Author: Becky

Engagement Session at a Park

by Becky

Marissa and Adam did their engagement session at Bever Park. This was a good location because they wanted a mix of manicured and natural settings and to be able to include their dog in some shots. As one of the oldest parks in Cedar Rapids, there are a lot of great features there. Not only is there open grasses and large, old oaks, but there is also old stonework and a brick road that goes through the park. These make great places for taking photographs.

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Marissa and Adam used their favorite images from the session for the guest book I designed. This will allow them to share engagement photographs with wedding guests on the wedding day. Guests love to flip through the book, browsing at the images and looking for the perfect place to sign their names. It’s a better alternative to the old-school “sign on the line” sort of guest books because they’ll want to look at it again and again after the wedding.

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Wedding On The Lake | Dana & Pat

by Becky

As Dana and Pat planned their wedding, there were several things that were very important to them. One was having a ceremony and reception on the lake. Another was having a fun, live band to play during the reception.

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Both of those elements made their wedding day remarkably fabulous–and certainly more expressive to their individual style than a cookie-cutter approach would have allowed.

With the reception taking place at the Elk’s Lodge, which sits right on Lake Monona and only blocks from downtown, Dana and Pat wanted to arrive to their party by pontoon boat. To make the trip, it made perfect sense to also have a wedding ceremony right on the lake.

As any bride and groom looking for outdoor wedding locations in Madison knows, the city parks fill fast. Such was the case for Dana and Pat. Their first choice had been Olin Park, located on the other end of downtown, also on Lake Monona. With it already being booked, they started looking for other options. The perfect solution came when Pat’s father offered to host the ceremony in his backyard. His home, in the city of Monona, sits on the other side of Lake Monona from downtown. This was a gorgeous location that offered access to the water for the boats and had the added bonus of being personal to the family.

You can see more of their wedding on the blog: a behind-the-sccenes peek and about their 1,000 origami cranes.

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Having a great party is probably every wedding couple’s goal. And the dance at the reception is a large part of that party. There is an level of energy that a live band can create at a wedding reception that a DJ is just not able to produce. At Dana and Pat’s wedding, the local cover band Blue Light Scene was amazing! They sounded great, covered a wide array of music and kept the crowd on the dance floor.

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It was a fun day and I’m sure it was memorable for all the guests, from the beginning to the end!

Cool Place for a Bridal Show: West End Architectural Salvage

by Becky

Last week, we were at the Preferred Vintage Bridal Show at the vintage-trendy West End Architecture Salvage in downtown Des Moines, IA.

We currently watch a lot of HGTV shows about house remodeling. The kids’ favorite is Property Brothers, but the one we all love is Fixer Upper. We’ve watched enough that we can usually guess which house the people will be buying and what updates Chip and Joanna will be making. (If you’ve seen the show, you know she loves to open up walls and to use shiplap and subway tiles, among other things!)

Bridal wedding show at Des Monies HGTV West End Architectural Salvage

Now, we have a new show to watch. West End Architecture Salvage
is home of the West End Salvage show on HGTV. We didn’t even know this show existed before becoming a part of the bridal show, but it looks like it will be making it onto our favorites list!

The store looks like a cross between an antique store and a garage sale. There are four floors of cool, random, old things, many of which will make you say, “Oh, I remember this!!” or “I have no idea what this even was!” For this show, they will transform a room of someone’s house, using old, interesting pieces from their store and ones their “pickers” find for them. You can check out show information here.

The bridal show had the wedding vendors spaced out among the first two floors, using the furniture as backdrops for the booth spaces. With “vintage” being a chic style for today’s brides, the vibe was perfect for the show.

We had a lot of fun doing the bridal show, and we loved combing through the four floors of salvaged finds. We can’t wait to go back!

Summer Garden Wedding

by Becky

The idea of having an early June garden wedding brings to mind the most picturesque vision of what a wedding should be. Casual and relaxed, while still being a little formal and traditional. You get the benefit of colorful flowers so you don’t need to worry about extra bouquets and decorating.  And everyone gets to enjoy the beautiful setting, not being stuck inside a dark hotel ballroom.

Caitlin and Josh had such a wedding, both comfortable and elegant. The ceremony and the reception were held at Olbrich Garden in Madison. The Rose Garden has a large, open grassy area that holds little, white chairs and the brick path as an aisle that allows for a processional to the rose arbor. Caitlin and Josh walked down that brick aisle together, a perfect sentiment to how they were starting their new life together, united as equals in marriage.

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They attended to the details beforehand so they could just enjoy their wedding day, keeping everything very low-key and personal. For example, they forwent cake and served their wedding guests pie, including Josh’s favorite Key Lime. Everything was exactly how they wanted it.

Wedding Highlights and Album for Ashely & Joe

by Becky

Since the wedding day flies by so fast, I think it’s wonderful that a couple will have a beautiful album to share and remember the important moments of their wedding. Ashley and Joe’s album is stunning! And all the images they chose to go in it represent the exciting, touching, sweet and meaningful memories of the day. Read more about their wedding here. And their Real Wedding feature here.

Here is their wedding album. We did a 12×12 album, all custom designed, including custom cover with their favorite images. Inside pages were designed with colors and details that accented the wedding theme and the images Ashely and Joe chose to showcase in their wedding album.

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And here are some special moments and people from their wedding day that were included in the album:

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Ashley & Joe’s Engagement and Wedding Guide Feature

by Becky

We love working with sweet wedding couples, and Ashley and Joe certainly fall into that category. As you may remember, their wedding was chosen to be featured both in both the 2016 printed Corridor Wedding Guide book and on the Corridor Wedding Guide website. You can read all the details of their wedding over there.

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We have finished up with their wedding album and would love to share some highlights of their engagement session. We used the images from their session to design the Save The Date magnets that they sent out before the wedding. The next post will show off both some wedding highlights and their gorgeous album!

engagement wedding couple at lake on UW Madison campus

engagement couple photography session for save the dates

engagement session on UW Madison campus

Upcoming Bridal Show

by Becky
Our next bridal show will be the Preferred Vintage Bridal Show. MARK YOUR CALENDAR! April 3rd, 2016, noon-3:00pm at the vintage-trendy West End Architecture Salvage in Des Moines, IA.

wedding show bridal fair booth

Quick update: Unfortunately, we won’t be at the Madison bridal show in May due to a schedule conflict. (Which happens to be a major trip, and will hopefully have many beautiful photographs to show for it.)

Newsletters Have Been Sent

by Becky

image of photography newsletterThe latest newsletter has been sent out!

Haven’t received yours? Check with us to see if you’re on our mailing list.

Save $200 Now On Cheeky Booth Photo Booth Rentals!

We worked hard on updating the Cheeky Booth photo booth rental website. We wanted something new and fresh, and something that had a little more personality. We are pretty excited about the new design and really want to show it off. To celebrate the updated Cheeky Booth website, we are offering $200 off any new photo booth rental package. All you have to do is reserve your booth by March 23, 2016. Need more details about the booth? The new website will answer all the questions you have. Plus, some you didn’t even know you had yet.

Contact us for more details and get your booth today!

Cheeky Booth Reboot – Fresh Website For Photo Booth Rental

by Becky

Cheeky booth photo booth rental new website for iowa and wisconsinSpring is the perfect time for all things new and fresh. So, this was a great time to work on the new Cheeky Booth photo booth rental website. The timing was good because it’s right before the busy season of graduation parties and weddings starting in May.

The Cheeky Booth website update is finally done and ready to be paraded out for evphoto booth rental website for weddings and party in wisconsin and iowaeryone to see. We are thrilled with how it turned out and excited for everyone to be able to check it out!

To celebrate all the work that went into this, we are including a huge sale in the newsletter that is going out this week. Seriously, it’s HUGE. If you are thinking of having a booth at your next party, this is the time to reserve it! It will be a very limited time offer, so it’s not a decision that you should put off.

Not on the newsletter email list but want in on the sale? Just give us a call or email and we can hook you up.

In the meantime, go over to Cheeky Booth to see the new site and please let us know what you think.

**Updated with SALE info: Reserve your Cheeky Booth photo booth rental NOW to SAVE $200 off any booth package! Offer ends 3/23/16. ***

My Teenage Photography Assistant

by Becky

One of the presumptions of the self-employed small business owner is that they all have their kids work in the family business. When I get asked if I “put my kids to work,” I laugh because I couldn’t imagine my kids being helpful with my work. At. All. If you saw how they “help” around the house, you would know exactly what I mean.

Teen daughter working with mother photography assistant

The exception is my oldest daughter. At fifteen, she has been a primary babysitter for me for several years, caring for her three younger siblings when we are shooting weddings, portrait sessions and other work-related meetings.

On Saturday, she joined me in the role of an assistant. I usually shoot location portraits alone, hauling my own gear, doing my own set-up and tear-down. This adds work and a lot of time to an in-home session where I’m bringing lighting and backgrounds to use in the photographs. Having an extra set of hands on Saturday was amazing. I mean, seriously! A session that might take me two hours to do alone, I was able to get done in an hour with her help.

And while she doesn’t have aspirations of being a photographer herself, she loved seeing the cute kids I photographed, was happy to be paid with eating lunch out and generally enjoying hanging out with her mother for the day. I love that girl!