Forest Hills, NY Wedding Photography

Posted on October 2, 2015April 21, 2020 by Irene Bello

Forest Hills, NY Wedding Photography

I can’t forget Olga & Gino’s Wedding Day. For months prior to the big day, I spoke with the bride about outdoor locations in Queens where we could take the formal photos. Since she wanted an outdoor park setting, we decided to use Forest Park. It also happened to be very convenient since it was near her mom’s home where she was planning to get ready. It turned out to be quite a wedding day! A few days before, we were promised to get heavy torrential rain. Fortunately the torrential downpours came the night before their wedding day and the sun gods looked down upon us. The sun magically came out at exactly the moment that I arrived at the bride’s for her bridal prep. Since we were only minutes away from Forest Park we had sufficient time to take some photos along the trails, near the bandshell and we even got to take the wedding couple on a ride on the carousel to capture some beautiful images. These happen to be some of my favorite images from their wedding day. Below are a few of my favorites from their prep, their first look and the formals taken at Forest Park in Forest Hills, NYC. A special big thanks to my second shooter, Charles Eames, for coming out to help me and take some amazing images, a few of which are mixed in here along with mine.

Congratulations again Olga & Gino. You are an absolute sweet and adorable couple and it was such a pleasure to be a part of your special day.

Cheers!

NYC Engagement Photos/Lo & Sam

Posted on June 16, 2015April 21, 2020 by Irene Bello

NYC Engagement Photos/Lo & Sam

I love shooting NYC Engagement Photos! Not only are there so many great locations to choose from in the actual city, there are some fantastic locations to be found in Queens and in Brooklyn. Take for example Lo & Sam’s engagement shoot. Lo and I know each other from coaching at World Ice Arena in Flushing Meadows Park, NY (Here’s a little tidbit of personal information about myself, when I am not shooting I also work as a figure skating coach) so when we discussed location ideas for the engagement session I was pretty excited that they were thinking about doing it in Flushing Meadows Park. The park is a lot larger than you can imagine and there is so much to do. It is so large that it stretches along two sides of the Grand Central Parkway. First, if you don’t already know and you are not a tennis fan, it is home to the USTA which hosts the US Open Tennis Tournament each September. In addition to that there is also a museum, theatre, a zoo, golf, miniature golf, a skating rink and a swimming pool and of course there is the iconic Worlds Fair Unisphere. And of course let’s not forget CitiField.

We were really blessed with great weather on the day of their shoot. We originally scheduled the week before but it was quite nasty, cold, dreary with on and off rain and had to postpone the shoot. We started by taking a few photos near the museum and then took a walk near the World’s Fair Unisphere to capture some photos there. We finished just as the sun was going down capturing some photos near some cherry blossoms. I was quite happy that I stumbled upon them as they were not there the week before. What a difference a week makes! It certainly made the postponement worth it. :o)

To view more from this engagement session please visit my slideshow on YouTube.

Long Island Engagement Photographer/ Long Island Couples Photo Shoot

Posted on February 13, 2015September 15, 2015 by Irene Bello

Long Island Engagement Photographer/Long Island Couples

Can you believe that Valentines Day is already here? It makes me think just where is the year going? Valentines Day usually brings a massive amount of engagements and newly engaged couples which means that they will undoubtedly be seeking an engagement photo shoot sometime afterwards. And with spring and summer right around the corner, what better time to get some creative outdoor shots. But couples need not be engaged couples in order to have a photo shoot. Creative engagement photos have been increasingly popular in the last decade, however it is not necessary to be engaged anymore in order to have photos taken of you and your significant. More and more couples want and seek creative photos of themselves that capture their relationship and their love for each other. It is also becoming increasingly common to have a couples photo shoot that celebrates an anniversary.

To highlight the special day I want to share some very special photos of a very special couple that I took a couple of months ago that are not engaged…..yet. On the day of their photo shoot it was extremely cold and windy. It was the day after a really bad storm and the wind was simply relentless. Nonetheless, they were brave enough to endure the weather and I was able to get some gorgeous images of them. Hard to tell from the photos just how windy it was, but believe me it was.

Here are some of my photos from the session. To view more from their session you may follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs9dEhyQYsA

May you all have a very Happy Valentines Day!

xoxo

NYC Wedding Photographer/Renewal of Vows

Posted on January 26, 2015October 2, 2015 by Irene Bello

NYC Wedding Photographer/Renewal of Vows

I had the privilege and honor of capturing this couple’s wedding last November at Villa Russo in NYC. It was a special wedding for this couple since they were renewing their wedding vows. Since they never had a traditional wedding that included all the bells and whistles when they married years ago, they wanted to have this wedding be the wedding that they never had, which included a wedding reception, photographer, dj, flowers, wedding cake, bridal party and all the traditional highlights that usually occur at a wedding such as first dance, cake eating, bouquet and garter toss. I don’t see many bridal and garter tosses at wedding receptions nowadays but theirs was special because it had a bit of a twist. Instead of having the gentleman that caught the garter put the garter on the lady that caught the bouquet, the person that caught the garter had to put the garter on his wife and that couple would have to renew their vows within the next year! I think that this idea was awesome. Not only was it a creative twist but it is so special to see couples who have been married 20 years or more renewing their vows again. It is such a special way of reaffirming the love that a couple has for one another and reminding yourselves what you promised all those years ago to each other. And there are many ways that you can reaffirm your vows. Here are some good ideas and tips on wedding vow renewal. What do you think? If you are married, have you considered or would you consider renewing your vows again?

God Bless this couple. I hope that they will have many more wonderful years together.

Here are some highlights from their wedding: