It was my first time participating in a bridal show, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. With the doors slated to open at 1pm, I couldn’t believe how many excited brides and grooms were lined up as early as 11am. I’m waiting to hear how many brides came to the show, but I would guess over 700!

Our booth got a lot of attention, with many couples looking for 2013 and even 2014 availability. It was so nice talking to all of the brides and grooms about their upcoming weddings. Everyone seemed to have a great time at the show, with the cake tastings and chocolate fountains, being as always, a big hit.

It was also nice to see some vendors who I’ve worked with before. In addition, it was nice to meet some new vendors. Our booth was between Sprinkles Custom Cakes of Winter Park and DJ Live Productions. I have to say, it was hard sticking to New Year’s resolutions with cupcakes staring at me the entire day!

Thanks again to everyone that came out, and please contact us if you have any follow-up questions!

It’s my first bridal show and I’m so excited to participate in such a great event!

The bride and her bridesmaids got dressed and ready at the DoubleTree Resort in downtown Orlando. As I was taking pictures around the room, I noticed a note with Tierney’s name on it. Ian had given it to her the night before letting her know how happy and excited he was to be getting married that next day.

Ian, as an active member of the United States Marine Corps, wore his dress blues to the ceremony. Tierney wore a beautiful gown from Kleinfeld with blue shoes to coordinate with his uniform.

I love when couples decide to have a destination wedding in Orlando – it’s fun to see all of the guests excited by the many sights and sounds of a city that I often take for granted. And I often learn something new.

The wedding was held downtown at Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaurant, a place I had never been. What a cool and fun place to have a wedding! It is located in a building on Church Street that is over 100 years old. The ambiance of the location was fantastic, complete with great food and live Latin music. The candlelight room was a gorgeous host to both the ceremony and the reception.

We also were also just a few feet from Church Street Station, which is always a fantastic location to photograph. I had a great time with the whole wedding party as we found some great spots for pictures near the restaurant.

Tierney and Ian were an awesome couple and I am so glad I was able to be part of their wedding! Here are some of my favorite images from the day.

VENDORS

Hotel – DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando Downtown (www.hilton.com)
Dress – Kleinfeld (www.kleinfeldbridal.com)
Shoes – Caparros (www.caparrosshoes.com)
Florist – Amy Ruscica
Hair – Steph Caudle
Ceremony / Reception – Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaraunt (www.ceviche.com)
Officiant – Reverend Steve Swan from Sensational Ceremonies (www.sensational-ceremonies.com)
Cake – Cut the Cake, Inc. (www.cutthecakeinc.com)

I am pleased to announce a very special fall promotion. If you book a wedding package before December 21st, I will include a makeup artist for your engagement photo session. Makeup will be provided by Makeup by Rae of Orlando. I had the chance to work with Rae on some recent work, and she does a fabulous job.

This promotion is limited to engagement sessions in the Orlando area. For more details, please contact us.

When I heard they were coming to Orlando as part of the Pass Premier tour, I signed up. Pass Premier is a new tool that photographers can use to help make it easier to share our photographs with our clients. I’ll be explaining it more in the coming months and I’m looking forward to trying it with upcoming weddings!

Pass Premier is a product by David Jay. Formerly a wedding photographer, David is mostly focused on providing innovative tools to photographers for sharing and promoting their photographs.

The event was held at the Mela Room off of Orange Blossom Trail. I had only known this location for club parties, but they are trying to host more weddings and events.

Promise Tangeman started the night off by talking about how to develop and embrace a brand identity. She has helped many photographers as well as some smaller scale celebrities develop a brand.

She was followed by Kevin Swan, a wedding photographer who has developed a very successful album company. He demonstrated a new tool by his company for album design. Album design is something that is very important, but it is labor intensive. I plan on trying Kevin’s album design software to see if it helps reduce the time that it takes for me to create an album design.

After a short break, Zach and Jody Gray hit the stage. They talked for nearly two hours about building your business. It was a great presentation and much different than the lighting workshop I attended several years prior. After about 8 pages of diligent notes, my head was spinning with ideas to improve the business. It was refreshing that they said that taking great pictures needs to be second nature and that our focus as photographers is to provide great guest satisfaction.

The final presentation of the night was by David Jay and it showcased Pass. It’s a very interesting and innovative way of sharing images. I’m very interested to start using it and seeing how my couples respond. It definitely makes it easier to get the photos in to the hands of everyone.

My favorite part about the whole experience was the networking opportunities. I met many great people from all over Florida, and it was nice to meet some new friends in this industry.

There are only a few more dates to this bus tour. From the vibe in the room, I could tell a lot of people left inspired. I know I did!

Pass Premier - David Jay (L) and Promise Tangeman (R)

Pass Premier - Zach and Jody Gray Photography

I saw Doug as one of the presenters at last year’s WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Road Show that came through Orlando. While there were many great speakers that day, I felt that one hour was not enough time for all of the content that Doug was trying to cover. So, I was so glad to hear that he was coming back to Orlando.

Since then, Doug was honored with the United Nations (Yes, THAT United Nations) International Council of Photographs Leadership Award, an amazing and well deserved honor. Having been a wedding photographer for over 20 years, he has definitely made a name for himself, running a business that photographs over 900 weddings every year.

His energy and humor from WPPI came through today as well. Doug Gordon has a great wit that keeps the students very entertained as he goes through a great deal of information.

The four hour wedding workshop was held at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista across the street from Downtown Disney. After a brief introduction and some awfully coordinated “YMCA” dance steps, Doug launched in to a very powerful motivational speech.

We had two models for our class who filled the role of bride and groom. Doug started the class by briefly going over some lighting concepts, demonstrating them on our bride.

After that, we all headed outside for about two hours of shooting. I have to thank Wendy Gunderson who posted a review of the May 24th workshop in Chicago. That blog post gave me a heads up that we may be doing some photography outside. And, yes, it was in the 90s today.

Doug went through his flow posing with the bride and groom on the lawn of the Hilton Lake Buena Vista. Great posing is extremely important to great photography. It’s amazing how Doug goes from pose to pose. That is where the 20+ years of wedding photography experience shows.

Even though I brought my camera for the wedding photography workshop, I knew that there were going to be over 50 people in the class. So, I mostly used my camera for note taking and grabbing pictures to share with everyone on this blog. I’ve always been apprehensive about using workshop photos as part of a portfolio, and all of my portfolio photos are from actual weddings and portrait sessions.

Just like the WPPI road show, I walked away seeing so much great stuff, but out of the over hundred poses he demonstrated, only 5 – 10 will I remember. So, I opted this time to pick up some of his instructional DVDs.

His next workshop will be in Los Angeles on June 26th and I strongly recommend it to anyone in the Southern California area. Doug is a great educator and an extremely nice (and funny!) guy. Visit his site at: Doug Gordon Workshops for more information.

My first tip is related to hiring a makeup artist for your wedding day. I asked Stephanie Mazzeo, a fantastic Central Florida makeup artist for some of her thoughts about whether to do your own makeup or to hire a professional.

Here are some of her thoughts on this topic:

Your wedding is probably going to be one of the most important days when you will be surrounded by family and friends and will have more photos taken of you than any other time (unless of course you happen to be a model or celebrity.)

It is crucial that your wedding day makeup is perfect for your photographs. You don’t ever want to assume that your everyday makeup look, perhaps applied a little heavier is suitable for the camera. I can’t stress enough how important it is to find a Makeup Artist skilled in bridal makeup and experienced in creating a long lasting application that appears flawless in person and on camera.

Narrowing down the list of suitable makeup artists is going to require a bit of research and a whole lot of trust on your part. Begin by asking your married friends and take a peek at their wedding albums. Look at their makeup in the photos during the ceremony and at the end of the night. Did it hold true? Is it still as flawless at the end of the wedding night as it was in any pre-ceremony photos?

Courtesy of Stephanie Mazzeo - Photograph by Brian Morey

Try asking your photographer for referrals. Many times they’ve encountered makeup artists while filming their clients and perhaps can provide you with a name or two.
When you’ve found an artist with whom you think you would like to hire, ask for her/his credentials. View their portfolio and be sure their makeup style matches the look you want. Request a list of past bridal client references to contact. Ask questions and feel out the artist. You should feel comfortable with the her/him and not settling on the one with the lowest price.

Next, schedule a pre-wedding consultation or trial run. Most of the professional artists will charge for the consultation, so be prepared to pay. Bring along magazine pages of makeup looks you like as this provides the artist with an indication of your style and desired look. Try to wear a white or off-white top/dress to mimic your wedding day attire. This will provide you with a better indication of the overall look. If you can, schedule your hair trial at the same time so you have a complete image.

Once you and your makeup artist have decided on a look and you are happy with the results, be sure to sign an agreement or contract specifically detailing price, services, location, time of arrival and completion. Many artists require some sort of payment to hold your wedding date. You want to be sure all the terms are in writing and leave nothing to chance. Include any other bridesmaids, mothers or others who may wish to have their makeup done as well.

Be sure to schedule accordingly with your hair stylist so she and the makeup artist are able to work together to keep the day flowing smoothly. With all this said and done, all you are left to do is get dressed and walk down the aisle looking Red-Carpet FABULOUS!

Stephanie Mazzeo – Makeup Artist
www.stephaniejmazzeo.com

Their Orlando wedding is almost a year away and many of the details for their day are already planned. Although many men step back and let their fiancée plan the wedding, that’s not the case with this couple. Glenn is as much involved in the planning as Denise, even as much as creating his own account and participating in discussions on the wedding message boards.

We chose to do their engagement session in Celebration, Florida because of all of the fun features in the downtown area, including an unexpected visit from an alligator (ah – the fun things Florida has to offer). It’s such a beautiful town and one of my favorite places to spend a Sunday while walking my dogs. I have photographed several weddings in Celebration before (including the Bohemian Hotel Celebration), however this was the first time I have done an engagement session there.

Glenn and Denise participated in one of my premier engagement sessions. Premier engagement sessions offer more than conventional engagement sessions, and it allows for travelling to different locations. It also gives a chance for the couple to change in to several different outfits. For this session, I met the couple in the late afternoon and we were taking photographs long after the sun had set.

In talking to Glenn and Denise beforehand, we were discussing ideas for the photo session, and I had asked if they were willing to possibly jump in to the fountain. They were excited about that idea and even had some of their own. I do think the water was a couple degrees colder than they were bargaining for though.

I hope you enjoy these photos and I’m looking forward to their wedding next year!

It is a great way to enjoy and share images from your special day.

I put together this slideshow for Maria and Blake’s wedding last year.

Photographs were taken at:
· Hilton Bonnet Creek
· The grounds of Waldorf Astoria Orlando
· First Baptist Church of Orlando – Marie Williams Chapel
· Cypress Grove Park

The music is Valentine by Cary Judd.

I hope you enjoy!

I was asked by one of my assistant photographers to photograph her sister-in-law’s wedding and I was happy to help out considering all of the great work she has been able to contribute to DSWfoto over the years.

Mary and Eugene’s wedding took place at the Lake Mary Events Center in downtown Lake Mary, Florida. The downtown area was recently redeveloped and this beautiful new facility was a great addition. The outdoor ceremony was held on the event lawn while the sun set over Crystal Lake. The reception was held in the rotunda room.

Since it was a December wedding, there were several hints of the holidays. The outdoor trellises were decked out in Christmas greens and red carnations. The gorgeous wedding cake looked like a pile of gifts ready to open with ribbons and sugar poinsettias attached. There was also a cookie table, which is a tradition of the groom’s family.

Thank you Mary and Eugene for including me in your day and best wishes!