A bridal party of twenty, rapping sisters & a gorilla suit– you won’t want to miss this wedding…
College sweethearts, Alicia & Nick, chose Woodstone Country Club as the setting of their Lehigh Valley area wedding. They were married on a beautiful Spring day and were surrounded by family, friends & lots of love.
When I first met with Alicia & Nick they said that the most important thing to them about their wedding photography was that it would be high-quality and capture all of those special people and once-in-a-lifetime moments that happened on their wedding day, especially during the reception. They also warned me that they are not photogenic but take direction well. 🙂
I use a personalized approach and set out to do just that for them. I hope that viewing these images will give you a peek into their wedding day and give you a feel for how colorful all of the characters were at their wedding, especially during the reception!
Preparations for Alicia & Nick’s wedding day began at Split Endz Salon in Allentown.
It was so cute to see the little girls in the wedding party feeling so grown up! Here Alicia’s second cousin is sitting with her legs crossed reading a magazine, her legs are nowhere near able to touch the ground! Alicia said that Alicia & her sisters were a flower girls in this little girl’s parents’ wedding!
Speaking of cute, here is one of Alicia & Nick’s flower girls checking out Alicia’s wedding gown as it hangs in the bridal suite at Woodstone Country Club!
About the bride.. Nick said it best in his vows, “Alicia, you are the most beautiful, intelligent, strong willed woman I’ve ever known and I love you for it.”
I captured several photos of Alicia before the wedding ceremony, but this in the image that I think shows all three qualities best is this one– it just oozes with confidence, beauty, intelligence and strength…
Bridesmaids in blue– Alicia chose bridesmaids from all areas of her life: her family, childhood, sorority, etc. and she loved that she was able to have all of them by her side during the wedding day! She really likes when I use more creative, modern group photography– this was inspired by a photo I saw in Vanity Fair.
They wore matching blue dresses and carried gorgeous bouquets by Paisley Peacock Floral. I wanted to get a photo of all of the ladies bouquets from a creative angle– we played around a bit and made a heart 😉
The guys didn’t want to be left out– here is their version of the photo above haha…
The first look– Alicia & Nick chose to have a “first look” before the ceremony– it allowed them to enjoy the time following the ceremony with their family and friends at cocktail hour, and gave plenty of time for photos of the large bridal party and family, which was important to them.
They were so excited and happy for this moment– you can see Nick’s reaction here, beaming ear to ear! Alicia said that she loved to share that special moment and just be in awe of each other.
It doesn’t get much prettier than this, here is the lovely spring scenery at the Woodstone Country Club in Danielsville, PA nestled in the Pocono Mountains.
All of the spring blossoms were in bloom…
Here is Alicia moments before she walks down the aisle, I love this image of her– it captures a completely different side of her than the earlier photo captures…
The strings began to play and the ceremony started…
Again, the view from Woodstone is incredible, you can see the golf course, much of the valley and mountains, I photographed many images from a closer perspective, but I wanted this photo to show the entire scene…
They chose to write very personal vows to each other, here are a few sentiments shared by Alicia…
“You, Nicholas, have been my best friend, mentor, love, confidant, and my greatest challenge. You have been my strength, weakness but most of all the man who changed my life… I promise to lend you strength for all of your dreams. I vow to be imperfect but I vow to give our marriage 100% always even when it is not perfect…”
Here Alicia’s parents Applauding her and Nick– such a pretty image and I love how you can see everyone else gathered in the background… I really like that about the design of the wedding ceremony space at Woodstone Country Club.
The strings played “Don’t Stop Believing” during the recessional, as you can see the flower girl was wiped out! I know, I’ve showed a ton of pictures of these girls, but how cute are they??? I couldn’t help myself! Ceremony music was provided by Penn String Ensemble and they were amazing.
I mentioned that family photos were important for Alicia, here is one of the extended family– I think it was sweet that so many chose to wear blue!
Man, that’s a nice guestbook 😉 !!! Yes, it’s a Rhinehart Photography Guestbook that showcases images from their engagement photography and has space for guests to sign and write personal messages.
The table numbers Alicia chose were very unique. Alicia and Nick are 26 and they happened to have 26 tables, so she made tables of each year “2007” etc. She had a large display board showing photos of her and Nick from each year.
Sister rap!!! Alicia’s family is so much fun to be around and are born entertainers! Here Alicia’s sister’s chose to rap instead of giving a traditional “Maid of Honor” speech. Here is a small quote from their rap…
“In Greek life is where they spent their days– partying, relaxing, all cool, and wearing Greek letters outside of school, when a couple of Delta Pis who were up to no good started playing games in the neighborhood.”
Paris from Weddings by Paris got the party started– He was incredibly easy to work with, professional and was able to pack the dance floor from the beginning! What a fun group to work with!
Haaaa, I love this shot of Alicia’s Grandma– the chicken dance has always been her song and Alicia made sure to play it just for her– other family members joined in, her expressions were priceless!
The gorilla suit– it’s an inside joke from a family friend, Mr. Kurt. His daughters grew up with Alicia and she once saw the costume when they were playing together and she ran back to her house faster than she had in her entire life, he teased that it would haunt her throughout her life.
He changed into the suit during her wedding and surprised her here:
Here Alicia is sharing a wedding dance with her sisters from Alpha Sigma Alpha. They are singing “We Belong” which was their sorority song. They sang it at every event they attended together in college so it was fitting to play it at the wedding, too!
The sunset– Alicia and Nick took a few moments out of the wedding reception to enjoy the sunset view from the Woodstone terrace. It truly was a happily ever after moment…
Alicia & Nick, I was smitten with you two from the first time we met and your wedding day was just as incredible as you had hoped it would be! It was such a pleasure to meet and work with you and all of your family and friends and I hope to see you again soon!
