Rachael + Andy, fabulous from A to Z

What makes for great wedding pictures?
hmmmm...
a. definitely organizing your day around fabulous light!
Andy + Rachael (click names for their slideshow) created their wedding day schedule starting with SUNSET TIME and working backwards. They wanted their Les Bourgeois ceremony to take place during the Golden Hour! (the hour PRIOR to sunset) with fingers crossed that a sunset like this one would follow:
b. getting ready and dressed in a place that allows for friends and family to be near, to be relaxed & to enjoy. Andy and Rachael actually booked rooms at the award-winning The School House B&B for parents and grandparents in order to take advantage of this fabulous garden-side bridal prep space:

Dressing in a lovely spot with the opportunity to walk out the door and into a beautiful setting, whew, makes such a difference. Here's the fence in the SchoolHouse backyard:
c. thinking about MOMENTS and CONNECTING WITH THE PEOPLE WHO MATTER MOST rather than "now what time do pictures start?".
When Andy learned that his grandma would be in the hospital and unable to attend his wedding, we re-worked the day's itinerary to make sure there was time for a pre-wedding visit.
[SilverBox bias: Wedding pictures should be the story of your wedding day, not what people wore from an hour before the ceremony till you cut the cake.]

d. realizing that great portraits don't require camera awareness -- just faith in your photographers:

(the image of Andy below was actually taken near the start of their wedding ceremony as he awaits Rachael's arrival.)e. and speaking of faith....trusting your vendors to do what they do best doesn't hurt either...

wow! the flowers were AMAZING -- Rachael told me that she didn't know exactly what her flowers would look like but that Kent's Floral Gallery knew her colors and she knew the quality of Kent's work and decided to just let the rest fall into place. And whoa, fall into place it did!!!

above: Rachael with Andy's dad on the B&B courtyard as Kent's Floral delivered the bouquets (steps away from where the bridal party did hair & make-up and got dressed, too!)

below: Rachael's bridal bouquet: calla lillies tied together to create the impression of one big fabulous bloom, perfect down to the smallest of details:
f. delighting in all that happens as it happens -- the planning, the worry , the organizing -- all that's over. NOW IS THE TIME to breathe deeply, and to enjoy.
Rachael and Andy,
Your ceremony was as beautiful and as touching as any I've ever hand the honor to document. Thank you, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Hoping you're living it up in Paris as I type,
amy

ps #1: Annika Miller nailed exposures and composition AND moments all day long. Those fireworks images above: HERS. And let me tell you, exposing accurately for fireworks is tough stuff. She sees the story in the smallest of details (see below) and documents with artistry as well as passion (see below for that, too). Annika, we LOVE working with you!!! Once again, Great Job!!ps#2 - here's the slideshow of SilverBox images BUT check back after Christmas and we'll link you into the FILM Shannon & Johnny of Creative Studios were on hand to create. It's always so fun to work with those guys. Oh, and I should mention that our "exposures for fireworks" task was EXTRAORDINARILY easier thanks to Creative Studios flooding the place with light. Love you guys for that and for about a dozen other reasons, too. Here they (or at least their cameras) are in action:
ps#3 - We love being around Josh Keller of Main Event Productions. Professional, positive and ends every night with Linus and Lucy. What more could you want in a DJ?? And look how dashing he is at sunset:
ps#4- Rachael and Andy were the first to officially try out OUR NEW JUST-LIKE-YOU GUESTBOOK. It's a simple yet lovely hardback album with engagement images professionally printed on its linen pages. It was such fun to create and even more fun to see their wedding guests enjoy and sign. Here's a link to the book's draft I'd sent to Rachael as a proof during the creation process. Heavy on images but with lots of white space for signing....pretty fun, eh?
ps#5 - we promise we'll stop making special note of it soon, but it just excites us (still!!) so much to see how far we've come with reception lighting. Perhaps our goal NEXT YEAR should be shorter blog entries??? Thanks for keeping in touch! ~ amy

Round the World Celebrating with Bahar and Matt

Congratulations to Bahar + Matt, married in Mexico in August and back in time to celebrate with friends & family in Columbia on a beautiful Fall day in September. (Bahar, it's thrilling for me to imagine all your friends & family in Turkey visiting our blog!) Here is lovely Bahar as she prepares for the reception:


And what a reception it was! Bahar and Matt's family & friends TRANSFORMED the Holiday Inn Executive Center . . . I don't know when I've ever seen it so beautifully decorated . . . and here's a Silver Nugget (a piece of wedding day advice from Amy and me): chair covers are worth every penny . . . just look at how these chair covers add to the ambiance of the room:



and hmmm . . . feast your eyes on this elegant cake from Columbia's very own Upper Crust": And photographing the action on the dance floor was an extra special treat . . . Amy and I have been working on our reception lighting and are excited with the results we're getting:


. . . especially when that dance floor comes complete with a belly dancer . . . a Turkish tradition that Bahar's family treated their guests to:
But wait . . . there's more! You can see Bahar & Matt's Matted Album by clicking here

AND

you can also see individual image highlights from Bahar & Matt's reception bly click on THIS slideshow. (Give it a few seconds to load. You'll need QuickTime Player to view it, and if you don't already have it, you can download a free version here: Free QuickTime Player Download.) Enjoy!

~kim

Melanie & Darrin's Album

One comment that Amy & I hear frequently from our couples is: "I don't even remember that happening; I'm SO glad you caught it!" It's great fun to relive all these remembered and un-remembered moments with each couple after the wedding, and working with couples to design an album for them gives us a chance to do just that.

So come see our latest album of Melanie & Darrin's wedding by clicking here: Melanie & Darrin's wedding album. (And for more about Melanie & Darrin, scroll down to their first blog entry on 9.7.07.)

By the way, this is the first vertical album we've designed. . . the vertical format seemed to really fit the nature of these photos. Below is a peek at a few sample spreads.

~kim