If you’ve been following my blog lately, you’ll notice this is the second 2011 senior I’ve photographed that has brilliant blue eyes and naturally curly hair, and my second session in rural Lebanon County (Sarah and Ben’s wedding was my first). Megan’s mom is my cousin, which would make Megan my 1st cousin, once removed, if I have my genealogy terms correct. Anyway, Megan picked an awesome location to shoot at – Mount Gretna, PA. Mount Gretna is a tiny little town in Lebanon County that has heaps of charm and character. It’s also a great place to take pictures in the middle of the road without getting hit. After you check out some of my favorites from the session, you’ll want to click on the gallery to view everything.

I have to give a big shout-out to Megan’s mom (and my cousin) Michelle, for holding lights and helping to carry my gear around!

Megan, it was lot of fun to work with you! Best wishes for your future, and I’ll probably see you at Thanksgiving! The complete gallery is here.

I am a huge fan of the different and unique. Sarah and Ben totally rocked their wedding with unique touches that really brought out their own personalities. I knew things would be different – and I mean different – when Ben mentioned that they’d be riding in a tractor after the ceremony. Tractor? You got it right! When I showed up that morning, we couldn’t resist getting a picture of the guys with the tractor:

The ladies rocked it out with the best jumping picture – ever. Yes, Sarah is wearing cowboy boots!

With all that said, the ceremony was held at the beautiful Lebanon Bible Fellowship Church:

I just love how happy Sarah and Ben look as they walk down the aisle together!

We walked out of the church, and Sarah and Ben looked up during the celebration to catch my eye – I love this shot!

Briana, my second shooter for the day, caught this picture of me with a dorky smile interacting with Sarah and Ben. Thankfully, I’m not in any other pictures with them!

Seriously – every Limo I’ve ever seen is way under powered compared to this thing.

While Sarah and Ben were out harvesting the corn (just kidding), we went to the reception and captured a few of the details. Details such as the John Deere cupcakes and the coolest thing of all…naming the tables by tractor models and not by numbers!

I love photographing weddings because of all the emotion! Here, Sarah and Ben share a moment during the toasts.

I loved the reactions during the removal of the garter – yep, that’s a John Deere garter.

We went outside in the setting sun and had a lot of fun with the cornfield bordering the church:

…and some more serious pictures.

I loved the swing set, and the picture on the right is one of my favs.

I have to end with one of my all time favorites – I really dig their expression of love! Thanks guys for a great time, and a beautiful wedding!

If you liked the pictures, leave a comment for Sarah and Ben!

I met Sarah and Ben through Ben’s co-worker – my good friend Paul W. Sarah and Ben live near where my mom’s side of the family lives, and where I lived for the first 8 years of my life. There’s some kind of weird thing that everyone is related to everyone else in the rural counties of Lebanon and Lancaster, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with us – even after spending 20 minutes name-dropping on the side of the road after this very photoshoot. Nonetheless, I’ll get back to details of our time together, lest you think that we were more interested in genealogy rather than photography.

Sarah and Ben got engaged on the tower at Governor Dick Park, located in the middle of the woods in beautiful Mount Gretna, PA. Naturally, it made sense to do some photography near that area.

We took a walk a little ways into the woods to find some of the boulders Governor Dick Park is known for. These guys were brave to climb up on the slippery rocks. I really love how relaxed they look on a 10 foot high boulder. I was seriously nervous for them!

I tried some off-camera flash with them in the midst of the rocks. Thankfully, there was no poison ivy to be found, and Ben made sure to check for snakes and other interesting animals before allowing Sarah into an area. Such a gentleman!

Ben knows how to rock a pose. Those were the words I used with him as well.

I loved this little moment between them at the corner of the nature center in the park. This leads right into my explanation of what was going on in the next picture…

I asked Sarah to give me the look she gives Ben when he starts talking about his tractor… and then there’s the normal romantic pose.

We drove down the road and grabbed some pictures at a unique clearing.

Probably my personal favorite from the session…

Thanks guys! I’m really looking forward to your wedding in August! The rest of the session can be found here.