We here at Hitched are all the time trying at new ways of doing things better and finding ways to be different from our competitors. One of the things we found to add a little fun to our shooting is to grab some video from weddings and splice them together for an enjoyable mini recap of the wedding day. With Olga’s new camera, we are able to capture high resolution video footage of the event, when not in shooting mode. For example when we are at a wedding, I’ll be ready to shoot that garter toss or bouquet toss and she’ll be standing by to capture the event in a mini video. Or you might be dancing your first dance with your new spouse and while I’m snapping away catching the stills, she is able to capture it on video. That way after the wedding, as you are looking through your online gallery, you come across the video, and it’s a pleasant little recap of your day. After you watch it you are able to send the link to the video to family and friends. Keep in mind that it can’t replace the videographer and it doesn’t have the elegant editing that a good video editor can do, but it’s just something fun and extra for you to enjoy!

Bride: “This is my first wedding” – what you might need to know!
Bubbles
Disposable cameras
Alternative to Disposable
Wedding planners
Meet and Greet and Testimonials vs. References

Bubbles
I know I’ve touched on this subject before, about bubbles and your wedding, however given it some more thought, and came up with some ideas. That if you are going to have those little bubble containers at your wedding what are you going to do with them? People can blow bubbles when you leave the church, when you leave the beach, or maybe when you get into the limo. These are all great ideas but you might not have considered, during the first dance, or during the parents dances. So long as you don’t have a slippery surface it would make for a more enchanting wedding moment, then without them. It definitely makes for better photos, when you are dancing with your new husband and the music is just right, and then bubbles start to cascade down around you. Talk about memorable. Another point to be aware of is that those bubble containers don’t often come full, they can have some evaporation or some could have leaked out. So when people are blowing they are often spitting near or on you. One idea is to get a bubble machine from Walmart, I picked up one for my photo shoots, and it was only like $20 or so.

Disposable cameras
I seriously don’t think they are worth the time, money or energy that brides think. They are good in theory but here are some things to consider. You might spend anywhere from $5 – $15 on each camera, sometimes forcing you to buy 10 at a time. Before you know it you just added $100 to your budget in cameras. Then you have to processing, you’ll have to take them to a developer, and wait a week or If you pay the money for the 1 hour processing you are looking at another $10 a camera to process, all with the hopes you’ll get some good fun shots. One major drawback with those camera is the flash, as you will often be using them at your reception, maybe around the night time, the flash doesn’t provide all that much light and when you have mom, grandpa, or guest, trying to take photos of you on the dance floor some 15 – 20 feet away, those images might just turn out black. Or what about little “Jimmy or Suzy” running around with it, she might get a fun one, but who knows if it is being used right and you might develop a who camera with some blurry, dark pictures. That is why having a professional photographer stay an extra hour or two might be more worth it to you. They have that more powerful flash that reaches some 15 – 30 feet and they can change their settings to allow for more light in the camera, a feature disposables don’t have.

Alternative to Disposable cameras
Something I have not seen a single bride try to do as of yet. You will know who is coming to your reception mainly because you invited them. Find out what kind of digital camera they have, and buy a memory card for you. Chances are most digital cameras I’ve seen at weddings and receptions are point and shoot cameras that take SD cards. You can run to Staples, Wal-Mart, even find them on line and buy these cares for $7 each. And these memory cards do not need to be that big, maybe 256 megabite would be the minimum to buy, but now a days you can get those 1 gig cards for $7 at staples. What you do is have a designated person, hand out the cards to the guests with the cameras, ask them to take pictures with your memory cards, then when they leave; they drop the card with you before they leave. You have to do this because the biggest problem people have is taking 100 photos, putting it on the computer and forgetting about it. You’ll end up looking like the bad guy, constantly asking “Uncle Bob” or “Best friend Kim” to send you a disk in the mail of your images. This way, you have some 10 memory cards at the end of the night, you pick up a $20 card reader and you take the images with you on your honeymoon.

Important note:
Now I might have talked myself out of a job here, but keep in mind, that point and shoot cameras are still no match to the skill and knowledge a professional photographer will have at your wedding.

The Wedding Planners
If you can factor this money into your budget a wedding planner is the way to go. As this is your first wedding, you could gain a lot of insight and benefit from a wedding planner’s knowledge on weddings. Much like I have years of experience photographing weddings, and I give tips to brides all the time, my knowledge can’t compare to what a planner would know.

Like making sure the cake is situated just right. I’ve seen it happen before when the cake shows up half melted, leaning and looks bad, but a planner would have the foresight to call the venue and make sure they have a place in their freezer to accommodate it and to pull it out at a certain time and keep it cool during the ceremony. That’s a whole thing on to itself that you as a bride don’t want to deal with on your day. I’m sure you’d much rather be thinking about your new husband, having fun, enjoying the friends and family. If you try and do it all yourself, you are going to be worrying about the flowers, making sure the dresses are there on time, making sure everyone gets paid for their services, the whole wedding day time table. The wedding planner is there to be your brain for the day, to think about all the things you don’t want to think about and certainly a whole while investment.

“Meet and Greet” your wedding professionals
Even if you are planning a bit of a destination wedding or something local you should consider meeting with your service providers, Cake makers, wedding planners, photographer, videographer, DJ, Minister, etc. I’m sure that all goes without saying, but some don’t meet with them till the day of the wedding and I often feel it can put a strain on the day if you aren’t careful. Like if you meet with the DJ beforehand you get to chat about the evening’s events and the time line. What if you only email that information over and something got lost in translation, you might anticipate your reception happening one way and the DJ does another. Or not meeting with a wedding officiant, I’ve seen it where the minister called the bride by another name because they had another name on the paper and I’ve seen it mispronounced. You don’t want that on your wedding day.

And to tie into that same topic, ask for references, if they professional say’s to you, “here are my testimonials” that doesn’t tell you anything. Yes they could be true and accurate, but to know for sure, the references are what is going to let you know. A reference will be someone that wedding professional has worked for and can tell you firsthand how they performed. You will find out early if your decision to hire them was a bad move or will put your mind totally at ease as you then found out this person was “Heaven Sent”. Those testimonials could have been embellished or made up or they could be right on the money. You just don’t know.

So these are just my thoughts to you as a bride.
I hope they help.
- Will Vickers

I had a great time on Saturday with Dan and Doreen and their wedding in Rehoboth at the Atlantic Sands. This was a small wedding only really and hour but we had a lot of fun with the photos. One of the coolest things I found when I was there was a runner that ran from the boardwalk to the wedding arch and it was made in such a way that the bride could walk on it easily in heels. And any thing that makes the bride’s life easier is always a good thing.

The wedding minister was my good buddy Leo Weigand, and he did an awesome job making sure the couple got what they wanted. After words I had beautiful weather, a lovely sky and a fun group of people to photograph. This particular wedding with it only being an hour and with my living only a mile from the wedding location, I was back home and done editing the images by the end of the night. It took all night to upload them all but after everything it was nice to have the photos captured, edited and up online all in the same day.

Well I have a lot to blog about and I can see I haven’t blogged in a while. After our trip to Phoenix, AZ for the Imaging USA conference, we picked up some new techniques from the TriCoast Photography guys, Mike and Cody. Well we got a great chance to implement these new skills with a fun and willing couple, Yuliya and Rob. This lovely couple was willing to allow us the time to take these great photos. This whole shoot leads me to another blog topic but also an article I’d like to write, on “Allowing the Time for Great Photos”. But before I get into all that, allow me to go share with you what we did.

We invited Cathleen with Weddings by Cathleen out to perform the ceremony; I met Cathy at a recent wedding and had a great time working together so we’ve been chatting ever since. We invited Leo from Bridal Beginnings out to shoot with us, as we like working together; I thought he could pick up a few new tips and have fun. I had our new assistant/photographer Matt with us in a training capacity and a videographer Paul J, which when we get the video edited, you’ll get to see some footage of it. And of course there was the lovely couple, Yuliya and Rob, they were so spirited and fun to work with, Thanks!

I’d also like to give a big thanks and shout out to Julie Norwood, Master Colorist & Stylist, for providing the fabulous updo for Yuliya. She did an awesome job and not once did we have any hair problems. For you brides out there looking for a really good hair stylist check Julie with Spa by the Sea at 302-227-8640 or 302-670-6757.

I’ve wanted to organize a shoot like this for some time now. I’m hoping to get a shoot going like this at least once a month for us, photographers to come together and horn our skills.

I found that I did a lot of directing as opposed to actually shooting, I was pleasantly surprised with how much my wife took over the shooting. Shortly after the ceremony Olya became the main photographer doing most of the shooting as well as getting some fantastic shots in the process. All the images in this post were images that she had captured. I was on babysitting patrol with little Drake and assisting with the equipment, when I got a chance I’d take a snap shot and worked with our lovely couple and put them in the right places.

All in all it was a great time, a fun shoot and we plan on doing it again, so if you are bride who is getting married or already married and would like to wear your beautiful dress again and get your guy out to get some photos, give us a call.

Bride’s Dress provided by Weddings by Cathleen – Check out her wonderful brides at http://www.cathleensweddinggowns.bridalsnet.com/

The Zach attack!
The Peyton Experiment!

Both can be said here as affectionate ways of describing the two. My buddy Justin who is a DJ referred this couple to me for photography and about 2 – 3 weeks before the wedding I hadn’t a clue what I was getting into. Usually I’d have a couple of phone calls with a client before the wedding discussing different aspects of their wedding or I’d have a chance to do an Engagement portrait session if they lived locally. In Peyton and Zach case, Justin gave them my number and I met them about a one week later at a bridal show in Ocean City.

What made this couple unique and what made this wedding special for me was I really had to relying on my ability to think on my feet. I knew the church they were going to be getting married in as I had photographed a wedding there the year before. And their reception was at a house down around Assateague State Park. Anyway, the couple was very flexible with getting photos; I was able to pull them away from the reception twice to get some stunning photos. Zach and Peyton were also pretty creative with what photos they themselves wanted. The combination of creative ideas made for a fabulous time photographing.

Weddings in Ocean City, gives you a regular buffet of reception locations and among some of my favorite places is Fager’s Island. Some of the highlights are the staff, all very accommodating, nice and easy to work with. With photography it offers a lot of locations for shooting, such as the lighthouse close by, you have 10 or so backdrops and spots that make for a cozy photo. The sunsets at Fagers is something to stop and take notice, every evening around sunset they play classical music as you gaze out on the bay. The gazebo and back deck are other fun places to take some photos. The couple, Terry and Todd, were such a nice couple to photograph and by the end of the evening, it felt like I was part of the family. I had quite a few conversations with a lot of their family and it was so real easy going and real easy to photograph. The couple needed a DJ, so I suggested my close friend Leo who’s been a professional DJ for 29 years and together we made it a fun night for all. You can imagine how fun it was when you had the bride calling me in to the ladie’s bathroom to photograph her and all her bride’s maids relaxing on the couch. That of course was brought on by the grandfather calling me into the men’s bathroom to get a photo of him with all his grandson’s there. nothing bad, but pretty weird. I like weird, it keeps it interesting.

Giving a shout out to Holly and Walter – to you, your family, and your guests, I had a great time and thanks for having me as your photographer. Holly’s dress was very Very Unique and Beautiful.

For those of you thinking about a wedding location in Ocean City, Seacrets is a pretty awesome place to say your “I Dos”. I chatted with the Holly and Walter about it briefly and they said it was a pretty good deal as far as venues go. The food was great, can’t go wrong with Jerk Chicken. There was so many fun spots to shoot there, I could have spent all day photographing there. it was so funny how every time I took the couple and bridal party around they were getting lost. Just like the Seacrets saying “find us and get lost” it was a true factor here. Back in the day when I was in high school I used to work at Seacrets as one of their line cooks, and they have grown so much since then.
The staff there was pretty awesome and accommodating everything that I could have needed. I wanted to take a photo from the high up balcony and they pointed me there and I was able to get the shot. The DJ was a Seacrets DJ, and he was so very helpful in letting the crowd know we were cutting the cake or doing a dance. And when it came time to take that photo of the whole group of people, DJ BK helped get everyone together. Cool Dude!
Anyone looking for a photographer for your up and coming wedding at Seacrets please give me a call, as I not only work as your photographer, but as a tour guide so you don’t get lost up in there. And if you aren’t getting married there, and never been, definitely go there and try the Jerk Chicken, it’s the best in town in my opinion.

My wife, Olga did videography on this wedding and she grab some fun shots of me in action. After some splicing and tweeking, I now have this lovely little 5 minute clip to share with you.

Congratulations Meghan and Ross! You two were great to be around and I really loved photographing your wedding. Both Meghan and Ross are New Yorkers that converged in Ocean City for their place to host their wedding vows as it accommodated more family members. Not to mention Ocean City is a great place to have wedding, where we have the beach with all the sun and fun you could want. The Clarion was their choice of venue and a cool place to have a wedding. I had my second photographer Holly with me on this one, and my buddy Justin Darling was there doing the DJ. And what a time we had, when Justin gets going doing his DJ thing, he really is getting the party going.
Towards the end of the evening, we got all the shots we could get, we all had a fun time dancing and grooving to the hopping tunes Justin was playing.
Ross and Meghan were super cool and photographed real well. There was a person issue going on with the couple that we picked up on, but I like to think Holly and I kept them in good spirits to help their day along and to get great photos.
I can recommend the Clarion as a really nice place to get married, as you have the beach for outdoor shots and lots of indoor spots to grab photos. And without a doubt I wouldn’t have had such a great time if my buddy Justin Darling wasn’t there, he kept the party rolling.