Wedding Photographers & Videographers at First Lutheran Church (Johnstown), Johnstown

First Lutheran Church on Vine Street serves Johnstown from the middle of downtown, and a wedding there would mean a ceremony beside one of the city's great musical instruments. The church's Skinner organ has 3,000 pipes and was rededicated after an extensive renovation, and the congregation hosts free Tuesday noon recitals that show off its range. For your wedding photos, a small serenity garden on the property and the downtown streets around Vine Street give your photographer more to work with than the church steps alone.

Weddings are not mentioned on the church's website, so start by calling the church office at (814) 536-7521 to ask whether it hosts wedding ceremonies and whether non-members may get married there. If it does, the organ is the thing to plan around: ask about an organist for your processional, and tell your wedding videographer, because that much pipe sound in a sanctuary needs good audio. The building is barrier-free with an elevator, a help for older guests.

This is an ELCA congregation with Saturday worship in the social hall, Sunday worship in the sanctuary, a choir, handbells and a minister of music. Ask whether the social hall can be used for a small gathering after the ceremony, and how the worship schedule affects your wedding day.

• Call the church office to ask whether weddings are hosted and for whom.
• Ask about an organist and the Skinner organ for your music.
• Ask about photo and video guidelines in the sanctuary.

A little about First Lutheran Church

The congregation was organized in 1832 and dedicated its first building in 1834. The present church went up in 1922 after a fire destroyed the earlier one, and it came through the floods of 1936 and 1977.