They wanted to do their engagement session where they first met. So off we went to the dive bar of dive bars, the 5 Paces Bar which is a block from the St Regis right in the heart of Buckhead. They let us have the run of the entire bar since they weren’t open just yet. We had this idea to pull off their take on the Dos Equis Most Interesting Man in the World and this is what we came up with. As you know, the Most Interesting Groom in the World can’t have just one Angel, he has to have two. I posted this sneak peak photo a few weeks ago (I’ll probably make another blog post about exactly how we did this shot):

If there’s one thing I try to do, it’s capture images that look natural and compelling as if you just stumbled into a moment. To do that, as a photographer, you have to work with or against the lighting available to you, and in some cases create the scene entirely on your own. This was all three! Now shooting in a dark bar has it’s own set of challenges, but when you have afternoon sun streaming in both entrances it’s even harder to make it look like a dimly lit bar.

This is the spot, right in between the back door and the bathrooms where they met for the first time…

So here we go… enjoy a few more images!

***CLICK HERE*** to see their slideshow.

I must admit a little bit of trepidation before shooting my first Jewish wedding. Everybody was surprised that I’ve never covered one before. But in the end it’s really not that different. And what I mean by that is not that instead of a priest you have a Rabbi, and instead of “congratulations” you have “mazal tov” — but that in the end you have two beautiful souls coming together before the Lord to betroth themselves, one to another, and inviting their friends along to share in the joy they have found.

On the other hand, I was very much looking forward to this wedding because, as a life-long Catholic, I feel a great affinity toward my Jewish brothers and sisters and have always been interested in the Jewish faith knowing that the roots of my faith lay in Judaism. I was excited!

But I have a wedding to tell you about…meet Erika and Jeremy!

Everything was staged and the bride and groom were poised to see each other for the first time and all my best laid plans were thwarted when the doors were closed right in front of me! Okay, minor panic. But with my telephoto lens, 60 feet into a darkly lit room and a hairline crack in the door I managed to catch a glimpse of the first kiss.

The Ketubah is signed, witnessed and the prayers are read…

Let the ceremony begin…

I just love the look she gives her groom as she approaches. She doesn’t take her eyes off of him the entire time.

Mazal Tov!