Thursday, August 17, 2006

"Cupcake Tree" Wedding Cake

Recently BlackBird Images photographed a wedding where the couple choose a non-traditional type of cake. We called it a "cupcake tree" for want of a better way to describe it. As you'll see in the photo below, the top level is a "standard" cake the couple used for the cake-cutting ceremony; the cupcakes were for guests. It was very pretty, eliminated the effort of cutting and serving cake, and made it easy to provide guests with a variety of cake and icing choices.


As cupcakes were removed,the tree was re-stocked. We thought it was a great idea and was a fun way to avoid cutting (and wasting) a lot of cake; we heard the couple donated the "leftovers" to a church pot luck dinner held the next day. While evidently not everyone has seen a cupcake tree before...
... that doesn't mean you shouldn't consider one for your wedding.

BlackBird in the News

The president of our parent company, BlackBird Media, was quoted in two different news articles recently: an article in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star about business outsourcing and ghostwriting, which you can read by clicking here, and an article in the Harrisonburg Daily-News Record about recent trends in the website development industry, which you can read by clicking here.
Why were we contacted for interviews? BlackBird Media is a full-service advertising and media strategy corporation providing site design, navigation structure, text, graphics, photos, and e-commerce solutions. In addition, Jeff has ghostwritten over a dozen books and hundreds of articles on subjects ranging from real estate and investing to pregnancy and breastfeeding (his lack of personal experience in those last two areas notwithstanding).

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Bouquet Tossing Isn't Obsolete

BlackBird Images photographers haven't witnessed this personally, but other photographers we've talked to recently say that many couples are choosing to eliminate the bouquet toss from their ceremonies. While we feel strongly that each wedding should be unique to each couple's desires (after all - it's your wedding, and it should be the way you want it to be), we really enjoy watching and photographing the bouquet toss. It's a neat tradition and while at every wedding some of thesingle women have to be coaxed into participating, the toss is usually a source of a lot of laughter. And some people still really want to catch the bouquet. Here's a photo of the bride at a recent wedding ...

... and here's proof some people still really want to catch the bouquet.

Again, your wedding should only include events you and your spouse want... but give it some thought before you decide to eliminate the bouquet toss. You may be tempted to assume it's a tradition that's become outdated, but you'll find it's a lot of fun.
And sometimes it can make one of your guests really happy.


Europe and Back

Each year BlackBird Images shuts down its offices for our staff-wide vacation period. This year we were contracted to handle still photography in support of a travel video shooting in Europe, so we incorporated a little business into our vacation period.
Our agreement was that all "official" photographs remain the property of our client, so we don't have a lot we can share... but we did take a few quick shots of major sights that are okay within the structure of our terms. Here's a quick snap of Big Ben in the early evening.

At BlackBird Images we feel great photographs can often look better than the "real thing," and in most cases, given time, preparation, and skill, that's true - but not always. Photos simply don't do justice to the Eiffel Tower at night, or the Tower of London, or Notre Dame, or the Colosseum, or the entire city of Venice... because being in those places isn't just a visual experience. It's a combination of sight, sound, "feel," and the sense that you're standing where hundreds and thousands of years of history took place.
Next time you're planning a vacation, forget taking a cruise or going to an island... go to Europe. Visit London or Paris or Rome or Venice or, really, anywhere in Europe - it's absolutely worth it.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Joshua Wilton House - Award of Excellence

Congratulations to the Joshua Wilton House Inn and Restaurant in Harrisonburg, VA, and in particular to their Wine Director, Sean Pugh, for receiving the Wine Spectator 2006 Award of Excellence. Out of thousands of restaurants, The Joshua Wilton was one of approximately 80 in Virginia to receive the award. Even better, Sean is one of only four Virginia wine director/sommeliers who were featured with an accompanying photograph (in Sean's case taken by BlackBird Images.) Here's the photograph we took of Sean that ran in the August issue of Wine Spectator.


The preceeding was the photo Sean chose to submit, but we also like this one.


The Joshua Wilton is a client of our parent company, BlackBird Media, and BlackBird Images has photographed a number of weddings at the Inn. We've developed a great relationship with Mark, Ann Marie, and Sean, the owners of the Joshua Wilton, and are happy to congratulate them for receiving national recognition from the country's leading wine magazine.