$60,000 Wedding Giveaway in Minneapolis

If you haven’t heard, The Guthrie has teamed up with some of the top local businesses to give away a $60,000 Dream Wedding in honor of the show “When We Are Married.”

All you need to do is submit a 3-5 minute video explaining why you and your fiancée want to be married at the Guthrie. Videos must be submitted by June 30, 2009 (so hurry!). The wedding will take place on August 16, 2009.

Some of the businesses contributing to this fabulous prize include:

the Guthrie
Dowling Studio
L’atelier Couture
Savii Formalwear
Bachman’s
and more.

Also included is a fabulous 7 night/8 day honeymoon at the Radisson St Martin Resort, Marina & Spa, which includes airfare (make sure your passport is current).

Get cracking on that video and submit it! For more details, click here.

Vendor Review – The Photographer

Vendor grade: A+++

I could not rate Laura Ivanova any more highly than I do now.

She’s professional, her prices are fair, and she has an amazing eye for composition. I’m not one to gaze at photos of myself for long periods of time, but I just keep going back to our wedding day sneak peak — she did SUCH an amazing job. I’m so excited to see the other photos she’s captured!

One guest commented to me today: “Your photographer was awesome! She seemed like she was always looking for the right photo, and snapping away, but she wasn’t in our faces, we barely noticed when she was shooting photos.”

Laura put us at ease at our first meeting, we knew that she’d be great to work with. So great, in fact, that we chose to lose a $750 deposit we had with another photographer, just so we could work with her. And boy, are we glad that we did.

Check out the preview of our pro session. You’ll see what I mean.

Click here to view the preview.

We had 6 hours of photography – and I can hardly wait for another reason to hire Laura!

Details – The DIY Photobooth

As I mentioned before, we decided to do a DIY photobooth. We borrowed those tripod/stands with clips to hold the backdrop, and put together a box of props. We hired a local photography student to man the booth for 2 hours.

Costs:
photographer: $30
props: est. $30
backdrop: we went with fabric we had on hand, instead of the $30 shower curtain

total cost = $60

Here are a few shots:

My brother, sister, mom and I

Sister and friend

guest

We had the DJ announce and recommend the booth a few times.

My only regret is that we didn’t get more photos!

The Engagement Session

R and I weren’t sold on doing an engagement session, we both feel a little awkward in front of the camera (and in the limelight), but we decided, upon the suggestion of our fabulous photographer, to try it. And we liked it!

Laura Ivanova, our photographer, totally helped us feel comfortable in front of the camera and got some great shots of us. The only downside is that R kept cracking up (nervousness?) and I would then laugh for about 2 minutes straight (nervousness).

I am REALLY glad that we did them because we could get comfortable in front of the camera, we’re now familiar with Laura’s style, and we got some great photos in the process. Here’s a teaser:

See more at Laura’s blog.

Just Loving Our Photographer

I knew that our photographer was the right person for us as soon as I saw her blog. Then I met her, and I was so completely sure, there was no question that we’d be hiring Laura.

We ended up losing a $750 deposit because of her awesomeness, but… I know it will all be worth it.

Check out these great pics from my friend Rachel’s wedding to her love, Aaron.

Laura did such a fabulous job capturing the sheer joy of their day, that I just had to share.

Both R and I are beyond excited to work with her in less than 2 months!

Another Great Photographer

Check out Federer Photography — Joe Federer covers your wedding from the beginning to end, with the help of a second photographer. His style, eye for lighting and decent prices are worth checking out.

Awesome Wedding Photography

Wow — what a cool idea. I saw this idea on the website of a U.K. based photographer. Here’s his version, I think we’re going to have to try this ourselves — how easy — hire someone to snap the photos, hang a curtain or sheet as a backdrop, and bring a digital camera, and of course a cool, oversized frame.

Check out Martin Oliver’s site for more amazing photography.

How To Be A Bridezilla

The Bridezilla are a special breed of woman. Not everyone can be one, and not every ‘Zilla exhibits the traits until a sudden glint of a diamond suddenly switches something in their brains.

Here are the easy steps you must follow:
1. Cry with disappointment when your boyfriend proposes. Tell him that you really want to marry him, but simply can’t do that unless you’re wearing a 3 carat Tiffany ring.

2. Choose a wedding color down to the shade. Make sure that you won’t allow any variances, it must be THAT color, no exceptions.

3. Approach your bridal shop, hairstylist and makeup artist with a photo of EXACTLY what you want to look like. It doesn’t matter that the model is 16 years old, 6 feet tall and Brazilian with thick, lucious hair and full lips. You want to look exactly like her. If they can’t make it happen, they’re just trying to ruin your day.

Capture The Moment 5

The GTB and met with our fourth and final photographer on Saturday afternoon. We met with the photographers from SoulCam at a Caribou Coffee. Scott and Robyn really “wowed” us with their packages — they included so many little details.

Their packages include 2 photographers, all images on a high-res disc with copyrights, free engagement session, pre-scouting of locations (to ensure they find and utilize spots that’ll make your photos great!).

We were looking at their 6 hour session with all the perks for only $2,250!

They even have a shorter session for under $2,000.

Scott and Robyn’s angle is to capture moments from multiple angles. He may be head-on, but Robyn could be off to the side, capturing the same photo or waiting a few moments and capturing something completely different.

They had quite a few traditional photos in their portfolio, but their more “photojournalistic” images show such depth of color and such.

We were in love with Scott and Robyn upon meeting them and almost felt like giving them a hug after meeting them!

At first, I was thinking that we may not use them as they didn’t seem as “angular” and (I guess) avant garde, but after looking at their online gallery again, I am now completely unsure of whom I should choose. Help!

Capture The Moment 4

The GTB and I made our first Saturday stop at 1Fine Day‘s studio in NE Minneapolis. We met with Brett who was so fun — she works as a sort of coordinator for the studio (which is under the umbrella of Serendipity Photography.

We chatted with her for a while. It’s funny, I completely followed everything she said. We got into the car and the GTB was like, “She was just throwing numbers at us! I couldn’t keep up!” He’s a brilliant man, but get two girls talking and throwing numbers around in a somewhat non-logical way and “look out!”

Anyway, we checked out some images and got a feel for what our day would look like, time-wise. It was weird, this is the only studio that offered this information.