Patrick & Sarah’s wedding was quite an event.  Sarah is a celebrity hairstylist that works in New York – check out her site www.sarahpotempa.com, which is very cool!  The wedding was full of exquisite details and surprises.  The ceremony was held at St. Hyacinth Basilica, which I still declare the most beautiful Chicago area church bar none, while the reception was held in the Gold Coast room at the Drake Hotel.

Singer/Songwriter Will Knox made a surprise appearance (at least it was a surprise to the guests and Patrick) to perform the first dance song of Hallelujah.  Will did a superb job with song originally written by Leonard Cohen and covered by many artists over the years including one of the better known covers by Jeff Buckley.  You should check out some of Will’s songs on iTunes and his site.

I had a hard time limiting my favorite shots for the blog post.  Here are a few of them, be sure to watch the slideshow to see many more!

-Andrew

*** Watch Slideshow ***

Makeup: Meredith Baraf | Maggie Kerr
Hair: Gregory Alan | Ghita Jones | Stephen McCullum
Flowers: Aly’s Posey Patch
Cake: Rolf’s Patisserie
Videography: Lexoria Wedding Films
Vintage Cadillac Limo: Absolute Dream Limos
Band: Dan Hayes Orchestra

My father-in-law is a very talented wood worker.  I would even venture to call him a “master craftsman”.  Over the years he has made many many wonderful pieces of furniture for my wife and I as gifts, as well as so many toys for my children that will be loved for generations to come.  Maybe some day I’ll post up some photos of the full size rocking horse that he hand carved for my daughter, it’s absolutely stunning!

Earlier this year around Christmas I was talking with him about creating some custom made wood mounts for some photos of my children.  As a photographer I have access to millions of different photo frames and canvas wraps, prints etc…  But I wanted something a little different for my house.  He came up with an idea of creating solid frames that would “float” off the wall when mounted, and also have a floating mount for a print.  He made up a prototype out of some extra pine that he had so that we could test the idea and the manufacturing process.  I wanted to make these “solid”, no cheap particle board or fake veneered wood.  For reference in the photos below the photograph portion is a standard sized 11×14 mounted print.

This is just one style that we came up with that features an off center floating photo mount surrounded by a solid exotic wood frame.  For our first prototypes we made up 4 different frames in different species of exotic woods.

Here are a few quick pictures that I took.  Sorry for not being able to set up better product shots, but I was excited to post these – it was hard to avoid the specular reflections.

For pricing details or other information, please send me an email to fineartgallerymounts@johnandrewsphotography.com and I’d be happy to talk to you about the possibilities.  Any size and / or material can be used and the frames can be supplied without photo or with photo printed and mounted in your choice of print (gloss, lustre, metallic etc).

Information about the wood species used.

http://www.exotic-wood.com/wenge.htm

http://www.exotic-wood.com/african_padauk.htm

http://www.exotic-wood.com/honduras_mahogany.htm

African Wenge

African Wenge

African Wenge

African Padauk with Wenge Inserts

Honduras Mahagony

African Padauk with Wenge Inserts

African Padauk

Honduras Mahogany Close Up

African Wenge Close Up

African Padauk Close Up

African Padauk Close Up

Eric & Tracy were married a few short weeks ago.  We had an absolutely gorgeous day for their outdoor ceremony at Makray Memorial Golf Club in Barrington.

I had a super hard time picking some of my favorites for the blog post.  Tracy made an absolutely gorgeous bride and there were so many wonderful details that Eric and Tracy had planned for the day.  From their traditional tea ceremony to a crazy golf cart excursion for some relaxed portraits – there was a lot of excitement!

Best of luck to both of you!  Thank you so much for allowing me to document your day!

-Andrew

*** Watch Slideshow ***