1. Plan the longest engagement ever!

I’ll admit it, I’m addicted to being engaged. There’s a certain sparkle in telling people I have a fiance and watching their faces light up as they reminisce about their own weddings and romantic memories. I loved the time I spent with my mother planning every detail, listening to my bridesmaids discuss their dresses & dancing partners and learning new things about my man of 9 years. (Who knew he loved cake pillars?! Seriously?)

2. Book a crazy bachelor/bachelorette party yourself…aka go to Vegas.

There’s no written rule you can’t plan your own party! Our trip to Vegas with 6 of our closest friends was the best vacation we ever experienced. Though I’m sure my bridesmaids would have planned a fun outing, be spontaneous and go somewhere you know you’ll never forget. Well maybe you’ll forget some things……

3. Laugh at the drama and write it down!

Our wedding planning wasn’t without bumps. We “restructured” the bridal party a month before the date, sent out invites totally last minute (3 weeks to be exact) and desperately lacked in funds more than once, but when I tell my stories to others, they just make me laugh and realize the long and adventurous path we’ve taken to get to this amazing moment. Write it all down and when you’re finished, you just might be able to pitch your own soap opera!

4. Hire fantastic people.

I consider my taste to be high class, but the professionals I hired are in a class of their own. My caterer, cake decorator, stylist and of course, my photographers! are such wonderful and fun people to be around and this eases a huge amount of stress. Always there to answer any question, I couldn’t be more pleased to have met and shared my time with these people and I’m glad I choose my vendors based on personality, not just a portfolio.

5. Kiss each other goodnight EVERY NIGHT.

We might not be married yet, but almost a decade of dating means we must be doing something right.

Best wishes to all you beautiful brides! I hope your stories of celebration are as memorable as mine.

Read more to see the whole design in a flash player and a few of my comments on the stronger page designs.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

Here is the whole album in a flash player, if you cannot see this player – please download an install the latest flash.

Here’s a lighthearted page at side 9 and 10 that shows how we can use creative cropping and image placement of seemingly unrelated images to create a bright color palette and telling design. The bottom left image is quite filled with detail if you can’t quite read it all notice it larger here:

Sometimes people equate taking pictures of ‘things’ as details pictures, saying “I love the details” well, we shoot images with detail in the texture, and storytelling in the composition so that they can fit back into the layout and add story to the finished product. There you can see the tourism magazine from the bedstand noting the location, a bridal accecory from Haute Bride, Britta’s mamosa and her lively pink moto rAzr.

Next we see a designed series of image showing Britta and Cameron’s first meeting just before their ceremony.   You can see me playing with scale to show time from left to right.

And finally a subtle touch at that first meeting is a gentle picture representing the ceremony about to happen.

Here on the left we have a large bisected square representing in smaller squares all the flurry of activity just before the ceremony. The page is culminated by Britta’s father giving her a kiss on the cheek while giving her away.

Well I guess I’m noticing the details again, here I have 4 shots representing the event design and coloring of the reception in the historical Victorian Athenaeum hotel which has been serving guests since 1881. If you’ll notice my emphasis on the vertical design and incorporate it within the images and merge it within the design using a chair back as a photo design element to complement the album design.

Here we see another inventive combination of photo design merged with the book design.

Over these six pages I developed a storyline from the evening portraits, guest waving goodbye to Cameron and Britta, Cameron carrying Britta over the threshold of their honeymoon suite and a few tender moments on the bed to finish the wedding story all the way to the end of the night in the album design. I love building a relationship strong enough to allow me to portray my clients with such honesty and tenderness.

So it’s been a while since I’ve discussed a picture, and I thought this would be a good one to talk about. I shot this image at a recent November wedding with it’s bride only counterpart. I enjoyed creating this image in an empty lot next to Christina’s (the bride’s) parent’s home where she prepared for the wedding. The enjoyment came from being able to create mood and style easily in the early evening that comes in November. The frame above was made at 5:03:22PM between the ceremony and reception. The early sunset gave me the chance to control the lighting in the image by using my strobes instead of relying on the mood of the natural light.

Planning for pictures

The early evening gave us ample time between the ceremony and reception and the double bonus of having both daylight and dusk to make pictures in. With a wedding plan that allowed us two hours of shooting between the ceremony and reception I was able to shoot several styles of pictures with the wedding party and the couple. The November temperatures, the foliage valiantly holding on the Red Oaks and a freshly dressed bride inspired this photo’s tonality:

Even though the day was started with a light snow and the grey skies remained through the day – with my equipment and vision I was able to create a unique photo for Christina. She was brave enough to wear her lacy dress into the weeds before the ceremony to win this great photo!

Composition and presentation

I made a new category today in the content management system here called presentation as I will be posting some interesting presentation options soon. Let me talk just a moment about the composition and how it affects presentation of the photo. First, the proportion – or the size of the couple related to the overall image – has several relationships to how you may or may not appreciate presenting the image in your home. My experience in preparing images for display in my clients homes, mailing as postcards and designing into websites has shown me that there are two general groups of clients that hire me; the visuals and the emotionals. One group are generally more bold and visually literate, meaning they have greater experience reading, using, or collecting images. The other group of image buyers are less sure of what they want in visual terms but are drawn to My wife & I’s work on emotional terms and the romance of documenting real moments of family and friend’s connections.

The visually literate bunch, often work in advertising, communications, or practice photography as a hobby and have more graphic tastes in photos and a stronger tolerance for seeing themselves in the photos. The emotionally motivated bunch, have less of a tolerance for displaying themselves and would rather see demonstrations of love but not of themselves. Interesting paradox, I know since it’s their love that is demonstrated.

Print size and proportions

No client represents either of these polarities completely, however I felt Christina and Mike were somewhat of the more romantic type and so I composed several of these images in this proportion to give them the opportunity to make a large print where they don’t feel visually large in the print, but can cherish their togetherness and warmth in the chill night air under the moon. The scale of this image should allow it to be printed as large as some of our largest prints, meaning 4 feet tall by 6 feel long on a fine canvas frame. If you have a big blank wall to cover in your home, we can take care of you!

Browse the ‘Where Art Lives’ category to get more ideas about how to frame, mount, and creatively present your wedding and portrait images.

∞

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