Candi Leonard Photography

Pinterest boards, oh my!

I have been a pinterest fanatic forever!  And one of my boards was always wedding stuff for clients, but it got to be so big it took me FOREVER to find the pin I wanted to share with my clients.  And then I had the awkward thing of people thinking I was getting married again, which I am not since we have done that once and are blissfully married still.  So, I decided to seperate my pinterest account for my business.  

 

Now I realize that I vented about the Pinterest complex not that long ago and I still believe it with all my heart, but I do think that pinterest is an excellent source for inspiration.  I will be sharing a little of how I use pinterest for inspiration in a post next week.  Until then, check out my business pinterest account.  I have it all organized with tons of beautiful wedding inspiration!  

 

www.pinterest.com/clphotolove

 

 

Wedding galleries!

Last year we switched over our wedding pricing to where we included your wedding images (fully edit, full sized files with printing rights) in ANY wedding package!  My business has seen many seasons of wedding packages over the years and after trying out credits, disk, no disk, albums, etc.  We decided that the best route is really to give you guys the files...all of them.  It makes us happy that our hard work is forever yours and brides and grooms can share them as they please!  It is a win-win!  After moving back to this system, we had to tackled another thing....how to deliver them!  We tried several methods last year.  We did dvd's forver now.  But the reality is, my files are SO big the average wedding had 3-4 dvd's to fit it all.  And then we did USB sticks because they fit them all in one spot.  But really, the ease of these files still wasn't what I wanted for my clients.  So we started using online sharable galleries.  And it is a DREAM COME TRUE!  Today I wanted to highlight these galleries and all the reasons why brides should LOVE THEM!  

 

First of all...here is how your wedding files will load for you to see...

Clean, pinterest like galleries.  

 

Weddings are automatically sorted into categories to make it easy to find a shot you want to share.

 

And sharing has never been easier!

 

And they have an app!  Download the app to your phone or ipad and your photos go with you everywhere.  You can easily show friends, family, coworkers, etc your wedding photos!

 

No more getting requests from mom to print me this or grandma that family photo.  They can order prints or download the files themselves!  

 

And you can easily share your gallery via facebook.  No more uploading a TON of photos to a facebook album, click and BOOM all there for you and your facebook friends to see!  

 

And my favorite part...the BEST part.  They are online for 10 years.  yes, 10 years!  You can access that link at any time and NEVER worry about losing your photos in fires, floods, computer crashes, etc.  It is just perfect!  

 

So, Brides get excited!  Your wedding photos will be coming to you in a beautiful way soon!

 

And portrait clients that order digital negatives will also have this gallery sent to them as well!  :)  

The value of TWO!

Hello Friends!  I have a pretty fun post for you guys today, especially my wedding couples!  When thinking of some blog topics, Travis jokingly said, what about the value of your #2 (what he lovingly calls himself on wedding days).  But REALLY that post is a really good topic!  So here you go!

 

THE VALUE OF TWO SHOOTERS!

I include two photographers at EVERY wedding we have.  Why, because it provides an invaluable service for my clients.  Travis and I tag team the entire day.  It gives you guys two viewpoints of it all.  Our styles are very different and I know the kind of shots he gets and he knows what I am going for, so we don't compete for shots.  We always know it's all covered.  Here are some examples...

 

PORTRAIT ANGLES...

He always gets the side view and the in-between candid stuff while I shoot portraits.  It is just beautiful! (mine is top, his bottom)

 

 

WALKING DOWN THE ISLE

One of us takes the groom and the other the bride.  That way you see BOTH views!

 

 

OR FIRST LOOK:

DETAILS...

Travis is the ring shot master!!!  He can balance wedding rings like nobody's business. I tell him my vision and he does the hard work.  Then after I get my shot, he always take a view from his angle too.  

 

 

VEIL FLUFFERS...

And when he isn't shooting, he is a master at fluffing veils!  

 

and of course, it is just amazing having the person that I love the most right there by my side all day.  He knows my crazy emotions of the day and he calms my stress and helps me focus.  He is the only person I can ever imagine working with!  

The Pinterest complex.

Today's post is really more of my rambling, but it is something that has been weighing on my heart for a while...so here you go! 

 

Pinterest.  we have a love/hate relationship.  I am sure you can relate.  Brides...love pinterest right?  bouquets, decorations, photo ideas, color schemes, cakes, dresses, all at your fingerips to pin, pin, pin!  So you start looking and pinning and falling in LOVE with these beautiful wedding photos pinned before you.  And then you start trying to put it into your wedding.  That bouquet has flowers that are out of season during your wedding or costs $500 over your budget.  That beautiful dress is only in boutique stores and the starting price is your entire wedding budget.  Or you try to DIY that cute chalkboard sign for your wedding and it looks like a kindergardner wrote it for you.  And then it happens...you feel defeated.  I am sure you have been there.  You see this beautiful stuff before you and you want it and then it falls short.  THE PINTEREST COMPLEX!  

 

I am here to tell you the other side of that.  As your wedding photographer.  We too browse pinterest looking at beautiful weddings.  Wanting to capture images like you see.  We want to photograph a wedding at that AMAZING location.  We love those detailed dresses that aren't traditional (blush pink, yes yes!).  We want to capture those moments that just put tears in your eyes or a smile on your face...those amazing groom reactions, the sweet moments of a wedding day, etc.  And sometimes those things JUST DON'T HAPPEN!  Not every moment of every wedding is going to be perfect.  Most of the weddings I photograph have what I call a sweet spot.  Either their details were just so stunning that you couldn't get enough.  Or their wedding party was so much fun that you snapped a TON of bridal party photos.  Or the bride and groom oozed love and your gallery was overloaded with couples portraits. Maybe the ceremony was so touching and full of tears that you have sweet reactions to remember forever.  But the reality is, that every wedding isn't full of ALL those things.  Sometimes I leave a wedding feeling defeated because I didn't make the entire thing look like it came straight off of pinterest.  IT IS HARD for us too.  

 

The reality of it all is...a TON of what you see on pinterest isn't real.  Wedding professionals often stage weddings for workshops, editorial magazines, etc. and that is a LOT of what gets pinned.  And truth be told if you looked at a wedding in WHOLE you wouldn't find perfection from start to finish. It rarely happens.  

 

We have had the opportunity to document beautiful weddings and tell the story of some amazing clients.  But within those moments of that day...there is always SOMETHING that doesn't go perfectly...for us or them.  Maybe it rained on your outdoor wedding.  Maybe you had a fight with a family member and there was a lot of tension during family photos.  Maybe your cake was starting to melt or fall apart.  Maybe your flowers got too hot and died.  Heels break, hair falls, groomsmen get sick.  IT HAPPENS.  And it happens at every single wedding.  Every one of those scenarios I mentioned happened to couples I photographed THIS PAST YEAR.  

 

For me, I have learned to embrace it.  It is part of what makes weddings fun.  I thrive on the chaos.  The bride may take an hour longer getting ready than on the timeline.  The room the bride dresses in may be filled with kids artwork or bags and water bottles.  The groom may not want to smile during photos.  The bridal party may hate photos and not cooperate.  The bride may look like she wants to puke while walking down the isle.  The light may be harsh at the "alter".  The rain may change our plans.  But you know what...it is still a wedding and I still do my best to capture it.  

 

So, I tell you this today because I want you to know that it doesn't matter.  I promise you that SOMETHING will be off on your wedding day.  Something will go wrong.  Something may not be a pinterest worthy  moment, and that is OK.  The moments that go right will shine for years to come.  I promise.  So allow yourself some breathing room.  Don't let pinterest get you down.  Use it as a jumping board, but realize that a lot of it is just out of reach.  It will still be beautiful.  It will still be YOUR WEDDING! And that is far more special than anything you can find on pinterest.