Please take  some time to read through these notes, especially the About You section.  They provide some helpful hints on how to get the best images.

Custom Packages

The wedding packages listed are convenient collections of features.  If no package meets your needs, you can pick and choose the features you do want.  Please call or email with your request and we will respond with a modified package and price quote.

Coverage

We don't quote our packages in terms of time limits.  We prefer to base our coverage on the various aspects of the wedding day.  These are the ceremony, the reception, the formal/traditional shots, and the artistic/fun shots, however long they take.

Proofs vs. Negatives

Proofs are monitor sized images -- they are good for posting on your website, as a screensaver, and for emailing to family and friends who couldn't attend the wedding.  These are delivered on a CDROM.

Negatives are full resolution images -- they are good for making full size prints.  These are delivered on an archive DVD-ROM.  When printing at a retail store with a photo kiosk, you will need to burn a separate CD with your selected  images or put them on a memory card as the kiosks typically cannot read a DVD-ROM.

Shooting Styles

Relax!

Your wedding is a celebration! -- a big party with friends and family.  A one time event involving many people and many little details.  Please understand that *no* wedding goes strictly according to plan.  The good news is, no one but you knows how your wedding was supposed to be like.

If the flowers don't show up, that's not important.  If you forgot your necklace at the hotel, it doesn't matter.  If it rains instead of shines, its not the end of the world.  All that matters is that you and your fiance will be married by the end of the day.  Stress out all you want leading up to the wedding.  On the day of the wedding, just relax and enjoy.

Seeing each other before the wedding

Highly recommended.  When you wait till the ceremony to see each other, that means *all* the photos of the two of you together have to happen in the narrow slice of time between the ceremony and reception.  These are the formals of you with each side of the families, the wedding party, the artistic shots, the fun shots.  Rushing these photos will compromise their quality and integrity.  You maximize your photo opportunities by:

Seeing each other before the wedding, or

Providing ample time between ceremony and reception (90 minutes plus travel time), or

Shooting your artistic shots together on a different day.

Seeing each other before the wedding still gives you the opportunity for that "first moment".  Even better -- its done in private (with or without photographer) so that you can freely exchange your private thoughts.

Lighting

Weddings often employ "mood lighting" -- muted lighting to enhance ambience. In general, the darker the setting, the more grainy the images will be.

Bridal Dress

Some artistic shots will occur in natural environments such as by a pond, in a field, etc.  There is a chance that the dress will be exposed to these elements -- grass, dirt, mulch, etc.  We try to minimize thas as much as possible before the ceremony, however there may be some exposure afterwards.  

This is a normal risk in "adventurous" photography.  Some brides even consider doing a "trash the dress" session.  Please visit the fun Trash The Dress website for more information.

Reception Dining

It is important that the photography crew (myself and an assistant) dine right after the wedding party and immediate family in order to keep up with the photo opportunities of the evening festivities.

Post-Wedding Day Shoot

This is an opportunity for the bridal couple to play "dress up" and go out to get artistic shots unhindered by time and scheduling.  We pick a location or two to capture extra-special moments and can even incorporate the "trash the dress" option where the bride is shot in unusual, atypical situations (jumping into a pool, wading across the canal, etc).  

Or on the more adventurous side, consider using this opportunity before the wedding for a bridal boudoir session -- a series of photos capturing your sensuality in a blushing bride form incorporating your wedding dress and/or veil as a special gift of affection for your husband.

Wedding Coordinator

We find a wedding coordinator to be a very useful resource towards pulling all the elements of your wedding together.  They make sure there are no forgotten elements, they consult with you on your vendor choices and options, they help schedule your day so things don't bunch up or get delayed, and they relieve you, your family, and friends of the stress of having to do everything  yourselves.  After all, this is essentially a big social event, and you should be able to enjoy it rather than worry about all the details on the day of your wedding.  

We recommend: Jacqueline Keen or Ryan Shui, two very helpful and fun coordinators

And finally, a little levity to put a smile on your face...

Dresses that are already "trashed"...