Oh, what fun we had photographing Tom and Amy’s wedding. “we”, referring to myself plus the newest Platinum Mix recruit, Rob Lewis. I met Rob a few months ago while I was DJing. Rob was the photographer. We got to talking and I thought Rob had the perfect personality to be a great DJ. He said he was interested. I gave him my card, but didn’t think he was really gonna call. He did. We are working on teaching him how to DJ, but in the meantime, the guy is a fantastic photographer. Amy and Tom had 2 photographers booked, so I thought it the perfect opportunity to bring out Rob. Here’s a few of the resulting images.

I started out the day at Amy’s parent’s beautiful home out in Milford, while Rob hung out with Tom at the Holiday Inn in Livonia where he was getting ready.

The ceremony was held at Our Lady of Victory in Northville, Michigan.

Amy rocked her poses ‘yo ->

Amy’s Uncle drew this caricature for the back of the limo:

Looks like the real party was on the limo bus….. Love this next series of images all captured by Rob who got to ride on the party bus with the bridal party.

St. Mary’s Cultural Center hosted the reception, and what a party it was. Memorable moments include a good ‘ole fashioned cake fight, lots of energetic dancing, mom plus her siblings serenading the bride with their very fun coordinated mega mix, the groom and his homies rocking the backstreet boys, and The Hora (no, they are not Jewish, but I don’t see anything wrong with incorporating an awesome tradition).

Congrats Tom and Amy!

I started the day out with Katie and the bridesmaids at their hotel. Evis and Eric were both with me as well to shoot video, but since we didn’t have a whole lot of time to get a little of Melvin too, then Evis stepped in and shot both video plus a few stills over at Melvin and Katie’s house.

The ceremony was held at St. Clements of Rome in Romeo, Michigan.

After the ceremony, we headed out to the country to get some photos. I was following the party bus in my big white work van when I attempted to bust a U on a dirt road and found myself totally stuck in a muddy ditch. Oops. Number 1 priority was to get photos for Katie and Melvin, so I focused on taking the following photos, all the while thinking about how the heck I was gonna get my darn van outta that ditch.

Thankfully, the groomsmen took over the stuck van situation and called in the father of the groom who just happened to have a spare tractor around to pull me out. Crises adverted. Props to Katie and Melvin who remained remarkably calm during the whole ordeal. Eric, of course, took video while all this was going down:

So on we went to the reception. Held at Tina’s Country House in Macomb, Michigan.

Here’s a couple photos from Jodi and Jason’s wedding yesterday! Ceremony was at Kensington Church in Troy, Michigan (they have a cafe in this church!) and the reception at Partridge Creek Italian American Cultural Center in Clinton Township, MI.

This next one was shot by Jesse Green. So useful to have a 2nd photographer around, especially for the pre-ceremony stuff when the girls and guys are separated. Thanks Jesse!

Jodi’s garter she picked out for Jason who was in the Marines:

The “Square Pegz” rocked the reception with their hip 80′s covers. Love this pic with the bride! ->

What a pleasure it was to work for Bree and Andrew on their wedding day. I loved all the details, from the bouquet [photo above] made by the mother of bride, to all the thought that went into the reception decorations (the centerpieces, candy buffett, memories table, etc). Everything was gorgeous! Here are a few photos from their day ->

The party at Arnaldo’s in Riverview, Michigan was a blast. Everyone got their boogie on to an eighties cover band called “Riot House“. Bree’s brother even rocked the drums for a song or two ->

Congratulations Bree and Andy!

Here’s a few preview photos from Dan and Jenni’s wedding this past weekend at the Fern Hill Golf Club in Clinton Township, MI.

Did lots of experimenting with different lighting setups at Dan and Jenni’s wedding. I’m still looking for that perfect reception lighting setup…..but I did learn what happens when you fire a flash directly at a disco ball!

Both the ceremony and reception were held at Fox Hills in Plymouth, Michigan in the “Fox Classic” room. Erika and Francisco were cool with seeing each other before the start of the ceremony, so I got to do a “first look”. The bridesmaids and groomsmen helped to set it up and keep the two of them separate until everything was ready for them.

After that, we did a few photos inside Fox Hills and then Erika and Francisco braved the chilly November temperatures to grab a few outside on the golf course.

Recessional Photos a/k/a the “exit shot” are always one of my favorite shots of the day:

DJ Emmitt rocked the party!

For those that have arrived to this blog through platinummix.com, you know that we do lots of fun stuff with videography. Ever since last year’s upgrade to the Canon 5dmII and Canon 7d camera’s, I’ve been experimenting with lots of different ways to incorporate video footage into all of our clients wedding imagery. Making it affordable has been important to me since frankly, video seems to be the first thing that gets cut from wedding budgets but IMHO, done well, its really a cool thing to have. Since Erika and Francisco were so cool and laidback, I thought it would be cool to experiment with capturing tiny chunks of video while simultaneously capturing stills. What follows here is my first attempt at mixing the two mediums together in a video presentation that features lots of stills, sprinkled with a bit of video –>

Special thanks to Lauren Walton who came along as a second shooter. Having somebody else with me, really helps to free me up to try new things and get a bit more creative. Lauren did a great job!

Congrats Erika and Francisco!!

So writing this blog has suddenly gotten harder for some reason. Maybe its because I’ve been blessed lately with AMAZING clients. For me at least, my editing workflow is: 1) Photograph wedding 2) Download, backup and import all photos into the computer 3) Go through and select a “few” favorites for blog/client preview. 4) Edit just those favorites and upload to blog 5) Process the rest of the photos. My problem? Stage 3. A “few” favorites, lately has become like 156. As was the case with David and Juliana’s wedding. They had both their Ceremony and Reception at the Grecian Center in Southgate, Michigan. The grounds hiding behind the Grecian center are incredibly PERFECT for photographs. Add to that, David and Juliana who are so cute together and great at posing for the camera, not to mention totally open to all of our crazy ideas, and the result – too many photos to choose from! This is a good problem to have. Here are just a few from their wedding day:

Admit it, David looks like a total bad ass in the following photo. I looooove this photo. Unfortunately, I can’t take complete credit for it. Platinum Mix did the photography and video, and Eric, the videographer set this shot up. I actually shot this kind of on a side angle while he did his thing with video. Can’t wait to see how his video version came out!

I don’t think the woman in the next photo spoke any english, but she was one of my favorite characters of the day. Every time I pointed the camera at her, she gave me the nicest smile. She just seemed like the sweetest woman of all time.

In retrospect, I wish I would have taken the following photo just a few feet further back so I could have gotten the whole car in the photo. Still, i love the church in the background with the classic car in front.

Congratulations David and Juliana!!!

I’ve been booking DJ jobs for Bryan for a couple years now through Platinum Mix. Aileen, I’d only met once or twice and just for a few minutes each time when Bryan came to pick up or drop off equipment or something. After their engagement photo session, I decided they take great photos together and their wedding would most likely be fun. But I had no idea just how perfect they actually are together until their wedding day. Seeing them both interact with their families and friends, both me and Evis (who was shooting video) commented about how freaking PERFECT they are for each other. They are both incredibly sweet, thoughtful, and FUN people. Here’s a few of the photos ->

Alright. So. I’ve seen the bride coming down the isle thing like a ka-zillion times. And while at the actual wedding I was completely focused on finding the moment as always, when I was home sitting at my desk editing the ceremony video, watching Bryan try so hard to stop crying when he saw Aileen coming down the isle – I’ll admit to crying like a little girl. haha.

This may be the biggest group shot I have taken thus far. ->

Ahh…the bridal party. What should I say about this bridal party…hmmm…lol. Seriously though, this bridal party was everything a bridal party is supposed to be. Fun. (very) Fun. Entertaining. Cooperative. Helpful. And they did more than their share to hype the reception up. Awesome bridal party.

How about a little Tug O’ War in the church? Props to Evis for finding the rope and coming up with this idea. Thats what I love about working with a team. 2 minds working for the same goal is always better than 1.

Not sure what the heck happened during the limo ride from the church to the photo location (downtown Birmingham), maybe a *little* bit of alcoholic beverages *may* have been consumed. Regardless, it was most def an entertaining photo session:

As previously mentioned, Bryan is an excellent wedding DJ. And as any decent wedding DJ knows, the success of the reception is largely reliant on how fun the bride and groom are. In this short video, DJ Bryan along with is lovely wife Aileen, demonstrate how to properly kick off a reception.

‘Cause its about to go down! from Sara G. on Vimeo.

One of the (many) highlights of the evening: The break dancing. I love me a good break dancing crowd. And who knew Bryan could do it so well?

This blog post has gotten much larger than planned, so I’ll end this post with their highlights video. Oh and, a couple more pics are available on Platinum Mix’s Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/platinummix). Feel free to Tag yourself and re-post!

Bryan and Aileen’s Wedding Day Recap! from Sara G. on Vimeo.

Congratulations Aileen and Bryan!!!!

The reception was at the Meeting House Grand Ballroom in Plymouth. Pam and Paul win for best bridal party introductions ever – the bridesmaids rode into the ballroom on scooters! Awesome.

I’ve got a ton of dancing/reception pictures to go through, but I knew right away when I took this one that it was going to be a favorite ->

Congrats Pam and Paul!

Sean and Brandi got married August 14th at the White House Wedding Chapel in Warren. Awesome location for a ceremony – its really perfect inside and plenty of spots for photos both indoors and out. I just wish they gave people a bit more time before the ceremony (we only had like 15 minutes). Other than that, really great location!

I have to thank Brendan Pfaff (not only a great DJ, but a great friend as well), for the suggestion of taking them to the Warren City Center in between the ceremony and reception.

The Beer Toast!

By the way, this cute little one in lots of these pictures is Sean and Brandi’s daughter!

I love seeing what people do with the portraits I take of them! Sean and Brandi made this nice frame that all their guests signed for them out of one of the engagement photos I took. How cool!

I also loved their table centerpieces ->

This next one, is one of those total screw-ups that in the end came out pretty cool (at least I think…haha). Brandi was tossing her bouquet and just as she let it fly a guest fired her flash and totally blinded my camera (basically we both fired at the same time). BTW, this is exactly why some photographers are jerks about other people using cameras at weddings. I personally don’t care much, and actually am pretty excited about this one:

Congrats Brandi and Sean!