All This Interest In Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest? If you have a bride planning a wedding, chances are you have. The online pinboard works like a chock-full magazine, flowing with a steady stream of new ideas that you can keep organized on a virtual bulletin board. This is the place to go when you are looking for inspiration for your wedding.

Whether you are looking for dresses, cakes or favors, Pinterest has images and ideas to help you create a gorgeous wedding. There is a search function that you can use to look for anything wedding. The best time to use Pinterest is when you are at the beginning of your engagement, at the start of your wedding planning. It's great to see what kind of ideas are out there to begin to organize in your head what you want to do with this big day.

To get started, we'd like to suggest some wedding accounts for you to follow:
Style Me Pretty
Wedding Chicks
The Perfect Palette
Martha Stewart Weddings
The Pretty Blog
Ruffled
Floret Cadet
Intimate Weddings
Brides
Bride Finds
Bride Finds From The Runway
The Knotty Bride
Bride and Joy, Vintage Wedding
Offbeat Bride
InStyle Magazine wedding hairstyles
Divinefrenzy, Invitations
Luxe Finds DIY wedding projects
Junebug Weddings
Southern Wedding Magazine
Lauren Grove, Every Last Detail
Vane Broussard, Brooklyn Bride
Postcards & Pretties, Wedding receptions

Do you have any favorites? Let me know if these Pinterest accounts are helpful or if you know of better ones. Where do you like to go for inspiration?

Save The Dates | Weddings

People are so much busier today than they ever were in the past. Weekends quickly fill up, free time just seems to disappear. When you are planning your wedding a year or more in advance, the date sticks in your mind. You want to make sure that your family and friends also block their calendars off for your big day.

But, if you wait until the traditional 8 weeks before to send your wedding invitations, alerting your family and friends to when the wedding will be, you risk their schedules already being booked.

Solution: Save The Dates!

These are designed to be saved! Many people will put Save The Dates up on their fridge, whether they are magnets or cards.

We offer several styles and sizes. We can do:

• Postcards, that send without envelopes;
• Two sided cards that go into envelopes ;
• Magnets, with envelopes;
• Magnets that coordinate with a card, with envelope

The size and style you choose may influence how much information you include on the card. It's a good idea to add your web address if you have a wedding website. If you have the room, hotel information is nice to include for guests that don't use the internet.

You can send Save The Dates at any time. Six months before the wedding is a good rule of thumb, but earlier or later can work, too. If your wedding date falls on a holiday weekend or a high-activity weekend (Badger game, etc.), then the sooner guests can start planning their visit and hotel stay, the better.

If you do Save The Dates, when will you send them out?

More Albums To Love

The great thing about an album is how personal it is and how custom it can be for each person. I love the cover options with the new Chunky Artistic album line. Combining leathers with custom photograph covers gives each album a unique look.

The top album shows the alligator leather, which is a beautiful texture! The bottom album is subtle marbled leather.

These two new albums will be available at The Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells and The Legend of Bergamont in Oregon to view while showcasing their venues.

Stephanie & David | Wedding

These images are overdue, as they have already been featured on the Wedding Planner & Guide website. Stephanie and David were prize package winners from the Wedding Planner & Guide bridal show. We had included an engagement session, which is how we first met them. We were honored when they chose us to also photograph their wedding. It was wonderful to see how much love their family had for them. It really was a special day for so many people!

Keeping The Romance Fires Burning

Romance [verb] to seek the attention of someone, especially by use of flattery, to seduce, to woo

When life gets busy and time runs short, romance often takes a back seat. We mean to do the sweet little things that we used to do, but we get distracted and forget. Or we remember the days when we had time to plot out elaborate ways to show our love. But work, schedules, family, obligation take over.

It can even leave you yearning for a sappy, commercial Valentine's Day card.

Fixing the romantic drain is actually very easy. And quick. And good for you. [wink, wink.]

Write a little love note (it can even just say "I love you"). Hide it somewhere your partner won't find right away, like a purse, wallet, coat pocket, etc. Then, later in the day, text your partner to look in the hiding spot. Feeling elaborate? Hide movie or concert tickets instead.

Do you have a special place? Where you first met or got engaged? Go there. If you can't actually get there, recreate it. Your favorite vacation was to Mexico? Go get margaritas or take tacos to the beach.

This website getromantic.com has 100 more ideas, both little and big, that can bring back the romance to any relationship. Have fun!

Carrie & Jose | Wedding

Carrie and Jose's wedding was a multicultural event for us. Jose's entire family only speaks Spanish and most of Carrie's speaks only English. However, on the day of the wedding, there were no barriers between the families. Even those that could not make the trip were included, through Skype. We loved seeing the Mexican traditions that were incorporated into the day.

The wedding ceremony was done in both languages, as were all the speeches at the reception.

Carrie and Jose worked hard to make sure that both families were represented and respected. Not being Spanish speakers ourselves didn't even cause us any worry. The day went smoothly, and the photographs were easy-peasy, with some translating from Carrie (and an app that Chris had downloaded to his iPhone). It was a beautiful day and a wonderful group of people!

Better Late Than Never | Album from 2006

Wedding albums are important.

We know the main reason couples choose to have photographers at their wedding- planning the family portraits, capturing little details, getting romantic shots of the bride and groom- is to be able to show off their favorite photographs afterward.

These moments are too important to allow just any old cheap digital camera or cell phone manned by a guest be the only way they are captured. And, throwing a few pictures on facebook is not the best way to remember the day. Couples know that is not how you preserve such a big event as two families joining together, creating a new family history. Yes, it’s fun to share images by email and on social sites. But, they know that the internet is not a substitute for an heirloom.

And we love that clients want photographs. They want polished portraits, images that show them at their best. And they want to share the story of their wedding in a way that only a wedding album can.

We are proud of the fact that 90% of our clients have wedding albums to remember their special day. We make sure that the images in those albums are the ones that tell their story.

So we were thrilled when Jane and Kaushik, who were married in 2006, recently came back to have their wedding album created. We loved knowing that this album was so important to them, that even after all these years, they held it as a priority to get it designed and made. It's not often that we are asked to make an album for a wedding that was more than 5 years ago, but we loved being able to do it.

And we know that as their family grows, they will be happy that they have this album to share their favorite wedding day photographs.

Album shown is the Artistic Chunky, with luster pages and leather cover with photograph.