Theatre Wedding in the Berkshires | Melissa & Denis

Melissa and Denis held their wedding at the historic Colonial Theatre in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. This is the first wedding the Colonial has ever held and the first I’ve done in a theatre, and it was amazing! They chose to see each other before the ceremony (love taking portraits before the ceremony – no rush, no stress to get portraits done…only to miss all of cocktail hour with your guests) and for awhile there I had the pleasure of having my own personal lighting assistant. I always try to use whatever light is available, use flash as little as possible, though this time I did have one of those small video lights to fill in some shadows which I asked my intern Dan to hold. But then as I was positioning the bride and groom for portraits, suddenly a blast of spotlight would appear out of nowhere to illuminate my subjects, like magic. Ooo! For awhile there I couldn’t see who was operating the lights, but I dared to tell him what to do, and into the darkness I asked May I have less power please? Over here please? And lo, there was light. So much power, eee hee!

The ceremony was  held onstage with closed curtains as the backdrop. The groom’s son acted as best man, ringer bearer and later, lead air guitarist for the wedding’s band called Static. The reception was held in the converted auto garage annex of the Theatre, as well as a space backstage. Dancing was held onstage. A candy station with take-out boxes cured everyone’s sweet tooth.

Beautiful wedding in a beautiful venue!

(And for the first time ever, I close with two photos taken by my husband Dan :-) He shot in manual mode that day, and went home with a lollipop.)

A quick behind-the-scenes. This is me with a step ladder in order to keep eye-level with subjects on stage. The lighting guy brought the ladder out for me, and I didn’t even have to ask. It wouldn’t have even occurred to me TO ask.  As with the lighting, I would have tried to make do with what was around me, which meant either all family members would have gone home with glorified portraits of their nostrils, or I would have broken a skull trying to stand on the backs of the seats. Thank goodness all sorts of tragedies were diverted.

Also, I always knew being taller would make a huge difference.

Thank you to the crew at the Colonial Theatre for being so accomodating, and thank you to Melissa and Denis for having me at your wedding! Congrats to you both.