cara and eric

before booking eric and cara’s wedding, i had never booked a wedding completely over the phone. so i was a little nervous about meeting the fellow penn staters for the first time on the day before their wedding. yikes! but, no worries! eric and cara and their family and friends were all incredibly cool and fun to work with and super gracious!

my wife, molly, and son, jackson, traveled with me to this wedding, since it was in good old happy valley. (we are … penn state!) molly and i met as students at penn state, so it was nice to get back to our roots. we enjoyed some creamery ice cream (peachy paterno rocks!), visited beaver stadium (jackson asked where the “football men” were) and stayed in quaint, little bellefonte. the weather could not have been nicer for a penn state wedding weekend.

i started out with the ladies at cara’s parents’ house and had fun dodging their overly friendly family dog. (i got lots of licks …  guess i was just the right flavor!)

this cloth belonged to cara’s grandmother and served as her “something old.” perfect for a detail shot of the rings!

i loved shooting in all the nice, diffused window light at cara’s parents’ house!

mom helped cara get into her gorgeous dress

the guys spent some time making sure that they all looked good. well done, boys!

lights on the ceiling at grace lutheran church in downtown state college represent the night sky from the 1960s, when the church was built. how cool!

cara and eric exited the church to a shower of bubbles … and a big high-five from grandma!

after the ceremony, the entire wedding party rode to the penn state hintz family alumni center for some pics on the lovely lawn.

the cake was gone before i could get some, but it looked mighty tasty! the staff at the atherton hotel did a great job of making sure i was fed right, so no complaints!

the groomsmen clued me into this little gem they pulled on eric: a ball and chain that he had to beg cara to take off. it was totally real, with a real lock! during the stunt, dj jeff tranell of nittany entertainment played social distortion’s “ball and chain.” how appropriate!

i stole the lovebirds away for one last session in the lights of downtown state college near the end of the night. thanks for an awesome time, cara and eric!