Some of these things may

seem like common sense, but you would be surprised! :)

1. Tanning Rules: If you plan on spray-tanning, do it at least 4 days in advance, so you can let the "orange" fade off. Also, you can see the splotches, if there are any, and have time to get it corrected. NEVER spray tan the day of or day before!

If you are tanning in a tanning bed, stop at least 3 days prior to your wedding. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! Brides ignore me all the time, and they get photos back with a slight pink glow. Trust me when I say it glows worse in the photo than you can see in the mirror. Do NOT use the HOT lotion the week of the wedding AT ALL! (tell all your bridesmaids this rule! I have done weddings where one single bridesmaid is glowing like she's from another planet. And it sticks out in every photo)

2. Hire a makeup artist. It's best to have had a consultation and trial run on the makeup before the wedding, also. That way, everyone is on the same page about how you want it to look! This next is not a must, but if you like makeup and have hired someone who knows how to do them, then adding extra lashes is beautiful in photos. If you don't want to hire a makeup artist, the next best thing is to go for a consultation at a makeup counter, or even better, hire a makeup consultant to do a makeup class for all your bridesmaids in the weeks before the wedding. Might be fun at a lingerie party. That way, if you think you want to do a "smoky eye" look, you can learn how to do it without giving you the "raccoon look".

3. Drink plenty of water the entire week of the wedding. That helps to prevent puffy, tired eyes. It also keeps your skin hydrated. So you're less likely to need to slather with sticky, greasy lotions right before you put your dress on.

4. Adding a punch of color for your bridal portraits is a nice touch. So, if everything has a white tone....dress, flowers, veil, etc., try to implement some color in some of the shots.....even the ribbon tied to the flowers being a color helps. Soft colors are fine, even soft ones break up all the white.

5. If your dress requires intricate lacing up the back, make sure the person who will be doing it the day of the wedding has practiced it once or twice! This almost invariably last WAY longer then brides expect! And it makes you tense. Tense brides do not equal beautiful photos.

6. Along those same lines, if you have someone in your life who makes you tense that is not REQUIRED to be where you are as you get dressed, ask someone who is not in the wedding party to keep that person busy prior to the wedding :)

7. I understand champagne on the wedding day. Just remember to keep it to a minimum. It makes you look puffy! I promise!

8. Let someone who loves you handle all the silly little questions that people feel inclined to ask the bride on the wedding day....like, "where do you want me to put this?.....or "what time do you want us to_______?"  or, "have you seen the_______?"   Put a sweet aunt in charge of all that. Stress-free bride makes beautiful photos. Better yet, hire an awesome coordinator, who fields those sorts of questions!

9. Don't have a bachelorette party the night before your wedding! I mean, I can't stop you from doing it, but I can't promise you'll be glowing in your photos if you DO do it! Sleep instead!!!!

10. And, after you've done all the above, Breathe!  Before you get dressed, BREATHE!.....while you're getting dressed, BREATHE!....and, in between each photo, BREATHE! Let the professional take care of worrying about how the photos look. Hiring a photographer with years of wedding experience is the smartest thing a bride can do! When you look at your budget, if you haven't allotted a nice percentage for photography, you might want to re-think your budget. When it's all said and done----and the cake and flowers are long-gone, the only thing you have left from your wedding day is your husband and your photos! And, if you've hired a phtographer who's shot weddings for years, your photos stay awesome and sweet even after the honeymoon phase!

On a sidenote---- and please share this blog with all brides you know, everywhere. Things to consider when hiring a wedding photographer:

If I had to pick one word to describe what you're looking for, it would be: seamless. Someone who can flow from indoor light to outdoor light SEAMLESSLY. Who can flow from daytime to night, SEAMLESSLY. Who can work with sunny skies, or rain clouds, SEAMLESSLY. Who can do your entire day without distracting equipment and making a scene---SEAMLESSLY. AND, who can please both the bride AND the bride's mother, flowing SEAMLESSLY from classic and timeless into trendy and artistic. If a photographer will not show you a wedding day, from start to finish, there's a red-flag. They may only be great at one type of photo. You don't want to discover this when looking at the photos they took at YOUR wedding. Every wedding photographer has to get their hours and experience somewhere. I learn something new, literally at every wedding I shoot. I have made many mistakes and will make more, I'm sure. But, the years of experience make a HUGE difference. And I study my craft diligently. If I find a weakness in an area, I do what it takes to learn for the next go-round. So, if photos are your "big thing", look for experience. Not just photography experience, but WEDDING photography experience. Also, ask their other brides. Because when you only see a handful of photos from any given wedding, ask the bride "were you happy with your photos and the photographer's professionalism?" For more examples of wedding photography, visit my website at: www.StrawberryBlondePhotography.com  and view the Strawberry Vines tab. And search for Strawberry Blonde Photography on facebook. www.facebook.com/strawberryblondephoto

DAYTIME LIGHT

DUSK

Classic, timeless (indoor and red carpet, no less)

To more artistic, detail-oriented  and trendy below.

Well, today I have spent reflecting. Depending upon your age, you may be familiar with the name Rue McClanahan.

If you grew up in Ardmore when I did, you may also know that she is the red-headed actress from the show Golden Girls.

Well, I have always been sort of fascinated with her. Love the red hair, the sass, the role she played on Golden Girls, the fact she was a hometown gal. She passed not long ago. And I  have a story to share with you. She grew up in the house I currently live in. Her father was a home-builder. Built many of the homes in and around Ardmore. And my house (formerly where she grew up), is a fascinating older home. It winds around in quite the artistic fashion.

When we first bought this home, a dear friend of mine was helping us move in....my children were very small. And as we would carry boxes in, my friend would talk to me in first person, as if he were the house, saying things like, "I'm so excited! Little kids!! That means birthday parties! And crayons! And playing in the yard!!"  He was pointing out (in his quirky way), that it had been a really long time since kids had lived here! Rue and her sister grew up here (from around middle school age on), as did Rue's son for much of his life, but since then, there had only been one other family, and they didn't have any children at home. So, when we moved in, my children may have been the very first small children to have lived here.

A few days later, as we began to settle into our new home, I plugged in a television for my children. We didn't have the cable turned on yet, so I hooked up the VCR and just pushed play. And, I almost fell over from what I heard: Rue McClanahan's voice, from the movie Annabelle's Wish, saying something like, "It's been a long time since we've had a young'un here in the barnyard!"   in her ever-so-syrupy southern fashion! I had no idea that movie was in the VCR, nor did I have ANY idea she even did one of the voices in that movie (I hadn't watched it). It was, still to this day, one of the strangest things that I have evr witnessed!

Not long ago, a couple of years or so, Rue wrote a book. It's called "My First Five Husbands (and the ones that got away)" One of my friends called me the day it came out and told me, "You have to go get the book! It talks about your house all through it!" And she started reading excerpts to me. I couldn't believe it! It was filled with interesting tidbits, like "where daddy used to hide his moonshine" (hidey-hole still there, by the way). When her son was born, her water broke standing at my kitchen counter. Photos from one of her weddings, when the reception was held in my dining room....those types of things. Made me love my old house even more.

The entire upstairs floor is bird's eye maple. And three of the four walls upstairs are almost solid windows. Sort of a photographer's dream. I've never really desired to do indoor work, but the more I tinker upstairs....well, let's just say I'd be out of my mind not to utilize the space. So, as the days pass, I will be posting photos of the progress upstairs, as we turn that space into something surprising, with soft light and bird's eye maple floors. Something that would have made Rue's father proud..... to see the home he 'created' for his family being loved so much by us, and the spin on his artistry in home-building used in a different artform. 

I had the chance to meet her before she passed. We even almost made a real estate deal. She considered buying this house from me. At the time, it felt like a good idea, but now I'm so glad I  still own it. If I had sold to her, who knows who would live here now that she's gone. And, I just feel like this house is supposed to be inhabited by a red-headed huzzy! ;)   .........an artist, trying to make her way!

About a year ago, I went to a garage sale a street over and there in the driveway sat this pastel chalk drawing of Rue's face, framed. The kind like people used to have done. I was like, "uhhhh, how much for this?" and the lady began telling me that she bought a street over at an estate sale, from the McClanahan estate. She even told me what wall it used to hang on. So I bought it and brought it back home. And hung her in the hall where she belongs :)

okay, so a friend just asked me if I know what the word hussie means, after she read my blog! hahaha! I DO know. I guess I should take into consideration that many peoople who will read this don't know me, therefore, won't understand my humor.........soo, disclaimer (I'm not really a hussie, in case you were worried)  ;)     Maybe I should have called us both "Golden Girls" instead.

A client once told me that the photos I took of her changed the way she sees herself.

She called me specifically to tell me that. Apparently, after looking at the photos over and over, she was inspired, for the first time in her life (in her late thirties), to put together a portfolio! She said, "I like the way YOU see me! And, I am starting to see me through your eyes!" That made me cry. As you can imagine, now, each time I drive to a photo shoot, that statement often pops into my head. I like the way it feels inside my brain. It inspires the work that I'm about to do. I took the photos my client was referring to a few years ago, and, I often go back to look at them and muse to myself, "I wonder how she DID see herself before?"  To me, she was always stunning. And I love that capturing that for her changed her self-image. That's also why I don't heavily manipulate and edit photos.

My clients can look at a photograph and tell whether what I see in them is something that's really there or something I imagined. I sort of base my business principles around that. There's a time and place for 'artistic impression', and I understand the conecpt behind heavy editing, I even do that to some photos, for the "art" of it...... but to make someone look false, to me, is a dis-service to everyone.

Being a mother to an almost-11-yr.-old daughter, I truly get what it means to have a healthy self-image. And I can't very well teach my daughter that she is beautiful just the way God made her, if I constantly manipulate God's work. So, when I'm often asked what I use to edit photos, if I could answer honestly, without someone thinking I'm being a smarty-pants, I would say, "beautiful, glowing sunlight". And maybe a little color-correction, put a little frame around the edge and the Strawberry logo, and voila'!  

I'm not speaking down on anyone who chooses to do their photography differently. Truthfully, I know I would end up losing business because of the fact that I don't like to heavily edit. That's okay, because there's enough business for us all. I just remember the feeling I got from that phone call. And how I know that those photos wouldn't have changed the way she sees herself if I had taken off 30 pounds and removed all her smile lines. Because, at least to her, all I would have done is made her look like something she never sees in the mirror.

While my photography technique has changed and improved since these photos, they're still some of my favorites. And still, three or so years later, these photos still get mentioned to me by new clients. They can see the genuine quality and they love it!

For now, this is where my blog will live. Nothing fancy. I have ALMOST started a blog at least a dozen times and when I get into the "fancy" of it, it makes me get behind in other things I want to get done. So, for now, simple it is. Stay tuned for more. I'm thinking I need to share some tips I have learned in my experience, about making sure you look radiant in your wedding photos. There are things to do and NOT do that make a huge difference in how your wedding photos turn out.

So, make sure to visit back.