Erika Dotson Photography » joplin wedding photography

Monday’s Favorites

Erika — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 19:24:05 +0000

I want to focus on every color in the rainbow at some point but I think today will be YELLOW!!!

Find these adorable dresses at Forever 21 for your bridesmaids!

What an adorable idea!!!!! Love love love lining the walkway with lemons!!!

I thought these shoes from Payless would look cute with the girls’ dresses.

Oh you gotta have lemonade to make the wedding complete!!!

3 cups lemon or lime juice, about 20 lemons or 25 limes freshly squeezed
2 cups superfine sugar
4 cups cold water
4 cups ice
2 lemons or limes, thinly sliced for garnish

1. Into a large serving container, strain the citrus juice, mix it with sugar, and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

2. Add 4 cups cold water and stir again until well combined. Add ice to fill and a few lemon or lime slices.

Makes 10 cups.

And these would be wonderful shoes for the bride!!!!

What a cute bouquet!!!!

What a great bridesmaid gift from Etsy!

Cute socks! What a great idea for a fun shot!

And of course you gotta have a yellow tie to coordinate!

I’m thinking the tie would look best with a grey tux!

Instead of one big wedding cake you could offer cute little pies or cakes displayed at various heights to add interest!

These would be a good addition to the church doors.

Learn how to make these DIY napkin folds yourself!

What an adorable boutonniere!

Enjoy!

-erika

Kelly and Adam // Devil’s Den Wedding Photography

Erika — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:39:58 +0000

Hey everyone I was pretty stoked about shooting Kelly and Adam’s wedding at Devil’s Den last weekend. It was such a gloomy day to start out and I was nervous but just in time the sky cleared out for them! It’s funny that always seems to happen for us on wedding days! :) Kelly and Adam live out at Devil’s Den since Adam works there. It’s such a beautiful place to visit. Both of their families drove all the way from Jonesboro the day before and experienced the cabin life. It was an intimate but gorgeous wedding. Julie from Jules Design provided these really cool trees to put at the ceremony location, she also provided the awesome floral arrangements. She’s amazing with the flowers! They decided to take an hour before the ceremony to capture some couple portraits together, which if you’ve got the time I totally recommend! We got lots of yummy pictures of them together! Then it was time for the ceremony. Her daddy walked her down the aisle that was sprinkled with dirt, pine needles, and gumballs! :) Then they reached all the rocks that Kelly graciously crossed to her new groom. It was a very sweet and simple ceremony surrounded by the most important people in Kelly and Adam’s lives. We then caught some quick pictures of their cake from Rick’s Bakery and then they were off to go enjoy dinner with their family. I was so grateful to have the opportunity to help them remember their special day. Kelly and Adam truly are wonderful individuals and they compliment each other so well. I know they’ll be together for many many years. It was so cute to watch how concerned Adam was for his new bride as she made her way in a gorgeous wedding dress across all those rocks. What a cutie. And I can’t forget how many times Kelly told us she wasn’t photogenic……………what?!?!?!?!?!? KELLY you are totally HOTT!!! :)

Congratulations you two and we wish you the best!

Meet totally HOTT Kelly! :)

Meet the handsome groom Adam.

This beautiful shot was captured by Tanja.

Totally laid on the ground below them to get this shot! Awesome.

Aren’t they just adorable?

I’m pretty sure this is my favorite image from the entire day!

Told you Jules Design was amazing….. :)

This is another favorite! So hard to decide.

I’m not sure if there’s a more beautiful place in the world to get married……

Doesn’t “THE” kiss make it all official?

She seems pleased. :)

Enjoy!

-erika

Monday’s Favorites

Erika — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:48:56 +0000

Alright I love doing this and while I missed the actual Monday mark, I’m posting it anyways!

These ice lanterns are a total do it yourself project for anyone planning a winter wedding! How cute!!!

You need two buckets, one smaller then the other.

Some greens, I love to use olive branches.

Fill the biggest bucket half full with water.

Place the smaller bucket inside it and place some rocks or something heavy to keep in in place.

Add more water, the water level should be to the top.

Add your branches to the sides of the bucket.

Use some tape to keep the small bucket in the middle of the big one.

Now set the whole thing outside to freeze.

Once its frozen, remove the small bucket first and then the large one.

You now have a beautiful ice lantern.

Place a votive candle inside and voila, the party can start.

What a cute idea! And just for all you brides, details like this make your wedding rock that much harder!!! Photographers love little details!

I love how they pulled these centerpieces together! I usually get stuck in that rut that these centerpieces things have to be super fancy, but these are totally cute and another DIY!!!!

Steps for a Full Wrap Treatment
Step 1:Measure paper around the vase. Leave about 1″ on the neck for a ribbon treatment.
Step 2:Cut the paper. Adhere one edge of the paper to the glass with glue dots. Wrap the other side around and secure with more glue dots.
Step 3:Cover the top rough edges with a grosgrain ribbon.

Steps for a Middle Band Treatment
Step 1:Measure paper around the vase.
Step 2:Cut first band to measure 5″, second to measure 3.5″.
Step 3:Stick first wrap to the vessel with glue dots. Layer on the 3″ band,again using glue dots.
Step 4:Top it off with ribbon treatment.

Anything personalized is super cute but these are adorable. If you planned on a wedding in the summer and thought of these fans think how much your guests would love to have this keepsake!!!

I saw these at Forever 21 and instantly thought they would be perfect for a stylish bride!!!

This idea struck me as an important one for all couples planning a wedding. I like to ask “what is your photography budget”, and I usually get this response “well we really haven’t thought about it” or “we don’t really have one”. My first piece of advice for you is make one!!! It will be the most important thing you do to keep your wedding costs down and be able to get what you actually want. Wedding expenditures add up and quickly but if you are prepared with a budget that will help. Also it’s a great idea to start budgeting together as a couple, since now you’ll probably have some sort of a joint account. This website isn’t just geared toward weddings either but it’s a great way to keep track of what you are saving! Be sure to check it out smartypig.com

Enjoy!

-erika

What a perfect wedding day

Erika — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:00:14 +0000

Today I had an amazing day shooting Kelly and Adam’s wedding. I’m not going to spill the beans too too much about how much I loved them because there will be a later post for that. My self portrait today was down at Devil’s Den while I was shooting some couple portraits on the waterfall. What a beautiful place to get married and I’m so glad I got to spend most of the day outside today with such a great and loving family!

More to come on Kelly and Adam’s awesomeness!!!!

Enjoy!

-erika

I promise to start taking pictures when there’s light outside!!!

Erika — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:56:44 +0000

So tonights picture isn’t the best, I will admit, but I wanted to try to shoot in my headlights. So I tried it and here’s the shot I came up with.

If you haven’t been able to tell this about me yet, I love my dog Ellie, she’s a chocolate lab and she’s super smart! So of course I grabbed her and made her come along in my self portrait for the day! I think she was a little scared that I was running and trying to get her excited in 10 seconds! ha ha

Enjoy

-erika

Erika — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:33:04 +0000

There are so many different directions I could go with my post tonight but I’m going to mention briefly how much I hated having this “ugly” wood stove in my new home! I was used to having a cute little fireplace along with a mantle in which you had a nice elegant focal point in your home. When TW and I first moved into our home I ranted on and on about how I hated having a wood stove in the middle of the house. I told him I was going to figure out a way to disguise it into a fireplace by building a mantle around it. I absolutely hated everything about it! Well winter time came around and he works and works to cut down firewood for us, weekend after weekend, and now I can say thank you for all the hard work you do so I can have a nice warm cozy house and not only that but no frozen pipes this winter! (I’ve heard about several families that have had to suffer this sort of hardship this winter and I’ve gotta say with temperatures scaling all the way up to 1 degree I’m not sure I would be tough enough to handle that!!!!) I am greatful I have a place of constant heat that I can warm my tootsies when they get cold! So this post goes to my wonderful husband, thank you for all the woodchopping and wood hauling you do to make our house warm.

Enjoy

-erika

Another Monday’s Favorites!

Erika — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:03:19 +0000

Today will be full of DIY projects for you swanky brides out there!

First off the information on how to download these table numbers and menus is here.

I love this wedding timeline!!!!

What a cute idea for wedding favors or really for any reason! Check out info to download the template here.

I am so pumped! All the time I get brides that want to do their own flowers, which honestly usually this scares me, mostly because the only place to get flowers in bulk around here is Sam’s Club so they usually all end up being the same do it yourself flowers. But wait I’ve found a super cool awesome website for anyone interested in doing their own flowers!! If you are one of those people I recommend you take a look at this webpage really quick though! It will help you determine if you really are a DIY flower bride. Now as for the rest of you. They sell their flowers in a Grand Box which includes several flowers to create many bouquets. Here are a few of my favorite wedding flowers.

And finally a Save the Date download! Aren’t these super cute!!! Check it out here!

Please leave some comment love so I know if I should continue with Monday’s Favorites!

Enjoy

-erika

What a Sunday should feel like

Erika — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:05:09 +0000

Today is Sunday and there’s one thing I love most about Sunday, it’s the only day of the week that I don’t work (usually, unless I have a wedding planned). I love that the whole day is full of no technology, no worries for the day, nothing I have to get done, it’s all about relaxing and enjoying my family. I know there’s obviously a whole lot more about Sunday to enjoy and write about but I’m not focusing on that, I’m focusing on enjoying doing hardly anything. So my picture for today takes place on our fence in front of our home, where I sat today and watched the sunset.

Enjoy

-erika

Just wanted to share one I came across tonight

Erika — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:39:27 +0000

I am about to go hit the showers but just before I do I want to share this image from Jamie and Miller’s New Years Eve Wedding!

Absolutely gorgeous if you ask me!!!

They were married at the First Christian Church in Fayetteville.

Enjoy

-erika