Archive for August, 2010

Aug 2010

Sponsored Post: Leah and Mark Photography – All Over The USA

Ok, you know how wedding photographers are always saying things like, "Oh, we are willing to travel" and this nagging voice in the back of your mind says, "Sure. But what's it going to cost me?" (Or am I the only wedding industry cynic?) Well. When APW sponsors/wedding elves say they travel, THEY TRAVEL. Like, go big or go home. So today I get to talk about the travelers of all traveling wedding elves, Leah and Mark out of Atlanta. In the spring, Leah and Mark came out with an APW only offer of no travel fees east of the Mississippi, and because you guys are rad (and I love you for that), you were like, "Whatever, amazing new photographers who are still building their business and will travel for free? YOU ARE SO ON." And y'all have been booking them all over ever since.

In fact, all the weddings in the post today are from weddings all over the country. There is a kick-ass wedding in Indiana, a Team Practical Savannah wedding (Girlfriend! Wedding graduate post! What!), and an amazing Boston wedding. And they are all beautiful and totally totally different. I love that.

Mark emailed me recently to say how amazing the whole summer had been, and how much they wanted to thank you guys, he told me "While some couples honestly worried that we were too inexperienced and the risk was too great to fly us across several states for their wedding - others have taken the chance on us and we find ourselves flying up and down the east coast over the next year. We've got more weddings booked in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and North Carolina! We'll drive, we'll fly, we'll arrive the day before or earlier to make sure that we can meet the couple in person before their actual wedding date."

So to thank you guys for real, for being an awesome grounded community, with awesome grounded brave couples who are willing to invest in emerging creative businesses, Leah and Mark are giving you guys this effing amazing travel deal, for APW readers only: We are still offering 20% off all weddings and no travel fee for weddings East of the Mississippi. For weddings West of the Mississippi - 20% discount + a flat $900 travel fee. And of course - our 100% money back guarantee still applies. Oh right, because did I mention? They have a 100% money back guarantee if you don't like your pictures. Because they are crazy (awesome).

Seriously you guys. I mentioned to Mark that there were parts of Southern California and the Southwest where I had NO APW photographers, and no one I could recommend as both sane and monstrously talented, and they decided to travel to the West for $900 and 20% off. So, San Diego? Arizona? Nevada? Utah? New Mexico? I'm totally looking at you. Anywhere else in the country where you're having a hard time finding wedding elves who get you? I'm looking at you too. Hire them, they are rad.

Oh, and finally, they are fantastic people. Literally. They give a portion of their profits to micro-lending through Kiva, they have this amazing non-profit project to create images for local non-profits (STEAL THIS IDEA, PHOTOGRAPHERS! Make Leah and Mark proud!) And they have an amazing three month internship program for 15 adults working to build their skills at photography.

Yeah. These are totally people you want at your wedding.

PS Please go read this crazy story about how when they first started they offered to stay at couples houses to cut costs, before they realized people would think that was nuts, and this amazing Offbeat Bride was like, "totally, stay with us." And then they helped set up the wedding and babysit and do flowers and stuff. That's Leah babysitting up there. Rad.

Posted in: Sponsored Posts | 16 Comments »

Aug 2010

Wedding Graduates: Christen & Seth and The Local Squared Wedding

Back in March 2009, Kate Harrison Photography (loooonnnngggg time APW sponsor and I) decided to hatch a plan to make some magic happen as the economy continued to fall apart in slow motion. So Kate decided she was going to give away wedding photography to an APW reader, and after some discussion, we decided that it should go to someone who was experiencing some economic hardship. The contest we came up with was called Local Squared, because we wanted to do some good for Northern California, which is home for both of us.

Needless to say, I've been waiting to post the winners wedding for a long long time, and today I get to bring you Christen & Seth. There wedding makes my soul sing in a million ways. It's in the lovely Mendocino, where my grandmother lived for years, so each feature of the small down is familiar and well loved to me. It sings sweetly of the ocean, which I love. But more than I that, I love the way Christen talks about coming to grips with having a very traditional Catholic service. Because for all our wedding looked indie in pictures, we had a deeply traditional service, something I came to love for all the reasons Christen lists. So you're in for a real treat today. And the pictures. Ohmygod. I, um, couldn't help but use a lot of them, since I want to eat them all up. And with that, Christen:

Seth and I met seven years ago in the tiny, storybook village of Mendocino, CA—a windswept, coastal town frozen in time and in many ways isolated from the “real world”. Seth was living and working in Mendocino, 20 miles down a dirt road, in a one room cabin at the heart of a redwood forest. I was living in San Francisco and working as a theatre actress (while juggling other jobs) and jumped at the opportunity to perform in the bucolic village of Mendocino. The rest is long-winded and juicy, but I don’t have time to go into that. Our individual journeys up until that point were rambling to say the least— I’m still amazed that our paths crossed in the most unlikely of places. But wham, 7 years later, here we are.

We chose Mendocino as the wedding location because it represents our beginning and is dear to our hearts. We are California transplants, so all of our family and many friends are from far flung parts of the country and world. We realized that a Mendocino wedding would be difficult for many people-- travel time and costs would be prohibitive. Therefore, we wanted the journey and weekend to be a magical escape for those willing and able to make the trip. Despite the obstacles and difficulties along the way, we tried to keep all aspects of the wedding focused on family and friends and our gratitude for the role they play in our lives. I am still amazed and exhausted that we pulled it off. While it was fabulous, worth it, and one of the best days of my life, I am also very glad it is over.

The wedding planning process wasn’t easy. I always assumed I’d get married, but never envisioned or imagined the details. Added to that-- I’m a pleaser, a second guesser, and kinda shy. Many aspects of a wedding—the planning, the actual event—are a nightmare to someone like me. I worry too much about other people’s opinions, feelings, and expectations and I tend to put other people’s needs first. This makes me adaptable and flexible and easy to be around, but leads to difficulty when trying to plan a wedding and blend such a diverse group of people. Seth was raised by hippy, intellectual, non-conforming, artist parents in isolated parts of Newfoundland and Maine, while I was raised by devout, hardworking, but fun-loving, conservative Catholics from the Midwest. Though our family’s had met and got along swimmingly, I worried a lot about pleasing both parties and blending these diverse communities.

The idea that every aspect of the wedding would be a reflection of ME, the BRIDE was horrifying. I cared deeply about many things, those choices were easy. But despite the myth, a wedding is not the Bride’s Big Day. Or at least, I don’t think it should be. And it’s not even the Bride and Groom’s big day. In a lot of ways, it’s about everyone else (our parents, our families, our fabulous friends) and I’m absolutely ok with that. While Seth and I went into the process wanting to throw a party that reflected US and do things OUR way, I think this is naive. Weddings are all about bringing people together, so compromise is key.

CEREMONY
Seth and I definitely wanted to be married in a hand-crafted, outdoor ceremony. We share a profound love for the outdoors and nature is our common church. For my parents, however, our marriage would not be real unless it was a Catholic marriage performed by a Catholic priest. But the Catholic Church sees marriage as a sacrament that must be performed inside a church, no exceptions.

At first it frustrated me that my parents would not budge, but I understood their position—it is their faith and my upbringing and I am grateful for it. (I am spiritual in my own way, and use tools from a Catholic foundation to create my own multifaceted, non-denominational approach to the mysteries of life. Nonetheless, I am inescapably a Catholic at heart.)

Continue reading Wedding Graduates: Christen & Seth and The Local Squared Wedding

Posted in: Wedding Graduates | 106 Comments »

Aug 2010

APW Book Club Meetups

Ladiezzz-

APW book club meet-ups are happening SOON (9/11), so if you haven't set a location for your local meet up go to Facebook and do this thing. The marvelous Emily of Emily Takes Photos (sponsor, bad-ass) will be collecting all that info into a master list that I will post next week. That and she's throwing the Bay Area party that I will totally be stuffing my face at. And drinking. And discussing Dan Savage.

And if you are not reading the book because you can't make a meetup, READ THE BOOK. You'll love it. We'll discuss it here after.

Smooches,

Meg

Posted in: Uncategorized | 16 Comments »

Aug 2010

Wedding Undergraduate: It’s About Your Person (That’s Really It)

I got a wedding undergraduate post in my inbox last week that was so 'Exactly' (if I had an exactly button on my email) that I had to run it as is. Miranda hits on two things in this email that I think really, really need saying. The first is the bridal bullsh*t part. She talks about the moments in wedding planning where people close to you do sh*tty hurtful things (that they seem to not see as sh*tty and hurtful, which only makes it worse), and you go to sleep crying your eyes out. Sometimes when we (me and all the wedding grads and commenters) try to hammer home the message that it will be ok in the end (and it will) we loose track of the message that it's totally normal when these horrible parts of planning happen, and that you're not alone. As I said in my own wedding graduate post, "It's ok to cry." And it really really is.

But Miranda really hits on more than that here. She gives us such an important reminder of why we do this: because life is short, and when you find a person, you want to celebrate that. And with that, I give you Miranda (who will obviously be coming back as a wedding graduate, cough, cough, cough):

This morning I got into a car accident on my way to work - not only on time, but early for once! - and my entire day got warped. Yesterday two close friends, both in our bridal brigade, declared, loudly and angrily, that they would not be participating in our wedding in the ways we had hoped they would. One felt we were asking too much, and, for her mental health, has opted out of just about everything. The other felt that we were asking too much by having not only an engagement party but also a bridal shower and a bachelorette party as well. These are truly, honestly conversations that I never thought I would have around what I have been thinking of as my quiet, sane, community-based wedding celebration with my woman.

I woke up this morning with my head reeling from the heaviness of these conversations, and my eyes still puffy from all the crying I'd done the night before. I got up and functioned and got out the door on time and promptly (exactly 89 feet later, according to Google Maps) smashed my car with another car. Continue reading Wedding Undergraduate: It’s About Your Person (That’s Really It)

Posted in: LGBTQ Weddings, Planning, Wedding Undergraduates | 67 Comments »

Aug 2010

Sponsored Post: A Beautiful Day Photography, Seattle Photojournalism

Today I get to write about long-time sponsor A Beautiful Day Photography out of Seattle. I think the best sum up I can give of Daniel, the photographer himself, is that he's the real deal. As wedding photography gets trendier and trendier you hear things thrown around like, "I'm a wedding photojournalist," and you see endless images edited with the hottest filter of the moment, sun flares, and over saturated colors. I don't have to tell you, because you know. You know the, "Huh, so when I look PAST the filters and the sun flares and the hip brides... what do I really think?"

Not with A Beautiful Day Photography, that's for sure. Look at the pictures and you know, "Oh, he's got it. He shoots what's really there. He really sees you." And that's what you want. It's that simple and that complicated.

Daniel is not just a wedding photojournalist, he's an *actual* photojournalist. He spent much of his career shooting sports, fashion, and also shooting in war zones. He has a Pulitzer Prize. I'm not kidding. And now you can hire him to shoot your wedding, which is sort of mind boggling.

He says, "I have made the transition from covering hard news to weddings, documenting them in the same way as my editorial stories. Now instead of getting shot at in conflict zones, I get to photograph joyful celebrations of love, family and friends. (The food is always better too)."

He shoots in both digital and film, and his signature is these amazing huge group portraits taken on a large format black and white film panoramic camera, and includes 12" x 36" print with every package. Now, before my wedding I looked at these pictures and thought, "Oh, that's cool." But after? Yeah, guys, you want this, you really really do. Daniel told me, "It is the one picture people love to have framed and hanging on their wall. It shows everyone who attended the wedding and 5 -10 years from now it will be more highly valued than any other picture shot that day."

And he's right. You know why? In blog land we spend a lot of time focusing on wedding pictures as art (and they are that, just look at the pictures in this post). But wedding pictures are more than that. They are documentation. They become part of our collective history. The picture of my grandparents wedding that we have on our bookshelf, right where you see it when you walk in? I don't love it because it's art, I love it because it's a documentation of history, of people I loved. And that's what you get with A Beautiful Day Photography, and what's more important than that?

Oh, and PS: He photographed Conan O'Brien's wedding. I'm not kidding. So, um, what are you waiting for Seattle & West Coast ladies?

Posted in: Sponsored Posts | 14 Comments »

Aug 2010

Wedding Graduates: Kristiina & Kevin

Remember the last day of my vacation, how I posted Kris's overwhelmed with joy-ness, and you all clamored for a wedding graduate post? Well that girl is snappy, and you have it today. There are a million wonderful things about this post, the way the wedding is both traditional and non-traditional at once; the way Kris talks about really concreate things, like the things they spent their money on; the way she full on tackles that this was her second wedding and what that meant to her on a really personal level. And the wedding is beautiful, did I mention it was beautiful? But before we jump into the post, I'm going to leave you with something Kris said to me in an email, which I loved, "For our wedding we both wanted traditional things. I wanted a ceremony and he wanted dinner and dancing. He wanted a wedding party and a ring pillow. I wanted a bouquet, flowers on the tables, and wedding favors. I suspected that he wanted me to wear a white dress. I felt that we had a responsibility because he was the first in his family and his entire generation to be married." Because sometimes you forget this in the midst of all this wedding hip-ness, simple is great, traditional is great, feeling like you owe something to your family? Sometimes that makes you lucky. And with that, I give you Kris:

The first thing I want to say about our wedding is this: as beautiful as it was to me, as great as the satisfaction I feel about it, the radiant details are less important to me than the fact that we got married.

Perhaps this is partially due to the fact that this wasn’t the first time I got married. The first time was at City Hall in NYC to my very dear ex, who I loved and love. We had a favorite book: the characters got married at City Hall, and we did too. We had a couple of different parties afterwards in our many cities that were very us, very loving, very meaningful. So why then did I feel sad and nervous getting ready to go to City Hall? Why did I feel like crying the night before one of these parties? I think we all know the answer. Sometime even a great person isn’t the right person for you.

My feeling about divorce is that, even at its most amicable, it is heartbreaking. That vows were said, not just to each other, but to friends and to family. You may know in your heart that your ex will find someone else, but what about his kind grandfather and grandmother who welcomed you with open arms into the family? Faith was broken somewhere, even with the best intentions. That is why, like it says, I have come to believe that marriage should be something you do reverently and advisedly. It is an act with weight. A covenant. It is a great and powerful thing.

When I met my now husband, I did not think we would get married. Aside from my own fears and concerns, the 13 year age difference made a long term relationship seem unlikely. I kept bracing myself for the worst, the moment he would find someone else and move on. That moment never came. We got engaged, now we are married. We embraced the future together.

When I think of our wedding, I think about how beautiful everything was: the gardens, the pool, the tables, the room I changed in, the patio outside, the chairs, the trees. I think about the Lion King song his brother sang us, about his best man’s moving toast. I think about my sister and law singing “Che il sogno di Doretta” as we walked to be married. Or my friend Ann singing “The Nearness of You” as our first dance. I think about coming in to our bedroom that night, the bride’s room I changed in, and seeing a million candles and orchids and artichokes that my bridesmaids had repurposed from the tables and used to decorate the room for us. Let me tell you, any decorated bedroom you have seen in a movie has nothing on these ladies and their men, who helped. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The thing I think about most often is holding the man I love’s hands under the pepper tree and looking at him. I think about how happy we were, how full we were of the astonishment and joy of getting married to each other. That is why we had a wedding.

Now the nitty gritty: I think the wedding planning process can be meaningful and transformative; I also think it can be mind-bogglingly stressful and hard. I thought a little about what I would have told myself at the beginning of it all (not so very long ago!) and here it is:

Continue reading Wedding Graduates: Kristiina & Kevin

Posted in: Wedding Graduates | 62 Comments »

Archive for August, 2010

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