Ketubah Maven

When you’re planning your wedding, you want everything from your ring to the flowers to be unique and personal. As a photographer, I always prided myself in taking images and making custom albums for weddings that reflected the personalities and taste of each couple. On our site, The Wedding Picture, those are the kinds of photographers and vendors we love to promote and celebrate.

Recently, I ran across an artist who is a ketubah designer for her Jewish and interfaith clients. (A ketubah is a wedding contract whose history dates back to the second century) And I thought some of our visitors at The Wedding Picture would be interested in her services.

Her name is Leslie Pereira and she has a website called Ketubah Maven. A former social worker with a PHD, Leslie uses what she calls her “therapist skills” in active listening to help couples customize their own ketubot in words and images to capture the essence of their relationship. If you look at her website, you can see some samples of ketubot she has designed for her clients over the years.

Leslie and I were also talking about how couples can preserve their ketubah so they last for generations. Most couples like to frame their ketubah (and some of their wedding pictures, of course) and hang them in their home.

Always use archival matting and framing techniques to preserve your ketubah and wedding photos that you choose to display. For more information on preservation, read our article on our sister site, Will It Look Good Over The Sofa. And don't forget to read about archival framing and matting.

It’s always great to meet other creative people in the wedding industry.
Thanks Leslie!

Should you take proposal pictures?

People ask wedding photographers all the time to take engagement pictures. In fact, some photographers include it in their wedding package.

Great idea- everyone’s relaxed, you get great pictures, and the photographer and couple get pictures to send to relatives and the local newspaper for wedding announcements.

Engagement photos are also a great way for the photographer and the couple to see how they look photographed so adjustments could be made. For example, if the bride was wearing a lot of heavy eyeliner and it looked bad in the pictures, she knows she’d have to make adjustments with her wedding makeup. Or if the groom is a person who blinks a lot when a flash goes off, the photographer takes notes and knows that they will have to overshoot the groom to make sure there are enough good shots where he’s not blinking at the wedding. A win-win situation for everyone.

So recently I read about a new phenomenon called proposal shots in the New York Times. Generally, what happens is the groom is planning to propose to the bride. He hires a photographer to secretly take pictures of the proposal in the background. According to the article this was great because then the couple would have proposal pictures to send to their friends.

Now, when I heard about this I balked. I thought, jeez, isn’t anything private anymore? And when I asked other photographers and friends about this, there were mixed opinions. What I learned is that if you’re under 30, you love it! You’ve grown up with everything being photodocumented, you have a MySpace page and you make friends on FaceBook. You will definitely post your wedding pictures on a website for friends and family to see and the proposal, the engagement, the wedding, and even the Trash the Dress shots are part of what you’d want captured.

If you’re over 30, it’s a different story. You believe certain moments are personal and privacy is sacred. You would never want your proposal documented. And most likely you feel the same about having all of your pictures available for the whole world to see on a website. You still want an intimate album that captures the spirit of the day. One woman thought “it was kind of stalkerish.”

So what’s your opinion on proposal pictures?

Dream House Event

Hi Folks-
This was recently sent to me. I thought anyone in the NY area would be interested in this very cool event!!

Condé Nast Bridal Media is proud to announce DREAM HOUSE— the first-ever, tour-able show house for pre-engaged, engaged and newlywed couples designed to provide inspiration for their entry into this new lifestage. The house will display the best-in-bridal, beauty, fashion, fitness, registry and home, plus host events with the editors of Brides, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Brides.com, and Brides local magazines.

DREAM HOUSE will be open to the public for tours, classes, parties and spa treatments for four full weeks from October 18th – November 15th, 2007. A percentage of proceeds from ticket sales will benefit The I Do Foundation, an organization dedicated to linking engaged couples with charitable giving options for their wedding.

Tours of DREAM HOUSE will feature rooms designed for couples by top designers including Richard Mishaan of Homer, Cathy Hobbs of Apheria and Franck Hodelin, seen on The View. The house will feature the hottest home accessories from JCPenney, Noritake, Bloomingdales, Cuisinart, Pampered Chef, McGuire & Baker and more.

Couples will also have the opportunity to attend special seminars and one-time only events such as cocktail parties with industry insiders and home planning pros including the “Leonardo da Vinci of cakes,” Sylvia Weinstock, top celebrity lifestyle expert David Tutera, NY1’s Valarie D’Elia, celebrity wedding planning Sasha Souza, star hair stylist Mark Garrison and Mark Montano and Cat Wei, designers from the hit WE TV series “She's Moving In”.

“We have created an exciting month-long schedule of events at the Dream House for the bride, her fiancé and her family,” said CNBM Publisher Katherine Rizzuto. “We are thrilled to be able to showcase the best that CNBM and our advertisers have to offer for this lifestage, so come join us for manicures, makeovers, fashion advice, workouts, classes for the couple….and more!”

More information, tickets, calendar of events and a virtual online tour (available 10/18) of DREAM HOUSE are available at www.brides.com/dreamhouse.

The exclusive Manhattan residence of 112 East 73rd Street will be home to the following events on a weekly basis:
Meet the Editors of Brides, Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, Brides.com: Tuesdays, 6:30–8:00PM, guests will get wedding tips and trend reports from the authorities at Condé Nast Bridal Media—Brides Editor in Chief Millie Martini Bratten, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride Editor in Chief Antonia van der Meer and Brides.com Editor in Chief Theresa DiMasi.

Editors Tea with Brides New York: Fridays, 12:30 - 2PM, guests can join Brides New York Editor in Chief Julie Raimondi and her staff of editors for a light lunch to get practical wedding advice and to help narrow down the mountain of options into a manageable hill that’s NYC specific.

Wed Worthy Workouts: Saturdays, 10:00 AM, brides-to-be are invited to an exclusive fitness class designed to get them in shape for the big day and beyond. Sue Fleming, the author of “Buff Brides,” will teach and lead the class on Oct. 20, 27 and Nov. 10, and the Saturday, Nov.10 class will feature a special guest.

Cocktails & Dreams: Thursdays, 7:00-8:30PM in New York City—and at the DREAM HOUSE—are for fun with friends. Before you hit the town, stop by for hors d’oeuvres, drinks and to dish about weddings during cocktail hours that will showcase everything from fashion to travel to beauty.

Couples Classes: Wednesdays, 6:30–8:00PM, are for couples planning their new lives and homes together! Don’t miss this series of fun, interactive classes about designing your new home, entertaining and more!

Meet the Experts: Saturdays, Noon–4:00PM, guests will have the opportunity to start their new lives with advice from wedding planning and home design experts including celebrity wedding planner Sasha Souza, star hair stylist Mark Garrison and interior Designers Mark Montano & Cat Wei from WE TV’s “She’s Moving In.”

Matri-Manicure: Tuesdays-Fridays, Noon–6PM, guests can get wedding band-worthy nails with Sally Hansen. Customized manicures are available via DREAM HOUSE sign-up. Sign up for your own manicure and nail analysis on brides.com/dreamhouse.

Donate your wedding dress for breast cancer

Calling all brides!

On October 4th, you can appear live on Good Morning America AND help support Breast Cancer Awareness. BRIDES magazine is teaming up with Good Morning America to kick-off a national breast cancer fund-raising campaign that features donated wedding gowns. If you'd like to give your dress to the cause, email donatemydress@bridesmag.com by September 29th for more details.

If you're still shopping around for a dress and would like to help the breast cancer campaign, also invited to the dress sale of the century!

Who: BRIDES Magazine Something Pink Gown Sale
When: October 4, 5, 6 in NYC

Choose from thousands of designer dresses at irresistible prices! Proceeds go to the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation.

2 Fun Ways To Shop

1. PREVIEW SALE
Where: Lotus Shop 122 W. 26th St. NY, NY 10001
When: Oct 4, 2007 6:30-9 PM
What: Be the first to try on these gowns donated by designers and salons, assisted by the editors of BRIDES magazine. You'll get admission for one shopper and a guest, cocktails and a swag bag with goodies from Ralph Lauren, Hanky Panky, Godiva, and Target worth $500. Also a chance to win a $4,500 honeymoon to Maui!
Cost: $200
For tickets, go to www.brides.com/somethingpink

2. GENERAL SALE
Where: Lotus Space 122 W. 26th St. NY, NY 10001
When: October 5 & 6, 2007, 9 AM to 7 PM
What: Your ticket admits you and a guest to two hours of shopping. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.
Cost: $20
For tickets, go to www.brides.com/somethingpink

If you're still looking for some other worthy places to donate your wedding gown, here are a few other places listed on our website, www.TheWeddingPicture.biz

Donate WeddingGowns.com
This is part of African Street Kids.com. They raise money to fund their feeding programs and other projects to help destitute homeless kids living in the streets in Africa.

IDoFoundation.org
Donate your wedding dress through the I Do Foundation to raise funds for the I Do Charity of your choice. Their site has great ideas on creating a charitable wedding.

BridalGarden.org
When you purchase a sample or "once worn" gown, all the proceeds go to benefit NY's Sheltering Arms Children's Services where over 3,000 children and their families are helped through their various programs.

Tips for wedding photography on a budget

Here are some ideas on how you can save some money on wedding photography:

1. Hire a photographer for just part of the wedding.
Some photographers have packages, other photographers will work on an hourly rate. Perhaps you just need someone for group shots and portraits and maybe only an hour or two of the reception instead of an 8-10 package rate. It never hurts to ask.

2. Make the album yourself.
Some photographers make you buy their album in their package. Other photographers
will let you purchase your own album.(After all what if you don’t like the particular album they use? There are a million online companies now that sell albums. MAKE SURE YOU BUY ONE WITH ARCHIVAL PAGES so the pictures don’t get ruined over time.

3. Make the prints yourself.
Some photographers who shoot digitally will just let you purchase a CD with hi-resolution files so you can take them to be printed yourself. Photographers who shoot with film sometimes will let you purchase the negatives so you can print the
images yourself. The downfall here is that you have to make sure you are going to a
high end printer where the pros go and not your local drugstore. Do a test print or two to make sure.

4. Don’t buy those cameras for the table! The pictures never come out that good and you end up spending a lot of money.


5. Do not skimp on the photographer! Better to have someone great for less time than
a non-professional who isn't trained in wedding photography. That includes friends,
relatives and well meaning acquaintances who "moonlight" doing photography!

Go with the flow

We’re in the midst of hurricane season and even though it’s sunny where I live today, I remember there was weekend after weekend when it rained and I happened to be booked
to shoot a wedding every one of those weekends. There were expensive locations – vineyards, mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, mountain resorts, botanical gardens, you name it. I always felt bad for the families that had paid so much money for these great locations.

So what do you do when it’s pouring out and you still want great pictures but you can't use the ocean or the beautiful park you had your heart set on?

Here are some tips:

Have a back up plan for pictures when planning the wedding. Pick an indoor spot that can workas a backup in case it’s not only rainy, but too windy or hot. Surely there’s something at the church , synagogue or reception hall that can quickly be used as a great backdrop - you can
even use a few of the flower arrangements to add some color.

Indoor/outdoor shots. If the venue has double doors, at least for a couple of photos, stand inside the doorway and get the rainy background in some of the shots. And obviously you can get some great pictures in front of or alongside some pretty windows.

Go with the flow. There’s nothing you can do about the weather so make the weather a part of the story. If it’s raining, pull out a couple of umbrellas and have the photographer get a few romantic pictures of you under the umbrellas walking down a path arm in arm.

If the day before the wedding the weather report predicts lots of rain, have someone run out and buy some fun props for everyone- lots of colorful umbrellas, rain hats and even flip flops so people can wear them if they go outside in the rain!

One of my favorite brides was going to have an outdoor wedding. The rain was torrential so tents were put up. The floor of the main tent got soaked. By the end of the wedding her white shoes looked like they were brown. They were totally encased in mud. What did the bride do? She laughed and encased them in a plexiglass box to remindherself that nothing could spoil her happiness. And of course, I got some great shots of her shoes!

Wedding Photography Costs Increase

A recent survey by The Conde Nast Bridal Group shows that the average amount spent on weddings has increased to $27,852. This is almost a 100% increase since 1990 when the average cost was $15, 208.

Of the top growth categories, the cost of photography and video jumped the highest percentage – 178%. In 1999, the cost of photography/video averaged $1263. In 2006 it was $3509.

But the statistics don’t explain why and I thought it would be appropriate to address this- I can only speak about wedding photography, and not video.

1. Digital costs and equipment
As studio and photojournalistic wedding photographers have changed from film to digital photography their costs have skyrocketed. Digital equipment is very expensive, plus any photographer worth two cents carries a lot of back up equipment. Depending on the size of the wedding, they also bring assistants and second shooters if necessary.

2. Time
In the old days, a photographer shooting film would have a professional lab process the film and then deliver the images to the photographer who would sort and edit them.
This was tedious work but relatively easy.

Now, with digital photography, photographers do the work the labs used to do- they process the images on their computer, they edit and color correct them and then in some cases post them on a website.

This can take a day or two since most photographers take a lot of images when shooting digital. So time has to be factored into the photographer’s costs.

3. Experience
Never discount the cost of experience. As the market shifts so more and more amateurs pick up a digital camera and profess being wedding photographers, there are more avery inexpensive photographers out there who offer to shoot your wedding and then just give you the images on
a cd without editing them, correcting them or giving you high resolution images. Then you’re stuck making all the reprints whose price you didn’t factor into the cost of your wedding either.

An experienced photographer will give you a fair package that doesn’t contain hidden costs. You will be assured that the images will be technically proficient but also, and just as important, have a viewpoint or artistic sensibility that puts them above the amateur photographer.

In the end, you only have your memories and your pictures so if you’re going to spend extra money, do it with a high-end professional wedding photographer like those on www.TheWeddingPicture.biz!

Trash the Dress

I was reading the Sunday New York Times and right after the wedding announcements, there was an article showing images of brides being photographed in their wedding dress in some situation that totally ruins it. (Think Ophelia in a pool of water!)

To quote the article's caption, “Bridesmaids have had a hostile relationship with dresses for years. Now brides are acting the same way.” See nytimes.com/weddings for a slide show of brides ruining their dresses for a photo op. Apparently, in 2005, a Las Vegas wedding photographer named John Michael Cooper, started the trend called "Trash the Dress" and other photographers have started taking these pictures, too.

Now, as a photographer, I used to amuse myself at weddings by shooting a series called “The Party’s Over "– shots of the aftermath of the wedding. It kept me focused, as frankly, towards the end of the wedding, there wasn't so much to shoot and this kept me on my toes.

So I can see the interest in creating images about the dress. After all, most photographers take a still life of the dress beforehand- it's kind of an interesting idea as an end shot, too. The photos can also be an amusing artistic challenge for any photographer to take. One of the brides is quoted as saying that because she had no plans to wear the dress again, despite paying $2500 for it, why not ?


On the other hand, and I don’t want to sound judgmental here because it’s up to the bride to do whatever she wants with her dress, but please be aware that there are other options, too. You can donate wedding dresses to charities so other people who can’t afford an expensive dress can have a great dress to wear, too. Check out our Charitable Weddings section to get some ideas where you can donate your dress.

I’d love to hear from some other photographers to see if you do your own fine art photography project at weddings, too. Maybe you can post some of your images here!

On a different note, we’ve just started our Promotions section of The Wedding Picture. Visage Studio, one of the best makeup studios in the country, is offering the amazing Chinese Tea Eye gel for brides who spend over $99. One of my favorite photographers, Lyn Hughes is offering two 5 x 7 prints to anyone who books their wedding with her. (These are Lyn's photos on this blog - aren't they great!) And Dr. Jacques Jospitre, the founder of Wealth Therapy, is offering a free consultation to The Wedding Picture readers. Wealth Therapy is a great way for newlyweds and photographers to modify their thinking around money!

Keep posted for new offers. If you’re interested in offering brides, grooms, photographers and others who service the wedding
industry any great deals or promotions, please email us at
info@theweddingpicture.biz.

All photos copyright Lyn Hughes Photography. All rights reserved.

Welcome To The Wedding Picture!

I can't tell you how many weddings I've photographed over the years. When I think how much the wedding industry has changed in that time, well, there's enough to blog about for years.

This site is so we can talk about weddings. Brides can talk. Grooms can talk (we really need your input- weddings are often too much about the bride!). And most important, brides and grooms can talk to photographers. Ask us all those questions you have about getting pictures taken. Soon, we'll have our photographer directory up and running so you can find a great photographer- someone who can take the group shots for mom in a way you can live with and at the same time can take interesting, artistic images, too.

As you go through our site, www.TheWeddingPicture.biz, you'll see that we have a shop with lots of books - including mine-- The Wedding Picture: A Wedding Photographer's Guide To Getting Great Wedding Pictures. It answers all the questions couples have asked me over the years. Our Wedding Picture Shop features the best books about everything from Jewish wedding celebrations to how to have a green wedding. There's great music, tech stuff for the honeymoon and even gifts for the flowergirl and ringbearer. And how many movies can you name that are about weddings? Here's the place where you can check 'em out and have a few laughs (they're mostly comedies for some odd reason) before the big day.

And photographers, well, after being the eyes of a million weddings, surely you'd like to share your voice. Here's your chance.

Watch for lots of ideas next week- we're going to the annual Stationery and Furniture Shows at the Jacob Javis Center in New York. There's always a lot of great wedding and home related products to get inspired by!



Best,
Andrea Sperling
Founder
The Wedding Picture