September « 2009 « Erika Dotson Photography

Hey there! Welcome to Erika Dotson Photography where we shoot mostly weddings and senior portraits out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, but we also take on any other sessions people offer us! :) Our blog follows our personal and professional lifes. So here you will find images of recent wedding couples, our travels, things we find interesting that day, our pets, family portrait sessions, our significant others, engagement sessions, .............. ok you get the point, here we will blog about what's going on daily in our lifes. This site is an informal way for you to get to know all about us and who we are! Sit down and stay awhile! Enjoy.

Erika Dotson Photography is comprised of Erika Dotson owner and photographer as well as our new intern, Donnally Campbell (she's super talented). To make browsing our blog easier we have a search bar, on your right, for you to find something specific.

@erikadotson twitter updates...
Hey all you 2011 SENIORS!!!! Did you check out our blog today?... http://fb.me/FJTj4QMN # 2010/09/01

Archive for September, 2009

More Details for the Ten Winners…..

September 29, 2009

Hey everyone if you didn’t win we are still offering 15% off our original packages from now until Oct. 28th 2009! All you’ve gotta do is call us or email us and book a free consultation so we can meet up and discuss what you need photography wise! Your wedding date doesn’t have to be before that date but you’ve gotta book us before that date for the 15% off (that means retainer fee and contract signed so we will hold your date for you).

For the Round One Winners……………..

Hey guys you will be voted on by our staff (which would be Tanja, my momma, my stepdad, my husband, Ellie (my puppy that really can’t read so I’m just including her as part of the family) and myself.

But you will also be voted on by how many comments you can get on your story. So if I were you I would get all your friends to go and vote once they are published!!! Send out the word via twitter, facebook, emails, phone calls, snail mail, myspace, skype, whatever you’ve gotta do to get people to comment on your story!

Please remember just because you had the “most” comments doesn’t necessarily mean you win automatically! The judgement call is still up to us and we’re looking for creativity! The votes will just weigh in percentage wise and help boost your score a little bit!

Northwest Arkansas Bridal Portraits of Amanda Nelson

September 28, 2009

Amanda Nelson soon to be Amanda Ivie (Oct. 8th!!!!) her momma and I all went out around town today and shot her bridal portraits! Amanda is such a pretty girl and an even more gorgeous bride. Here’s a few pictures to prove it, as if you didn’t already believe me!

W0690

W0781

W0649

W0763

Posted in Bridals | 2 Comments »

Round One Winners of the Free Wedding Package!

September 28, 2009

Alright gang! Hopefully you have had your fingers crossed all yesterday after you left the fair, during the night in your dreams, and all of today waiting on Round One Winners!!!!

Here they are:

Kristin Kaiser- has submitted her story

Whitney Adams

Sarah Stinnett

Jinny Pattison- has submitted her story

Alyssa Kilgore- has submitted her story

Kellie Kirby - has submitted her story

Allison Hauck

Britten Gray- has submitted her story

Erica Bailey - has submitted her story

Allison Bentley- has submitted her story

Congratulations girls (and your guys)!!! Now the next step is simple….. you all have 3 days from today so Thursday Oct 1st before midnight (11:59pm) to get in your best story. Your story can be how you first met, how much you really need or deserve this FREE wedding photography package, how he proposed, your first date, etc. Be creative! We love creativity over here! From there we will be posting your story and have votes for the best and we’ll make our votes as well for the next 5 winners.

I can’t make this too easy it’s a FREE wedding photography package valued at $1750!!!!

So if you are reading this and you know some of these girls if you wanna stay friends with them I would let them know they won (that is if they don’t already know!)

Best wishes to you all and I’m excited to see your stories!

Email submissions to erikadotson@gmail.com

Enjoy!

Bridal Fair was a Success!

September 27, 2009

Hey thank you to everyone that stopped by our booth! I hope that you enjoyed the bridal fair and got some awesome ideas rollin in your head! It was fun to meet all the different brides and grooms and talk about your wedding plans as well as the many new vendors we met! I want to personally say THANK YOU to Tanja Heffner (our intern) and Dawn Shoemaker (my momma), couldn’t have done it without you guys! Here’s a few shots for you to enjoy!

I was a little worried to begin, but soon enough things started to roll along just fine! I even sold these doors after the fair was over!!!

Here’s the pretty amazing flowers that Julie from Jules Design put together for us! She’s so awesome! Thanks Julie!!!

P0550

And here it is the final product for the day!

P0557

Actually I guess this is really the final product since it does include Tanja and myself! Good times. Be looking out for some awesome photo booth shots of us in later posts!

P0566

All the smiles I could muster up with some pretty sore tootsies!!!

P0564

I hope everyone got some really great ideas today! Don’t forget to keep checking your inboxes! We will announce the 10 names that we drew for a chance to win our free wedding package tomorrow!!! I will be posting them here as well as sending out emails! Stay tuned.

Also don’t forget we’re offering 15% all original packages when you book a free consultation meeting with us before Oct. 28th, 2009 so be sure to call us now 479-871-8932 to book or shoot me an email erikadotson@gmail.com

Thanks so much guys!

Enjoy!

Misty and Scott Parker / Erika Dotson Photography

September 25, 2009

Quick reminder…….bridal fair………Sun. 12:30-5pm BE THERE!

Here are some more images for you to drool over of Misty and Scott!

And this is where the happy couple gets married

P6408

This would be the happy couple being showered with rose petals for their grand exit

P6574

P6596

I love the sun flare here

P6685

P6816

This is one of the reasons I love Misty and Scott so much! They are so much fun!

P6830

BLUE SHOES!!! = Happy Photograher

P6984

This one is a little sexy but I love it!!!

P6993

Thanks for viewing! Remember to add us to your bookmarks!

Enjoy!

Misty and Scott / St. Catherine’s at Bell Gable

September 24, 2009

Hey everyone! I have a few things to blog about tonight….. so keep on readin! (I just realized this blog is probably better viewed in Firefox for the time being).

First is remember the bridal fair is THIS weekend! Yippeeee! It’s at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers from 12:30-5pm. Be sure to check us out, we’ll be giving away a free wedding photography package!!!!

Next is all about Misty and Scott…… They are the sweetest couple ever! They were married at St. Catherine’s at Bell Gable . Congrats! Here’s something to curb your photo appetite…..

Did you know that the engineer who build this chapel didn’t use any plans and stored all the details in his head while the church was under construction!!!

P6284

I just love that Misty wore these blue shoes as her “something blue” !!!! Wearing non traditional wedding shoes is the way to go ladies!

P6301

P6292

Hey there’s Nilo Videography! He’s on my favorite vendors list! Be sure to check out his work, it’s great!

More to come tomorrow~

Erika Dotson Photography at the Bridal Fair….

September 21, 2009

Ok so you should all know all about the bridal fair coming up this weekend! If you haven’t heard it’s in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette and you may look there for more details or just know that it’s at the John Q Hammons Center in Rogers (which is right off the interstate – on the left hand side if you are traveling from Fayetteville) from 12:30 to 5pm THIS Sunday!!!!

So call me crazy or insane whatever you like but I want to offer something ridiculous this year! I want to offer a package that includes 5 hours of wedding day coverage and a disc of your images for FREE!!! Now of course there has to be some fine little details to win so here they are….

1) You must attend the bridal fair to enter.

2) You must fill out our little info card and drop it in our box to enter the contest.

3) You must be getting married either 2009 or 2010 on a date that has not been booked by another bride we have.

So how will this work?

I will select 10 names out of the hat and I will post their names on our blog (and shoot them an email so they know they have been selected as one of the top 10).

Those 10 people will have one week to write up their story as to why they think they most deserve a FREE wedding photography package.

They will respond via email and I will select the best response. Hopefully there will be a tie! :0 I love tiebreakers!

So all you brides out there should stop by our booth say hello and enter to win!

But for now I’ll give you a few images of what is going on behind the scenes at Erika Dotson Photography in attempts to prepare for the bridal fair. ….

Here’s what our dining room looks like right now, I have such a wonderful husband for letting me store these things here for now!

Here’s the cards you should be watching out for!!!

Anyone want to take a guess at what I will be doing with this awesome painting for the fair? (besides Tanja!)

A little of my vintage inspiration….

I hope everyone has a great work week and I hope to see everyone at the bridal fair!

Enjoy!

erika

My baking attempt for the day…

September 20, 2009

After I got home from church today I thought I would try to be all wifey and make some delicious muffins, you know the betty crocker cinnamon struesel kind. (they are amazing by the way!) So here I was looking at everything you need to include and I’m measuring out the milk and oil and cracking my two eggs….then comes the basic step of opening the container that holds the flour and pouring it in and mixing the contents…….

Baking

Obviously I am not a good bakette, at least today.

I hope you can enjoy a few laughs on my behalf.

Tags: blog.erikadotsonphotography.com, erika, erika dorie dotson, erika dotson, erikadotsonphotography.com, this is your wedding photographer
Posted in Personal | 4 Comments »

I am making a public apology to Sarah Q

September 18, 2009

I have made a mistake. A very LARGE mistake. As we all do at times in life. I know I will and have been judged harshly but it was much deserved. I need to make a very public apology that could be detrimental to my public image but if that’s what it takes, then that’s what it takes, right? I feel this is the only way for me to really show how apologetic I am and to truly move on from how horrid I feel.

What I did was access a fellow photographers website and stole her image. Yes I copied her. I stole her logo as well as her templates that she creatively designed herself and sells through her website. There really is no excuse for this and I knew better the whole time. I will admit I was at a weak point. I was getting nervous about the bridal fair and that I wouldn’t have anything prepared by then so I panicked. Once again I realize this is no excuse and that is was wrong. Her name is Sarah Q and she’s a very talented and well respected individual, well apparently I didn’t respect her. And that is exactly what I am apologizing for.

I hope you can all help me look past this as a drastic mistake and we can move on. I have since tried to make it up to her. I am currently in the process of designing a new logo and I have rightly purchased her templates from her. Please feel free to leave any comments you like, even if you just want to tell me how bad I suck.

Thank you

erika dotson

New Couple! Natalie and Brad

September 17, 2009

Just met with Natalie, her mom, and grandma today! They are so sweet and I’m excited to announce they will be using Erika Dotson Photography real quick! They will be getting married on October 24th, 2009 at the Garden Room off of Dickson St. I can’t wait. Mom showed me a sneak peak of her bridal gown and it’s amazing! Be watching for their photos soon!