We sat down with Brian Palazzo to find out just what made Classe Catering so great, and after talking with him – it’s clear to see why.
ca·ter
1. To provide food or entertainment.
2. To be particularly attentive or solicitous; minister
I decided to include the definition of the word cater as a point of reference for Clark+Walker Studio’s Show+Tell today. I do it simply because it doesn’t even come close to the professionalism and service provided by the folks at Classe Catering and Event Producers. Now had they thrown words into the definition like EPIC and UNBELIEVABLE, well, I might be apt to agree with it. However, as it stands it just doesn’t quite nail it. This is just one of those cases where you need multiple definitions to describe what Classe Catering/Event Producers does and how well they do it!
We sat down with Brian Palazzo over at 11 North Pearl (that Show+Tell is forthcoming) to find out just what made Classe Catering so great, and after talking with him it’s abundantly clear to see why!
I’ll let Brian do the talking now …
Thanks so much, Brian! Thanks for sharing your philosophy and vision and allowing us to share it with our blog readers!
After shooting Reena and Amit’s engagement session this spring, we knew their wedding was going to be a treat. They did not disappoint! These two are not only incredibly good looking (as are all of our couples, we swear) but so much fun and they filled their traditional wedding with personalized touches that made their celebration so much fun. Seriously, when is the last time you heard Snoop Dogg played during a baraat? Never? Neither had we, but it brought the house down.
And the crowd goes wild! Snoop was a huge hit.
These little ones might take the prize for cutest flower girls this year. They were all adorable!
Now that is the look of a groom who is really really happy to be getting married!
Reena and Amit were just smiles and love and laughter all day. It was incredible.
We brought them out into this maintenance area of the property that has tall over-grown grass for these shots. Guarenteed we are the first ones to shoot there and huge props to the couple for hiking in their wedding attire for these sunset shots – they turned out awesome, well worth the effort!
Want to make a memorable entrance? Take a note from these two and rock some heart-shaped glasses. You can’t go wrong.
Another huge hit was this hilarious cake topper. The guests loved it! This was such a great, heartfelt celebration. From tear-jerking toasts…
To amazing choreographed dances Reena and Amit’s friends organized…
And then everyone danced the night away.
A big thank you to Reena and Amit for letting us be a part of your wedding. Congratulations and best wishes for the years ahead!
Leah and Peter were married on a gorgeous July day at Turning Stone Resort. Their beautiful ceremony on the Great Lawn was officiated by their friend who is a judge and then a reception at Turning Stone’s Shenendoah Clubhouse followed. They really wanted their wedding to be all about a fun-filled day for their loved ones and on that note they definitely hit it out of the park!
Leah was one of those brides that just glows – she was radiant all day! Her hair was done at the Skana Spa at the resort with makeup from Riki Osborne of Syracuse Makeup Artistry.
Her dress was by Cymbeline and it was just stunning. Nothing we love more than a gorgeous bride in an equally gorgeous dress!
Shooting Leah and Peter’s ceremony was such a joy. These two are just overflowing with love for each other!
These two were all about the fun. And what’s more fun than a little croquet on your wedding day?
Loved the bridesmaids wearing fuschia bridesmaid dresses from Marchesa.
And the flowers by Turning Stone Floral? You guessed it – spot on! Love the colorful mix of Leah’s bouquet…
Seriously, Leah was all smiles all day and so was Peter. Shooting a couple like this makes our job so easy!
These days we’re seeing more and more unique wedding favor ideas. Perfect for a clubhouse reception, Leah and Peter gave guests personalized golf balls. In honor of the casino at Turning Stone, guests also received Lucky 7s scratch-off lotto tickets in their welcome bags. It’s the personalized touches that your guests will remember for years to come.
Of course, with light like this we couldn’t resist getting a few more photos of this knock-out couple…
Congratulations, Leah and Peter – thanks so much for letting us be a part of your day!
Just back from our honeymoon and had this nice surprise waiting for us. They are beautiful and we both move them! thanks so much Alisha! You definitely work wonders with your camera.
Such beautiful pictures, but what else could one expect from such a loving and caring couple.
Love Aunt Jane and Uncle Lee
Ps: LOVE THE SHOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The photos are just so unique and beautiful…just like leah and peter! Thank you for taking the time to create such incredible images …they will last a lifetime of memories! I cant wait to see them all!
Beacon Hill in Boston might be our favorite place here at Clark+Walker. Acorn Street in particular is one of the most beautiful streets I’ve ever seen, but the entire Beacon Hill neighborhood is SICK for engagement photos. I met Melissa at Molly+Jeremy’s wedding back in 2008 at the Aurora Inn (where we ended up getting married) and I love working with people who I’ve met or seen at weddings in the past. The trust factor is established almost immediately, and for those of you who’ve seen some of my stuff know you kinda have to give me a little freedom :)
Just another hot C+W couple
If you can believe it, this shot was literally one block away from their place. I love living with a huge yard and multiple car garage and all, but when I see people living in neighborhoods like this I’m ready to give it all up and move
I also had to hit up some of this awesome light in the park. It helps an engagement shoot when you can lay on a blanket in a beautiful park during sunset and snuggle with the person you’re going to marry. How do you not smile and enjoy that?
I love this series as we were walking up Beacon Hill (which by the way is definitely an actual hill)
Acorn St in Beacon Hill is well know, but a little shout out to Megan Fahy – our blog celeb from their wedding – for inspiring me to go there. As our usual I tried throwing a little bit of my own twist on it
This is one of the most photographed streets in all of Boston, and it’s easy to see why
We then made our way down to the waterfront to hit up the last bit of sunset, but we had to stop for a little bit of fun
Check out that light BAM!
Thank you both for showing me around the Beacon Hill neighborhood and I can’t wait for your wedding in a couple months!
Ready for a lot of engagement photo ideas? As Courtney+Todd’s wedding inched closer we knew we had to set up a date for their engagement shoot. Once we bounced some engagement photo ideas off each other Courtney mentioned that they loved the idea of using a vintage tractor for the shoot since Todd’s family has a SICK farming business (I took the tour by the way). Not only was it a really fun prop and engagement photo idea, it also brought their personalities and lives into the shoot. Before we hit up the tractor though we started the shoot off at Anyela’s Vineyard in Skaneateles. As some of you know Skaneateles is extremely special to me so I was excited to see this newer place, and once I pulled in I knew I found a new favorite spot. Between these 2 awesome locations I went a little crazy on this shoot….
The light outside wasn’t quite perfect yet since we were both pretty early, so we decided to hit up the barrel room for some fun
Once the light started to get a little lower on the horizon we set out to have some fun. Now I have to say that every couple needs a different amount of suggestion or instruction, but I don’t think I gave more than 2 pose ideas the entire shoot. Seriously. These 2 were AWESOME together
LOVE
We get a lot of couples that are easy on the eyes to say the least
A liiiiiiiiiitle bit more in this awesome light before we left the vineyard
How cute are these two? One of the most natural couples I’ve ever photographed
After that it was time to head to this old tractor that Todd was able to coordinate for the shoot. This is the teaser on our facebook account (hint, hint)
It doesn’t get much better than this
These 2 were up for anything
As soon as the sunset hit the horizon we knew we were getting that last bit of awesome light
The “twilight” effect right afterward can be very pleasing too, and this field is to die for
Courtney’s boots were a huge hit!
Even though I didn’t want to mess up any of Todd’s corn, we still had to grab a good session ender
Thank you so much for an awesome evening together, and also for the fun little tour before I took off. Can’t wait for your wedding!!
Beautiful website! I LOVE your work! I just stumbled across your stuff today and think it is amazing!!! I really appreciate your shooting style! I could look through your work all day. Keep it up! :)
You see, up until now Indian weddings had been photographed by the studio, but never shot on video. When Luke told me that I was actually going to be able to shoot one at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center, a million questions starting running through my head. How do they differ from American weddings? What’s a Baraat? Will you teach me the stick dance? (sadly, he said no to the last question – which I think was a cover because it is my belief that he doesn’t know how to do the stick dance!).
In any event, I knew this was going to be something very special and I was beside myself with anticipation. A little nervous? Sure. I just wasn’t sure what to expect. I had scoped out the eshoot pics that Luke had taken of Anuja+Rishi to try and get a vibe for what this fabulous looking couple would be like (which, by the way, never really works). Instead I just had to take Luke’s word for it, of which he had nothing but the best things to say about them. And all of which were confirmed after meeting them. What a fantastic couple and family! Two days of bright colors, lively dancing and amazing foods! Dare I say it was a bit overstimulating for yours truly, as I had never experienced anything like it! And you can imagine how giddy I was trying to capture everything through the lens of a camera. This, without a doubt, was a wedding videographer’s dream.
This was also my first time working with Rose Events, and man, what a class act! I really enjoyed it! We also pulled in a Rochester videographer to help us out, so a special thanks to Dennis Allen for being there for us!
A couple weeks ago I had the chance to fly down to Annapolis, Maryland – home of the best crab cake I’ve ever had. Mandy+Indy were nice enough to bring us down for their wedding to rock the house! We flew down and drove straight over to Annapolis and had a fantastic dinner right on the waterfront. Once we saw the center of the city with the shopping and condos I fell in love, I really enjoyed Maryland. Alas we were there for “work” though so we had to get our game faces on. Mandy told me when I arrived in the morning that she kept telling everyone that other than her husband she was most excited about her wedding photography. That’s when I know it’s going to be a fun day!
We were off to a fantastic start with the house she rented for the getting ready. HUGE PROPS on that decision, the house was absolutely gorgeous and gave us plenty of space and (my personal favorite) smoking light. It also gave us some great backgrounds for details
Love the shot of Mandy’s eyes as she’s getting ready, and of course of the girls showing a little team work (rrrrrready, break!)
I picked this room because of the huge windows letting in all that awesome natural light and it was so worth it. Gold stars for brides who get us places like this for getting ready shots!
Favorite of the day on the left, love it
All this attention on Mandy though isn’t fair, Indy was ready to rock too
Another great looking Clark+Walker couple
This little girl was such a cutie
The bridal party was a blast, and really good sports for this shot. It was (well) over 90 degrees all day and they came out of the AC and headed all the way down the street for this shot. On the way back we had half the bridal party literally hanging out of the trunk going back to the reception!
A nearby house looked totally abandoned so we decided to use his/her dock. Hey when you have a bride+groom you get a free pass for just about anything
Love this series in a random nearby field. I swear 99% of all wedding probably drive right by this without even thinking twice but for me this stood out like a jackpot
A little more butta light before we call it a day
Thank you so much to Mandy+Indy for bringing us down to Annapolis and sharing such a beautiful region with us. It’s inspiring for us to see, experience, and taste new parts of the world and we appreciate the opportunity to do that with you on your wedding day.
We’ve had this blog entry waiting in the wings for a bit, and I’m really excited to make this “Anuja+Rishi Week” over here at Clark+Walker :) The video trailer is being polished as I type this and will be blogged towards the end of the week in addition to all of these photos. Get strapped in and grab some popcorn because this is a SICK wedding!
Anuja looked beautiful in the morning when we arrived, and when we saw Kris Kellogg we knew why the hair and make up looked so great.
We loved everything Anuja wore all weekend, and weren’t surprised to hear these were all from Mumbai, India. Our job is easy when we get brides like this :)
Rishi was not to be out done though!
We work a lot with Rose Events, who continually impress us each and every year, and once again the details at this wedding were spot on
When it was time for the baraat people were ready to get down! I love baraats like this, I wanted one for our wedding last year :) DJ Shahid of Rose Events Entertainment made sure the music was pumping as we walked around the streets of downtown Rochester
Once the baraat was finished we headed inside for the wedding ceremony. It was a bit “modernized” with the entire bridal party coming down the aisle during the processional and I’ve been seeing more of this lately.
I love this moment between these two
I have to admit, when I found out the ceremony was going to be inside the Rochester Convention Center I was eager to see how it would turn out. That had to present some challenges to work with, but as you can see it turned out phenomenal
Because the ceiling was essentially a huge skylight we were able to get some awesome natural daylight while still staying in the air conditioning (good move guys)
One of my favorites from the ceremony
Once the vidai started we saw some tears and some heartfelt moments which I LOVE shooting. I also loved shooting the ‘58 Bently they drove away in though too, that was pimp!
During cocktail hour I loved the idea they used for people to leave them messages. Since they were both doctors they had people fill out these prescription cards telling them what they needed for a happy life and then people left them on a couple trees they had set up
After that it was time for us to capture some portraits in the end of the day butta light. I knew from our awesome e-shoot together that portrait time was going to be fun with these 2
The comfort level in front of the camera made this an awesome session
We’ve worked together with Rose Events enough times for them to just plan in these portraits during this light. Awesome.
Rishi was showing us how he models earlier in the day, but now it’s Anuja’s turn
The reception room looked absolutely awesome, which was no surprise. The entire room was draped in fabric and looked very elegant. Elegant Affairs gave us some great centerpieces, Premier Pastry did the cake, and Moghul Catering did the food (which by the way is always some of the best food we get to eat).
I especially loved these shot glasses of milk with cookies on top at the end of the night, such a great idea!
A huge thank you to the happy couple for allowing us to come along for the ride known as your wedding day. We had a blast and can’t wait to also show you the video trailer later this week as well.
Unlike the recent insane heat we have been having lately, Emily and Jeff’s engagement session was the perfect evening with temps in the mid-70’s and clear blue skies. It doesn’t get better than this folks!
Emily and Jeff’s friends got an them an engagement session as an engagement gift! So I was delighted to oblige to a mutual friend from work I had done with TheKnot.com.
Emily and Jeff are in the early stages of thier wedding with a possible date of next Spring. I can’t wait to see what these two come up with it!
Thanks so much for posting these Alisha! They turned out great…we really enjoyed them. It was a great gift- thank you to Meredith, Paul, Melissa, I.E., Felicity, Lindsey and Andrew! We’ll be in touch when we have more details planned out! Thanks again!
Stunning, stunning, stunning. Cannot wait to do something with these on Glamour.com’s wedding blog! Thanks for making this such a great gift to our friends!
Wow! I love all of them. My fave is the one in black and white and Jeff as his hand on Emily’s face and she is looking at the camera! It is perfect. Looked like a beautiful day for a session, beautiful couple and can’t wait to see the picts from the beautiful wedding!!! :)
Weddings at The Sagamore Resort are some of our favorite of any place we’ve had the pleasure of shooting at. I don’t mean locally, I mean around the globe. The scenery is incredible, the resort is top notch (tip of the cap to Jennifer McVay who does a phenomenal job as well), and even though it’s only an hour away from Albany you feel like you’ve gone far away for a destination wedding. Instead of your passport though you just need your EZ Pass. And even though shooting wedding photographs at The Sagamore is always a pleasure, Christine+Evan’s wedding was a new studio favorite. These 2 are such a cute couple and were a blast to work with.
You know you’re in for a good day when you arrive to see a beautiful dress hanging and a pair of Jimmy’s nearby
Christine’s ring was also gorgeous
Weddings at The Sagamore make it easy on us in the morning for great wedding photographs with this light
This look tells you everything you need to know about Christine in her dress
BAM! Flawless by Tina did a great job with the make up for our wedding photographs Rena’s Fine Flowers also put together some beautiful arrangements
Christine’s accessories were gorgeous! When I found out they were her Grandmother’s I loved them even more
Then we were off to Blessed Sacrament in Bolton Landing for the ceremony
I couldn’t leave without hitting up some of this Lake George light for wedding photography!
Speaking of light… you know what time is it. Time to head out to hit up that sweet end of the day light!
These 2 were as excited as me
Summer in Lake George can’t be beat, and I know that was the one requirement for these two when planning the wedding
The Sagamore wedding receptions are always some of the best
With such a perfect background, and ideal light for wedding photographs, I had to sneak them out for some more Clark+Walker Studio portraits!
It was back to the reception at The Sagamore right afterwards though
And a little more partying with the City Rhythms band tearing it up
Thank you to Christine+Evan for having me at your wedding! I LOVED working with you two and I hope you enjoy the pictures even half as much as I did once I was able to come home and drool over them. Also a big thank you to The Sagamore weddings for a great job… we’ll be seeing you all soon.
PS – for those of you who are not following us on OUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT, you are missing out! We had this teaser up 2 weeks ago. If you want the freshest work before it even hits the blog then you might want to check in on the C+W fan page (you know you’re on FB most of the day anyway!)
Alisha…..BEautiful….just absolutely beautiful pictures and work!!! You are an amazing photographer and it was great working with you!!! Hope to see you again soon in the future!
Hey Luke and Alisha! If you ever need a hand and are in the area again, give me a call – I’m literally right up the road!! Awesome pic’s. You guys did an amazing job – as always!
What a gorgeous bride and groom and AMAZING work! My mom actually sent me your blog because her friend’s daughter is the beautiful bride. I love when i find wedding photographers that absolutely inspire me. Adding you to my blog reader right now!!!
These little ones might take the prize for cutest flower girls this year. They were all adorable!
Hey Luke, just saw this! You picked out some of the best pictures for the blog, and your commentary is priceless too! Thank you! Love, Reena & Amit
8/3/2010 1:24 am