Commercial Photos ~ Storm Chaser Truck for A.R.E.

So I actually did this project last summer for A.R.E a manufacture of truck canopies & toppers. They wanted to show off a truck that they built for Tim Samaras of the Discovery Channel's - Storm Chasers. It was a lot of fun doing something a bit out of the normal for me... The photos on this site of the truck and it's operator are all mine... they added in the tornado, but it just so happened that the sky was perfect for this shoot:

http://www.4are.com/product/project/stormchaser/

Portrait ~ River

River stopped by with her mommy today for some fun photos! Finally got to use my new tutu!

Engagement ~ Annie & Jeff

Jeff and Annie make the cutest couple! Since they are friends of ours I've had the privilege of seeing their relationship grow over the past couple years.... While we were doing their photo session Annie shared the story of how they met it was an even cuter story! Apparently they were both attending Rock Bottom Brewery's tapping of the Fire Chief Ale celebration, which coincidentally is happening right now, today!... at this particular celebration they were auctioning off firefighters for dates to women for charity and Annie was set on hooking herself a fireman! And well, she met Jeff instead who was just there for the beer! She made a comment... "Too bad they're not auctioning off you, cause I'd bid" and he asked how much would she pay and she said "$50" and the rest was history!
Although she mentioned that she never did have to pay the $50 for him! LOL! Congrats you two! Looking forward to your big church wedding in June!

Advantages of a Wedding Coordinator!

I would say about 90% of the weddings we cover do not hire a wedding planner... and for me that made me think why would anyone need a wedding planner... But after a "round table" discussion this past week with other vendors in the industry it got me thinking about all the advantages of actually getting one! This also became more apparent to me when a recent mother of the bride of a wedding I photographed mentioned to me after the event... I felt like I didn't get to enjoy my daughter's wedding, all I did was organize and make sure everything happened to make her day special.... I wish I would've hired someone to do all that for me! Wow! That put it all into perspective for me! The #1 reason to hire a wedding coordinator is so that you can enjoy your event and not have to worry about the details!

Gone are the days of wedding planners being for the ultra rich... there are planners out there to suit every budget. And most now even offer what is considered "A Day of the Event Coordinator" package.... let's say you took care of all the details up to the actual day and now all you want to do is watch your plan unfold without having to do much more for it! This person usually takes your time-line and plans and pretty much puts the plan into action. I've even seen "Month of Coordinators" - This person usually helps you bring all of your last minute details together... They may meet with or call all of your vendors to make sure everything is all set and that their are no last minute details left untouched. And the big advantage is that they will help you organize a time-line of events for the special day along with helping you run your rehearsal.
Of course if you are just not very good with planning or organizing or have no idea where to start in the planning process you can get a planner from beginning to end of the process as well. The advantages of hiring someone this early in the process is that the wedding coordinator usually knows people in the industry and can help steer you to the right vendors for your needs and may even get a discount for you with that vendor. They will be there for you for support and questions throughout the planning process... remember they've seen hundreds of weddings and their expertise may be invaluable to taking care of any problems or logistics of an event.

One other thing that I hear a lot from my clients is this... "Oh, well we have a coordinator that comes with the venue" What most couples don't know is that the Venue coordinator is there just for the VENUE and not you! Not that they won't lend a helping hand when asked, but that they are there to look out for the best interest of the venue and not yours. They are usually very busy checking to make sure that the caterers you have hired are cleaning up after themselves, or that the person decorating is not putting holes in their walls. If the venue includes things such as tables, linens and china and set-up of these items then they are busy making sure their staff is getting that completed. They are not doing what a certified wedding coordinator would be doing and that is being by your side all day... Wedding coordinators usually collect and bring your personal items to the ceremony and reception, coordinate your wedding party and everyone else involved in making the ceremony happen while also overseeing the reception plans and coordinating between all the vendors to make sure that your time-line is followed. So while a venue coordinator is a nice perk and is certainly better than not having any coordinator they may not be taking care of a lot of the little details.

As I mentioned before 90% of the weddings we cover do not have a coordinator.... so what does that mean to us as the photographer and videographer and my husband as the DJ.... we then become your unplanned pseudo coordinators. This means we may end up spending a lot of time talking to vendors to find out when things are suppose to happen or organizing people for photos. Not that we don't expect some of that... it comes in the job description! But just think of how much more time I would have to photograph the important things if I wasn't running around looking for Uncle Bob who's suppose to be in this photo, but nobody told him he's suppose to stick around for it! Or how many times have I been to a wedding where I see the guests waiting and waiting for dinner to be served because the bride and groom didn't think to talk to the caterers about the timing of it beforehand. Something that would've been addressed by a wedding coordinator when going over the time-line. If you want a seamless event that looks like it just happened magically with little effort and you don't want to be stressed about the details on the day of your event then hands down you want a wedding coordinator!

I've met some pretty amazing coordinators over the years.... so here are some that I recommend (they are all at different price points, so for sure call around and ask them what's included in their services):

Jennifer Hyde at Occasions Designed
Shairon & Sharice at Divine Events & Weddings
Julie McKenney at Bliss Elevated
Tammy at Eye for Wedding Design
Jessica at Meant to Bee Wedding Services
Honey at Seize the Day Event Planners

We welcome any opinions on this blog post.... any experiences you've had with planners good or bad.... let's not use names, but rather give tips to find the best coordinators for couples! Happy Wedding Planning!

~Jamie