St. Hugo Wedding - Kara & Jim

So many high school sweethearts this past year... amazing! And we're not talking about couples that are 18, either. These are couple's who've been together all through their college experiences, sometimes separate college experiences and often beyond. And yet, they still end up together through it all. This wedding had it all... high winds, stormy weather, abnormally cold weather, burst of rain and hail (we missed that part!). Didn't phase Kara a bit! I've decided to quit gushing about my brides and grooms during my blogs. Turns out, I like them all and waxing poetic about each and every one of them might get a little boring for everybody reading, so I've decided to impart wedding tips that I see either from the wedding day, or wedding tips I've gathered along the way, or critiques of locations, other vendors (still hate that word), or anything else that might make other people's wedding day's go a little smoother. So other couples take note; Kara & Jim didn't let potentially the nastiest weather I've seen in years bum them out at all. Instead we had the weather work for us and we were rewarded with an extremely rare rainbow that we were able to see the beginning and end of! Their wedding was at St. Hugo's in Bloomfield and their reception was at Paint Creek Country Club. This place is pretty far off the beaten path in the Lake Orion area, but Kara and her family were raving about how wonderful the staff treated them during their wedding reception planning. I'm always pleased to hear when my clients are happy with the flexible service they receive. Too many wedding halls treat their clients like they're doing them some sort of favor by letting them use their facility. Paint Creek let them drop off their stuff a few days beforehand, helped them set up, said "yes" to just about everything they wanted and were extremely gracious throughout the event! If you'd like to see more wedding photos from my St. Hugo wedding and the reception at Paint Creek, please check out my other blog at; www.themichiganweddingphotographer.blogspot.com.

Detroit Zoo Wedding Photography - Kristen & Mike's Wedding

Kristen & Mike had another potentially nail biting weather issue, but the rain and freezing temps held off until after their Detroit Zoo wedding. She'd already decided to not try to take wedding photos at the Detroit Zoo, but to stay at the Butterfly Enclosure where their wedding ceremony was held. Just as well, since the weather was definitely NOT cooperating! I just love how go-with-the-flow my wedding couples are. I don't think we've had a decent or seasonally corrected Saturday yet this year and every single one of my couples has shrugged and been happy to get ANY photos outside. Love them and their attitudes. Since nobody can control what's going to happen outside, they just hunker down and have a great time. If you'd like to see more Detroit Zoo wedding photography, please check out my other blog at www.themichiganweddingphotographer.blogspot.com!

University of Michigan Wedding Photos - Mike & Katie

Katie & Mike had been meticulously planning their wedding for more than a year and were prepared for every contingency, except perhaps a very, very slow make up artist. Needless to say, all the waiting and planning just made for an even more dramatic entrance by Katie (I thought the theater gang might give her a standing ovation or at least a round of applause!). I was suffering a severe case of whiplash along with two other wedding party members who had all been rear ended in accidents during the week! I loved all the spontaneous goofiness from all the wedding party. I was an interesting mix of theater people, family (whom I knew) and law school folks. They had a blast one upping each other for silliest photos. When they hung Mike off the side of the church, I was laughing so hard, my camera was shaking! Everybody was super sweet about helping me schlep my heavy load to the University of Michigan's League where the wedding reception was going on. Great time had by all! If you want to see more fun photos from Mike and Katie's University of Michigan wedding, please check out my other blog at www.themichiganweddingphotograher.blogspot.com!

St. John's Inn with Lara & Danny

Surprise Engagement Pictures!

I've never done a paparazzi style surprise engagement before.

The groom to be, Herman, wanted to make sure he had plenty of photos of his engagement surprise. The only hitch was that he wanted me to get lots of photos of the two of them together (and the bride to be, Monika, doesn't like having photos taken), without tipping her off that he was going to ask for her hand in marriage. So how does a photographer sneak around in a Casino and try to get photos of a surprise engagement? Not easily! This required a lot of pre planning on Herman's part, a coordinator to sneak up to their hotel room and decorate the place and me to play the part of an incompetent casino photographer. He wanted to surprise her with an engagement ring on her birthday just after midnight. I arrived at the Casino for a check in and security clearance. I was then escorted to the restaurant where they were dining. After the manager came to retrieve me and showed me to their table, I started in with a patter about how I wasn't a real photographer, the real one went home sick three hours ago and they were making me fill in. I kept making photo "mistakes" in order to get as many frames out of the deal as humanly possible. I was prattling on and on, clicking the whole time with "Well, that doesn't look right", and "I don't think that's in focus at all!" type remarks. I'd told Herman I would be playing this role since I didn't want him freaking out that he'd hired a bozo of a photographer!

After going up to their hotel room to get photos of the room and all the decorations Gayle, from Events To Envy had set up, Herman texted me to say he was in the bar. Another security escort dropped me off at the bar where I shot photos of Gayle and her mom as well as Herman and Monika. She's had enough after four frames.

Then I waited and waited and waited. Seems it was harder than Herman thought to get Monika away from the roulette tables! He feigned exhaustion, yawned a lot and suggested they head up to the room. I followed closely behind. He didn't want photos of the actual moment, but wanted me to come in as soon as she'd said yes. The challenging part was getting her to understand why the crummy Casino photographer was now in their room. When he explained he'd hired me, she said, "But she's not a good photographer!". So I guess she did buy it hook, line and sinker. With her sparkly ring and a 1,000 watt smile, we ran around the lobby getting photos since as you might know by now... Casino's are NOT into having photos taken on their premises!

Lindsay & Brian's Embassy Suites Hotel Wedding

I’d met Lindsay and Brian last summer at Lindsay’s cousin’s wedding. If you look back through my blogs to the end of August, you’ll find Colleen and Adam’s wedding. You’ll notice that there is some overlap in the cast of characters, especially on the dance floor! They got married and had their reception at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Livonia, Michigan. The ceremony took place in the atrium, which is a nice setting for a wedding. The ceremony was scheduled to begin at 5:00 and since it starts getting dark in earnest around 5:10 in Michigan, I started to sweat the light change immediately. It became obvious to me that we were going to start the ceremony in the light and end it in the dark. I’d just purchased a portable power source and was able to press that into service half way through the ceremony since it was getting much, much too dark to get much out of the ceremony using ambient light. So that’s my lesson for today’s wedding photo blog. Have a back up light source in the wings and ready to rock and roll in case the light you were counting on fails you! My favorite DJ, Dan Nichols, from Michigan wedding DJ was there and my daughter Skye ran the photo booth which got so rowdy I thought they might be drowning out the music! Turns out Brian’s family decided to challenge each other to see who could be the LEAST appropriate in the photobooth. I’m posting the G rated photo booth photos here. If you want to see the R rated Michigan photo booth photos, you’ll have to check out my other blog at www.themichiganweddingphotographer.com. Lindsay and Brian own the X rated ones and can probably use them to bribe their relatives for years to come!