Wedding at Pittsburgh Area's Longue Vue Club in Verona |

Are you like me? Did you plan your wedding while living in a different city? If you did, you’ll know how challenging this can be. All of your visits to your wedding city are jam-packed full of appointments, meetings, and there’s never enough time to relax and enjoy your time off of work. Well, imagine that you’re planning your wedding from another country! That’s what Meghan and Raphael just did. They planned their wedding in Meghan’s hometown from their home in Switzerland. Not only do they have to contend with the normal rigors of out of town wedding planning, but also a huge time zone change, an international phone number, and a day-long flight with customs to get to your wedding destination.

I can’t speak for them, but their hard work seemed to be worth all of the trouble. Meghan and Raphael were married on a perfect September day in an outdoor ceremony at the beautiful Longue Vue Club in Verona, Pennsylvania. While much of Meghan’s family was traveling from the Pittsburgh area, Raphael’s family and many of their friends traveled from Switzerland for this momentous occasion. I don’t think there were quite as many Swiss guests as there were American guests, but there were probably about 40 people who had crossed the Atlantic to be there. Since Meghan and Raphael have different mother-tongues, they each gave their wedding vows in their birth language. Meghan’s vow was beautiful, but I have no idea what Raphael said since I don’t speak French. I can assure you that it sounded very romantic.

After the ceremony, Meghan and Raphael spent their cocktail hour with their guests before sneaking away for a beautiful 5-minute sunset portrait shoot. When they entered their reception, Cityscape played their first dance song and started the party with a quick dancing set before dinner was served. Meghan and Raphael chose an excellent set of top-notch wedding vendors, hopefully leaving them little stress. Bouquets and table decorations were by Rachel and her lovely group from Hepatic. Bella Christie provided their beautiful layered wedding cake.

Photography by yours truly and my excellent second photographer, Amanda Steen. Amanda and I had a great day and we hope that we captured the perfect photo memories for Meghan and Raphael.

Congratulations, Meghan and Raphael!