Be Creative Photography Blog – Weddings and Portraits by Brooke & Eric Lagstein » Be Creative Photography Blog, Wedding and Portrait Photographer by Eric & Brooke Lagstein in Wyckoff, NJ

Congratulations to Shari and Craig and their new family!  It was no coincidence that Shari and I reconnected.  I used to work with her at Scholastic and while she knew about our business it wasn’t until she friended me on Facebook that we began discussing the possibility of us photographing her wedding.  They called on Valentines Day and hired us for their wedding March 7th!  I am so glad they decided to have us photograph their wedding.  Their event was filled with some of the nicest and most fun-loving people I have ever had the pleasure to be around.  Their wedding was also very unique in that they had many touching Jewish traditions that we do not get to see that often.  I absolutely love the traditions of a Jewish ceremony. The event took place at Bayards in New York City.  Bayards is on the most beautiful block surrounded by cobblestone streets and lovely cafes.  While the bride and her ladies were getting ready Eric took Craig and his daughters out for photos.  The lighting was perfect to simply walk along the streets and capture some touching moments.

Shari, along with her mom and sisters, got ready with all the excitement and anticipation that could only be found during pre-wedding celebrations.  I loved this moment when Shari peeked over her shoulder to admire her dress.

Shari and her mom busting with excitement.

We captured some lovely portraits of Shari taken before the ceremony. 

I swear that at every wedding I say that this bride is the happiest bride I’ve ever photographed.  It’s very true – but Shari had a smile on her face and sparkle in her eye that would warm your heart.  We’re so happy for her!

Eric is loving our new tilt shift lens so much that I haven’t even had a chance to try it yet, geesh, what a hog!  Here is one image he captured before the festivities began.  The Rabbi and Shari’s Dad are looking over the Ketubah.  Great job Eric!

The Bedeken is one aspect of a Jewish ceremony that we only get to see a couple times a year.  I am the worst at translating these traditions so please excuse my description.  You can google Bedeken to learn more.  The festivities began with the bride and groom in separate rooms.  Shari was seated on a regal chair with her mother by her side and room full of joyful guests.  Craig was in another room celebrating with the men and signing the Ketubah.  After the Ketubah is signed musicians begin playing music and start the parade.  Everyone claps and sings together as Craig is joyfully paraded in to see his bride.  It is such a touching moment and always brings tears to my eyes.

Isn’t this moment just to die for?

The ceremony room and Chuppah were absolutely beautiful.  They chose beautiful golden, copper tones.  If you have ever been to our house you would know that we love orange.

I love this photo of Shari’s 4 sisters, her niece, and Craig’s two daughters.  The entire family was so happy for them and the day was filled with laughter.

There were so many beautiful portraits of the bride and groom after the ceremony.  It was so hard to choose which ones to give you a sneak peek of.  I basically had to just close my eyes and pick out two.  Both lovely moments that capture the old world feel of the streets in this neighborhood.

The last wedding I photographed I was pregnant.  It was quite freeing to not have to feel so protective of my body.  I thought to myself, OK, this is just me now, I can take some risks and not be such a wuss. That being said, the Horrah was wild!  This ladies Horrah was one of the craziest I have ever seen.  At one point I stood on a chair in the distance because I was afraid for my life in that circle.  I also didn’t want to knock any one out with my big old camera and elbows.  These women were so pumped up with adrenaline and joy that they were fearless!

Eric never has an issue fending for himself during the Horrah so I can’t speak for him but I know he was very excited about what he captured.  I chose to show this image of Craig and his dad because I remember the Horrah at my own wedding, a moment when it was just my mom and I in the middle of this circle of craziness.  It felt like we were together standing still, enjoying the moment, as the world spun crazy around us. 

I love this photo, Shari is holding on for dear life as Craig is casually enjoying the ride with a glass of water.

So once again, congratulations to Shari and Craig.  May your lives together be filled with two fold the love and happiness that I experienced on your wedding day.

Thank you for choosing Be Creative Photography!

Ceremony & Reception:  Bayards
Florist:  Flower Pot Florist
Stationary Designer:  Ann Fisher
Hair:  Shuki at Warren Tricomi Salon

Iris and Kevin were one of my favorite couples of the year.  They are two of the nicest people you will ever meet, genuine and unique, and they have amazing pets.  This event was a CELEBRATION!  Iris and Kevin are madly in love, committed to eachother, and wanted to throw a monster party to celebrate their love with family and friends.  And best of all, part of doing a “celebration” instead of a wedding, is you make up the rules!!  Iris wore a BLUE DRESS, yes, you heard me right, a BLUE DRESSS!!!  It was stunning, I am thinking more people should be throwing “celebrations! 

Iris’s mom was very sweet and very quiet.  I just loved during the getting ready when she helped Iris, a huge grin emerged.

I LOVE THIS DRESS!!!!

Aren’t these two so cute together.  Great style, beautiful smiles and they go so well together!

Bryant park is such a great place for pictures!  When we set up the timeline together, we left plenty of time to walk around and explore.

What a great alternative to the traditional wedding band.  If you are a fan of tatoos check out Jess and Ralphs wedding from years ago.

Iris’ dress had such beautiful movement.  I shock myself noticing “movement” in dress, haha.  This is Brooke’s influence on me.  Must be all that Project Runway we’ve been watching.

The family started to gather at the front of the Bryant Park Restaurant, when we skooted by them everyone cheered with glee.

Her dress was so flowy, I had to get a great walking shot.

Iris and Kevins beloved children had their little shout out at the wedding too.  If we had Maggie at our wedding you better believe she would have plastered all over.  Heck, she probably would have been there with us.

This little boy deserves his own shoot.

I’m going to be posting more pictures like this on the blog.  It’s a very simple picture of Kevin’s mom.  But this is the kind of picture, after it’s all said and done, that has the greatest value.  How many people have a great picture of their mom laughing hysterically?  I wish I had one from my wedding.

They prepared a terrific sideshow, it was emotional and funny.  Loved it!

What characters!  Andrew Andrew were great!

I couldn’t help posting this, too funny!

Their friend put on an amazing performance.  At one point he was playing multiple instruments at once, very entertaining and it sounded great.

Below is the email we received from Iris and Kevin a few days after I delivered their pictures.  Iris Kevin, thank you for choosing Be Creative Photography, and thank you for taking the time to send the email below, it means way more then you can imagine!

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Hi Eric

WOW!!!  Kevin and I LOVE all the pictures and especially the slideshow!  We literally stayed up until 3 in the morning on Friday night looking through all of the pictures.  And fortuitously, my mom came into the city this weekend, and we showed her and my brother and sister in law all of the pictures last night as well, which of course, they all loved.  Everyone has been highly impressed with the artistry and as well as the quality of the pictures and the speed with which you managed to turn them around.  I loved the beautiful pictures that you got as well, of our beloved cat and dog, even the one of them in the same shot! (the cat really seems to hate the dog as the new interloper).  I also LOVED that you got pictures of all of the amazing food and dessert!  I didn’t get to eat hardly anything during the entire festivities, but heard rave reviews from all of our guests – it’s nice to have beautiful pictures of the food and the space as well, I might add, as part of the lasting images of the day.  We also love the pictures that you got of our awesome DJ duo – aren’t they such characters?  We are going to send them some of the pictures you took of them – I bet they would love to see them.

We have been so very happy that we found you for our special day – you approached our day with cheerful enthusiasm (despite the threatening rain, which fortunately held off!) and fresh creativity.  I was also impressed with how well you had scoped out the scenery and surroundings in advance, which added, I’m sure, to what was already a very long day.  Allen, your second shooter, was a pleasure to work with as well, so please extend to him our gratitude and thanks as well.  We are going to recom
mend you to all of our friends, and hope to be lucky enough to have future occasions for you to come do additional sessions for us.

Sincerely

Iris & Kevin

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Reception Venue:  Bryant Park Grill Restaurant in New York City
DJ:  Andrew Andrew
Lighting and Decor:  Eclipse Entertainment
Hair & Makeup:  Butterfly Studio Stacey- Hair, Francesca-Makeup
Shoes:  Stuart Weitzman
Dress:  Oscar de la Renta
Assistant Shooter:  Allan Zepeda

Joann and Joe had an amazing wedding at the Tarrytown House Estate.  Not only were they such a wonderful couple but their family and friends were incredible!  One of our couples from 3 years ago referred them to us.  I want to thank Maura and Mike for sending Joanne and Joe our way.  No wonder I enjoyed them so much.  Good people keep good company.

Joanne is a beautiful person and a gorgeous bride.  She was so excited to put her dress on and so darn cute I wanted to pinch her.

Dressed and absolutely gorgeous! A few minutes after sunset the sky was amazing!

I love this shot because of the layers of action.   It’s a great example of using both the foreground and the background in a composition.

It was very cold outside so we had to do all the pictures inside.  I found a room with streetlight spilling in through this seemingly uninteresting window.  By turning out the  lights in  the reception room I was able to create this. Their dog Olly is so important to them, they had a friend bring him for a two minute photo shoot.  Olly posed like a pro! Joe is such a sweet guy.  All night, whenever he was busting with happiness, he didn’t know what to do, so he would just kiss her.  And what can be better then Joann’s reaction,  The reception room had a warm, beautiful glow, thanks to these cascading centerpieces. Love these creative table numbers!  Olly continues to be the star! Joe and his Grandma.  Simple pictures like this are what gives me motivation and purpose. Nuff said!

Joanne and Joe, thank you for choosing Be Creative Photography.  Wishing you both many happy years!

Wedding & Reception:  Tarrytown House Estate in Tarrytown, NY
Event Manger:  Destination Hotels
Reception Music:  ETA Music
Floral Design:  Arcadia Floral
Hair:  Little Hair Shoppe
Cake:  Sweet Lisa’s
Makeup:  NY Prostyle
Assitant Shooter:  Zlatko Batistich

From Jen and John – to Meghan and Nate – to Ali and Eric;  a lovely train of referrals from one wonderful wedding to the next.  Thank you to all the friends and families that have been a part of all three of these weddings.  We’ve grown to know and love each and every one of you.

While Ali was getting ready there were some looming clouds above which caused a bit of stress.  I love how Ali’s little cousin is massaging her as the makeup artist is styling her.  Everyone loves to help a bride!

Ali is a very talented seamstress, she was able to work on her own dress as well as all the girls.  I love this image because it is so Ali.  I want to thank Ali for re-upholstering the cushions of the glider we have in the babies room.  She did such an awesome job!  If anyone needs any sewing projects taken care of, Ali is your girl, contacts us and we can give you her contact info.
This is Megan – Ali’s cousin and one of our brides from a few years ago.  She is holding up the issue of (201) Magazine that her wedding was published in.  I was shocked when I saw her because believe it or not we did not even know that her wedding was published!  I submitted the images but never heard wether or not they made it in.  Megan knew I would be here so she brought it along to show me, Yippee!  Gotta love this shirt that the Best Man was wearing.  Of course Ali made the BM patch for Best Man – what a fun touch.  While the guys were playing horseshoe the girls were getting their hair and makeup done.  Don’t you wish we girls could all get ready as quickly as guys. I love this shot by Eric.  Each of the guys is hastily getting themselves dressed.  Notice how Eric, the groom, knocked the light and almost broke it!!  lol We always synchronize our cameras so that the photos are consecutive which is great for story telling purposes as well as making our job of editing easier.  We love to see the timeline of the “getting ready” photos.  Usually the girls are getting ready for hours and the boys are still just sitting around, watching tv, playing games, or sometimes still sleeping.  On this day Ali and Eric were putting their shoes on at the exact same moment. A beautiful moment of Ali fluffing her veil right before she walked down the aisle. One photographer is always in the front at the alter ready to capture the front of the bride coming down the aisle.  The other is always in the back with the bride catching the quiet moments before she walks down the aisle and then (Brooke’s Favorite) the back of the dress going down the aisle.  This day was especially wonderful because the guests all had terrific reactions. The first time we photographed at this church Brooke was kicked out of the balcony area.  She still got a great shot and wouldn’t you know, they had no problem letting her up there this time.  They didn’t realize how beautiful their church was from this vantage point.  Now they know and it’s so nice to have a view of the full scene. It’s official! Eric and Ali are very involved with their church and the youth group.  It was important for Eric to capture a shot of all his groomsmen with the church as the backdrop.  The timeline was very tight, but I was really pleased to see the photo come together. This is one of our favorites, the party bus is always a good time. Ali and Eric followed the latest trend with a choreographed first dance.  My favorite part of this image is Ali’s shoe so perfectly pointed up. Brooke recently won an award for this father – daughter dance image.
Eric and his brothers dancing with Mom. 

Nice Air!

Below is the amazing letter we received from Eric & Ali…

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Dear Brooke and Eric,

As a photographer myself and my wife being in the Art industry, we had a keen sense of what we were looking for in our wedding pictures. We wanted our pictures to reflect our love of art and fine photography and we can easily say that you delivered!

Your use of light, depth of field, and unique camera angles provided the artistic look we were looking for and your incredible feel for emotion and deep understanding of the way weddings flow provided the photojournalistic coverage we wanted. Your pictures accurately reflect every part of our day from the relaxed chill session I had with my guys before we got dressed, to the tense and harried emotions that permeated my wife’s home as the sky’s opened up and the rains began to fall, to the still and silent moments we were able to spend together in each other’s arms blocking out the world around us.

One of our favorite aspects of your business is the hands-on, personalized experience that each one of your customers gets from you. From day one, we knew you would be the perfect photographers for us. You spent your time explaining the whole process to us and made us feel completely comfortable with you. You answered all of our questions and helped us to plan out our day. You let us know when we were being unrealistic in our expectations and yet pushed us to think creatively. Your guidance and advice were most certainly a significant help in our planning and without you, we undoubtedly would not have been able to enjoy our day as much as we did. You calmed Ali when she began getting upset about the weather and laughed with us when our priest forgot how to conduct our personalized ring ceremony! Hiring you not only provided excellent pictures, but also the peace of mind to sit back, relax, and enjoy our day. We started our relationship as professionals, but I feel that we ended as friends.

We loved working with you on developing ideas for our pictures before the wedding, allowing you to guide us through the day itself, and working with you to develop an unbelievably beautiful album. We can not thank you enough! We look forward to recommending you to everyone we know and hiring you again to take pictures for us in the future. You’re the best!

All our love,
Eric & Alison Erler

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Thank you Ali and Eric, family and friends!  We always have the greatest time with you all. Best Wishes from Be Creative Photography!

Ceremony:  St. Paul’s R.C. Church
Reception:  Rockleigh Country Club
Band:  The Guthrie Brothers
Florist:  Peter’s Florist
Lighting:  Pro Sho Productions