Sindia & Dave – St Johns Church/Allentown Brewworks – 7.11.09

Sindia & Dave got married back in July of last year. Yes, that is how far behind I am on blogging which is sort of a good thing because it is due to spending most of my weekends shooting instead. Their ceremony was at the beautiful St John’s Lutheran Church in Allentown which was built in the 1930’s. They had their reception at the Allentown Brew Works which is right across the street from the PPL building.

The girls got ready at Sindia and Dave’s apartment which ended up being close quarters for a bride, 7 bridesmaids and a flower girl as well as a variety of family members that stopped by to join in on getting Sindia ready for her big day but they made it work.

I was able to sneak Sindia outside for some bridal shots which is usually a greatly welcomed break from all of the chaos going on inside. Being in the middle of an apartment complex we had to get a little creative on the cropping but thankfully they had a little patch of grass with some nice landscaping for us to use.

Here are some shots of the bridal party members…

Once everyone was ready we headed off to the church in downtown Allentown.

Many churches have the organ up in a balcony where you can’t see it so I was quite pleased this one was on the main level. I had no idea they had so many keys and knobs.

Sindia’s dad walked her up the long aisle to meet Dave at the front.

I typically like to get a lot closer for the ceremonies but we were asked to pick a spot and not move so I respected that and was able to get some neat shots of them using the wide angle and fisheye lens. They also have a no flash during the ceremony rule but thanks to the marvel of modern technology we were able to get clean well lit shots without the use of a flash or tripod.

We did a few quick portraits on the altar then we were off to the Brew Works to party.

We had originally planned to do the bridal party photos in a little park area downtown but to our surprise there was a large block party/BBQ of sorts going on in that exact location. With the rain approaching and a stretch limo full of people we had to quickly come up with a plan B. For any brides that follow this blog, it is important to have a back up spot for photos in mind just incase the original one is not available. It saves us from wasting precious photography time in a tight schedule. Thankfully the PPL building is right across the street and provided a nice backdrop for the bridal party photos.

The temperatures were starting to drop and the wind was picking up so we sent the bridal party inside and spent about a half hour with just Sindia and Dave getting some pictures of the newly married couple.

Often times my weddings are off in more rural areas with beautiful landscaping so it was a pleasant change to have a city atmosphere to work with this time around for something different.

Back inside guests were mingling in the downstairs lounge area complete with red oriental umbrellas on the ceiling and a pool table to keep guests entertained.

Upstairs staff was getting the banquet room ready on the 3rd floor for the reception.

Finally the party was underway with the entrance and the first dance.

A great way to fill in the break between each course being served is to have some of the more formal events like the parent dances and toasts occur. This way once dinner is done everyone can get right on the dance floor to party.

Everyone took a quick break from the dancing to cut the cake.

The one thing they mentioned to me they wanted as far as pictures were concerned was a shot of them at night with the PPL building all lit up in the background. The PPL building at night is kind of Allentown’s equivalent to the Empire State Building in NYC. It’s the tallest building in the area and also the most colorful so it can be seen from miles away. With the help of a small video light we were able to get exactly what she wanted. I just love all of the different colors in the background.

And of course no wedding is complete without the bride getting arrested at the end.

Okay okay you caught me. It wasn’t the bride (and no handcuffs were actually used incase the Allentown Police Department comes across this). Thank you for the entertaining photo op though! And thank you to Sindia and Dave for letting me be a part of your big day!