Wedding Blog

During our journey of finding a photographer, we realized that we had a list of things that we felt were important to us:

1. We both want a photojournalistic style. But as I mentioned before, Mr. Martini preferred a more conservative approach to documenting our wedding day, and although I do love the edgier look, I agreed that it would probably be better not to go too nuts with our wedding pictures because we will be using the pictures for our parent albums as well.
2. Giving each of our parents a really nice, leather bound parent album is something we really want to do. We need a good deal on three albums, not just one. I noticed that a lot of the parent albums were of lower quality, and we want something nicer.
3. Since we’re sticking with a conservative style for our wedding, Mr. Martini has agreed to a more creative engagement photo session. He still wants Central Park, and I still want cobblestones and yellow taxicabs. We need a photographer who could not only meet our need to visit more than one location, but also want someone who has the vision to give us what we are looking for artistically.
4. We want a copy of all full-sized digital photos that will be taken. Not all have to be retouched or color corrected, but most photographers only give you a few hundred of the best with no exceptions. We never understood that. They are pictures of US—and it takes just a few minutes to burn them on a DVD (that we are totally willing to provide if cost is an issue).
5. A large signing board is important to Mr. Martini.
6. The photographers should be as invisible as possible. I once went to a wedding where we could barely see the newlyweds because there was a team of photographers and videographers crowding around the couple. When the officiant announced the couple, all I saw were the tops of their heads and tons of flashing. Of course we want great shots, but is it necessary to be so in-your-face?
7. We opted not to get a videographer. Because of this, we really want the photographers to pay attention to detail and document as much as they could.

In the midst of our search we were referred to Cly Creation by a friend, who ended up booking with them recently. We made the appointment and met with Janell, who showed us their sample albums and asked us questions to get a feel for what we were looking for. Then, while flipping through the album, we came across pictures of our friends who got married the year before! After recovering from the shock of seeing the familiar faces, we realized that we had already seen these pictures before, and remembered really liking them. We had also attended this wedding, and I thought back to the day. I didn’t remember seeing any photographers the entire night. So far, so good!

I immediately contacted my friend and told her about our meeting with Cly and our surprise at seeing her wedding pictures in the sample album. She raved about them. Another good sign was that our friend swore that she personally knew five other couples that used Cly Creation and equally raved about them. It’s like when you’re on rottentomatoes.com—when you see a movie with 100% rating, you’re going to freaking go see the movie! We did speak to other photographers, but since our meeting with Cly I’ve subscribed to their blog. I quickly found myself waiting for the beginning of the week because that is when their blog is usually updated after the weekend weddings. I loved their style—it was very natural, soft and artistic. Over a number of talks with them, they were also able to accommodate all of our needs. In the end, we chose to hire them to document our wedding day, and we’re very excited!

(all the below pictures were all taken by Cly Creations, and borrowed from their blog)

I was especially pleased to see their October 18th entry of a bride wearing purples shoes and carrying a purple bouquet—and it looked awesome! I was going back and forth about doing this for a while now, and seeing those pictures helped me to finalize my decision. I’m totally wearing purple shoes!

Are you using a photographer from a wedding you’ve attended before?