Captivating Imagery: Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer and Professional Photography Services

Have you heard of the new University Center in Oakland?  Ok, this isn’t an ad, but this beautiful new venue prompted me to post a Oakland venue review as part of my Bride’s Guide.  Oakland is a popular setting for many Pittsburgh weddings, with the surrounding college campuses, beautiful churches and parks.  For a long time, this college town was more limited in reception venues, but the University Club is definitely a stand-out in my opinion.  I photographed a corporate event there in the fall.  However, I don’t have any photos that really show the beauty of this venue, because my assignment was mainly what we photographers call “grip and grins” or informal group shots of guests at the event.  So you’ll have to check out their site to get a sense of what this place looks like.

It seems that lots of brides and grooms nowadays are planning for their ceremony and reception to be close-by to save time in their busy day and also to keep it simpler for guests.

Now there are a lot of gorgeous churches in this neighborhood: Heinz Chapel (photographed above), St. Paul’s Cathedral, Bellefield Presbyterian Church, just to name a few.  Other reception venues include: The Twentieth Century Club, the Concordia Club, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, or St. Nick’s Cathedral Room, as well as the local hotels.  These venues have the catering covered from linens through glassware.  Other unique venues include Soilders and Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, Carnegie Museum or Carnegie Music Hall, and Phipps Conservatory.  These venues might require more planning, for instance, renting chairs and collaborating with outside caterers, etc.

Whew!  There are more Oakland reception venues than I thought.  And that’s just off the top of my head from my experience in photographing events at these locations.

One last consideration if you’re planning for an Oakland wedding: there are plenty of great locations for the photography within walking distance.  Can you tell I’m a fan of Oakland weddings?  Check out a few of the great Oakland locations in the photos below.

I visited the Church of the Assumption in Bellevue, Pa., on Saturday and was amazed by the beauty of this Roman Catholic church.  It’s easy to see from the church’s exterior that it is a beautiful church, but I did not realize how breath-taking it really is until stepping inside.  

Bellevue Christian Church is a non-denominational community of believers with a heart for outreach.  The church recently started an annual turkey give-a-way in which hundreds of frozen turkeys are given away several days prior to Thanksgiving.  They do this with “no strings attached” as a way of reaching out to the local community and demonstrating Jesus’ love.  That is just one of the many efforts of the church.  It also owns and operates The Shepherd’s Door, a book and gift store that sells Catholic and Protestant items and donates 5 percent of sales to a local organization each month.  The store also offers a meeting room for use by organizations and groups that align with the mission of the church.

Here are a few photos of the church’s interior.  The church recently renovated its sanctuary and fellowship room with a blend of traditional and contemporary decor.  The beautiful stained glass window and mosaic mirrored cross are uniquely modern elements compared to some of the other church interiors I’ve photographed for this project.  

I went to First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh on my lunch hour today and the sanctuary was completely empty.  I felt like I was all alone except that I could hear a faint buzz of activity in the church’s large cafeteria below.  Two things struck me about this church: it has gorgeous woodwork and a massive organ.  The sanctuary is completely symmetrical, other than the pulpit to the right of the altar.  Something about this church made me feel like I could have been far away from home.  Maybe it was the solitude that made me feel that way.  Regardless, the church is very beautiful and I can’t imagine what it would cost to build such a structure today.  It’s truly a work of art and an act of worship to create such a beautiful church.  First Presbyterian is adjacent to Trinity Cathedral and across the street from The Duquesne Club on Sixth Avenue downtown and a sandwich board on the sidewalk in front of the church advertises daily lunch specials as “the best kept secret in the ‘burgh.”

First Presbyterian sanctuary

Organ at the back of the sanctuary

Stone sign at the wall along the sidewalk

The church exterior is made of beautiful stone and accented with gothic lanterns.

A gargoyle and drainage pipe.

On Wednesday, I visited St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, the one off of Route 28 in Millvale, Pa.  This will likely be the most unusual of entries for my project, The Churches of Pittsburgh.  Just look at some of the photos from this shoot and I’m sure you’ll agree.  I photographed each of the murals before a crowd of students arrived for a tour.  The tour guide, Mary, met me there early and was very gracious to accommodate me.  She is a life-long member of the church and will tell you that her mother was the first child to be baptized there.  She is a veteran tour guide and takes her role seriously.  Mary dimmed the lights because she uses two large spotlights to emphasize talking points during the tour and, she added, “because it’s a more dramatic presentation.”  I used a wide-angle lens on a tripod before the tour and a telephoto lens during it to capture some of the detail I overheard as Mary guided the group from one mural to the next.  You could see all the murals from the center of the moderately sized sanctuary. 

Artist Maxo Vanka was a Croatian immigrant who completed the first set of murals in 1937.  The tempera paintings portray iconic scenes of the Croatian Catholic faith with social commentary on war, society and life in general for immigrants at that time. 

What blows my mind is the fact that Vanka was an atheist.  I can’t imagine clergy commissioning an artist who doesn’t share the faith of the church.  Anyhow, that’s my very small thought in this great, big world.  The murals have been around a lot longer than I have and still attract tourists and regulars for mass.  It just didn’t feel like an atmosphere that inspired me to worship.

Mary, our tour guide, pointed out that Vanka painted Mary, the blessed mother, with “peasant hands.” I am thoroughly confused about why Mary is at the center of most sacred art.  Yes, she is the mother of our savior by virgin birth, but my understanding holds Jesus to be at the center of everything.  And why pray to Mary when we can go directly to God?  The script above the altar reads, “Mary, queen of Croations, pray for us.”