Gilfillan Farm Wedding

With snow on the ground here in early December I’m looking back fondly on Kate and Ryan’s Gilfillan Farm wedding in late summer.

Changing Plans

This year has been nuts for everybody planning an event. Couples have either opted to postpone so that they can have a large celebration. Or they’ve modified their plans to meet the conditions that COVID has imposed on us. Kate and Ryan opted to change their plans. They’d originally had a big wedding in a hotel ballroom in Pittsburgh. They kept their ceremony at the beautiful St. Bernard Church in Mt. Lebanon and moved their reception to Gilfillan Farm, an outdoor venue – where that amazing red barn in the photo above is located.

Getting Ready

Kate got ready at home with the help of her bridesmaids.

You don’t want to mess up your lipstick, so straws come in handy for drinking champagne. The gold-and-white paper straws tied with gold jute were a classy touch.

Bridesmaids fuel up with Crustables before leaving for the church. Got to keep your energy levels up kids!

Some details include a custom embroidered shirt and blue and gold touches.

Ryan fixes his bow tie (photo by Lisa) while getting ready at a hotel. Kate looked fantastic with her elegant pearls and veil.

Ceremony at St. Bernards Church

The couple wanted to share a prayer before the wedding ceremony got underway. A side door at St. Bernard’s was the perfect spot. Thumbs up!

Kate and her mom Michelle have a moment of smiles and tears before walking down the aisle. I love it when I can send my second photographer to the front of the church for the processional. That gives me the ability to hang out in the back for moments like this.

Michelle and Kate walk down the aisle at St. Bernard Church (photo by Lisa).

This photo will date the post for folks looking at it in the future. 2020 was the year of masks. I’ve seen many different takes on how to approach this necessary safety accessory and this was one of the better ones. The couple embraced the requirement by having color coordinated gold masks made especially for the bridal party.

Kate and Ryan were all smiles as they walked down the aisle at the end of their ceremony.

St. Bernard has a beautiful courtyard off to the side of the church. The architectural elements and stonework are so lovely. The sun is on the other side of the church in the afternoon so the light is easy, too.The light in the open shade has a soft quality to it that makes the colors saturated.

Off to South Park for More Portraits

Cheers! The bridal party took a limousine bus to South Park where we’d picked out a spot for portraits.

The bridal party looked great in blue and gold!

These guys are naturals. Seriously, photographing them during portraits was pretty effortless. I had some ideas and they had great ideas of their own. We collaborated to make photos that showed how they are together as a couple. It was a lot of fun!

I really loved this bridge. it was a busy path but with some shallow depth of field you can’t really see everything else going on around them. Plus the quality of the light under the canopy of trees gives the photos a painterly feeling.

Like I said earlier, Kate and Ryan originally planned to have an indoor wedding at a hotel ballroom. COVID-19 meant that they had to make some changes. That resulted in a tented reception at Gilfillan Farm, which you’ll agree was really lovely. It’s a historic farm on Washington Road in Upper St. Clair that makes you feel like you’re nowhere near a busy commercial area. There’s a lot more to explore here and I am really looking forward to shooting more Gilfillan Farm weddings. So give me a call folks!

This is the part of the story where I interrupted the couple during their cocktail hour because I was getting really excited about the light. The sun was setting over the hills to the west and I knew that barn was going to be an amazing spot with its red, peeling paint and the green grass in front of it. So I begged them to put down their amazing hors d’oeuvres (yay Atria’s!) and indulge me for a minute. To their credit, Kate and Ryan didn’t hesitate.