Lee is also like the nicest, most fun guy to hang with! If we are shooting a wedding side by side, I know my day will be special and filled with laughs.

These people I DO know~! It’s Lindsay + Mike! I don’t love that I’m in the video (Lee!) but I can move on. It is SO much fun for me to see video of a wedding we shot. To see what Lee saw and how it differed from what we did. And again, just to watch Lee’s incredible talents filming and editing, are a pleasure.

You should hire Lee for your wedding. Now.

1~ Clean up your getting ready space

Before your photographer arrives to photograph the bride getting ready remove the half eaten sandwiches, empty soda cans and those horrible plastic bags from bridesmaids dressed laying all over the room. Having the bridesmaids dresses and shoes in the room is a great detail in the shots, but not the packaging, and certainly not old food.

2~ Make sure mom and bridesmaids are ready first

Your mom has been waiting for this forever. Really, since you were born probably. Even if she hasn’t mentioned it, it is her dream to help you into your dress. Make sure she is ready before everyone else. She needs to be dressed and looking good to help you into your gown. So many times, the bride is ready to go and get dressed, but mom is missing. Make sure she stays near you and knows when to be ready.

Your bridesmaids also should be dressed before you. Well, anyone who will be helping you get into your gown at least. When you begin to get dressed, all others should either be helping or away in another room. Girls half naked in the background of your getting ready shots will render them useless.

3~ Stand correctly during your ceremony

During your ceremony you will most likely be facing away from everyone (cameras included) for most of the time. Its when you do your vows, rings, unity candle and KISS that we get to see you – so don’t waste it~! Ask your officiant where they like to stand for those moments. Some officiants stand right in front of the bride and groom, blocking your faces and your ring exchange. If this is the case for your officiant, kindly ask him to reconsider. While we totally understand that your ceremony is just that, a ceremony, not a photo session, we know that you want those special images, and we want to provide them to you.

If your lighting a unity candle, please stand behind it, never in front of it. Then all we have is a photo of your back while you light a candle that we cant see

4~Tell immediate family + bridal party to STAY~!

When the ceremony has ended and it is time for the super boring family shots, nothing is worse than going 15 minutes over schedule because half of the family is missing. Parents are often the number one offender of this. They want to mingle. Mingling is fun for them and it really is their job that day, but this is not the time for mingling. If you’re at a church, chances are you have a limited amount of time to get these posed shots done. We have been kicked out of churches BEFORE the posed shots were done due to missing people.

A lot of times an aunt is put in charge of driving grandparents to the reception. Most of those times, they whisk grandparents away right after the ceremony without even thinking of posed pictures. Whoever is in charge of the grandparents, make sure they know that you want photos with the grandparents and not to run off.

At the rehearsal, let the people (immediate family + bridal party) know that they will be needed immediately after the ceremony and tell them exactly where to be (if @ a church, the altar) and let them that this is serious. You could end up missing some important shots.

5~ Choose photo locations with semi-easy parking

You get a limo or a bus or whatever. We have a car. Your limo drops you off right where you want to be. We have to find parking and then walk to where we want to be. We LOVE urban downtown locations, but they can be tricky with parking. What good does it do you to be standing at a killer location if we are blocks away, running to get to you? We know of many great urban downtown spots that also have parking for us. It’s a shame to waste precious wedding day time on parking.

6~ Hire a lighting designer

No matter where your reception is, it can use the help of a professional lighting designer. Want to know what separates most weddings from the ones you see published in fancy magazines? Lighting. It can completely change the vibe, feel and look of ANY room. Here in Detroit, we have a few great companies that do some incredible things with lights. Don’t rely on your DJ or band. Sure, they have a few lights but nothing that is going to make a HUGE impact like a lighting designer.

7~ Use a traditional head table or sweetheart table

There are a few different ways to set up your head table. Traditional long table with the bridal party spread across, a sweetheart table for just the 2 of you, or this weird square everybody faces everybody thing. When you sit at a traditional head table or sweetheart table, you face outwards towards the guests AND cameras. During toasts, we can actually see your faces and reactions. When you sit at the weird square table thing (I think they call it King James style??) we struggle to see your faces and you reactions to the toasts. This is a time for giant laughs and smiles and sometimes tears, and we want to document that for you, but first we need to be able to see your faces.

8~ Pick a semi-lengthy first dance song AND dance to all of it

The first dance is one the best times at a wedding for us to capture some seriously candid romantic shots of  you. It’s our very most favorite part of the day. So, when you dance to Etta James “At Last”, a song lasting a whopping minute and a half, your cutting so short the amount of spectacular images we can give you. Your doing the same things by cutting any other song in half. I know that dancing might not be your thing and being out there for a whole 4 minutes is terrifying, but it is worth it!

9~ Pretty please do not do the dollar dance

Dollar dance. I think it’s definition should be “reception killer”. There is nothing worse at halting fun at your reception than the dollar dance. It clears the dance floor and puts a stop to any great times people were having. Also, it’s a waste of photography. There may be a few cute moments during the dollar dance, but with the average dollar dance lasting at least 6 songs, there’s not much to document. We could have been getting you some great shots of people having a dance off on the floor, you laughing with your college friends or you and your husband cutting loose together on the floor.

10~ Hire a wedding planner

So often   yet SO crucial. You have never done this. You’ve probably never planned a giant party for 200 of your closest friends. Seriously, its hard. A wedding planner has done this hundreds of times and knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Instead of your wedding turning into a nightmare of stress, a planner will do the hard stressing for you so you can actually enjoy the process.

A planner on the day of the wedding is also super duper important. Do you want to be bothered all day and night by all the little things that go wrong or cause trouble? NO! Your planner will put out each and every “fire” that occurs without you ever having to know.

It also makes out job easier when their is a “point person” to go to. The last thing we want to do is become another person in line to ask you a question. When we are able to go directly to the planner, things get sorted out quicker allowing us to spend more time capturing your memories.

BONUS TIP~!

Be yourself. Forget about all the wedding rules, they are BORING~! Don’t want to wear a white dress? Don’t! Love funky hot pink heels? Wear them! Don’t like real flowers? Make your own out of tissue! Love damask? Use damask print linens instead of  boring white ones! Love color? Forget that overdone plain white cake and do something fun!

This is your one chance to throw a huge YOU themed party. Don;t let it slip by while your busy following ancient wedding rules.

They have everything you could ever want to buy, but much cuter and much more special than you’ll find at the mall. Everything on the site is handmade by someone very talented from all over the world (my mouse pads are listed in my etsy shop).

Etsy has an amazingly talented community of folks creating some really incredible and usable stuff for weddings. I am always on the lookout for great etsy wedding finds.

Here is my first installment of “things you should buy from etsy for your wedding”:

This incredibly gorgeous shoulder wrap from Modern Romance – www.modernromancepdx.etsy.com – would look killer over pretty much any strapless gown. And, red? Yes please? Imagine this wrap worn with red shoes and a red purse? Yumm~!

Forget a normal bouquet (sorry florist friends)! Check out this felt + buttons bouquet from Really Bad Kitty. She makes them in any color combo and in boutonnieres too~! And, after the wedding you get to have this rad bouquet around forever and ever.

These felt brooches from Seventy Seventy One Design would make an adorable addition to your dressed sash~! I love in her image below how she has combined all of them – that’s super cute too~!

Etsy isn’t just for accessories. It’s for the most amazing wedding gowns~! This is one of my favorite dress makers on etsy, Joan Shum. This specific dress is amazing in so many ways that I can’t even get started. If you buy this dress for  your wedding, I will give you a lot of free stuff. For real.

This fascinator (I don’t know why they are called that) was featured in the Anthropologie catalog~! Maker, GiantDwarf, is spectacular with color. So many of you are forgoing the veils, that I thought this would be an excellent replacement. With such adorable colors to choose from, it can really coordinate with your colors~!

visit our main site for more sweet images – Detroit Wedding + Portrait Photography

Our friend, and world class wedding coordinator, Laura Davis, has just launched a brand new division of wedding planning + coordinating called Frosted Pink Events~! You have a LOT of options out there right now for wedding planning + corrdinating. What makes Lauras Frosted Pink different? Here’s a snippet from their new site:

We stringly beleiev that each couple needs a planner  or coordinaor for their big day in some capacity. So, check them out~!

This is the pile of donations that we collected in only one month for the Animal Welfare Society of Southeastern Michigan~! ONE month~! How exciting. This was our third month dropping off donations and this was by the far the biggest and best.

We reached:

263 lb’s of dry dog food, 36 lb’s of canned dog food, 7 bags of treats,20 lb’s of cat food, 2 bags of kitty litter, 3 dog beds, 1 cage, 18 dog toys, 2 cat toys, 8 food trays, 8 leashes, 21 collars, 1 bottle of dog shampoo, 4 boxes of heavy duty garbage bags, 2 bags of rubber gloves and over $100.00 worth of cash donations and pet supply store gift cards!

WE NEED YOU TO KEEP THEM COMING~!

If you havn’t been in for a donation session, schedule one now. If you havn’t told your friends about the free sessions, do it now. These donations are making a HUGE impact in the lives of abandoned animals.

To each of you that had already participated: THANK YOU! You can come again and again if you’d like. Babies, kids, families, dogs, business shoots, ect…

Here are some of my current favorite gowns:

Oscar de la Renta, #05

Ivory silk organza strapless pleated gown

This skirt is killer. I would seriously kill for it

Oscar de la Renta, #16

White paper taffeta draped torso dress

This is probably the cutest thing ever! Come one girls! Wear some short dresses once in a while! How refreshing would that be?

Oscar de la Renta, #12

Silk taffeta + tulle embroidered v-neck gown with ruffle train

OK, right off the bat, let’s ignore the hat.

Look at that bodice!!!! This is SO stylish. The skirt is usually the star, but this one definitely goes to the bodice.

Amsale, Dahlia

This is my personal all time favorite gown EVER. Ever, ever.

Silk taffeta hand pleated with floral embroidery

Swoon. It’s like art. But a skirt. Skirt art. One day I’ll try this on (with those clippies in back because you know it doesn’t come in my size!).

Elie Saab, #41

Powdered pink tulle gown, fully embroidered with organza flowers

This is my second all time favorite gown EVER.

It’s not really pink. Let’s be honest. My gown was pink. This is like champagne. Moving on.

It’s amazing!!! I cannot pick out one part that makes it. It is the complete package. Everything is perfection.

Lela Rose for Dessy, LR102

Stop making your bridesmaids wear dresses that look icky on them (hello, strapless?). This is adorable. It has sleeves, which every girl will thank you for. And it’s yellow~! Well, it comes in about 25 colors, but I heart yellow~!

Get Married, Cocktail Twist Dress

In this photo your probably like “so what, this dress is boring”. And it is. But check out this link and watch the video.

This dress converts into a billion different dresses. How super rad!! So, all your girls would technically be in the same dress but each could customize it to their taste and body. This is the future of bridesmaids dresses.

1. Our jaws dropped at how incredibly rad it was

2. We were super angry that we didn’t book our own wedding there

This is one of the all time greatest spots for a wedding in Metro Detroit. Professional event lighting, incredibly unique setting, a bajillion insane photo ops, and YOUR NAMES ON THE MARQUEE! It’s location in downtown Royal Oak is perfection too. This is the spot we go to whenever we shoot downtown because it has all the best stuff~! You get an urban wedding without leaving the suburbs.

It really doesn’t get any cooler than this.

They are also offering a $1000.00 discount right now! Contact Jessie @ 248.399.2980 or email her @ jessie@royaloakmusictheatre.com

Then, HIRE US! We heart this place!

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click below to see my finds!

This amazing tulle skirt from seller Allie J Designs is stunning! She writes in her listing that photographers love this skirt, and she is right! This would SO much to fun to photograph! And what a great idea to purchase it for a portrait session after the wedding day, like our Wear the Dress sessions!

Or how about these awesome rings from seller Shade Jewelery!? This one is my fav (if anyone’s looking for a gift for me)!

Seller Beadiful Things has some beautiful jewelery that would lend itself well to weddings. I particularly like this hair pin (only $9.00!)

Lastly, a friend of ours, Sherri, has a shop, seller name Sparkle Pants, with these super awesome paper flowers made from romance novel pages! These would make a killer bouquet, centerpiece, gift, ect…

(and we did take this photo!)