Shawna + Jake | married

I love all different sizes of weddings, but I have to say that small, intimate weddings hold an extra special place in my heart since my husband and I opted to have less than 20 people at our wedding (6 great years on September 14th!).

Most intimate weddings tend to be a little more relaxed and because of the diminutive guest list; each person there plays a very important role in the couple’s lives and I usually get some wonderful glimpses of not only the couple’s life, but their loved ones as well…this was very true of Shawna and Jake’s wedding.

Shawna and Jake found a hidden gem called the Levi Deal Mansion nestled in the Laurel Highlands for the location of their wedding.  If you are planning an intimate wedding outside of Pittsburgh, it’s worthwhile checking this place out.  Also, from the looks of the rooms and from Shawna and Jake’s reviews, this could be a nice place for an anniversary get-away as well.

I thought that the toile duvet on the bed would make a lovely backdrop for Shawna’s flowers - I loved the light that the lamp was casting on the one part of the bed, so I used that for lighting to showcase the flowers.

Shawna and Jake had masses of white candles in different shapes and sizes lighting the various rooms of the mansion - you can see several of them in the background behind the cake…it gave a very cozy look to the entire place.

This image was taken during their ceremony while one of their parents were speaking - I love the closeness that you see in the way that they are holding hands and Jake has his arm around Shawna.

I don’t often get the opportunity to do a romance session with my couple after dark, but because of the way that the light and darkness reveals and conceals, I think that the images have a very romantic look to them.
 

With just a slight movement while taking these images back to back, the picture has a completely different focal point - in one, it’s Jake and in the other, it’s Shawna.

There were several heartfelt toasts during the evening - this was taken as Shawna’s dad raised his glass to the couple.
 

When I was talking with Jake, he mentioned that the date was selected because there was a full moon that evening.  As I was leaving, the moon had finally climbed high enough that it could be seen nicely over the trees that were across the street.  This is the type of view that Shawna and Jake would have seen out of their window from their room that evening.