thank you for checking out our blog. please note, these weddings are posted totally at random. it would be so perfect if we could post each and every beautiful day that we shoot, however, since we are a boutique studio, we don't have as much time to blog as we would like.
As most of you know, we do this photography stuff all because of my Dad. He was a photographer , and showed Lovina and I how to make a life for each other and provide for our girls... We can never thank him enough and this is his legacy. Lovina and I are soooo lucky to have friends & clients like the Sabatos family. Here's is why... We are very connected to this family, they own a popular meat market ( no its not bar A) in middletown, and when my Dad was 13 or so, he had his first job ever, stuffing hot dogs and sausages for them. Then I think it was 1973, when he photographed Samantha's parents wedding... Mr. & Mrs. Sabatos created a beautiful clan of 4 daughters. Within the past 9 years we have photographed each and every one of those daughters weddings, ending with Samantha, the youngest of the four. What a great experience. We are so grateful, and just know that my Dad would be very proud. And you know we hate to brag, but really, who gets this kind of legacy... I mean to have a photo studio responsible for shooting the parents wedding and then, us , the second generation photographing the second generation of weddings from the original family... Who gets that opportunity? Not many, but I'm proud to say that WE DO! Thats what makes us different, and no one else can say that... Thank you Dad... Well enough about that lets talk about the awesomness that is Samantha and Mike's wedding. I was blessed to shoot this one with the greatest photographer I know, my wife, Lovina. In fact most of the images in the slideshow are hers! Why the hell my name is on the sign I'll never know. Well, Samantha looked absolutely beautiful, and yeah I guess Mike is no slouch either. After a ceremony @ St. James in beautiful downtown Red Bank, we headed over to their butcher shop in middletown. Soooo funny! Check out Mike in the freezer! Twin Lights, after that, overlooking NYC, and the mighty Atlantic. Wow what views we had that day , and check out the cherry blossoms...perfect! Oh my God this blog is turning into a frikkin' novella! Ok... so after that it was right over to the Waters EdgeIn Sea Bright for a woderfully amazing reception. Sal and everyone over there just created such an amazing experience for the entire wedding. They are always nothing short of perfect... oh and Sal makes a cameo in the slideshow... see if you can find him!
An Arcara has photographer every married couple in this photo!!!
WOW! It is outta control here @ photo frikkin' central let me tell you! Finally though I have found time to blog. Well Maryjane and Sean had a day that turned out amazing. It was a little iffy @ first but man when the sun came out and we got that beautiful storm light... Well see for yourself how fabulous they looked. Sal and the awesome staff from Waters Edge were on top of their game as always, and You know that it will be a fantastic night when Jay from Elite is spinning the wheels of steel!
What a funalicious day Jill + Brian had! They are a blast to be around and Brian's friends, as you will see from the slideshow below, don't drink at all... Ha! Jill looked so perfect & well I guess Brian is no slouch either. We had the best clouds in the sky for the beach photographs, and had an awesome time shooting there. The reception was @ the spring lake bath & tennis club, another one of our very favorite locations.
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I love that we have an "international" clientele. It was so fun this past year reading about their life in London on Facebook, and how they met in Saudi, and all the cool places they have been. Gina was so relaxed and looked great in her gown. The beautiful ceremony was downstairs in the Lobby of the Newark Club, and I always love hitting the city streets for photos. The newark club looked great, and they did a fabulous job as usual. PS Rami is NOT doing shots with his 15 year old brother in these pics, Makram is doing water shots!!! To order this slideshow in book or DVD form, please click the icon below.
kelly + brian are the type couples we just love to hang out with. they are fun, spontaneous, and they even thought i was kinda funny... (no easy task in itself, just ask Lovina). Kelly looked great, her make-up by Melissa from Pink comb. AND of course always a pleasure when Mike Simons is behind the video lens! Lovina was with us @ this wedding too which is always a special treat, for our Kelly & Brian, not me as all she seems to do is show me up and make fun of me!!! haha!! Our friends @ the Mill did a SPECTACULAR job as usual. lotsa good fun as you will see from the slideshow below!
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Whenever we are @ the molly pitcher, we just feel so comfortable and happy. They really make us feel like a part of their family over there and for amy + john's wedding, they just proved again why Amanda, Jim, Shari, Jeanne, janice, and all the rest of the staff are among the greatest ever. What a perfect day too. Small chill, little breeze, and the clouds.. Oh the clouds, just check out the ridiculous skies we had this day. Amy + John are a radical fun couple. The morning of the wedding john & the boys went and got shaves & the to the , ready for this, Firing Range. WOW I wanna wake up and shoot guns before a wedding one day. I totally would have shot (photographed) that. So cool. Well guys thanks for a wonderful day and although I don't have an M1 Garand to shoot , I did just pick up a paintball gun, so if you wanna go, just tell us...
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So a few weeks ago we were blessed with shooting another Rapolla wedding. Meredith + Vincent were married in Suffern NY, and then had an amazing reception @ Seasons in Washington, NJ. Now we also photographed Vin's brother Dan's wedding to Melanie just on September 12, 2008, @ the Channel Club in Monmouth Beach. You may also not know this awesome little tid-bit, but my Dad photographed Vin & Dan's parents wedding in June of 1973, as well as their uncles wedding. So you can really say that we feel like a part of this family. Another little known Arcara fun fact is that Vincent and Dan's parents purchased their home in Middletown from my grandparents. My Dad was actually raised in the same house as Vin & Dan. AND Oh My God, LAST connection I promise, Dan does our landscaping @ our home in Tinton Falls. This is rediculous... The entire reason that we love what we do sooo much is that we get to share what we do with the people we love and have known since forever. OK enough of all that crap, the Rapollas are pretty funny looking too so thank goodness Vin had Meredith for a wife! ( Nice segway back to the real reason we're here huh?) She looked spectacular. We had so much fun and what a radical day. The entire staff @ Seasons we top notch and made sure everything went perfectly smooth. I was hoping to get Meredith in her gown on the Hog in the her Dad's garage, but time was not our friend that day. Even so , I think it all went off famously. See what you think in their slideshow below!
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I know that we talk about it all the time, but, we just have to say again that we are truly humbled and blessed to have so many brides and grooms hire us to perform a service that we hold so near to our hearts. I mean first you all voted us as " The Knot Best of 2007 AND now 2008/2009" which just makes us love what we do even more. The Knot Best of Weddings is a coast-to-coast guide to the entire country's top florists, venues, photographers, cakes, and everything in between. Whats really amazing about this is that The Knot really had nothing to do with it at all (well except for be associated with it, and the fact that it is their site that this is coming from) but that an independent company came in and polled brides. It was all the brides doing! Which to me is even bigger and better. There were something like 25,000 brides polled. Now our 2009 season is booking up faster than any other year. Its just so flattering. We are getting so many inquiries from some really exciting weddings, its really working out to be a fantastic year. Its just so much fun to see these things happen to our little studio here in Red Bank, and what is also so amazing is all the referrals we have been getting from our prior couples. I mean its all because of you guys talking about us that has really made it happen for Lovina , Molly, Lilly and I. If you are a 2010 couple please don't hesitate to call us. Our season is booking up quick and we want to make sure all of you are well taken care of. We also have some other exciting things going on at John Arcara Photography. Lovina has redesigned our branding and logos, as some of you may have noticed on the newer blog images. We just want to portray a cleaner image and really let the photographs do the talking. we will be adding many new images to the website, so be on the lookout for that. Lovina has designed some new promotional materials as well, including, postcards, business cards, a newly designed simplified price list, and new note cards as well. We also have some radical new albums that we are designing sample layouts for that will be ready real soon.
Amanda + Nick had such an awesome wedding that we had to do not one but 2 different slideshows. The first one is the type that we always put here on our blog. Its to their wedding song making memories of us by keith urban. the second one is our newest offering called "FotoFusion". It's a blending of stills and motion using the mot cutting edge technology & techniques in photography. A revolutionary way to unobtrusively capture your beautiful day. So Amanda + Nick had their whole day @ the stonehouse. Rebecca and her staff are just amazing and we always have a blast when we are blessed with a wedding there. Amanda of course looked radiant , and what a goof her handsome husband nick is. Dude you clean up nice... The whole bridal party as a matter of fact looked like a bunch of celebrities. Well check them out in both of our signature slideshow below.
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We are soooo totally excited and humbled! Check out Anne + Todd in the April Issue of Town and Country - Special Travel Issue on page 126, photographed by who you may ask??? Well take a look @ the credit in the sidebar below!
What an amazing couple alice + mike are. We had an awesome day over @ the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, NJ. Alice looked stunning in her Amsale gown from Saks 5th Avenue, and those fantastic Vera Wang shoes! Whenever we are @ the Pleasantdale we are just so overwhelmed by the wonderful staff over there. Our go to girl Ivelisse NEVER disappoints, and wait until you see the cool shot of Santiago helping out with the cake cutting. I also would like to thank Lisa for everything she did for us with this wedding.
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Amy called me on Sunday and had me totally excited to shoot her and Patrick's red bank -E- session in the snow on monday. WOW what fun we had. I so cannot wait for their wedding in June.
Hey there, and thanks for visiting our little blog. We are John & Lovina Arcara, a husband and wife in love with each other, our daughters and photography. We are located in Red Bank, NJ. We would love to hear from you, so please feel free to post some comments here. Check back often as we LOVE to update especially about our shiny new baby girsl, Molly Mackenzie & Lilly Jane.
Ciao
Jon-John & Lovina
