Danielle and Justin were married October 9th, 2010! Their ceremony was so precious! They opted out on having a first look, something I normally don’t recommend, but it was truly worth it with these two! Emotions were in the air and you could feel the love they shared radiate all the way to the balcony we had to shoot from!!! :) Congratulations you two! We wish you the best and many many many glorious years together!
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Enjoy!
-erika
I just love anything Martha Stewart does!!! She’s amazing! So Saturday’s I decided to go find something cool and totally steal it, write what I think about it, and let you go check it out! :)
Oh I’m a huge DIY (do it yourself) fan!!! Read more
I’ve seen old photos of parents’ wedding days more and more at recent weddings so I thought I’d add to that with something a bit more visually interesting than frames sitting on a table. Read more.
Linens are expensive and boring, so try out some wrapping paper! Pretty sure you could make everything way more customized! Read more.
I just want to emphasize how much the tiny details really do matter! This is just an ordinary drink station but look how adorable it is with the right touches!!! Read more.
Enjoy!
-erika
Erika and Johnny were married August 21st at Creekwood Gardens. We were all super worried I was going to pop before their wedding date. I hired extra help as well as kept everyone involved super updated after every doctors visit. I hung in there as a super large preggo lady and shot their wedding with grace and style, ok I’m totally kidding on the last part, but it was a whole lot easier to shoot weddings that late in my pregnancy than I thought it was going to be!!!
I’m so excited for Erika and Johnny! I met Erika when I started working at Forever 21 in the mall over last summer. It was a pretty fun job. I’ll be honest in saying I was scared to death of Erika the first time I met her. Soon that all changed, she was in charge of changing out mannequins in the front window while I worked vigorously trying to organize the jewelry room. We started to chat weddings quite frequently (could you really imagine me chatting wedding stuff?!?!! jk), and then I came into work early the day after Christmas to find out she got engaged on Christmas!!!! I was so excited for her! Of course we immediately talked up a storm about everything she had to do and things to think about etc. Soon she found that they would be relocating to Texas. Just before they moved off she booked with us to make sure we were going to be able to photograph her wedding. During early spring we met up in Dallas to shoot their engagement pictures! Which was such a great trip (a trip to IKEA, shopping at the big mall, and eats at Cheesecake Factory!) and we got some really awesome shots! Does anyone remember my favorite with the pigeons? Oh and FYI that day was the random freak day mother nature decided to let 12 inches of snow fall!!!! -which made for a fun trip driving back!
Congratulations Erika and Johnny! I hope you enjoyed your honeymoon and are settling nicely into married life!!!
Oh yea and a side note!!!!! Be sure to look for us at the Bridal Fair this Sunday at the Creekwood Gardens Booth in the back corner!!! :)
Here’s an example of a first look! Once again you all know how much I LOVE it when my couples decide to go this route! What’s a first look? Fair question…… Basically here’s the gist, you two get ready separately all day just as tradition would have it, we set up a nice spot for the look and we’ll escort the bride to the groom while he looks away. This allows to relieve all the pre wedding stress, for emotional pictures, time to shoot couple portraits before the wedding, we can actually get all the traditional family shots out of the way if you’d like, making your arrival to the reception much quicker. Lot’s of pros to this option and I’ve honestly had several times where this saved the day just because the bride and groom were so much less stressed out! I’ve had a couple say their personal vows at this time to make it extra special!!! LOVE! Customize it anyway you like!
And a sparkler send off!!!! I love the time we get at the end of the day for these shots! Just a word of advice, save the petals and the bubbles for the daytime weddings or shoot even for after you leave the ceremony, but definitely bring out the fireworks for those night time receptions! :)
Enjoy!
-erika
This was previously Monday’s Favorites but we collaborated and thought it would be best to blog our new Out and About section soon after the weekend.
Today’s Favorites are going to focus on engagements. Have you ever heard of Lifestyle Portraiture? Think about how much more personal your engagement pictures would be if you were doing what you as a couple normally do and enjoy! Lifestyle Portraiture involves capturing you as you really are (of course in an artistic manner bc otherwise it would be considered a snapshot!)
I’m going to highlight a few examples of what I’m talking about with storyboards!
Would it not be so much fun to have a huge pillow fight with your honey? I can’t wait for someone to come along and adore my idea! Shoot we could even set up a bed outdoor during sunrise so we wouldn’t have to clean up all the feathers (of course we would have to find earth friendly feathers)! - is there such thing really?
Oh this would be the cutest session! I can’t wait for a couple to come along that is super outdoorsy! This would be the perfect session for them!!!!
I’ve done a few lifestyle sessions previously……..
Cute vintage style date in an ice cream parlor! This was such an adorable session!
Or how about a doggie date at Petsmart! This was a fun session as we ran in and out of the aisles hiding from employees bc we figured we would get kicked out if they knew what we were up to!
Let me know if you are interested in a Lifestyle Session. What you aren’t engaged……so what let’s do a Just Because Session with the two of you! Oh wait you’re single…..yea that’s not going to work…..just kidding! Let’s do a Just Because Lifestyle Session with just you! Are you an excellent baker and you want to document it? Let’s go!
Enjoy!
-erika
Ok I didn’t forget, I promise! A little while back (most of you know!) I entered myself into a few contests trying to win a spot in a photography workshop, well both times I got super close but didn’t quite win. I couldn’t have gotten that close however without all of your help! So in return (since I adore contests!) I asked everyone who was interested to send me an email with “contest entry” in the subject line if they wanted to enter my “Thank You”contest. I had a few people respond so he’s to those people! I am opening a poll and you’ve got a week to get the most votes! I am offering a gift valued at $50. Why just a “gift”? I want it to be something you want, for instance if you never listen to music a $50 iTunes gift card wouldn’t do you any good right? So you get the most votes and you basically get $50 in something you enjoy…..shopping, starbucks, iTunes, you name it!
Rules:
You can only vote from each computer once (this includes cell phones).
Whomever has the highest total number of votes wins.
Voting ends at 5pm one week from today.
Winner receives a gift of their choice valued at $50.
Best wishes! And happy voting!
Now most of you know it has been absolutely, overwhelmingly cold outside the last few weeks. For some reason though today feels just a bit colder than all the rest to me. It could be the fact that I am wearing jeans with tears all the way up and down my legs as well as converse shoes which we all know are made of canvas and not the best snow shoes or it could just be that it’s 11 degrees outside and feels like -4!!!!!
I was peeking outside between the blinds for a cool spot to take a self portrait when I noticed the awesome design on the glass door! So I set my camera up on a timer and ran outside. I wanted the background to be more blurry so I did the little kid breath on the glass thing as you see here.
Enjoy
-erika
