Yay! I made my photos bigger!

For me, bigger is ALWAYS better and the shrinky, dinky photos have always annoyed me to no end. So I finally figured out how to make the photos nice and big. Only problem is that sometimes the resolution looks great and sometimes is looks fuzzy or pixelated and I have no idea why! So please know the photos are neither out of focus or low resolution! That's the next thing to tackle!!!

Anne Marie & Chris - Grosse Pointe Academy Chapel

I’d e-mailed quite a bit back and forth with Anne Marie and I loved her right away since she initially contacted me a year ago asking if I’d ever shot a wedding at the Grosse Pointe Academy. It turns out the night I got her e-mail, I’d not only just returned from shooting a wedding at the Grosse Pointe Academy Chapel, but the bride at that wedding was also named.... Anne Marie! So two major coincidences later, I was booked! We had fabulous weather. Turns out while the rest of Michigan was roasting, we were fine down by the water.  Even the boys seems a-okay in their three piece suits. With a wedding party clocking in at 24, I want to say... what a cooperative group of people! If you’re going to have a huge wedding party... hire these guys. They followed my limited instructions, were eager to listen to and please Chris and Anne Marie and they were really upbeat. Just my kind of group! After the full mass ceremony we were able to scoot over to the Three Mile Park in Grosse Point for some VERY fast group photos on their boardwalk. Then we headed over to the reception site, the Lochmoor Club. Anne Marie had scoped out the whole golf course earlier so that she, Chris and I could nab a couple of golf carts and tool around all by ourselves during some of the cocktail hour. What bliss! We stopped where she wanted and was super receptive to my suggestions (which are always made on the spot and have to do with great light, unfettered backgrounds as well as composition). After we’d toured the better half of the course and zoomed all over the place willy nilly, we headed into the hall. A short while later during dinner I went to start editing for my best of the day slideshow and my heart stopped and my stomach lurched. My small digital card wallet was missing from my camera bag. That meant all of my cards from before the wedding through most of the formals were GONE. I was pretty sure they must have fallen out at one of the three spots I’d been rolling around on the ground on the course.... but holey moley... we’d been EVERYWHERE. And what if it wasn’t there... what if it had fallen out back at the park when I’d last changed cards? Needle in a freaking haystack. The manager calmly said he’d send someone out to look. We were losing light fast at this point, they had no idea where I’d been or what exactly they were looking for. I decided I had exactly 10 minutes to spend trying to retrace my steps. I fled to the nearest caddy, heart pounding and he gallantly, calmly said he’s be happy to find whatever I was looking for. If we hadn’t found it in 10 minutes, he said he’d keep looking. We zoomed like a bat out of hell all over the place. Wasn’t in the first spot I’d army crawled. Heart starts lurching.  Wasn’t on the second hill I’d rolled over on... now the nausea is really starting to rise. I said a quick prayer and ten seconds later we rounded the spot to the third location and there is was!!!! Nobody would’ve found that thing until the lawn mower ran over it... of that I’m sure!  So thanks to a GREAT caddy named Eric, we were back within 7 minutes. Still too nauseous to eat, I quickly edited my slideshow before the band started playing. I let Anne Marie on the chain of events and have now permanently changed where I store my cards! Never again! The night ended with merriment, great dancing, lots of family fun and a nice pack of Tums totally consumed by yours truly.

Shannon & Jesse ~ The Henry Ford Estate Wedding Photos

With Michigan roads being what they are, I arrived early at Shannon’s Northville home a wee bit, lotta bit early and was able to watch all the comings and goings of the day.... all the bridesmaids coming, the mailbox going (as the limo ran it over!). My favorite part of the day is just seeing that transformation of the bride from regular chick (with spectacular hair!) to the fairy tale bride. It was a great way to get to know Shannon’s family a bit before heading off the watch the guys getting ready. Now there was an entirely unfamiliar scene at the hotel with the guys. They were taking turns ironing, yes, ironing their handkerchiefs when I got there. It was so methodical and surreal to watch all these grown men being so meticulous! Needless to say, we got some fun photos before I made my third stop to the Henry Ford Estate in Dearborn, Michigan. This again is one of my favorite places to shoot. It’s a lot of schlepping for me, but I love the surroundings, the old building and like Addison Oaks, the Henry Ford Estate also has a great, attentive staff. They’re always hustling around, yet invisible at the same time. Very attentive and intuitive. The place is gorgeous and again we had fabulous weather and were able to take some great shots before the ceremony. Jesse’s grandfather is German, so they did the traditional log cutting ceremony after their kiss. It’s supposed to signify their ability to do a difficult task together as husband and wife. I’ve only seen this done once before (and they cheated a bit with something that more closely resembled a twig!). Lots of fun to watch and photograph. My slideshow was playing in the room between the dinner and the dancing. All 140 guests stopped into that room to watch the show. Great reactions from everybody... so much so that my night ended with the maid of honor chasing me out the door to see if I had her date available! Jesse and Shannon danced perhaps the most memorable first dance ever... a finely choreographed disco number that had everybody on their feet. Great fun! If you’d like to see more photos from this Henry Ford Estates wedding, please check my other blog at www.themichiganweddingphotographer.blogspot.com! I would be remiss if I didn't mention Shannon's florist, Carol Fitzpatrick from Happiness Is... The Little Flower Shop in Farmington Hills, MI. Shannon wanted to create bouquets featuring Michigan flowers and Carol created stunning, colorful, one of a kind bouquets. Shannon's alone had something like 23 different flowers native to Michigan. Unbelievable flowers!

Jennifer & Rick Get Hitched at Addison Oaks

Yay! Finally a wedding day where all the weather Gods didn’t feel like antagonizing the bride and groom! Great weather for my wedding at Addison Oaks (located north of Rochester, Michigan in a town called Leonard, which I’m pretty sure no one’s ever heard of!). At Jen & Rick’s request, I got a few of the photos out of the way beforehand. I don’t usually like to do too many of these because it usually adds to the pre wedding jitters trying not to run into each other, but both Jen & Rick weren’t terribly nervous about that and I only got a few images where you could see the countdown (“I’m getting married in 45 minutes!”) going on in Jen’s face. I figure those will be fun to spot later on and we had great light to work with and Jen was wonderful about plopping on down on the freshly cut lawn BEFORE her wedding! Great group of family and friends... we got a lot of teasing going on. I also got to work at one of my personal favorite locations and with my favorite dj, Dan Nichols (michigan-wedding-dj.com) who just so happens to be a fellow Michigan grad with a BGS. I always know the party is in good hands. He’s perceptive and he really gets the party going strong. It’s sort of magic, but it works every time! Thanks for throwing a great party and thanks for the great weather!!!! If you'd like to see more photos from Jen & Rick's Addison Oaks wedding, please check out my other blog at www.themichiganweddingphotographer.com. Thanks!