When Larissa and Anthony approached me to photograph their wedding I couldn’t help but be enamored with the idea of photographing my first Coptic Orthodox wedding. Having been raised in the Greek Orthodox Church, I spent many afternoons watching friends and relatives get married in traditional Greek ceremonies. The crowns, the chanting, the incense—it’s an incredibly beautiful and moving ceremony that isn’t often replicated in other religions.

Photographing Larissa and Anthony’s wedding was so surreal. Through my lens, I got to see a wedding that was so much like the Greek nuptials I was accustomed to, but with just enough differences to make it exciting and new. The service was performed in Arabic, but peppered with Greek verses and hymns. Unlike the Greek ceremony, Anthony and Larissa were adorned in the priest’s own cloak and garb and the crowns placed on the couples’ heads were the fancy ones that belonged to the church. Larissa and Anthony looked like a king and queen in the priests’ attire and the two smiled endlessly during the course of the ceremony.

The reception took place at Nanina’s in the Park, a gorgeous wedding hall located in Belleville, NJ—a stones throw from our home base in Bloomfield. Blaire Reinhard and her band of merry rockers kept the tunes flowing as friends and family celebrated Larissa and Anthony’s big day. Another first for me: I got to photograph my first belly dancer performance. Just after dinner, the floor cleared for a mesmerizing performance teeming with swords, scarves, and PG debauchery. Before the performance, Larissa and Anthony made it clear to me that they wouldn’t be partaking in the show, but five minutes in and the two were dancing and laughing it up as friends and family were caught in the excitement. Larissa’s smile never faded as Anthony swept her into his arms for the first time as man and wife. It was truly a sight to behold, and I am so happy for the two of them. This was a wedding that none of us were going to forget any time soon. Below are a few of my favorite images from the wedding.

VENDORS

Band
Blaire Reinhard Band
www.blaireband.com

Flowers
Katarina Florist & Gift
Hackettstown NJ
www.katarinaflorist.com

Hair & Makeup
Pink Comb Salon
Nutley, NJ
www.pinkcombsalon.com

Cake
A Little Cake
Park Ridge, NJ
www.alittlecake.com

Reception Hall
Nanina’s in the Park
Belleville, NJ
www.naninasinthepark.com

Ceremony
St. Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church
East Brunswick, NJ
www.saint-mary.net

The image was photographed mid-reception and I had no idea it was going to take place. At one point, I heard one of the groomsmen yell, “Throw him in the air,” and I just thought they were going to lift Firas up and mount him in their shoulders or something. Instead a group of family and friends created a makeshift human stretcher, laid him down on it, and proceeded to throw him in the air, gaining more height as he went up and down. I really thought he was either going to hit the ceiling or they were going to drop him.

I only had a second to make the photo and I wasn’t paying attention to settings or framing. I literally stuck my eye in the viewfinder and clicked the shutter in one fell swoop. I’m so happy that it actually came out in focus and the framing of his body below the the mural and above the wall. I couldn’t have asked for a better angle. Luckily, Firas made it down in one piece and I was left with a photo worthy of Moment Junkie.

For a photographer, few things are as cool as getting a wedding album in the mail. Without sounding egotistical, seeing my work on huge 12×12-inch pages, perfectly color corrected, and in vivid colors and contrasty black and whites makes me swoon just a tiny bit. Last Friday, I got my first metal album sent to me from Graphistudio featuring the company’s new ultra-rigged paper. This book is massive, weighing in at about 10-pounds, and it looks absolutely luxurious. We delivered the album to Brittany and Steve on Sunday afternoon over a sweet lunch at the Lighthorse Tavern in Jersey City. I seriously almost knocked over a plate of french toast trying to clear some room for Brittany to view her album. Seeing her face light up as she relived her wedding was worth every minute it took to design the album. When I got home Brittany sent us one of the most touching letters I’ve ever received from a client:

G,

It was so wonderful seeing you and Allison today. You guys are truly two people who make the world a better place; Steve and I are blessed to call you friends. Thanks again for creating one of your greatest masterpieces to date: our wedding album. We will forever cherish it. It’s absolutely, positively stunning!

Britt & Steve

It’s days like these that make me stop and realize just how amazing my job is. Thank you Britt & Steve for making my life more fun, exciting, and fulfilling. Here’s a look at the rest of their album.

With all that said, last Summer I worked with a video duo that blew me away both with their professionalism and creativity. Jim and Amy of Abominable Productions took a soggy wedding afternoon and turned it into a cinematic masterpiece that they were able to edit overnight and show on the big screen the following day for the reception. The two were never in my way, helped me move my gear during a flash monsoon, and truly captured the magic of the day in a way that complimented my photography rather than competed with it. A few days ago, I sat down with Amy to find out what makes a great wedding film.

Tell me a little about Abominable Productions. Why did you decide to make wedding films? What’s your background?
Jim and I started collaborating in college where we were studying video production and art respectively. Shortly thereafter we formed  and filmed mostly dance and theatrical productions. We got part-time jobs editing weddings for large cookie-cutter companies, which did not satisfy us creatively. It was then that we realized there was a need for stylish, well-produced wedding films.

What is it about videography that inspired you to do this professionally?
We just wanted to make really great stories through the medium of video/film. Filming weddings gave us that outlet while allowing us to be innovative and artistic as well.

What makes for a great wedding video?
We feel that a great wedding film is one that not only looks and sounds exceptional, but one that captures real and authentic moments. It focuses on everything from the important events to the smallest details. It’s one that captures and showcases the personality of the bride & groom without fitting them in to a formulaic video.

What differentiates a traditional wedding video from more modern cinema-style videography?
Traditional wedding videography is usually just a straight-forward documentation of your wedding day and it’s focus is typically just on the important events. The intention of cinema-style videography is to draw you in and make you feel like you were a part of the day—even if you weren’t there. Cinema-style videography uses all the tools and techniques used in a Hollywood film, just on a much smaller scale. Even though cinema-style wedding films are shorter than traditional style videos, their creativity, content and stortytelling can leave a more lasting impact.

Why should a couple consider hiring a videographer for their wedding?
Because once a moment is gone, it’s gone. You’ll never be able to hear your vows again or relive your maid of honor’s toast—unless you have it on film.

Finally, what advice do you have for couples looking for a videographer?
Don’t choose a videographer without seeing samples first.  Sure the samples should look great, but make sure to pay strong attention to the audio because that’s what is going to drive the film. Are the vows and toasts clear? Are they used in a way that helps tell the story? You want to hear ambient audio as well. For example, when you see people laughing, you should hear it too. These are some of the components that make a great wedding film. Here’s what she had to say.

Click here to find out more about Abominable Productions

Krista + Chris (Instant Edit) from Abominable Productions on Vimeo.

GLK Creative does not receive kickbacks or incentives from preferred vendors. We plug these guys because we love their work and think they are awesome.

I think it might be my roots as a magazine editor, but I love the wedding album design process. There’s just something awesome about taking an assortment of digital files and organizing them in a way that creates a true story of the wedding day. I’m also a firm believer in the printed image. To me, a photograph is just binary code until it’s physically printed on paper. The wedding album is a culmination of the entire wedding process, and a final testament and heirloom for the bride and groom to pass on to future generations.

The key to a stress-free design process is workflow. Within two months of a wedding, I post all the proofs on a website that allows the couple to “favorite” the images they want for the album. They can always see thumbnails of all the selections and add or subtract photos accordingly. I can access a list of the images from the backend and then pull the photos from Lightroom.

Every image earmarked for a wedding album is touched up, color corrected, and sharpened for print. I begin designing the album using Fundy’s fantastic Album Builder program in Photoshop CS5. I know some photographers prefer to pre-visualize an album and sort photos by spread beforehand. But I’m just not hardwired that way. I organize the files by the timeline of the wedding and then put them together like a jigsaw puzzle. I think my style is more like a tattoo artist free handing a design rather than stenciling it on the body first.

I also believe in a clean, minimalist approach to layout. My pages focus primarily on the photos and I avoid any cheesy backgrounds, borders, or gimmicky Photoshop designs (remember the portraits in the wine glass photos from the ’70s?)

Once the album is designed, I upload it to Fundy’s Album Proofer or AlbumExposure (depending on the album company I’m using), and e-mail the client a link to their proofs. Clients can then suggest changes, approve the album, or share it with friends. Once approved, I send the files to my album company to print and bind the final product.

In this case, Don and his groomsmen called me to come to the hotel after they were already dressed. We headed down to the bar and I just told them to hang out. None of them took their eyes off of me. So I told them to all to start making fun of Don and see how he reacts. They happily obliged, and I got to photograph this magic moment in which everyone has a truly natural expression. Some might say I posed them, but I like to think of myself more as the director of a movie in which I don’t know the outcome. Either way, I love this photo.

A few years back, I was approached by a couple that wanted to have a photobooth at their wedding, but didn’t want to pay thousands of dollars to rent a traditional booth like the ones you find on the boardwalk or in malls. After a little bit of brainstorming, we decided to create our own hybrid photobooth/portrait studio that is portable, takes up less room than the big boxy booths, and it let’s me cram way more friends into every shot. Over the past three years this studio-on-the-go has become one of the most popular add-on products in the GLK Creative Collection.

The Sales Pitch: Bigger than a photo booth and way more fun, our photo studio is a hit at any wedding reception. We set up a backdrop (you pick one of six colors) and lights, and you provide the props. For four hours, we photograph your guests in some of the most hilarious poses. One week after the wedding, we contact your guests with a web link where they can download a high res copy of their photo for free. The bride and groom also get a copy of all photo studio photos with their final DVD collection. These photos make fabulous thank you gifts and can be dropped into most thank you cards.

The Gear: The photo studio has been through a few iterations over the years, but its current incarnation is built around an Alien Bee ABR-800 ring light mounted to a Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tripod with a Manfrotto 701HDV Pro Fluid Video Mini Head. I tried using a regular ball head, but it became too unruly. The Alien Bee has a Paul C. Buff moon unit to help diffuse the light, and a Nikon D90 sits inside the lighting rig. The backdrop is a Savage system with one of Westcott’s Modern Vintage backdrops hanging from the crossbar. Allison runs the photo studio, so there’s no chance of any out of focus photos. Not to mention, she makes a pretty hot photobooth babe. Check out some of my favorite shots from the GLK Creative Photo Booth.

Do you want to see each other before the wedding?

I ask a ton of questions during the initial client consultation, but few  generate such mixed emotions as the decision to see each other before it’s time to walk down the aisle. According to a tradition, the bride is supposed to be in seclusion before the wedding in order to build anticipation, which somehow keeps the groom from getting cold feet (or something like that).

With so many couples living together before they get married that tradition has slowly waned. I get plenty of couples that want to have their portraits taken before the ceremony, but they also want to capture some of the magic involved in seeing each other in their wedding outfits for the very first time. In that case, I often suggest a First Look. The first look is when the couple see each other for a few minutes before the ceremony, without any friends and family hovering about. The first look can involve a kiss, a smile, a huge hug, and a lot of love. All that matters is that all the day’s stress is gone, and the couple can share a special moment.

Personally, I do not have a strong preference as to whether the couple see each other before the wedding or not. As long as I have enough time (usually about an hour) and the light is good, I’m perfectly happy to wait until after the ceremony to photograph formal portraits of the family and bridal party, and create romantic photos of the bride and groom. The first look is simply an option that should be considered, and I’m perfectly happy to set it up during your wedding. Here are some of my favorite first look photos from the past few years.

My final wedding of 2011 was at the lovely Glen Ridge Country Club, just a stones throw from our home in Bloomfield. Nicole and David were recommended to me by Nicole’s sister (one of my old colleagues in the newspaper business) and she was so excited to have me photograph her family. The only challenge was that the couple lives in Virginia and were trying to book a New Jersey wedding from afar. “Don’t worry,” I said. “That’s why they invented Skype.”

The wedding was a wonderful late-Fall affair. The weather was crisp, but warm enough for portraits, and the ceremony was conducted by the fireplace in the country club’s charming inner hall. The two shared their vows in front of the mayor of Glen Ridge and an audience for their closest family members. The reception was simple yet exquisite. Nicole and David chose to have a traditional sit-down dinner, and so as not to ignore the dozen or so children in attendance, the kids’ table took center stage. Balloon animals, board games, candy – the reception was a five-year-old’s dream come true.

We capped off the day with a portrait session on the golf course, dodging golf balls and carts. As the sunset on Glen Ridge, it was hard not to notice the love in the couple’s eyes as they kissed and giggled through my crazy portraits suggestions. Thank you, Nicole and David, for inviting me to document your wedding. I couldn’t have asked for a better end to an amazing wedding season.

VENDORS

Ceremony/Reception: Glen Ridge Country Club
Glen Ridge, NJ

Florist: A New Leaf
South Orange, NJ

Hair/Make-up: Bangz
Montclair, NJ