Yesterday I headed south for Ryan and Andrea’s Akron wedding. They had their wedding and reception at Occasions Party Center. This venue is where I, literally, started my career as a wedding photographer. When I started as an assistant for another Akron photographer, Occasions was on of the first wedding venues that I remember working. About an hour south of Cleveland, I guess you could consider it a destination wedding for me 🙂 .

New and Improved Wedding Venue

This was not the Occasions Party Center that I remember from years past. Everything was new and updated. Very nice work. Andrea works at Occasions so I really wanted to tackle the venue and get wedding pictures that no one would expect.  Both Ryan and Andrea got ready at Occasions. This enabled them to have a very relaxed, stress free day. I’ve discussed the advantage of having your wedding and reception in one spot, if you can. It was nice that the bride and groom didn’t have to rush around from place to place. This enabled me to document a lot more moments, and to explore the entire space for creative possibilities.

Cloudy Wedding Day

As I’ve discussed before, I will handle any lighting situation Mother Nature throws at us on a wedding day. On this day, it was very overcast and cloudy. Not ideal for a great direction of light that I prefer, but great for adding drama to some of the pictures. We walked around Occasions trying to incorporate the entire grounds, including the interior,  in their pictures. We covered a lot of ground before their wedding ceremony and I’m very happy with the results.

After some pictures of each of them individually and with their bridal party, Ryan and Andrea had a “first look”. I discuss seeing each other before your wedding ceremony and what a first look is. We were able to get all of the obligatory but very important family pictures finished beforehand as well.  Then it was time for their wedding ceremony.

Here are some favorites from the first half of their Akron wedding at Occasions Party Center.

Update: You can see their wedding reception at Occasions Party Center -HERE-