The above picture is from the current wedding that Im processing and is one of my favorite images (maybe of all time) This was shot in the brides old room in her parents house. As I was shooting the dress hanging up I noticed a little toy groom and a toy bride. It turns out that it was a cake topper or used somehow in the brides grandmothers wedding. I like the light, the tone of the image and the reflection in the wood. Its one of those images that for me tells a story and has some history behind it.

OK this spring is NUTZ!! Im so sorry all that are waiting on their images to post. I promise they are all on the way. The killer too is that I feel like my lottery numbers just hit and I cant tell anyone, because some of these pictures are so amazing and some of these brides and grooms are just the other side of awesome. Until then heres some teasers for Jenna and Geoff as I finish up some of the post production work.

**** BTW I love the brides nephew in the lower right of the group shot holding the bouquet****

The above pictures were shot at the Allentown Brewworks, for those that were at the brewworks bridal show may recognize the frame LOL

Adrienne’s Stroudsmoor Country Inn Wedding Photography is now online.

GO: www.mcnettimages.com
CLICK: “Client Log-In”
TYPE: “The bride’s maiden name”

Where do you go to begin your quest for the perfect wedding? You look to friends, to co-workers, magazines, blogs, tweets, facebook, other wedding professionals etc. etc. etc. Before you know it you have folders filled with notes, a browser filled with bookmarks and stacks of magazines dog-eared. How can you possibly (with the 50 gajillion other things going on) start to weed through all this bulk of information.

The secret to all this wedding madness is to figure out how to prioritize and categorize all this info to make it useful. I will give you a little bit of the behind the scenes on how to do this.

Source #1:
Paid Publications- This category of publication is found on bookshelves in super markets and book stores. They vary in cost from reasonable to OMG no way am I buying that Ill just sit down here at Boarders and take notes. These magazines stay in business mostly from the advertisers but also from the purchase price, so in turn they strive to provide value to the purchaser. The articles are very helpful in the general sense but you must remember that local markets vary greatly from one another, from things like common practices to price. There is a reason why New York and Long Island brides go to PA to get a photographer (the work is often times better at a significant $$ savings). Personally I am in Style Magazine (the back cover ) because I like the aesthetics of the book and its content

Read these books first to start formulating ideas and establishing thoughts on your weddings but once you start working with people locally these become not so important.

Source#2:
Free Publications- This category is mostly found at local professionals businesses and they fall into 3 categories (3rd party, self, and group) and I will explain why it is important to know the differences, because it can save you time and money.

3rd Party Free publications are considered by most professionals to be a legitimate form of advertising you pay for exposure, most established business choose to be here for various amount of reasons.

Self Free Publications are, in my opinion, not as credible of a source. These are the booklets that are put out by the professional you are visiting, mostly a venue that you are looking at for your reception. On the surface they look great but do not mistake them for a list of preferred or recommended vendors by the venue as often the venue has nothing to do with the books. These publications are actually sold by a publishing company to the venue and then populated with vendors they find on google or in other publications some are suggested by the venue. They are not necessarily the best or most used vendors for the venue. In fact there are a lot of venues discontinuing the use of these books because brides end up with bad professionals then look to the venue to be responsible for the recommendation.

Group Publication may be the most interesting form of free publication because these are made and distributed by the professionals themselves. Usually they have come together for their own personal reasons. They are not made for profit only exposure. It also usually means that the members in the publication have worked together or share a common vision and quality of work. Chances are that this is the closest you get to a personal referral with out going in and meeting with one of the professionals themselves, because these groups tend to attract like minded people

Personally I would only take the group publications home with me since online resources will turn up all the other professionals and you can help conserve our earths resources by not adding to the huge pile of paper that these other books generate (and chemicals that go into the production of them) The publishers probably found them in the same google searches you will be doing anyways. If a venue goes to hand you a booklet tell them politely that your ok but get out a piece of paper and ask them “Who would you hire to shoot your wedding?” Chances are that these recommendations may not even be in that booklet, and if they open up the booklet because a name doesn’t pop into their head chances are that recommendation isn’t all that valuable .

Source#3:
Online: Searching online is the life blood of wedding and even research so much so that many of the most sought after professionals have abandoned print advertising. A good general practice to remember here is to remember you are looking only at what has been specially prepared so it better look good. If a bulk of what you see doesn’t excite you and this is what they consider to be the best of the best then chances are you may not be happy with the entire body of their work. Its also important to remember, especially with photography, that your wedding is not just one picture but a series of pictures taken through out the day that all need to demonstrate consistency and artistry. It is ok to email a photographer to see an entire wedding rather than just greatest hits if they do not show it in their website.

Google searches make up a majority of the customers that find me if its not by a personal referral. I wont speak about the pros and cons of google but I will mention the online professional directory. When you google search a term for your wedding most probably the first link that pops up is a online directory.

Online Directories pop up first because they have the most links to them from all the vendors that advertise there. These are great resources to cover lots of ground for research. My one caveat is to remember that the order of the vendors in these directories are not from best to worst. Mostly the person on the top of the directory is the person that pays to be there so dont just go to the first couple ones, hit the whole list, skip around, start on page 2.

Facebook is a new phenomenon in finding a professional. I cant tell you how many times Im sitting down with a bride who tells me they stalk me on facebook. This is not a bad thing either, most of my friends and people that comment on my facebook page are other wedding professionals. Unlike any other online source you can see peoples personalities. This to me is great because when I hire people a lot of who I hire comes from who they are not just the work that they do.

Blogs are similar in that you get to see tons of who they are mixed with what they do. More so than a standard website. If you are looking at a blog that showcases lots of different professionals than these sites can function very similarly to the Group Free Publication mentioned above, in that normally there is a unifying theme that connects those showcased. So if that theme is something that exists in you or your wedding then bookmark it or better yet subscribe to it so you can see all the content through your email.

Source #4
Referrals

Friends- Nothing beats a referral from a friend that has used a certain professional and had a good experience. Just be wary of the referral from the friend that hadn’t used the professional. Sometimes these referrals can be the worst a friends cousin that DJs that they haven’t used may not be the best choice if they didn’t use them themselves.

Other Professionals- LOOK HERE, HEY YOU! IM TALKING TO YOU! LOOK HERE! If you scanned over this entire blog and forced yourself to read only one small part of it then read this. The very best way to find the best people for your wedding or event is to meet with people. When you find someone that you love, that you click with that you know will be perfect, grab a pen and some paper or whip out your iphone and pick their brains on who they think you should hire. Its not gospel but if you trust and respect (keyword trust and respect) the person then chances are they wont steer you wrong. These are the people that day in and day out over the course of years, live and breath weddings and events. They see the good the bad and the ugly and can give you the most reliable recommendation.

Hopefully this helps you out of that huge pile of wedding detritus and lends some insight to all the wedding related resources out there.

Katelyn and Mike ‘s wedding at Bear Creek was a full on uber cool wedding and would be a contender for the “best of” in the catagory of off the chain parties for 2010, but it also had some of the most sentimental and poetic moments as well.

This first image was in the Brides old room where she grew up. This is where I saw her very first shoes hanging up on her mirror. Having a daughter it really makes you think about how fast people grow up.

If you read the blog and look back you will see Im a freak for mirrors so here is a a getting ready and a just about to leave for the church mirror shot


This is one of a handful of weddings that made me fall in love with snow in 2010. I really have to give it up to Katelyn, both me and the groom Mike had pants, long sleeves, vests and a jacket. Katelyn got out there and rocked it, had a blast and looked amazing.


For those of you that dont know. One of the most unappreciated olympic games is the Groomsled race, as you can see much training and preparation (by preparation I mean alcohol) go into preparing for the event. All I can say is thank god Im still allowed back to Bear Creek Mountain Resort LOL

DRUM ROLL PLEASE… badabadabadabadabadabadabadabadabada
The winner of Michael McNett Photography’s “best of” 2010: Best entrance into the reception goes to….

Yes thats right the bridesmaids and the groomsmen switched clothing, but what you dont see here is the fact that the groomsmen’s backs are so much larger that the dresses couldnt zip up. So for getting there Rue Paul on the award goes to Katlyn + Mike’s wedding

Now how awesome would this first dance picture be if Mike was wearing the wedding dress?

Bear Creek+Snow+getting the groomsmen to steal the christmas light trees out to the deck = fly like a G6.

Krista + Chris 12.26.2009
Im going to cheat with the first one because Krista + Chris were married in 2009, but December 26th is close enough.

If you heard the song “Im dreaming of a white christmas” well that was playing in my head all day because as you can see in the background it wasn’t quite cold enough for snow, so we stayed inside to stay warmer and dryer (all except for my assistant John who had to stand outside in the rain to hold the flash ) Fortunately though as the day progressed into night that rain became a little more snowish for the image below, which was taken at Silver Creek Country Club.

Im posting the image below rather than the normal Bride and groom romantic dancing shots because if there is one thing I love about weddings is that its one time when families come together let lose and just enjoy each other. The image below is the bride dancing with her brother.

Ok normally I dont bring props to shoot one of our Partybooths, but Christmas was so close I couldn’t resist. The first is a reenactment of an actual choking that occurred earlier in the evening. The gentleman in the image really was given the hiemlich. The great thing about this image for me was the expressions in each persons face, each one so different. And props the the lovely lady willing to catch the soggy hershey kiss.



I big thanks to John my assistant for his great work.

I will be posting a wedding a day so stay tuned. Also the big Bridal Show at Lehigh University is this weekend. Hope to see everyone there.

I will have more slideshows from Katherine and Ryan’s wedding with more music by the groom. Please enjoy and like always leave any comments down below but if the music strikes you please leave any comments for Ryan as well.

The photography was shot at the Hyatt Place Hotel in Bethlehem PA just before their wedding which was held at The Riverside Country Club in Easton PA

Q: HOW DO YOU KEEP COOL?

A: Easy drive the cart into a pond in the golf course. 

This is a bit funny followed by some seriousnes, especially for Brides and Grooms who are interviewing photographers to shoot their wedding.

so please read till the end.

Heres the story. The very nice young lady you see in distress was a rep from the golf course who was driving me and the couple to a very scenic  spot on the course of a bridge that spans a water hazard. We just dropped off the couple on the bridge and drove to the far side of the pond to grab their reflection in the water. I snapped a couple shots and walked back to the cart. Once in the cart the driver proceeded to make a 3 point turn to head back and get the couple. 

Now if you look closely its a big cart (6 passenger) and a tiny path, not the best places for her to choose to  make the turn. I remained quiet deferring to her expertise. Sadly though the cart got away from her just as soon as we were angled towards the lake. She missed the brake and gravity took over. SPLASH

Very quickly I had to make the call WTF DO I DO!!! I grabbed both cameras (I shoot with 2 black rapid straps so my cameras were close to me not on the seat) and raised them up as high as I can trying to protect the disks in them, abandoning all my lighting equipment (you can see it covered in seaweed in the lower left) When disaster strikes PROTECT THE DISKS!!!!! you can replace equipment not the images you have been shooting.

SPLASH!!!! now hip deep in water what do you do next. Pockets getting wet get out fast. Now I have always been an advocate of the GEPE Card Safe. It is a water proof hard shell case that I keep all my camera cards I carry  in. Why do I need the more expensive waterproof case LOL in case Im on a runaway golf cart that splashes down in a water hazard thats why LOL. 

Once on dry land I empty out pockets and set down all equipment on dry land. Im already wet so time to retrieve the rest of equipment from the lake bottom. Sadly its all electrical so can never be used again Id never reuse electrical equipment that has been submerged to unreliable.

Now assess damage. Cameras are good, images are safe, lighting is junk but I have backups back at the reception. Main priority now Im wet how do I keep shooting at a very elegant Golf club with sea weed in my shoes?

Proshop! I walk (run, lol its 95 degrees remember ugggggg) back to the proshop as the golf carts are dispatched to pick up the couple. Toss off my clothing grab a polo and slacks from the sale rack, good to go. Wait there are Coi fish swimming in my shoes. Here it comes, only golf shoes. Only ones in my size are a very nice white and tan alligator skin wingtip model -sigh- 

And the show goes on Whooo Hoo!!

Here is a shot of the bridal party on the course

NOW YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW THE MORAL OF THE STORY!!!! Especially if you are a bride interviewing photographers for your wedding. Well here it is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ask “Do you carry back up equipment with you? and if so is it just a back up camera or do you have back ups for everything?”

I would have been screwed if I didn’t have back up lighting. Its expensive to buy all the equipment then buy it second time “just in case” but WTF its a wedding. Professionals should never make up an excuse as to why they couldn’t get a shot if their preparation could have gotten it.

Conclusion: We lost no pictures, the Club is going to replace my equipment, we didn’t have to delay the reception, I got a refreashing swim in on one of the hottest days of the year and  I got to wear alligator skin wing tips all for the low low price of smelling like algae for the remainder of the night.