How are you all doing today? As promised, I have something quite special for you today – Paul and Liz’s wedding.

I have to be honest, this wedding has to be one of my all time favourites, it was such an amazing day in every single way imaginable, and I am so so so thankful that I was the one Paul and Liz chosen to document their fab day.

But let’s start from the beginning. Paul and Liz has met sometime almost 13 years ago in college, where they both studied design, Paul graphic design and Liz furniture design and they”ve been together ever since. With such a strong design background, I was really looking forward to what they will come up with for their wedding day. A couple days ahead of the big day, Liz sent me a link to their wedding website WWW.LIZANDPAULAREGETTINGMARRIED.COM and when I saw it, I knew I will be in for a treat.

I joined Liz and her family at Liz’s house once she got her hair fabulously styled at Style Club,  just when her friend Leanne was taking care of the make up and the visual feast for my eyes started straightaway. Liz’s hair and make up was fab, I absolutely loved her earings (she got them in Oz) and her headpiece made by her friend Bronagh at Bro Jolie. Liz’s custom-made dress by Joanne Flemming were to die for and her sparkly shoes from Rachel Simpson suited the whole look perfectly.Cherry on top was the colourful bouquet made by friend Sally who works for Appassionata Flowers.

But let’s move on to the groom’s style for a bit, what do you say? When I saw Paul for the first time, I kind of guessed that he will wear something a bit more funky, than a regular suit. But when I saw him at the top of the aisle I couldn’t believe my own eyes:) Groom wearing red pants??!?! Say what!?!?!? But it was true indeed:) And I loved it:) I loved everything about Paul’s style on the day, mainly his suit from Brooks Brothers/Tommy Hilfiger and his pink socks!!! Pink socks rocks!!!

A few more details I can’t forget to mention are super funky buttonholes and name badges created by Liz and Paul – every guest got their own name badge as a wedding favour (together with a Lotto ticket) and these also served as a name cards on the tables, I also particularly loved the one for their friend who was the designated driver of the vintage Mercedes they had borrowed for the day from their friend and the ones for the members of the band who played during the ceremony called Crayonsmith which said: “I’m in a band”   We also had a pretty cool stationery designed by Paul, black wedding rings (engagement ring is from Courtville Antiques in Powerscourt Shopping Centre, wedding bands are from Amazon.co.uk), even the table centerpieces were quite random, just have a look at the photos below:) Basically everything was just totally cool and funky:)

Paul and Liz started their wedding day with a civil ceremony and a cocktail hour in the absolutely chic City Hall at Dublin, from where we moved on to Phoenix Park to take some photos, amongst others some also with deers (how random, deers in the middle of the city, I couldn’t believe it!!!:)) and finished the day at super cool restaurant called Angler’s Rest. If you live in Dublin and you haven’t been to this place yet, you have to go!!! It has a very unique atmosphere and it’s own charm and I couldn’t imagine Paul and Liz choosing any better place to celebrate the rest of their day with their friends and families.

Paul and Liz, THANK YOU! Thank you so much for having me with you on the day, I really had an absolute blast, it’s a pity I had to leave and couldn’t stay for some dancing, I bet the rest of the night was fantastic too:) I hope you’ll be as happy as you were on your wedding day every day of your lives:)

Now I feel like I have written way too much as usual, so I think it’s time to have a look at some photos, I hope you’re ready, there’s quite a few of them:)

If you like what you see, please feel free to leave a comment in the box below either via Facebook or blog. Thank you!

I’ll be back next week, until then, take care!

Love,

How are you all doing? Any super awesome news, anyone? Anyone got engaged while I wasn’t here?

First of all huuuuge apologies for the radio silence, I went back home to get my laser eye surgery done, and it was (well still is) a bit weird to be looking at my PC screen, so I thought it would be better if I stay away from it for another while. But I can’t wait anymore, I have a few pretty cool things coming, so I thought why wait any longer. I’ll start with a non wedding related post today, but what’s going to come next week is going to be a wedding amazingness overload, so I’ll take it easy today:)

A couple months back I borrowed a 35mm film SLR from one of my friends, to try and have some fun with it. I’ve never shot on a film SLR before this, so I though I might as well give it a try to see what happens. I did use it for a few shots on a couple of my weddings, but it was only when we went for a city break to Bristol (where I also attended this superb workshop) I get to finally used it “big time”. And then came a few months of the rolls of film just laying on my table waiting for me to finally send them of to get them developed and scanned. And guess what a couple of weeks back, I finally did, so today I can finally show you the results:)

Please don’t ask me what film did I used for these (I think it was Kodak Portra 400, but not 100% sure), camera is Canon EOS 50. Seeing as I liked the idea of shooting and not posprocessing the images I got my very own 35mm SLR Canon AE-1 Program with three lenses. Just shot my first roll of film on it this weekend, so can’t wait to get that developed. I am planning to take this camera with me to Italy for my summer holidays this year, so expect much more travel photos coming your way:) But as my holidays are towards the end of September, before that, there will be much much more wedding prettiness, so yay!!!

Anyhow, I feel like I rambled for quite a lot now, so here, have a look at the photos!

Make sure to come back next week for THE MOST FUNKIEST wedding of Paul and Liz:)

Love,

How are you all doing? I have one day to go until my laser eye surgery, so I am pretty nervous and excited at the same time:) I am going to be really short today, seeing as this is only a Sneak peek post anyway, but OMG what a wedding this wedding was!!! I can’t wait to share more with you soon, but for now I have this one photo, which I absolutely love love love;)

I am not 100% sure how quickly I will recover after the surgery, so I won’t promise you another MAP or usual post on Wednesday for next week, just in case I can’t do it:) But I’ll be definitely back in the beginning of May with some more cool photos:)

Take care and keep your fingers crossed for me tomorrow morning:)

Love,

How is everyone today? How is your week going so far? I am feeling a bit sick again today, cold or something…. not enjoying it at all, but either way, I have another wonderful engagement/beloved session for you today. You may have noticed, that I use a term Love Shoot in the headline, so that’s just something new I’m going to do from now on. Basically any couple’s portrait session will be called a Love Shoot, because I do mix every engagement session nowadays with Beloved techniques, and the term engagement/beloved session is just a bit …. well not very romantic or anything like that. So from now on these sessions or any one couple’s portrait session will be called Love Shoot.

So today, I have Martin and Aoife’s Love Shoot. I met Martin and Aoife’s at their stunning wedding venue Farnham Estate in Co. Cavan and we had a great time together, despite the cold weather. I love love love using Beloved techniques in my sessions as they do bring out the real emotions so easily and also deliver a great experience for the couple.To find out more about Beloved, please click here.

Thank you guys for being so awesome on the day, I can’t wait to see you again on your wedding day, later on this year!!!

Now I’ll leave you enjoy some pictures.Feel free to comment on these in the box below.

Stop by on Monday for another advice, until then, take care, and if you’re feeling a bit sick as I am get better soon!

Love,

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and nice an easy going Monday:)

I am a bit late with today’s advice, so apologies for that, but I kind of got my days mixed up a bit and until later in the day I still thought that it was only Sunday today:)

Today I asked one of my past brides, super lovely Zena if she would like to share any advice with you, and here is what she has to say:

“I would advise anyone planning a wedding to not get stressed! Shop around, consider alternatives for example my wedding dress was a bridesmaid dress in ivory. eBay and etsy have great finds if you want something quirky or vintage. Pinterest is a great resource I wish I had when I was planning!

Only invite who you really want, don’t get bullied into doing what you don’t want to and stick to your guns. Remember this quote: ‘those who mind don’t matter, those who matter won’t mind’. 

I would also recommend considering a weekday wedding. We got married on a Monday and only had 4 people unable to make it to the full day. You can get better value for everything from venue to bands and your guests will make it if they want to be there. We had several people take 3 days off and stayed with us a couple of nights in the hotel and as it wasn’t as busy as it would be at weekends, it felt so intimate.

Enjoy the planning, the time flies, its so exciting and above all, enjoy the day!!!”

Thanks Zena for your wonderful tips! I especially love the quote, as I think it’s so true!!!

Below please find one photo from Bryan and Zena’s wedding, but if you like to see more click here!

Have a lovely day and I shall see you again on Wednesday!

Love,

Hope you’re all doing great. I have absolutely zero time to write a blog post today, so all I’m just going to say is, that here is a sneak peek from one of the two super cute e-shoots I did last weekend. More to come soon! Enjoy!

Have a lovely Wednesday!

Love,

How are you all doing? How was Easter? Are you sick of all the chocolate eggs yet? Or can you still eat some?

I didn’t get any of the fabulous wedding suppliers to send me their advice on time for today, so I am going to share another advice with you myself.

And it’s pretty simple:

“If possible talk to your photographer regarding the timings of the day before confirming times with your venues (starting time of the ceremony, time of the dinner being served and any other special things you’re planning to happen on your big day at a particular time) especially if you’re not hiring a wedding planner.

Because let’s be honest, this is probably the first wedding you’ve ever planned and you may not have the clearest idea of how long is everything going to take. You might have been guests at many weddings, but it’s always a slightly different perspective to be a guest and to be the bride and groom. Your photographer has (hopefully) been at many many weddings, so he/she will probably have a better idea of how long does usually things take in reality, not planned on a piece of paper, so he/she should be able to give you a good advice in regards to timing, taking in account all the different details and parts of the day – civil/church ceremony, the amount of guests in the church which will be part of receiving line, time to travel to the church from your getting ready venue, time to travel from the church to the reception venue, time to take couple’s portraits and family group photos (every photographer is different, so times they need for this will differ too) time to take enough candid photos of guests, possibly some details shots etc etc. All this may also be affected in a very different way, in case you have two photographers on the day or just one, because if there’s two, they don’t need that much time, because while one of them is doing the couple’s portraits or group shots, the other one can be doing the candid photos of guests or details shots of the venue decor etc etc (so maybe you could also consider having two photographers if you’re tight on the time).

Be sure to ask for their advice, because as I said, they’ve been there many times, and they have a good idea of how long can things take and even more importantly how much time do they need in order to capture everything beautifully. They should also consider things you may not have even thought of, for example when is the sun setting down, or that a receiving line with 50 guests won’t take as much time as the one with 200 guests, or that your vintage car you have for transport from church to the ceremony probably won’t go more than 60 km/hour etc etc).

And the last part of the advice is, please do not only ask for their advice, but try to listen to it too and try to make it work, so that you can have a relaxed day without any time pressure on neither you nor your guests or your photographer.

That’s all I’ve got for you today! I hope it was helpful at least a small bit:) If you’re one of my brides and we haven’t talked about timing of your day yet, please do get in touch. If you have booked another photographer, but are still reading this, please do ask them for their opinion.

If you have any advice you’d like to share, just send me an email. I will be back on Wednesday with a sneak peek from a Love Shoot (more on this on Wednesday) I did on Saturday with one of my lovely couples.

Love,

PS: The photo is absolutely non related to this post, but I really like it and it just reminds me of Summer, so I thought I might post it and maybe it will make us feel a bit warmer?

How are you all doing? I am soooo cold:( Seriously. I need some warmth… I have nothing against winter and all, but please can the Spring finally make an appearance before I die from cold? )

Today I have a couple of super cute photos from the Welcome Home Workshop I did at the beginning of March with the most amazing Emma Case and her super cool husband Pete who decided to bring this wonderful workshop to Dublin too. It was an absolutely wonderful day full of laughter, tears, inspiration, new ideas and new friendships, but what I loved the most was taking photos of our amazing couple Kate and Brian. Ok seriously aren’t they the cutest couple you’ve ever seen? I loved loved loved everything about them, their style, their love for each other, they were perfect! Have a look! I am not lying! At the very end is also a few backstage snaps:)

I also attended another of The Spectacular Vintage Wedding Fairs over the weekend, this one was in Dublin and I ran another competition to with a free engagement session. It is my pleasure to announce that the winner is: Fatou Foussé. Congratulations Fatou, I can’t wait to see you again and “shoot” you and your lovely fiance.Thanks to everyone who entered the competition!

That’s all I’ve got for you today. Enjoy the pics below and I’ll see you on Monday with another advice post.

Happy Easter!

Love,

How are you all doing today? Did you have a nice weekend? I had a great one. Spent two days in Dublin meeting wonderful vendors and amazing couples at The Spectacular Vintage Wedding Fair. I had a really great time, despite the fact, that I got cold and wasn’t feeling very well on Sunday. Did you do anything special?

It’s Monday again and I have another super cool advice. Today I have ladies from Pretty As Picture sharing some tips about wedding invitations and stationery. I hope you’re ready, because I am, so here we go:

“Your wedding invitations are the first glimpse that your guests get into your big day. They set the tone for your wedding and are a great opportunity to give your guests a teaser for what lies ahead. A popular theme for wedding invitations is an illustrated love story encompassing details from couple’s lives together, from where they first met, to hobbies and interests they have. A common line we hear is ‘but we don’t have a really interesting story’ and I can tell you for a fact everybody does you just don’t realise it yet!!!

Start jotting down where you first met, what you like to do together, special people or pets in your life, a favourite song you share, places you’ve travelled to, special moments in your lives… you will soon find you have too much to tell and will need to scale back!! Then, you can think about introducing your story on your invitations, menus, place cards, ceremony booklets and carry the theme through your whole wedding. This is a great talking point for guests and is sure to make your wedding stand out from the crowd.

At Pretty as a Picture, we have dealt with so many wonderful couple’s who each have their own unique story to tell. Every couple is different – some come to us with hundreds of ideas and others don’t know where to start.

Below is an example of an illustrated wedding invitation in soft pencil and watercolour that we created for Sonia and Paul. Sonia and Paul first met in Holland where Sonia’s family is from. She is a first generation New Zealander and Paul comes from Ireland. They had the lovely idea of combining their heritages in a subtle whimsical way.  After brainstorming together we decided to go with a soft pencil illustration with the main elements highlighted in watercolour. Paul is a Botanist at Trinity College and has actually discovered a new kind of yellow Poppy (featured in the invitation)!

With this in mind we went with a detailed botanist vintage style illustration of the plants. Incorporating plants from both New Zealand and Ireland as well as some native wildlife resulted in a whimsical forest scene. Both the couple and their close friends would be able to pick subtle little symbols out of the scene that represent the two of them. The result was a beautiful story wedding invitation that was truly unique to them as a couple.”

Pretty as Picture specialises in creating something unique and special for their couples and they would be happy to talk to you about your ideas for your stationery, so don’t hesitate to give them a shout if you’re still unsure what to do with yours.

Ladies, thank you so much for this valuable advice, I really liked it and I hope we helped someone today:) and btw, WOW on the invitation below. Isn’t it absolutely amazing?!!?!?

That’s all for today, stop by on Wednesday to see some photos from my last workshop. There are some super cute photos there, so you don’t want to miss it:)

Until then, take care and if you’re feeling sick as I am, get better soon:)

Love,

(photos below by wonderful Christina from Brosnan Photographic)

How are you all doing after another weekend? And what a weekend it was!!! Wasn’t it? Was it mad? Or did you stay home and had a quiet night? Or did you stay in, but partied like mad? Seeing as I’m not Irish and I very rarely drink alcohol, I (as every year) decided to celebrate at home in front of my telly, where I watched some pretty movies:) I hope the hangover is long gone and you’re ready to read some more fantastic advice. Today please welcome Annie from Aislinn Events telling us a bit about how to choose your wedding vendors:

“I read once that there are 2 things that make a good marriage. One is meeting the right person and the second is being the right person.

I have a similar theory for planning your wedding. There are 2 keys to good wedding planning. One is being the right person, meaning knowing what you want, and the second is meeting the right person, meaning hiring the right vendors for you.

So for today’s MAP I’m going to talk a little about shopping for wedding service suppliers.

Finding the right vendor for you is going to save you hours of time, lots of grief and quite possibly some money too because planning a wedding can be confusing and sometimes a bit scary. There are lots of decisions to make and a lot of questions will be asked by everyone. After all you have never done this before so finding a vendor that you are comfortable with and trust 100% is going to make your life so much easier and happier.

Take note that above I said the right vendor for you. Getting recommendations from friends, family and maybe even in forums is all fine and well but remember, your wedding vision, plans, budget and style is probably totally different than the person giving the advice and whoever that person used, no matter how fabulous they thought they were, just might not work well with you.

So when shopping for vendors take your time, and please do give yourself time.  Don’t make decisions in haste because you want to check that off of the To Do list. This is your first {and only} wedding but your suppliers will have done it hundreds of times before so choose the right one and you will get support, guidance and options you need.

To find the right vendor, look around a lot. Do Google searches and pay attention to what you like and what catches your eye. When you see things you like, find out who the supplier was. Who made the flowers, the cake, did the hair, took the photos. Look at websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter, and get to know the suppliers who are doing things that are interesting and are attracting you.

Once you have narrowed down a few, talk to them. Actually have a conversation with them {even before you ask the price}. Find out about what types of weddings they like to work on and why. Talk about who they work well with, how long they have been in the wedding business, why they like it and how they got into to it. You may just be pleasantly surprised at what is on offer and how helpful and genuine they can be. Plus you may just get advice in other areas or recommendations. Then go into what their prices are and what you get for that price. The value of a service is more than just the cost of it and the peace of mind you get when you trust your vendors 100% is priceless.”

WOW!!! Now isn’t that absolutely fantastic write up? I couldn’t say it any better if I tried:) Annie thanks soooo sooo much for your words of wisdom! I am 100% sure that we helped at least one person out there today:) If you’re looking for the perfect wedding planner, you should definitely consider Annie, she’s a great professional, and also a really nice person!

Now go and have a google around to find Your perfect vendors and I hope to see you back here on Wednesday for a couple of photos from the Welcome Home Workshop I did recently.

Love,

(photos from a shoot styled by Annie are by KristinBooth.net)