Grosse Pointe Wedding Photos - Kiera & Alan

So Kiera and Alan's wedding was a first on many levels. This was the first time the groom contacted me and the bride's father conducted the interview and the bride was along for the ride! Another first was that I wasn't allowed in the sanctuary of the church. Like not allowed to step over the thresh hold. Makes getting wedding photos kind of challenging. I was allowed in the choir loft and that was fine, but not exactly a great spot to catch any action! The part that bothered me most is that the officiant whose church it was, the families and the bride and groom all thought I could be in the sanctuary, so they were all expecting me to have photos from the ceremony. Some services, Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, aren't allowed to take photos during the ceremony, but this is part of a tradition and everybody knows ahead of time photos won't be taken at that time. I could see other vantage points where I wouldn't physically be in the church, but could see the action, but the old church biddies wouldn't let me go around, despite the priest's recommendation to shoot from that angle! So... know your church's rules (Christ Church's rules were written in churcheze and even though I asked them to translate for me, they didn't until I arrived. If you know your churches rules for wedding photography are very strict, you won't be shocked or bummed when I have to follow them. I can't break their rules, but I'm also not used to old church biddies getting the last say! The reception took place at the Country Club of Detroit, whose staff was exceptionally nice to the guests, myself and my photo booth partner. If you'd like to see more Country Club of Detroit wedding photos, please check out my other blog at; www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com.

Paint Creek Country Club Wedding photos ~ Kara & Jim

Gayle force winds, torrential downpours, abnormally low temperatures? You never would have know by looking a Kara on Saturday! She’s left rosary beads and crosses on her window sills and proceeded with her wedding preparations like a champ! The wind died down, it barely sprinkled, wasn’t too chilly and she and Jim even got a rainbow out of the freaky weather! Because I’m no longer blogging about how wonderful my couples are... too mushy, great for them to read about, but not exactly helpful information for anybody else, I thought I’d concentrate on critiquing wedding locations, any other vendors that stand out positively, give tips for things that went right and tips for things that can go “wrong” or ways to easily avoid wedding day pitfalls. Not that there are huge gaffes and I’m tattling. More like there are certain trends I’ll see or wedding day timeline issues I can comment on. Hopefully this will serve to be helpful to people reading the blog. The hints I write about may not even have been from this particular wedding, so please, if you are the bride, groom or friend, these are meant for people to glean valuable information from, not to critique indidual behavior. Make no mistake... I LOVE my couples and offer 100% of my support and wedding expertise on their wedding days in order to avoid any pitfalls I might see looming on the horizon or just step in to head off since just about all of them are really easy to avoid! If you'd like to see more photos from Kara & Jim's St. Hugo Chapel wedding and their Paint Creek Country Club reception, check out my other blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com.

Detroit Zoo Wedding Photos from Kristen & Mike

Another blustery day in the Motor City! Not to fret, though, we got all of our family and bridal photos done before any rain drenched us and Kristen hadn't wanted to take wedding photos at the Detroit Zoo except in the Butterfly Garden, so everything worked out just fine! I LOVE how calm my brides are when I arrive and the weather outside is "frightful". They just go with the flow! Enjoy the photos and if you'd like to see more wedding photos from my Detroit Zoo wedding, please check out my main blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com.

U of M Michigan League Wedding - Katie & Mike

I met Katie and Mike last year at Mike's sister's wedding and was delighted when they hired me to shoot their U of M wedding. They wanted lots of coverage, had lots of input about what they did and did not want. I think Katie can testify to my usual advice that the day can easily get away from you and time seems to fly by with or without you on your wedding day! I was pleasantly surprised by how well this group of family/lawyers/actors gelled, each one upping each other when we were taking photos at the U of M law quad and later at the University of Michigan League where the reception was held. Our weather held. After 80 degree days leading up to the wedding, our bodies were shocked by the 40 degree drop! Oh, I reiterate another piece of advice I give my brides (but one that usually gets ignored!).... if you tend to be a "blinker" in photos, do not get false eye lashes for your wedding. The added weight only exacerbates the problem. Blinkers blink at a higher blink rate than the average person, so they are caught with their eyes closed more often in photos and when you add the lashes into the mix, you appear to blink more often. Your eyes will appear closed more often and I also will get oodles of photos mid blink and, well, that ain't purdy! Needless to say, my percentage of useable images goes down drastically. I usually take out around 1/3 of the images during an edit. Blinkers reduce that to 50%. Blinkers with false eye lashes reduce that to about 35% usable images. That's a lot of images that just don't work! There... that's my bride's public service announcement for the day! If you'd like to see more from Katie & Mike's U of M wedding photos, please check out my main site's blog at www.marcicurtis.blogspot.com!