welcome to the blog!

The 2nd styling with Sam shoot was last week, and oh mylanta was it perfection. I spent months planning and being picky over details for this shoot. I wanted it to stand out from the norm in styled wedding shoots, and I am so happy to say that I did just that with the help of some amazing vendors! Enter Dara Baker of Bespoke and Beloved Events. She is a magician and so so amazing and I owe this shoot’s success to her 100%. I wanted to have this Styling With Sam in Pittsburgh to work with new people, and give a bit of a mix up in my own personal content. Dara is from the area (technically Greensburg) and had so many amazing recommendations for me. The team we ended up with worked so well together, and everything lined up perfectly the morning of the shoot.

I woke up on June 27th nervous as ever. “Did I have everything that I’d need? I have a 2 hour drive ahead of me so it’s not like I can just come home real quick” Piling all of my stuff into the car, Michaela pulled up with 2 bottles of water and a box of donuts. I was so happy she understood the need for donuts in life. We drove from Erie to the Botanic Gardens with minimal troubles. I am not the best big city driver, so managing the traffic on a Wednesday morning was interesting. Once we arrived and unloaded the car full of boxes, it was game time. Dara and Patty from Pippa’s pieces got to work setting up our table and I was able to gather the details and take the girls to start photographing them. Michaela has been one of my long time mentee’s so she had an idea of what was going to happen. Eryn on the other hand, is not only new to the Pittsburgh area, but we had never met before and I found out she’s a fairly new photographer! You’d never know looking through her images. They worked together great and once the models were ready we really dove in.

Our models were amazing to work with, and we had the best time. There were dad jokes galore and no tension or awkwardness was even an option. Annie is stunning, and it was very important to me that we were able to work with someone who embodies the same idea that we are all beautiful. She put the gorgeous bridal gown on and instantly was a blushing bride who was ready. It really couldn’t have been more perfect. Matt was ready for our “faux look” and I’ll let you in on a secret : this first look while not 100% authentic was probably one of the best executed ones I’ve ever photographed. Now that may be because I was in total control of it, or maybe it’s because they worked so well together, or a combination of the two. Whatever the reason, the image are some of my favorites from the day.

Take a look after for a big thanks to all of the vendors who helped make this day everything I had in my mind. I’ll share Michaela and Eryn’s information too so you can go take a peek at their work!!

: My little ode to my kids- I fully plan on including at least one of their names in every shoot form now on.

To all of the vendors listed below, thank you so much. Thank you for looking at my ideas and creating something spectacular. Thank you for the weeks of back and forth emails, the Pinterest board sharing, and the late night messages. I couldn’t have pulled this off without each and every one of you and I loved working with you.