Maybe it’s my design intuitive or my love for visuals, but when Eric and I started searching for a photographer, I thought it would be a lengthy and picky process.
A few friends and colleagues had forwarded contact information for photographers. Some had photographed their weddings while others were a friend of a friend or a trusted professional. And that’s when I suddenly found myself with five Internet tabs up, scanning stranger’s wedding photos, hoping to fall in love with every shot. In return, I felt a little stalkerish: I didn’t know these people, and their wedding wasn’t just like mine will be, so how on earth could I make a decision? As I passed the laptop to Eric for the 20th time in a row, suggesting he look at this wedding’s photos, he finally said, “Why don’t we just start meeting with them?” READ MORE
Mercedes and David's beachy, shelly cake, on display at the Duportail House at their relocated wedding.
While Voorhees-based wedding planner Caitlin Boshnack of Just Be the Bride was busy at Target on Saturday, October 27th, crossing items off her pre-Sandy shopping list (Halloween candy included), she received a frantic phone call from her client, Mercedes Kraus.
Kraus and her fiancé David Fonorow had been planning for months to tie the knot at the Tuckerton Seaport Museum on November 3rd, about half an hour away from Long Beach Island, an area projected expected to be hit hard by the imminent storm. Boshnack assured Kraus there was still time—a week, to be exact—until the Big Day, and that the more worst-case scenario planning they did, the better. READ MORE
From where I sit as a bridal editor, I usually know instantly what I think of a “trend” in the industry when I see one.
Long-sleeved wedding dresses, for instance—the kind that have been truly having a moment since Ms. Middleton walked down the royal aisle in one over a year ago? I think they are lovely, chic, sexy and elegant in the most perfectly bridal way, and I looove that girls are wearing them right now. Morning-after photography, for instance—where your photog shows back up the morning after your wedding to ostensibly photograph you and your groom in the throes of brushed-teeth and posed (read: fake) morning-after passion? Gross. And weird. And also gross.
But there’s one that’s been consistently on the rise for quite some time, now, and I couldn’t ever really pinpoint how I felt about it. It’s boudoir photography, the kind in which you—the bride, in this context—partake in a professional photo shoot in which you are in your pretty underthings, and then give the resulting pictures to your groom as a wedding present.
But I think I’ve figured out now why I couldn’t decide how I felt about it before—and how I feel about it now. And that’s because I tried it. READ MORE
When Sean and I first started wedding planning, we discussed the things that were most important to us (finding a venue in the city, having a walkable wedding, good food, and dancing). We also discussed some items that were less important to us (flowers/table decorations, the cake). Our wedding photos fell somewhere near the top of this second list. To our dismay, I quickly discovered, how crazy-expensive wedding photography can be! I could also see how a couple could become completely overwhelmed trying to choose a photographer from the (seemingly) thousands listed online! And as I combed through various listings, a light bulb went off in my head: What about Dario? READ MORE
1) Watching the groom’s reaction when he sees the bride for the first time at the top of the aisle has always been my fave part of a wedding. Like, since I was little. (And I was so annoyed when Katherine Heigl’s Jane—and then James Marsden’s Kevin—both declared that to be their favorite part of a wedding in 27 Dresses. I am a real, non-fictitious person, and I felt that way first.)
2) I am not a supporter of “the first look.”
I understand that whether the bride and groom see each other for the first time when she sneaks up behind him in some dramatic, deliberately appointed location or when she first appears at the top of the aisle, it’s all a surprise and it’s all emotional and it’s all special, and all that—but I just don’t think the context of the moment is the same, and I say nothing beats the context of that beginning-of-the-ceremony moment. Whether it’s that they’re surrounded by all their family and friends, or that the ceremony is about to start, or what, it’s just got a little more oomph, as far as I’m concerned.
That said, either way, the groom’s reaction is still one of the most wonderful parts of the whole shebang—I mean, brides are always thrilled to see their guys, too, but while they usually look extra handsome in their extra handsome wedding suits, they have seen them in a suit before, is the thing—and this roundup of grooms’ caught-on-camera reactions to seeing their brides for the first time just makes me love Buzzfeed even more than I already do for providing happy little two-minute-break-snippets in my afternoons. So please, take yours now, on us.
What are your feelings on the whole “first look” vs. waiting until the ceremony begins to see each other for the first time?
As a print journalism major in college, I learned to craft a story through words. Yet I quickly discovered that my story was never going to make it into the paper without a photo. In my current job, I know that when I write a press release about our triathlete’s winning sprint finish (I’m in marketing for an international bicycle company), as much as I hope my writing brings to life the story, a photo of him triumphantly breaking the tape means everything.
It’s certainly shaped my feelings toward photography: integral. While in my last post, I focused on what videography is able to achieve compared to photography, photography, of course, has its very own distinctive benefits. Photos capture moments the human eye often can’t. They freeze time in a way that allows you to remember a moment lost without the camera. The little things: facial expressions, discreet gestures, shifting light. READ MORE
After securing the perfect band, the next items on my list of early wedding priorities were photographer and videographer. The photographer search proved very challenging. Unlike the venue quest, it wasn’t that I couldn’t find what matched my vision. The problem was that I found two photographers that I loved and was heartbroken to make a decision between the two of them. But more on that later. For today’s post, I’ll focus on finding my perfect videographer.
I feel as though video is often a very underrated, forgotten medium in the wedding realm of late. I know many couples who have opted out of a videographer for their weddings, seeing it as unnecessary and something of the past.
I was a journalism major in college, and I took a course called Visual Storytelling, which incorporated photography, but largely focused on video. While brilliant photography can certainly be extremely effective in capturing important, meaningful moments—freezing them in time—video adds two other integral dimensions: audio and motion. READ MORE
Carly and Sean, during their engagement photo session on Pier 9.
After some debate over whether or not we should have engagement photos taken, we decided to go for it, thinking that we would like to have a few cute photos to create our save-the-dates. Little did we know that smiling and kissing for a few pictures—something that should feel so natural—would actually be quite awkward and uncomfortable!
A few weeks ago, Sean and I headed to the Race Street Pier to have our engagement photos taken. We had set the appointment with our photographer to take the pictures just three days after our engagement party. However, with my major focus on planning our party, I hadn’t thought much about the pending photo sesh. When Tuesday evening came around, I found myself nervous and with nothing to wear. (Why hadn’t I bought something for this occasion? I love buying occasion-specific outfits!) READ MORE
Ok, brides and photographers, we’re going to need you to speak up here: Is this really becoming a thing?
Apparently, this is what’s happening: Couples are hiring their photographers to come back the morning after the wedding in order to photograph them in the throes of their very-first-morning-as-husband-and-wife love. They’re bedroom pics, basically. Underwear, sheets, sultriness, and all that jazz.
Now, we can only imagine that what really happens is that these couples wake up, shower, groom for a long time and then put on the most amazing underthings ever that they most likely bought explicitly for the purpose of the shoot and probably didn’t even wear the night before, because if not, sounds more to us like they’d be photographed in the throes of morning breath and bed head, but either way, the idea is that the photog would capture these very first intimate moments, and that they’d be lovely.
Watch the video (ha, and maybe even read this piece from Jezebel on this phenomenon), and then tell us what you think (as a bride, as a photog, as a human person): Is this really going to become a thing? Would you do it? Have you heard of it being done? Please just tell us anything you know. Thanks.
Today, we chuckled through this slideshow on HuffPo rounding up the 10 most cliche wedding photos (some of which—gorg dress lifted up to show gorg shoes, when taken by a fab photog!—we actually admittedly enjoy, some of which—the bride and groom making a heart with their fingers, barf—not so much), and it got us thinking: What’s the most cliche wedding photo taken in the lovely city of Philadelphia?
A very formal and scientific poll taken of, well, myself, and seven of my dear female co-workers revealed these results (and no, we’re not that bad at math, some people weighed in with two votes, and that worked for our science):
Two votes for the Art Museum steps: “I run up and down them on Saturdays sometimes and I am constantly dodging tipsy bridesmaids.”
Four votes for LOVE Park: “But LOVE Park is gross. I’d never drag a wedding dress there.”
Five votes for balancing on the median in the middle of Broad Street, with City Hall in the background: “Though that is a very pretty shot.”
Broad Street/City Hall FTW!
(Personally, I also think Broad Street. Everyone does it, yes—but it’s just gotta be done. It’s a rule. And it is a pretty shot.)
PHILLY
EVENTS
