Megan+Renee:love

I met Megan a few years ago through my husband, he does her hair and has for many years. I am now happy to call both Megan and Renee my friends.  I knew right away Megan was a ton of fun.  When she and her beautiful bride asked me for my help on their wedding day I was beyond excited. There are a few reasons to my excitement. One, because Megan and Renee are absolutely amazing people. Two, because it was my first same sex wedding. I have been trying to inch my way into same sex marriages/unions/ceremonies for YEARS now. Marriage equality is one of my passions and I feel as if I can not do enough to show my support.
Megan and Renee opted for a simple, traditional style for their ceremony and reception. They wanted all of their guest to focus on their love then have one hell of a party to celebrate it. They achieved their goal!
Megan and Renee, thank you so much for trusting me to pull your plans together, your wedding was awesome.
Here are a few photos by Red Photo Fusion:

Vendors:
Flowers: Marti's Floral Design
Venue: The Sanctuary
DJ: Jay Downs
Caterer: Be Creative
Hair: Shane Weber Salon
Photographer: Red Photo Fusion
Photobooth: Showtime PhotoBooth

Karen+Dan=badass

Ohhhhhhh....Where to start...Karen and I had starting emailing about a year prior to her wedding. From the very first contact email I received from her I felt a good connection.  Karen and Dan were planning their Cincinnati wedding from Virginia. Which is stressful on any level, but when we finally met in person, I knew this girl was on top of the game. She handed me a folder containing about 40 pages of info. From photos and bios of each member of the bridal party, music playlists, invitations, inspiration boards and all kinds of goodies. I felt as though I just met with a wedding planner who was getting married. This girl was organized and I LOVED it. Aside from the organization Karen offered I immediately noticed how her and Dan compliment each other so perfectly. Respectfully asking each others opinions on things and just being in love.
Looking forward to their wedding, the day finally came and I was blown away. First because Karen did an AMAZING job at planning her wedding. She left out not even the smallest detail. Everything was beautiful and the love surrounding Karen and Dan was absolutely perfect. They have so many awesome friends who wanted to make sure this day was flawless and everyone did!
I have to start showing photos now, because there are so many fantastic images. Congratulations Karen and Dan and I hope you are adjusting well to your new home in Atlanta.

Vendors:

Photographer: Innovatory Photography

Hair: Drea Naschke

Makeup: Heidi McKenna

Bouquets: Etsy (KateSaidYes)

Officiant: Steve Means

DJ: Brian Childs

Cake: Spoon Fulla Sugar

Venue: 20th Century Theater

why having a good photographer is soooooo important (regardless of your budget!)

Well.. this blog post was going to be about getting your sexy on with a boudoir shoot, but I decided (last minute) to make the boudoir post another day. Either way.. BOTH are important!
So the title says "regardless of your budget!" yes i saw that.  As a wedding planner, I do spend countless hours on the internet, I will admit it.. I search and drool over weddings until the wee hours of the night and get inspired. (My husband thinks I am wasting time, I say TV is wasting time.) My point is.. even if you have a 5,000 budget for your WHOLE wedding.. Spend most of that on your photographer. The world of D.I.Y. ( do it yourself) in the wedding world is crazy awesome right now! You can have a back yard wedding and create an atmosphere that is phenomenal with the help of D.I.Y. tutorials! Have friends and family make the food, do a D.I.Y. bar, get the wedding DJ app for your iPhone or iPod, thrift your wedding gown and find an alteration person to up-cycle it! (or even use your moms!) do an awesome dessert bar rather than a fancy wedding cake. These are all ideas that are super trendy right now. Yes, a few years ago I tossed out the D.I.Y. service to help brides who want a D.I.Y. look but do not have time to do it. But if your budget is small (I had my wedding on a 8,000 budget by the way) why not take the time to make it awesome.
So my post is about your photographer right!! You can find a GREAT photographer for 2,500. - 3,000. YES that is a lot of money, I KNOW! But hear me out... the one thing you will have FOREVER, will be your photos. The photography market in the wedding industry is OVER saturated with people who just go buy a camera and think they know what they are doing. You HAVE to do your homework, and just because they charge $2500. does not mean they are good, nor does having 20 years experience. I am not saying you may not get lucky and find a photographer who is just starting out and trying to build their portfolio and charging next to nothing to do it. They do exist, and every now and then they are really good.
I think another issue is being a bride, you may have never thought about photographers before. You may not have a clue as to what is good and what is hideous and out dated.  I went back and forth about whether I should post examples of good wedding photography and bad wedding photography and choose to not do it. I am not here to tell someone they suck at what they do. I am here to educate a couple in making smart choices when it comes to wedding vendors. So instead I will just post a link to some really great local photographers via my "we love" page. These are people that can tell your wedding day story with their art.
Go see some awesome photographers here!

pinterest....

Pinterest has become one of my biggest obsessions. I am pretty sure every wedding planner/designer adores it as much as I do. The concept of Pinterest is genius, basically you "pin" photos to create inspiration boards. The best part about Pinterest is when you pin something you love from a website it acts like an online bookmark. So you can always go back to the "pin", click on it and it takes you back to the website it came from. It is awesome for saving recipes, inspiration photos, D.I.Y. tutorials, and anything you just really love or want to revisit.
I love that I am able to create inspiration boards for my couples and they can also add to that board. So we are always on the same page in terms of design. The couples can look at it anytime they want and click "like" on the images they really love. Pinterest has taken inspiration boards to a new level that I LOVE! Go check out my Pinterest boards and see how fast you can get addicted. http://pinterest.com/oxyjen/

our wedding...

Due to the lack of blogging I got used to doing, I have yet to post real photos from my own wedding. Well the blog has changed, I am posting daily and I have a story to tell about mine and Shane's wedding.

Our wedding was a small intimate production. We opted for this because we really wanted to enjoy the whole day surrounded by our closest friends and family. Our wedding party consisted of a total of 2 girls and 2 guys. My two daughters, my son and Shane's brother. Shane's best friend Jason, who lives in L.A. got ordained and married us! He also did mine and the girls hair. Jason's wife made sure all of us girls had everything we needed and was awesome to have hanging out with us all day. Another one of Shane's really close friends from L.A. did our makeup. It really was perfect to have these important people making this day amazing for us.

Shane and I decided we wanted to see each other prior to the ceremony. I really had no idea how emotional this moment would be. Even though I have seen tons of first looks with previous clients I now know how beautiful that moment is when a bride and groom see each other for the first time, alone.

Since we saw each other we were able to get all of our pre-wedding photos out of the way before the ceremony.

Once we arrived at the venue, Leapin Lizard, our day of coordinator had everything set up and ready to go. So we were able to take some time and relax before guest started to arrive.

I have to say that having that time to regroup and relax was awesome. I highly suggest every bride do this. The few minutes right before the ceremony starts is crazy so it really is beneficial to be regrouped.

Our ceremony was short and sweet.

I chose not to over decorate the ceremony space mostly because it is so beautiful as is.
After the ceremony all the guests went downstairs for cocktails as the upstairs was flipped and set up for dinner. My favorite part of this was Shane and I actually were able to participate in the cocktail hour while our day of coordinator and the staff at Leapin Lizard flipped the room. I can not emphasize how important it is to have someone there to do the actual work the day of your wedding!

I chose to D.I.Y. most everything that was decor related. Aside from our actual amazing wedding invitations which Amo-Ink created. We made all of the napkins, menu cards, programs, the fabric hearts our flower girl tossed, hand painted all of our silverware handles, escort card tags,  picked a ton of wild flowers that grew near our house and bought some as well and created our centerpieces, made our bouquets and the boutonnieres, made the desert table signs, and the table numbers. Here are some pics!