Baltimore Wedding Firsts

on Sep 14 in Baltimore Wedding, Wedding

I had a few firsts at the wedding I completed recently.  This was my first Baltimore wedding, and it was great.  The ceremony and reception were at the Walters Art Gallery.  The venue was beautiful.  It was like having a wedding in a Roman Sculpture Garden.

This was also my first time getting to work with Lisa Nelson, of Elegant Event Design.  She was such a joy to work with and she did an amazing job of both planning the wedding, and designing the whole event.

I asked Lisa about her experience designing this event for the couple, and she had this to say:

“It was a lot of work - a lot.  But it was really refreshing to be able to see everything come together, from the monogram, programs, menus, favors, linens, food, look and feel.

Most importantly, there was a feeling of love in the air.  Everyone loved everyone else so much - and it made it that much more intimate and special.”

I have to agree with Lisa.  It was a beautiful day.

Lisa recently interviewed me for her blog.  You can read my answers to her well phrased questions here.

This was my first time meeting and working with Randy Woods, of Wicked Willow.  They did an amazing job with the floral arrangements for the ceremony and the reception.  The flower design really made the event, and it all looked great as you can see in the amazing photo.

The photo is compliments of Rachel Smith, who was also a great person to work with, and a first time for me as well.  She was easy to work with and seemed to be everywhere the day of the event - a good thing in the case of your photographer.  You can see more of her work on her website.  Click here to learn more about Rachel Smith.

DC Green Wedding Meeting

on Sep 09 in Wedding

Today the DC Green Wedding Consortium met to discuss our plans for the next year.  Katie Martin, of Elegance & Simplicity, started the meeting off by telling the group about compost methods used by Occasions Caterers, one of our newer members.  We went on to discuss the Earth Day wedding for 2010 and what members have committed to offering their services in order to raise awareness of Green wedding practices.

So far we know that Ralph Alswang and Andrea Jacobson will be photographing the Earth Day wedding.  Jessica Pi Productions will once again be providing wedding video services for the event.  You can see last year’s Green Wedding video here.  Debbie Delardi, of Cakes By Design, will be providing some more delicious cake to the lucky couple.  With Carola Myers doing makeup, and Elegant Hair by Giselle doing hair, the bride will look beautiful.  Ampa Events will lend some decorative and practical touches to the already swanky Decatur House.  Aaron Couch, of Disc Jockeys on Call will be keeping the party going with his deejay services.  And, of course, Elegance & Simplicity will be providing the floral arrangements.

We wrapped up the meeting by getting to know one another a little better.  Present at the meeting but not previously mentioned were Stephanie Ward, of Punk Rock Bride; Nicole Wolf, of Sota Dzine; Michelle Slaughter of Herpresign; Jim Burch; Ashlee Van Veen of Documentary Associates; and Ann Cooper of Table Manners.

European Style Floral Design

on Sep 03 in Wedding, Wedding Flowers

A good friend of mine, and a great florist, Christi Lopez, was recently awarded a scholarship to attend a European Style Floral Design class taught by world-renowned floral designer, Els Hazenberg.

You can read more about her experience, and view some photos from the class at: The Bliss Blog

Click here to find out more about Christi and her shop, Bergeron’s Flowers & Events.

Corporate Has Its Charm

on Aug 28 in Corporate Video, Wedding

When I am not shooting weddings, I run a corporate video company called Capture Video, Inc. We create training videos, to help companies deliver a consistent message to all their employees, and marketing videos, to show at gala events, sales presentations, in trade shows or for use on the web.

Here’s a Sample from Capture Video

So, what does that have to do with weddings?  In other words, why should you care?

My dual businesses help me to be more dynamic in both fields.  Corporate video production is so often about following a script – having everything written out in advance.  But when I get on location, I often see opportunities to get the shot that wasn’t in the script or on the shotlist.  I have learned from live events to be fast and accurate, and to think, creatively, on my feet.

My corporate experience, on the other hand, has taught me to think on the spot about the end result.  Knowing, in advance, how I want to tell the story, ensures that I am getting the shots I need to put together a wonderful wedding video that will make sense and play like a well scripted movie – even though we all know live events are not run by a script!

For Fourth of July weekend, when most people were roasting hot dogs and drinking beer, I was working.  Not that I am complaining.  I had a great time.  I was hired by the Town of Leesburg to videotape their 4^th of July Celebrations for a promo video.  I have my friend Bob Merhaut to thank for that job.

Bob is a photographer who, like me, wears two hats.  He does amazing commercial work.  This photo of the Wine Kitchen is just one example.  I have seen his work used in some great marketing pieces, and a lot of people I know have him to thank for their corporate headshots.

Bob has a flip side to him too.  It really no surprise to  see that his wedding work has that same flare of creativity to it as his commercial work.  The man’s got talent.  And he is a really sweet guy.  He brings a lot of joy to his work - and who doesn’t want a happy photographer on their wedding day?

I have known Bob for many years and have been happy to work with him and recommend him – for both wedding and corporate work.

Click here to see more of his work.

Flowers at a Garden

on Aug 13 in Wedding, Wedding Flowers

I just completed a great wedding video for Cristina and Ben, who got married this summer at Meadowlark Gardens, in Vienna.  As usual, the Atrium was a great venue for a wedding and fortunately we had the perfect weather for an outdoor ceremony.

Cristina and Ben were great to work with.  You can view the video we did for them below.

A Wedding at Meadowlark Gardens from Jessica Piscitelli on Vimeo.

Cristina and Ben had this to say after receiving their DVDs:

“From our first meeting, we felt very comfortable with Jessica. We did not meet with any other videographers because we knew she would do an outstanding job. Throughout the planning process she was very flexible and easy to work with, quick to respond to e-mails, and on the day of our wedding, was very unobtrusive, fun, and professional. Once we viewed our DVD for the first time, I cried at least three times! She captured every single moment that I remembered and cherished from that day and did it with seamless transitions, perfect matching to the music, and such class! We are very happy with her work and would recommend her to anyone considering a videographer for any special occasion.”

Gail Dobberfuhl, of Blooms in Reston, was kind enough to refer me for wedding videography.  I have worked a lot of weddings in which Blooms provided the flowers, and I always fall in love with the bouquets!  Gail has been listed as one of the area’s best florists by Washingtonian Magazine for the past several years, and you can really tell why when you’ve seen her flower arrangements.  Reston Floral Designs now owns Blooms and their new name is Blooms Reston Floral Design.  You can check out their website at BloomsReston.com

In addition to working with a beautiful bride and groom, getting to capture a great venue with great décor, I had the added pleasure of working with a fun, real, and natural photographer who I always have a great time working with.  You can see more of her work here: marthafitzsimon.com

Or contact Martha FitzSimon Photography - Real. Natural. Fun.  - at 703.273.0077

Lastly, I got to meet a new planner, well, new to me.  Lisa Borchert, from Detail By Detail was the wedding planner that day.  It’s always great to meet new people and the wedding couldn’t have been nicer, so you know she had something to do with that.

Northern Virginia’s Finest Wedding Professionals

on Jul 22 in Wedding

Photo by Alexander Morozov.

I am lucky enough - and I guess well liked enough? - to be a member of a few prestigious wedding groups.  One of them, the Bliss Collection, otherwise known as Northern Virginia’s Finest Wedding Professionals, recently rebranded with a new website and new look.  Check it out at: www.theblisscollection.com.

I worked on the rebrand and redesign as part of the web committee and was happy to work with Andrew Fisher, of Eiffelfish, once again.  Andrew also designed the Jessicapi website, and I was so happy with the work he did, that I recommended him to Bliss when it was time for our facelift.  If you know of anyone looking for a new logo or website, I would recommend checking out Eiffelfish.com.

I am happy to be a member of the Bliss Collection.  I would recommend any and all of the vendors in the group.  If you are looking for a great cake person, photographer, jeweler, deejay, or most anything else wedding related, Bliss is a great place to start.  As always, please feel free to ask me for recommendations when we meet.  I am happy to tell you exactly why the people I refer are the people you will love to work with!

Photo by David Madison.

A Double Booked Saturday

on Jul 01 in Wedding

This past Saturday, Jessica Pi Productions had a few shoots to handle.  I was off at Meadowlark Gardens myself.  More on that later.  We had a corporate shoot - which you can learn more about on my corporate website Capture Video, Inc. And we had another wedding at the Decatur House.

Alexander Morozov, one of my associates whom I have known and been working with for 4 or so years now, made me a little jealous.  While I had a great day myself, he got to work with Katie Martin, of Elegance & Simplicity, and Jennifer Domenick, of Love Life Images.  These are two of my favorite women in the industry.  Whenever Katie Martin plans a wedding, you know it’s going to be beautiful and everything is going to run like clock work.  And Jennifer’s photos are always great, but she’s just also a pleasure to work with.

To top it all off, the reception was at the Decatur House.  It’s such a great venue and I haven’t been there in weeks!

Alexander had a great time, and he really captured a beautiful wedding.  Now I just have to edit all that footage together - not from the two weddings of course!  Just the 6 hours of footage that Alexander got of a beautiful ceremony and a great cast, setting, and behind the scenes geniuses.

Photo Session Video

on Jun 07 in Wedding

I recently finished editing David and Dana’s wedding video.  One of the questions I most often get is what do you (the videographer) do during the photo session?  Here’s an example:

As Dana and David worked with two wonderful photographers - Tom Van Veen and Jennifer Domenick - we had a lot more material to work with.

Jennifer Domenick, of Love Life Images, and I waited for Dana and David to arrive in their pedi-cab.  Jennifer got some great pictures of the bride and groom in the pedi-cab as well as some awesome pictures in the Decatur House.

You can read more about Jennifer’s coverage of this wedding on her blog.

We had some time, before cocktail hour, to go for a walk in the park and get some shots with the White House in the background.  Tom Van Veen, of Documentary Associates, and I walked around and got some candid images of the bride and groom, as well as this picture that Tom took before they walked back into the Decatur House to start their reception.  You can see some additional photos on the Documentary Associate’s blog.

I don’t direct the action during a photo session.  I let the photographers take on that job.  But I do capture it.  There are a lot of moments of movement, even during a photo session, that are fun to capture and see again in the future.

Why Associate Videographers are Great!

on May 27 in Wedding

This past Saturday night I threw a surprise birthday party for my boyfriend.  I took him Kart racing!  It was a lot of fun.

This same past Saturday night, Jessica Pi Productions worked with Sharon Becker, of Les Classique Events, LLC, to provide ceremony only coverage at Christ Church of Alexandria for Tom and Margaret Reed’s wedding.

How did we manage to be in two places at once, you ask?  Simple.  My associate, Michael Alvarez, videotaped the ceremony while I was out having fun.

Christ Church had a rule that kept Michael in the balcony for the duration of the ceremony, so you can see from the wedding video clip of the vows how important it is to use professional wireless microphones when covering your wedding.  It was a beautiful ceremony and I know the bride and groom will be happy years later when they are able to watch it again and hear how the bride’s voice cracked as she said her vows.

Unfortunately, I didn’t personally get to work with Sharon Becker again.  I have worked with her on several weddings in the past, and it is always a pleasure.  With Les Classique Events coordinating, Mike had all the information about where to be, what to cover, and when to arrive and leave, without ever having to bother the bride and groom.

You can find out more about Les Classique Events at www.lesclassiqueeventsllc.com

Wedding Planners make everything better

on May 21 in Wedding

As a wedding videographer, I have to go with the flow on the wedding day.   One thing that makes my job easier, and that ALWAYS makes the day flow smoother, is when I get to work with a wedding planner.

I know a lot of great wedding planners, but I am excited to be working with Jennifer Arezzo, of A Simple Wish event planning, on an upcoming wedding.  It’s always nice to be recommended, but it’s especially nice when a great wedding planner refers you, because you know it’s going to be a terrific wedding to be involved in!

We have worked with Jennifer several times in the past.  Two “A Simple Wish” weddings, Bill and Satee and Elena and Spencer,  are featured on my portfolio page.  Contact me if you’d like to see a longer version of their respective wedding videos!

Bill and Satee got married at Belmont Country Club, in Ashburn, VA.  It was a perfect day.  The dress and bride were beautiful and everyone had a great time.

Bill and Satee’s wedding was photographed by Chrystopher Robinson

Jennifer not only makes sure that the wedding day runs smoothly, but she also makes sure that the wedding party gets to relax and do what they are there to do – have a great time – instead of doing all the work of running a wedding. That’s what a wedding planner is for!

I have been to too many weddings where the mother of the bride, or the best man or one of the people who should be there to enjoy that special day is, instead, running around trying to make sure the limo is on time or telling the deejay to change the order of announcements.

Get a wedding planner so that you, and your whole wedding party, can have a special, not stressful, wedding day!

For more information about wedding planning, contact Jennifer Arezzo at:

A Simple Wish, LLC
Formal Event Planning
703.328.0819
www.asimplewish.net
Check out the Simple Wish blog at www.asimplewishweddings.blogspot.com
A Simple Wish was voted “Best Wedding Planner 2009″ by Northern Virginia Magazine!

Elena and Spencer’s wedding was at Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Stevensville, MD.  The sunset over the water was beautiful.  We had a great time being a part of the wedding and working with Steve Canning.

Photography by Steve Canning

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