Snapshots

We’ve just announced two new dates for our popular Trash the Dress session!  Tuesday, August 14th and Saturday, August 25th.  For these two days we are waiving our session fee but there are only 6 spots available.  So call now to reserve your spot.

What is Trash the Dress?  It’s getting crazy in a wedding gown.  To see some really creative craziness, navigate to Trash The Dress, a site started by Marc Eric.

Here’s what we suggest for getting the most out of the session:

• Shop around for a dress you like that you don’t mind getting wet and sandy
• Excellent places to look are Davids ($99 dollar sale), ebay, JCrew’s online wedding outlet, thrift stores, and consignment shops
• Don’t worry about tailoring the dress.  If it’s too long, it won’t matter for the photos
• Look for something flowing without a huge crenolin or pettycoat structure.  The key to success is having a long loose skirt look.
• Do your hair in a loose style rather than a strong up-do.
• Just like the dress, you want your hair to be carefree and tousled.  It’s usually breezy on the beach so allow that hair to flow.
• Your veil
• Go to the craft store to get some material and make your own veil with a clear comb, a barette, or a brooch.  It’s pretty simple.
• Go without a veil and be au naturale!
• Your groom
• Bring him along!  It’s lots of fun and there’s no reason the guys shouldn’t be there.
• For groom attire, the best thing is a white oxford shirt rolled up at the sleeves and a pair of dark black slacks
• No shoes required.  It’s the beach so we’ll be barefoot.
• Flowers
• Not necessary!  We’ll bring some along for fun.
• Jewelry
• Only if you want to bring it along. 
• We absolutely encourage you to wear your engagement and wedding rings (if you have them already). 
• Clean your diamond the night before.  You won’t believe how it will sparkle in the sunlight
• Weather
• Sun is nice, but stormy is better!  Overcast skies and sprinkles will not deter us from having fun.  When the weather is less than 100% sun, the beach tends to be emptier and we have more opportunities.  Plus it’s an adventure you can tell your kids about.
• Travel
• We’ll start at the studio and head up as a group.  It takes about 2 1/2 hours to get to Presque Isle so this is an all day event.  We’ll flesh this out more as the day gets closer.
• Photography
• We’ll be photographing all of you simultaneously in individual poses.  We’ll also experiment with doing some group shots just like a bridal fashion shoot.  This is a great opportunity to talk “wedding” and make some new friends. 
• Proofing
• After it’s all said and done, we will post the images online in a secure gallery for you to view. 

If you have any additional questions, just give me a call at 724.467.2392 or email me at Cynthia.Meyer@BeautifulAlbums.com.

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Continuing with my New Year’s resolution to get the websites completed, I’ve just added a gallery for The Great Hall which shows Joe and Angela’s reception.  Angela and her mom put together some fantastic details!  Give them a look at the new page.

And since I was on a roll, I also added in the mini album pages for the Treesdale Country Club.  Check out the color combination of hot pink and bright orange.  It looks fabulous!

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Our customers always ask us:  What makes for a good wedding favor?  Our answer:  Anything you can eat or burn. 

I was strolling through Costco the other day and had my wedding goggles on for some strange reason.  I guess when you work with weddings a lot, you have Weddings on the Brain even if you’re married.  Anyways, I stumbled across some truffles that they had marked at $3.97 and decided to pick up a box. 

When I got home and opened them up, I thought that they would make a cute, elegant, and inexpensive favor.  My Martha Stewart chromosome kicked in and I started to imagine these little truffles sitting on a small cutout of paper with a scripty quote on it.  The bargain hunter in me was kicking up her heels and shouting, “Ooooo, a wedding favor for only 12 cents!”

Yeah, I’ve got a big component of bargain hunter in me!

When Paul and I were married, he was the one who found our wedding favor idea.  Little candles in individual silver tins.  Cost per tin?  25 cents.  That left plenty of room in the budget to dress them up with embellishments and ribbons and still keep us within our budget.

I guess the moral of this story is to think outside the box when creating your wedding.  You can find gourmet and unusual items in the most unlikely places and at unheard of prices.

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After our morning walk, Paul and I stopped by a garage sale taking place in our little neighborhood.  As always, my hubby was drawn into a box of old photographs where he found the one above, taken by Kundick Studio in Pittsburgh around the early 1920′s or 1930′s, by our guess.

It got me thinking about the changes in wedding photography over the 80-some years since this photo.  Back then, after the couple was married, either at the church or the courthouse, they stopped by the photographer’s studio on the way home and had a photo taken by a guy crouched behind a large format camera with the black cloak over his head.  One or two flashes of powder later and the photographer was finished with that customer.

With the advent of a couple of world wars, the camera changed dramatically to become a more portable device.  Cameras were used more and more for photographing ground troops and topography to help with strategic planning.  A new photographer emerged from these times, one that had a smaller camera and the ability to capture photos faster.  The next breed of wedding photographer was born.  This pro would go out on the weekends and photograph the couple for an hour or two at the church, capturing the traditional formal photo pose.

Along came a really talented man named Denis Reggie.  Denis is credited with being the Father of Wedding Photojournalism which came into being about 20 years ago.  He’s the guy who does the Kennedy weddings.  The cool thing is that Denis is someone who’s here and now.  Paul and I have seen him several times at our large photographers’ convention. 

With pure Wedding Photojournalism, the photographer is following the events of the day, as a fly on the wall.  Nothing posed, no formals, no interaction with the bride and groom at all.  Just the wedding story unfolding and the photographer documenting it all through the eye of the camera lens.

Along came the digital camera, and in recent years, the REALLY GOOD digital camera.  Shooting digital allowed the photographer to shoot more without the expensive overhead of film and developing costs.  This perfectly matched up with the more photojournalistic approach of modern brides who wanted the whole story. 

But brides wanted something gentler that the harsh truth of pure photojournalism.  Let’s face it, we’re not all born as models and sometimes need some help with flattering poses for our body types or need some coaxing to get into a position where the natural light is optional.  Fashion photography skills started to move to the forefront of the wedding scene.  Check out Yervant to see a truly gorgeous example of wedding photography married to fashion photography.  Yervant is another one of those guys who hangs out at the convention and shares his knowledge with others.

Lately we’ve seen a trend where traditional, fashion, and photojournalism have been coming together.  The photographer is now more involved with the couple, while still taking those fly on the wall candid shots, and doing it with the lighting knowledge of a fashion photographer. 

Whew! Photography is one of those fields where continuing education is a must!

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Have you gotten your Thank You card yet? 

Orders for the “You Knew Us Before We Were Famous” gifts have been pouring in and it’s been a real treat to pull your image choices from those weddings that already took place.  It’s fun to see what people like and the different senses of style that have come from each individual wedding.

Keep them coming!

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