My favorite quotes from Amy:

• “There’s perfection in imperfection”
• “Paper is sexy”
• TOAST (listen till you get it)
• “I didn’t care if I got married”
• “I wasn’t the Bridey Kind of bride”

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For more inspiration about Making Your Love real in art, view our themed posts about ‘Where Art Lives’.

Neil & Leisl -

Thank you, once again for truly capturing hte heart of our special day.  It is thanks to you that these special moments have been immortalized.  We look forward to sharing the albums/photos with our families for years to come.  I can’t imagine that we could have found anyone else that could have told the story of our journey more accurately.  Your talents are a gift and we appreciate your sharing them with us.

WIth much gratitude -

Tom & Kelly

Thanks guys – we are so grateful to have you as clients!
For those of you that haven’t been following our blog very long, here’s a summary of their journey:

• Kelly & Tom’s save the date cards
• Snowy Organic Signature Journal
• Kelly & Tom’s Buffalo NY wedding album

Here’s a close-up shot of Heather’s menus at her reception held in Del Frisco’s wine cellar, the menu designed by Neil.  However the story start a year infront of their wedding…

…with their Chirstmas card and save the date combo.  Here is me holding their limited edition Christmas card, custom designed by me:

Heather and Drew were overjoyed with the complements they received from family, friends and even the rescue organization that they got their dogs from that they had me do their save the date cards as well.

From the save the date postcard which used photographic imagery, Heather decided to take the rest of the suite minimalist to match her wedding decor and theme.

Save the date on the right, menu card on the left.  The paper stock is a pearlescent metallic finish that even though chocolate brown, give a shine to the color.

And here’s what it looks like in the placesetting!

Heather wanted a monogram to tie the pieces together, and with 10 years of design experience I didn’t find that hard to accomplish with style.

The name tags and menu blended in wonderfully with the rich chocolate color scheme.

The Invitations

The invitation design used a fashionable panorama fold on the left of the 5×7″ card.

Inside, flowing blocks of text communicate the details to the guests.

Here the response card design is shown front and back (back side blurry) as it was printed in creme white and slipped into the invitation’s fold.

Response card text.

So if you would like one less vendor to work with, if you would like to have the design elements continue from your save-the-date card through to your album.

Just have us do it – contact us above and we’ll get to work on your engagement shoot and talk styling!

And here’s what Morgan said about the card:

Thank you so so so so soso much I am so excited to have our beautiful wedding in the paper for all to see! I also meant to tell you that when I sent out our thank you cards, I have never gotten more compliment on anything inmy whole life! My one friends husband had gotten it while she was at work and he put it up on the fridge and when she got home that night and saw it on the fridge she thought it was a jewellery ad! SHe had to look a few times before she even noticed it was me! Another friend thought it was an ad from Nordstroms! Everyone said how gorgeous the photo was. Thank you so much for that!  

For the back of the card I found an authentic antique postcard and scanned it to give the piece a unique believable look.

Front above – Inside below

Back below:

Book your portrait session with Neil and choose your card style:

• 8×5 full color double sided postcards
• 4×5.5″ Folded Greeting Cards
• 5×7″ Folded Delux Greeting Cards

You can see the golden sparkles from the fall sun bursting around the couple’s clasp hands in the cover photo on their custom designed greeting card.  Heather ordered that picture on metallic paper as a 16×24 enlargement for her walls, I can’t wait to see where that art will live!

Heather and Drew didn’t want a lot of space inside for writing, but wanted to allow the photos to convey much of the message.  

On the back, Heather wasn’t sure what to do to complete the design, so here’s our e-mail convo:

“How about 102 – 109 for the back cover. I know it needs to be portrait but we don’t want another picture of us on the back. Leaves are pretty..”

“Oh yes Heather I hear you – you want a tone poem to fall, expressing the hidden energy between blue skies and falling leaves – yea I got it.”

And then after she got the cards out, here is her response:

“Hey Neil -
Everyone loves the xmas cards. I’ve gotten notes from most of the people we sent them too. Also, the humane society that we adopted Otis from loves them and wanted your info.
Not too mention how much we love them! You’re so talented!

My wife helped me pick out sizes for some of our pics, we took advantage of the sale!

Have a Great Holiday!
Heather”

We’re so satisfied when we give voice in our photos and design to people’s lives and bring joy to all those around them

Thank you cards illustrated watch in High Definition Video on Vimeo.

Thank-you cards are a fun way to show everyone your wedding style with a lovely photo card.  You can purchase your card set from one of the many types we have in our shopping cart:

8.5 x 5.5 Color Postcards – 250

4×5.5 Folded Delux Greeting Cards

4×6 Color Postcards – 250

5×7 Folded Delux Greeting Cards

I made a stop to my local New York Antique shop and picked up some choice authentic postcards. A quick scan later and I’ve got Deanna a real vintage look for the back of her postcard to match that beautiful shot sitting on the groom’s lap in thecockpit of the P-40 Warhawk.

Organic Granola save the date card photos by Neil on this snowy outdoor shoot…

These save the date cards were shot in February in Upstate New York reflecting this couple’s unique love story.

Tom proposed to Kelly while they were loading firewood.

Painfully romantic I know – keeping the fires burning hot to make it through these brutal Buffalo winters (-:

You can see other winter portrait sessions for save the date cards with the tag ‘winter’ and you can get a picture for all the  possibilities  with snow.

Can you guess which one is Kona? This is the front of their Christmas card shot in the snow here outside Rochester. Read on to see the back and inside photos…

Kona gets featured on the back too, little pup’s stealing the show! I was able to print these cards on a special paper stock called ‘pearl’ resulting in just a little shimmer from the whites – just like you see on real snow. Tany and Eric wanted to feature playing in the snow and I was able to deliver a sparkling holiday card for them.

The cards present a full bleed (printed to the edges), folded four panel card with a size of 4×5.5 inches and your order comes with complete with envelopes.

For the back of the postcard they chose a crazy fun picture with a wild angle showing them having a blast with each other.

To get this shot I had Tanya sit on the diving board of the pool and Erik jumped in to get some hugs and poof the picture was made. I had communicated with Tanya about her picture preferences and she didn’t want anything too posed and didn’t want to spend precious time away from her wedding posing — and that desire was balanced by the somewhat traditional need to produce a representation of herself and her husband on the thank-you card. So in this shot she enjoyed the mood – as well as the representation – and was freed from any expectation to go all out on the back:

I feel this image provides a very good representation of the ‘empathetic’ side of display preferences I first started talking about in another page(link). Now from this shot you can better understand my opening statement “Display preferences don’t change how we shoot…but good communication from you can free us up to do our job the best way we can” you see it’s very easy as a wedding photographer to become afraid of black. By afraid of black, I mean the fast pace and the stress of the job can lead you to only make ‘normalized’ images. Exposures that capture the action or emotion, but the tonality within the image itself does not represent the same emotions and mood that the subject matter does. In this nearly silhouetted photo, where Tanya and Erik nearly kiss, and the nearly setting sun speckles the tenting with golden drops – I’ve achieved a photo who’s emotions, visuals and actions parallel each other and drive home the same golden experience.

The most expressive and unique images may be found, but in the process of doing so we fall short more often than we achieve the goal. As we are talking with you about your wedding day and plans, it’s good to encourage us that abnormal is ok. Hiring a real artist, who will express your wedding is a risk; a risk worth taking for sure! A risk that you minimize by actually looking through many of the events your artist has shot and really taking stock of the expressive powers of the artist. When you really know your artist you can then commit with confidence to those talents.

You can also read more of our thoughts on photography display preferences or choosing a wedding photographer in those categories.

They had so many great options for their cards they had a hard time deciding but liked the vertical format and the sparkling water in this shot.

Here’s one of their save the date card designs, front above is for self mailing – and the previous one needs an envelope:

This over sized postcard (8×5″wide by 5.5″ high) demands full postage from the post office whether or not you mail it as a flat (without envelope) so I generally recommend you use the full space and enclose it within an envelope.

You can look forward to their wedding in September.

Save the date postcard front^

Beth & Wade helped me finalize their save the date postcards today, and I thought since you probably don’t have the privilege of being on their guest list – I’d give you a peak no less.

That’s putty and Olive prancing in the picture, it was imperative that they get their moment in the spotlight.

Beth and Wade’s display preferences tended toward the organic and natural and they represented those preferences in both the choice of shoot location and the toning and retouching of the images for their save the date cards.

Here’s a few more images from their engagement session.

I also helped Beth and Wade put together a simple website.