Ben & Jen’s Flawless Farm Wedding

September 25, 2018

A country wedding for the ages

Hours before Ben & Jen were scheduled to stay their vows, omonus clouds darkened the sky with streaks of lightning that danced across the sky and thunder that jarred the ground beneath my feet. What a way for an outdoor, country wedding to start.

As I arrived at the farm, the rain had softened to a constant drizzle, which was an improvement from the torrential downpour. A pasture filled with sheep and two donkeys greeted me as I entered the property. According to the owner, donkeys are the perfect animal to keep coyotes away (you learn something new every day).

The couple was supposed to get married under a tree on the property, but had to shift to a location under a covered patio because of the rain. miraculously, the rain completely stopped and the sun shone through the clouds right as the wedding started.

Marry Me by Train started on the speakers as Jennifer walked down the aisle arm in arm with her father. Her dress was simple, yet so elegant. Also, it had pockets y’all. Pockets!!

Ben & Jen said their vows under a handmade arch on the first official day of fall. Though the leaves were not turning orange and yellow (and no one expects they ever will) and thanks to the recent rain storm, the temperature was a comfortable 80-ish, it was a stunning fall wedding.

This was both Ben & Jen’s second marriage. They each have 2 children from a previous marriage and a son together. Jennifer’s beautiful girls stood as bridesmaids, their dusty rose lace dresses looked perfect with their simple straight hair. Ben’s boys were such handsome groomsmen in their sky blue button up shirts and navy bow ties.

The reception moved to the inside of the farm house where twinkle lights, votive’s and country chic decorations adjourned the tables and walls. The whole wedding was pulled together by “the village” friends and family decorated and cooked. One of Jennifer’s best friends did her makeup. Her other best friend supplied the stunning farm property and put her husband to work while she helped get Jennifer ready and Ben’s father officiated the wedding.

Vendors

Dress: David’s Bridal

Flowers: Elegant Occasions

Venue: Friend’s property

Cake: Sweet Tooth

Fall Wedding Inspiration

September 18, 2018

It’s almost fall, which means Oktoberfest beers… I mean my favorite color pallet is almost here!! I am obsessed with the color orange, so much so that my wedding ring has a Mexican Fire Opal in the center, my childhood bedroom is one part macaroni color one part mango and all of my sneakers are orange.

The weather will start cooling down and outdoor weddings will finally be bearable. We will start loosing the sun sooner sadly. That is the biggest thing I miss is longer days. Kids will be back in school, so your wedding guest list might be smaller than it would be during the summer.

Colors

orange, persimmon, peach, canary, cranberry, brown, indigo, beige.

Light warm colors with darker undertones seem to be the current trend. I recently saw a stunning image posted on Equally Wed that was a combination of a persimmon orange, peach and canary with grey and beige. It looked stunning.

Flowers

Sunflowers, calla lilies, chrysanthemums, Orchids, cranberries, greenery like ferns

Seriously though, I am digging the all sunflower bouquet look. It is so fun and sassy while still being on point with the fall theme.

Top 10 Ring bearers

September 11, 2018

Ring Bearers can be adorable, funny, stubborn and defiantly unique. I have seen ring bearers throw the ring pillow (as seen below), shy away from their duties and require parents to assist them down the isle, and suave ring bearers who will be total ladies men when they grow up. I love how different every ring bearer is at every wedding I photograph. Below are my top 10 favorite ring bearers from the past few weddings.

Planning your Engagement Photo – Part 3 – What to wear

September 4, 2018

You’ve got the ring (Congratulations!) and you’ve settled on an engagement photographer for your engagement portraits (wink wink) and now you’re wondering what to do next.

There’s a few things to do to prepare yourself for your engagement portraits.

Determine the best location for your engagement portraits.
Determine the best day & time for your engagement portraits.
Determine what to wear for your engagement portraits.
Determine what to bring with you for your engagement portraits.

Today’s blog is part 3 of 4 in an engagement portrait photography to do list.

You’ve already read my post about choosing a location and the day and time. If not, STOP! click the links above.

Great, now that we are all refreshed let’s get started.

You know where and when you will be doing your engagement photography session. Now what to wear, what to wear? Let’s start with the basics, color.

Color

First and foremost, DO NOT under any circumstances wear the exact same thing. Gone are the days of matching white button up shirts and jeans. The key word is coordinate, not duplicate.

Consider your location and the color of the location during your portrait session. Choose to wear complementary colors (which will stand out the most with your surroundings), or you can choose the color before or after on the color wheel.

for example, If you are taking your engagement photos outside in a forest like area in the middle of summer, expect everything to be green and brown. Don’t wear green or brown. You could wear pinks or purples which are complementary colors to green (using the color wheel below, find the green and move directly across, that is your complementary color). You could even get away with a color that is 2 colors away on the wheel, like a blue or yellow.

Dress for the temperature

Consider the time of year you are taking your portraits. Will the weather be cold or hot? Dress appropriately for your Engagement portraits. We, as engagement photographers, don’t want anyone collapsing from heat exhaustion or shivering in all of your photos because you didn’t put enough layers on. You need to feel comfortable. If you feel comfortable, you will look it… unless you are a professional model.

Patterns

I defiantly suggest one person in your party wear a pattern of some kind while the other wear a solid color or a very feint pattern. If both people are wearing patterns, it confuses your eye and makes looking at the image hard. If both people are wearing solid colors, it dulls the image. The only time you can get away with both wearing solid colors is if one person is wearing multiple colors (ie a mustard scarf with a blue top and brown boots). In this case, I would suggest the other person pick a color from the same pallet, like a black top and blue pants.

Rent the outfit

If you have something specific in mind, but don’t have the actual outfit, or the money to buy it, you can check out websites like Rent the Runway. There you can find the perfect outfit, or two to borrow. Once you’ve taken your engagement photos, you can return the outfit. Make sure to let the photographer know your outfit is rented. Be mindful of sitting in the grass and climbing in trees. You don’t want to have to buy the outfit if you ruin it.

Did this help? I hope so. Stay tuned for the next installment of the Engagement portrait session list.

How to Unplug your Wedding

August 28, 2018

Let’s face it, technology and social media have taken over our lives entirely. Everyone want’s to be the one to capture and post the first photo of the bride walking down the aisle or the first kiss. It’s no wonder couples are requesting an unplugged wedding.

Why would you want an unplugged wedding?

Unplugged weddings allow for your guests to be present with you. Sure they’re physically present, but are they watching your wedding with their own two eyes or through an electronic device?

You also pay a lot of money to hire a wedding photographer and/or videographer. A trusted professional who knows where to be and when for the perfect photo, in the ideal lighting with Photoshop or other editing programs to back up the quality. Guests can, unknowingly, get in the way of that perfect shot.

Image by: Kiralee Jones

It can also be very distracting. I was a guest at a baptism once and was astound by the number of people who were videoing or photographing the ceremony. I was very distracted by the huge iPads guests were using to record or photograph, and missed several things. I knew my friend probably asked someone to capture the moments for her. She didn’t need 12 different angles of the same thing. She wanted her friends and family to be present.

How can you achieve an unplugged wedding?

One of the things I remember from my days studying advertising is that it takes 7 repetitions for someone to truly remember what you’re trying to tell them. That’s a lot! I’ve photographed weddings where there was a sign when you walk to your seat and someone announced it before the ceremony started. That’s only 2 times, and that’s banking on if your guest read your sign.

So lets work with this magic number:

1. In your invitation (probably somewhere at the bottom) announce that you are having an unplugged wedding.

2. If you are sending some sort of instruction page with your invitation like directions, make sure to include you are having an unplugged wedding with the instructions.

3. Announce on Facebook to all of your friends and family that you are having an unplugged wedding.

4. Ask your parents to remind your family that you will be having an unplugged wedding. There will be a photographer at your wedding and they can have copies of any of the photos you are given.

5. Put up a sign on the entrance to the venue. Somewhere you know most of your guests will be coming through. For example, if you are getting married at a church, put a sign on the outside doors of the building.

6. Have a cute sign at the entrance to the ceremony location reminding guests.

7. Have someone make one final announcement before the ceremony starts.

[Phiew] That’s seven times. At this point, you should have gotten your guests attention and relayed how important an unplugged wedding truly is for you and your fiance. If you feel like this just isn’t enough and you need to take drastic measures, do what teachers are having to do. Have a phone collection system.

How to polity collect your guests phones.

You can make a wooden cubby or a basket with a sign asking guests to be present. You could even set up some sort of charging station, which would benefit your guests. Someone mentioned to me they are considering a drawing for cash. Have guests put their phone in a basket and the bride and groom pull a phone from the basket. The lucky winner gets cash or some other sort of prize.

www.moritzfineblogdesigns.com

If it is important to you that you have an unplugged wedding, just make sure to relay that to your guests. They’re there because they love you and if they understand your reasoning, they will respect them.

Rent a wedding guest

August 21, 2018

I read an article on Equally Wed the other day that was talking about a women who’s son came out to her several years ago. It was about her struggle with her beliefs and her love for her son. In the end, love overcame. She now offers her motherly support to others in the LGBT community who don’t have a parent at their wedding.

Rent-a-mom

This got me to thinking about the movie “The Wedding Ringer” and if there are more services like that out there.

I googled “Rent a Best-man” and was very surprised. There were 3 links at the top from different companies. The most legitimate looking websites are for people in the UK unfortunately, but I did find one that has “friends” in the Houston area. Rent-a-friend

Apparently in Japan and Koria, it’s not unusual for someone to hire wedding guests. It had something to do with the more massive a wedding, the more prestigious. I’ve found several articles about this (though no websites for the companies).

A friend was telling me (as I was writing this article) that you can hire people to cry at funerals… What!? That’s crazy.

So I guess, you can rent anything you put your imagination to. I think if I were to hire wedding guest, I would hire a comedian to give a wedding toast. I would love to have a professional stand-up wedding toast that made my guests pee their pants. My cousin’s working to become a professional comedian, I bet he would do it… for a price. 😉

What are your thoughts? Would you (or have you) ever hire someone to attend your wedding (other than the usual professionals).

Top 10 Wedding Reactions

August 14, 2018

Oh the feels.

I love emotional reactions at weddings. I especially love photographing emotion at weddings. They restart my cold dead heart… Check out some of my favorite reactions from the last few weddings I’ve photographed in and around the Houston area.

Planning your Engagement Photo – Part 2 – Day & Time

August 7, 2018

You’ve got the ring (Congratulations!) and you’ve settled on an engagement photographer for your engagement portraits (wink wink) and now you’re wondering what to do next.

There’s a few things to do to prepare yourself for your engagement portraits.

Determine the best location for your engagement portraits.
Determine the best day & time for your engagement portraits.
Determine what to wear for your engagement portraits.
Determine what to bring with you for your engagement portraits.

Today’s blog is part 2 of 4 in an engagement portrait session to do list.

You’ve already read my post about choosing a location. If not, STOP! click the link here to read it first or review the post.

Great, now that we are all refreshed let’s get started.

You’ve chosen a location for your engagement portrait session. Now you need to determine the best day and time to take your engagement photos. You really can’t determine the best time without nailing down a day or at least an approximate day.

DAY

Choose a day where you know you will not be stressed out (because of stuff you have going on or time relative to your wedding). It is preferred to get your engagement portraits done at least 3 months before your wedding. Think about your location. Are you going to take your portraits on the beach? Choose a warmer time of year to take your photos. Will there be tons of people at the park during the summer months, probably. Pick a day and time where there will be less people at your location. Do you like the look of long-selves and boots and jeans? Maybe choose a time in the fall or winter.

Find out when your wedding photographer is available to take your portraits. Sometimes, those days are week days because of the photographers wedding schedule. Be aware that we wedding photographers do not have any control over the weather (though we wish we did). Sometimes, things get rained out. We will work with you as best as we can to come up with a better day and time.

TIME

As a wedding photographer, the perfect times are generally early morning right after dawn or late in the afternoon right before dusk. If you are planing a winter engagement, you might consider later in the morning or earlier in the afternoon just because of lighting during winter.

If you are planing an in-door engagement portrait shoot at a special location, like the movie theater you had your first date or the science museum because you’re super nerds!! get with your photographer and a representative from the location to determine the best time. Sometimes, those locations have special times they allow for photos to be taken.

Find out when your Engagement photographer is taking portraits. In the summer months, I only take out-door portraits in the late afternoon because of the heat and humidity in the mornings. I’ve learned that morning shoots are still HOT and even more humid because everything is evaporating from the previous evening. SCIENCE!

Did this help? I hope so. Stay tuned for the next installment of the Engagement portrait session list.

Trey & Dallis’s DIY Enchanted Backyard Wedding

July 31, 2018

An enchanting backyard wedding in Damon, Texas

Trey & Dallas said “I do” at sunset in Dallis’s fathers backyard. The enchanting property was a stones throw from the Brazos Bend Park. Old gnarled oak branches with their long fingers of Spanish moss hugged the property. As the sun set, it peeked through the forest behind the property like something out of a fairy tale.

Dallis’s family made the alter out of old power-line poles and draped them in the same blush cloth from Dallis’s wedding dress and a garland of ivy and pink and blue flowers. There weren’t any ring-bearers or flower-girls, but there was a puppy. Trey & Dallis’s husky puppy, Mars walked the aisle with Dakota, Dallis’s brother before the blushing bride made her entrance.

The couple wrote their own vows, which they read during the ceremony. It was so sweet, there wasn’t a dry eye by the end of it.

The happy couple danced and partied with their friends and family under the Texas night sky. There was corn hole and a ring-toss game as well as great music and dancing. Everything at the wedding was made by the wedding party. It was a complete DIY wedding. Check out some wedding photography highlights. Don’t forget to leave a message! You can also click this link – here – to view Dallis’s bridal portraits.