Wednesday Wedding Do’s — Guest Book Alternatives!

This week’s Wednesday Wedding DO is to think outside of the box when it comes to your Guest Book or activities for your guests! I’m not sure where I found this photo (probably just browsing pinterest…if anyone knows who originally posted it please let me know!) But how cute is the idea of having a time capsule idea! Having your guests write something nice or a funny story etc. and then bury that thing! Dig it up in a XX amounts of year and *AAAHHHHHHHH* (angel music) you are instantly reliving your special moment and all kinds of happy.

Even if you don’t decide to do a time capsule or something along those lines I hope this gets you thinking about alternatives to having your guests just simply sign their name in a book. If you have any fun, creative ideas that you used or perhaps plan on using in lieu of a guest book let me know! I’d love to hear about them [=

XXOHOH.

Thursday Tie the Knot — Hanging Wedding Tables!

Once again, my dear friends I am a day late on my Wednesday Wedding Do’s. It has been a very hectic two weeks with a lot going on not only in school, but in my business as well! Also one of our friends is moving back to California and this is their last week there so we have been spending some time with him. Since we’re going to the Sweet Hereafter (Totally amazing place and if you’ve never been CHECK IT OUT!) tonight and I have to get ready I’m going to make this week’s post short, sweet, and to the point.

As the title may lead you to believe…this week’s wedding do is hanging tables. I found this photo on pinterest a while ago and it lead back to Glitter Weddings, however I wasn’t able to find the original post. You should head over to Glitter Weddings and see if you can search it…or just kind of look around because the blog is absolutely gorgeous.

BACK TO THE TASK AT HAND! OH MY GOODNESS! They’re so cute, fun, and totally functional. If you have trees at your reception site PLEASE do this! I think it’s something that your guests will talk about for years to come and who doesn’t want to be that person that everyone says…”oh! Remember those hanging tables so and so had at their wedding. Those were so fun, original, and awesome!”
Yeah…That’s what I thought…everyone [=

Rochelle and David | Intimate Portland White House Wedding — Portland Wedding Photographer

Rochelle and David’s wedding was a triple threat. They were married on a beautiful sunny Portland day, were surrounded by beautiful friends and family, and are literally dream clients. They are both so laid back and fun it totally knocked me off my feet. Rochelle completely trusted me and just let me do my thing! It’s always wonderful when you get a client that knows you know what you’re doing and just enjoys their day not having to worry. Their wedding was the perfect size being big enough to feel like a party/celebration, but intimate enough for everyone to be relaxed and have a good time. At their reception/after party everyone hung out and sang karaoke! PLUS! I was introduced to Lanning from The Portland White House who is also from South Carolina! Small world, really. I had never heard of The Portland White House before but slap me silly if it isn’t absolutely DROP. DEAD. BEAUITFULLLLLLL! Yes, Brides…if you are having a wedding there please, hit a girl up! I can’t wait to photograph another wedding there. If you’ve never been it’s a bed and breakfast and is breathtakingly beautiful. So special occasion coming up? You won’t be disappointed giving them a call. So I guess technically their wedding was a quadruple threat? (If you include the beautiful venue…which you most definitely should!!)

B.A.M — Stop Motion Lovin’

So as (hopefully) a lot of you may have seen…I am quite keen on stop motions. I think they are fun, quirky, interesting, and a great way to help incorporate the new video demands that are coming along with being a photographer while still staying true to your “roots!”

I made a stop motion as my audition video to go to Jasmine Star’s workshop on creativeLIVE, then I made one while I was actually there to commemorate my trip and hopefully inspire all of you to make videos and get the chance to experience and take place in that amazing opportunity! After posting the video I received a ton of questions about the “how to’s” of making a stop motion. Now I am no “pro” on this matter by any means (and apparently I use quotations too much!), but I have made a decent amount and I have streamlined a process that works for me. This may or may not be the best approach for you to take, but there is no way to find out unless you get out there and do it!

This is week’s B.A.M is going to be how I shoot my stop motions. It is probably going to seem overwhelming and be a long blog post, but stick with me! I know you can do it!

So here it goes!

1) First things first I set my camera to my desired setting. I like my stop motions to be very fluid and almost look like real life, but with a little added quirk. So, I put my camera on “CH” mode which is just a burst mode meaning “continuous high” you can also use continuous low or whatever burst mode Canon has (sorry, not really familiar). If you want a more choppy/animated stop motion you can also leave on single mode if you wish which will just take photos more slow. (More slow? More Slowly? Whatever…you get the picture!)

2) I adjust my file size. I shoot on just basic JPEG because it’s faster shooting, faster reload time, faster uploading, and faster editing. Plus I’m not going to be putting the video up on a movie theatre size screen. If/When I start doing this at weddings for which I am being paid I would definitely shoot the files in RAW, but for now and the stop m

otions I’m making that are just for fun and personal pleasure small/basic Jpeg is the fastest and easiest for me. If you want a higher quality video, shoot higher quality photos. Again, this is completely preference.

Wednesday Wedding Do’s — A Totally Fashionable Bride! (A day late…)

I was feeling a little under the weather yesterday, so unfortunately that means I wasn’t able to get my “Wednesday Wedding Do’s” in! Fear not! I am still posting it, it will just have to temporarily be changed to “Thursday Tie The Knot!” (just for right now)

So today’s Wednesday’s Wedding Do’s Thursday Tie the Knot! Comes to us from Glitter Weddings. It’s an absolutely drool worthy, Fashionable Bride. I honestly can’t wait until I get married so I can do this as well! I’m also quite enamored of the photograph in general! But hopefully this will maybe inspire a couple Bride’s to consider wearing something a little more edgy than a cardigan for your wedding. (Not that there is anything wrong with cardigan’s, they’re super cute!) But this is just freaking beautiful!

Be sure to check out the post on Glitter Weddings where you can even see a style board she put together in case you want to replicate it on your own wedding day! (Please please please say yes!)

HOLLA! Jasmine Star Editorial Wedding Inspiration Shoot! — creativeLIVE

The photos are out! The press has been alerted!…And I miss my friends ]=

In case you didn’t catch the creativeLIVE workshop with Jasmine Star the other week she shot a real life stylized shoot LIVE. ON THE AIR. WITH EVERYONE WATCHING. And she totally ROCKED it! Watching Jasmine work was probably one of my favorite parts of the workshop. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful and educational it was. She is so in touch with what she does, how she flows, and watching her raw files come up on the tv after every click of the camera honestly made me sick to my stomach because they were all so beautiful and perfect. I won’t go into too much detail about everything because you should definitely BUY the workshop! I was literally there when she was teaching it and I have still referenced it numerous times so I can’t even begin to tell you what a wonderful asset it has been! I didn’t take too many photos as I was obviously there to learn and I was too mesmerized by Jasmine’s beautiful photos, her smooth transitions, and her perfect, naturally blowing hair. Seriously, think 80’s bay watch running out of the water looking all fabulous and perfect. That’s what Jasmine looks like when she’s working her camera. So here’s the couple of photos I took and some fun behind the scenes shoot! Be sure to check out Jasmine’s beautiful photographs on her blog and on Grey Like’s Weddings!

For all you fabulous Brides out there…PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take inspiration in these photographs. Words cannot even describe how beautiful, original, and completely EPIC these side table florals/designs are. I cannot wait for this whole trend to hopefully take the wedding industry by storm and we all start seeing it more and more! It’s so beautiful and makes complete sense! I hope you all find some inspiration in these photos and be sure to head over and see Jasmine’s for the complete experience!

Thank you to all the fabulous creative professionals involved that made this shoot so beautiful and possible so that all of us could gain special insight and take home ideas, inspiration, and most importantly a drive and fire in our bellies to do something as beautiful ourselves!

Photography: Jasmine Star
Designer: Kelsey Eads of Sugarcomb Events
Floral: Meghan Stoller of Mum Floral Design
Cake: Kara Burfeind of The SweetSide
Paper: Todd Karam of TKTJ Design+Graphic 
Hair&Makeup: Tiffany Colors
Stylist: Sherri Garcia of Styled Seattle

OH! And how totally FABULOUS were our models?!

B.A.M. — Stylish Books, Fun Summer Hair, and Cute Coasters.

Hello friends!

Here I am with another installment of B.A.M. Letting you know all the pretty rockin’ things I’ve been digging this past week. I have an exam tomorrow and apparently I’m late for a dinner I didn’t know I was attending! Haha So here we go!

1. I got this A.W.E.S.O.M.E.S.A.U.C.E (whew, that was kind of difficult) book for my birthday from Jason and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I LOVE it! It’s full of such awesome ideas/inspiration/and beauty!

22 years and No Longer Being A Ghost — Portland Birthday Girl

As some of you may have known or seen on Facebook…Yesterday was my 22nd birthday. Yes, I know old geezer over here (as my brother so graciously decided to remind me throughout the day). You may have also seen on Facebook that I’m not sure of the last time I had a decent photograph taken of me on my birthday. Being a photographer you are usually behind the lens, not in front. I am the one in the family who captures the important moments, holidays, birthdays, family members growing up through the years. So naturally my family has become a bit complacent and spoiled. So this year I decided to change that! I made sure to make time in my day for a birthday shoot. I got out of school and Jason and I headed to the nearest park since we were on a very tight schedule and had to be at Montage for dinner with my mom in an hour. We stopped by Fred Meyer’s because I wanted a cupcake to take photos with. 25 minutes later Jason comes out carrying TWO shopping bags. “That must be a lot of cupcakes” I questioned. He didn’t say anything except…”I spent 40 dollars.”

WHAT?! I SENT HIM IN FOR A SINGLE CUPCAKE!

So now down 25 minutes of our hour I had scheduled we rushed to the park and Jason began to unpack his bags. To my surprise he had gotten cupcakes, birthday hats, party blowers (or whatever those funky things are called), flowers, champagne, and glasses. He basically stylized my birthday shoot for me! I was a very happy girl [=

So we had some fun for 30 minutes joking around and taking photographs to commemorate the one day of the year where it’s all about me. [=

…I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Wednesday Wedding “Do’s”

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to my new hopefully every Wednesday feature titled “Wedding Do’s”. It will basically be an idea I come across in all my weekly wedding research that I think is absolutely beautiful and you should do at your wedding!! So…since it is my Birthday today. (Yay for getting old!) I’m going to keep this one short and cut straight to the point. So I find it only fitting that for my first Wedding Do’s post I pay tribute to the man who helped me start my Portland wedding career last summer, Ryan of You Look Nice Today Photography. This wedding was actually recently featured on Style Me Pretty and includes such gorgeous details it’s almost sickening. However, what I especially loved about it was the cute pink pom’s that filled the reception tent. OH. MAH. GAWD. (Yes, that totally just happened) They’re soooo wonderful. AND she made them herself!! (I’m super jealous of people who have the skill and patience to do those sorts of things).

Trang and CJ — Portland Wedding Photographer

I shot this beautiful Vietnamese wedding last summer. It was 12 hours and included a tea ceremony as well as a traditional catholic ceremony. It was so fun getting to know everyone and after 12 hours with them you almost felt like part of the family! I joked with Ryan throughout the day that they made my job there SUPER easy because they all absolutely loved to have their photo taken. Family members who appreciate being able to savor their important memories for years to come, HECK YEAH!!