Susie started off the day getting ready at The Maryland Inn in Annapolis. LOVED her dress! Also loved that there were plenty of champagne corks to do pretty ring shots on ;)

Susie and Jordan decided to do a first look so that they had plenty of time to do photos outside before the ceremony. This makes me so very happy :)

The day before the wedding I went location scouting and didn’t stop until I found the last remaining trees with beautiful fall foliage!

The groom and groomsmen are all Marines, I am so grateful to you all for your service! Also love the girl’s plum dresses, I might be biased since it was my wedding color too ;)

A dashing Marine and his beautiful bride, full of laughter :)

While we were taking photos, an adorable older couple came out of their house and gave Susie & Jordan a bottle of Processco to celebrate with. How sweet is that?!

Gorgeous couple. Gorgeous flowers.

This is my favorite of the whole day. Love is the most beautiful thing in the world.

The ceremony was held at Sacred Heart of Jesus in Baltimore, such a beautiful church.

Love this shot of Susie’s dad! I have no idea what was so funny, but I love his laugh!

Husband and Wife!!!

Susie & Jordan, it was such a pleasure to photograph your wedding day. Thank you for allowing me the honor to get to know you and to document the love you have for each other. Congratulations!!!

We started out the day at the Inn at Lambertville Station, shooting Penny’s beautiful Allure dress on a custom hanger with her new last name!

Penny is a graphic designer so naturally she designed their letter pressed wedding invitations, love them!

And check out her killer heals!

It’s great to be a bride with such creative and talented friends, one did hair and one did make-up. Both did a phenomenal job!

Enter the dashing groom, Michael!

This one on the left is my FAV from the day. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous! As is Penny’s Preston Bailey bouquet!

The groom and his groomsmen. Yes you read that right ;) I love untraditional wedding parties! She adds a bit of beauty to this motley crew, don’t you think?

Dahlia’s of Pennington did the beautiful florals for the reception. And okay, maybe this one on the right is a tie for favorite :)

I love all the Thai traditions (and clothes!) that were incorporated in the wedding. How cute are the ring bearer and flower girl?!

I think the groomsmen were in just as much awe of Penny as Michael was ;)

Caautie-patootie!

After the American ceremony there was a Thai water ceremony in which friends and family poured water over Penny and Michael’s hand and wished them well.

It was so good go back at the mill and to document Penny and Michael’s love and commitment to each other. Thank you two for allowing me the honor!

We hung out in the apartment while Penny got dressed and then we headed over to Liberty State Park. Penny had already scouted it out in advance of us getting there and it was an amazing place for photos! We could see the Statue of Liberty and the NYC skyline, but we spent most of our time in this old train station. Loved it!

I know this photo is blown out, it was a test shot and the lighting situation wasn’t working. But I love it anyway :) Penny you are gorgeous!

Skyline photo: Favorite!!!

Penny changed into her traditional Thai wedding dress and we got a few photos at a park near her house. Isn’t she lovely?

Next up, Penny & Michael’s wedding at the Prallsville Mill!

Mary and Brad, thank you for asking me to be a part of your wedding. It sounds simple but it means so much. You and your families are some of the sweetest people I have the pleasure of knowing. I was treated like one of your guests the whole weekend…and I appreciate that more than you know. I so look forward to seeing your relationship continue to grow over the years. Congratulations and all the best to you both!

At the end of the day someone commented to me that Mary and Brad’s was once of the most relaxed weddings they’d ever been to. I agreed. It started at the very beginning of the day with the guys getting ready, playing guitar, and having some laughs. Oh and the first look and well executed timeline didn’t hurt the relaxed vibe of the day either ;) Just sayin’!

My assistant photographer Kristian Thacker hung out with the guys while I was with the ladies. He got these next two shots that I love.

Mary, I’m just going to say what everyone is thinking. You’re GORGEOUS!

Mary and Brad chose to see each other before their ceremony for a first look on University of Maryland’s campus, where their romance and proposal took place. I love love love first looks!

Mary’s wedding gift to Brad, so debonair.

In case you didn’t know, Mary is adorable :)

Kristian got these shots of the father of the groom and the father of the bride getting ready for the ceremony at University of Maryland’s Memorial Chapel.

The moments before the ceremony starts are so emotional, even when you’ve already seen your groom!

The newlyweds! Thank you Kristian for the exit shot!

A sweet and simple reception…

…with a ton of fun and dancing thrown in. Love it!

You might look at this timeline and say, “I need 30 minutes to put my dress on? That’s crazy!” It may sound crazy now, but you’ll be thankful that you’ve give yourself enough time later. As a bride I thought putting on my dress would take 2 seconds. It doesn’t. You have to shimmy on undergarments and that bow that the bridal salon tied so beautifully for you during your final fitting? It’s just not working now. 10 tries, a hidden safety pin, and 15 minuets later, you’re finally ready to walk out the door. I’m speaking from experience here! I’ve cushioned the whole timeline because, things happen. The ceremony doesn’t start on time or Uncle Joe is missing and you need him in the family photo. I don’t want to be stressed and I especially don’t want you to be stressed so I’ve alloted plenty of time for everything. Planning out a good timeline is so very important. If there isn’t enough time made for photos, I will be rushed. Photography is a creative process. I want to make sure there is plenty of time so you get the beautiful creative natural light photos you deserve!

So here’s the timeline! You can shift the times based on when your ceremony starts, how long travel takes from one place to the next, and perhaps most importantly when sunset is! If you’d like me to email you this timeline, I’d be more than happy to. Unfortunately I’ve had to disable the copy paste function on my blog due to plagiarization in the past.

11:00 Bride and bridesmaids hair and makeup appointments *

2:00 Photography commences. Photograph bride continuing to get ready, groom if in same location. Details photographed. Hair and makeup touchups.

2:30 Bride puts on dress. Florist drops off bouquets and boutonnières.

3:00 First look, B&G see each other before ceremony and take photos together

3:30 Bridal Party Pictures

4:00 Immediate Family Photos

4:30 B&G are tucked away before ceremony. Photographers shoot ceremony and cocktail hour details

5:00 – 5:30 Ceremony **

5:40 Family photos

5:45 – 6:45 Cocktail hour at reception site. Photograph reception details during cocktail hour

6:45 Guests Seated, B&G Grand Entrance & First Dance

7:00 Welcome, Prayer, Dinner Served

7:45 Toasts

8:00 Dancing begins with Mother/Son & Father/Daughter Dances

9:00 Cake Cutting

9:30 Bouquet and Garter Toss

10:00 Photography Coverage Ends

Notes:

* Hair & Makeup Appointments
Getting your hair and makeup done always takes longer than you expect. Please please please trust me on this. This timeline is set up so you are starting your appointment 4 hours before we do the first look. When you’re making appointments keep in mind how many girls are in your bridal party and how many stylists will be attending to you. For my wedding I did two trials (because I didn’t like the style I chose the first time!) and the trials didn’t take nearly as long as the day of did. I went to the salon 30 minutes before it officially opened, so do what you need to do!

** Sunset
Whenever I am shooting a wedding or portrait session I refer to this sunrise & sunset calculator to know when the sun will go down: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/sunrise.html. When planning your wedding make sure you check what time sunset is. You want to make sure you have enough daylight for your ceremony, family photos, and if your cocktail hour is outside. I recommend your ceremony to start 2 hours before sunset.

And just because, a festive spring bouquet from a wedding I second shot last year that I never got around to blogging. A reminder that winter is at it’s end!

Sara & Rich

“In my opinion, there is no better way to have pictures taken for your wedding than to do a first look. The idea behind the first look is that you see your soon to be spouse before the ceremony and have photos taken of your reactions seeing each other for the first time. This is an amazing idea for a few reasons.

First, all you will want to do before the ceremony is see that person who can calm your nerves a bit. When I got to see Rich before our ceremony it was so nice to be able to talk to him about my morning so far, give him a giant hug and steal a few kisses. It really helped make me less nervous about the rest of the day. I wouldn’t have been able to do that if the first time I saw him was up at the altar.

Second, it was amazing for us to have a few private moments before the ceremony and reception. It’s a great opportunity to get some photos that are incredibly special, and that you may not take the time to get if you know everyone is waiting for you at your reception. Not to mention, our first look photos are my favorite from the whole day.

And finally, if you think that it will make walking down the isle or saying your vows any less special, I promise you it won’t. You will inevitably have lots of emotions on your wedding day… enough to spread out through the entire day! (At least that’s how it was for me) So from my experience, doing a first look really is a bonus because it adds one more special and relaxing moment to the day. I highly recommend it!!” – Sara

“Our wedding was the greatest day of our lives and we wanted to document it so we could relive it for years to come. Thinking back just 6 months ago, a lot of the day is a blur… Specifically, the first time I saw Sara in her dress. Emotions and excitement were high. So many of our favorite photos turned out to be from the first look that we did with Erica.

It was an amazing opportunity to make sure that we took the time to get the shots of just the two of us. To be completely honest, it was never a question in my mind to do the first look photos. From a practical standpoint, it makes the most sense to take the photos of us before the wedding so we can spend the most time with all of our guests afterward. Erica did a fantastic job and I am incredibly happy we decided to do the first look photos.”       – Rich

Mora & Brian

“When Erica first mentioned doing a first look at our engagement shoot I was really nervous. I thought my family would object to the lack of tradition. When we got closer to the big day and made a time line, I was really worried we would have not time to relax and enjoy the day. We really wanted our day to be focused around celebrating with our family and friends. I started asking my mother, grandmother, matron of honor and aunts what they thought about a first look, and they thought it was one of the best ideas they ever heard. So I reconsidered it and decided with Brian that we would go for it.

One of my favorite moments of our wedding day is my dad driving me to the first look. He picked me up at the hotel and stuffed me into the truck. He was so nervous, even giving me the option to keep driving. I calmly gave him directions to get me to Brian. That was my goal that day: get to my husband. And instead of being anxious about getting to him, I got to spend my whole day being with him because of the first look. There was no secrecy and running around at our wedding trying to hide the bride from everyone. The bridal party and family members got to have this separate wedding experience, running around the clubhouse taking amazing photos, eating cheese platters secretly with the flower girls and spying on the arriving guests through the secret clubhouse window.

I still got butterflies in my stomach the moment before beginning the big walk down the aisle and I still fought tears of happiness. For me, the first look gave us extra hours of our wedding day to spend together with everyone we love and took nothing away from our wedding except the need to feel rushed and anxious.” - Mora

“When I was first approached about doing a first look prior to the wedding, I had all the typical feelings, uneasy, unsure, and concerned. I felt like I would be betraying some sort of…unwritten rule of tradition. But, at the behest of Erica, I took some time to think about it. The more I thought, the more I realized, we, and those who helped finance, were spending all of this money on a big lavish party essentially for us, by us. Did I want to spend the time during the appetizers, dancing, and hilarious moments of our wedding reception taking pictures? Or did I want to minimize the amount of time that me, and my wife to be, would be taking pictures?

I went through with it, and now I can honestly say I recommend it to those grooms out there with the big question mark on the subject. It gives you a moment in your life to really take in what it means to be married. Looking back at the pictures, they weren’t fake “oh look!” moments, but genuine ‘breath taking’ moments. And, we not only shortened the picture process for us post ceremony, but also for the families and wedding party. Everyone made it to cocktail hour, and a tremendous time was had by all. A special thanks to Erica for allowing this groom to take advantage of a great new idea. Don’t worry about ruining “good” luck, go make your own luck with your new wife, from that moment on.” – Brian

Catie & Michael

Okay, I’m done with the mushy stuff now ;) Today is also a special day because two awesome sites have launched and I couldn’t wait to share!

The Urban/Anthropologie family just launched BHLDN, pronounced Beholden, and I’m in LOVE!  Not only do they have fabulous wedding dresses, they have dresses for bridesmaids or for you to wear as a wedding guest! They also have beautiful lingerie, shoes, jewelry, cover ups, and hair adornments. You don’t have to be a bride to shop here ;) I also love BHLDN because they have sized everything in typical street sizes, you receive your wedding dress straightaway (no waiting 6 months for it to come in!), and you can order multiple dresses and return the ones you don’t like – for free! Brilliant!

Fred and I aren’t quite here yet, but I can’t help but swoon over On to Baby! This site offers lovely inspiration from showers and birthday parties to nurseries and gorgeous newborn shoots. I can’t stand the cuteness! I hope this site gives you all sorts of adorable ideas for your next family shoot :)

100 Layer Cake

Green Wedding Shoes

Grey Likes Weddings

The Inspired Bride : One of my favorite things on this site is their beautiful color palates…I love love love them!

Once Wed : One of my favs, especially the used wedding dresses section, you’ll find some awesome designer dresses here!

Project Wedding : Among many other resources they offer free wedding websites to personalize.

Ruffled

Style Me Pretty : Another one of my absolute favorites! Loads of gorgeous real weddings.

Snippet & Ink

Southern Weddings

Utterly Engaged

The Wedding Chicks

Wedding JoJo : Well designed free wedding websites to personalize!