Congrats to you both, and I wish you both the very best! Pittsburgh’s Grand Hall at the Priory is an absolutely beautiful and majestic location for a wedding ceremony in reception.

Joanna was such an easy-going bride. I love that.

Some killer blues, and checking in on all of the people gathering in the garden.

Bride. Joanna. Groom. Jim.

I love this shot – it’s very ethereal.

And they’re married!

Some fun shots after the ceremony in the garden across the street.

An absolute favorite.

Love a little flare.

Get the cake. Approve the cake.

Example A: Shoes. Always shoes.

Example B: Flowers. Yes, they die, but if you have them done well, they’re an absolutely gorgeous addition to your day!

Example C: Veils. Wrap them over you, around you, up in the air, down over your shoulders, just peeking your eyes through, love, love love. You never get to wear one again, unless it’s Halloween!

Example D: The dresses. I love seeing all of the different wedding dresses and seeing how they each perfectly fit with each bride’s personality!

What’s your favorite wedding detail?

Being a trained engineer, I’m really drawn to numbers and especially my beloved statistics. I actually taught statistics while in college and find that they are actually necessary for me to keep focused on my long term goals and objectives. How so, you ask? Well, I use statistics a lot in my lead tracking. Granted, I’m not talking about over-the-top confidence interval type lead tracking. I’m talking percentages. Rates. Numbers.

Here’s a question: What are you planning on doing differently to achieve your goals? Do you have goals? Do you want more wedding bookings? Do you want to branch out into a different market sector? Are you not sure how what your doing now really ties to that? Do you want to figure it out for free?

Try this. TRACK YOUR LEADS. While I absolutely l-o-v-e my ShootQ, I also keep track of some of my leads information in a simple Excel spreadsheet. Yup, takin’ it back old school style. I list in the spreadsheet these things, in the columns:

• Type (Wedding, Engagement, Boudoir, etc)
• Name
• Meeting?
• Booked?
• Reason Not Booked
• Date of the Event
• Referral Source

By having all of that information available in my spreadsheet I easily can calculate the answers to the following questions:

• What’s my booking rate for each type of event?
• What percent of the people that I meet with do I book?
• What percent of the people I never meet with do I book?
• If they don’t book me after a meeting, why?
• What is my most popular offering?
• What % of the time am I unavailable to take a session?
• Who are my main referral sources?
• How many open leads do I currently have?

And there’s even more ways to slice-and-dice this. These are all simple statistical calculations. What’s my booking rate = (# of weddings booked)/(# of wedding inquiries). Simple. But do you know yours?

Now let’s see how you can take this one step further. So you know all of these stats. I know that statistically, my boudoir sessions don’t book at a super high rate. Why? The women are contacting me, but now why are they not converting to book? Is there a confidence issue? Do I need a better location? Am I offering in my boudoir packages what they really want? See what I did? Now I have a questionnaire that I can easily send out to get an idea of what is really wanted and turn that into a program that makes everyone happy.

And it all boils down to a percentage. Thank you, math!

If you’re interested in a template of this Excel spreadsheet, click here and then share if you love it! (Note that your version of Excel should be able to handle Pivot Tables. Most of them do, so I’m guessing you’ll be fine. Just a caveat)

We learned how to use the sky as a giant soft box, use a simple lighting setup of a small flash and umbrella, and also some indoor studio setups. I’ve just recently purchased some new gear, and thanks to Lan and Vu, I feel as though I have a good background to get started using all of it! I shot a bit on my FlipCam throughout the workshop, and here’s a fun little video I put together from the day:

Their wedding was held at the absolutely beautiful and airy All Saints Greek Orthodox Church in Canonsburg, and the reception was at The Club at Nevillewood. Always a classy choice in reception venues! Not only was their wedding just beautiful to begin with, but it was also a Greek family celebration, and the reception was vibrant and fun! There was so much dancing that at times it was hard for me not to get run over on the dance floor, but it was a wonderful time and I wish them both the absolute best.

Kristen had some awesome bling.

Helping her mom.

The bride, all ready to go!

Coming down the aisle. Shot by my second shooter, Robin.

The church was so beautiful and colorful!

Portrait session time! I love forehead kisses.

Some fun with her veil.

I don’t think you can really beat a big beautiful golf course, bright blue sky, and a bride and groom.

Nick & Kristen, and Kristen’s wonderful parents – sharing the anniversary.

LOTS of fun dancing!

Oh my goodness, this is so funny! There was the traditional Greek money dance (apologies since I don’t know if it has an official name) and this little girl was helping to pick up all of the money. Shot by Robin.

And lastly, one proud poppa.

Flowers: Blooming Dahlia
DJ: DJ Mike Greca
Ceremony: All Saints Greek Orthodox Church
Reception: The Club at Nevillewood
Caterer: The Keystone Bakery
Makeup: Larissa McLaughlin

And when I say I do not love them – it means that I love that I don’t love them. And do them anyway. Because I love my husband.

Numero Uno: There’s a lot more task lists. Seems as though once we got married the task lists doubled as well. Like some weird rule of science. I could live without that.

Number Two: “Healthy food” is not currently the majority owner of our cabinets. See said exhibit.

Number Three: I bought this loveseat when I first graduated from college and moved into my own apartment. It’s the most comfortable thing ever and I used to spend hours (literally) just laying there watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model. This seat now currently is claimed by Brad, who sits in it for hours and watches hunting shows. I would like my comfy chair back, please.

So all in all, I guess those things aren’t so bad. There’s a lot more that I truly, absolutely, undeniably love about being married, and I’ll explain more later.

PS – wedding pictures to come this week! I promise!

As I was watering our garden, she got into the hose and decided that she loved it. Amazing that even though by the end of the time she was pants-less and shivering, she still didn’t want to stop playing with the hose. It seriously was the cutest thing ever, and it’s times like that where I’m so glad I have my camera around to document all the 1 1/2 year old fun.

Sometimes she un-knowingly aimed for Aunt Lee and I had to run away!

Anytime we turned the hose off, this is what happened.

Brad putting his niece to “good use”.

Watering our garden.

She LOVED it!

Oop. Pants were gone by this point. Hello, Lydia!

One of my absolute favorites. Isn’t she darling?

My mom! Kisses from Grandma after it was time to go inside.

Oh ya, I didn’t tell y’all that she’s my new second shooter? That’s what we pay big bucks for! Kidding!

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