We have a Photographer!

I mentioned in the last post that during my productive Veteran's Day off this Wednesday, I also met with our wedding photographer! She is incredible and I am SO excited to have her be a part of our wedding day! I decided to go with Kelsey Thompson, who is based in Northern Virginia and I am obsessed with her style! We met at a Starbucks and ended up having so much fun talking that we stayed for over 2 hours! She is so easy going and sweet and very professional. Basically, I want her to be my friend.

Her website: http://www.kthompsonphotography.com/
Her blog: http://kthompsonphotography.blogspot.com/ (my new favorite site to stalk ;-)

Here are some pictures I pulled from her blog to give you a sense of her work and why I fell in love with it!

A Fall Afternoon

We took some of our own Engagement Photos this past Sunday, many thanks to our Maid of Honor, Sarah for helping us!

This one makes me happy...

Instant Gratification

This summer my sister and her husband had a wedding celebration in my parent's backyard and brought along with them a Polaroid camera to capture some memories they could look at on their flight back home to Kansas City. They came across one at a thrift store and decided to buy some film and see what came of it.

There is something just so hip and vintage about a Polaroid photograph. (Oooh grainy imperfect pictures with bad lighting is somehow romanticized when it is in that little 4 inch white framed square)

I was reading an article today about the history of Polaroid and I thought about making some searches for ideas to incorporate Polaroid into a fun wedding activity.

I had been thinking of some ideas about having a few Polaroid cameras for guests to play around with as opposed to having a photo booth (which I would kill to have at the reception, but know that it would be way too expensive).

Hmmm:

• Provide a few Polaroid cameras at a table and have guests use a silver marker, leaving their well wishes on the back of their mug shot, which we then collect in a nice wooden box
• Have a backdrop where guests can do their own photo shoots and include props and such for them to have fun with (you've probably seen the mustache phenomenon)
• Once guests take Polaroid photos, they can insert them into an instant photo album guest book

Style Me Pretty

This will not be the last you hear about this.... How fun would it be to think of some prop ideas? And pick out a fabric for a back drop? Ohhh I'm excited.

Rainy Day Wedding

Today I decided I wouldn't mind if it rains on my wedding day. (To make the love grow!) AJR once said that he had a vision of me in a white dress and kissing me in the rain (isn't he such a romantic? yeeaahhh... he probably doesn't even remember that. or at least he will try to pretend he forgot now that I posted it to the public! hahaha).

I have my heart set on an outdoor reception... and even if the Farmer's Almanac has unremitting warnings of thunderous precipitation for that entire weekend, I will still stand my ground and demand an outdoor wedding (One Stubborn Bride perhaps?)

I think that a rainy wedding day can actually turn out to be really nice, especially in warm weather. If anything, it will be something people remember! Now, for the sake of the guests (and my hair) I am hoping for sunny skies but if it does happen to rain, I think I could handle it. We could have an amazing photo shoot (oh no. I now see why I am fantasizing about a rainy wedding...) Can't you just imagine the dashing groom carrying his beautiful bride through the rain? Or the two of them jumping in puddles together all clad in wedding gear? Or a pair of nice galoshes with a wedding dress? (I promise I wouldn't break out my Duck boots on such a day)

Ah, what a perfect rainy wedding day

(classic bride)

Beautiful.

(Savannah Weddings)

Photography.

Oh... if there's anything I could become completely fanatical about, it would be photography.

I mean, it's just so... beautiful. I love everything about it... the different lighting, the shadows, photo editing, the click sound it makes when taking a picture, the ART of it, how it can completely change a perspective on a subject by capturing it in a different angle or light. *Le Sigh. I wish I could BE a photographer...

Anyway, enough about my love affair with photography... I think one of the things I am looking forward to the most about the wedding is getting the amazing pictures back afterward. No seriously, that is actually the thing I am looking forward to the most. (And having my friends and family witness the most important moment in my life, but besides that...)

I might actually use half of my wedding budget to afford the perfect photographer (er... floral arrangements? Who needs those!) Anyway, so I found a few really amazing photographers located in Virginia. I figured I'd save them for when I actually need to come back and look for some later. In fact, I know people who know people who have used some of these... so they MUST be good! :)

Also... another thought, engagement photo shoot or no?
Are they worth it? Because... it's so expensive and I'd like to just use that money to have a great photographer on the actual wedding day (did you get that memo?) Maybe I'll just force AJR to truck around with me and my tripod randomly over the next few months and let me embarrass him with my obsessive photo taking.

**That picture is of us just hanging out in the yard this past weekend. He's fun :) (taken by us with my tripod)

MY LIST:


Casey Templeton Wedding Photojournalism

Jodi Miller Photography

Patricia Lyons Photography

Open Air Photography

Wedding Photojournalist Association (this one is a list of photo-journalists in Virginia... probably too far out of my budget, but hey I can dream right?)