Yearly Archives: 2015

We had such a great time with Cassie and Anthony on their Huntington Gardens’ Maternity Session. We love getting to capture this season of life and the sheer joy of a couple’s anticipation and excitement of soon welcoming their child into the world. Congratulations, Cassie and Anthony!

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Wedding planning can be incredibly overwhelming. There is so much to consider; flowers, the dress, tuxedos, bridesmaids and groomsmen, venue…the list goes on and on. We are Southern California and Phoenix wedding photographers, so we understand how stressful the planning stages can be. Lots of couples don’t want to get caught up in the hoopla of planning a wedding and simply go for the traditional cake, D.J. and a church hall venue…which is great and all, but we’re here to tell you that planning an extraordinary wedding doesn’t have to be chaotic and time consuming. Here is a list of 6 ways you can make your wedding day phenomenal without all of the hullabaloo.

1. Create a VIP Lounge

 Make your guests feel like a VIP by creating a sort of VIP lounge at your reception. Off to one side of the dance floor, place a few comfy chairs or couches and a table with some candles to give your guests somewhere less formal to congregate. As a bonus, put up a curtain and a red rope for a more VIP look.

2. Hire a Few Reception Ushers

 High-end clubs and restaurants have ushers that show guests to their tables, so why not have ushers at your reception? You can ask the ushers from your ceremony to double at the reception or consider coordinating with your caterer to see if the wait staff can help out. This is an elegant way to welcome your guests to the reception and give them that personal touch.

3. Offer Cocktails Before the Nuptials

 Surprise your guests with light cocktails before the ceremony begins. Keep them simple like wine, mimosas or fruit infused waters or herbal teas. Your ushers can sweep through and gather up the empty glasses before the ceremony begins and your guests will be refreshed and ready to help you celebrate your special day.

4. Jazz Up Your Escort Cards

 You want your guests to know how special they are and how much you appreciate them sharing your special day with you, so give them a little token of your appreciation with a unique escort card. Forego the usual boring paper place cards that usually just get thrown away and opt for something more meaningful. You could put the cards on stick and place them in small plants that the guests can take with them. You can even choose something edible like a cake pop with the guest’s name on it. The sky’s the limit, so don’t hesitate to be creative.

5. Go All Out on Your Welcome Bags

 Welcome bags are a popular way to welcome your guests to your event. They are especially wonderful for destination weddings. Stock your welcome bags with gourmet chocolates or petit fours from a local bakery. You can include miniature bottles of champagne, maps of the local area, or even a gift certificate to an area coffee shop. Whatever you choose, make sure that your gifts are personal, thoughtful, and memorable.

6. Make Even the Littlest Guests Feel Special

 Let Mom and Dad enjoy the evening by providing a special space just for kids. You can create a make-shift child care center in a room close to your venue so parents can stop by and check in on their little ones and still enjoy the reception. Hire baby sitters to come up with games and crafts for the little ones and provide yoga mats if they start to get sleepy.

These are just a few of the many ways you can make your wedding day unique and memorable for everyone. Let us know what you think of this post by leaving us a comment below. Have you ever tried any of these ideas? Which one was your favorite? As one of the top SoCal and Phoenix wedding photographers, we’d love to hear from you.

Photo above from a recent clients’ wedding, Ashley and Jeremy, wed this spring.

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Congratulations! You’ve gotten engaged, you’ve started planning your wedding, and now on to some of the details that will make your wedding day dreams come alive — selecting your color scheme, your bridal party and their look.

Now we’ve all been in weddings before where we’ve ended up with a closet full of dresses that despite what the bride might of said when she showed you what dresses you were wearing—you knew you would never wear again.

All of that has been changing the last few years, changes that have made both the bride and the bridesmaids equally as happy.

There’s so many fabulous trends in the latest in bridesmaid fashion the last few years, and one that has remained tried and true and timeless is allowing your bridesmaids to choose the style of dress they’re wearing.

Don’t worry, before the thought of having girls in random styles and colors of dresses surrounding you on your wedding day — one of the best parts about this trend is YOU still get to pick what you want them to wear, but they get to choose a dress style and silhouette that is most flattering on them.

With the trend of having mix & match or mismatched dresses, one of the most popular variances of this is for you to pick the color and a selection of styles and they pick which style they’re wearing. Depending on how large your bridal party is may determine how many styles you let your ‘maids choose from. For example, for a bridal party of eight, you may select anywhere up to four styles for your girls to choose from. For bridal parties as small as four, maybe just two options. You just want to make sure that there’s never just one person in one sort of style, unless you want to do what some brides do, have the maid or matron of honor wearing a different style from the rest of the bridesmaids.

So with choosing your color, (this is usually the primary color of your wedding color scheme), and choosing a handful of styles, you create a win-win situation for everyone, you look beautiful, your wedding looks beautiful and not only do your bridesmaids look beautiful, but they also FEEL beautiful standing next to you on one of the most important days of your life.

What exactly does this look like? We loved how one of our recent brides, Sydney, coordinated this for her bridal party of seven.

MIX & MATCH DRESSES: ONE COLOR, DIFFERENT STYLES – GET THE LOOK

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Sydney went with one of 2015’s hottest hues for weddings and bridesmaid dresses this year: royal blue. Notice how you still get the uniform look, but you also get a variation of styles that flatter each figure and in a way that doesn’t make any of the dresses look out of place.

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Here you can see the bridal party is wearing the same color, but two different styles: a strapless option and a sleeveless option. One of the key things to remember with this trend is selecting dresses that are the same type of fabric to add to the uniformity. That way even with each girl wearing a different style, the bridal party still looks consistent.

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GREAT TEASER FOR THURSDAY, HITTING THE BLOG TOMORROW 2

They’re just absolutely lovely. Congrats again to the Wilhelms, it was a pleasure to be a part of your special day!

We had so much fun with Dave, Ashlee and their adorable kiddos, at their Pine Top family photo session.  Ashlee found some to die for locations tucked away in the neighborhood near their cabin.  The neighbors were more than happy to let us all take a stroll through their woods and relax for a few fun photos by their little red barn.   A big thanks to Dave and Ashlee for such a fun family photo session!

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