Tina & David 05.02.09

It's been a while since I've posted- shame on me!! Life has kept me busy between working and weddings and everything in between. So I'm taking the opportunity of a long, lazy Sunday to catch up. First up is Christina and David.

Ceremony: Blessed Sacrament Erie, PA
Reception: Peek'n Peak Resort Findley Lake, NY

Of course, the details! I absolutely love detail shots and many of Eric's flower, cake, and accessory shots are courtesy of yours truly (:

The Dress:



The bridesmaid's flowers:







The bride's beautiful flowers:





And of course, the shoes!! First Tina's then some of the bridesmaid's:





The beautiful bride:



The groom's not too shabby either:



The gals on the way into the church:



Tina was so excited waiting to walk down the aisle. I caught this shot of her waiting in a back room- her hands were actually shaking! I love being able to capture moments like this...



And simple moments like this...







Wow, everyone actually got off the ground at the same time!! Impressive!





The guys:





The best part of the wedding: cake and presents!!!:





Oh, I guess there's the first dance too that's pretty important:





And last but not least:



Until next time! (:
Katie

*All photos copyright of Eric Smyklo Photography 2009. We don't like stealing!*

Sara & Mitch Brennan 04.18.09

Here are some photos from Sara and Mitch's fabulous wedding. We were absolutely privileged that they chose EJS wedding to photograph their day. Not only were they a beautiful couple, they had awesome personalities and their friends and families were so fun and welcoming. The photos definitely speak a thousand words and I can't think of a better way to kick off the wedding season.

Church: St. Patrick's Erie, PA
Reception: Ambassador Hotel Erie, PA


Sara's shoes which actually looked rather comfortable!







The beautiful bride reading a letter from Mitch:



As you'll see from the next few photos, it was quite emotional! She had one of the girls read the letter out loud and tears were flowing! I even got teary-eyed.



If you look close, I actually caught a tear falling on Mitch's sister's cheek!









One of my favorites:





Love silhouettes!



Some sweet detail shots:













It was a little windy outside during the receiving line, but it made for cute candids (:



We try to make formals sexy (;



On the way to location number one:






A whole bunch of sassiness!



Location number 2:



Eric always has me photograph the guys for some reason, but I always manage to make them look pretty bad ass:



How stunning is Sara?!



Cake details:





I absolutely LOVE how happy couples are during their first dance together. There is something so timeless and intimate about their expressions. I often wonder what they're chatting about to each other during it. Sara and Mitch are definitely head over heels for each other...



And last but not least, their kiss after cutting the cake. You can see Eric in the photo too (;



Until next time!
Katie (:

*All photos copyright of Eric Smyklo Photography 2009. We don't like stealing!*

Numero Uno- Random Ranting

So I'm going to start this off by saying I have no idea what to say. I know what I want to write about, but I'm not very good at putting down on "paper". This is probably like the fourth attempt at writing my first blog post so I'm just going to go with it because eventually I'm just going to give up and shut my laptop off! This isn't exactly my "first" post, I've had stuff on here before but for some reason I felt the need to delete it and I did just that. Then Eric deleted my link off of his blog/website and I got a little upset about that. But then that makes sense since I don't post. So that's where I'm at: trying to prove Eric wrong. I can and will become a regular "blogger".

Right now I'm sitting at Panera, across from Eric in a room full of some quiet and not-so-quiet conversations. And downloading some new Podcasts which has become my new "thing". And I'm drinking a Mango Smoothie which I must say is da bomb. Apparently someone here is playing Warcraft because the internet is as slow as molasses tonight. I was supposed to be helping Eric edit some photos, but we discoverd that Photoshop was never re-installed on my laptop after the second time my whole computer crashed and we had to re-start it literally from the very beginning. Gotta love Windows Vista! I'm actually secretly dying to try a Mac, but for now I guess "I'm a PC" as the commercials go.

So, getting to the point of this blog. I'm pretty much going to write about life, share blogs/websites I find interesting (I look at A LOT of blogs), share wedding photos I've shot, share wedding tips I think would be useful, and whatever else tickles my fancy. No, I'm not married but being a wedding photographer's assistant and shooting some of my own from time-to-time, I have come to know and learn a lot of what-nots when it comes to that sacred day. But, a wedding for me is definitely a possibility in the future. Hopefully.
And one more thing in case you were wondering: the name of my blog is the title of a song by an absolutely amazing, talented singer named Matt Nathanson. I figured if I'm using his song title for my blog's title then I need to include that somewhere.

Anyway, getting started, here's a little background information on me. My name is Katie. My birthday is June 20 so that makes me 20-something years old. I'm a Gemini in every sense of the sign (if you believe in Astrology which I happen to). I was born and raised in good old Erie, Pennsylvania (I still have to pause to make sure I spell that right!) and moved away to Richmond, Virginia for a few years only to move back to Erie in August of 2006. (That's a long, long story and I will save it for its own post.) I love Erie. In my opinion there is nowhere else like it. You can agree or disagree, but there is just something about this place that is amazing. I live with my boyfriend (and locally uber-famous wedding photographer) Eric and our adorable Pit Bull Zeke. I work full-time (plus more sometimes) for a door and hardware distributor and since this is public I'll limit what I say about that! I also help Eric out with his business- shooting, editing, and more recently bookeeping. It would be great to be able to pursue it full-time, but logically it just won't work. Plus I think you have to be a special kind of person to be self-employed. Very disciplined, which I am not. As much as I complain about having someone stand over my shoulder and scold me when I'm doing something wrong, I almost think I need that to be productive. Everyone's different I guess. I have a family (besides Eric and Zeke) that consists of my mom and dad and an older sister and the coolest nephew ever. Words can't even describe how awesome it is to live only 5 minutes away from them after living 8 hours away from them for long and during some of the hardest times of my life.

So, that's me in a nutshell. And with that I'm going to end this first post of mine, only to hopefully follow it up with something else tomorrow. I might post a photo or two, I might tell a story, or I might just talk about myself some more!! Who knows! I guess that's the beauty of the blogosphere- you never know what you're going to read.