Book now... or forever hold your peace!

We have booked SEVEN weddings this week, which is a record for us. I know it's on all of our printed materials, but I wanted to put on our blog that your wedding date is NOT booked until you have signed a contract and made the retainer payment. Don't assume that your date will be available in two weeks. If you know that you want us as your wedding photographers, CALL NOW! Do not wait, do not email, do not pass go. We will hold your date for up to 72 business hours (More for our clients in Alaska and Hawaii). We get lots and lots of inquiries about the same date. The first person to sign the contract and pay the retainer gets that date and we only shoot one wedding per day. Don't drag your feet!

Your wedding images on iTunes!

We've had alot of people asking about getting the slideshows onto their iPod/iPhone and we've finally found a way to make it happen!!! First, you need to have iTunes. When you open up iTunes, go into the "Podcasts" section. At the top of the panel, go to the "Advanced" tab and down to "Subscribe to Podcast". It will ask for a URL. Type (or copy and paste) http://feeds.feedburner.com/LearyWeddings . You should see all of the available Podcasts pop up by name, just click on them and they will download right into iTunes. A few things to remember, if your show is new, it may take a few hours for it to be ready to download even though it is viewable. Also, these files are usually around 30 megs, so they will take awhile to download. I hope you enjoy and send them on to everyone you know!

Lindsay and Chad

We had a great time photographing this wedding and we got some awesome images. I knew alot of people there and I felt the pressure to do well... so read on and let me know how we did!

This is the bride and her bridesmaids. The flowers were done by Blooms in Bridgeport. I can't say enough about Blooms... very nice work and very professional, too.

Here's Lindsay's Dad when he first saw her in her wedding gown.

Getting ready to walk down the aisle...

Reverend Dorsey at the Bridgeport United Methodist Church led a great ceremony as usual.

After the ceremony, I made it my personal mission to get an image at that church that were completely different from anything I'd ever seen photographed there... the following image was the result of my efforts.

Of course, I had to do a few nice images by the stone work.

This image was captured on a real infrared sensitive camera... you can't get that soft, dreamy, organic look quite the same any other way, except for maybe film.

The reception was held at Bridgeport Country Club.

Music was provided by No Bad JuJu... an incredible eight piece ensemble band out of Pittsburgh. They were incredible! Easily the best band I've ever seen at a wedding reception.

The cake was by Almost Heaven Desserts.

Vicki and Jay

Vicki and Jay did something that no other couple I've ever had has done... instead of not seeing each other until the ceremony, they choose to see each other early in the day and get all their photos taken before the ceremony. This is a huge trend in other parts of the country, and I can see why. After the ceremony, we snapped a few images in the chapel and within a few minutes we were at the reception. So cool. Here are a few of my favorites.

Anyone wanna guess who's going to be on some of next year's advertising pieces?

They also had a ceremonial dove release provided by Gary and Pamela Cooper of Wedding Wings. Gary has been a friend of Joe's since I worked for him nearly ten years ago and he always provides beautiful releases and professional service.

Here it is... the long awaited slideshow!

Jude and Jamie

This was an awesome wedding! These are my kind of people and I wanted to deliver some amazing wedding photos. We had all the ingredients... a beautiful location (Lakeview Resort in Morgantown), a great couple, a horse and carriage and tons of emotion.

People ask me all the time what is my favorite thing to shoot at a wedding. The answer has always been the Father-Daughter/Mother-Son dances. Watch closely and you'll see why.

I can't tell you how much fun we had with these guys. Just outstanding people. I hope we we get to work with these families again in the future. (Rachel, babe... call me.) I hope you guys enjoy your photos as much as we enjoyed being there!

Choose Wisely

Choosing a wedding photographer can be an intimidating task especially in today’s world where it seems that anybody with a camera kit they purchased at Best Buy is advertising themselves as a professional photographer. For sure you don’t want to trust your once in a lifetime memories to a once in a while photographer, but how do you know the difference and how do you choose? We understand that we are not the photographers for everybody and even if we are, we may be booked on your wedding date. That being said, we have provided this tip sheet for choosing a wedding photographer even if it’s not us. We hope that you find it insightful and, more than that, we hope that it helps you to make an informed decision in selecting your wedding photographer. Just click on the tip sheet and either print it out or save it to your computer.