…I guess the first half of Wedding Photography Week is dealing mainly with silliness!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that my favorite style of wedding photography is wedding photojournalism. Given a choice, I’d rather see gritty, real wedding photos with brides and grooms who look like themselves. Best case scenario? I’m looking at action shots or spontaneous that give me a pretty clear idea of the kind of wedding ceremony and reception you had and how the day really looked and felt. Posed wedding photographs? Eh, nice in a frame on the wall, but not the kind of thing I want to flip through. For serious – on a table in my house you’ll find both my traditional wedding album and my photojournalistic wedding album. Guess which one I look at more often?

BUT given a third choice, I’d much rather look at either traditional wedding photos or photojournalistic photos than I would weird photoshopped wedding photos featuring, well, this sort of thing:

I think I need a drink...

And this sort of thing:

A la Harry Potter, they yell at you when you don't sign in.

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It struck me just the other day that we probably don’t talk about wedding photography as much as we could around here. Possibly because we’re not expert wedding photographers – unless Twistie has been keeping secrets from me. Or I’ve been keeping secrets from her and from you. But I haven’t. I’ve just been taking a lot of photographs recently, so photography is on my mind. Wedding photography in particular, of course. And since having a theme for the week makes my life easier and two and two make four, I am declaring this WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY WEEK at Manolo for the Brides!

Now, you don’t have to wait until the actual big day to have some serious wedding photography fun. For the hardcore wedding photography enthusiast, there’s the Chinese practice of taking insane amounts of wedding photos way before the actual wedding. And for the less dedicated among us, there are always engagement photo shoots and photo save-the-dates and photo wedding invitations. Which is what Toni shared with me just the other day, and she was kind enough to say I could share with you. (Uh, in case you missed it, our very own Toni is engaged, so show her some love!)

This is the back

And this is the front (or is that the other way around...)

I love ‘em, don’t you?! Toni’s wedding invitation makes me wish The Beard and I had done something with photos of ourselves – even our postcard save-the-dates featured a vintage photo with a dour bride and groom instead of a snapshot of us. Oh, well! That’s why I live vicariously through you lovelies and through all the research I do for this blog. Speaking of, to kick start Wedding Photography Week, I though I’d make a list of some of my favorite posts about wedding photography here at Manolo for the Brides for those who may have missed them the first go around.

• A link to a great instructional site for DIY wedding photos
• Fun wedding photos to take as a group
• Wedding photography etiquette for guests
• Some of the best wedding photos around
• Just some brides on bikes!
• How about those artsy-fartsy wedding photos?
• Handling the taller bride and shorter groom “problem”
• On being yourself in your wedding photos

Enjoy! (P.S. – I may extend Wedding Photography Week into two weeks, just because there’s plenty to talk about! P.P.S. – Want to share your wedding photos or wedding photos you’ve taken? Email me the best ones, and I’ll post them!)

via Daily Intel

Hey, psst. Guys out there. Well, and gals, too. Anybody who’s having a couple cold feet before the wedding, I’m talking to you. There’s no really good way or time to break things off, but there are times and places that are worse than others.

Wang Lu of Changchun, China chose his time poorly. He waited until the wedding day after the bride was dressed in her finery 80 feet off the ground.

The distraught bride, one Li Wan climbed out on the window ledge in despair and jumped. Luckily, rescue worker Guo Zhongfan was on the spot and managed to grab Li by the neck. Someone in the window below grabbed Li’s feet, and she was saved.

For more dramatic photos of the rescue, follow this link.

On the lighter side of marriage in China this week, two couples married in a cemetery to give extra oomph to the promise to be parted only by death. All four work in the Yong’an Cemetery in Tianjin.

The wedding procession comprised twenty-six cemetery carts specially decorated for the occasion. After the ceremony, the couples planted saplings to represent their hopes for long, happy marriages. As groom Wu Di explained:

“It’s a natural choice for us, as we work here and love this place. All the ancestors lying underneath are our wedding witnesses.”

May the ancestors bless the happy pairs, and may their trees flourish for many, many years.

Wedding bubbles, as photographed by Paul Craig Weddings of the UK

Simple LOVE/HATE today… let’s get the lowdown on wedding bubbles. I know beyond a doubt that the two-year-old La Paloma is always delighted to attend a wedding ceremony or reception that includes wedding bubbles, much like the little one in the photo above. But I’m wondering what the average adult thinks about blowing bubbles at weddings. Is it fun? Pointless? Should couples just stop buying those little bottles of soap, or are you more likely to shout “Bring on the bubbles!”? Me? I like them because my daughter likes them, but prior to procreating, I don’t think I ever cracked open a bottle of wedding bubbles.

She looks honest enough...

Wedding planners are great. Fantastic. From consultants to full-time planners, they can make it a lot easier to plan a wedding. Had I been able to afford one, you bet you tush that I would have hired one and had a better, less chaotic wedding as a result. But I didn’t know then what I know now, so I can’t exactly beat myself up over who I did and didn’t hire, right? If you can afford to hire a wedding planner and the idea of assembling favors doesn’t sound like the best way to spend a Saturday night, then go for it!

Just remember that, as in all bunches, the wedding planner bunch has a few bad apples, so you need to be careful when hiring one. Below are nine things that most wedding planners don’t publicize – not all of which are true for all planners. As you’re hiring a wedding planner, keep these possibilities in the back in your mind and, above all, make sure the planner you hire is someone you feel comfortable with!

1. Wedding planning requires no formal training. There are certification programs and classes, but there is no formal licensing scheme in place. Anyone can decide to start calling themselves a wedding planner, so when you hire a wedding consultant or planner, get those references and follow up with them.

2. Not all wedding planners are full-service wedding planners, especially when it comes to wedding planners and wedding coordinators at resorts or in-house planners at venues. Consequently, it’s important to have all of the services your planning professional will be providing outlined in a wedding planner contract.

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How often do you see the bride singing with the band?

As captured by Steve Gerrard Photography

Probably only just a wee bit more often than you see her drumming with the band! But that’s what this beautiful magenta-haired bride wanted to do, so she did it. Along with having a bouncy slide at the reception and a whole host of other details that I’m sure at least one person suggested were not appropriate for a wedding.

The whole wedding is worth a serious peek!

The point being that if you feel like a bouncy castle is right for your wedding, then rent one. If you want to ride to the reception on Harleys, then do it. Sneakers are your footwear of choice – well, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m not going to say you shouldn’t. Especially if you can make it look awesome! Hair long and loose? Tuba player at the ceremony? Doughnut wedding cake? Electronic selections for the special dances? Dry reception? Change into shorts? Just do it, the naysayers will hopefully be polite enough not the “nay” in your face.

See more of this amazing wedding here!

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Bling bling!

Tell me ladies, do you have a big fat diamond engagement ring on your finger? Maybe a giant sapphire? I personally don’t, not for any particular bias against them (when they’re conflict free) but rather because I am a ring snagger so I do best with low-profile rings that aren’t going to rip out my hair and destroy my delicates. I do have a surprising number of friends sporting big bling, some of whom I think must still be paying it off after a few years.

No matter. Whether you’re partial to something like Twistie’s silver frog or the 10 carat estate ruby I do occasionally wear (snag snag) or a huge honkin’ diamond set in platinum, there’s one thing most most engagement rings have in common. And that’s that engagement rings are given to women by men. Which is fine and dandy – who doesn’t love presents? – but it does have this weird way of tipping the scales, making people feel inadequate, and switching on the materialism in nice people who aren’t typically prone to that sort of thing. Plus, according to Slate’s Dear Prudence writer Emily Yoffe:

It turns young women — otherwise independent, successful strivers — into passive recipients, waiting for their prince to rescue them from their single state. In what other aspect of their lives do young women so totally turn over their future to the decisions of others? I get letters from women who regularly scour their beloved’s sock drawer, hoping to see a ring box, evidence that marriage is in their future. The ritual of the engagement ring means he decides, he buys, he proposes. Throwing the ring out of the equation encourages the progression toward marriage to be more of a continuing discussion, a joint decision.

What do you think? Should engagement rings go the way of the dodo or should things get back into balance with the introduction of an engagement gift for men trend?