There are hundreds of wedding photographers and folks-who-claim-to-be wedding photographers in the greater Knoxville Area…..so how do you pick just one for one of the most important days of your life?

Here are a few tips and things to consider when choosing your photographer:

BUDGET

It may surprise you just how expensive wedding photography can be. In the greater Knoxville area, your investment can range anywhere from $0 to $10,000. Woah! That’s a BIG range! Remember that you pay for what you get. Spending $500 on your wedding photography may look good on the budget spreadsheet, but…

• Are your pictures going to look good?
• Will the photographer have backup equipment?
• Will the photographer be able to handle very dynamic changing lighting situations?
• Will the photographer have an assistant?
• How many weddings have they shot?
• Does your photographer know how to edit?

Here’s an example of what a difference some very simple editing can make. It can really give the photo that unique, professional touch.

STYLE

Do you like more candid shots? Or are you expecting lots of traditional, posed images? These are important questions for thinking about your wedding photography style. Another part of style is the type of editing the photographer will do. Do you like a vintage look? Or do you like a clean, standard color process? Browse Pinterest and start saving ideas of what you like.

Example of two different types of editing:

RECOMMENDATIONS

Ask your family and friends who they used for their wedding photography, and find out what they liked and didn’t like. You may not want to necessarily use the same photographer they used, but just talking to them about their experience will help you think of ideas and questions you need to think about for your own photography.

and lastly,

MEET WITH POTENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

You want to make sure that you and your future spouse can get along well with your photographer. After all, that person is going to be tagging along A LOT on your wedding day. If your photographer uses a second shooter, make sure you are aware of who that person is and what kind of work they do.

Check out our youtube video by The Bride Link for more tips!

Expressive Moments Photography

If you love bridal shows but missed the Enchanted Brides Bridal Show, keep on reading.  We enjoy doing bridal shows to meet potential brides, of course, but also to meet other local wedding vendors around Knoxville.  We always see vendors in magazines, on Facebook, and in blog photos but it’s nice to talk with people in person.  Some of the vendors we had worked with on weddings and others we got to meet for the first time.  This bridal show took place at The Knoxville Museum of Art which is such a beautiful venue!  I love the light and open space!  Did you know they rent it out for weddings and other events?

We have been wanting to build a free-standing wall to hang our canvases on during bridal shows.  It’s always so hard to know what space we will have to work with for shows and how we will need to display our work (I say this as if we do lots of shows, but really this was just our second show…but we’re ready now!)  Building a wall didn’t seem like too hard of a task, and I was luckily able to get my husband on board.  I won’t go into all the details, but I was happy with the outcome.

And now for the rest of the great local vendors:

Big fat, diamond ring  √

Engagement party  √

Engagement pictures  √

6 months or more of wedding planning  √

Wedding Day Timeline…..grrr how long can I put this off?

It’s getting down to the wire. Time to plan the details of the DAY of your wedding. This part can be very stressful for brides and families.  You want everything to go perfectly. Unfortunately, things don’t always go exactly as you planned….but you can definitely still have a wonderful wedding day experience. Here is a set of ideas that we like our brides to think about when they start planning out the timeline of the day.  What time do the bridesmaids need to be ready by?  Remember, there is only one bride, but usually several bridesmaids. Think about girls getting ready on a normal day…and then times that by 5. A few times, we have had circumstances where we have been unable to take the photos with the bridesmaids before the wedding because they weren’t ready in time. Not a big deal in the long run (we definitely got the pictures), but just something to think about.

When the groomsmen are ready for pictures, will their boutonnieres be ready, and will there be someone who knows how to put them on? For some reason this is something that is frequently forgotten about. The groomsmen are dressed to the nines, but when the photographer is ready to start pictures, someone says, “Oh yeah, we need our boutonnieres!” And then, the second part of that is finding someone who knows how to put them on correctly.

What photos do you want to get finished with before the wedding ceremony?  A lot of brides say that they would like to get some family pictures out of the way before the ceremony. Make sure you have told your family where to be and what time, and to be dressed and ready! Most family pictures are done after the ceremony, so the bride and groom can be in the photos together. Another thing to think about is what members of the extended family do you want in the photos? You may not want every single family member in the photos, so make sure your photographer knows ahead of time exactly who should be in the photos. We like to recommend brides to tell family members to meet at the altar right after the wedding, so you can start pictures quickly. Sometimes the most time-consuming part is simply rounding everyone up.  You’ll want to get these over with so you can get to the reception and start the fun!

Another idea we like to recommend is doing the photos of the bride and groom together BEFORE the wedding ceremony. Yes, we know this breaks old traditions…..but it can help your timing flow better, and could possibly lead to better pictures of the two of you. By the time all of the wedding party and family pictures are done after the ceremony, brides and grooms are excited and ready to go have fun at their reception, and sometimes they tend to be a little more “hurried.” If you choose to do your photos before the ceremony, we always do a “first look,” where we will have the groom turn around and we will capture the faces and all of the emotions of that first look. Sometimes I think it can be even more intimate than the traditional ceremony first look because we always step away and let the bride and groom have a few minutes alone! Aww, so sweet!

A rough guideline of time that we like to allow for pictures:

• Bride alone = 20 - 25 minutes
• Bride with bridesmaids = 30 – 45 minutes
• Groom and Groomsmen = 30 – 45 minutes
• Entire wedding party = 15 – 20 minutes
• Bride and Groom = 45 -60 minutes
• Family = can depend on the size of the families, but usually around 30 – 45 minutes

Now, get to work on that planning….and don’t forget that it’s YOUR wedding day. Relax, and have fun, because it will be over before you know it!!!

We were honored to be invited to the Wedding Row Open House.  Lisa Foster asked if we would like to be a part of the event and take some pictures of it.  If you have not stopped by “Wedding Row” on Bearden Hill, you really should!  What a great location for brides.  You can stop and smell the flowers at Lisa Foster Floral Design, look for the perfect wedding dress at Wedding Wonderland, and shop for linens from White Table.  All in one stop!  All of these ladies do great work and have awesome products!  You can see for yourself below.  The Wedding Row Open House was such a great idea.  It allowed brides to visit these three shops, as well as many other local vendors.

Lisa Foster’s beautiful spring entryway

…and bouquets

We were so glad to get to photograph this wedding for some friends of ours.  We have known Jason the longest…even though it sounds funny to call him Jason.  Then Jason (Shotts) met Rachel and started bringing her around.  They are such a sweet couple and we know they will have a happy marriage.  We got to meet some of their closest friends and family at the wedding, too.  Everyone seemed like a great group of people!  We  love being a part of weddings like this.  They got married in Knoxville on 11-11-11…great way to never forget your anniversary, but they had their wedding the following weekend.  It was a bit trickier than some weddings, with the time change and being in central time.  We were able to get pictures of the groom and groomsmen outdoors (usually the easiest lighting to work with.)  But you know how girls are, and once they were ready, the outside light was gone and we had to do the rest of pictures indoors with lights.  It worked just fine and we got some great pictures of their wedding day!  Congratulations Shotts and Rachel!  Thanks for letting us be a part of your wedding day!

Decisions, decisions…  What a great idea that Erin Shellman, Private Events Director of Club Le Conte came up with!  We teamed up with her, Lisa Foster Floral Design, and White Table Specialty Linen & Chaircover Rentals to create eight wedding themes to help brides visualize the space in Club Le Conte’s many rooms.  The flowers by Lisa Foster were as beautiful as always.  We’ve had several past brides use her team and you can always tell the creativity and precision that goes into their work.  It was great actually meeting Lisa and Kim and working with them!  Their shop must be a fun place to work and visit.  If you stop by their shop in the Bearden area, you can walk next door to see White Table Linens and Wedding Wonderland, to find the perfect dress, all in one stop.  Dorinda of White Table put together some beautiful linen combinations for the eight table set-ups.  There are so many possibilities with each color combination.  I loved some of the textured table cloths and the chair covers really make a difference in the look of each table.  We even learned some cool ways to tie chair sashes and some new napkin folds.  It was great working with everyone and enjoying the best lunch we’ve had in a while at Club Le Conte.  The food was delicious!  The seared scallops and crab meat pasta makes my mouth water thinking about it now.  Brides, if you are still thinking about a reception venue, it is definitely worth your time to meet with Erin at Club Le Conte.  She is great to work with and has some affordable options.  Amy had her reception there in 2009.  It is a beautiful place overlooking downtown Knoxville.

So, what could your reception look like?  That’s what we teamed up to show you.  Which is your favorite?

Rainy wedding? No problem! Ashley and Travis made the best of a beautiful wedding day at The Pavilion at Hunter Valley Farm. Pictures got cut short due to the rain and the wedding got moved indoors, but they didn’t let it bother them. They still had a great time with all of their friends and family that came to celebrate. Hunter Valley Farm is such a pretty place, indoors or out. If they had to get rained in, it was the perfect place. Congratulations guys!

We don’t always have enough time on the wedding day to do these types of photos, so we were so happy when Arisa wanted to do a special bridal session with us! We had fun romping around in the fields and by the water at Norris Dam. She was such a trooper and is so pretty!! We wish we had this time with all of our brides.

What a sweet couple and beautiful bride! Corey and Lauren’s wedding day at Twin Cedar Farms turned out great. We started the day with some iffy weather but it luckily held off. It was almost perfect actually. We got some pretty lighting and a colorful sky! What more could we need?

As, I got closer to the wedding site, I started seeing the cute wedding signs. I wanted to stop and take a picture of each but figured I would be more useful once I got there. The heavy rain came just before I got there, and popped all of the balloons, but the signs were still very visible.

Lauren’s dress was so pretty! It suited her and looked great on too. I loved the big flowers.

Flowers by Echelon Florist. I like the jewels!

This was such a fun, laid back wedding. There really was zero stress! We loved the wedding party, and apparently, they loved us. A few of the groomsmen made it their goal to get us to party with them. Sorry guys, had to work! This was our first time shooting a wedding at Maple Grove Inn, and it’s definitely one of our new favorite venues. We loved how everything was right on site, and all the wedding party and guests were able to stay there. Cassandra and Brandon were so easy-going and sweet. It was hot but everyone was a trooper and the sun managed to hide behind the clouds right when Cassandra walked down the aisle. It was perfect! Congratulations! Maybe we can party with you some other time!
~Amy & Kristy