We always end up talking to people, not matter where we are. So while standing in line at the William Penn Starbucks waiting for coffee and tea on Sunday morning, we struck up a conversation with the guy behind us. Turns out he had been married the night before and was down getting coffee for his new bride. I asked him what they did for their guest favors. He said that they purchased muffins from their favorite bakery and gave one out to each guest. What a nice idea! Especially for those who were staying overnight in the same hotel. The guests were assured a little breakfast send off from the bride and groom.
If you have a favorite bakery here in the city, you can personalize your wedding even further by ordering a batch of muffins for your guests. Wrap them up in cellophane bags and tie off with a printed wedding ribbon with your names and you’ve got a great gift people will love. One word of advice, avoid muffins with nuts so that those with allergies can also enjoy your generosity.
A second favor idea came up on Friday night as Paul was photographing the Greater Pittsburgh Hotel Association’s Spring Fling at the Cranberry Marriott. Picture It On Chocolate is a company that will take a logo, monogram, or photo and print it in color directly on a piece of chocolate! The photo ends up being printed on an edible medium and is attached directly to the chocolate. Their website has plenty of items from chocolate lollipops to truffles to large chocolate photo frames. Another great use for those engagement photos and perfect for the chocoholic in all of us!
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Comes back to Pittsburgh for integration into our photography business! Ok, so there was no easy way to say that… But I wanted to let you all know that we have returned from our annual pilgrimage to the WPPI Convention and we are chock full o’ ideas for this year’s wedding season!
Highlights of the trip included a one on one lunch with Kevin Jairaj, owner of KJ Images out of Dallas, TX. Other than being a super nice person, Kevin is an incredible photographer. Well now we can say that we knew Kevin before he was “famous” — HaHa, not really, because the guy had already produced the cover image for this year’s show guide and is just a fantastic speaker on photography. But Kevin found out at the end of the convention that he won two first place awards for his photography! A huge congrats goes out to Kevin and a special thanks for taking time out of his packed schedule to sit down and talk with us about wedding photography and how we can be the best for our clients.
Along with that personal mentoring, Paul and I also had a chance to sit down and learn from 9 other top photographers in a small setting. And then there were the big lectures given by 6 other platform speakers, all great photographers from around the world.
After absorbing all that knowledge, we took a time out for ourselves and went to see Spamalot at the Wynn. I don’t want to give too much away, but BEST use of dessert trays EVER!
The cool thing was being able to go backstage for a tour. Well, wouldn’t you know that we forgot our big camera? So the show tourguide gave us a little disposable camera to use. We were like two giggling idiots with this little camera. Finally we gave up on that junky thing and started volunteering to take photos of the other groups with their cameras. At one point, a guy handed me his Nikon D300 (which is the camera I use for weddings) and he started to explain how to use it. I just about died laughing! When the rest of the group found out we were pro photographers, they started loading us up with their own equipment. So here we were, standing in the middle of the stage saying, “Ok, tilt your head to the right, get close to each other, turn like this for posing….” I don’t know who had more fun, the two of us or the rest of the group.
I’ll post some photos from our trip later. We’re digging through email now and updating our 2009 calendar with all the new bookings.
And as hard as I tried, I could not fit the 75 degree, sunny weather into my suitcase. So stay warm and keep telling yourself that Spring will be here soon!
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We wish you and all of your family a Happy Easter!
It’s exciting to realize that Spring is just around the corner (even with our snow from last night). April kicks off our “official” start to the wedding season, with 4 scheduled for that month!
Have a wonderful weekend!
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I just met with a bride who told me about this great site for customizing little Heinz bottles! Check out www.myHeinz.com for all kinds of ketchup and mustard bottles with your message attached. What a great idea!
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RYAN! Paul’s first grandchild was born in February and the little guy had his first photo session with Grandpa already. A special thanks to Paul’s son and wife for working Ryan’s birth into our slow season so that Paul could take the week off for a visit. (Yeah, like that was a high priority in their minds).
Here are a few pictures of the new addition to the Meyer clan.
Fast asleep
Proud parents
New baby, new grandpa
My personal favorite!
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That’s what Paul and I will be saying to DAVID BECKSTEAD on September 29th when he flies in to conduct a Shoot With Beckstead session hosted by your favorite local photographers, US!
David’s conducting a two day intensive session here at our studio. The dates are September 30-October 1st, so anyone who calls during that time will definitely be getting voicemail as we will be hanging on every word David speaks. David’s class size is limited to no more than 15 people, so it’s really going to be personal.
As you may remember, David is one of The Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the world, so a chance to hang out with him and get his unique perspective on Pittsburgh is a rare opportunity. The cool thing is, we get to choose locations to shoot, take a model there, and David will stand right beside us and tell us how to improve our vision and composition. It’s not often that you get closely tutored by a photographer superstar!
Who knows, maybe the names of Paul and Cyndy Meyer will appear on a Top Ten Photographer list one day….
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