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:

Jessica and Keith set up a last minute engagement session for Saturday morning.  You never know until you ask.  A lot of times we can squeeze sessions in at the last minute.  Unfortunately I had another session cancel due to illness, but we will get it made up soon.  Keith came down from New Jersey for the weekend and was surprised with a fun engagement session.  Jessica kept picking on him and accusing him of not smiling or fake smiling.  I think it worked!  I got some great smiles from both of you!  I love all the laughter and fun shots we got!  That’s what I love to see in engagement sessions…well all sessions really- fun and real!  Here’s a quick peak of the pictures we got on a beautiful spring day.

Yeehaw!  KAPA’s first Boot-Scootin’ Ball was this past Friday night and everyone was dressed for some country-western fun!  There were lots of people that showed up to show their support for this great organization.  Basically KAPA (Knoxville Area Project Acces)  is an initiative led by the physicians of the Knoxville Academy of Medicine to provide access to healthcare for low-income, uninsured residents of Knox County, TN.  The night started with a cocktail hour and silent auction, followed by dinner and some line-dancing.  The folks from Cotton-Eyed Joe led a few dances and got the crowd involved.  There was also a rockin’ band, Reckless, that played into the night and got some people out on the dance floor.

We set up a photo booth and took pictures of couples and groups as they arrived.  We had some extra props, hats, etc. that they could use.  Being early in the evening, most people opted to just sport their country-western get-up they wore for the night.  We had a few take advantage of the props, but either way most people weren’t in their everyday clothes.  We will be posting all photos from the evening here: KAPA’s Boot-Scootin’ Gallery.  Photos will be available for purchase through the gallery and a portion of the sales will be donated to KAPA.  Thanks to everyone that came out and for the overwhelming support of KAPA.

I LOVE shooting seniors because, to be honest, they’re the easiest to work with! They will usually sit or lay wherever you want them to. I loved this gal, especially, because she had a great smile in every single picture…even after an hour and a half of shooting and walking around the Knoxville Botanical Gardens. She couldn’t believe she was already a senior in high school. I said, just wait….the next ten years will go even faster. Although I do remember senior year of high school like it was yesterday. Maybe I’ll dig up one of my old senior pics and post it.  Anywho, we got some great pics and I enjoyed working with Krissy!

Wedding planning can be tricky but even trickier from another state.  Luckily, Tim and Jessie came down from Indiana this past weekend to work on some of their wedding planning.  It’s so nice to start crossing things off your list.  Their wedding will be on Norris Lake at a property of a friend.  We met up with them “near” there at Big Ridge State Park.  I say near because it was only 12 miles away, but unfortunately that was by water.  Driving around the lake took closer to an hour.  (Thanks for making the drive!)  They also picked a perfect weekend to visit.  The weather, luckily, cooperated perfectly!  Tim and Jessie were a blast to work with too!  They were both fun-loving and looked so natural behind the camera.  It’s not always that easy for everyone, but they made it look easy.  They just had fun together and that’s really what works best.  We don’t like for the pictures to look so stiff and posed.  Natural is the look we shoot for!  You can see in their pictures that they are in love!  Thanks for letting us do pictures for you!  You guys are awesome!

Easter time means bunny time! I got to play with some cute bunnies and take pictures with kids on a nice, sunny afternoon. It was a little tricky figuring out where to put the bunnies, which bunnies can be held, and where to put the children, but we worked it out and had a good time. Happy Spring!

Thinking about scheduling some Spring family photos? Go here and send us a message! =)

We forget each time how tiny newborns are! Cameron was only 3 days old for these pictures. Big sister Caroline couldn’t have been any sweeter with her new baby brother. We knew she would be a doll because she did so well for us last year at her first photo session with us down in the Old City.  Jennifer and Joey were so easy-going and didn’t care what we wanted to try with Cameron.  He was ready for anything too!  He got a bit fussy a few times but nothing his paci couldn’t fix.  He was great for his newborn session and put up with us dressing him, stripping him, moving him around, posing him, etc.  I hope he slept well for Mom and Dad that night.  Like Joey said, those all night feedings are the hardest part of having a newborn.  The cuteness and cuddles hopefully make up for it and it passes so quickly, you forget how hard it was in the beginning.  Welcome baby Cameron!

We had fun making mustaches last week…and then we had even more fun taking pictures with them at the Enchanted Brides Show last Sunday.  What’s your ‘stache style?  Vote for your favorite now and help one couple win a free engagement session.

Scroll to the end of the photos to vote for your favorite ‘stache.  Voting will end March 20th at midnight.  The couple with the most votes wins a free engagement session (a $200 value)!  You may only vote one time per person.

Brides, if you would like to purchase your ‘Stache-Stylin photo, you may do so here.

#1 Aleena

#2 Kathryn

I am so happy for Brooke, Corey, and big brother Gavin.  They added a sweet baby girl to the family a couple of weeks ago.  With newborns, we typically try to schedule their sessions within the first 10 days.  This is usually the time when they are still sleeping really well and they are flexible enough to ball up and mold as we want.  Kendall was 16 days old and luckily couldn’t have done a better job with her session.  She slept through most of it but opened her eyes for me to get a few cute shots.  We did her brother Gavin’s newborn pictures a couple of years ago and he was not quite as cooperative. Most of his pictures included his little blue paci.  I have known Brooke for several years now.  She and Corey were nice enough to entrust me with their engagement photos when I was first starting out in my journey as a photographer.  Even better, they were brave enough to pay us to be their wedding photographers.  That was our first paid wedding and we are so happy they believed in us!  I love the families that we get to work with year after year.  I did Gavin’s newborn pictures, one year pictures around Christmas, and then two year pictures this past fall.  I love seeing seeing the kids and families grow over the years, especially when they are as cute as this family!  Baby Kendall is the perfect addition!  Could she be any cuter?

~Kristy

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!!!