JMU Arboretum Photos

For all of you who mentioned that if we discuss a location we really should show photos, here you go: A few images from last weekend's wedding at the Arboretum.

Location Bridal Party Sessions

A growing trend is for couples to request wedding day bridal-party photo sessions at locations other than the ceremony or reception site. We've done four or five this year, and clearly it's a growing national trend - check out this article from the Chicago Tribune.

Keep in mind that many locations require the payment of shooting fees. For instance, if you want photos taken on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the National Parks Service charges an average of $250 for the privilege (including a $50 application fee just to consider your application.) Even a location like the Arboretum at JMU charges $50 for engagement or wedding photos; the fee is, fortunately, included in the overall cost if you book the spot for your wedding.

A couple factors to consider. Taking your wedding party to another location takes longer than you might think, even if you all ride together in the limo. (And your guests will be waiting while you're gone.) Many of our couples choose to do separate location photos before the service - that way they can allow as much time as necessary without inconveniencing guests. And don't underestimate how eager you'll be to get to your reception after you're finally married - what seemed like a great idea when you're planning your wedding might feel like an imposition (to you) when you'd rather be dancing, socializing, and celebrating.

Heat

The last couple weekends have been incredibly hot in Virginia, so we thought - after two successive outdoor weddings in 90-degree plus weather - it might be nice to post a photo from a winter wedding at the Homestead in Warm Springs, VA.

We'll be just outside Charlottesville for a wedding this weekend, so think cool thoughts!

And More Wedding Planning Tips...

Since we've gotten a lot of response from our recent wedding tips posts, here's another. Check out the article I Do's & Don't's: Straight-Shooting Wedding Advice from the NY Daily News. They're big on making sensible budget choices, especially on items that "most people won't remember anyway," as well as saving money on flowers and your gown.



On a different note: This weekend we photographed a wedding at JMU's Arboretum; it's the first we've shot there in over a year. (We tend to shoot more weddings in Charlottesville, Northern Virginia, and Richmond than in the Harrisonburg area.) It's a beautiful location - even in Saturday's 95 degree weather - but it's low on frills: the staff sets up chairs but that's about it... the rest is up to you. And if you have more than 150 guests, as Leah and Adam did, you'll have to rent and set up additional chairs on your own.
The reception was at the Festival Center - adjacent to the ISAT building - where the staff are both efficient and skilled (the two don't always go together, in our experience.) The space is a perfect size for 200-300 guests; while it holds up to 500, anything over 300 might feel a little tight, especially if you want your guests to be able to mingle freely.

Taking "Right Place, Right Time" to Extremes

Some amazing photographs of the May 12 earthquake in China have surfaced, photos that exist because of the timing of the quake — in midafternoon, when several newlywed couples happened to be having their wedding photos taken near the town of Bailu.

Note while the wedding party looks slightly worse for wear, the groom is nonetheless up for a little texting.


The Associated Press reports (here's the article) that the photographer, Wang Qiang, was set up outside the century-old French missionary church there, no longer in use but still popular as a romantic backdrop for wedding portraits. He had already taken some shots and was waiting for the couple he was photographing to change clothes when the quake struck; he started recording what happened as the church started to crumble.

For more quake photos by taken by Wang, check out this Chinese news site - while you're there you can try out your translation skills.

The closest we've come to a disaster at a wedding (unless brides fainting at the altar can be considered a disaster) is when a carriage horse fell at Natural Bridge while bringing the bride and her father to the service; the combination of concrete and rain and metal shoes made for terrible footing. (Picture quality isn't great, but we were about 300 yards away at the time.) Oh - and note the Natural Bridge employee looking "official" so he doesn't have to participate.


The horse was actually calmer than everyone else - he simply stayed down until they unhooked his traces, then he got back to his feet and patiently waited to be hooked back up. Three minutes later they were on their way again.

And in case you were worried, here he is later, looking understandably sheepish but otherwise fine.

While it pales in comparison to an earthquake story... hey, that's fine by us.

Tips for Allocating Wedding Funds

According to a recent news newscast on South Bend, Indiana's WSBT, "Weddings are said to be recession-proof, but the same can't be said for couples' budgets. As the economy takes a hit, many nearly-weds are looking for ways to scale back on a lavish wedding without sacrificing a special day." For example, we recently photographed a wedding held at the home of the bride's parents. As you can see, the setting was beautiful and relatively inexpensive compared to renting a venue, even when you factor in rentals.

And the fireworks were a fun touch, and were a surprise for the bride and groom.


Here's a summary of tips from the article:

Save On:

• The guest list (reduce it, in other words)
• Invitation costs
• Favors

Splurge On:

• The location
• Photography

To check out the full article and the rationales behind their tips, click here.

Catching Up....

It's been awhile since we've posted, so let's catch up a little. We've had a very busy spring and photographed a number of beautiful weddings in a variety of settings. To highlight a few, we've been to the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda...


Thanks to the staff (excellent as always) who let us park in the 10-minute parking area for 5 hours. And for not minding when we spent a little time on the putting green with the wedding party before the reception.


Since we're on the impressive-venue subject, the main atrium in the Hotel Jefferson in Richmond is a great spot for cocktails and hors deuvres...


And the ballrooms aren't too shabby, either.


In Virginia Beach, the Adam Thoroughgood House turned out to be a surprisingly nice location for pre-ceremony photos. (Sometimes historical sites are great to visit but not so accommodating for wedding parties; in this case the staff could not have been more gracious.)
The Lesner Inn, overlooking the Chesapeake Bay and the Lynnhaven River, was a beautiful spot for an outdoor ceremony on the deck (as long as you don't mind the occasional congratulatory blowing horns from passing boats), and the main room was perfect for dining and dancing.


And on a water theme, our first visit to the Washington Naval Yard in D.C. was a lot of fun. The venue is great, and the bride was very happy with the job the staff did.

We even got the chance to hear a Grammy-winning singer perform a couple songs during the service. (How often does that happen at a wedding?) Regina Bell was amazing - not sure how the bride landed her for her wedding, but congratulations for pulling it off, and congratulations to Tonya and Kevin!

Posing Tip

Another quick posing tip for brides: Pay attention to your elbow and the angle of your arm. If you're in a pose with your side facing the camera, or even slightly turned at an angle to the camera - because, after all, you should never turn your body square to the camera - always leave a slight bend in your arm. If there's a small amount of daylight between your arm and your waist, you'll naturally appear more elegant and graceful.


It's easy to pull off when you're holding your bouquet, but you can also easily create the same effect by placing your hand on your hip. Using the angle of your arm can also have a slimming effect - even though some brides don't need it.


If you don't remember any of the posing tips we've shared over the past months, don't worry - on your wedding day we'll work with you to make sure you look your best. It's easy and painless - and you'll love the results.

Glenmore Country Club

We normally don't comment on specific locations, but if you're planning an outdoor fall wedding, the Glenmore Country Club in Charlottesvile, VA, is a beautiful setting. Here's the view guests had at the wedding we recently photographed.


And while we're giving plugs, the musicians, Morwenna Lasko and Jay Pun, were outstanding. Here's Jay accompanying the bride's father.


Morwenna and Jay perform regularly at Charlottesville clubs; check out their website for more info.

Please note we have no business or other relationship with the country club or Morwenna and Jay - we just liked the location and their music.

Couples Pass on Their Advice

While the following is in no way a statistically-accurate survey, post-wedding conversations with some of our couples (and sometimes their parents) indicate that many wish they'd done a few things differently - in hindsight, of course. We thought we'd pass on a few of our couples' "lessons learned" in case it helps with your wedding planning. Here they are, in no particular order:

"Spend more on food and less on 'favors'." A number of couples have said they wish they'd paid more attention to the quality of the meal and less time worrying about table favors or mementos. Many people feel the food they served is remembered for a long time, while the personalized golf balls are, well, not. (One bride said only about 30% of her guests actually took home the candy boxes she provided at each place setting.) A common theme expressed is the "quality" of their wedding was judged in large part by the food.


"Tell the DJ to be flexible." While everyone creates a schedule, some events are a little more time-critical than others. While it's important to start the meal on time, exactly when you do your toasts may not be. In one case, for example, the dancing came to a screeching halt - and never picked back up again - when the DJ felt he had to conform precisely to the schedule. Let your DJ know which times are important and which can be flexed in order to keep the fun going.


"Schedule traditional reception activities as early as possible." A lot of guests won't stay for four or five hours, no matter how much fun your reception is. (Older guests especially.) But most still want to see traditional events like the cake-cutting, toasts, bouquet toss, etc. If you space out those activities too much you'll either lose a lot of your guests, or they'll stay long past when they would have preferred to go home. A lot of couples choose to do the cake cutting and bouquet/garter toss immediately after the meal; then whoever wants to stay until the wee hours can, and the others can go home happy they saw all the traditional activities.

"Skip the limo." Clearly this is a judgment call; if you love the idea of leaving the church and arriving at the reception in a limo, go for it. But several couples said in retrospect they wished they saved the limo expense and put it towards something else. One said, "Our reception was only 10 minutes from the church, and we didn't leave in the limo after the reception... so it felt like a waste in the end. It sounded like a wonderful idea ahead of time, but in reality it didn't add anything to the day." That's just one person's opinion, though - if your heart is set on a limo, don't let that sway you.


"Get plenty of help lined up to clean up the church." If your wedding is on a Saturday evening, the church needs to be ready for Sunday morning services. Someone has to remove your flowers and decorations... not to mention your clothing, makeup... and that all has to happen during a time when you'd rather be rushing off to your reception. If you can, line up a group - hopefully made up of people who won't be in your post-ceremony formal photos - to take care of straightening up the church immediately after the service. By the time you're done with your formals, they'll be done with the church... and off to the reception you can all go. We helped several couples remove decorations, carry luggage to the car, etc. We didn't mind at all, but it was obvious they wanted to be doing anything besides policing up the church. Enlist a few friends to help out and you'll enjoy the day a lot more.


So - there are a few of our couples' lessons learned. If this was helpful, let us know and we'll post more tips in the future.

Another Photo Tip for Wedding Guests

We received a ton of responses to our last entry about photography tips for wedding guests, so here's one more: Tell a story.

The best photos have capture a moment and a feeling. (There's an element of luck, of course, since you're by definition capturing fleeting moments.) But if you can capture the mood of the wedding in your photo, you'll continue to appreciate the photo in years to come.


Sometimes it's okay to be a little out of focus, or to have less than optimal lighting - any photo that tells a story, either about the day or about the emotions of the day - is a great photo. So take a step back and think about how you can tell a story with your photos.
Sometimes it's just a matter of moving a little so you incorporate other people or objects in the photo. Other times it's simply a matter of worrying less about your technique and more about what you're seeing. Technique is important, but having a great eye is critical.

Tips for Point-and-Shoot Photographers

Wedding guests often ask us for photography advice, so here goes. Keep in mind this is aimed at point-and-shoot users, not people with professional-grade cameras.

Here's our best tip: Take lots of memory cards with you. If you have lots of memory capacity available, you can stop "chimping" (constantly looking at your camera's LCD to see how the photo you just took turned out) and concentrate on what’s going around you. While you're checking your photos and deleting the poor ones you're likely to miss the best moments. Sort your photos later.


Use your optical zoom (not your digital zoom) to get in close whenever you can. Forget about including legs and background objects when you photograph people. Pants and church steeples aren't particularly interesting - emotions and expressions are.


If you're using the long end of your lens to magnify the image, remember this will magnify your own body movements as well, increasing the blurring caused by camera shake. Learn to hold your camera steady and your percentage of "keepers" will go up.

Go where the light is: outdoors, near entrances, by windows. Even if you're using flash, adding natural light always improves a photo.


Try taking some shots where your target isn’t in the center of the frame. Focus on the eyes of your subject and then recompose to put them exactly where you want them. Keep background clutter out of the shot, put more space on the side of the frame a person is looking towards, and take advantage of dramatic diagonals and other “ambient” framing.


Take lots of photos. Experiment. Be ready. Watch for and try to anticipate moments of meaning or emotion.

And don't worry about taking photos of the cake or the flower arrangements, unless you're particularly interested in those types of photos. (Because some can be spectacular.)


Instead, focus on people - and on candid moments. When you get home and look through your photos, the ones that will make you smile are the ones you took that captured the personalities of your family and friends.

Flower Girls

Sometimes it looks like fun to be young and wear a flower girl's dress...



And at other times, perhaps not so much.

Wedding Ceremony Lighting

Some denominations and individual churches - and sometimes even individual celebrants - ban the use of flash or artificial lighting during the wedding ceremony. That's not a problem; even if we can use flash, we often take a number of photos using natural light. Sometimes, if the time of day is right, the results can be spectacular.


Other churches are equally beautiful, but catching natural sunlight through windows is impossible. For example, the Augusta Stone Church has large windows, but it's surrounded by trees, blocking any dramatic sunbeams. Depending on the time of day the UVA Chapel has very dramatic lighting - but conditions can vary greatly hour to hour.

But rest assured - if the light is right at the time of your ceremony, we'll catch it.

Atmosphere Photos

Many of our clients enjoy wedding "atmosphere" photos: images of flowers, decor, the church... and we do our best to photograph each wedding in as comprehensive a way as possible. For example, here's a minister walking towards the church just before the wedding.

The key is to allow us enough time to capture these types of images. If your schedule is busy and we have just enough time to take all the pre-ceremony photos you want, then photograph the ceremony, then take post-ceremony posed photos under a tight timetable... then were off to the reception... we'll do our best to photograph the settings and peripheral events of your day, but our ability to do so may be limited. (Keep in mind neither of the moments shown were staged or posed - we just needed the few seconds necessary to notice and photograph them.)


If atmosphere and mood photos are important to you, let us know and we'll work with you to develop a schedule that allows us to capture everything you want.

"I'm Glad I Don't Face That Type of ID Check"

It's by no means wedding related, but recently one of our brides saw the photo below and said, "Maybe showing two forms of ID isn't such a bad thing after all...."

Before each race all horses have their identities verified by checking the unique ID number that's tattooed on the inside of their upper lip, since names are easy to change but a tattoo is a little tougher...

... and that's what they're doing in this photo taken at Pimlico. It's not a particularly flattering angle, so in the spirit of fairness here's the same horse, on a different day, photographed under much better circumstances.

Safe Return

Nicole let us know that her husband, Marine lieutenant Philip Anastasi, returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.

He left for Iraq a week after he and Nicole were married, and we're glad to hear he's home safe and sound. Our hope is the term "second honeymoon" takes on a new and very special meaning in situations like theirs. We extend our thanks and gratitude to Phil and to all the other members of our armed forces who are serving or have served overseas.

Veils Make a Comeback

Our posts about wedding trends generate by far the most feedback from readers, so here's another one we've noticed this year. A few years ago we saw very few brides wearing veils - maybe once every twenty weddings or so. This summer alone four of our brides wore veils.

Depending on the gown, a veil can add a touch of additional elegance and grace. (But keep in mind if your ceremony will be held outdoors, the wind could play havoc with your veil, making it more of a distraction than an accent.)

It's worth noting that only one of our brides - in the last three years - wore her veil over her face as she walked down the aisle. While the moment the groom lifts the bride's veil at the altar is always a special one, most couples choose not to; that way guests have an unobstructed view of the bride as she walks the aisle - and she can see her guests clearly, too.

Destination Weddings - Redefined

Destination weddings are as popular as ever - each year we photograph two or three weddings in exotic or distant locales. But many couples are redefining "destination."


How? Typically a "destination" wedding involves the couple meeting family and friends at an island location or resort for their wedding. But a number of our couples in past years have chosen a less distant location for their wedding, inviting family and friends to join them there for a week, with the wedding taking place either in the middle of the week or even at the beginning.

The wedding becomes a mini-vacation, albeit a vacation with a theme (and a vacation where bringing nice clothes is no longer optional.) And if you choose a destination like the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, you may be lucky enough to be chauffeured around for post-ceremony photos by a friendly golf course employee.


When we talk to those couples afterwards, all have been very happy they chose to spend significant time with their families before and after their weddings. Most feel it's a great way to "blend" the families and give everyone a chance to get to know each other over a period of days rather than hours. Even small weddings benefit from this approach; you can always take over a bed and breakfast for the week or weekend.

Plus it's a more relaxed celebration - there's no hurry to make sure you spend a few moments with each guest... because you'll have plenty of time to catch up before and after the wedding.