Do Not Mess With This Bride

This gives a whole new meaning to bridezilla; such a lovely young lady, such a large weapon.

It was all in fun at a recent “trash the Dress” photo shoot done by blog buddy Lara over at her blog for A Softer Image. You can see more of the images here and here. If you are planning your wedding Lara has some great tips on all kinds of wedding lore and traditions. Especially interesting are her posts on wedding photography written for brides.

The bride, Meghann, will be donating her dress to the

Mary Madeline Project, a group in New England that takes old wedding dresses apart and makes burial gowns for infants that pass away. Then they donate them to families who are too poor to buy a gown, or too distressed to shop for one.

Wedding Shadowbox

I was cruising through my blogroll this morning and stumbled on an interesting post by Mrs. Bell Pepper over at Wedding Bee. If you are not familiar, Wedding Bee is a great blog written by a large variety of brides to be and recent brides. The Bee’s take you through every gory little detail of their planning and post wedding tasks. It can be a bit of a task to keep up with because there are SO many posts but I always find something interesting and a lot of good DIY ideas.

Today I found a post about Wedding Shadowboxes. It is a great idea to preserve the memorabilia of your wedding. I spent some time searching for some other examples and came to a conclusion. If you want a brilliant shadowbox you have to plan in advance.

The more I looked the more boring shadowboxes I found. What is great about the one Mrs. Bell Pepper did is the scope of objects she included.

If you like the idea of preserving and showing off the memories of all the hard work you have put in on planning your wedding you should start from the very beginning.

Keep a box and a note pad with your wedding planning stuff. Toss into the box any bits and bobs that you think might provoke memories. Not just the pretty things either. How about that hole punch that nearly drove you to insanity at 4 in the morning as you tried to finish your escort cards? This is as much about memories as it is about pretty.

Use the pad to write down things you want to remember to set aside from the day itself. For instance you may want someone to get a great shot of the signature cocktail you created or a label from the wine you chose, maybe the cork from the bottle of champagne you toasted with. It’s the little things that will bring back memories in years to come.

Have fun creating an heirloom that you can enjoy for all the years to come.

Here’s the Proof

Brides are always asking me what makes one service provider so much more expensive than another. In most cases it simply the attention to detail.

I was at lunch last week with a friend looking at the proofs of her daughters wedding. This was the beautiful beach wedding from a few weeks back. Of course I was blown away by the images from David Wright but I was even more impresses by the presentation. Each image is presented on a 4”x 6” card with color, black & white and sepia tone proofs neatly arranged in presentation quality boxes.

This is the kind of things that set the really top notch vendors apart from the run off the mill or bargain basement providers. So as you are out there trying to decide who to trust with your wedding, look at the details. Chances are good that if they do a great job on the details the big parts will be spectacular.

How to Get Better Wedding Photos

I have to admit that I am maybe the most photophobic person in the world. I hate pictures of me, I hate having them taken and I hate when they show up in the press.

When you consider how many wonderful professional photographers I have as close personal friends you would think that I would have gotten over this by now. NO, not a chance.

I can get away with hiding from the camera most of the time but if you are a bride to be you don’t have that luxury. What is a girl to do?

Take a look at the blog Lara has put together for A Softer Image Photography. There are some great posts on how to pose and how to be more comfortable in front of the camera. The single best tip is to show your photographer a picture of yourself that you do like. That and relax.

Image courtesy of A Softer Image.

The Most Beautiful Wedding…

When I look at the fabulous weddings in the major magazines I usually suspect that they are staged just for the camera by the magazine. Well I have to post what I think is one of the most beautiful weddings ever and I know this one was real because I know all the people.

My dear friend Renee’s daughter married her college sweetheart last weekend in California. Some of the pictures are now posted on the blog of another dear friend, David Wright who flew out to do the photography.

Yes, dear readers this was an honest to goodness real wedding but it wasn’t staged by amateurs. The brides is studying fashion design, the mom has put together the largest most successful bridal show in the Southeast for the last seven years and the photographer that captures it all is one of the best in the country.

The moral of the story? Oh this time there is no moral, just enjoy David’s beautiful pictures and send out good vibes for Angela and Matt’s future.

Wedding Photography


I had an interesting discussion with a wedding photographer friend of mine recently. Lesli Emmets of Divine Images was telling me about an album she had created purely for her own pleasure and self expression. As anyone that earns their living on the creative front will tell you the pieces we to for ourselves are often not the things that our client wants. Understood, that’s why we do it for ourselves. This album told a different story.

Lesli had left it on the table in her studio and the brides fell in love with the edgy, artistic style. Several brides booked her for their wedding because they wanted an album just like it. Here’s the kicker, when the time came to select the images for their album they were pulling the artistic images and putting in more traditional posed shots. For all the talk of hip edgy wedding pictures, when the rubber hits the road they are still picking more traditional shots! Very interesting.

If you are looking for something non-traditional, maybe you should consider it for your wedding portrait. Rather than a photographic record how about a unique work of art. You know I am a nut for fine arts photography. David Wright over at The Artist’s Eye has been playing with a technique called computerized fine art painting. The above image is what he has done with a picture he did recently for a bridal fashion shoot. Love it. Want it.

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