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Weddingbee Blog
I love weddings. I love wedding details. I love all the thought that goes into the planning, the decor, and the dress. You’re all thinking “duh.” You’re a designer and a wedding blogger. Of course you love these things! If I didn’t I wouldn’t be blogging about them.
However…
My very favorite weddings are the ones that are 100% effortless looking. The ones that look like a beautiful girl bought a white dress on a whim and couldn’t wait any longer to marry the love of her life. I love weddings that really showcase the couple. I love wedding photos that bring to life the personality of the couple without taking a single shot of their decor. I think that this explains my infatuation and love for elopements.
At the end of the day, a wedding is about two people committing their lives to one another. Yes, a wedding is about merging two families…but really, you say your vows to each other.
A wedding should be a pure reflection of the couple and their love.
Image via Once Wed / Photos by Amy Carroll Photography
This is a bit out of order, but since I’m about to tell you about our engagement session, it probably makes sense to tell you about our photographer (you know, the one taking the pictures).
Although I haven’t talked at all about photography, it was something that was very important to us. I LOVE pictures and am known for always having a camera with me (seriously—every day). In fact, in college, many of my girlfriends didn’t have cameras since they knew I would be prepared.
My love of photography led me to peruse many blogs and websites after our engagement. Too many to even remember. I didn’t even keep track, to be honest. Yes, I’m a terrible blogger.
However, at some point I stumbled upon Philip Gabriel Photography…and never looked back. Although I spoke to several other photographers before making the final decision, it wasn’t really a comparison.
I loved that the photos captured moments…
In my last post, I talked about the search for a destination-wedding photographer in Las Vegas. After Googling things like “wedding photography + vegas” and checking out reviews, we ended up narrowing down our search to three photographers: Bentley & Wilson, The Cohens, and Brian Saculles Photography.
Bentley & Wilson is a photography group that consistently receives high reviews and awards on websites like The Knot and WeddingWire. They are a great budget pick, offering customizable packages for low prices. Their packages seem to start around $500. Bentley & Wilson also do Strip photo tours and trash-the-dress sessions.
Picking a wedding photographer isn’t easy. We spent quite a long time looking, in contrast to how we found our photographer for our pre-engagement “engagement photos.”
B-Roll Footage / Photo by Frank Dalton and Lucian McAfee
You wade your way through dozens of websites, mostly Flash (so they don’t open on your iPad) and often with music (so you have to listen to classical love songs until you can find the mute button hidden somewhere on the page). You normally have to make wild guesses about three important things:
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After our engagement-session pics were in, Mr. Unicycle and I set about the arduous task of choosing a pic to use for our save the dates. I briefly mentioned here that we wanted to make save-the-date postcards and have them printed FO’ FREE from Vistaprint. It wasn’t that hard to decide on a pic because most of them were definite nos. Firstly, we hardly even got any with the banner. If Jenn hadn’t kept reminding me to pull it out, we probably wouldn’t have had any. Second of all, it was hard to read the banner in most of the pics because the wind was so strong or we were too far from the camera.
Photos by Jennifer Shaffer Photography
Exhibit A: We look like awkward doofuses, and you can’t read the date.
“My friends and I are crazy. That’s the only thing that keeps us sane.” - Matt Schucker
{image credit: squid bits via sarahdobbs}
Heyyy, everybody! Your Prodigal Ostrich has returned to the hive…with a handful of pre-caps to share before we begin this wild Bee Recap Party.
Today’s story is—maybe you’ve heard this one?—The Tale of a Crazy Destination Bride and her Craaazy Photo Checklist…Inspiration Boards…and More.
Oh yeah, that’s me. Wait for it.
Read more…
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
After booking the reception venue, finding a photographer was the most important/stressful task on my wedding to-do list. I’m an extremely nostalgic person (just thinking about how there will never be a new episode of Charmed again makes me tear up), so I know I’ll be looking back at our wedding pics all the time after it’s all said and done.
Image via charmed.wikia.com
My two fave things: weddings and Charmed. By the way, I kind of love her dress.
I’m also worried about PWD—I took a quiz in Brides magazine to see if I was susceptible and I am!—but I think having lots of amazing wedding pics to peruse after it’s over will help a lot with that. They’re the only tangible thing left over from the day (actually that’s not true at all—what about the dress that you can never wear again, the favors that guests left behind, the dying centerpieces, the freezer-burnt top tier, and all the other junk I’ll have to haul back home and figure out what to do with?), so they’re pretty important.
Sometime early on in the planning process, while I was casually browsing obsessively stalking wedding blogs, I came across a photographer that I totally fell for: Lotus Blossom Photography. I’m not sure why I was so drawn to their work, as there are lots (and lots, and lots) of talented photographers, many of whom seem to be swarming around Nashville, but this one jumped out at me. At the time we were not ready to book anyone, but a little seed was planted. That little seed looked a little something like this:
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| Image via AshleysBrideGuide / Photo by Lotus Blossom Photography |
I have no explanation as to why but this particular photo stuck like glue (anyone else singing Sugarland right now?), but it undeniably did.
Months later, we actually were ready to book someone.
Read more…
I have explained how important it was to me to get pricing information from photographers. But pricing wasn’t the only thing I needed to know before signing a contract. In order to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything critical, I looked up some sample questions online. My mind has a tendency to go blank when I am excited, and I didn’t want to book someone just because they were friendly. Don’t get me wrong, I want our photographer to be friendly, but there are some other things I am hoping for as well.
I found many lists of recommended questions, including these from Real Simple, iVillage, and About.com. From these, I did some cutting and pasting, eliminating questions not necessarily because they weren’t important but because I knew they were not relevant for me (let’s be honest, I will read your weddingwire.com reviews, but I am not going to be calling former brides—have I mentioned my phobia of talking to strangers on the phone?). I also eliminated questions that I could determine the answers to by exploring their website.
After this editing, these questions remained top priority for me:
Read more…
Then tell me your prices!
In case my other posts have not already adamantly expressed this, I am a big fan of excessive online research, particularly when it comes to things for our wedding. As I did my searching for a photographer, I found one thing to be quite frustrating: secret prices.
Some photographers’ websites listed their prices right there under an “investment” tab (such a pleasant title for something so nitty-gritty). I loved when this was the case. Other websites had an email or contact form to inquire about the cost. Most of these led to a quick email response that included the necessary information. I ended up with a very crowded inbox during my photography search, but I was OK with this as well.
Then there were some who responded to my inquiry by inviting me to set up an appointment to discuss packages and see their work. Not that I don’t love meeting new people, but making an appointment with a photographer whose prices may not be even close to within our budget was not super appealing to me. I understand that not all photographers have clear-cut packages, so I was not expecting a price quote down to the cent, but I was looking for a general price range so I could know if we were on the same page, or even reading the same book, for that matter.
You know how I said that my mom and I were going through her wedding stuff this past weekend? Well, as part of that conversation I found out the most fascinating thing about her wedding photos—something I’d never noticed in all my years of casually flipping through her wedding album every now and then.
She showed me this picture:
And she focused my attention on one particular detail.
Read more…
You guys are pretty hard to fool. In my last post, I was telling you how torn I was between two photographers…and you immediately zoomed in on who I picked! You win!
I was literally about to sign up with Ed Pingol, but I kept going back to Tim Willoughby’s site and staring at his photos in awe as the Little Miss Sunshine music played. Mr. Funnel Cake had started scoffing every time he heard the music start and looked over to see my guilty face. I was so torn between the two styles…so I turned to my design girlies and asked them who they preferred…hands down Timwill!
More detail shots comin’ at ya! I never really showed you lovelies the desserts, decor, and flowers. Here they are…
Cake and Dessert Table
All of these amazing sweet treats and our six-inch cutting cake were done by Blue Note Bakery. The trays and cake stand were borrowed from friends. I stamped takeout boxes so guests could take the sweets home. We only had a handful left over at the end of the night because they were soooooo good!
Tray with assorted mini desserts: pecan pies, key lime blackberry bars, eclairs, s’mores, and custard tarts.
After I opened up to the idea of looking at photographers outside of my area, I was searching left, right, up, and down all over America for the right person for us. I wished someone would just hand me the perfect choice on a platter, because searching for photographers under rocks (also known as “flash websites”) was so time consuming and vexing! There are so many amazing talented photographers in the world, and I just wanted to find someone to love and trust!*
*Am I talking about a photographer here or a lover??
(Made via Cheezburger.com)
It only took a few weeks of crazy photographer searching before I was absolutely sick of flash websites with their godforsaken automatic music players interrupting my tunes. There’s not really a quick way to go through a myriad of flash portfolios, but when you open up a dozen portfolios in separate tabs and they ALL start playing their lame “heartfelt” music simultaneously, it’s enough to make a bride scream. I was already annoyed that it was taking me ages to flip through flash galleries with images loading at a snail’s pace, but the stereotypical mandatory music just pushed me over the edge. Sometimes if the song was bad enough, I would just close the portfolio and cross that photographer off the list like a stubborn baby.
Our hunt for a photographer was pretty simple. From the get-go we had planned on having a family friend do it. Cheap.Easy.Done. So, instead of obsessing over photographers I started to search for videographers. (I wasn’t sure if we needed a videographer at this point, but I had to obsess over something!)
Unfortunately one of the first videographers I stumbled across was WAY out of our (budget) league. They produced videos with the production quality of Titanic with dramatic music and timing that had zero “home video” feel to them. I was smitten. Mr. Aardvark was not. I pouted for a while about “wanting the best quality documentation” for such an important day. He pointed out that we could get a perfectly lovely video made that would not triple our wedding budget. And, being the sweetheart that he is, he looked up a whole heap of local vendors and sifted through them to find his favorite few. From there, there was one that stood out above the rest: Michael Terri Studios.
They were just what I was looking for—a husband and wife team who had been doing weddings for years and were within our budget and, most important, were very prompt to reply to questions and emails. We signed the contract and felt very good about ourselves.
Then, the wheels started turning again. You see, our family friend is an amazing photographer; however, he is also a close friend, and asking him to work and feel obligated to catch all of the little “moments” as opposed to kicking back and enjoying himself didn’t seem fair. We chatted and decided it would be best to hire a pro to ensure everyone had a good time and enjoyed themselves. Michael Terri Studios also happens to offer photography that, when packaged with videogaphy, is CRAZY affordable! Not only that, but the pictures were great. Not trying too hard, but still artsy, fun, and natural; he really seems to have a knack for catching great moments. Want to see a few of my faves?
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