I know I should be happy that the kids are back in school, it’s not as if we weren’t all beginning to drive each other crazy once August came, but I am NOT happy!! I am sad. My baby boy started First Grade this year, and merrily leapt onto a bus to spend the day in a room I’ve never seen with a teacher I’ve never met. I cannot handle stuff like that!! I spent the day morose with the realization that for the next 12 years he will be gone all day, out of my reach. Aaron kept checking to make sure I was not rocking back and forth in a corner somewhere. (I wasn’t, but I could have!) Next week Aleia will begin her first year of preschool, and while I know I will be a little teary, I also know it’s just for a couple of hours two days a week, and that for the most part our days will still be intertwined. Aidan, however, has untwined from me. Forever. …I may burst into tears again…

SO before I do I will share some shots of his First Day of School. (We have video, too, for those interested! Just let me know!)

(this is Bo Bear, who has been with Aidan since he was 4 months old)

Aidan with his BFF Emily, they get to share the bus stop this year

And now it’s time for some silliness! Here is a behind the scenes look at excatly what the Castro family does with a few minutes of spare time and an empty shooting space:

Our actual use for the set up was to get a head shot for Adriana, who is beginning to pursue a career in theater (or at least a side career to 5th grade) and already has a part with Town & Country players this fall! How cool is that??! We got a couple different shots for her and her mom to choose from:

And now it is time for a wedding!!  I met Jenna’s stepmom Sue at a Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce luncheon, we’d seen her dad Mike at other chamber events, and then we got to meet the whole big family when we met with Jenna and Josh to discuss wedding photography. And what a family!! We invited all of the parents and their friends to come to our Halloween party this year, because when people are going to be that much fun we want them around! The weather was perfect, the wedding colors were fun, and I think everyone had a great time- even the DJ was dancing!

And last but not least, we finally have some photos of our Inner Beauty Contest winner!! Ellen Lindeman was nominanted by Debbie Goetz, and I am so glad that she was because it was wonderful to meet this woman and her gorgeous kids. Ellen founded the Ted Lindeman Outreach foundation after her husband Ted died of an agggressive cancer after only 10 weeks, when he was only 33 years old. His daughter and son were 5 and 3 at the time. Somehow Ellen turned her grief into a way to reach out to others, and the foundation helps families who are suddenly thrust into the tragedy of a similar situation, where one young parent dies. I could not even begin to imagine the depth of grieving that she suffered, and the fact that she made something so helpful for others out of that shows exactly what we mean when we ask for people with inner beauty. Ellen is a strong woman, a caring mom, and an amazing example of what beauty can spring from tragedy. Here are just a few shots of the session with her kids, we’re saving the rest until she sees them all.

I just couldn’t decide between color or faded for this one…tell me which one you like better!

Don’t let too many moments go by without hugging.

Welcome to September! It may not feel autumnal yet–but it will soon, I bet! Soak up the sunshine now!

Love,

Cheryl & Aaron and the two small people who have changed the way they look at life forever

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TWO weddings in one weekend! Whew! There’s a reason we rarely do that–we are just too old and tired for that much running around! And when you see some of the shots from them you’ll see why we tire out so much- between being pummeled by ocean waves, tree climbing, and then the dancing, we are really worn out after our 10-12 hour day!!

Our first wedding was a beach wedding, and what an absolutely perfect day for it- 85 degrees and sunny, and we were excited to meet our first bride booked sight unseen. Generally we have a lot of preliminary meetings with our couples, going over all the details of what they like and the schedule of their day– we like to see people before we shoot them!  Lindsey and Michael were doing all their planning from Texas, though, so we had only spoken on the phone until her wedding day. But you would never have known it by the way she greeted us–what an amazingly fun, vibrant person! We knew right away we would have a blast with her, and we did! Her dress was awesome, and veil was the coolest, and she wanted lots of shots. YAY!!

The ceremony and reception were at Congress Hall in Cape May, and the architecture of the place went so perfectly with the style of Lindsey’s dress and the men’s tuxes– totally Great Gatsby, just as she described it. And I LOVED their wing tip shoes!  Aaron was going through the pictures later and asked me to please not take quite so many shoe shots next time… I like shoes….I took mine off before walking onto the beach, by the way, and also rolled up my pants–note this fact for later…

The ceremony on the beach was beautiful, and the flower girl running up to the bride in the middle of it to give her flowers was adorable, but I think perhaps the most memorable part of it all for me will be the moment when Aaron decided to WADE into the OCEAN in his expensive SUIT pants and specially made cushiony DRESS SHOES!! The bridal party loved his dedication though, and he did get some cool shots. “I was in the moment!” he claims; I argue, however, that the same moment could have been had sans shoes and perhaps with rolled up pants…

Lindsey and Michael’s first dance was choreographed (just like mine & Lovey’s!) and they did great, everyone that night was dancing, and so many of them were SO good! When did everyone become good dancers??!  Especially the men- It seems like all the weddings now, so many of the guys are really fantastic. I am all the more determined to put Aidan back in dance class now…

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

And we highly suggest you always dance with your photographer!

I love how the shoes and tuxes match the room!

The next day was Another gorgeous day, for another really gorgeous couple, and at our favorite venue!

Jeff and Justine were looking for fun shots, and we love that for so many reasons. For one, it usually means the couple allows enough time to actually get the pictures– you’d be amazed at how very hard it is to get formals of each side’s family, then the bridal party, and then the couple alone–all in the 15 minutes so many people allot! Oh we have done it, trust me! But it is so much better to actually have a little time to get the really great shots- especially since they really are the only part of your day that you get to keep forever. Plus we love to get to play around a bit and get something really new and unique!

One of the reasons we love the Pearl S Buck, besides it’s convenient location within walking distance to our home, is that we know many of the vendors that we usually get to work with there, and this wedding was a perfect case in point! Larry from Open Aire Affairs (who do the tent and take care of the details of the venue) holds open houses for his clients, so each month Aaron and I get to join other select vendors at the Pearl S Buck and hang out in the tent, eating all of the caterers’ food and chatting with new brides. It is one of the best nights out we get! And through that we know both the caterer and florist for Justine’s wedding- Kate from Jamie Hollander, and Mark from Mary Bryan Designs at Hairy Mary’s. We knew that everything would run smoothly in Kate’s highly capable hands, and we both just adore Mark! He loves what he does, and he is as passionate about his work as we are, maybe even more so!

But back to Justine and Jeff! This wedding was just so perfectly pulled off, that it became practically Disney-esqe, as small woodland creatures began to come out to frolic and celebrate. First was the toad Justine’s sister found, who posed very nicely for his formal shot, and then the fawns played during dinner, then bunnies hopped by during family shots later- it was just amazing. And so much about their day was so highly personalized– Justine had hand-made the invitations and the programs, and one of the groomsmen actually wrote and performed the first dance song. The mother son song for this one totally got me, too- usually Aaron and I will each get just a little choked up during those dances, as we imagine in the future dancing with Aidan and Aleia at their weddings, but this time I was actually weeping! Jeff’s mom had chosen Handprints on the Wall by Kenny Rogers, and Aidan was about to turn 7, and I just lost it!! It’s good to get emotional about your work, though, right?

It was another wedding of great dancers- DJ Greg of Untouchables Entertainment Group did a great job keeping everyone up and moving. Justine and Jeff looked so cute on the dance floor together, and the whole wedding party was so fun, it was just a great day! Aaron was happy that I got the shot of him in a tree, since I had missed getting one of him in the ocean, and I was happy that this time I got pulled out on the dance floor! Here are some of my faves from the day–

Justine’s sister with the toad who tried to upstage the bridal party shot!

Sometimes we put the couple in a tree….

sometimes we put Lovey in a tree!

The best approach to a garter we have seen yet- Jeff slid across the dance floor!

And again, please take the time to dance with your photographers! They do so enjoy it!

I had lots of shots of what the kids have been doing lately, but I think I may hold onto them for next time, because this blog has a whole lot of pics in it already.

I will end with Aidan blowing out the candles on his bug mountain birthday cake –our baby boy is SEVEN years old!! And yet I can still remember so vividly when we just brought him home…  Hold on tight to those babies–they really do grow up so fast.

And you might want to hold on to the last few days of summer as well–those, too are swiftly passing by, and before we know it they’ll be gone. Quick- go do something fun and summery!!

Love,

Cheryl and Aaron, and their running over cup of children

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So I wonder– is there anywhere other than Bucks County that we send our
children off into a field of boulders, happily giving them hammers to wield? It
just has to seem strange to people who don’t know this custom, who may think it
is just another pretty place, when they visit Ringing Rocks and see a family
emerge from their vehicle with all sorts of weapons…

Aidan- looking very “Children of the Corn, with Hammer”

Aleia lounging on a Ringing Rock

 Aaron and I realized that summer was quickly dwindling away to just a few
more short weeks, and we had hardly done any cool summer things!  So on Sunday,
after a long day shooting an outdoor wedding in the 95+ degree heat and sweating
off a good percentage of  our body weight, he decided we should bike around Lake
Galena, at Peace Valley Park. The park is actually close enough to our
house to ride bikes to it, but the roads are just narrow and busy enough to make
us not want to take the children on them. Usually we ride up and down one side
of the lake and head home, so when Aaron wanted to do the whole lake I  thought
he was crazy–I think it is about 7 miles. But we made it, and it was oddly
easy- it must be very flat, because I am about as sporty and athletic as a sea
slug, and I made it and loved it! And Aidan made it the whole way too, with only
minimal moaning about how long it was. Aleia, strapped onto Daddy’s bike, had it
the easiest- next time we’re thinking of making her trike it. 

The next day we headed off to hike Ringing Rocks, it was a picture perfect 80
degree day that just had to be taken advantage of. I packed a change of clothes
for the kids because we desperately needed some portraits of them, and we
thought the setting would be perfect. Wait until you see the results- I am sooo
happy with them! We’re going to make this first bunch a large canvas grouping on
our living room wall, and the next two I am framing to put in Aleia’s room- I
always love those kind of mystical looking fairy pictures I see for kid’s rooms,
so that was the effect I was going for. Our children are helpfully photogenic,
and bribing them with giant cookies if they’ll sit still on the slippery rock 
just one more time doesn’t hurt.

So here they are, finally we have on our own walls what we do for everyone
else:

SO about that 95 degree day wedding! Brittany and Matt are one of the
sweetest couples we’ve had this year, and Matt was into every detail about the
wedding . The ceremony and reception were at the Merion Tribute House, which is
a gorgeous venue with stone buildings and lots of green. We are really into both
stone and green!  Brittany was completely calm, she was not letting the
oppressive heat get to her; the men arrived exactly on time which is truly
amazing, and everything seemed to be going well. Until we found out about the
buses… Apparently the hotel where the guests were staying had two buses
arrive, one for Brittany and Matt’s wedding and one for someone else’s.  We
found out 5 minutes before the ceremony was to begin that most of the guests for
this wedding got on the wrong bus, which was headed 20 minutes in the other
direction! And amazingly Brittany did not lose it at all. She just suggested to
the coordinator that we have half of the cocktail hour now and half after the
ceremony, and that should be enough time to hold off starting until the rest of
the guests arrived. I thought that was a great idea, and one I would never have
been able to think of if someone threw 90 late guests at me the day of my
wedding. And then everything was good again, and the guests came and the
ceremony was beautiful, and the reception started and the dancing. And then poor
Brittany had some sort of allergic reaction to something! My goodness, could
this poor girl not catch a break today?!? But she carried on, went back to the
dancing, and managed to remain utterly photogenic the entire time! Here are
some of our favorite shots of the day:

And then we shot a chiropractor! Now that is a line we don’t get to use
everyday–and we shoot a lot of things around here! Dr. Heidi Bencsik met Aaron
and I both through Network Now, one of my women’s networking groups- I am not
sure why Aaron was at one of the meetings but he’s like that, he blends
in well with women! And our friend Nerice (of the oft- touted Busy Bee Toys)
re-introduced me to her when Heidi moved her offices to State Street in
Doylestown, into the Doylestown  Natural Medicine Center– conveniently just a
block down from the toy store. Heidi wanted headshots and some shots for her new
brochures, and we all got along so well right away, we had a great time
doing them! Aidan and Aleia  posed as models, to show Heidi’s specialty of
adjusting children (and pregnant women, but Aaron and I couldn’t accommodate,
we’ll do a lot for our sessions but getting pregnant again is just not one of
them!) But we still got Lovey in some shots. And I can say that the adjustment
she gave me while posing was fantastic–even Aaron liked it and he is quite
picky when it comes to his chiropractic adjustments! I think we got some cute
shots for her to use, and we all had such fun together that I think we got a
great  new friend out of this job too! I love when that is one of the side
benefits.

This week is filled with bride meetings as we begin to book up next year’s
calendar- yay!!  And we’re working on prettying up the studio side of the house,
with new canvases and prints and hopefully some window treatments. (Why aren’t
they just called curtains anymore? Or are they? Maybe the limp dusty strips of fabric
hanging here now are called curtains, and what we need are
window treatments…hmmmm)

This weekend is two weddings!! One in Cape May and
one at our beloved own Pearl Buck, so next blog will just be chock full of
wedding shots for you!

Enjoy the final weeks of summer, soon the sunshine will ebb and the slight
scent of autumn will begin to fill the air….and then– it’s time for NEW
CLOTHES!! Wheeeee!!!

Love,

Cheryl & Aaron and their cherubic offspring

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