Saturday was Michelle and Tomi’s wedding day! It was an amazing celebration that we will always remember. We saw so many familiar faces, and met a ton of wonderful new people as well. HUGE thanks goes out to everyone who made the day such a fantastic success!

Here are a couple of shots that we loved… it was so hard to pick just 2 for this post!

Anne’s detail of the shoes:

Dan’s shot from the end of the First Dance:

More to come!

I got home from our (SUPER FABULOUS) wedding on Saturday to find that the latest WPJA contest results were in! YAY!

I’m very excited to have placed 4 images this time. There are so many great shots up, and it’s an honor to see my name alongside some of my favorite photographers worldwide.

From Michelle & Tomi’s E-Shoot, in the “Engagement Portraits” category:

From Sarah & Dan’s wedding, in the “Cake Cutting” category:

From Megan & Reggie’s wedding, in the “Departure” category:

From Elli & Jason’s wedding, in the “Creative Portrait” category:

It’s late and I SHOULD be in bed, but I just had to share a couple of images from Michelle and Tomi’s Nigerian engagement ceremony this afternoon! This party was unlike anything we’ve ever seen before, and we are both SO happy that we got to take part!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Michelle and Tomi!!!

Now, I’m pretty sure that both of these shots are actually Dan’s, rather than our typical one-each, but they were too beautiful not to share tonight, and I wanted to give the newlyweds-to-be all the attention.

ENJOY!

First, Tomi dances in, surrounded by friends and family:

Then, after her own celebratory entrance, Michelle is escorted toward Tomi at the alter:

Tomorrow is the wedding day! Time to catch some shut-eye!

Over the holidays we asked Heather and Dirk to each select their favorite photograph from their wedding day. It’s always really fun for us to see which images really resonate with our clients, and why.

Here’s what Heather had to say:

“…How do you expect people to pick 2, btw? :) This was too difficult!

WHY? We love the lighting and how the party setting is right behind us. It captures the mood of the day. I love our shadows and the fact that it’s outside. It is posed yet not posed… comfortable looking.
Our parents say it looks like a magazine cover…

WHY? This is the picture that we refer to as our “staple.” It is so serene and the texture and colors behind us are gorgeous. It looks so natural and we feel it really captures us. We both feel beautiful in
this picture- and I think you can feel the love just looking at it.

Love, love, love this… you guys “caught” us here I do believe!!!”

Thanks so much for sharing, Heather!

Oh, and for all of our couples out there who are still in the planning stages of their wedding, Heather has launched her own event planning service in the southeast! Check out her beautiful website here: Event Jolie, complete with some of our images from her own wedding! FUN!

Ollie dropped us the sweetest e-mail after she and Brandon saw the photographs from their E-Shoot. Thanks, Ollie, for letting us share it on the blog! :)

“The e-shoot photos are fabulous! I turned on my iPhone while we were taxiing on the runway Tuesday night. You would have laughed at how we kept snatching the phone away from each other to get a closer look. I must have looked at the blog about 20 times yesterday at work. So if your google analytics kept showing an IP address from Washington clicking on your website every 45 minutes it was my crazy behind. Brandon was so amazed at the colors and the compositions. He kept saying, “They are so beautiful.” He also said, “Hey you have a big zit between your eyes and it is totally not in the photo.” That’s my guy… such a charmer. Thanks for touching up my skin and blurring the nails. I definitely owe you one. We absolutely love the ones of us on the concrete pile, and the black and white ones of us in front of the window, oh and the ones with the lens flare (as Firefly fans we are very partial to the gratuitous lens flare), and the ones of me behind Brandon’s shoulder. In fact, we love them all. We kept saying, “Damn they made us look good. At least we don’t have to worry about the wedding now.” His Mom was even amazed by how good you made us look.

Thanks,
Ollie”

Most wedding guides and magazines will tell you to arrive on your wedding day with a little Emergency Kit — items like deodorant and safety pins that will save you in a moment of wedding-day panic. ;) Now, we aren’t “panic pros”, but we DO have a small list of items that could be the difference between you looking nice and you looking AMAZING. :)

For the girls:

Lipgloss. Or lipstick, whichever you’re wearing that day. Retouch throughout the night, but especially before key moments where lots of close-up picture-taking will be going on. If you’re not a lipstick girl, PLEASE just do yourself a favor and at least bring a small tube of vaseline (which isn’t sticky like lipgloss, but IS shiny unlike chapstick). It will make a huge difference.

Powder. Unless it’s an outdoor wedding in January (which can still be sweltering here in Georgia), you will most likely be a sweaty mess at some point during the night. You’ll want to powder your face so you aren’t all shiny in your photos. If you ARE shiny we can tone that down later in Photoshop, but we’ll love your forever if you make our job a tad bit easier and powder the shine in real life.

A Bedsheet. Joni did the COOLEST thing at her wedding and cut a smallish hole in the center of an old bedsheet. She was then able to step into the hole, lift the sheet around her, and let the surrounding sheet catch the bottom of her dress to keep it from getting dirty as we walked from one place to the next for portraits. This is especially genius if you are doing portraits BEFORE your ceremony.

For the guys:

Powder. I know you’re not used to makeup, but TRUST US on this one. If your forehead tends to be shiny, the smallest big of pressed powder will just tone down the shine. Before Jessica and Brett’s Day After photos, Jessica’s makeup artist did a little powder magic on Brett’s face, and it was the PERFECT solution for the humid Florida day!

An Extra Boutonniere. After the ceremony you will be hugged, oh, 500 times? Your boutonniere (or what’s left of it) could stand to be replaced before any family portraits are taken!

I’m sure we’ll think of some more items to add to this list!  Any other ‘togs or couples out there have some  ideas for the Photo Kit?

Tony and Melissa’s long-time, long-distance relationship sounded so much like our own journey, we couldn’t help but connect with them in a big way!  Tony is only recently a Georgia resident, having let his native Minnesota and a successful rock band to be here with the love of his life. Melissa is an in-demand stylist at Bob Steele Salon (thank you for sending her our way, Elli!) — which explains that truly gorgeous hair she has goin’ on!

This vine-covered wall seemed like proof-positive that spring is on it’s way!  

You definitely wouldn’t know it by looking at these photos, but we were shooting just a few feet from a traffic-packed Dekalb Ave, and it was LOUD!!!!  We basically just had to trust Melissa and Tony to do their thing and look awesome, because they sure couldn’t hear us over the roar of the cars.

We’ve been searching for a new overgrown lot to shoot in since our favorite one was recently  mowed down.  :(  The spot we found on Tuesday DID have a big “No Trespassing: DOT Property” sign, but we figured it didn’t really mean us.  Right?

Love the overgrown railroad tracks!

A little bit of flash action…

Melissa’s expression here is just adorable!

Last shot of the day… reminder of the previous day’s storm.

Melissa and Tony, you guys are the BEST!  We don’t know how we’re gonna wait another 9 months for your wedding!  :D

Last week we were inundated with album deliveries! It’s always so fun to open a freshly-printed album for the first time. :) Here are a few photos we snapped before packing them up and sending them to their new homes:

Art Album

Press-Printed Book

Senior Book