Captivating Imagery: Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer and Professional Photography Services

I’m not a Pittsburgh wedding planner, but as a photographer I do have some advice to share.  I learned a new tip from my local post office when I was mailing my Christmas cards the other day and I think it’s worth sharing, especially for anyone getting ready to send wedding invitations. The return address for cards and invitations should go on the front of any envelope at the upper left, just like it does for business mailings. This is contrary to what I was taught about how to address an envelope for friendly correspondence.

So when I went to the post office with my Christmas cards with the return addresses on the backs of the envelopes, a mail carrier told me that because the mail is sorted by machine nowadays, that it could mistake the return address on the back as the destination address and your carrier could deliver your mail right back to you. And that could be very frustrating with timely mailings. It seems odd that this could happen given that your mail carrier could just flip the envelope over and know what to do, but she told me that it has happened and is likely to happen more frequently in the future as mail carriers will be less and less likely to check individual pieces since the machine sorting has changed the way they work.

After a few quick searches online, I didn’t find anything to back this up, but I think it’s worth changing how I address any friendly correspondence in the future. I already had my Christmas cards addressed when I dropped them off and so far none of them have come back to me. I can only imagine how frustrating that might be if they did – especially since I waited until the week before Christmas to send them. Anyway, as a wedding and portrait photographer in Pittsburgh, I figured I should share this in hopes that I can save someone out there from that frustration.

‘Tis the season for engagements and if you’re hoping for a ring and you’re anything like me, you probably already have an idea of what you’d like your wedding to be like. After my husband proposed, I was checking venues for dates within a week. Now that I’ve been in the wedding photography business for a few years, I’ve seen a lot of things that have worked really well and others that haven’t. If I could go back and change something about how I planned my wedding, my biggest regret is not hiring a wedding planner, but that’s a post for another day. In the next week, I’ll be looking though weddings over the past year and compiling a list of great ideas to share. So stay tuned!

Here’s another Pittsburgh engagement session from October. It’s a popular time for on-location photography as everyone anticipates the cold of winter. I met up with this couple at Raccoon Creek State Park. They’re very outdoorsy and actually met at a park – what a random and exciting encounter that must have been!

Anyway, they brought a couple of changes of clothes to mix up the looks a bit.

This back road was a lovely setting for a slow dance.

I really love this next one and I can’t put my finger on why.

They are going to have some good looking children someday!

Well, the sun sets early in October, so we played that up with a few more shots before wrapping up the shoot.

It’s so much fun to hang out with newly engaged couples. So in love!

Back in May, I tagged along with Alex Jones, commercial photographer extraordinaire, for a Pittsburgh engagement session with Jonnie and Jim. We started out at SteelGate Studio for a few traditional portraits and then headed to Mt. Washington to catch the sunset and the downtown night sky. While Mt. Washington is one of those common hot spots for portraits of brides and grooms, it takes on a totally different feel at night. And I love it! But first, let’s take a look at some engagement photos in the studio. Not long ago, studio portraits were a standard for engaged couples—think newspaper announcements. Now, the trend is on-location photography, and while I’m a big fan of going on location, I can really appreciate the ability to create beautiful lighting in the studio. So here are a few studio portraits to start things off.

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My, my! I’m not good about keeping up with blogging about my photography while traveling. I’ve been away from Pittsburgh and eating a lot of turkey over the last week while catching up with family in Ohio, West Virginia and central Pa., so it’s been busy, but I’m getting back in the saddle now until it’s time to do it all over again for Christmas. I just love this time of year and I’m so thankful for some time well spent with family. Anyway, this post is from an engagement session in October that took place at Riverview Park and Pittsburgh’s North Shore. Katie and Dan are getting married in Uniontown in July next year, but they wanted their engagement session to take place in Pittsburgh where they’re planting some roots.

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I love photographing engaged couples and I love Mellon Park in Pittsburgh, so an engagement session at Mellon Park during the summer is something I thoroughly enjoy. On this particular morning, the fog hadn’t lifted until well after we started the session. At first, I wasn’t sure what to think about it, the fog made everything appear to be muted. But once I got to editing the photos, I found that fog can be great in setting a mood. Anyway, Rebecca and Patrick are a lovely couple to work with. Here are a few favorites from their shoot:

I love the look of this one because you really can’t tell where they are—maybe somewhere in Europe?

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