the blog

I get this inquiry from this girl named Kari basically sharing with us that he brothers know Patrick from Calvert Hall and she’s a wedding planner and has wanted to hire us from the first time she found us. When you get that kind of inquiry you know it’s gonna be a fun wedding. Mutual friends, someone who already understands this crazy wedding industry and who loves our work.

When we met Kari and Tom, we realized that we were in for a real treat. These guys are like forever friends, the kind that come over to your house just to hang out. We actually got to know Tom a lot more than most our grooms because of online gaming. He’s even friends with my brothers now which is hilarious.

We are so excited to share this wedding for lots of reasons! First off, Amanda and Dillon have become really cool friends. Though we don’t see each other super often, Amanda and Maggie get to run into each other at pretty cool events like Cake and Whiskey, a women in business networking event.

Amanda is a Fashion Designer so you know her wedding was going to have lots of detail, personality and flare! Showing up at her parents house that day was so special for a lot of reasons. Upon entering the house, Amanda had her beautiful BHLDN dress on a bodice as she finalized her final touches on her dress. After a dress fiasco with a different boutique, Amanda finally finding her dream dress at BHLDN but she decided she was going to alter the dress herself. On the back of the dress she added a really cool element that almost looks like wings. We loved it! The details we had for styling their invitation and a really cool ring box were some of my favorites. Especially her parents coffee table. Wait until you see the colors and how awesome it worked with her their details.

It’s Friday and we are about to be sharing a handful of weddings from the past month. We have officially entered fall and winter wedding season. We have 17 weddings left between now and Christmas, which is only 14 weeks away!

Today on the blog we are sharing Tracy and Patricks August wedding. They had a beautiful ceremony at Loyola Chapel and a packed dance floor reception at Preston Hall. Tracy and Patrick just came to our home last Saturday night for their gallery reveal so we are pretty excited to share this just a couple days after they received their images!

They met on a Friday night at the bar where John works, Ropewalk Tavern in Fed Hill. They immediately hit it off and spent most of the evening together getting to know each other and dancing. They lost touch for a couple weeks only to reunite and they’ve been together since. Olivia is a horse lover, and they both have a mutual love for their dog, Slurpee, who gets the award as Maggie’s favorite dog name ever because of her love for Slurpees.

Dear Patrick and Stephanie,

We don’t even know where to start with your wedding. For one, pretty sure Stephanie you have one my favorite wedding dress to date. Taking it out of those bags to hang up had us like “WHAT?!” and all day, watching you walk, it was like “dang, what a babe. Can’t believe she’s one of our brides.”

Your demeanor, your gentleness and your gracefulness came so naturally, it’s so evident in your photos. When your girls saw you, when your dad saw you, when your mom helped you get ready, it just embodied sweetness and beauty. You guys are a classic bride and groom.

Patrick, my Patrick said the same, but way more masculine haha. What a stud. Thanks for trusting us. Your encouragement throughout the day reminds us of why we do this, why we spend hours with strangers and why we personally get to know our brides and grooms. 

We left your venue 12 hours later thinking, yep, dream client. Not because of your jimmy choo shoes, even though they are killer, and not because of the vendors you picked (they were killer too) but because you wanted us there. You wanted us to do what we do best. We had a blast, we felt empowered, we felt like we could create, try new things and really let us rock and roll. Not literally even though we love to dance haha.

At a bridal show last year that I did solo, a girl and her mom walk up to me and I’m like “no way!!!” It had been YEARS since I had seen Tess, as we went to Bryn Mawr around the same time and graduated high school just a couple years apart. I hadn’t seen her since then. I met Ray that night and we were so excited when they reached out again about hiring us for their wedding. We were so pumped and honored!! 

If there’s two people that just go together, it’s Chelsea and Matthew. We met these guys at a Bridal Show when Chelsea told me that her photographer bailed. Her dad, little did I know, was watching us from afar and approached me and said “we want to hire you. I’ve been watching and we love how you deal with people.” They literally booked us that night. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into. I’m gonna stop for a second and say, Off Beat is exactly who these people are. They aren’t into trends, they don’t care about fame. But what they do care about is those they love, their heirlooms, their music, and of course, their mopeds.

When I think about this wedding, all I can do is smile. I drove with our Bride and Groom, Jenny and Phil after their ceremony, just moments after saying I Do, and they just said “Thank You.” I’m like, guys, the day isn’t even over and besides, you JUST GOT MARRIED! Woot Woot! This day was such a gem for us this May. We had wedding after wedding of rain, which as you all can imagine, is a wrench thrown into months and months of planning for our couples and their vendors. Things shift day of and everyone has to roll with it. Well, every couple handles it differently and these guys just rolled with it. They didn’t really care what the rain would do to the day because they decided it wasn’t about the rain, the day was about the two of them enjoying their people, their family, and mainly each other. We have proof that they had a blast at their wedding. Even their guests had a ball! But let’s back the day up.

the fact that Elliott proposed at a Lighthouse in Cape May at the beach is so incredible and sweet. It’s permanent. That place is sentimental for a number of reasons. The love addiction in us says Lighthouse = A guide, a constant, a place of hope and safety, a place that realigns direction. How awesome that their engagement started at a lighthouse. Amy and Elliot, Patrick and I honestly can’t wait for your wedding. We are excited to come alongside you in the months to come and share life with you and share that marriage isn’t always calm waters, but at times stressful and heavy seas.

When we meet people at bridal shows, we really don’t know if they will really hire us that week, in the weeks to come, or in the years to come. And then we get inquiries from WeddingWire, TheKnot, and of course our personal fav… Instagram. This is where it gets really cool. So Alison and Alex found us on Instagram, man, the power of social media is no joke. When we met these two, Patrick and I both were like “oh man… they are awesome!” And like all our consults and initial meetings, we thank them and tell them we’ll follow up in about a week, and they walk out our door. We let all our potential clients have a few days to look through pricing, packages, and really make a decision on their photography investment. Well, in just 48 hours, these two emailed us and asked us to be their wedding photographers! We were thrilled and so so excited.