Wedding blogs, if not filled with pictures, are simply just musings. This blog, without its occasional spattering of pictures, would just be terribly boring. I love photography, I love fine art photographs, I love pictures of the quirky details -- I love it all.

But now, as I face the task of making a list of "must-have" pictures, I find myself struggling.

How detailed do I get? Where is the line between being a control freak and demanding "pictures of guests laughing" versus letting our photographer do what she does best?

I have complete faith that our photos will be gorgeous -- I just don't want any of my "details" to be overlooked.

So, below is a random assortment of pictures I love. Maybe they'll provide me with the perfect amount of inspiration when compiling my list.

Oh, and I welcome (most) suggestions. Please don't suggest any family/group type photographs, because that's simply not what I'm interested in. We'll take those, don't worry, but right now, I'm looking for helpful suggestions on what photographs speak to you (or what photographs you wished you would have gotten at your wedding).


The quintessential ring shot. Already on my list.

Simple, yet perfect.

Sweet. And I love the blue shoes peeking out.

Perfect timing.

I love it. Who knew you could capture so much personality without seeing any faces??

The After-Party: Because One Party Just Isn't Enough...

The plan all along has been to have an afternoon wedding, for the convenience of some out-of-state travelers we have. But an afternoon wedding seems fairly anti-climactic. I can picture it now:

Tom: Well, it's 4:30 in the afternoon, and we're married. What's next?
Me: Uhh, I don't know. Wanna go out to dinner?

Now I'm not talking a "Let's go to the club and dance until 3 am" after-party. After all, we will be leaving for Australia the next day!! Instead, I've always pictured us having a low-key, lounge-around, fun party.


After-party napkins! How fun are these?

So, my first thought was Lucky Strike bowling alley. Since LS is known for being a bowling lounge (think sectional couches, coffee tables and low-hanging lamps) instead of a regular bowling alley, I thought it would be perfect. Until I found out the price. Parties start at $40 a person. That quickly adds up, and really isn't an option.

So I have two choices. I can either try to reserve 2 lanes before the wedding (reservations are only accepted 2 weeks out) and we can provide a few beer buckets and trays of snacks, or we can try to brainstorm a different idea.

Another major plus: our photographer is willing to come to the party and take photographs. How much fun will those pictures be?!?!?

Location, Location, Location.

So I've resumed talks with our lovely photographer, Kara, of Karatography. We're currently trying to find a date and location for our engagement photos. Here's the dilemma:

I want photos that are artsy, but reflect our personalities. I asked Kara for some location recs, but since she doesn't know us that well, she's not sure where would be best.

So dear readers, please sit with me while I try to figure this out. (And enjoy all her lovely photographs...)

Living in/near one of the grandest architectural cities in the world, should we head downtown for some lovely Chicago photographs?


The Bean!

The lakefront...

Lincoln Park, I believe...

Or, should we stick close to home at the Naperville Riverwalk (a site of many a Saturday night date for us!):

Or, should we head over to Cantigny for a range of photos?

Artsy, architectural...

Outdoorsy, garden shots...

Should we incorporate our interests, like sports?

Also taken at the Riverwalk.

Le sigh. Any help would be much appreciated.

PS - Just to reiterate, all photographs courtesy of Karatography...

Wait, What?

Everyone who reads this on a semi-regular basis probably has picked up on my love of photography, specifically of the fine-art category. I love photos that tell a story, rather than just capturing a moment. Like this, for example:


(via StyleMePretty)

or this:

(via A Practical Wedding)

And because I love this style of photography, I never even hesitated when booking our photographer. Until now. (Cue the terror music: Dum dum dummmm).

Until yesterday, it had never really occurred to me that all eyes would be on us. All of 'em. And a few dozen cameras. And a really expensive camera. A really expensive camera that is going to focus on us ALL day and take pictures for posterity. Pictures that our posterity will gawk at and coax remarks like "I can't believe you wore THAT!"from them. Lots of pictures. Pictures of us standing. Pictures of us hugging. Pictures of us kissing (eww. Please don't take any of those pictures).

It's not that I'm shy (because God knows I outgrew that years ago). It just skeeves me out that we'll have 200 people staring at us. It's almost panic attack-inducing. Okay, it is panic attack-inducing (which is probably why my boss is giving me the side-eye right now!).

I know this sounds completely irrational, and let me assure you, I know it is. And I'm sure it's nothing that a good ol' cocktail the morning of the wedding can't fix. I don't think I even want to start thinking about our engagement photographs...

A Must-Have Picture...

Even though it's pretty corny, I can't help but to love pictures like this! I definitely hope we can get some fantastic ring shots!

Our Photographer! (A Re-Post!)

I posted this previously, but because I wrote a draft, saved it and came back later, Blogger posted this when I began the draft (aka posted it about 7 posts back from when I wanted it). So basically this was overlooked, and I decided that Kara's work was much too amazing to just gloss over. So I'm re-posting all of it:

Please meet the amazing work of the lovely Kara Schultz, owner of Karatography:

(All images from Karatography)

I think it's pretty easy to see why once we saw her work, we just had to book!! And, it's also fairly evident what a sucker I am for photojournalism and fine art photography!

She has a great eye for style, she's unbelievably responsive and flexible, and we have the utmost trust that she'll capture everything we want for the day.

We'll be doing an engagement shoot sometime in late May/early June, so I'll have the opportunity to post more of her fantastic work!

Our Photographer!

Well, we received word recently that our contract/deposit has been received, so I can officially announce our photographer!

Please meet the amazing work of the lovely Kara Schultz, owner of Karatography:

(All images from Karatography)

I think it's pretty easy to see why once we saw her work, we just had to book!! And, it's also fairly evident what a sucker I am for photojournalism and fine art photography!

Photographer - Check!

Yesterday we met with 2 photographers who had made our "short list." It was great to meet them both, especially within a shortened amount of time, so we could make easier comparisons on work, price, personality, etc. Plus, we got to see some albums in person, which was nice. I guess I wasn't expecting them to be as great as they were, and now I want one :(

Anyway, we decided on the photographer about 2 minutes after getting into the car, and are in the process of sending in the contract and deposit. Exciting stuff :)

Once everything's completely "official," I'll definitely post a few of her pics and link up to her website or blog so you all can enjoy the goodness!

So besides her being friendly and helpful as well as the quality of her work, we were impressed by everything offered in her package. For a great price (well within budget), this is what we're getting:

• 2 engagement sessions (in case 1 doesn't turn out well or we wanted to do them at different times of the year)
• Unlimited photography the day of the wedding (great since we'll be there in the morning and are potentially having an after-party)
• A post-session (in case we don't have time for all the "artistic" type photos that I want the day of the wedding --- allowing us more flexibility to spend more time with the guests...
• Printing rights to ALL of our pictures, sent to us on DVD within 6 weeks of the wedding, once they've been edited and retouched

I really loved the option of having the printing rights, because I thought that not only would we have ALL of our pictures in a great medium for sharing (via blog, email, website, etc.), we can also purchase our prints when it's financially convenient --- there's no rush to spend hundreds of dollars on prints weeks after the wedding. Plus, as we move into new and different houses, we can always conveniently order more to fit the new spaces...

The option also allows us to extend the printing rights to family and friends. Prints can either be distributed and ordered through us, or they can be ordered through her. What Tom and I were really impressed with was that she doesn't price the additional prints to make profit, so those are really affordable as well.

All in all, we're pretty happy, and looking forward to the engagement sessions next year :)

Now We're Cooking!!!

Alright, now that I feel like I actually have an audience (and an audience that is responding to me nonetheless - Bravo you!), I think we're getting to the fun parts of this!! I love hearing new, unique ideas and getting feedback on them, too. So this next idea is brought to you courtesy of a friend from high school that sent the information to me after reading the blog. Once I relayed the idea to a coworker, I was then given even more glorious information/ideas for this.

So, courtesy of Amanda, the thought of a photobooth has now entered my overflowing brain. This trend has started popping up at weddings all over the place in recent years. When I first heard of the idea a few months ago, I thought it was sort of frivolous and unnecessary, but then again, what's not at a wedding, right? So when Amanda sent the link, I was naturally curious to at least find out how much it would cost. So to have the photobooth with unlimited pictures for 4 hours it would cost about $900. Normally that number would cause me to have a heart attack, but for some reason, I feel okay about it. In light of the fact that I want a photojournalistic-focused photographer (how's that for alliteration??), I'll be foregoing the traditional table shots. I personally think they're rather worthless. And I'm not a fan of guest books, either. BUT, with the photobooth, they also offer the option of supplying double photos, so the guests get one strip and the other is placed in a guest book with a quick note. Again, this could be another instance of frivolousness/something I can live without, but it's a fun idea...

As I was telling one of my coworkers about this, she told me that a friend of hers did this at her wedding, except they supplied a box of boas and other goofy accessories towards the end of the night for photos. She said the photos turned out amazing and were so much fun to look at afterwards...

So, any thoughts about this????