Fantastic night!

We had a great time shooting the Junior League of Philadelphia's Casino Night on Friday! The event was held at the Crystal Tea Room in the Wanamaker Building.

The evening went beautifully, there was a great turn out, and the casino tables were a hit! There was also a live and silent auction that helped raise money for the JLP's literacy charities. Philadelphia has always been so good to us, so it was so nice to be able to document this event and give something back!





Bill Henley and Lori Wilson from NBC10's "10!" show were on hand to emcee the event...




Paul and I were able to bring along our friend Bryce to assist for the first time! Thank you Bryce - you did a great job!

If you'd like to purchase images from the event (and see a slideshow of some highlights from the night!), please visit: www.LauraEaton.com/juniorleague




All the proceeds from the sale of these images will be donated to the Junior League of Philadelphia.

Thanks to Susan Henley and Jennifer Foy for allowing us to be a part of this wonderful event!

The Big Deal - A Sure Bet for Literacy Casino Night Gala

Laura and I are very excited about this Friday! We’ll be covering the Junior League of Philadelphia’s “Big Deal Casino Night.”

We originally had an event scheduled for this weekend, but sadly it was cancelled. So we decided to turn a negative into a positive and volunteered to cover this charity event. The Junior League is hosting this event to raise money for various literacy charities that help at-risk children and their families in the Philadelphia area. We'll be contributing by donating the proceeds from our print sales – so if you are a reader of this blog – and you are attending this event, please come find us and say hello! We’ll take some extra special pix for you!

click here to purchase tickets:
For tickets

V-day

Whats Valentine's day mean to you?

For me it was just another Hallmark holiday that I didn't celebrate, that was up until about 6 years ago. Laura and I had been dating for 2 years and she was pretty used to me blowing Valentine's day off. I've always said "who needs a day to be nice to the one you love when you should be nice all year" but we all know life's little bumps sometimes get in the way of that. So why do something special on a day that our significant others knows is coming... better to surprise them when they least expect it. Show me anyone who asks "what was that for" who would prefer to hear "because it's Valentines day!" rather than "because I love you!"

So back to 6 years ago. Laura was asking me if we were doing anything special and I kept saying that I hadn't planned anything but we could go to dinner if she was up for it. Of course our favorite place is Pete and Elda's Pizza so I said we could do that if she was in the mood. Of course she was gonna take what she could get if I was willing to do anything that night.

Little did she know what was coming. I waited till she was at work and made sure she had no chance of talking to her mom at all that afternoon (I knew my future mother-in-law couldn't keep this one to herself). So I called her parents and asked if I had their blessing. After a short discussion on dowry and monthly payments we had it all worked out (I'm kidding Peg!). So I had a ring, a flower, a plan, and parental blessings. Now I just had to make it through an hour drive and dinner without letting Laura know something was up (and since I'm not into Valentine's day, it truly was what she least expected!).

So I meet up with Laura and completely played up the "I'll go if you really want to" act. So after I pretend to be talked into it.. off we went. After we ate and heading towards the car, I say "you wanna go check out the beach?" and Laura says "it's February, its about 10 degrees out" but I convinced her it wasnt that bad and we should go check out the water since no one will be around.

We get to the beach and I go into the trunk of my car to put her ring in a rose. All of a sudden I get this rush of nervousness. Like I'm really shaking and really not myself, so I try to hide it and the flower from Laura but she can see I'm holding something.
So as fast as I can I take her over to a bench. I looked down at the flower and said...
"Crap, it fell out!"
of course she asks "What are you talking about?"
and I say "Nothing, I have something to ask you"
I get on one knee and ask her "Will you marry me?"
She hugged me, tearfully saying "yes"
and then I tell her not to move, the ring fell out of the flower and I have to find it. As I'm retracing my steps, she's calling my name and pointing to the flowers since it had fallen into the wrapping and not onto the ground. Disaster averted and engagement a success! We both had a good laugh and realized it was meant to be... an uneventful night would have faded into our memories and this one made it ours.

Now if you've made it through all of that, here's what I want to do for you. Tell us your engagement story. Put the subject in the email as "engagement contest" When we have 5 or more Laura and I will choose the best one and give you an engagement shoot and a gift book containing some of your favorite images completely on us.

Queen of Hearts

Whats a Queen have to do with weddings? In this case I have 2 really good arguments. We'll start with her royal highness Queen Elizabeth II. Her son, the Prince of Wales, picked Allyson's wedding day to visit Philadelphia....really! For all my British relatives that I'm sure check in here.. NO! I did not get to see him. Besides the havoc in traffic he caused I'd consider it a pretty uneventful visit, at least in respect to us it was.

On to Allyson's big day. We started the day in the Ritz Carlton and probably due to the royal visit, we had an almost empty lobby to use as great location for some portraits. The real secret to the Ritz Carlton is actually below the lobby on the way to the ballroom. We got some amazing shots on the marble staircase and corridors.


















Once we wrapped up with some fun shots we headed over to the Glen Foerd Mansion on the Delaware river. Here's where we met up with our second queen reference. Mark of The Queen of Hearts Wedding Consultants. Yes Mark.. we got a picture of you!












Glen Foerd was an excellent venue for Allyson and Anuj to complete the last stage of their wedding story. During the holidays Allyson and Anuj had the 1st half of their wedding in India with a traditional Indian wedding. Even though Laura and I were not there to capture the first time we want to thank them for having us at the second one. Laura got her favorite cake shot here.













We had a great time and wish Allyson & Anuj many years of happiness.

Dressed like a Yeti

Scroll down a few posts and see when I was silly enough to say we were having a heatwave.. I don't think I could any more wrong.. Wow a man admitting he's wrong, I must be coming down with something. It's been so cold out these last few weeks we've actually been happy that we haven't had any engagement shoots. It's been a great time to catch up on editing, album designs, and some amazing promotional materials.

I'll admit I don't tell Laura enough how talented she is, but wow! She has really put some amazing stuff together. We've got some great packets that we've dropped our old brochures for, and some cool new business cards that hopefully will hold a place in any wallet they come across. What does all this look like you ask?
A picture is worth a thousand words.