Kathryn and Kevin

November 4, 2006

Wedding: Holy Family Parish, Fond du Lac WI

Reception: The Ramada Inn, Fond du Lac, WI

If you are frequent reader of my blog, you might either be my mother, a potential client, or someone who is planning their wedding who has already hired me . That’s not to say that sometimes my former clients read my blog, they do. In general, I keep people on my email list for about 6-8 months after their wedding. At that point, I assume my inane ramblings about other people’s weddings have grown cold.

I had a really fun engagement session with Kathryn and Kevin in Chicago, and I posted here about it. And somehow, people saw it, loved it, and for the last few weeks my 2007 clients have been waiting with baited breath to see Kathryn’s and Kevin’s wedding. And that just amuses me and thrills me. I’ve gotten more emails from people that don’t know them wondering when their slideshow would be online than I have from actual people who KNOW them.

For the record , the wedding was beautiful. Kathryn was radiant. Her big sister was in my estimation the PERFECT big sister, being supportive, saying all the right things, not swearing up a storm like she wanted to when the buttons of Kathryn’s Vera Wang kept popping off while buttoning up the dress, assuring Kathryn that it was all FINE, she looked gorgeous, the dress was gorgeous, everything was perfect as she sweated off all of her make up getting that dress buttoned up in the very very ugly church basement with the yellow walls.

Yellow walls. With florescent lighting. Now, part of my job is to overcome these obstacles. It really is. It’s not YOUR problem as a bride that your church where you are getting dressed for the most important day of your life has the worst ever EVER combination of colors in the world. Yellow walls. That makes people appear yellow in photos. Florescent lights reproduce GREEN in photographic images. Yellow and Green skin tones…wow , pretty. But just like your boss pays you to figure it out, it’s my job to walk into a situation like that and begin to strategize how I am going to overcome it. That’s what you pay me for.

And Kathryn, dear Kathryn, turned to me when we walked down into the basement and said “ If these getting ready shots have to be all have to be in black and white, you know I totally understand”

Which made me work my ass off to get some color shots. Okay, there are like three, but there are there! I love my brides.

Also a thrill for me for this wedding was getting to work again with, in my humble opinion, the best wedding videographer in the Milwaukee area, Joel Peregrine of www.weddingfilms.com I like him so much I am totally pimping him out right here on my blog. He didn’t pay me, not even with beer, and you all know how easy I am after a few beers. He’s not only one of the most talented video guys in the area, he’s so nice you wish you would have married him 5 minutes after you meet him. You can see the teaser video of Kathryn and Kevin’s wedding at www.WeddingFilms.com/kathrynandkevin . He’s one of the vendors that I can truly say to clients, if ”I was getting married tomorrow, this is who I would hire for video”

So for all of you who have been waiting to see “The wedding of the century for the Chicago couple Fond du Lac style” I present to you the wedding slideshow of Kevin and Kathryn….who are truly one of the nicest couples you could meet.

Click here to see a wedding slideshow of Kathryn and Kevin's wedding!

Stephanie and Darwin

October 28, 2006

Ceremony: The Gardens, Nenno Wisconsin

Reception: Mayville Golf Club, Mayville Wisconsin

I get all sorts of weddings. Fancy ones, not so fancy ones, and pretty much everything in between. I’ve shot weddings at the Art Museum, the Hilton, the Union Grove Elks Club and outdoor BBQ’s in mom and pop’s back yard. What I love most about this is that my job is not static. Every wedding has it’s different feeling and if I had to pick three words to describe Stephanie and Darwin’s wedding it would be these three words:

Big. Damn. Fun.

It was, what I like to refer to as a “Big Fat Wisconsin Wedding”. Growing up in the area I think we all just figure weddings are the same everywhere. Ceremony. Cocktail hour. Polkas. Dancing and drinking beer until the wee hours. But no no no….if you travel to other areas of the country, that’s not at all the standard. I have a network of wedding photographer friends from around the country and I am always shocked by their wedding traditions. As they are by mine. They’ve never heard of the chicken dance, the reception ending at midnight and FREE BEER. One friend of mine saw some images of mine with the bouquet toss and didn’t understand why everyone was circling around the bride and groom…he’d never seen that in his area in the Pacific Northwest. I did a wedding down south and the bride and groom there do an “exit” at about 10PM and that’s it. Everyone goes home. I was stunned. I could not for even a minute understand why people were leaving when there was still FREE beer to be had.

So, if I had to pick the perfect “Big Fat Wisconsin Wedding” for 2006 it would be Stephanie and Darwin’s. Why? All of their best friends…all so blissfully happy for them. Friends from childhood, high school, family who loved them and beyond.

I grew up in a farm community very similar to Mayville, and maybe part of my love for this wedding was because of that. I loved seeing the important people in their lives just connecting to them and really being happy for them and their marriage. It was clear over and over that this was a union that made everyone happy.

And even though I left before the reception ended, I’d bet good cash money that Steph and Darwin did not leave early.

That’s just how we roll in Wisconsin.

Click here to see a wedding slideshow of Stephanie and Darwin's wedding

Dave and Kathleen

October 21, 2006

Ceremony: Christ King, Wauwatosa Wisconsin

More pictures at: Charles Allis Art Museum

Reception: The Historic Astor Hotel

So one fine day Dave calls me, maybe about 6-7 weeks before the wedding. He got my name from my good friends the Venturi’s, who have the best darn deli on 72^nd and North Avenue in Wauwatosa.

7 years ago, Pete and Sue Venturi were my neighbors. We had a block party, and Pete and I had waaay too many beers and he told me how he had started this great new deli, but he was having trouble finding good help. And he was short on help for the next day for the Sunday “Ham and Rolls” crowd. I told him that I grew up in food service, knew my way around a deli counter, and I would help. When I actually showed up the next morning at 8:30 AM to help, he almost fell over. That cemented our friendship for life, I think. I worked for the Venturi’s very part time for about 3 years until my wedding schedule grew to the point that dragging myself into serving Ham and Rolls at 8:30 AM after shooting a 12 hour wedding just got to be too much. But if you ever make it there, try the chicken salad and the bow tie pasta, I promise it will make you weep.

So, anyway, Dave calls. He’s sure I’m booked, but Sue told him to call me and maybe I had a referral. I’m not booked. I was booked for that day, but the wedding had to be rescheduled to a different date. And as the story unfolded, I found out this:

Dave and Kathleen live 6 blocks from me.

The Astor, where they wanted their reception had a cancellation.

I had a cancellation.

Dave and Kathleen met at their high school reunion. Dave had worked on the reunion and had intended on going, but had doubts at the last minute about going. He was up north with his parents helping out and was having a nice time and thought maybe he’d just skip it , and his mom convinced him to go.

He went.

The rest, as they say, is history.

I mention all the time that one of my favorite parts of the day is the getting ready. I think it might be a chick thing, but I love observing and recording the ritual of the bride getting ready with her “girls”. The only problem with this was that I loved Kathleen’s bridesmaids so much that I wanted to chat instead of taking pictures. This, for me, is one of my greatest challenges as a wedding photographer. If I am chatting, I am not recording. (But for the record I want to let Carolyn know that I found a Bikrim hot yoga class and she is right, it rocks my world)

And after I shot the wedding I thought to myself I am sure that the reason I identified with Kathleen and her bridesmaids was because they were closer to my age than my average client.

But the next weekend I shot Stephanie’s wedding. And I dare say that I am probably closer in age to Steph’s mom than I am to her. Didn’t matter. I loved being around her and her bridesmaids just as much. In every funny nickname, in every funny moment, I was reminded of my college days.

Just live the day!

Click here to see a wedding slideshow of Kathleen and Dave's wedding!

Jeff and Briena
October 14, 2006
Wedding and reception at the Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design, Third Ward, Milwaukee, WI

If you get married at the Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design you have to be a bit adventurous. It’s an extremely interesting venue here in Milwaukee and the deal is that if you book your wedding here you don’t find out until a few months or so before your wedding what kind of display will be going on. And Briena and Jeff’s luck would have it that there was a display on how animation and cartooning has affected advertising. So mixed in with the beauty of the the architecture of the museum was…BIG BOY! Who doesn’t love Big Boy?

I love to see the original things that my clients come up with for their wedding to personalize them. Jeff and Briena have spent lots of time in Door County and loved spending time near the water skipping stones. So for their wedding, they collected stones from the beaches of Door County , and before the wedding they passed out to the stones to all the guests. The guests were asked to hold the stones during the ceremony and to make a wish, and return them so that Jeff and Briena could return the stones to the beach in Door County with the wishes of all their family and friends. What a lovely, simple gesture to commemorate their relationship and the importance of their friends and family who attended their wedding. Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!

Congratulations Briena and Jeff!

Click here to see a wedding slideshow of Jeff and Briena's wedding!