Recognition
Pin It on PinterestIn recent years I have heard from some of my clients about wedding photography registries. They may not be for everyone, but if you or your families are interested, I now have the IBB Wedding Photography Registry.
Chrissy and Pete’s custom photo guest book
For shower or wedding gifts, brides and grooms can include on their wish list items such as print enlargements, canvas prints, wall gallery collections, albums, engagement photos sessions and photo guest books, such as the one pictured above. Couples who register will receive a link to their registry to put on their own wedding websites. I invite you to take a look!
I have partnered up with 77 Diamonds and Courtney Blevins, an aspiring wedding coordinator, who loves spending her time contributing to the blogosphere with her wedding inspiration, and she is kindly guest blogging for me today!
Engagement photos are rapidly becoming a significant part of the documentation of weddings and the months, weeks, and days leading up to them. These photos can be used in a variety of ways; send your engagement announcement along with the photo to your local newspaper, incorporate them in your wedding invitations, favors, and other decorations, or give them to your family and friends as wedding keepsakes. Engagement photos also provide couples with the opportunity to have a “test run” of sorts with your wedding photographer before the big day.
So what should you know before taking those timeless engagement photos? Developing an idea of the style and location you prefer, making a list of any special details you’ll need during the shoot, and establishing a time frame of when you’d like the photos to go out are just a few tips to keep in mind when planning your engagement photo session.
What’s Your Story?
One of the key components of creating a unique engagement photo shoot and gorgeous photos is to have a theme or motif. Although your photographer has ideas and can guide you on what artistic features should be used in your photo shoot, developing a storyline or theme for your pictures before the shoot is a crucial aspect of the engagement photo shoot process. Perhaps you’d like to re-enact your proposal with your mate taking a knee and presenting you with one of those fabulous 77Diamonds engagement rings. If you can’t come up with a significant theme for your shoot, there are a number of unique engagement photo trends out there. Don’t forget to integrate essential items like precious flowers or other tokens that bear meaning to you as a couple.
Devise a Photo Shoot Schedule
From the moment you get engaged, scheduling becomes the most important part of your wedding arrangements. Similar to organizing the mailing of your engagement announcements, save-the-dates, and wedding invitations, coordinating when to take your engagement photos requires just as much organization. Your photo scheduling options depend on how and when you plan to use your photos. Some newly engaged couples opt to have their engagement photos snapped shortly after they become engaged, which is an ideal time since you’ll both still be radiating and full of excitement from the recent proposal. This is also a good time if you plan on putting an engagement announcement in a newspaper. Some couples choose to have their engagement photos taken once they have set their wedding date so that they can use the photos on items connected to the wedding, such as the formal print wedding announcements and ceremony programs. If you and your future spouse plan on following this custom, aim to have your engagement photos taken eight to ten months prior to the wedding, which is the perfect time to print and send save-the-dates before your nuptials. Some soon-to-be-wed couples even decide not to have their engagement photos taken until a month or two before the wedding in order to give their guests a glimpse of their wedding day look.
Laura and Joe’s Wedding in Spring Lake, NJ
And here some more of my personal favorites from Laura & Joes’ wedding day!
Just this past November Angela and Jerry had a beautiful, clear winter day for their wedding celebration at The Park Savoy. It was a beautiful, poignant wedding in the newly beautifully refurbished Park Savoy. The ceremony, the food, the staff, everything was amazing! My congratulations to Angela and Jerry!
Bride of the Week: Josie Yousef Higgs
Happy Hours
Photo by Berit Bizjak
Springtime in New York is such a magical time of year. It has been the subject of songs and the setting in cinema. For Josie Yousef, winter’s thaw is also the season that brought her and Richard Higgs together.
They met over happy hour drinks on a warm, breezy evening at a bustling restaurant in the city’s chic Meatpacking District. “From our first meeting he was fun-loving, kind and gentlemanly…with a wicked Aussie accent,” recalls Josie. “It was impossible not to fall for him.”
Guests were transported from the couple’s home to the club via a horse-drawn wagon—because half the fun is how you get there. Richard surprised Josie with this detail and it became one of her favorite elements of the evening. “We were surrounded by friends and family driving down a dirt country road to the reception,” she recalls.
And fast. Within a year, they’d moved in together and split their time between his home in Manhattan and her property in Bedminster, New Jersey. They had the best of both worlds with this set-up (the energy of the busy city mixed with the repose of the country) yet they still made time to squeeze in a lot of travel. There was three months in South America, primarily in San Paolo, Brazil; trips to Europe and Richard’s home in Australia; and then there was St. Tropez, where Richard proposed in late July 2011.
Six weeks later, in keeping with Josie and Richard’s accelerated courtship, the couple wed on September 16, 2011—just because they couldn’t wait any longer to be husband and wife.
Once again, the weather was a dream come true, as it was when they first met. Josie and Richard exchanged vows under a tree in front of 75 guests at their home in Bedminster. “It has always been a place of serenity for us,” says the bride, who wore a form-fitting cream-colored gown by Jenny Lee she found a mere four weeks away from her wedding day. “I was able to get it rushed in three weeks which was key!”
Never a couple expected to stay in one place for too long, guests were told the homey ceremony would be followed with a chic dinner reception at the nearby Trump National Golf Course. There, a luxe garden event waited, with table settings of cream and pale green with gold accents in the chargers and stemware.
Guests were transported from the couple’s home to the club via a horse-drawn wagon—because half the fun is how you get there. Richard surprised Josie with this detail and it became one of her favorite elements of the evening. “We were surrounded by friends and family driving down a dirt country road to the reception,” she recalls.
Still the affair was far from rustic. A gourmet meal was prepared for their guests. “The food was very important to us. We wanted our guests to walk away saying that the food was amazing – and they did,” says Josie. Rounds of toasts served as entertainment, especially the one by Josie’s male “maid” of honor who received a standing ovation for his speech.
Eventually, the group returned to Josie’s home for an after-party that included a bonfire, karaoke and a hot tub. “I also had a costume change—into the sequined dress we bought in St. Tropez a few weeks earlier when he proposed,” she says.
–Erinn Bucklan
