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We sometimes joke that we would like to invite strangers to dinner, just to get our children to behave through the whole meal.

It amazes people to find out that my kids don’t always cooperate for photographs. It’s true, they don’t. It’s because they know us.

We don’t scare them.

As clients will attest, I have plenty of patience with children, waiting for them to be ready for photographs.

But photographers’ children are different. They *know* the tricks. Don’t let this image fool you. As we tried to get our soon-to-be 5 year old and soon-to-be 3 year old to stand still, while looking at the camera, they worked just as hard to wiggle and squirm away from us. When we asked for a smile, we got a grimace, when we asked for a pose, we got action.

We are scheduling a reshoot.

And this time, I’m bringing bribes.

Or a stranger.

I absolutely love to have clients that come back year after year. Working with a family, seeing their children grow, is so fun for me because they feel like more than clients. They feel like friends. Katie and Brett are a perfect example. I have been photographing Sam since he was a baby. Plus, I love that we can get together and chat like old friends.

These photographs will show you that Sam is going to be a little heart-breaker! And check out Sam’s shoes! Katie did an awesome job coordinating her family. The black, gray, and red were perfect together, with the red adding just the right amount of accent.  And again, check out those red shoes!

 

Kera and Dan’s big day is quickly approaching! For their engagement session in August, we headed to downtown Madison.

For most of their session, the weather was great. There was one small bump, though. I have to admit, I have never had to find shelter and wait out a freak rain storm in the middle of a session before. However, that is what happened to us that day. Kera and Dan were wonderful about the “delay” and the rain stopped just in time for some sunset images by the lake, complete with a rainbow in the background! I think that means good luck with their marriage.

Here are some images from their engagement session.

Yes, you can pull off having the family wear pink for your portrait session. Okay, Dad doesn’t have to (he can wear something in an earth tone to coordinate with the khaki shorts), but pink is definitely a color that even teenage boys are wearing this season.

Sarah and RJ had a beautiful day for their wedding. All the little extra touches made it memorable, like the family pin Sarah wore on her dress and the union chairs on their cake. Bucky Badger from UW Madison made an appearance and really livened up the dance floor with his dance moves!

Amanda and Jon’s wedding took place in the Wisconsin Dells. The location is great for families that are traveling to the wedding destination. It’s like a vacation built right into the weekend!

You have your Pinterest account and you are following tons of people and accounts. How is that working?

Are you loving the ideas? Are they too much? Are you going to use any of them? Do you have this unstoppable desire to try to use them all?

So many ideas can become overwhelming. You need to know when to look at the pretty pictures and when to stop looking and start doing. No wedding will plan itself just by looking at the bridal eye-candy. These boards from our last post are meant for inspiration, but it’s up to you to actually plan the wedding and follow through on all the details.

Remember that a couple of great ideas are all that you need to make your wedding fabulous.

You don’t need to stress yourself out with trying to do everything that you see on blogs and Pinterest for your one day. Pick a couple that you feel are really fun or that would add special meaning on the day.

Then, forget the rest.

You want to be able to enjoy your family and friends on your wedding day, not stressing over the fact that you didn’t finish your 64 DIY projects. Plus, some of the fun blog posts you see on wedding boards and sites are not even from real weddings, but from stylized photo shoots that were set-up just to show off cute ideas. The blogs know that you can’t do everything on one day, so don’t measure your real wedding by their pretend ones.

If you are looking for ways to use Pinterest better with your wedding planning, read this from mashable.com: How to Avoid Pinterest Wedding Angst

How do you use Pinterest? Is more better or can you have too much of a good thing? When do you draw the line in looking for new ideas?