Manolo for the Brides

If you’re going to spend ages and ages between the ceremony and the reception posing for the camera, why not make it interesting? It’s bad enough that everyone else is off getting their pre-meal drink on at the open bar and chatting about poor Carol, the bridesmaid who just got divorced. Don’t make it worse by slapping on a frozen smile and lazily staring down your photographer. Your wedding album will be much enhanced by your decision to jazz things up a bit when it’s time to say “Cheese,” so try one of these cool poses on for size:

The jump:

From Beth Beljon — and can I just say I LOVE the bridesmaid attire?

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For whatever reason, my inbox has been filled with pitches from newish companies advertising their spiffy online tools designed to make the lives of brides and grooms even easier. But are they really as spiffy as they seem? In an attempt to find out, I started signing up for some of them. I do these things so you don’t have to!

The Wedding Lens: At first I couldn’t figure out why the uploads were so dang slooooooooooow at this photo sharing service, but then I realized that the pics I’d chosen were absolutely HUGE. I’m talking file sizes that my free Flickr account would have rejected, so that’s a mark in their favor. It’s easy to create albums and name photos. At some point, however, it stopped accepting my titles and letting me add photos to sets. Hopefully, that’s just a bug that’ll be fixed soon. What’s spiffy is that your guests can upload the photos they take to your account. What’s less spiffy is the $49 price tag for six months of medium grade service and the fact that they want you to give them your loved ones’ e-mail addresses. Want to try it for free? Enter HOLYMATRIMONEY in the referral code box when signing up for “Gold” service. I’m still not sure what it can do that a Flickr group can’t do.

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Since we were all chatting about regrets not so long ago, I thought I’d share one of mine. I regret not having spent more money on photography. The thing is, we didn’t have more money to spend on it…in fact we didn’t have any! The Beard’s mom covered the shutterbug’s bill, which meant that I tried to keep the photog bills on the lowish side. Poor moi, right? Anyway, had I gotten hitched in NYC with all the moolah in the world, I might have gone with the photographers of Karenscape.

If this sounds anything like your story, ask yourself what you’d do if you didn’t have to pay at all. I know what I’d do–hell, I’m tempted to restage my wedding right now because Karen of Karenscape Wedding Photography is giving away four complete wedding packages in 2008. Buuuuuut you can’t get something for nothing in this world, and Karen’s skills are no exception.

All Karen wants is for you to tell her how you met your intended…

We are searching the country for the most romantic, serendipitous, poignant, funny, and inspiring stories of how you found the one. Tell us the amazing tale of how you crossed paths with your fiancé in this big crazy world, and you’ll have a chance to win a free wedding. Make us cry. Make us laugh. Make us hope.

For more info on how to enter, check out the contest page on the Karenscape website. If you decide to enter, hit us up with a link to your entry. And if you don’t, you should still check out Karen’s sample pics anyway–they’re completely freaking awesome for both their candor and their beauty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go cry over my cheap-ass wedding album.

I don’t have an iPod. In the past, I’ve dropped hints to gift givers that I wouldn’t say no to one, but everyone who might conceivably buy me a gift is well aware of my don’t-acquire-what-you-don’t-need stance on life. I could make a case for needing an iPod if I commuted into the city via train rather than working from home, but I’d much rather work from home than have an iPod.

Anyhoo, iPod lovers can now get their fix of those silhouette adverts while also gussying up their wedding snapshots at iPop My Photo. Yes, it’s a silly idea, and probably not worth the $19.95 they charge to “iPodify” one photo. But I’ve seen a few where the original pic came from someone’s wedding, and I think they look pretty good. That means something, considering that I don’t care much for those iPod ads to begin with.

Like it, but hate the idea of dropping twenty bucks on it? Podapic will do it for $4.99. Or you can DIY using Photoshop (more).

I’ve never been too keen on those weddingish disposable cameras some brides and grooms leave for guests to muck around with. Last I checked, the pictures those things take turn out universally awful. Some people, not realizing why there are white and silver Kodaks littered around, snag them when they grab the centerpieces and linens and leftover chocolate strawberries as they make their exits.

But I do know a handful of people for whom disposable cameras saved the day (i.e. their wedding day) when photographers bailed, cameras broke, and conditions were simply not photographically favorable.

Kodak sells its flowery wedding disposables in 10-pack increments for $79.50, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you factor in the developing costs for 300 photos of Aunt Margo’s cleavage (as taken by your perverted third cousin), the reception hall floor, and half faces snapped by the children in attendance. How can you tell it was the kids? Each photo was shot at an extreme upward angle.

Kodak claims to have a digital option, but don’t be fooled. The Kodak Plus Digital One-Time-Use Camera is a regular disposable camera filled with film. What makes it “digital” is that they automatically give you a CD of your prints when you get your prints. If you opt to have your prints developed by Kodak rather than by the drug store, that is. Um, right.

If you want to stock your reception tables with real digital cameras for guests to play with, try YouShoot. They’ll send you a case full of cameras and a stack of instruction sheets that let guests know how to use the cameras plus how they can view the pics online after the wedding. Then you send them back, and YouShoot puts them up on a personal web site for you. Order prints directly from the company or download them for free. Guests can also upload their own photos to your YouShoot site so everyone’s snapshots see the light of day.

I think it’s a sharp idea. The cost is comparable to disposables plus developing, the site is registration free, and the resultant pics are less likely to be crap. Too bad YouShoot can’t guarantee that they’ll erase Aunt Margo’s cleavage before putting your photographs online.

What I like about this utterly lovely photo from Karin von Voigtlander Photography:

• I don’t know if the bride is being escorted down the aisle by her grandmother or what, but there is such a touching and obvious warmth flowing between them. How wonderful that such a beautiful gaze is now preserved!
• I found the picture on the photographer’s blog, and as we all know, many if not most photographers’ example shots include only the most stereotypically shapely brides. How nice is it to see a real, she-might-even-be-your-neighbor kind of gal included in the selected snapshots?

Want to give your gram and gramps a role to play on your special day or honor them in some way? Why not:

• Give them corsages and boutonnières that match your wedding colors, setting them apart from your other guests.
• Ask them to give a reading at some point during the ceremony or to participate in a family blending ritual along with other family members.
• Introduce them at the reception, citing how long they’ve been married (if applicable) and how influential they’ve been in your life.
• Include a “grandparents’ dance” in your line-up of planned dances

Did any of you find some special way to include your grandparents in your ceremony or reception? I’m sorry to say that I did not, though I did hold my entire wedding at my paternal grandmother’s home and I gathered that this pleased her very much.

This is a classic photographic trick, but one that nonetheless elicits a “wow” from most people when done well. I first came across the Flickr group devoted to heart shadow photography after following a link on Our One Heart, and I just couldn’t resist reposting the link.

If the usual photo of his and hers hands holding sparkling wedding bands isn’t for you, why not ask your photog to snap a double heart pic using both of your rings? And if you’re long since hitched, there’s no reason you can’t rig up a light source, grab a book, and take your own photographs. Just be sure you read the text beneath the ring — if the first words that jump out at you are swaggering, cold, and cocksure, you may want to choose a different book.

Here is a little near mid-week prettiness, compliments of the fabulous Audrey Busta-Peck, who is as sweet as she is artistically gifted:

If your day is unfolding anywhere near as oddly as mine is, why not take a break and check out some of Miz Busta-Peck’s wedding photography? I find that looking at something beautiful every now and again during a stressful workday really takes the edge off!

Is it just me, or do most photographers use the cheesiest taglines? No matter. Avonlee Photography in Silver Spring, MD does not buck that trend, but I like their stuff anyway. Know what I like most? The fact that they use regular looking folks in their samples rather than choosing the HOTTEST COUPLE EVER like some photographers do.

Frankly, when I was searching for my own shutterbug, it was so disappointing to see these fabulous samples that in no way reflected reality. A good photographer can make an average man and woman look like a million bucks while also preserving their individuality. If you’re considering a photog who only shows you samples that feature model-quality brides and grooms, ask to see some of their most recent wedding shots. The difference may surprise you!

This is my favorite picture from the studio mentioned above because it reminds me of my own wedding day. If I’d been wearing a veil, it would have been horizontal for most of the day. As it was, I only ended up with a large quantity of my own hair in my mouth.

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