grooms are people too

Earlier this year I traveled to Punta Cana to shoot Julie and Bryan's beach wedding. Last night we meet up again for their Ohio reception and surprise ceremony which was performed by the Rev. Matt Zemela ( a friend of the couple who got his license online for $39.99 ). He is available for your services too! You can see him in the photobooth pics smoking a cigar. This time we were again by the water at the very cool Oakes Lodge on Chippewa Lake. I'd love to do more weddings here, there is such a laid back relaxed setting, and wonderful shooting locations.

Although the rain did not hold off, Kelly and Bill had a beautiful ceremony on Lake Erie. The couple really surprised me when they took stage for a few numbers with the band towards the end of the night. Kelly has a great voice and Bill was working the keyboard.

Taking a break from our regular Tuesday get together we gathered at Tom's house for a campfire. Before that we took the opportunity to do a little shoot of Ted and Rachel Linczak. They were great models, it's fun and challenging shooting other photographers.

Although I only met Abby and Matt a little more than 24 hours prior to their ceremony, we really clicked right away. I enjoyed the very laid back wedding and overall closeness of the entire evening. It was a real treat getting spend time with them.

Best wishes.

Andrew

Guess who is getting married tomorrow? Yes Abby and Matt will be getting married tomorrow during a intimate backyard wedding at Abby grandparents home. Rocco their dog will be in attendance too. I normally like to shoot the e-session a little sooner than one day before the wedding, but the couples is from Florida so we squeezed it in. Can't wait until the wedding.

I have so many images I want to work on but so many more I NEED to work on. I will be trying to finish a quick little slide show from the behind the scenes wedding stuff also. BTW the head of Medusa is really upside down.

Today I took a boat tour up the Bosphorus Straight to the Black Sea. This is a major shipping lane between Europe and Asia, which you can see the two continents in the picture of the bridge. The end of the line for the boat tour is an old castle where I took the class shot. Before the return I got a shave at a local barber shop. The weather was beautiful like everyday here.

So the wedding was the first wedding held in the Cesme Castle, which is a fortress from the Ottaman Empire. Everything was outdoors and the weather could not have be more perfect. This wedding had everything from fireworks, a great band, folk dances and the details go on and on. I'm so thankful to Onur and Chrissy for bringing me over the shoot their second ceremony here in Turkey.

Today was quite a mix of experiences, from the seeing a Turkish H.O.G. reunion to THe House of Mary to Ephesus, to the Cesme Castel and kabobs. With any luck we will be seeing some bride on the Harley pics soon.

A few quick shots of the incredible place I will be calling home for the next few days, the Ilica Hotel Plus some random shots from dinner. More to come from our day trip and the hotel is also hosting Izmir's H.O.G. chapter.

My first stop was in Paris on Wednesday. I met up with Theo, a high school friend who now teaches English to the French. Theo's parents were also in town visiting "Breezer". We did a walking tour and visited many of the major sites during my brief 6 hour visit.

I will catch up with Theo for a quick over night on the way back also.

I arrived in Istanbul late last night and will be headed to Izmir and Cesme today.

More images to come.

I promise I will have start smiling when I do my self portraits.