An outdoor fall Pennsylvania wedding: Jen + Tyler

When strangers learn that I’m a wedding photographer, many of them want to know what my favorite spots are for weddings. Without fail, I tell them that my most favorite places to photograph weddings — or anything else for that matter — are locations that mean something to my clients. It’s not a diplomatic line. As a photographer who, more than anything, enjoys capturing real moments and authentic emotion for my clients, I can say without a doubt that that’s easier to do in a spot that means something to the people I’m photographing. When I first spoke with Jen + Tyler about their plans for an outdoor fall Pennsylvania wedding on his grandparents’ 400-acre farm, I could barely contain my excitement. They told me about what the property meant to his family and why they wanted to marry there. They described the beauty of the mountains in the distance, the sweeping vistas and the woods where they intended to exchange vows and rings just at the edge of the treeline in front of their most favorite people on earth. It did not disappoint. When my assistant photographer Lucas and I pulled into the driveway and first spotted the ceremony site, I actually gasped. “Oh my goodness,” I told him, “it looks *just* like they described it.” That is, in fact, what the team at Elizabeth Bailey Weddings excels at — taking a client’s vision and bringing it to life. There were flowers and greenery spilling over barrels to mark the aisle and a beautiful chuppah complete with a chandelier and lots more flowers and greenery. There was a cigar bar and custom whiskey station. There were vintage-style wine-colored couches in the lounge areas, a cake on an actual swing and a massive floral creation suspended over the dance floor. But more than any inanimate object was the overarching *feeling* that day of what it meant for Jen + Tyler to get married, not just after so many years together, but in that very location. Guest after guest and wedding party member after wedding party member also commented on how much it meant to be there, in such a special place for Tyler’s family, where so many relatives had worked so hard to get the property wedding-ready. Tyler’s Poppy even push-mowed about 15 acres himself in the final week before the nuptials. And when I traipsed across the yard with the newlyweds and found out the fenceline where I wanted them to stand marked the beginning of the very property where they would soon break ground on their new home, well, it couldn’t have been any better. Here are many, many of my favorites from Jen + Tyler’s day.

I started with the bride as she got ready for the wedding in the pool house.

The bride, looking utterly lovely.

A few floral details.

Jen and her friends were a joy to photograph. And my oh my, can we pause for a moment to admire that flower arch?!?

Meanwhile, Tyler and the guys got themselves ready in the basement of the main house, where Lucas captured them trying out the giant-screen golf simulator and their new monogrammed flasks.

I joined them outside for portraits after the ladies were safely tucked away back in the pool house.

The very dapper groom.

A few ceremony details.

It had been gray and gloomy all day. But the sun burst from behind the clouds *just before* the ceremony was to start. It was pretty glorious.

Here she comes.

Lucas did a stellar job of capturing Jen’s arrival with her father from the wide-angle, back-of-the-aisle perspective. And the breeze didn’t hurt either, making the most of that looooong veil.

This is what I love most about my job. This. Right here. See how Tyler is looking at Jen in this next photo? See all that emotion and excitement and anticipation and admiration on his face? That’s what I love. That’s what I love capturing. She doesn’t see it. And even if she did, a moment like this is so fleeting that it’s gone almost instantly in the whirlwind of a wedding day. But it is my job — and my great privilege — to document and freeze and forever preserve little moments like this for my clients. I am thankful for this job and the trust my clients place in me every single day.

Married!

After a handful of efficient family photos and a woodsy wedding party portrait the couple requested, we were off to explore Tyler’s grandparents’ gorgeous estate for the newlyweds’ photos.