Miss Penguin, Sacramento
Age and Occupation: 26, Video & TV Producer/Director/Editor
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Doctor of Physical Therapy
Engagement Date: January 29, 2007
Wedding Date: June, 2008
Blogging Since: September 14, 2007
Venue: Winery in the Gold Country
About Me: I'm a silly mess of a girl who, above all else in this world, LOVES the Spice Girls. I eat sushi at least 3 times a week, and feel guilty about how much it costs the other 4 days a week. I love designer jeans and cheap accessories. I don't like sweets, but I love the UCLA Bruins!
On Location
April 25th, 2008 @ 10:00 am by Miss Penguin
Mr. Penguin and I ran up to our reception site this weekend to have lunch! One thing that I really wanted to do was scout out some locations for our formal pictures. Since the winery will still be open until 30 mins before our ceremony, I don’t want to take pictures with people milling around in the background, so the vineyards are the best option for us. But vineyard photographs pose some major problems, the worst being asking your family and friends to trample around in the dirt. So we had to find a location that wasn’t too far off the beaten path, while still remaining picturesque. (Just as a note: The grape leaves are just budding now, but by June they will be nice and lush!)
If you’re having your venue at a place that doesn’t offer an “obvious” place for formal pics, it’s so nice to go there, camera in hand, and snap a few pictures of possible locales! This is especially nice if your photog hasn’t shot at your venue before. There were so many spots that appeared great, but upon further inspection, had unsightly things going on like power poles, too much ugly dirt, or just spots that appeared to the eye to be nice, but through the lens of a camera are less-than-stellar. We did find a couple spots that we thought would work well, so it will be nice to be able to ask our photographer to check them out and see what would work best for her, rather than sending her out onto a 14 acre property that she’s never been to before!
How well do you know your venue’s property?
10 Responses to “On Location”
I did this this past weekend too! We decided on doing our photos in a little park area in my parents’ subdivision (looks nicer than it sounds). My photographer is from out of town but requested that there be shade for lighting purposes. So we drove all over town looking for pretty shaded areas that didn’t require me hiking in my wedding dress and found the perfect spot just around the corner!
We’re getting married on our college campus, so we definately know the place but suffice to say, “scenic wedding photo spots” wasn’t top of mind when we attended the university 5+ years ago.
Outside of the handful of obvious spots we want photos, I’m hoping our photographer can scout out good places when she’s there for the rehearsal. She’s never shot at our venue before — which makes me slightly nervous, but maybe it will inspire more creative work since it’s not her millionth wedding at the place?
Our photographer went and scouted our venue - on the inside; he has lots of experience already with the grounds, and actually did some portraits for us there last year.
Remember that your photographer can frame the shot a little differently, and even photoshop out elements like that power pole in your last shot. Also something from your photographer is likely to have a lot less sky than your last two shots - focus more on you, and the vines, and so perhaps eliminate things you think are unscenic.
We are having the wedding on my Dad’s family property. Since I grew up tramping the fields of the farm and riding our horses everywhere on theproperty I have some pretty good ideas. We will probably take a camera and scout some spots during the months before the wedding since I was never really thinking in terms of the type of shots we will need while wandering the property. There is this one big old oak int he middle of a field that we will consider for pictures though. The whole valley is behind it and the view is amazing. Plus I love the look of the one tree in the middle of this huge field.
Good idea! We did this for our e-session but haven’t done it much for our site.
We booked it and then the 2nd time I went I noticed all these cool places…like a cute bridge. But I definitely need to check it out more!
thanks for the reminder!
Love the vineyard shots!
We’re getting married at a winery too and we have done the same thing. The vineyard pics are the ones I look forward to the most but having everyone walk in the dirt will be a bit of a problem.
Excellent plan! Our photographer has shot at our venue before, but we’re doing getting ready pics at the in-laws nearby. We’re up there often so grabbing a few sample pics is now on our check-list. Thanks!
What a wonderful idea! So smart:) Our photographer got married at our venue, so he (and his wife who will also be our photographer) knows it very well:)
I work at a winery over the Summer’s, and picture like this are always my favorite.
http://www.sagecliffe.com/images/Wedding%20Album/rosenstein_8.jpg
