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Archive for May, 2010
Adrienne and Ryan’s Chicago Engagement Session
May 26, 2010Just for fun, here’s ANOTHER engagement shoot. It was a perfect morning, and e roamed around a park and spotted goslings! Another couple with ties to Boston and Chicago…. I will be the wedding photographer for Adrienne and Ryan’s autumn wedding which will be at an historic mansion. Adrienne is an artist and will be designing her fall wedding day theme around wheat and pumpkins.
Following their engagement session, they held their autumn wedding at Wilder Mansion which was featured on Middle of the Map Weddings! It was also featured on Bridal Banter blog.
Le Meridien Hotel Cambridge wedding sneak peak | Boston Wedding Photographer Heather Parker
May 25, 2010Years ago in the heart of Boston’s financial district, Le Meridien Hotel group owned an elegant European luxury hotel with a historic exterior that looks like the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome. Around 2003, the location was bought and rebranded as the Langham Boston Hotel. The red awnings on the outside are the same, but the interior has been updated. Fast forward a few years and Le Meridien brand gets back into the Boston area by buying the former Hotel @ MIT which is now known as Le Méridien Cambridge-MIT. It was renovated in the spring of 2009 with the beautiful Anderson Rooftop Garden perfect for outdoor rooftop-like ceremonies and cocktail hour, an adaptable loft, and updated wedding reception rooms including the 160 capacity Hunsaker Ballroom and the smaller Florence Luscomb Ballroom. This Cambridge hotel is also working on LEED certification to be a “green” hotel so they win in my book.
I was selected by John and Panle as their wedding photographer for their wedding held this past Saturday. Panle got ready at the Meridien, and wore a very classic, vintage wedding dress previously worn by her mother in law. The wedding ceremony was at the Ruggles Baptist Church and was translated in both English and Mandarin Chinese. After the wedding I hopped in the back seat (if you’d even call it that!) of a red Mini Cooper convertible John and Panle had rented from Zipcar for the wedding day. John had got a wedding photography permit for Boston Common so we were able to take photos without any hassle on their wedding day. For more information about wedding photography permits, click here. The fee is $50 for Boston residents, and $100 if you live anywhere else. After some time in the park, we headed down Mass Ave. to the Charles River to get a few skyline photos of the bride and groom on their wedding day. We returned to the hotel and Panle changed in Chinese tradition changed into her red qipao, 旗袍, or cheongsam. Cocktail hour was held on the rooftop garden at the hotel followed by a reception filled with accents of red, pink, orange, and the double happiness symbol 囍 along with some coordinating lighting design available by the hotel. Flower design was by my favorite Boston wedding florist, Winston Flowers, who also supplied flowers for Bonnie & Jeff’s wedding at the Taj Hotel.
This couple is mod and vintage!
May 23, 2010
It couldn’t have been a more perfect afternoon for Karen and Bob’s wedding. I met them just weeks ago for an engagement session under some of the most windy conditions I have experienced. I arrived to Karen’s parents house where she was wrapping up getting ready. Her bridesmaids wore hot pink dresses which coordinated perfectly with their vibrant bouquets.
As you can see below, the colors she chose were a saturated rainbow of complimentary colors such as pink, orange, green, and purple. I am seeing a trend in the use of such bold, exciting colors this year for bridal bouquets and bridesmaid flowers.
We arrived at the church and the ceremony began with Bob patiently waiting for his bride.
As you can see here, the church is modern and round, and light comes in through the ceiling rather than through stained glass at an altar.
After the ceremony mass, we left on a trolley to go take some photos before the cocktail hour and reception.
Indian Engagement Shoot in downtown Chicago
May 17, 2010I hadn’t met Kamini and Aum prior to their engagement shoot, but I will be photographing their multi-day Indian wedding. Aum was working in Boston for a well-known biotech. met his soon to be wife through mutual friends. They’ve hired a horse for their baraat and will have about six hundred guests to join them on their mandap and festivities. They had a proper engagement celebration back in Mumbai (Bombay), and opted to have an additional engagement shoot here in the States. I headed to downtown Chicago for this session. For a portion of our shoot, it was raining and its a good idea to make sure there is a backup indoor location in case of inclement weather. We photographed in one of the libraries.
At this particular location, there were some strict rules of where photography could happen, however we must have pushed the boundaries a bit because we got busted for taking a shot in front of an escalator. Actually, we kept getting busted and it was hard to keep a straight face for the miniscule things they were fussing about. I got in trouble for sitting on the floor… Even with the silliness at the library, I had a blast working with them. I have an indian wedding in just a few short days in Harvard Square Cambridge in just a few short days. Its exciting to be invited to take part in photographing such a diverse array of weddings coming up from same-sex celebrations to multicultural ceremonies.
We braved the drizzle and headed outside for some more options.
Emilia and Megan hired me as their wedding photographer for their upcoming big day. They scheduled an engagement session and scouted some interesting places. We found ourselves all helping each other climb seven foot walls and explored some great urban locations. During their shoot, we talked about some of their wedding day details including their plans for wedding reception lighting design, music, and some table centerpiece ideas. Emilia just finished getting her Masters degree and they now have more time to plan the remaining details of their wedding and were interested in Google Documents helpful wedding planning templates made possible for free by Style Me Pretty. The engagement session began in a rather desolate location where we found a red train car, endless crisscrossing railroad tracks, a bunch of graffiti, and lots of interesting textures to work with visually.
Intercontinental Hotel wedding photographer
May 14, 2010A few photos from a recent wedding…. the father lifting the veil in a photo caught my eye. No flash was used in this photo. Many churches have flash restrictions and though I don’t believe this particular one did, the available lighting was lovely and I got this shot without flash. The second photograph is at the Intercontinental Hotel which as a Chicago wedding venue, it has some great spots for photos of the bride and groom including a modern art galery on site, and a comtemporary lobby.
They are my favorite kind of couple: they’ve got an upcoming wedding at a rock ‘n roll music hall and scheduled an engagement session at a massive antique warehouse, which also happens to double as a wedding venue itself. I am really thrilled to be selected as the wedding photographer for such cool couples!
i am not sure what this thing is but its cool…
i love old little cars and if i am doing a photo shoot and see one, it WILL be incorporated into the shoot, just ask my NYC couple from the other day!
an easy last name to learn how to spell:
love letters
Garfield Park Conservatory Wedding Venue in Chicago
May 10, 2010Just a few weeks before their wedding in Chicago, Stacey and Steve got a nice workout running the world’s oldest annual road race together: the Boston Marathon. We collaborated on a time line for the wedding day, making sure to allocate time for creative photography around the city before their wedding ceremony began. They are on their honeymoon in Costa Rica, but I thought this would be a nice surprise for them when they get back with a few of my favorite photos from their wedding day.
Since their wedding, Stacey and Steve’s photos have widely published in Landlocked Bride, Wedding Belles, Beyond Beyond, Forget Me Knot Weddings, and Trendsetting Wedding. You can read Stacey & Steve’s wedding photography review here. If you would like to see another Garfield Park Conservatory wedding photography from another couple, click here.
Photographer: Heather Parker Photography
Caterer: Jewell Events Catering
Floral Designer: Roses by Lisa
Reception Venue: Garfield Park Conservatory
DJ: Toast and Jam
Makeup Artist: Kim Piech
This wedding was featured on:
Landlocked Bride (two part feature)
Garfield Park Conservatory Wedding in Chicago from heather parker on Vimeo.
In case you missed it, here are some highlights from the couple’s engagement session last year:
If you’ve never visited Chicago, Plensa Crown fountain is made up of glass bricks and behind them are video screens that show the thousands of faces one at a time. There are moments in each video where the person on display purses their lips and water actually spouts from the display, spitting the water out.
