A Sunday Kind of Love: Eye of the Tiger

After some of our bridal party had a near brush with death, we got off of the median of Broad Street and made it over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for some more quintessential Philadelphia photos.

It was a bit more crowded than Broad Street had been, but still no where near as bad as it could be on a nice day.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer 

Any trip to the art museum starts with the infamous climbing of the stairs (most people run it, but that was NOT happening)

A large group storming the steps 

The girls made it to the top first

My feet hurt so bad & thankfully Mr. Ly was there to hold the bouquet 

 Bridal party shots were up next: 

Groomsmen looking dapper

Love this shot of the guys

My lovely ladies

Love how their dresses all came together! 

Our whole bridal party (where you can actually see everyone!)

We also took shots with our bridal party individually: 

And shots of Mr. Ly and I, just the two of us: 

This.  My favorite picture. 

Love the view of the city behind us

Making the descent down the steps (Rocky impersonators in the background as an added bonus)

It was a LONG and painful walk down, but the pictures we got were worth it.

Sweet kisses make the trip down so much better

By the time we made it to the bottom of the steps, my feet hurt so bad, I was considering just skipping the final picture location and going straight to the venue to put my feet up for a while.  But I didn't, and we headed onward back to Olde City for our final picture stop, coming up next!

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.
I panicked when the morning went by too fast.
We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.
I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.
Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.
We had our not-so-private first look.
We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.
Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Next Stop, Broad Street!

After our photos alone, we hopped on the trolley and headed out into Philly to take some photos around town.  We didn't get many photos on the trolley, but it served the purpose of transporting our large bridal party around town in comfort and style.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer unless noted:

Personal Photo - We had just gotten on the trolley, the only time we shared a seat

This is what I looked like most of the time on the trolley - keeping my ever increasingly sore feet UP! 

The rest of the bridal party found lots of ways to keep themselves busy on the trolley. 

 The photo plan was to drive out to the Art Museum, since it was the furthest away from our venue, and then head back closer to Olde City.  My thought process was I really wanted the photos at the Art Museum and Broad Street. If we didn't get a ton of shots in Olde City, I was ok with that. The trolley had to drive right past the Broad Street stop to get to the Art Museum, and when we were stopped at the light, it was virtually empty.  We made the quick decision to stop at Broad Street first, then head out to the Art Museum.

Our decision paid off, we got some amazing shots on a nearly empty street.

The plan was for the photos on Broad Street to be just us.  Especially after reading Mrs. Turkey's post about how crowded it can get on the median.  Well, I'm not sure I communicated that clearly to our photographers, or they wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous setting, but the next thing I knew, my entire bridal party was on the median with us.

We got some really great shots, but it was nearly impossible to get a shot where you could see the entire bridal party - and some of our bridal party nearly got taken out by passing cars. The guys had to jump in the back to be seen, and we actually didn't get a shot where we could see everyone. But we came close.

Blurry groomsmen

This was one of the closest, but the best man can't be seen. 

Our bridal party on the left looks like they are about to get side swiped

Another close one, but we're missing a groomsman in the back.  

I am glad we have these photos, they are gorgeous.  And I love how empty the city looks, it really looks like we have the whole street to ourselves. But it probably wasn't worth the risk of nearly losing some of our bridal party to oncoming traffic!

Next, we eventually make it to the Art Musuem!

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.
I panicked when the morning went by too fast.
We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.
I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.
Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.
We had our not-so-private first look.
We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Just the Two of Us

Right after our first look, we took some time to utilize the location in Olde City for our pictures.  Our bridal party was already on the trolley waiting to get started with pictures but we decided to take some shots just the two of us.

Mr. Ly and I don't do serious very well.  We are laughing, together - or at each other - most of the time. I think our photographer realized that during our engagement shoot photos, and took that into consideration in our wedding photos.  I think the laughter and joy really comes through in these shots, and they are just a lot of fun.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer

Street view - the building across the street is the Omni Hotel, where we stayed for the weekend

We were trying to get a shot with the veil catching the wind, it didn't turn out exactly as planned. 

This shot captures really how much fun we were having. 

Now you can see why I'm always laughing around Mr. Ly 

We got some really nice serious shots too, once we were in a passway next to the bank.

This is similar to the photo you saw previously on our sneak peek before the recaps - which is still one of my favorite photos from the wedding ever. 

Again, I'm glad we took time to get these photos. Not only are they some of the best shots from the day, but they also allowed us to spend some alone time together. We talked and laughed and were grinning ear to ear the whole time!

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.
I panicked when the morning went by too fast.
We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.
I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.
Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.
We had our not-so-private first look.

A Sunday Kind of Love: Our First Look

I never had any doubt that we'd do a first look. Mr. Ly on the other hand needed a little convincing.  He wanted to wait til the ceremony to see me for the first time, and while I think that would have been really sweet and very nice - it's just not how it works in a Jewish wedding. We would have to see each other before the ceremony to sign the Ketubah anyway, so he quickly relented on that issue and agreed that a first look made the most sense. It was the best decision we could have made and gave us some time to spend just the two of us before the whirlwind of the day swept us up. 

Despite what seemed like a huge delay in our schedule for the morning of, I was out the door of the hotel room ready for our first look only 20 minutes or so past when I had hoped to be.  A few of my bridesmaids were on their way out of the room to head to the trolley at the same time, and I remember asking them to wait for the next elevator, so my photographer and I could head to the first look alone.  I don't know how I got it in my mind that this was going to be a private event.  It was on a fairly busy street in Philadelphia, on an unseasonably warm winter day. We were the furthest thing from alone. So I needed those few moments alone in the elevator, or alone with my photographer, to compose myself.

My bridesmaids caught the next elevator and proceeded to hoot and holler at us during the first look from across the street anyway.

We did our first look at the Second Bank of the United States, which is a historical building in Olde City, Philadelphia.  And just happened to be directly across the street from the hotel. 

Mr. Ly was ready and waiting, posing before I arrived. 

Crossing 4th Street drew lots of attention my way!

Beginning my walk to meet my groom

Trying to remain composed, and block out the shouting coming from across the street (mostly from my bridesmaids)

It didn't work,  I totally let them distract me. 

After I tapped Mr. Ly on the shoulder, I leaned back away from him, which makes for awkward pictures but I think my smile says it all. 

Our first kiss of so many that day. 

Love the detail of the veil in the wind in this shot. 

We still can't stop smiling

Mr. Ly checking out my dress for the first time

Getting tangled in my veil - which was just the beginning of the veil taking over the photos

Our first look was perfect for us, it wasn't super emotional - not a single tear was shed. But it still felt like a huge emotional release; we just laughed a lot, and let everything (and everyone else) fall away. All the stress and worry that had been building for the past hour immediately disappeared the moment we were together. And if anyone was still shouting across the street, I have no idea. My world at that moment was filled with Mr. Ly and nothing else. It was time to get some pictures just the two of us and spend some of the only alone time we'd have all day.

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.
I panicked when the morning went by too fast.
We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.
I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.
Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.