You are Your Pinterest

Pinterest is a fun tool, but that is all it should be. Too often we become dependent on the editorial decisions of others. We say we search for ideas in magazines, blogs and sites searching for inspiration but too often we become solely reliable on what a group of marketers and communications specialists decide are the colors, shapes and styles to be pushed into the market any given season. 

Your wedding should not be an approximation to the perfect world that blogs and Pinterest presents to you, so distilled, that unless you have unlimited amount of money in your wedding coffers, you will always feel you fell short.

It is not easy to reach within oneself, I admit it, and sometimes you have no idea how much creativity, originality and beauty lies inside of you and your spouse. Too many times we tell ourselves things like “I am not creative” or “I could never come up with something that beautiful”. Take a look and you will see.

Beautiful weddings are not beautiful because they looked like someone pulled it all out of a fancy, Pinterest styled pic. Beautiful in a wedding is the reflection of yourself and your spouse, the honest extension your relationship and commitment to one another.

Let Them Travel Through Your Wedding

There are no boring places, only boring people and there is no reason why your wedding could not feel like a destination wedding right in your hometown. It is all about the illusion that you create for your loved ones. Destination weddings have become a staple in the wedding planning world. If you have the budget and a guest list of friends and family willing to take the trip with you by all means consider it a great option.

Nowadays, weddings are increasingly becoming more budget conscious.

This has to do with a generational transformation. Today people are getting married at an older age and couples are funding a much larger portion of their weddings. Often couples wed after they already have established a home for themselves.

Let’s be honest, the parents funded, virgin bride, family dictated wedding days are over. 

This is why it is such a great time to be getting married. You and your spouse to be have the ability to turn your wedding into anything that you want to. Think of how much fun it is to get together with friends for an afternoon of fun cocktails in plastic cups, awesome music and laughter in your backyard these days.

Take the rest of your guests, the older generations, to a journey into how much fun your current social life is.

Take advantage of the cool, hidden places in your city that you frequent with friends and organize events for your wedding there. It will be an exciting day filled with new experiences for everyone.

Your Own Wedding, Your Own Flavor

Wedding seasonal trends are great guides and starting points to brainstorm and dig for ideas and inspiration but don’t stop there, bring your own personal flavor to your wedding day. Fall wedding trends propose adding earthy tones to the pallet, summer wedding trends fresh hues and yet the most powerful variable in your wedding is You.

Today we live in a much more culturally interconnected society than even a few decades back.

Embracing the traditions of your family and culture is the new cool. Do it with style, we know that grandma’s taste may be well, a bit outdated, however distilling the essence of those traditions and reinventing them into hip and fun elements in your wedding will make for the coolest wedding and most talked about event among your family and friends.

Use colors, flavors and customs of your own ethnic heritage.

If you are Hispanic like me, maybe a fresh new use of dry ice and a play on the old-time waltz would be a great way to make your guest burst in euphoria. If your background is Chinese, why not drop the common white gown and marry in a traditional red dress and then serve a lush, traditional western wedding meal.

Life becomes wonderful in her big contrasts and there is no place more interesting to find them than within yourself.

Skip Tradition (Really!)

Wear a white gown and a veil, pick two wedding colors, bridesmaids are female, groomsmen are male, don’t see each other before the ceremony, walk down the aisle, exchange traditional vows, your engagement ring better be a diamond and don’t forget Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” as you walk down the aisle.

Take all that and put it all in the trash can! Breaking with the past is your nature. You are adventurous, inquisitive and original. Why would your wedding day be any different?

An original program that surprises your guests with unexpected order of things and against protocol brings nothing but smiles. Your cocktail-hour right before the ceremony, rock guitars instead of strings, talk to your great graphic designer friends and come up with a cool and eclectic color palette, see each other before the ceremony, see everyone, say hi to all those faces that love you and are so happy for you.

We are photographers and if there is one thing we know is that photographs have a way to glow when the bride and groom are truly happy and at ease with the world at that precise time. Make your wedding yours and don’t let anyone tell you any old tradition is a must. Let yourself glow because your wedding is an extension of the relationship that it is meant to celebrate. Be yourself!

Cinematic, Personalized & Budget Friendly Wedding Photography Made Possible

Planning your wedding has been described as many things but hardly ever as a calm and enjoyable experience. A platoon of vendors encircles you with news of the hottest fall wedding trend and the brand new definition of romantic, whimsical-organic. Photographers are all ready to pitch their new interpretation cinematic and all you can think is “that surely sounds expensive”.

We are here to tell you the truth. A cinematic, personalized and affordable wedding is not complicated and certainly not unattainable as most folks out there will lead you to believe. All it takes to get what you want for a reasonable, budget friendly cost is this, so pay attention:

Don’t fall inside the “more is better” trap. Less is more. Find a Photographer, not a company that recruits photographers. 

So many wedding photography companies hope to blind you with quantity because they cannot offer you quality. 3 photographers, 4 videographers, endless lists of meaningless equipment, this is all a diversion. True photographers are artists. They will soak in your style, your personality and the aesthetic of your wedding to create a beautiful rendition of the day. Artists show emotions, they don’t describe events. You don’t need seven pairs of eyes to describe what happened in your special day. All you need one pair of eyes that will turn that day into magic for years to come.

A great photographer does not need 12 hours to capture the essence of your Wedding. It all comes to the basics: less hours means less cost.

From the hectic morning of makeup and getting ready to the family portraits to the ceremony, the party and the grand exit, the day is filled with valuable moments and it is understandable that you want to capture it all. Thankfully we live in an age when all your bridesmaids, mother and those special people will accompany you throughout the day with their smart phones. Ask them to snap pictures of those intimate moments and save your photographer for the big moments: the ceremony and the reception. Your task is clear: find a great photographer that can shoot great weddings in 4-6 hours. Collect great shots from family and friends or use disposable film or Polaroid cameras for the rest of the day to create beautiful variety of shots.

Great works of art are accomplished through editing.

A great photographer is a great editor. This means she or he has the talent to intuitively know what to shoot but just as importantly what not to shoot. Find a photographer for your wedding with this talent and you will be in for a treat.

A little bit of intrigue and mystery is the most romantic thing in the world.

Let your photographer capture special snippets of the day and let you and your friends fill in the gaps with memories and anecdotes as you share your picture book. You have worked so hard on planning your wedding day for so long, let your photo book be that great work of art that will remain true and timeless.