2010 Weddings - Updates

Happy New Year everyone!!

As we close out 2009 - I thought now would be a good time to talk about 2010. Specifically weddings for 2010 - we are always planning ahead!

Brandi and I have made the decision to book a limited number of weddings next year (starting tomorrow --- wow can't believe 2010 is here already). We thought long and hard on how many we wanted to offer to still be able to grow our business and balance our personal lives. We want to make sure we give every Bride and Groom ample time to meet with us and also give us ample time to go through those thousands of pictures we take each wedding and present them in a reasonable amount of time. Basically we don't want it to take 12 weeks for you to get your pictures back ---- we hate waiting and we know you do too.

We also want to make sure we are giving our other non wedding clients their equal time too. We will be launching our new studio shortly and hope to have it filled through the winter and into next summer. So by capping our weddings at a reasonable number we can focus on our other clients too. Again, we don't want our Studio customers to wait 12 weeks for their prints either.

Finally we are deciding to limit the numbers so we can have a sort of life. We absolutely love what we do. We love meeting new people and capturing memories that will last a lifetime, but we also want to make our own memories too. The reason we live in Maine is because we Love Summers in Maine - not only for wedding season, but for everything that Maine has to offer.
So yes, that seems like a long rant - but I wanted to make sure everyone knew why we were capping our weddings this year.

So lets get down to numbers --- We are going to cap our weddings at 10. That's right - the number is out there. That's a little less then 2 weddings a month. We are also quickly reaching that number, so I would urge everyone reading this to contact us right away. I have updated the calendar on the website to show all of our commitments for 2010 so far. If your date is available on the calendar - WRITE TO US! If you let us know you are interested then we will tentatively reserve your date. What this mean is - if another Bride contacts us for your date, we will let you know right away so you can make a decision. When it comes down to it, the deposit actually saves your date - get the deposit in early and reserve your date --- very easy!

Now, back to the 10 --- this number is not set in stone. Please always check with us to see if we are still reserving dates. If your wedding just falls right and we don't have anything that month we can probably take you on --- of course if you are getting married in a FANTASTIC location and you would like us to be there ---- we would defiantly go over that number too. As always we are VERY flexible. Contact us --- let's see what we can do for you.

I couldn't have a post with out a picture ---- I have been updating the website a little and I changed our About Us picture, so I thought I would post it here.

That's Jonah - He really is a happy dog!

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New England Weddings

We just finished up wedding season 2009 and we had a great one. We met so many new couples in 2009 and we are so looking forward to 2010 with many more couples.

Brandi and I have made a decision for 2010 - We are looking for couples who are outside the state of Maine. That's right - Bring on the New England Weddings!

Yes, we will be hoping in the Truck and traveling to you to photograph your wedding!!

The catch to this is we will not be able to photograph your out of state wedding for our flat fee. We would have to create a customized quote for you, but I want to tell you exactly what that quote will be.

In The State of Maine -

So first off - if you live outside the 60 mile range of Bucksport, there will be a small fee for travel. The price of gas is not going down, so in order for us to continue to travel, we will need to increase the price slightly outside that 60 Mile range.

If your wedding is in southern Maine - Portland, Rumford, Wells, Kennebunk, York etc. We may require one night stay in a local hotel. This is all depending on the time the ceremony and reception ends. The bonus for this is, if we have made the decision in advance that an overnight stay is needed, then we will wave the fee for any additional hours to cover the reception. So your 6 hour wedding coverage, may just turn into 8 hours --- at no extra cost to you. And - since we wouldn't stay in an extravagant hotel - that extra coverage that we add, will off set the cost of the hotel! Win Win! (more on the hotel in a sec.)

Outside the State of Maine -

If your wedding is outside the state of Maine, we would still love to give you a quote.

Let's break down what the quote will be.

$700 - Covers the wedding package

(6 Hours of Coverage, 2 Photographers, $200 Album Credit, Online Gallery, and Digital Negatives)

$200 - Covers gas to the wedding, and then back to Bucksport

$100 - Covers Food for Brandi and I

This is just an Estimate: $200 for Hotel Stay.

Hotel Stays: First off, we don't need to stay in an extravagant Hotel, but we will pick our own hotel and make our own reservations. We will tell you in advance what the cost of the hotel will be. We try to stay in either a Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, someplace like that. If your wedding guest and party are staying in a hotel together and you get a group rate, we would be happy to look into that hotel as well, but we reserve the right to choose our own location.

Length of time in a Hotel: Depending on the start of photography and the location of your wedding we may stay 2 nights. So we would arrive the day before your wedding, photograph your wedding the next day, then leave the following day - 2 nights in a hotel. The bonus for you - if we stay 2 nights, that means we will have time on the first day to attend the rehearsal with you, and photograph the dinner or rehearsal for you - at no extra cost. Then since we will be there all day the next day, that leaves us unlimited time to photograph you - so you may get 10 hours for the 6 hour price. Pretty good deal huh?

As I mentioned before we will reserve our room - use our credit card and pay for the room. We prefer to keep the accommodations up to us.

So lets get back to the total ---- $1200 for the cost of a New England Wedding.

Check around - see what the average cost of wedding photography is. I bet we are below.

Again - these are all hypothetical numbers. Please don't assume that all New England Weddings are going to cost $1200. We will always take into account the distance to travel, the amount of time shooting and the bonuses we give when figuring out our personal quote.

Overall, I feel you will be getting an excellent deal.

Please contact us to set up your personal quote. We are looking forward to meeting with you.

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Christmas Ornaments

This post is inspired by my new favorite Obsessions - Justin & Mary. They just posted a contest about favorite ornaments for Christmas. In keeping with that theme, I wanted to share with everyone MY favorite ornaments.

If you follow the blog - it should be no surprise that my ornaments are from the University of Maine - Brandi and my Alma Mata.

Also check out my obsession with UMO with the rocking engagement session we did a few months back!

They started releasing them every year. And of course I couldn't resist collecting them.


These are really the only "different" ornaments we have on our tree. When Brand and I first started dating, and we had our first Christmas together --- we didn't have anything for ornaments. So we had to start from scratch. Our first Christmas tree was very "hotel lobby" with the perfect glass balls and everything matching. Well we needed to add in something that was a little more personal. So that's where the ornaments came in!

Every year they donate some of the proceeds from the sale to a UMO organization - usually to help fund raise for an event! All of them are worthy causes.

LOVE this one - I think its my favorite.

The arena has a special place for me too - Growing up, my brother was on the local high school hockey team, and since we didn't have an arena in Millinocket we always had to travel. I had some good time watching games and traveling all over the state with my family and my favorite arena was Alfond. That's also how I got into photography --- photographing hockey games at that very arena.

What ornaments are special to you?

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Christmas Cards!

It's never too late for a Christmas Blog.

I wanted to share with everyone our Christmas Cards this year. We had the wonderful and talented Kari Cross take our photos this year and we couldn't have been happier!!

We paired them with a snappy card template and we were in business.

Take a look - hopefully they inspire you to visit us in the studio next fall!

Absolutely in love with the tri-fold design - Love Love Love it.

It was so versatile to work with, we could use a lot of great picture, and with the tri-fold there was the potential to add more pictures. I love the spread on the inside. It reminds me of designing a wedding album!

Pretty cool huh? (this also gave me the opportunity to practice my product photography)

Finally a shameless plug for the studio!

Hope you enjoyed out Christmas Cards this year. We are finally wrapping up everything - literally and figuratively. We finished all our holiday shopping today and we are wrapping presents and getting ready to wrap up the year and welcome in 2010. Looking forward to all the weddings we have booked already for 2010 and all the new clients we will meet!!

Hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday season - be safe and come see us soon!!

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Cutie Shootie: Studio

This is a two fold blog post.

First - I wanted to share with everyone the fantastic opportunity I had to photograph such a cutie! This little munchkin has a photographer mom - you have heard me mention her before - Kari J Cross Photography.

I am not blessed with any willing posers....except the dog - so I recruited this little one to do some poses for me.

Love that little smile - again, what a cutie!

And now we are being sassy in the Christmas dress. LOVE IT!

Be still my heart.

And we have more sass! How can you resist it?

We haven't seen the pink umbrella for a while, so I dug it back out. I know pink and red, more Valentine's day and less Christmas....but it's what I had to work with!

Even Minnie came!

Ok, so I told you this was a two fold blog - my second part is to let everyone know that the studio is open. I can offer you studio photography. I have a space in my own office/home/space. Its large enough to accommodate 1-2 children, and have full body shots. We can do family shots as well, but it will be mostly head and shoulder. Another option that I have is we can bring the studio to you. All of our backgrounds and lighting are 100% portable. That's why I bought them. Which means I can bring everything to you!

Help me fill up my Studio!

I am working on special pricing and promotions for the Studio. Check back often.

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Getting into the Holiday Spirit

I love this commercial --- all versions of it. I wish they still played it!

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A very Doggie Christmas: Studio

Wow, remember how i said that i was behind on my posting - I can't believe I haven't posted this one yet.

My cousin came down with her two dogs - my dog cousins. We did a Christmas Card photo shoot. How cute are they?

Apparently they practiced the whole night before to sit in the sled.
This is Mabel and Diesel. Mabel is the French Bulldog and Diesel is the Pug.

Mabel was a little excited to be in the studio. Diesel is an old pro at the Christmas Card photos so he just sat there like this was an every day occurrence.

Look at that handsome guy!

She was getting the hang of it.

Cute Cute Cute

What a great session, it was different to photograph something other then people.... LOVE IT!

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Very Late Post: Bridal Show at Morgan Hill

Ok, I was so busy catching up the last couple of months with weddings a family shoots that I just haven't had the time to post about some personal things.

If you followed us on the Blog and Facebook, then you know that we participated in the third annual bridal show at Morgan Hill Event Center.

Well we had a blast and met so many great people. Our good friend Kari of Kari J Cross Photography stopped by and took some photos of our booth and us.

Take a look.

We tried something completely new this time. Last time we did the traditional booth - table in the front, us in the back. This time we wanted to be out front mingling.

Here is our own individual door prize - this was Brandi's idea and it was a big hit!

Here we are between our two brand new giant photo canvas prints ----- LOVE THEM!

Again, we had such a great time at the show, we met so many nice brides and hopefully we can get the chance to work with many of them in 2010. We still have spots available, but they are filling up fast! Give us a call today. Also - if you attended the show and met with us, you can still get the show special. If you were there, you know what it was....if you weren't there.....you should of been!!!

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