And now, for July… July was a big month for me – and for the twelve new brides and grooms that invited me to photograph their weddings!
Cari and Guy were married on July 3rd in the huge backyard at Cari’s family’s home.
It was a beautiful evening with some of the most amazing floral arrangements I have ever seen. If you take a peek at the first page of their online proof album, you’ll see pictures of these two huge flower balls sitting atop glass pedestals. Never seen anything like them. Then there were the artfully arranged centerpieces and the colorful accent pieces at the ceremony site… I think Cari told me that Lazy Daisy in Yorktown did the floral work. Cari and Guy also had a very unique cake – three tiers of delicious cheesecakes and cake. But my favorite thing about their wedding is that I got to create a photobook for Cari’s mom! I am going to toot my own horn here and say that I feel that it’s the best one I’ve made yet, but… You can be the judge. Take a look at their book online here!
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Shannon and Wes, my next bride and groom, were married on the 4th of July.
Their wedding was steeped in tradition! Shannon and Wes’ ceremony was held in a church that hadn’t been used since the 1970’s. The church sits on property that was donated in the 1800’s by Wes’ four-times great-grandfather to the Harlan Cemetery. I understand that Shannon, along with several friends and family members, spent a lot of time cleaning the church and getting it ready for the big day. Although it was a rainy day, tons of people packed into the church to celebrate with the bride and groom. Afterwards, we drove just down the road to Wes’ family’s farm for the reception, held in the big barn on the property. I loved their choice of a first dance song: “Where the Green Grass Grows” by Tim McGraw. The decor included classic tractors and an antique beet truck. Centerpieces were candles in glass mason jars, and Shannon used her favors as decorations too – small trees from the Arbor Day Foundation decorated with a little ribbon. It was all rustic, but very classy and very true to Shannon and Wes’ style. When I complimented Shannon on how beautiful everything was, she confided that she’d had a $2700 budget, but had pulled everything off for $1600! I told her that she should go into event planning!
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My next wedding was the marriage of Matt and Lacey on July11th.
They chose to get married in an intimate ceremony with a small group of family and friends in the gazebo at Falls Park in Pendleton. Where Shannon and Wes’ wedding day had been rainy, Matt and Lacey had a DELUGE! We sheltered underneath the gazebo while Matt and Lacey exchanged their vows and rings, kissed, and shared their first dance. Their reception was held at Garfield’s in the Mounds Mall. Everyone gathered there to watch Matt and Lacey cut their cake and then joined them for dinner. I loved Lacey’s dress, a simple ivory lace A-line with an empire waist.
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Suzanne and Armand were married on July 18th.
I’d done their engagement pictures (and blogged about it as well) back in early June. It’s nice to know the people who I’ll be working with. Not necessary, but nice. Again, I had a great time photographing this couple and I hope they enjoyed it too! Suzanne and Armand held their ceremony at the True Vine Church, and their reception at the Carolina Room in Muncie. The Carolina Room is a nice venue inside, with a good setup for a large number of guests. What stands out the most for me about Suzanne and Armand’s wedding, in fact, is their guests. Often I get comments and compliments from the guests at weddings, but Suzanne and Armand’s guests were genuinely appreciative of the work that I did with them. They were a friendly and caring bunch of people, to me as well as among themselves. It was a pleasure to be surrounded by people who were truly happy to see and visit with each other.
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My final July wedding, on the 25th, was the marriage of Keri and Matt.
Keri and Matt were married at the Wesley Free Methodist Church, where Keri’s family attends. I have photographed a few weddings here and I love the architecture. It’s an impressive chapel. I kind of knew Keri going into the wedding – Mark used to work with Keri’s dad, and I took Keri’s brother’s senior pictures a few years ago. Keri was a little nervous when we started out, but just about everyone is… It’s weird to think that you’ve hired someone to follow you around and take your picture all day! She and Matt had a beautiful wedding, including a slide show during their ceremony. The reception was held at the Military Armor Museum in Anderson. I’ve also photographed a few weddings there and I really like it as a venue. Although the outside doesn’t look like much, the inside is nicely updated. The staff is friendly, the facilities are good, and the parking is right there so that you don’t have to walk blocks through bad weather. The only thing that drives me nuts is that *everyone* places their cake right in front of a huge mirror on the wall. Makes it a little trickier when getting pictures of the cake and the cake cutting! 
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And those were my July weddings! I did have a portrait session in July, but I’ll throw it in with my August post. I don’t think they’ll mind!
Okay! I think I can start catching up now!
You all saw my first June wedding with Courtney and Colby. Man, that was a lot of fun. I just loved how open they were to trying new things!
My next June wedding was the union of Barbara and Corey:
I’d spent a couple of hours with them when we first got together for our initial wedding meeting (we couldn’t stop talking and laughing about things). Barbara and Corey held their wedding at Mounds State Park in the Pavilion. I think that’s a really nice venue if you’re trying to stick to a small budget. It was a warm day for June, but plenty of the bride and groom’s friends and family turned out to celebrate with them. One of the neat things that Barbara and Corey had at their reception was a live birch tree to take home and plant. A small table next to the tree held cards with ribbons that guests could write their wedding wishes on and tie to the tree. I always like seeing the creative ideas that people come up with to make their weddings unique! I also got to work with some of my favorite DJs, 500 Lbs. of Sound. If you’re looking for a DJ, Todd and Shelley do a nice job!
My third June wedding was the marriage of Kara and Jonathan.
Aren’t they cute?! Their wedding day was super hot, but they had a perfect venue at Minnetrista in Muncie. They chose the rose garden to be married in, with its beds and beds of roses and lilies, and a gazebo from the 1939 World’s Fair. Afterward, they held their reception in the Cantina. if you look through their pictures, you may come across the groom’s cake decorated with bugs. I was confused too, but it turns out that Jonathan is an insect aficionado and is studying to be an entomologist. Still, I passed on tasting the bug cake By the way, Isn’t Kara’s bouquet gorgeous?! The flowers were done by Lasting Impressions Flower Shop in Daleville. It’s a tiny little place that you might not know was even there if you weren’t looking for it, but their work is terrific!
And those were my three June weddings. I fully intend to post my July ones before the weekend’s over, but for now I’ve got two hungry little girls clamoring for a snack!
Filed under: Weddings
Courtney and Colby got married this past Saturday in New Castle. They had a perfect day for their wedding: blue skies, warm but with a nice breeze. And I couldn’t ask for a cuter couple! Courtney is just adorable, has a great laugh and a beautiful grin. Colby has his talents too – he surprised Courtney with a song during their ceremony that made her tear up (and I think several of the guests did too!)
We were able to do pictures outside before the ceremony. Afterwards, we headed to a nearby park for a few more. I convinced the bride and groom to climb onto the carousel with me after the wedding party had gone on, and we got some neat shots of the two of them while their videographer helped by spinning us around. The reception was held at the Muncie Cornerstone Center for the Arts building downtown, in the great room on the third floor. I’d never been up there before, but I really like the open, airy feeling of the room.
You can take a peep at Courtney and Colby’s pictures online, and here’s a little something to get you started!
Filed under: Weddings
Last Saturday I had the privilege of working with Connie and Jeremy at their wedding. They had just moved to Indiana from Tennessee when Connie met with me last summer to talk about wedding photography. If I remember right, we had a nice conversation and Connie promised me that she’d get back with me soon. She was interviewing for a new job and wanted to see how that went before she signed any contracts. Connie landed the job and was working when an associate of hers mentioned a wedding photographer to her, saying “My wife does weddings, if you’re interested.” Connie looked at the business card and put two and two together: Her new associate was my husband, Mark!
So Connie & Jeremy’s wedding was a pleasure to photograph. Connie had done a lot of work planning everything out to ensure that the guests all had fun. There were lots of little details for me to capture, and a beautiful venue to work with. Everything went very smoothly – except for the weather! We had sprinkles during some of the posed pictures that escalated into a full-blown storm by reception time. Then the tornado sirens went off and next thing we knew, we were all headed down to the lowest level… Well, except for several adventurous party-goers who hung around outside to watch the clouds and collect hail!
Still, everyone had a great time. Good food, delicious cake, and a memorable evening Connie and Jeremy have their online album password protected, but here are a few to show you how terrific their day was. And isn’t her dress beautiful!?
Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to work with two models at the Paramount Theatre for SOSN bridal studio in Pendleton. They needed new images for some advertising for an upcoming event. Oddly enough, we didn’t use too much of the theater with its Italianate design – we spent much more time in the alleys and on the fire escapes around the theater.
Oh, you say you want to meet my models?
Here’s Jessy, who I’ve worked with before. We first worked together on her senior pictures. She came to me, unhappy with the work of another photographer and asked me to take some for her. She and I spent three or four hours that day, just walking around and taking pictures. I enjoy working with Jessy, trying new things and cracking up.
Also, meet Whitney! I’ve never worked with Whitney before. She does a great deal of modeling for other local photographers, although she does not have modeling as a career goal. She’s also a lot of fun and apparently addicted to watermelon. Isn’t she fabulous?!
Tangentially related to this shoot and probably all Greek to a lot of you… I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to a new camera, the Canon 5d Mark II. I had been considering it, just couldn’t decide whether or not I really needed the full frame sensor. Or the 21 megapixels. As of this morning, I am experiencing a good deal of buyer’s remorse – I always do – but I’m sure that will all change once I have it in my hands and am shooting with it. How is this related to this shoot, you might wonder. Well, I feel like my images have really improved over the last year and in a way I am rewarding myself by making the move to a more professional camera… Not that the improvement itself isn’t its own reward, because it is… Can you tell I’m trying to okay this purchase with my inner critic? Anyhow, hope to have even more spectacular images to show you soon!
Filed under: Weddings
Last weekend I photographed the wedding of Krista and Will at Righteous Oaks in Wilkinson, Indiana. What a great facility, a repurposed church… It’s a terrific place for a reception, or hold the entire wedding there, as Krista and Will did. And my favorite: they had an ice cream sundae bar!! Here are a few shots from their special day, and here’s the link to all of their pictures. Enjoy!
Want to see what I’ve been up to?
Well, first there were a few Ivy Tech events; one in Bloomington at IU and one in Indianapolis…
Then I had a senior portrait session on a gorgeous day with Marissa. This is one of my absolute favorites from her session. Don’t you love her eyes?!
And an engagement at the park… Jennifer and Tom were great to work with. Jennifer was a little camera-shy at first, but I think we’ve got some pictures from their session that they will really treasure.
And then I had a session with Sopia, who is just nine days old here. I photographed her parents’ wedding a few years ago and I was glad to see them again and meet their little one!
This picture is also proof of how crazy I am for good pictures… I saw this wrap online and with three hours before Sophia’s session, I sat down and crocheted one for us to use. It worked like a charm, once we figured out how to get her in there!
Filed under: Weddings
The Wedding March 2009 was yesterday afternoon. It’s the second year I’ve gone to this show… Last year I was sick as a dog with Abby, so I enjoyed it a lot more this year. The venue was much more accessible, although less romantic. There were a lot of great vendors. I tasted some delicious cake and ate a tasty little number called a parfait shot. Photographers were well represented and were by far the largest portion of wedding professionals there. Ten of us, I believe… When most of us had been told that there would be a maximum of five. So if you were there yesterday and thought, “Wow, there seem to be a lot of photographers here!”, it’s because there were.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s a good idea for me to do those shows. I much prefer being a photographer to being a salesperson. I feel like my work should speak for itself… And I’m not sure that my work gets heard over the carnie-like cries of the booths around me. It’s something I am going to have to consider before I sign up for shows in the future.
What do you think? When you planned your wedding, did you really fall in love with professionals that you found at a wedding show, or did you find that more of your professionals came from research you did or word of mouth from your friends?
Edit: Just found this clip of the show. I’m talking to the Herald photographer, who was holding a little P&S cam. I had no idea that I was being recorded, and from the looks of some of the other people in the video, they didn’t know that either. Heh. I’m at 1:00.
I will be the first person in the world to tell you that I have a great job. I have the *perfect* job for me. I do basically the same thing every time I go to work, from loading my gear to setting up my camera to working with people, yet it’s also something new every time. I meet new people, photograph new faces, try new ideas and work in new locations. It’s taken me a while to come to terms with myself as a “professional” anything, but here I am as a professional photographer.
I’ve often flippantly told people that one of the best parts about my job is all the wedding cake I get to eat. And I have eaten some really good cake. But I’ve also done some other cool stuff. I’ve photographed the Governor of Indiana. I’ve photographed the Indiana Secretary of State. I’ve been on the floor at Conseco Fieldhouse and on the field of the RCA Dome (which was imploded last month). I’ve done pageants and football. I’ve spent two solid days photographing wrestling on my knees. I once photographed a fashion show where the models walked the runway with kitchen faucets and bathroom shower heads.
Still, and I want desperately to be able to say this without sounding cheesy… The most important part of my job is capturing the memories. I was telling Mark the other day how I feel about this. I am one single person, but the product that I create is something that will be looked at twenty-five or fifty years from now, or maybe even longer. I have family pictures that go back to the 1800’s. It’s entirely conceiveable that someone will be looking at my work in the middle of the next century. Someone is going to want a picture of their great-great grandparents’ wedding. Someone is going to wonder about the styles that were popular when their grandmother was a senior in high school. Someone is going to laugh at a picture of their dad as a bare-naked baby.
This is the responsibility of my job, and I feel it as an enormous one. I am taking pictures for people to help them relive how they felt, who they were, what happened. I take pictures for children who aren’t born yet, to show them how happy their parents were on their wedding day. I take pictures for the years to come, when someone’s father or grandfather has passed away, so that they can look back and remember.
Isn’t that a great job to have?
Filed under: Weddings
Coffee table books have definitely become a major trend in wedding photography in the last few years. People are using these instead of the more traditional wedding album to preserve and showcase their pictures.
Although I’ve been offering them for two years, I’ve just recently had people actually ordering their books. (This happens a lot, clients waiting to order their wedding images, and that’s okay.) I finished one for Katie and Alex this week and I posted it to the Bow Tie Photography website photo gallery for everyone to take a look at. You can see it too, by following this link, then choosing “Photobook” on the drop-down gallery menu.
These are two of my favorite pages from their book:
