How to Choose Outfits for Your Engagement Session

You're engaged - congratulations!!! Now comes the next step - engagement photos! One of the most frequently asked questions I receive as a Pittsburgh engagement photographer is: what should I wear for my engagement photos? While there's no cookie-cutter answer (because style varies from couple to couple), here are a couple of suggestions for choosing the best engagement session outfits to represent yours and your husband-to-be's personalities!

1. Choose something you feel comfortable in!

Comfort is key while having your engagement photos taken. Being comfortable in your clothes will translate to comfort in front of the camera!

2. Don’t be afraid to go for something a little upscale!

It’s not often you and your husband-to-be have your photos taken, so dressing up can be a fun way to celebrate the occasion! One of my favorite options to recommend for dressy clothing (without having to buy something to expensive) is Rent the Runway. They have dresses of all styles that can be rented for just a fraction of the purchasing price!

3. Don’t be afraid to accessorize.

For brides – adding a scarf, necklace, or hat can be a great way to add some additional visual interest! For grooms – bowties, ties, watches, and pocket squares can do the same! For the photo below, Becca wore a statement necklace and an adorable pair of red shoes that are complimentary to Dave's bowtie and checkered shirt! Their outfits were some of my favorites to date because of the thoughtfulness they put into using such a variety of accessories and colors!

4. Coordinate colors, but don’t match.

It’s important to balance each other out. In the photo below, Jeff and Trina are wearing similar colors (navy) but have some tans, light blues, and pinks thrown in the mix to balance them out! (The photo above is also a great example of color coordination!)

5. Pick something that represents YOU!

Whatever you wear, don’t forget to throw your own style flare into your photos. This could mean wearing an outfit from your favorite designer, purchasing a dress from your favorite store, or incorporating a hobby/career theme into your session! Trina and Jeff, shown below, incorporated Jeff's long-time love of firefighting into his photos.

Angela + Ajay: LeMont Restaurant Wedding Photographer

Angela and Ajay's elegant romantic blush wedding day was full of love, laughter, and true joy! While Angela and Ajay currently reside in New York, they came back to Pittsburgh to celebrate their love of a lifetime, surrounded by friends and family.

Before the ceremony, Angela and Ajay shared an intimate first look in a little city garden that was bursting with color! After, we joined up with the bridal party and did a couple of "traffic stopping" shots (you'll see what I mean ;) ) and celebrated with a champagne toast. At their ceremony, Angela and Ajay read heartfelt vows that hardly left a dry eye in the crowd (including mine!), with the Pittsburgh city skyline as the perfect backdrop. One of my favorite parts of their wedding day was when the crowd clapped as each family and bridal party member made their way down the aisle. If that doesn't give you an idea of how joy-filled and celebratory their day was, I don't know what will! Later, the two danced the night away (and let me tell you, these two love to dance!), incorporating some Italian songs as a nod to Angela's Italian heritage, closing out the night with a sparkler exit. Need I say more?

Angela and Ajay, you two are a joy to be around, and your love for each other (and for those around you) is infectious! Congratulations on tying the knot - here's to many more years of celebration!

Why Should I Have My Senior Photos Taken?

“A senior session gives every girl the ability to appreciate who they are and how beautiful they are - inside and out.”

If you've followed me for any length of time on Facebook or Instagram (or here, on the blog!), you've probably seen my love for weddings, but something you may not necessarily know about me is my absolute love for photographing high school seniors! I truly believe that every teenage girl (and woman, for that matter!) should have the opportunity to feel comfortable, confident, and beautiful in front of the camera! We live in a world that's overrun by the media telling us who we should be, how we should act, and what we should look like - but a senior session gives every girl the ability to appreciate who they are and how beautiful they are - inside and out. So if you're a senior who wants the opportunity to celebrate who you are and the unique beauty that you have - or if you're a girl who just needs to be reminded of the beauty that already lives inside of you - a senior session is for you! Check out my senior gallery (under "Galleries" in the navigation above) for more samples of my senior work, and use the "Contact" tab above to request more information!

Shawna W: Hartwood Acres Senior Photographer

 I've photographed quite a few seniors at Hartwood Acres Mansion, but the light at Hartwood the evening of Shawna's senior session was quite possibly the most beautiful I've ever seen it! Shawna's outgoing, upbeat, easy-to-talk-to personality made her such a joy to photograph from start to finish. Congratulations on your last year of school, Shawna - you're going to do great things!

Why We Need to Support Marriage

I love wedding day toasts. Typically, by the time the wedding day rolls around, I've gotten to know my couple fairly well, but listening in to toasts by the father of the bride, best man, and maid of honor always leave me with an expanded perspective of who a couple really is. 

One of my favorite toasts ever was given by a father of the bride at one of my weddings a few years ago. He talked a lot about the couple, about their relationship together, about his love for his daughter - and then he took a spin on the typical "father of the bride" speech and started talking directly to the people in the room. He challenged them to love on this couple long after the wedding day. To check in on them, and to find ways to support them in their marriage. He noted something in that moment that everyone already knew, but that he said anyways: marriage is tough. And often times, even in marriage, it feels as though we're living in isolation. We unintentionally isolate ourselves from other people and try to fix the broken pieces of ourselves all on our own, but in reality, we need to be supporting and uplifting each other, not just on the wedding day, but years and years after.

So today, I want to put a little challenge out on this little corner of the web: send a married friend a little love today. Write them a note. Or send them a message. Or show up in their lives somehow - today, tomorrow, next week - and show your support of their marriage. We have enough marriage-bashing jokes going around. What if we started to change our perceptions and words towards marriage to reflect the good instead of the bad?

Easy Desktop Project File Organization

Whether you're a copywriter, blogger, videographer, photographer, graphic designer, or web designer, staying organized as a creative with a gazillion projects floating around can be a challenge, and knowing where you are in each project at any given time can be even more of a challenge. 

Towards the beginning of my photography business, I was booking, culling, editing, exporting, backing up, and packaging up sessions without a true rhyme, reason, or rhythm to my madness. One session would be in the editing phase, another couple in the exporting phase, a few others in the packaging stage, and for the life of me, I couldn't remember which one was in what step! After a few days of researching, I finally came up with a system that worked for me: a visual way to organize my laptop desktop where my "open" session files could be accessed easily at any time:

I broke my process down into 5 easy stages/action steps: working files (including culling, editing, an exporting), put in a gallery (I use and love the PASS gallery system), burn to USB (love my Flashbay drives!), back up to hard drive (or, in my case, since I'm extremely paranoid, to TWO hard drives), and finished files, which means the files can be discarded from my laptop safely. Then, once I exported the Photoshop file as a JPEG, I set the JPEG as my desktop and organized my projects into each category. Using these five stages, I know where every single one of my active sessions is at any given time in the process.

I'm sure there are much more intricate programs, software, and apps that can do this exact same thing - but this easy to implement system has been my go-to for the last 4 years and was an easy way for me to get organized and change the way I work. If you're interested in trying out this easy desktop organization system, click here to download your free PSD desktop organization template! Customize your categories, add a photo, export the file as a JPEG, set it as your desktop screensaver - and voila! You're ready to start organizing!

The E Family: North Park Family Photographer

This superhero, goldfish loving family did an amazing job at their North Park session! We had the perfect April day in the 60's - which was exciting for these five, who usually get their family photo taken during winter! And, fun fact - it was Nathaniel's (the youngest) birthday the day of their session! Thanks to this sweet family for adventuring through muddy grounds to get to these perfectly lit spots!

Abbie Rose: Pittsburgh Newborn Photographer

One of my favorite parts about being a wedding photographer is following up with my couples after the wedding and seeing their families grow. Jen and Larry tied the knot last May and had their first child this month! This beautiful baby girl was just 5 days old when we took these photos, and she did an amazing job. Congratulations, Jen and Larry!

Rachel + Brian: White Barn Wedding Photographers

A few weeks ago, I drove up to the White Barn to scout out the area for potential photo ops for Rachel and Brian's wedding - it was my first time visiting since my wedding day at the very same venue on August 14, 2015. The memories instantly began flooding back - the joy of marrying my best friend, the excitement of having all of my friends and family together in one place, the adventure of marriage waiting right around the corner. I really couldn't have planned it any more perfectly myself - my heart needed those reminders heading into this wedding season. Much like how brides can get swept up in the details of their day, wedding photographers can get swept up in a sea of focusing on the pretty details and Instagram-worthy photos instead of focusing on what's really important - the couple, the marriage, and the precious job we have of coming alongside them on the first day of the rest of their lives together. That is what it's really all about (but yes, of course I still love the pretty details and beautiful photo ops!)

Rachel and Brian's day was the perfect March day. The warm weather, soft light, and no rain (always a plus in Pittsburgh) made for a beautiful day. There were so many personal details that made their day personal to their own journey - I just have to share a couple of my favorites:

During the ceremony, Pastor Scott read heartfelt notes that Rachel and Brian had written to each of their parents. I had never seen (or heard) this done before at a wedding ceremony, and I thought it was a beautiful way to bring the event full circle. Not to mention, there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.

During the reception, Rachel and her dad danced to "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman - well, they didn't just dance to it, but acted out the story line (give it a listen, you'll see what I mean!). The song ended with dad waving, walking off the dance floor, and Rachel hugging her new husband (which led to some serious tears behind my camera, I'm not ashamed to say it!).

All in all, Rachel and Brian's day was beautiful, relaxed, and full of so much love. I was so honored to be a part of it! Congratulations again to Rachel and Brian!

Vendors:

Ceremony & Reception Venue: The White Barn (Prospect, PA)

Bride's Dress: This Magic Moment Bridal Studio

Alterations: Skye Douglass-Casey

Florist: Darlington Flower Company

Cake: Autumn's Cakes

DJ: DJ Machine

Photographer: Jenna Hidinger Photography

Amanda + Jeff: McConnell's Mill Baby Announcement!

One of the main reasons why I love being a photographer is the opportunity I have to document a moment in time - a split second emotional response. Many of these types of moments that I have the privilege of photographing happen at weddings - the groom seeing his bride for the first time, the mother of the groom tearing up in the front row at the ceremony, the first dances, and many more. But this blog post has a different kind of moment - one that I've never photographed before!

Amanda and Jeff met in college and have been together for fourteen years, and married for the last few. They recently found out that they were pregnant with their first child and wanted to capture their pure reactions when they found out the gender of their baby! They brought both blue and pink items for the session, handed me an envelope, and had me paint each of their hands with either blue paint (for a boy) or pink paint (for a girl). So technically, I knew the gender of their baby before them - so fun!! To their sweet surprise, once they lifted each of their hands from Amanda's tummy, they found out that they were going to be the parents of a little boy! Congratulations to these two wonderful people - you are going to make amazing parents!