city street!):

But that crazy looking angle gets this crazy-beautiful shot:

Simply gorgeous… and its always worth it when we see how beautiful our brides (and grooms and everyone) look on this most special of days!

Jasna Polana served the delicious and beautiful food, the Franklin & Alison Orchestra kept the dance floor full all night long, and Brittany at Petals Lane did a beautiful job, as always, with lush full floral arrangements and bouquets featuring huge pink peonies, fresh white tulips, and fluffy hydrangea.

We hope you enjoy their pictures as much as we loved being a part of Sharon and Steve’s big day!

So what’s the verdict? These spring lovelies or maybe Fall – we love this Autumn engagement session!

An emotional ceremony was lead by an old family friend at the historic Old Pine Presbyterian Church and a gorgeous reception followed at Down Town Club! We always love shooting there, so enjoy the food, and party coordinator Mary is always a joy to work with.

Beautiful flowers in shades of light pink and white – which looked fab against the rich green bridesmaid dresses – were done by our friend Brittany at Petals Lane, and John Romano of Main Line Events kept the dance floor rockin all night!

Kate looked radiant in a gown from La Bella Moda

We love love love working with the staff at Congress Hall, and weddings there are always top-notch! With the beautiful weather we’ve been having, we wanted to showcase a couple’s day that helped get us in that warmer frame of mind…

Enjoy!