I asked Lauren to give me her proposal/engagement/wedding day in a short blurb, so enjoy.  As the mush that I am, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it even made me tear up:)

Lauren:

“I first met Garrett in middle school. Our paths separated, and we met back up in college at a concert. After catching up, we exchanged phone numbers and have been inseparable since. After dating for three years, we took a trip with Garrett’s family up to Maine. We visited Portland Headlight on August 1st, 2010. It was beautiful, a gorgeous lighthouse over the ocean. Garrett showed me all of his favorite things about the grounds and finally stopped me at his favorite view of the lighthouse. Garrett held me from behind as he whispered sweet words in my ear. Right in the middle of our sweet moment, he let go of me. Confused, I turned around to see what he was doing. He was down on one knee, “Lauren Janae Ditthardt, will you marry me?” “Of course I will!” I shouted with enthusiasm!
On August 6th, 2011 we finally got married. We had a beautiful, fun, and huge wedding. Over 300 people attended. We were married in my home church and had the reception at a nearby church. Our wedding was perfect, but the morning leading up to the ceremony was a mess. My hair appointment ran an hour late, and it caused the rest of the afternoon to be pushed back. I arrived at the church at 3pm, the time we were supposed to start taking pictures. I had no makeup on, my dress wasn’t steamed, and the steamer broke. I was calm, but my poor MOH was about to have a heart attack for me.
Our ceremony was beautiful, and then it was on to the reception. Our reception was the most fun reception I’ve ever been to. It started out with me and Garrett dancing our first dance to “Everything” by Michael Buble. We choreographed it ourselves. The daddy-daughter dance came next. We danced to “Cinderella” by Steven Curtis Chapman. About half was through the song, the music cut out. Everyone gasped as we stood in the silence. A few seconds later, a mix of fun dance songs played. My daddy and I surprised the guests with some amazing dance moves. Everyone loved it! After we cleared the dance floor, the guests went crazy. Our tiny little dance floor turned into a dance hallway. The guests spilled off the dance floor and weaved down the aisle throughout the entire room. It was a blast! Our perfect wedding and a day we’ll never forget.”

Oh, and she’s not exaggerating on the epicness of the dance crowd.  It was pretty ridiculous!  Click here to see her entire event.

If you’re going to tackle this planning thing on your own~ I suggest you take advantage of any and every tool that you can find.  As we all know the internet is endless.  Instead of people hoarding great ideas and recources, people are actually SHARING! Who knew!?  Some parents actually got the point across!

I may be a little behind on this one but I know I’ve actually referred a few newbies, so I’m guessing it hasn’t been around for too long… but have ya’ll heard of Pinterest???  OMG.  So. I’m in love.  It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted … and I actually blame Pinterest and the Christmas season.  There are limitless ideas of every kind, for every occasion!  (so if you’re not a member, you have to be invited- give me your email address and I’ll invite you, or find a friend that’s already a member)

This Christmas season was rough financially, so I found tons of Christmas gift ideas on Pinterest.  So for the entire month of December, I was either on Pinterest or making gifts from Pinterest or editing pictures.  And the wedding ideas are ridiculous!  There are so many!  And new ones everyday!  I was actually pretty ticked about this… it came 5 months too late for me.  But maybe this will save you!

Then there’s always the ever so usefull:  Ebay, Amazon, Overstock and more.  Usually on these sites you can find all types of items cheaper or sometimes in bulk.  Then if you have a specific item in mind that you know you’ll need bulk of, there’s the handy search engines that can locate warehouses abroad that are willing to sell at wholesale prices.  I’m just as patriotic as the next girl, and I’m all about supporting the locals, but I’ve also been a struggling bride!  Just don’t wait ’til the last minute to order because shipping abroad is obviously time consuming.

And last but not least, my go to site for all my needs was Etsy.  I was going the vintage and handmade style, so this was my eye candy heaven.  It’s safe to say that 90% of the items purchased for my wedding was purchased from Etsy.  Including my dress! What?! Yeah. I’m serious.  I helped design and ordered my wedding dress off the internet.  So yes. you can crown me the internet bride of 2011!

If you know of any other resources, do share!!

(the pic is the lovely bride Lauren, who found these adorable I Do stickers for her shoes off the internet!)

Sun Spots

In my opinion outdoor portraits and outdoor weddings are better than indoor, hands down.  There’s just something about natural lighting that cannot be duplicated.  The drawback with anything outdoor is that you have to work around the weather, and one factor most people don’t take into consideration is direct sunlight.  You should always have a back up for rain of course, but you also need to research and see where the direct sunlight hits at your ceremony site should you not have a single cloud in the sky.  Visit the site at the same time your ceremony is scheduled but remember to take into account time change and seasons.

This is where I personally made an error in planning my ceremony.  Before setting the time in stone I went to the site at the same time 2 months before, but I didn’t calculate in how late the sun is up in mid summer.  So the entire ‘stage’ and first half of my guest seating was in the direct, scorching July sun.  Another venue that I’ve shot at has the ceremony in part shade – part sun… and the shaded parts were really patchy through the trees.  So all of those ceremony shots all the girls faces had sun patches that were unavoidable.  (pictured above)  These images would be drastically different from that of a ceremony in the same spot on an overcast day.  So look into it.  Do your homework and discuss it with your planner or the director at the venue to see if there are other options to positioning your ceremony on their grounds.  (Though this couple was a delight to work with, and all the other shots turned out great, I just wish I could have given them better pictures during the ceremony)  This wedding was actually shot by Renee Youngblood and Breanna Stringer: http://hilleyfotos.com/toryandbrandy, (I was videoing.)

I just wanted to share this image of a couple I will be writing on soon, I had several brides(including myself) that chose to go country this year.(and I’ll share one from a couple years ago too)  It seems to be a growing trend in this area.  It’s amazing to me too how each one, even though it had the country theme was different forms of country in it’s own way.

This image also reminds me to stay on my toes, because this is something the bride just did, without anyone coaching her or giving me any warning!  The groom also did not know and was not posing for this.  He simply noticed people were laughing at something his lovely bride was doing, and turned to see what it was.  His clueless face is priceless.

One way this couple saved money was renting a building at the Red Top Mountain State Park.  The rates are very reasonable, and suited this wedding perfectly with it’s country theme.  There are several sites to choose from, some appear to be nicer than the others… so do your homework.  They also have unattractive lighting as you can see in this picture, but in most cases (obviously not this one) they may not be seen in a lot of your images.  They were in a lot of our shots with our wide angle though.  This bride did hang some decorations over the ‘dance floor’ area, that helped draw your attention away from the not so attractive lighting in the pictures.  Of course, if it wasn’t for me mentioning it, the average person would not even notice it.

This couple was so down to earth and a pleasure to work with, and with a style after my own heart:)

In the future I hope to share more money saving tips with up and coming brides.  I’m currently taking a course to become a Certified Wedding Planner.  Of course Renee and I will continue to do the photography, I’m excited to share what I’ve learned from doing weddings for 8 years.  So if you are engaged, this blog is for you!  Stay posted

And I wanted to share a photo of another pale skinned bride from this year.  I actually was not able to shoot this one, but my assistants Renee Youngblood and Breanna Stringer captured it all beautifully!!

See more of their pics   

Read more on this topic in the previous post:)

But I want to give mad props to a few of the brides that I could tell did not tan,  but chose to show their pale skin proudly.  To me it gives you a certain elegance, no matter what you wear or style you’re trying to go for.  It makes you appear as this untouchable porcelain doll.  Especially in photos it appears as if your skin is flawless.  To me, tanning can be a tricky thing and if not done right, you get the weird underarm white patches.  Some even get them in any other place that your skin has a crease.  And in my opinion spray tanning is always scary, and I can’t imagine doing that wearing white.

As always be yourself.  Don’t try to be something you’re not.  If you’ve got pale skin that just turns pink instead of tan…  I vote don’t tan.(even though I love to do it myself)  If you have olive skin, and tan just riding with the windows down…  go ahead.  Tan, and show off your beautiful tones.  But try avoid tan lines if you’re going with a strapless gown.  If you have freckles, PLEASE don’t cake on makeup to cover them!  They are yours.  And you are beautiful.

Think outside society’s box.

Wear your skin proudly

Unless you’re having your wedding at a venue that is providing the food as part of your rental package, you obviously have to come up with a source to feed your guests.  So more often than not brides have to shop around for catering.  This is a major area that you can cut most of your spending so shop around and do your homework. 

I wanted to devote one of my first posts to Mrs. Christina here.  Her wedding is really the inspiration to me starting this blog.  This year my weddings have been pretty different in their own way, which is awesome.  I just remember the last couple of years complaining to my partner in crime, Renee Youngblood, that it seemed like so many people were so scared to think outside the box when it came to their wedding.  I don’t know if parents were pressuring to stick to traditions(because I’ve met a lot of those)  or if the couples just lacked the creativity or know how to translate their personalities into a big event.

But Chris and Christina had no problem in that area at all!  Christina took being different to the next level.  Instead of hiring an expensive catering company to come out and supply the food, she hired The Varsity to come and serve their famous chili dogs and burgers out the side of their truck!  Not only was this exciting and different, it made for quite a few fun photo ops!

See more images on their client page.

With that being said I don’t personally know how much the Varsity charges, and I’m not suggesting you use the Varsity, but just think outside the box and do something that suits your personality.

One major cost cutter for Christina was not choosing a venue at all.  Instead she chose a family home.  She also elected to have some of her family to do her cake, and if I remember correctly she did her own flowers.  Chris also decided to incorporate his love for the green lantern wherever he could:  with the groom’s cake, tie pin & watch.  He also bought tie pins for his groomsmen, each one in his own favorite super hero.  They also chose to include their family pet in the celebrations by making him the ring bearer!

Every couple is different.  Do your own thing… and think outside the box.

Photography by For Every Life

We are kicking off the fall season with a Christmas Gift Package that includes:  a one hour session, 25 5×7 folded greeting cards, and 3 8×6 softcover photobooks that make for great Christmas gifts! This special is $195, book before October 14th and get one free 8×10!  Spread the word!

I also wanted to share this image with you from a wedding I had this past weekend.  So unique in her red and black dress, Amanda looked awesome as her theme matched her personality, dark tresses and upper arm tattoos so perfectly!  I will share more images later, because her Flapper style bridesmaids were adorable!

Vintage Hollywood

As I assume it is in most industries, in the wedding industry, the more clients you work with the more they start to blur together.  When discussing past weddings we find ourselves giving them nicknames saying: “Ya know, the bride with the sparrow tattoo” or “Ya Know, the wedding that served The Varsity”… What?! Yes. You read me right… Well, let me back up a minute…

When I started my photography business I was inspired by the high prices while having to shop around for a photographer myself.  I wanted to offer affordable photography to brides that just simply could not afford to pay thousands of dollars to have their wedding portraits made.  So most of my clients are not rich and don’t have the luxury of spending an arm and a leg to make their weddings stand out from the rest.  But here’s where you have you use your head and be creative.

So I wanted to start this blog to share the different ideas that I’ve seen and loved, not so you can imitate another bride, but to inspire you to THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!  Because you or your parents don’t have to be rich to have a fabulous wedding!!