Jessica Piscitelli Got Married - Part 1

on Jan 11 in Deejay, Wedding, Wedding Cake, Wedding Flowers, wedding photographer, wedding video

I fell in love with a wonderful man.  He gave me a beautiful ring in return for my hand.  That was the easy part.  Planning the wedding was a little more complicated.

As you can imagine, I have a lot of friends who work in the wedding industry, and only one wedding to go around.  If I could, and my now husband would put up with it, I would get married three times at least just to be able to work with all the wonderful vendors I know in this area.  Alas, I am sure he would not put up with it and so I had to choose.  It was very difficult, but I ended up with the best wedding team a girl could ever hope for.

I have listed everyone I worked with with at the end of this post.  They were all fabulous and I highly recommend every one of them, so please follow links to their websites and hire them for all of your weddings (especially if you are lucky enough to have three or more!).

But I need to say a few words about all of them, because it really was a fantastic wedding and I hardly had to do anything but show up.  Turns out I have a lot to say, so this blog is going to come in part 1 and part 2.

First of all, my hair and makeup team.  I am not a girlie girl and you don’t want to let me near a hair dryer or a makeup kit, so I knew I needed some extra help.  I have been going to Jennifer Erk Reed, at Studio 61, for about five years.  I first got her card at a wedding I was videotaping because she did such a fantastic job on the bride’s hair.  She does a great job cutting and coloring my hair on a regular basis, but she really blew it out of the park with the hair style for my wedding!  She also did the mother of the groom’s hair, who looked gorgeous from head to toe, but especially the head.

And, of course, I loved my makeup as well.  It was certainly not something I could’ve done myself, so I hired the lovely and talented Kim Giammaria, with Beauty Mark.  Even though I was running late due to - you guessed it - traffic, she was very calm helping get my makeup done half an hour before my ceremony was going to start, and it looked great the whole day through.

In the following video, I made sure to include live audio from both the procession and the recession because Eric Waters, a guitarist with MSE Productions, did such a fantastic job.  I married a Robinson so the recession song was particularly key and, even though it wasn’t on his playlist, he learned it especially for my wedding.

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Jewish Wedding at Sixth & I

on Dec 14 in Awards/Honors, Baltimore Wedding, Corporate Video, Deejay, Destination Weddings, Wedding Cake, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Planner, wedding photographer, wedding video

I recently finished a wedding video that was jam packed with so many of my favorite things - Sixth & I, Elegance & Simplicity, Tom Van Veen, of Documentary Associates, and the Decatur House. You can see from this short recap some of the highlights of the ketubah signing, the ceremony, and the reception.

The ketubah signing, bedeken and ceremony were at historic Sixth & I. It’s such a great place to have a ceremony and the chuppah was gorgeous. The flowers, provided by Elegance & Simplicity, were, if course, beautiful. Elegance & Simplicity also did the wedding planning, so everything ran on track.

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Live Streaming in Lieu of Catering

on Nov 03 in Deejay, Wedding Flowers, wedding video

A second wedding for both the bride and groom, this couple wanted to keep costs down, keep the event simple, but still include friends and family in their wedding ceremony. How to do all that? Simple, broadcast the event live.

To live stream the event, I set up one camera to be the live feed to the web, for all the friends and family tuning in at home. I also videotaped with a second camera, which gave me more flexibility for editing later. When you live stream, you need the camera to be connected to a computer which is online, so that camera really can’t move around much. Since the bride and groom also wanted their video edited, I recorded both the footage from the streaming camera as well as from a second, mobile, camera.

The result? Well, here’s what they had to say:
“I could not imagine a better videography vendor! Jessica provided top-notch quality, consultative, personal, creative, and timely service. Through the entire process of the initial planning sessions to logistics to the big day to the final product of a lovely video, everything was smooth. My husband and I watched the video and cried and laughed over and over when we received it, and we will enjoy it for years to come. I will recommend Jessica Pi Productions to anyone who needs a videographer.”
-Stacy & Damian

Beautiful Outdoor Wedding in Bluemont, VA

on Jul 21 in Baltimore Wedding, Corporate Video, Wedding Flowers

I could not get over how gorgeous this outdoor wedding in Bluemont, Virginia was. The couple was glowing, the scenery was amazing, and it was an all around incredible atmosphere. Here is a video that recaps the best moments of the ceremony and reception throughout the day.

The outdoor ceremony was lovely, and the bride and groom could not have been happier. Their photographer, Hyon Smith, did a fantastic job capturing the mood and feel of the day’s events, and was great to work with.

The floral and event design of Holly Heider and her team was absolutely amazing, and deserving of it’s own video. Check out the video below to see how she covered every little detail, and added little touches to make the day extra special.

Bergerons Flowers and Events

on Dec 17 in Wedding Flowers

I recently videotaped Christi Lopez, of Bergerons Flowers and Events, as she presented her floral designs at a Teleflora Design Show.

She showed different styles of holiday decor and you can see from these two different videos how much range there is in floral arrangements for the holidays.

Teleflora hosts 4 educational programs each year across the country. Currently, Teleflora is one of the only wire service companies that promotes education on a local level by providing professional designers demonstrating the latest trends for designers at the local level.

Jerome Raska AIFD, PFCI, flew in to commentate on Christi’s work. He owns several florist shops in Michigan and is a member of the American Institute of Floral Design. He is also the chairman of the board of Professional Floral Commentators International.

The Green Chica

on Jan 08 in Wedding Flowers, Wedding Planner

I am happy to once again be working with Katie Martin, of Elegance & Simplicity, on this year’s Earth Day Wedding.  This will be the third wedding video I have donated for a good cause, championed by Katie, and the second in the name of green wedding practices.

Katie is a very busy woman.  Not only is she a fabulous wedding planner and an amazing florist under Elegance & Simplicity, she recently published a new online magazine - Eco Beautiful Weddings, is working on getting her third book completed and published, and runs the DC Green Wedding Consortium, of which I am proud to be a member.

I recently asked Katie a few questions about what makes an Eco Beautiful wedding.

What makes you a “green” vendor? Read More

A Simple Wish Wedding

on Nov 13 in Wedding, Wedding Cake, Wedding Flowers, Wedding Planner, wedding photographer, wedding video

“Jessica,

We just got finished viewing our video and loved it!!! It really captured the whole day and brought me to tears a number of times… thanks again!

Julia”

I had the best time working on the video for Rhett and Julia this past month.  Partly it was because the couple were a joy to work with, and partly because of the amazing team of vendors that I got to work with.

A Simple Wish pulled together this team and planned the wedding from start to finish.  Ashley Gordon ran the show the day of and did a great job making sure everything went like clockwork.  I truly do love working with wedding planners.  They take care of all the details and leave the bride and groom stress free.  Not to mention, they know what vendors will work great together and fit the couple’s tastes.

I met and got to work with a fabulous photographer I have never worked with before - Marilynn Spindler, of Sandi Foraci Photography.  She brought a great eye and a great attitude to the wedding.  We worked side by side and had a great time doing it.  Marilynn provided all the photos for this post.

The musicians at the church, provided by Music by Anthem, had a great trio of strings, not to mention all the perfect notes provided for the procession and recession.  It makes for great audio, for my video, when the musicians are professional and on key the whole time!  They also provided a harpist who played through the cocktail hour and sounded like an entire orchestra all by herself.

Westfields Marriott was a great venue for the reception.  I have been there several times and am always impressed.  I especially like the outdoor patio where cocktail hour was held.

Holly Chapple, of Holly Chapple Flowers, did an amazing job with the ceremony and reception flowers.  Fall colors were everywhere, and the bouquets looked beautiful with the bride and bridesmaids dresses.

Connie Schweizer, of Connie’s Cake Creations, made a beautiful cake.  What I love about Connie’s cakes is that, on top of looking great, they taste wonderful.

All in all, Rhett and Julia had a beautiful wedding and a great time, and that is what is most important at the end of the day - that the bride and groom were happy every step of thye way!

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.

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.

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