Kate and Calen

6.5.21

A decade ago, I photographed Kate's sister's wedding at the Omni Bedford Springs Resort. Then a year ago, Kate contacted me and asked me to photograph her wedding. That's so exciting for me, because I LOVE when I get to capture another wedding in the same family!

You can check out the adventure of Kate and Calen's big day below! 

I decided for this blog I would love to interview them about their wedding, because they had such a personalized day in a special location, so throughout this blog you'll get to read their own point of view! 

Name of venue: Ross Mountain Club

Name of ceremony location: Holy Trinity Parish in Ligonier, PA

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Do you want to thank anyone specific that helped make your day special?

My mom was a very big help in planning our wedding! We had months of hard work planning and living far away myself, she had a very large role in helping put things together! 

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What was unique about your wedding?

Having our reception by my parents house was very special and felt like home! My grandparents were long time members of Ross and while they unfortunately passed away years ago, I really felt their presence throughout the whole day and I couldn't imagine it any other way. Their trusted physician Dr. Vinent Cosmo happened to be our cantor at our ceremony which was arranged by the parish's organist Bennett Porchiran. The deacon who officiated our ceremony was one of my father's lifelong friend and fraternity brother Deacon Scott Little. The whole day really just felt like home, even if we happen to live very far from where we got married.  

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Do you have a favorite photo (or set of photos) from the day?

I really love the pictures down by the bridge! I cannot wait to see all of the photos!

(@the time of this interview, Kate has only seen a sneak peek of her photos so far!) 

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^ Ringing the traditional dinner bell!!

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(Kate's class is seriously the cutest!!)

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What was the name of your florist, dj, or others you'd love to highlight in the blog?

Maggie Neid, our caterer, was a huge help the entire time! She was very flexible with planning in a pandemic and had so many wonderful ideas in helping the whole weekend come together! Her food is always incredible, but she really blew us all away the whole weekend wedding! She managed the rehearsal dinner, the day of the wedding breakfast, lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. 

Our DJ was Bill Bara from Pittsburgh who was a lot of fun! He set a fun atmosphere and did a great job at seeing the whole venue to help us move a few things that needed it. He really took initiative to help in many ways that were above and beyond! 

Father Anthony Carbone at Holy Trinity helped us arrange our organist Bennett Porchiran who is very talented and really helped us a lot! He helped us arrange a vocalist for the ceremony and welcomed us into the church. Deacon Scott Little was our officiant who was also visiting from another parish. He really helped us plan the ceremony and he even helped us put together a beautiful program for our big day!

The ladies of Hair Parade in Ligonier did an amazing job helping us get ready for our wedding. I requested that they come to my parents house and the whole morning just felt very comfortable at home getting ready. They worked so quickly and did amazing work! Emily has an amazing staff that made our morning a lot of fun! She has a beautiful salon in the Ligonier Diamond where we did our hair trials and got our nails done days before the wedding. Haley was the makeup artist who really listened to what each girl wanted and did a beautiful job! 

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Did anything really crazy, funny, or out of the ordinary happen?

Not having air conditioning in the venue and our cake was by a window in the sunlight, DJ Bill Bara came to inform us that we needed to move up the cake cutting because the cake was starting to melt! But after cutting it, it was moved and still tasted great! 

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What was your favorite memory or part of the day?

Dinner time was a very special time. Hearing the toasts from our best man and maid of honor were very sweet. Getting time together alone at our sweetheart table was something I would highly recommend to couples. It gave us time alone together for the first time as a married couple and once we ate, we were able to walk around to every table to see all of our guests. Dancing upstairs was also a ton of fun!

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CONGRATULTIONS KATE AND CALEN!

IT WAS SUCH AN HONOR TO BE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHERS AND CAPTURE THESE MEMORIES OF YOUR SPECIAL DAY!

-Autumn & Bill Stankay :)

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