April & Neil...trashed the dress!

On Friday, we photographed April & Neil's wedding...they were up for ANYTHING artsy and non-traditional (which I LOVE) and since they weren't planning on leaving for their honeymoon for a day or two, we decided to do their trash the dress session yesterday. It was perfect timing too...TrashTheDress.com was just featured on Good Morning America yesterday morning and as we were getting ready to leave for their photo shoot, we were watching the TV segment showcasing this new concept in wedding photography...I love being on the forefront of a new trend. :)

One bride who was interviewed on Good Morning America said something like, "I said my vows to my new husband, not to my dress" which I thought was perfect. The ides is that you'll never wear the dress again and your future daughter won't want to wear it so this is the perfect way to create some extraordinary photos in unique settings after the wedding. The idea isn't to completely ruin it (usually) but to get it wet and filthy...April will still be able to dry clean it and preserve it, she just might have a few extra stains to look back on and smile years from now after she remembers how much fun we had together yesterday. :)

We started their day at the Avon Perennial Gardens and got a ton of pics of them in the creek, getting wet and having fun in the garden area, it was gorgeous!! Then, we went to the war memorial fountain where we took some fun pics of April getting completely wet for the first time in the dress. After that, we went to my aunt's house...she has a beautiful pool in her backyard that was perfect for a TTD session. These are just a few of my faves that caught my eye after downloading tonight...there will be MANY more posted throughout this week as I continue to edit. :D Keep checking back!!
The groom...just hanging out. :)
Her bouquet was floating the whole time!
Loved this one...she started to grab her bouquet and the dress whipped around. You can see how dirty her dress was around the bottom edges by that time...
More coming soon!!

Boudoir, Bridal & Kitties, oh my!

Last Sunday, we had a BLAST photographing Cori's bridal portraits & boudoir session!! Karen Hall & Co. did a great job with her hair & make-up, as usual...she looked flawless. :) I think when some brides think of bridal portraits, they envision the traditional altar formal shots that were popular way back when....well, times have definitely changed and this bridal portrait session was anything but ordinary! I think it's becoming more popular because brides are able to see how their hair, make-up, flowers, etc. will turn out before the wedding and get some fun pics at various locations in the process.
Cute shoes....although they looked like they hurt...:O
Cool ring shot...and Cori left behind a little artwork on the wall (below)....;)
She looked gorgeous!!! Her eyes just popped in her pics....
LOL....I LOVE THIS SHOT! As we were walking around the monument downtown, I stopped a group of guys with skate boards to see if we could borrow one for a quick shot. Cori was totally up for anything!!! I heard people walking by saying, "OMG, those are going to be awesome pics!" Her dress ended up a little "pre-trashed" from the whole shoot (as in dirty and now has a few holes) but she was so great about it, she knew it was going to be worth it and that later on, she'd look back at those stains and remember what a great time she had that day at her photo shoot. That's all that really matters....
And then we had to stop by Border's for some last minute help from the knot. LOL Since Cori is a knottie, this shot was only fitting. ;)
The people at the bookstore thought we were nuts...oh well! I'll do anything for a cool shot....
...including nearly getting arrested. :O Cori was standing on top of the monument wall (fountain was behind her) and we got this shot to get a different perspective of the capitol building...most people shoot it straight on, making it appear bigger in the background...we wanted to try something a little different...she looked like she was on top of the world here. :) But after I snapped a few pics, a cop showed up...luckily he was cool about it and none of us were hauled off...lol...
After her bridal portrait shoot was done, we went back inside and she changed for her boudoir shoot...
SEXY!!
She looked SO HOT! Her fiance is going to LOVE these...I wish I could be there to see his face when he gets his little black box of 5x7's on the wedding night. :D (By the way, I did get permission to post these since she was ok with showing them off on my blog...and she said her fiance won't look here before the wedding since he doesn't want to see the dress until the ceremony...how cute is that?!)
And since he's a fire fighter, we had a little fun with the hose....
I loved these shots on the blue table....of course, after this shot was taken, the building owner walked in (oops!) and we decided to move to plan B, we went to her house to finish the shoot....
It actually worked out really well...she was able to light some candles and be more comfy at home. :)
And then her kitties wanted in on the action...:) You all know how much I love animals so of course, I had to include them on the blog. (Kitty boudoir below...) ;p
"Look mom, I can replicate that pose!"
Cat fight...Diana caught these two duking it out in the middle of the shoot...LOL
Sweet kitty face :)

Cori was so much fun to work with that day and on Monday, I received this e-mail from her:

"Hi Erin,

I just had to email and tell you how glad I am that we picked you guys as our photographer, I think you meet everyone for a reason and after yesterday, I know why I was lead your way. Yesterday was great! First of all, thanks for recommending Karen Hall. My hair and makeup were above and beyond what I ever expected. Not to mention how incredibly wonderful they are, I can see why you all work so well together. Second of all, the pictures were phenomenal, and I only saw a few on the little camera screen. I can’t wait to see all of them. Third, you have no idea what doing that photo shoot has done for me. Not only do I know how great I’m going to look on my wedding day and won’t be so nervous to be ‘the center of attention’, but taking all of those shots really made me feel SO good about myself, I feel I have a new confidence that I didn’t have before. You made me feel so comfortable and so beautiful that I recommend every woman to do this even if it is just for them, it was a great experience! Forth, I have a new respect for models, because I was tired and sore from holding all those poses, whew! LOL And last, please be sure to tell John and Diana how grateful I am to all of you for doing all this yesterday and how much fun it was. I hope that you get some good shots that are really going to take your photography to a whole new level, I will be sure to HIGHLY recommend you to anyone looking for a GREAT photographer.Ok, I’ll stop being sappy now and let you get back to work because I’m almost teary eyed from all this.

Talk to you soon.

Cori"

She nearly made ME cry from her e-mail! This is why I do what I do...I love my job and there's nothing else I'd rather do with my life. I'm so lucky. :)

More favorites from Emily & Trennen's wedding...

I LOVED these cute bridesmaid gift bags she had made...of course, because they were pink. LOL :)
She looked STUNNING....and so did her bridesmaids, they were all so much fun and up for anything, I love that.
Especially when I saw the back light coming in from behind them...I love shadow shots! I think this will make a cool background photo in an album spread...
Another favorite...she even popped her foot up without us prompting it...LOL...too cute...
They had these awesome lanterns that were hung around the perimeter of the reception tent...
And here's one of my favorite night time shots from outside looking in...for all of the photographers who read my blog, here's the recipe for this shot: camera set to night time w/flash, fisheye, 1250 ISO, f/2.8 (and hold very still...LOL) I took a series of these shots, some with the help of the ambient light from the light poles and some without and they all looked amazing...oh, and we looked up the sunset times before the wedding and shot this in between the actual sunset time and the end of twilight for the amazing look of the blue sky.
And this guest wins the "cutest shoes of the night" award...LOL...I spotted her shoes when she first arrived at the ceremony and knew I had to get a shot of them on the dance floor. Well, come to find out, she and her date were really great dancers and as I was outside the tent shooting the above pic, I spotted him twirling and dipping her outside in the dark. I told them to go get on the dance floor because they were fabulous!!
So they did and I was able to catch a series of awesome dancing shots! :)

Congratulations Emily & Trennen!

Last Friday, we photographed Emily & Trennen's wedding & reception at Meridian Hills Country Club and it was fantastic! Everything about the day was perfect...the weather, the couple, the location, the details, the families, everything! Bret, the Clubhouse Manager, is fabulous to work with...everything went off without a hitch as planned. Last year, we photographed Emily's mom's wedding so we got to see her again which was great and then we also ran into Tim, one of our grooms from last year, who now works in the pro shop at the country club. It felt like we already knew everyone there the whole night since we had photographed so many of the family members before and we've worked with the staff at MHCC so many times too, it was awesome! :) Kathy's Kloset did a fabulous job with the flowers and Jason Fritz from Pro-Sound Entertainment had the dance floor packed the whole night. He's such a nice guy and I hope we get to work with him some more this year. I'll post some larger pics of my favorites too...

The best compliment ever....

I just had to share this because I thought it was so cool. I had a bride who came in a few weeks ago to review our albums and information...we were the first photographers she had looked into for her wedding and after her appointment, she told me that she already had some other appointments set up to meet with other photographers but that she would let us know if she wanted to reserve her date. Well, she came back in today to reserve her April '08 wedding with us and told me that she had talked to 15 (yes, FIFTEEN) other local photographers over the past few weeks and ended up coming back to us. How cool is that?! To have been chosen over 15 of my peers and colleagues was such an awesome compliment. :D

Remodeling is near completion!

These were my "before" shots that I took last week of our front & back office rooms...I can't believe I'm showing these...LOL...I felt like it was time for a change, a make-over for my "home away from home"
Then they told us that we had to move ALL of our furniture in 3 feet from the walls so the painter and trim guy could easily get in and out with a ladder. Not an easy task! :O I had to laugh though...once we got all of the furniture moved in, one of our clients e-mailed us asking if they could pick up their order. (It was sitting on the bookshelf below....) I couldn't even physically get to it at the time! LOL
And yes, we had to remove the slipcover and turn the couch on its side to make it all work...eek!
But in the end, it was ALL worth it! :D We had them paint the top half a light pink, the bottom half a light lime green with white crown molding, base boards and a cute chair rail throughout. I still have a lot of decorating to do and my walls are still bare!! I'm having a hard time deciding which pics to put on my new walls....I'm thinking of having a wall gallery of framed prints and canvas prints along one wall (my back was against it in the pic below) and then some other fun prints hung throughout both rooms. Hmmm....any ideas?
My new back office space...we re-arranged the furniture for a more organized, efficient workflow and I LOVE IT!!!!
In this shot below, you can see my new favorite chocolate velvet slipcover with matching pink pillows....except all of our old frames are sitting on it for now. ;)
My snazzy new chair rail...I LOVE it!! I hand painted each flower along the rail. The petals are in the shade of pink above it and the center of the flower is painted in the green color below it...
It's all about the details....:)

What to post first?

We've had such an incredible week of shooting that I don't even know what to post first! LOL I guess I'll go in order of the shoots though...last Wednesday, we photographed my dad's football practice. He's in training for the Notre Dame fantasy football camp which takes place in just a few weeks up at ND. Some of you probably remember my post from last July when he played quarterback for the first time on ND turf...and he was on the winning team too, pretty cool! He's got his picture up on the wall at the famous Rocco's Restaurant near campus now, he's been seen on the Travel Channel's TV promo of the football camp and he's been training hard every week for another awesome win at ND soon. :) These are a few of my favorites from last week's shoot...dad going for the ball (above)....touchdown victory (below) and his after practice drink of choice...:)
If only John had been there to get a pic of me getting this shot...yeah, I'm laying on the field...LOL...I'll do anything for a good shot. :D

Pics coming soon! :)

On Thursday morning, we had our final planning meeting for the upcoming Summer Bridal Show...we're so excited! We have more vendors participating, more hits coming to the website than we did for the first show and some cool surprises in store for the brides and the participating vendors! :)

I spent most of Thursday afternoon painting ("Erin-izing") the new chair rail going in our front consultation room today...it so cute!! I guess all of those art & painting classes finally paid off...LOL

Yesterday we had an AMAZING wedding at Meridian Hills Country Club that I can't wait to show off! I'm downloading the cards now since we actually have today off! Can you believe it?! :) It's kind of nice to have a day off now and then...it gives us a chance to get a little caught up. John is at the office right now checking on the progress of the renovation work. They're installing the crown molding, base boards and chair rail today and hopefully after some touch up paint is done later this afternoon, everything will be ready to start moving back in either late tonight or sometime tomorrow!! :D Yay!

It's painting day!

This morning, the painter arrived with our new paint for our office....I think I did a better job at picking out the right shade of pink this time. It was more of a "cotton candy pink" rather than "Barbie" pink. LOL I think it looks awesome though. I guess when he had our doors open to rid the paint fume smell, our neighbors have already been peeking in to check out the progress and all of the girls loved it! :) I went on a mini shopping spree today to pick up some new stuff for the snazzy new look. I found this awesome SureFit chocolate brown velvet slipcover (for the couch in the back office) from Bed, Bath & Beyond with fuzzy pink pillows to match...then picked up some more of those white wall ledges while I was there. I found an adorable lime green frame from Hobby Lobby today that has some pink accents on it so that will probably go in the back office. Tomorrow I get to add my finishing touches to the chair rail ("Erin-ize" it as my friends say...LOL) and then on to choosing new images for all of the frames!! :) We also measured out the space this morning so that we can move our furniture around into a more efficient workspace in the back office and everything fit perfectly! I was SO excited....it's all coming together...