Vendor Spotlight: Kristen Joy Photography
Name: Kristen Joy
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Company Name: Kristen Joy Photography
Number of Years in Business: 4 years
Website: www.kristenjoyphoto.com
Blog: www.kristenjoyphotoblog.com
How did you get started in photography? I started in high school when my Mom bought me a nice camera for a birthday, I didn’t put it down. I was blessed to meet an amazing photographer named David Burke in Pittsburgh, who took me under his wing and taught me everything I know. If I had not met Dave I would still be taking pictures, but without direction.
What did you do prior to this? I got paid the big bucks being a stay at home Mommy.
If you didn’t do photography for a living what would you be doing instead? I would be sliding down slides and running laps at the park with my two beautiful children.
What are some of your hobbies? I love being outside hiking, running, playing sports. I have a great time playing around with my kids, they think of the fun stuff and I get to play along.
What is the craziest wedding experience you’ve ever had? The craziest wedding I have experienced was one last August. In the beginning the group seemed very calm and far from wild, at the end of the night all the men in the room were in the boxers wearing their ties around their heads chanting some college mantra, I didn’t know whether to close my eyes or keep photographing… I kept photographing of course.
What is the best wedding experience you’ve ever had? The best wedding I have experienced was my twin sister Kim’s wedding, I took a few getting ready shots of her, but after that I was in the wedding. It was perfect and meant more then anything for me to be there.
What is your inspiration? Having been able to travel a lot with my family and see the world has really inspired me. Its one thing to see pictures in a magazine and its another to experience it.
Name an exotic location you’d like to visit soon. Greece, my parents just went there for their wedding anniversary, I edited all 2000 photos that my Mom took there, now I want to go there and experience it too.
Why do your clients choose you over some of your competitors? A majority of my clients choose me because we get along so good, they like my style of photography, but a lot of it comes down to our personalities matching more then anything else.
What is the best piece of advice you can offer a bride and groom on their wedding day? Always have enough time during the wedding day to take photos of just the two of you. Its a great time to relax and be alone and you will be pleased in the end with more options and great photos.
Anything else interesting you’d like to share? I’ve been blessed to photograph so many beautiful weddings and people. Thank you Juliet for your hard work and beautiful blog for not just brides and grooms but photographers too.
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website * Email: juliet@greenorchidevents.com
Vendor Spotlight: Steve Fogarty of Fogarty Weddings
Name: Steven Fogarty
Location: Las Vegas, NV and Park City, Utah
Company Name: FogartyWeddings
Number of Years in Business: 3 as a wedding photographer
Website: www.FogartyWeddings.com
Blog: www.Facebook.com/FogartyFOTO
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/FogartyFOTO
How did you get started in wedding photography?
After a successful career in computers and email, I decided to learn from the masters how they make such gorgeous photos. Since then I’ve studied with some of the most amazing photographers alive, including: Joe McNally and Matthew Jordan Smith and Denis Reggie, the father of wedding photojournalism. They’ve all influenced my style tremendously.
What did you do prior to this?
For the U.S Congress in Washington, DC, I designed and managed the LAN email system that replaced their 20 year-old mainframe email system. I then accepted a position with Novell / WordPerfect, which brought me to Utah. With 3 friends I co-founded an Internet email business, that we sold in 1999. We just moved to Vegas a couple of weeks ago.
If you didn’t do photography for a living what would you be doing instead?
I’m kind of a history geek. One of my great pleasures is listening to educational tapes on very long drives and discussing history with friends. I would love to teach history.
What are some of your hobbies?
I love to snowboard really fast and steep with my peers, and to ski with my children. Scuba diving is the easiest way to leave the planet. And I love to read, mostly geeky history and policy stuff. I love wrestling with my 4 boys.
What is the craziest wedding experience you’ve ever had?
It was snowing really hard the morning of Courtney’s wedding in Aspen. She was distraught, tearfully wondering why her mountain-top wedding was to be ruined. We reminded her that these morning mountain storms are often very short and pass quickly. The clouds broke, her wedding was full of sunshine. Everyone was happy (and very relieved!) Her photos are gorgeous!
What is the best wedding experience you’ve ever had?
I loved photographing Rachael & Evan’s simple Salt Lake City wedding just before he shipped off for a one year tour of duty in Afghanistan. He is the crew chief on an Apache helicopter. Photographing Nicole & Travis at the Paiute Golf Resort was such a blast because Nicole didn’t stop smiling the whole day – it was clearly one of the happiest days of her life. And photographing Jane and Seth at Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah was absolutely gorgeous on that stunning fall mountain day. Russians know how to party!
What is your inspiration?
While it sounds corny, I honestly believe that wedding photography is the most important, the most challenging, and the most rewarding photography I do. I am very grateful that in my work I am able to create things of such beauty that are so timelessly valuable to my brides.
Name an exotic location you’d like to visit soon.
I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around the world more than once. Of the 17 countries I have visited, I still remember India for its rich, ancient culture, incredible cuisine, and extraordinary contrasts, like the 3 men walking arm-in-arm down the street, one shirtless and dressed in a traditional dhoti, one dressed in a western business suit, and the third wearing a fusion of the two. Emerging wealth juxtaposed next to striking poverty amid ancient culture, and sensory overload. I would love to return to India with my family.
Why do your clients choose you over some of your competitors?
My clients want strikingly beautiful portraits to hang on their walls, plus lots of discreet photojournalism (PJ) of the day’s real moments, informal photos that will bring back a flood of warm memories with every look. They want a photographer who records the party, without becoming the party. They want the kind of amazing portraits that few photographers can make and are Can’t-Look-Away-GAWJUS. They want traditional portraits of the wedding party. And they want lots of quiet real-moment PJ – the photos I consider the most important of the day.
What is the best piece of advice you can offer a bride and groom on their wedding day?
Don’t worry about the photography! Forget all of your cares for that one day, let the love and attention of everyone who has come so far to wish you well just sink in.
Anything else interesting you’d like to share?
Thank you Juliet for giving me and my family such a warm welcome to Las Vegas!
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website * Email: juliet@greenorchidevents.com
Complete Wedding Book
Yesterday, we did a spotlight on the talented Natasha and Chris from Complete Wedding Book. Today, they will explain in their own words their wonderful product and service they offer. I still don’t believe this will do it justice. Their books are a must see IN PERSON!
Chris and I photograph, write and layout all of the content for each of our client’s books. Because each couple has its own extraordinary story and each wedding is also extraordinary, all the work we do is completely custom. We don’t use any templates. And, we don’t have any formulas. We really mean it when we say to our clients, “The sky is the limit!” Our books average between 98-110 pages, and include anywhere from 125-200 photographs. Books are available in a variety of dimensions, but since we shoot full frame, we rarely make a book smaller than 10×10. All of our books are printed on UV coated paper that will stand the test time.
Recently, we bound a book for a husband and wife who show world champion cutting horses, so we had the binding hand tooled in their favorite pattern by a saddler and we commissioned a silversmith to hand forge a decorated sterling silver heart. And, in July we had a client who wanted their book bound in platinum goat skin complete with a layer of 6 inches of fringe, cut from the same leather! Currently, we have a book in the works that will feature one of wedding calligrapher Laura Hooper’s dazzling maps.
Whether a client selects a photo wrap binding or a custom goat leather binding, or something else entirely different, we’ve designed our books to be heirlooms–to be read often and cherished even when read over and over again. It’s a challenge to describe our books because they really are so different from traditional wedding albums.
In addition to the three books each client receives, we always provide a disc of high resolution images and our clients also have the option to order fine art and additional prints and books from us at their convenience.
Suzi Lighten of TSL Photography
Learn about the lovely young lady behind TSL Photography.  I love this video of Suzi Lighten created by her husband Terrence Lighten of Lighten Films.
Promo for TSL Photography from Terrence Lighten on Vimeo.
The Importance of Hiring a Professional Photographer and Videographer
This couple made it on the news and was one of Yahoo’s top stories today. It was a sad story of many missed moments from their wedding day from an incompetent photographer and videographer. The bride and groom eventually sued and won the case however I’m sure they still feel like they’ve lost.
Check out the story here.
Images for a Cure – Support Breast Cancer Research
Images for a Cure is a wonderful fundraising event created by Orlando based photographer Kristen Weaver and a team of other photographers. They have joined forces with The Breast Cancer Research Foundation® and participating photographers will contribute 100% of all session fees from October 11, 2009 in support of breast cancer research.
Some additional information pulled off of their website:
Want to be a participating photographer?
We’re still working on the online form that you can fill out,
but for right now – just shoot an email to kristen@kristenweaver.com and we’ll send you all the information you need to sign up!To schedule a session with a participating photographer,
please visit our “Find a Photographer” page for a photographer in your town.
Don’t see someone? Send them an email and encourage them to participate.Not a Photographer and still want to participate?
We’re offering some awesome sponsorships for vendors, bloggers and other fantastic professionals who want to contribute. There are different packages available, and 100% of your contribution will go directly to the BCRF. To sponsor our efforts, please send an email to kristen@kristenweaver.com for more information.
I urge all of my local photographer friends to consider participating in this great cause! As of right now, there is only one photographer in Las Vegas supporting this fabulous effort! Let’s show them what Las Vegas has to offer and make our city proud!
Los Angeles Couple Kristine and Aeden to wed in Las Vegas!
Kristine and Aeden will tie the knot this weekend in an intimate ceremony and we’re all looking forward to their great welcome cocktail reception and dinner!
Kristine was a referral from the wonderful Tracey Kumer-Moore of Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge who couldn’t take this wedding because of prior commitments. Thank you Tracey!
Anyway, Kristine is in the event industry herself as a Senior Event Manager for Marriott International in Los Angeles and wanted to hire a wedding day coordinator so she could just relax this weekend and not feel like she’s working! Kristine, I’ll make sure we take good care of you!
Photos by Adam Trujillo of Imagine Photography.
To see more photos from Kristine and Aeden’s engagement session, head over to Adam’s blog!
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My New Headshots by Chelsea Nicole
I was long overdue for professional head shots for my website. The only professional photos I had were bridal photos that I did for fun with my friend Candace Simpson from Elegant Images or photos as a singer in full stage makeup and costume – neither of which are appropriate for a wedding planner’s website and blog.  After talking to Liene Stevens of Splendid Communications during a recent Blogging Bootcamp seminar, I scheduled my photo session with Chelsea Nicole!
The photos are ready so check out her blog! I’ll be blogging about my photos once I see the rest of them and pick out my personal favorites!
You Are Cordially Invited to the “Girls Night Out” Fundraising Event by Digs
The lovely ladies at Digs Studio, Jeniffer and Rhiannon, have planned a fundraiser to benefit our local troops in Iraq! Contact Digs for more information. I hope to see you there!
Location: Digs a studio of photography
231 West Charleston Blvd, Suite 130
Las Vegas, NV 89102 US
When: Friday, August 14, 6:30PM to 9:30PM
Phone: 702.651.6000
Digs studio invites you to enjoy an evening out with the girls with shopping, food and fun. The first 50 ladies will receive gift bags donated by some of our favorite local vendors. Help us raise funds for our local troops in Iraq with the purchase of raffle tickets. Some of the fabulous raffle prizes include: a custom portrait session with photographer Jeniffer LaRocca; a luxurious massage with Hara, massage studio; a Love Story (a short film created for you about your loved one) by Film Maker Jason Roberts and many others. Meet some of our favorite vendors, enjoy a fashion show and mingle with friends new and old.
All ladies that book their own Girls Night Out or Portrait Session with Digs Studio, at the night of the event, will receive a $50 Studio Print Credit.
Bring a care package item for a soldier and receive one raffle ticket FREE!
Girls Night Out from Digs Studio- Jason Roberts on Vimeo.
Love this beautiful bridal photo!
I saw this beautiful photo on my friend and talented photographer Chelsea Nicole’s blog and had to feature it on my blog too! Here is what she had to say about capturing this moment.
“Prior to the ceremony the wedding day is often a wonderful, chaotic frenzy, filled with slipping into the dress and any last minute final touches. But in the midst of all the hustle and bustle leading up to the ceremony, there are moments when time seems to slow down, if only for a minute, and it allows everything to be taken in. That is the significance behind this image. This photo was taken in the bridal salon just minutes before Daniela was about to walk down the aisle and greet her smiling husband-to-be. Her mom and bridesmaids were busy fastening up her dress. But there was a moment where everything stopped — and Daniela had this beautiful pensiveness about her, and I just had to capture it.”
