CHRISTA & MICHAEL

Beautiful Summer Wedding at The Atherton Hotel

The month was June, and the forecast? HOT HOT HOT! Christa and Michael’s wedding at The Atherton Hotel in State College, PA sizzled like the pavement on College Ave. This wedding venue is perfect for luxury weddings. The decor is classy and elegant. I absolutely love working with Christa and Michael! These two are no strangers to my shenanigans, the year prior we played in rush hour traffic in Pittsburgh for their engagement session! See below 😉

Christa and Michael were both getting ready at The Atherton Hotel before heading over to their ceremony at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church. One of my favorite parts of the day was shooting Christa in film. I love the look of film and I think that it has a very romantic and luxurious feel to it. This was all very fitting, these two are madly in love, and her dress was stunning and radiated romance.

Keeping in the spirit of tradition, I thought we should go downtown State College and play in traffic again! I have an old soul, and given the iconic location of the Allen Street Grill on College Ave. I thought it would be the perfect place to create my vision of a recreation of the classic Beatles cover for Abbey Road. This was my favorite part of the day. As a PSU Alumni, it is always a blessing to be able to walk around campus where I frequently carried a Starbucks coffee on my way to class.

These two have some of the most stunning photographs to date, this is 100% because they trusted me enough to plan their wedding timeline. Every couple we have that has us plan their day is always elated with their final product!

After the wedding, I got a surprise in the mail, it was a hand written thank you card from Christa and Michael with a gift card. This always moves me to receive these from our couples. However, it was a few weeks later that I received another card in the mail from them, that moved me to tears. During our time together for their engagement session, as we walked around Pittsburgh sharing stories and lots of laughter, I told them about a particular date night that my husband and I went on.

I am a foodie, and I love trying new places, so while my husband and I had a romantic weekend in Pittsburgh, we ate at The Monterrey Bay Fish Grotto on Mt. Washington. The Chilean Sea Bass was TO DIE FOR! I told Christa and Michael, you absolutely have to go, it was amazing! To my surprise, along with another long, hand written note, it was a gift card to that very restaurant, along with a note that they remember my story and how much I loved it. To this day, as I sit here typing this blog, I am in tears that someone thought of me that much to remember such a fine detail.

Words can not describe how much that meant to me, and I will forever tell that story. It is not every day I get to work with such a tender heart like that. You two are truly special to me and Aary and we are so very blessed to have captured your special day.

Thank you for everything from the bottom of my heart.