WHERE ARE THEY NOW – SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER WEDDINGS

Here we go!! We’ve got about three weeks to go before I’m going to wrap up this blog series up!  I’ve got some fresh faces and sessions AND weddings on my camera now so I’m going to mix and match both old and new!  Next up in the WHERE ARE THEY NOW series – September AND October weddings!  Let’s do this!

First up, Carly and Ryan from 2018!  Do you all remember their sweet engagement session at her parent’s house?!

I remember Carly’s infectious laugh!! She was one of my most laid back brides and really encompassed “less is more” and these pictures most certainly show that off!

Can’t you just feel the love?!  It was a beautiful day for a beautiful session!  I remember meeting her parents and just feeling like, “Yea.  This is going to be a great wedding!”  I was right!

Then, it was time for their wedding in September of 2018 and just a few short months, I believe, after their engagement session (or maybe we did it a whole year prior…HA!  I can’t remember for sure!)…and it POURED!  Good grief!  After typing up all these blogs, I seriously think it has rained on me more than it’s been dry! At least we all know I can handle it now, right?!  Jenna helped me shoot this one and the details were gorgeous!  That invitation was VERY popular that year too!!

Given she was having her wedding at Heaven Sent Farms in their barn, these details were pure perfection!

THIS DRESS!  WEEEEEEE!  After all these years, I still haven’t photographed another one like It!  Her parent’s window made for some AMAZING getting ready shots!

Their first look made Jenna and I’s hearts so happy!!! Look at her, she gets so excited over everything and I can still hear her happiness during this moment!

Remember, it had rained…and rained…and rained some more.   Getting these photos wasn’t easy but we did it! YAY!  The ground was so soggy!

I mean…really…can’t you just hear her?!  It’s infectious…for real!! Ryan fuels that happiness…I can assure you!

Just a little behind the scenes to show you how truly creative we had to get for these photos! HA!  All hands on deck!

Of course, they had to move their ceremony inside.  I remember the rain started to just pelt that tin roof.  It was SO loud and I was thinking, “OooO no.  No one is going to be able to hear them!”  Carly’s brother did NOT disappoint and he bellowed his lines (and their lines) so NO ONE missed out on it…and he did it SO WELL!  I remember being SO impressed!

OooOo my good gracious!  Ashley from Simply Sweet cakes isn’t just a great baker.  She knows how to decorate like you wouldn’t believe!  Isn’t it BEAUTIFUL?!

There was no lack in the party either!  Doors open.  Rain falling…love everywhere!

I remember asking Carly if she wanted to go for it with an outside photo!  She was brave enough to take that big, beautiful dress outside and, in fact, go for it. I also remember her asking me if I could do it quickly.  COME ON, right?!  This is me we’re talking about and I’m high strung on a dry day!! I think we were out there for all but 30 seconds?  Maybe 60…at the most!  And it became one of my favorite photos!  WEEEEE!! Rain aside, this was an amazing day with an even sweeter couple who handled this rain with more grace than anyone else I’ve ever photographed!

AHHHHH!!! I’m so excited about this!! I hadn’t heard from Carly and Ryan in so long!!  I’m sitting here wondering why I don’t see them on social media….HmmmMmmM.  I need to do some investigating on that one!  I’m pretty sure I follow Carly on IG!  But anyway, it was SO nice to see what’s been happening – including this little nugget below!  But first, let’s talk about what happened right after the wedding.  They went on their honeymoon…and made the best of one whole day!  NOT COVID related…but hurricane related…Oy.  They had to come right back home!! Whomp…whomp!  Carly was also promoted to district manager at her company, ESS.  Ryan is still working for Alcon and they’re both cooped up at home thanks to the quarantine (and with the baby)!  This beauty, Hazel Rae, was born this past April!  Carly tells me she was 10 days past her due date!! Crazy!  It’s a Hannah Barlow baby boom!!! Nuts!  CONGRATS AGAIN TO THE WARNER FAMILY…OF THREE!

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And now…OCTOBER WEDDINGS!  Honestly, I am LOVING that these two couples came together on the same blog for some of the October weddings.  We’ve got Kari and David and Meghan and Nate!! I KNOW you all can remember both of their weddings, right?!  Well, where Kari is the complete opposite of me and super laid back and literally was still planning her wedding the morning it happened…Meghan is very much Type A like me and planned SOOOOO much way ahead of time!  It was cracking me up while typing because both of their weddings were ones to remember but so much of it was complete opposite ends of the spectrum!  You’ll see what I mean!

First up, Kari and David!! AHHHHHHH! OOoO Kari and David.  You ALL know how close I am with them!  We did ALL kinds of engagement sessions with them too! HA!  Yea..our friendship REALLY hit it off when Kari hired me to be her wedding photographer!!

First, we did the 1950’s shoot!  Kari’s all about the themes and I love photographing them!

We also did another shoot too at my house but I couldn’t, for the life of me, get the photos to load into my program that arranges the photos for the blog SO we’ll just move on to their official engagement session!  We drove ALL over Pittsburgh to scout locations and take these!

Waaaahhhh!! I love these two SO MUCH!  And yes…they are ALWAYS this sappy and lovey!

Raise your hand if you have heard me say, “When you dip, don’t dip like Kari…”  Well, here Is why! HA! I also joke she looks like a corpse!  That photo in the field was one of the ones I did on my property wayyyyy back when we first met!  I had already blogged these “beauties” before so I figured I’d throw it out there!  They DID improve!  You’ll see!

…and now…to their wedding. oOOo Kari.  Now that I know her real well, this wedding was most certainly “SO KARI!”  She planned a completed OUTDOOR (including the reception) wedding in October (when it could have been REALLY cold…or rain…or soooooo many other possibilities).  One month before the wedding, she didn’t even know what her colors were going to be OR have her flowers done.  I found myself in my living room with my mom (while David babysat my kiddos downstairs) building her bouquets with her!  Oy.  The whole wedding turned out BEAUTIFUL though and it was so perfect and so “Kari and David” and it gives me alllllll the warm fuzzies!! Enjoy!  This bouquet of hers was made by my mom and is still in their house as decor!  Also, Kari is non-traditional in EVERYTHING she does in life!  No fall colors for this gal! Nope!  It was also a 1920’s wedding and the telegram was her invitation!  And yes…she has a colored gem for her engagement session!

She also had her dress permanently bustled!! That’s right!! I’ve also noticed a trend with weddings where I’m close with the bride and groom.  They always include me in the first looks! HA!  I forget what exactly happened here but it wasn’t but two seconds and Kari was turning around talking to me!! I THINK David was pointing out that she got something on her dress! HA!  That’s your typical Kari and David moment!

Just look at that DIP!!! AHHHHHH!! Perfectly executed this time!! WOOOO!  Practice does make perfect!!

Check out this beautiful set of ladies with a 1920’s feel!! LOOOVVVEEE!

We had entirely too much fun with this bridal party!

OoooooO David!  I call him the “knight on his white horse” because that’s exactly what he is to Kari (and anyone else who ever needs anything).  I remember pinning that flower on him.  Little did I know, we’d end up being great friends!

Then, before their ceremony, we went out in the woods.  Again, it’s “so Kari”.  She works out in the field…she loves to hike…so going out in the woods was exactly what we needed to do for their photos!

It got steamy there for a minute too!

Isn’t it SO FUN to see our Kari dressed up as a bride?! AHHHHHH!!! I’m so happy she chose me to be her photographer!  Just think…my entire life AND business would be completely different had I not met Kari!

Their ceremony most certainly embraced who they are as a couple…Kari messing something up and laughing about it…David laughing at her with those endearing looks!!

Talk about taking a risk, right?!  I told you!  It was October…but it ended up being warm and absolutely PERFECT!

More formal photos.  It was at this point we realized the caterers hadn’t shown up (not even kidding).  It all worked out though and it’s always a fun story to tell!

Then, we moved on to the reception and they played the shoe game…in a backyard…and it was perfect!  I always tell people that Kari loves the shoe game…and she totally does!

I had some lighting fun for their first dance!

…and we literally partied the night away under the stars in the most romantic way possible!  Kari was barefoot and I caught this photo below at the very end of the night (not staged…AHHHH!! STORYBOOK)!  Talk about nontraditional, right?!  And it was pure perfection!

SO, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?!  Well, reading Kari’s answers to those questions I sent gave me huge flashbacks to when I asked her to fill out her wedding questionnaire a month before her wedding.  I was DYING laughing.  It’s VERY little information and a whole lot of “I don’t knows”….Bahahaha! Too funny!  Just like the timeline for her day, I had to make this up too.  She also sent me a whole TWO photos…which will come into play later in this blog when I type up what Meghan and Nate have been up to!  Kari and David welcomed their daughter, Quinn, into the world in July of 2018!  Kari is SO laid back she didn’t even know she was in labor…until Quinn was almost born! HA!  Kari is still working her same job (GIS) but also recently accepted a job as an adjunct professor at Duquesne University!  David is still working as a contractor on the Air Force base where my husband works and is working on expanding his side jobs!!  I’m still giggling because Kari included a lot of other things that she then followed up with “…but that’s not going in the blog”. oOooOoo Kari!  I love these two SO MUCH!  CONGRATS to the DeShongs!

 

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Next up, Meghan and Nate!! AHHHHHH!!!!  I told Meghan I talk about her ALL the time.  ALL good things…pink dot and ALL! HA!

First, their engagement session!  I remember her getting out of the car in that red dress and him in that suit and I knew I was in love…yep.  How could you NOT be in love with these two?!

This umbrella photo below was always one of my favorites!

I remember this moment.  They are just so amazing to photograph with personalities that shine!  Both sets of parents were there (minus Meghan’s dad who we missed at this session).  We had a BLAST!

AHHHHHHH!  This feels like so long ago!  I just look at these and smile soooo much!

Then, we lost a scrabble piece and it was all hands on deck to find it.  Meghan!! Did we end up finding it?  I think we did…but again…AHHHH!! How was this almost three years ago!?

Then, we did another location change and closed out their engagement session!  This was so amazing!  I want to do it again and again and again!  Spending it with their families made it even sweeter!

Then, it was time for their fall, Beauty and the Beast inspired wedding.  Oooo my goodness me.  Where Kari was so disorganized leading up to her wedding (girl, it’s true), Meghan was not…except then the day rolled around and it was just madness.  If it could go wrong, it did!  We were scrambling in the morning!  We did NOT miss a beat though!! We even got groom details…and it as a black tux!! WOOOO!! A custom one too!

OooO Meghan.  OooOo!  I love these details SO much still!! JUST beautiful!

 

Remember when I said if it could go wrong, it did?  Yea…the bus couldn’t even get to her and after we got them ready we had to go on a hike JUST to get them on the bus for the ceremony!! We were cookin’ at this point to get to the church!

…but once we got there, it was SO beautiful!

…and Meghan almost gave up on this moment with Nate!! I remember scrambling to make this happen!  We even had to get the bridesmaids to create a wall since this was RIGHT before the ceremony and guests were finishing taking their seats.  Yea…we were cutting it REAL close!

Yep!  I always tell my couples, “If you want it, I’ll make it happen…” and despite our time crunch, we did, in fact, make this happen!!!!

I think every single Hannah Barlow Photography client has heard the “pink dot” story!  Yep.  It’s a classic!  Before that moment above, Meghan didn’t want to get off the bus because her dress has gotten stained….with a pink dot…no bigger than the end of a highlighter.  At the time, she thought it was 4 foot by 7 foot and right in the middle of her dress.  We had a little moment together in the back of the church and FINALLY…we got through to each other.  I understood her concerns…we chatted.  You see, that dress was custom and one of a kind and extremely important.  I understood where she was coming from but she did need to get married…so I still laugh about her and I in that little corner at the back of the church having the fastest conversation I think I’ve EVER had…and then she got to have her grand march moment!  It was epic amazing!  These are some of my favorite memories!

Of all the ceremonies I’ve done, this one was the most difficult in terms of lighting.  The light came in…the clouds covered…the light came back out.  Every single time that happened we had to make adjustments and it just kept on happening! I definitely had to be on my A game this wedding ceremony!  To top it all off, they were being perfectly spotlit from one of those windows! AHHHH!

I haven’t been sharing family formals in these WHERE ARE THEY NOW blogs much, but this is worth sharing.  Aside from Alyssa and Chas’ family photos last year, this group was the FASTEST I have EVER moved for family formals!  We cut it right down to the SECONDS!  Again, memories and all that…GREAT TIMES with GREAT people!

They’re like royalty!! AHHH!!!!

There are hundreds of photos I could show you and it was so hard to narrow it down!! GAH!  But these formal photos were just…grand.  Amazing…you choose the words!  The wedding Gods helped up this day with that wind!

It didn’t matter where we went for photos…we couldn’t go wrong!

Sorelle bridal does NOT know how to do it wrong…JUST LOOK!!!!  Isn’t she gorgeous?!  THAT DRESS is gorgeous too!

We finished formal photo time off with some model shots…as I like to call them!!

Then, it was time to party!! Beauty and the Beast fans, where are you?!

They danced to Tale as Old as Time and Nate bowed.  I don’t think I need to reexplain my reactions at this point in the night!! COME ON!!!! It was pure perfection!!!

When you party with Jonathan Mihellis of Finest Events, there is no lack of people on the dance floor…EVER!

See what I mean?!  So, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?!  Well, unlike Kari who gave me just a few sentences, Meghan hasn’t changed a bit and gave me ALLLLLLLL the details.  I joked and told her I had PTSD from her wedding questionnaire! HA!  It’s one of my very favorite things about her though!! She’s been busy busy busy…Nate has been too!  Here is the Hannah Barlow short version (I know…I know…doesn’t seem like a thing, right?!)  Since the wedding they’ve moved from Pittsburgh to Nashville to Washington State and their next move will be North Carolina!  They’ve had an amazing time traveling as a newly married couple and I so enjoy following them (and texting Meghan constantly like a crazy person that I am).  They made a ton of road trip stops and have documented the whole thing, of course!  Their professions allow them to stay together while traveling.  Nate is a physical therapist (who was so KIND to help me get an at home workout plan for my ankle since I couldn’t do therapy thanks to COVID).  Meghan is an occupational therapist!  They’ve both been working on the front lines with COVID in a nursing home on the pandemic unit!  But when they are’t working, they are hiking, camping, and exploring all parts of the Pacific Northwest!  They’ve also been skiing.  Nate ran a full marathon.  They attended the NFL draft and worked in a private pediatric facility.  Meghan even learned how to crochet while Nate learns guitar!  P.S.  Meghan would LOVE to share that they got a puppy…but Nate won’t let her!! HINT HINT!  When they come back home, we’re hoping to get together again (COVID allowing) for an Aisle Be Ready meeting (which Meghan, herself, named for me).  My mannequin is also named after her! HA!  They’ve also had 11 weddings coming up (two of which I’m a part of…Wooooo).  My goodness…I loved this so much!! CONGRATS AGAIN TO THE STIFFLERS!

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WHEWWWW…That was a long one.  If you got through it all…leave me a note over on Facebook and congratulate yourself!  Next up, a few more October weddings and November!

See the full blogs below!

Kari & David

Carly & Ryan

Meghan & Nate