As a self-proclaimed shoe connoisseur I find my fancy tickled at every wedding. I love capturing the detail shots of the wedding dress, the wedding day jewelry and most of all the wedding day shoe.  Many of the Metropolitan Imageworks brides of 2009 far exceeded my shoe expectations and embraced color, style and embellishments in their shoe selections. Talk about eye candy for the visual artist!

March 21st: Maureen

May 24th: Linda (hint – look at the bottom of her shoes)

May 25th: Sabrina

June 5th: Nicole

June 6th: Hillary

July 11th: Dusty

August 15th: Eileen

September 12th: Emily

September 19th: Rebecca

December 12th: Kristi

December 31st: Elise

Thank you for letting me live vicariously through each of you (and your shoes!)

Due to my excessive shoe collecting and limited space, my husband tried to implement a rule (or compromise) that for each pair of new shoes I bring into the house I must toss out an old pair.  It pains me to do so.  Instead I have found some great hiding spaces in boxes in my closet, in the bottom of the clothes hamper and the trunk of one of the cars.

Metropolitan Imageworks associate photographers Elizabeth and Kira make a fabulous team.  They knocked another one out of the park on August 1st when photographing Lauren and Jeffrey’s wedding at the Field Museum.

View full gallery.

Ceremony & Reception: The Field Museum, Chicago, IL

Event Design: Ivan Carlson, Chicago, IL

DJ: Beep Media, Barry Phipps, Chicago, IL

Ashlea and Cody have been in love for 6 years and June 20th marked the long awaited wedding day.  Ashlea contacted me to inquire about wedding photography over year before her wedding as we had originally met at her brother’s wedding in 2006 and she knew my style was exactly what she wanted for her own wedding day. She also stuck with the same florist, Wendy with All Things Elegant, after all if you see it in process and it works, don’t change a thing!

Ashlea went with very bold colors that just popped in the bridesmaid dresses and flowers and reception decor. She even had team bridesmaids tanks for all the girls to wear during the getting ready stage.

One of our awesome Metropolitan Filmworks videographers, Kirstin, traveled quite a distance to video this wedding and we had a blast road-tripping it from the ‘burbs to Rockford to hang with the Zintl family again.  Ashlea has two more sisters so I am hoping for a three-peat and four-peat over the next few years.

There was quite a bit of talk during speeches about the need for babies and for Ashlea and Cody to begin a family, so remember guys, I am available for baby portraits anytime!

P.S. I am STILL waiting for the apple pie recipe. And for all you readers this not the pastry but an apple pie that you drink!

View the full wedding gallery and here.

Ceremony: Sacred Heart Church, Marengo

Reception: Hoffman House, Rockford

Florist: All Things Elegant, Yorkville

Video: Metropolitan Filmworks, Naperville

I must admit my initial meeting with Linda and Roger was one of the hardest meetings for me last spring.  I had my new puppy, Mater, for less then a week and I was spending an entire day away from home with meetings and portrait sessions.  Linda and Roger graciously let me ooh and ahh and show pictures of Mater on my camera phone and then told me all about their darling doggy, Mango, and his role in the wedding complete with a doggy tux!  This was meant to be!  Mango even joined us for the engagement session downtown last fall.

Sunday, May 24th opened with glorious blue skies and wonderfully warm temps. Possibly the best conditions for the outdoor ceremony planned at Klein Creek Country Club. The entire wedding party, including Mango, were getting ready at the Westin in Itasca.  Linda and Roger had a special moment alone, seeing each other for the first time in their full wedding regalia. Then Mango and the rest of the wedding party joined in for some pictures. We had to get creative and work around the golfers and some long drives at Klein Creek for the pre-ceremony photo session.

Linda’s family hails from Laos & Thailand and Roger’s family is from China, together they provided each of their families the first Americanized wedding with American wedding traditions. And of course, a photobooth, with printed snapshots as the wedding favors!

View the full gallery here.

Ceremony & Reception: Klein Creek Country Club, Winfield, IL

Wedding Coordinator:  Magnificent Milestones , Chicago, IL

Officiant: Bill Yacino, Chicago, IL

Florist: Fleurtacious Designs, Chicago, IL 312-240-9002

Cake: Amy Beck Cake Design, Chicago, IL

DJ: Spin Productions, Chicago, IL

Photobooth: Photobooth Express, Chicago, IL

East Coast. Chesapeake Bay. Ceremony on the waterfront. Late afternoon sunlight dappling through the trees. A bride and groom truly in love. Guests from across the world. This is the stuff love is made of!  Anton hails from Capetown, South Africa, as did many of his guests.  Mandy grew up in Potomac, MD.   Anton transferred to the states for work a few years ago, met Mandy, fell in love, they got married.  Now begins the happily ever after.

All of the thought and effort that went into the planning of this special day showed through.  The location, the wedding party members, the guests from both near and far, the lovely weather for the outdoor cocktails, the toasts, the dancing the night away.  Guests commented about the love and emotion Mandy and Anton showed during the ceremony. That the ceremony was very “them.” That this was not just another wedding, this was a distinctive and memorable event.

See the full gallery and slide show.

Ceremony & Reception: The Oaks Waterfront Inn, St Michael’s, MD

Florist: Seasonal Flowers, Trappe, MD

DJ: Mark Savage, Easton, MD – savage@goeaston.net

Cake: Julie Bakes, Eason, MD

Nikolina and I go way back. We worked together for almost five years in the corporate world and immediately hit it off because we have the same silly sense of humor.  I met Peter soon after they began dating and have collaborated with him on a couple of photo projects. I was so genuinely honored to be chosen to photograph their wedding day.

The weather was overcast and rain threatened throughout the day but amazingly held off at all the times we needed to be outside!  The blending of the families and cultures – Niki is Macedonian and Peter is Polish – added unique and fun elements throughout the day! And the dance floor was torn up all.night.long!

View their full wedding gallery & slide show.

Ceremony: First Church of Lombard, Lombard, IL

Officiant: Reverend Tom Brandsness, Lyons, IL

Reception: Itasca Country Club, Itasca, IL

Band: Idolsi, Chicago, IL   773.727.2097

Reception Florist: The Wedding Hive, Spring Grove, IL

I like to kick-off my Midwest wedding season by overhauling the images on the website.  I spend an entire day (or two or three) culling images from the previous wedding and portrait season and put them up on the website in all their glory.  This is my showcase. This is my work. This is my style. And whew, it’s not an easy job trying to narrow down the selections because, after all, it’s ALL fabulous work!!!  Seriously, I spent an entire afternoon going through my sent mail and copying the Teaser images I had emailed after every portrait session.  Once that was done, I opened the folder to where I had copied the images and found 350+ waiting for me.  Oops, only room for about 40-50 in the portrait gallery and from there I had to pick and choose.  No offense to any client who was replaced this round, there will be room for more new images in a few more months.

So how do you decide?  Most importantly I want to show the variety – weddings, portraits and commercial work. From there I want to show different lighting, indoor and outdoor portraits, black and white images, color images. For the wedding images I want to be sure to show action, emotion and detail. I want to show a variety of wedding images that take you through the day and also show the multitude of weddings, venues and couples I have the pleasure of photographing.

Website

Portraits

Weddings

Commercial

Happy viewing!