Wedding Photo

Digital Wedding Secrets is an online course on digital wedding photography developed by Nick Smith. It is a comprehensive easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide on the important tips and techniques that every wedding photographer should be equipped with.

The Digital Wedding Secrets puts together all the basic fundamentals on wedding photography. Wedding photography is no doubt one of the most profitable and challenging photography niches that many photographers love to go into. For an amateur wedding photographer starting out, he or she would usually be overwhelmed with the extensive amount of knowledge to learn. Although you could easily find some information online, there is only so much you could find, and it's very unlikely that you would be able to find all the information required from one website. What an amateur wedding photographer needs most, is to obtain all the essential information he or she wants to know about digital wedding photography from one central resource. With this guide in hand, there is no need for one to sign up for a professional wedding photography course, which may sometimes cost thousands of dollars.

Having scouted around for an in-depth and informative course on wedding photography, the Digital Wedding Secrets comes across as a good resource for any amateur wedding photographer starting out. It covers the A to Z of all aspects that an amateur wedding photographer should know about wedding photography. In fact, it is not just for amateur wedding photographers. It is developed for all photographers alike, whether you are an amateur, professional, freelance or full-time photographer. With the extensive and useful information available in the Digital Wedding Secrets, even the most professional photographers would find something valuable to learn in the course.

In my opinion, the Digital Wedding Secrets is a must-have guidebook for all wedding photographers for the following reasons:

- It gives you all the professional knowledge needed for a wedding shoot, and gives you a confidence boost in handling your clients better

- It helps to improve your digital wedding photography skills and create many happy customers

- With your new found skills, it would increase the profits of your wedding photography business, which in turn allows you to increase the charges of your wedding packages and finding more clients

Most amateur wedding photographers starting out often have the following questions:

- How to shoot candid shots

- What strategies to adopt for communicating a theme in any setting

- How to make inanimate objects work photographic wonders

- How to shoot beautiful wedding portraits

- What kind of timeless poses that the bride and groom-to-be would demand for

- How to most effectively balance color and contrast

- What kind of photography equipment to bring for a wedding shoot

- What strategies to follow for running a successful wedding photography business

- Where and how to advertising for their photography business

- What techniques to adopt for creating the right kind of indoor and outdoor lighting effect

- What kind of common mistakes to avoid on an actual wedding shoot

- How to make and present their portfolios to potential customers

- How to eliminate competition in the wedding photography business

The pointers listed above are just some of the concerns faced by most amateur wedding photographers, which would be sufficiently addressed in the Digital Wedding Secrets. They are also important knowledge that every photographer should know to do a good wedding shoot. We all are aware that weddings are very time-sensitive and that events evolve constantly. Hence, with a good grasp of these basic fundamentals, we would be better prepared to deal with any unforeseen circumstances during a wedding shoot.

Professional wedding photo albums are created from high grade materials. The tough but stunning satin cover is chosen because it is durable and will last for many years but also because it offers exceptional photo printing standards. The pages of the photo album are made from ivory coloured Italian 230gsm paper and there are parchment tissue interleaves that give the album a traditional look and help protect photos from scratching and rubbing against one another.

Customising Your Wedding Album

The cover is the customisable section of a wedding photo album. Choose a single photo and have this printed on the front and back cover or choose a photo for the front and another for the back. You can even use a selection of photos and have them combined into a single, beautiful looking photo montage and have this printed on one of the covers along with a favourite wedding photo for the other cover.

Including A Presentation Box

Once the cover is designed, you can add your own photo mount pieces and then mount your own favourite wedding photos in order to produce a beautiful and deeply personal wedding photo album. What's more, you can use one of those favourite photos and have it converted into the lid of an incredible presentation box. The presentation box is designed as a means to protect the album and its contents but is also a great looking item in its own right.

Wedding Books

Rather than applying photo mount pieces and subsequently sticking your own photos in a photo album you can instead choose to have your photos printed professionally on each and every side of a stunning photo book. You can customise the covers of a photo book in the same way you can a photo album and you can even include a presentation box but photos are printed professionally on very high quality materials to give you an even better looking finish.

Guest Books

Choose a photo of you and your partner and have it printed on the cover of a photo guest book. Create page designs by including column headers that will be printed on every page and let your guests sign the book and leave a personal comment or note for you. A great reminder of those that shared the big day with you.

Canvas Prints

Choose a favourite photo from your wedding day and have it printed on a canvas print to hang in your house. The HD Satin canvas provides exceptional photo realism and photo reproduction so that you can and all visitors to your home can enjoy looking at the photo time and time again - you can even add a short text message to the back of the canvas making it the perfect gift for your partner to celebrate your wedding day.

There are generally four kinds of photography lenses that every wedding photographer should have in his or her gig bag:

• Wide-Angle Zoom


• Wide-to-Telephoto Zoom


• Image-Stabilized Telephoto Zoom


• Prime/Portrait Lenses

Wide-Angle Zoom

Wide-angle zoom lenses are one of the most important photography lenses that every wedding photographer should have, typically 17mm to 35mm in length with a fixed aperture of f/2.8. They provide a large depth of field, making it simple to have foreground and background in focus. They are an indispensable wedding photography equipment which allows versatility in confined areas such as a small banquet room or crowded dance floor. While shorter photography lenses allow you to capture more details, wide-angle zoom lenses allow you to capture more reactions and atmosphere to tell a richer story.

To elaborate further, wide-angle zoom photography lenses allow you to shoot a wider perspective of moments happening around the major subject, hence providing a bigger picture of the entire event. For example, wide-angle photos have the capability to tell "stories within a story", allowing you to reveal more of the story behind the shot. This is essential for a good photojournalistic wedding photography. As events surrounding weddings are so time sensitive, good photography lenses will allow you to capture as many actions or emotions in the quickest time as possible.

When used in a venue such as the church or ballroom, wide-angle zoom photography lenses also magnify the grandeur and spaciousness of the area, which encapsulates the creative feel for a photojournalistic wedding photography.

However, you need to be selective of the scenes or actions using wide-angle photography lenses, as a caveat to shooting wide is that it creates some body distortion, particularly when a subject is photographed close-up. Generally, people tend to look heavier and shorter on the edges, while arms can look huge. The last thing you want is to have the bride cursing you for making her look like she has put on 10 pounds! To get around this problem, you should as far as possible avoid putting the bride and groom at the edges of the wide-angle distortion. In addition, wide-angle photography lenses might also introduce distracting or unwanted elements into the frame, which would otherwise ruin a picture perfect moment.

Wide-to-Telephoto Zoom

Wide-to-telephoto lenses are the single most important photography lenses that a wedding photographer cannot do without. They should ideally be lenses that cover somewhere around the 20-70mm focal length range with an aperture of f/2.8. This ideal range lets you get wide enough to take a group photograph and close enough to capture facial emotions in your candid shots or a three-quarter portrait of a couple without the undesirable effects of wide-angle perspective distortion. They also double as good lenses for portraits. Given just this lens, you would be able to capture most of the shots needed for a wedding decently well.

Image-Stabilized Telephoto Zoom

Image-stabilized telephoto zoom lenses are also essential items in your wedding photography equipment checklist. The 70-200mm focal length is an important range for wedding ceremony photos. It allows you to give your subjects more space in situations where you don't want to get in the way. As you will often be photographing down the aisle from the back of the church, image-stabilized telephoto zoom lenses will come in very handy. 200mm is long enough to be able to take 3/4 length images of the bride and groom exchanging their vows while staying at a reasonable distance away from the action and 70mm is wide enough to take in the bridesmaids or groomsmen as a group without switching photography lenses.

A good point to note is that when using such photography lenses, nice blurred background can be achieved with maximum wide apertures of f/2.8 and long focal lengths of 200mm or 300mm, whether you are using a full-frame or a small sensor body. This allows you to isolate the subject from its background, and to focus attention on the image as the main subject you want to portray. Such photography lenses are especially useful for shots where you are unable to get in close and for intimate and private moments, where you want to be an unobserved stranger at a distance. Some examples include a stolen glance, a mischievous grin, a kiss - the details that are effectively conveyed by the emotions. Image-stabilized telephoto zoom photography lenses hence play an important role in capturing such moments.

These image-stabilized telephoto zoom photography lenses aren't only good for blurry backgrounds or shooting events from a distance. They could also be used to photograph stunning facial close-ups from creative angles above or below the subject that don't exhibit the normal distortions of large chins or shrinking heads that come from wider photography lenses.

Yet another advantage of such photography lenses is that you can use the small-sensor camera's 1.5x crop factor to your favour. The 200/2.8 long end of the standard zoom effectively becomes 300/2.8, a lens that would cost $4000 for a full-frame camera. The effective 300mm length allows for more creative photo angles than shorter photography lenses, such as tightly cropped images of the groom's hands lifting the bride's veil or the bride and groom's hands while they put rings on each others fingers.

The obvious disadvantage of image-stabilized telephoto zooms is that in many cases, long photography lenses tend to disconnect the subject from the main scene and there might be little to no context as to why the subject may have had expressed how they were feeling, the whereabouts of the subject and who else was there.

When using a small-sensor camera as your primary or backup body, the other disadvantage of image-stabilized telephoto zoom lenses is that neither Nikon, Canon or Sony make an f/2.8 lens that gives you an effective 70-200mm focal length. Hence, you would have to pay the high price and carry the weight of photography lenses designed for a full-frame camera.

Canon's Image-Stabilization, Nikon's Vibration-Reduction and Sony's SteadyShot INSIDE systems are indispensable in allowing you to hand-hold these large and heavy long photography lenses, especially in low light situations. Every wedding photographer should ensure that the image-stablization and vibration-reduction features are available on their long lenses. You might also want to consider using a tripod to ensure continuous, accurate subject placement and sharp photos. Such telephoto zoom photography lenses are huge investments and if you have a budget constraint or an amateur just starting out, you might want to consider rental instead.

Prime Lenses

Prime lenses are essentially photography lenses with fixed focal lengths, as opposed to zoom lenses, which have variable focal lengths of say 24-70mm or 17-55mm. Prime lenses generally have a better optical quality than zoom photography lenses, and usually come with wider maximum apertures such as f/2.8 or f/1.8.

Good prime lenses are must-have photography lenses for any wedding photographer, as they are excellent for taking good portraits. Although you will be adequately equipped for a wedding shoot with the three zoom lenses in your lens kit as discussed above, it is worth including two to three fast prime lenses in your bag as well. These photography lenses are compact, light, and fairly inexpensive and would probably be needed in about 10 to 20% of a wedding shoot.

Faster prime photography lenses are ideal in situations where f/2.8 aperture is not enough to get the motion-stopping shutter speed or shallow depth of field desired, whether for artistic or technical reasons. For example, an image that requires a 1/20th of a second shutter speed at f/2.8 will only require 1/60th of a second at f/1.8, forming a distinction between a sharp image and a blurry one. Many professional wedding photographers actually include prime lenses in their gig bags as an economical backup to their zoom lenses. Not many people could afford to purchase an additional 70-200mm f/2.8 telephoto lens as a backup and you also want to prevent a frantic situation whereby your photography lens fails on you during a crucial moment.

There are many prime lenses available on the market but most photographers would include a 28/1.8, 50/1.8, and 85/1.8 in their prime photography lenses kit to be used on a full-frame body. The 28mm is wide enough to cover most ceremony locations and confined spaces, the 50mm is good for small groups or a priest blessing a couple, and the 85mm is long enough for ceremony vows and exchange of rings. A wedding can be successfully photographed with just these three photography lenses.

There are things you as a couple can do to end up with better cake cutting photos and to have a better experience. Knowing where to place your cake, how to stand, and what the traditional steps of this wedding ceremony are will help you will feel more comfortable during the cutting event. Follow these tips, from start to finish, to get the most out of your wedding cake photography and experience.

There are several important steps to cutting a wedding cake, and each is a moment that can come and go very quickly.

To get the best photos, it is important for you to take it slow and pause when you are doing each of them. Everyone will want to see what is happening, and your photographer will need to capture each shot.

For the best wedding cake cutting photos, move your wedding cake away from a wall and out of the corner. Ask your venue coordinator or wedding planner to move the cake into the open before you cut it. This will prevent you from having your back to the crowd or to your wedding photographer.

When you and your new spouse cut the cake, face the crowd. Make sure the cake is facing the crowd, as well. The front of the cake should face out so that it can be seen in the photos.

First and foremost: Do not rush this important event and take it slow.

Before you begin, make sure you have everything you need:

- Knife or cake cutter
- Cake Lifter
- Two Plates
- Two Forks
- Napkins
- Champagne (optional, but recommended!)

Before you cut into your beautiful and expensive cake, look at the cake, admire the cake, "ooh" and "aah" - enjoy it before it is cut and eaten!

If there is a topper on the cake, pose like the topper (always makes the crowd laugh). This pose also makes a great photo.

When you are ready to cut the cake, place the knife lightly on top of where you plan to cut. Have the other person put their hand on top of yours so that you can cut the cake together. This is a great time to kiss.

Now SLOWLY lower the knife and enjoy the moment. This is a very significant and special time! Smile again when you feel the knife hit the base - You are about to eat your delicious cake. This is the big moment!

Repeat this movement until you can safely separate the slice from the rest of the cake. Place the cake lifter under the slice (only one person needs to do this), lift, and place onto the center of the plate.

If you plan to feed each other or when you take your first bite, when you have at least one plate with cake on it and two forks, turn to face each other. Feed each other one at a time, and feed slowly and gently, and be sure to pause briefly when you put the fork in the other's mouth. Be gentle - No one wants a fork poked into his or her lip or gums.

When the big cake-cutting event is over, touch your champagne glasses together before you drink, look each other in the eyes, and be sure to kiss after the toast.

When you are through, be kind and gently remove any errant cake off each other's face or clothing with a napkin. Be especially gentle if someone is wearing make-up so that it the makeup is not smeared or removed.

Cake Cutting Etiquette

Make sure the first people to receive slices of cake (after the couple) are the grandparents, parents, and any distinguished or honored guests.

Ideally, there would be a staff member to finish cutting the rest of the cake so that everyone can get back to the party. However, if there is no staff to assist with finishing cutting, the maid of honor or matron of honor, or one of the mothers or other close relative of the couple should cut the cake for the rest of the guests. The couple should not have to do this!

You may be nervous and unknowingly hurry through the cake cutting, but if you rush through this ceremonial event, you will be cheating yourself and your guests out of a great experience. Being conscious of and knowing that you need to not hurry will force you to slow down, allow you to enjoy it more, and make for better photos.

Wedding is the most auspicious moment in everyone's life and it has to be really special. We all want wedding to be a grand affair. We invite all our close friends and acquaintances to share this great moment with them. How about giving photo thank you cards wedding to show your gratitude to all those people who attend your wedding?

When you choose photo wedding thank you notes, you have abundant options. You would like your wedding to be as special to the people who attend it as it is to you. Choosing a really exceptional thank you note is a must. Having photos of bride and groom on the wedding thank you card makes it even more special.

There are a zillion ways to design wedding thank you notes with photo. You can place individual photos of the bride and the groom on each side of the thank you message. The photos of the bride and the groom posing together can also make it look graceful. You can show the actual wedding moment on wedding photo thank you notes.

To have a distinctive wedding thank you card, you need to have a really matchless design. You can choose different themes from a wide range of options. A square wedding thank you note looks really cool with photo of the bride and groom in the middle of the note with a thank you message on the top and few lines to describe your gratitude on the bottom of the photo.

Having photo thank you cards wedding with tiny ribbons tied to them give it a more elegant look. It will be like a present to all those who attend the wedding and will make them feel honored. If not ribbons, you can get special cloth materials that look beautiful and tie them on the card. This would be a little time consuming and costs a bit more but it is worth all those efforts.

You can have an ocean blue theme for your thank you note is also a wonderful idea. Ocean blue color gives it a serene and calm look. Turquoise beach wedding theme for thank you notes also makes it attractive. You can show photos of the bride and groom sharing memorable moments on the beach side. It is always a good idea to give your wedding thank you cards a romantic theme.

Folded thank you notes are also a distinct option to go for. You can have your thank you message on the top of the card and the photos of the bride and groom inside the card. Putting up the wedding couple's photo on the top of the card and thank you note inside the card is also another alternative. It is up to you to pick up the design that you like.

Wedding being the most important moment of your life, it is worth investing in an exceptionally unique thank you note. Design photo thank you cards wedding with the perfect material and theme that would be memorable by all those who come for wedding. Look for good printing services that would fulfil your idea and design for wedding thank you cards.

Photo booths are the hot new trend at wedding receptions across the county and it's easy to see why; they provide the guests with hours of entertainment and great souvenirs of the day. Guests leave with lots of fun photos they took with their friends and family that they will cherish forever. A great way to incorporate a photo booth into your wedding is to provide picture frames to your guests as your wedding favor. This way your guests will be able to proudly display their photo strip from your wedding at their home or office.

The frames along with a printed insert can serve as name cardholders to let guests know which table they are seated at or left at their place setting with an insert containing a reminder to use the photo booth and special thank you note to them for attending your wedding.

When selecting a frame for your picture strips you will want to consider three factors: size, price and quality.

Check with your photo booth rental company to determine exactly what size photo strips they offer. The most common sizes are 2"x6", 2"x7", 2 翹"x8" and 4"x6", however, there are a lot of other size photo strips out there. Ideally you would like your frame to be about 翹" taller than the photo strip to allow the photo strip to slide in and out easily.

On average a frame for a photo booth picture will cost around a dollar per frame, sometimes higher for the larger frame sizes. Since the prices are all very close the real questions is quality.

What material is the frame made from? Acrylic is the most common and offers good quality at an affordable price. The 1.5mm acrylic tends to be a little flimsy while the 2mm offers a much sturdier frame so always look for the thicker acrylic. Another thing to look for is how the edges appear. Depending on the manufacturing process used some edges are rough while others are smooth and rounded. The rounded edges of course indicate a much higher quality. The final thing to consider is if the frames come individually wrapped to avoid scratching during shipping or in transit to your wedding venue.

You might spend a few more cents per frame for the better frames but the higher quality is evident and seeing how this your gift to your guests and something they will be displaying at their home well it is worth it.

Wedding photography is a difficult genre to summarize simply because each wedding is different. In other forms of photography, such as landscapes or studio portraits, you can be pretty sure what equipment you will need to get the job done. Wedding photography is different; one wedding could be outside in the mid day sun whilst another could be in a dimly lit church. The need for "gear" to cover every eventuality is great and in this article I want to share with you exactly what is in my bag when I go to shoot a wedding. Before I get into it, I want to confirm that I shoot with 2 crop body Canon 60D cameras so my lens choices below are suitable for crop body shooters.

1. Canon 10-22mm Lens

This lens is used sparingly and perhaps only takes one picture during each wedding! But it's invaluable because it has an extremely wide angle allowing for great shots of the venue and any architecture that is unique. I also use this sometimes if the wedding party is especially big (over 150) as it allows me to get everyone in without standing too far away.

2. Canon 17-55 2.8 IS

The workhorse. This lens is practically glued to one camera for the duration of a wedding because it is quite simply one of the best lenses Canon has ever made. It's focal range is great and most importantly it features Image Stablization which allows for handheld shots in low light. The 17-55 is also great for evening receptions as it's focal range allows you to get some candid photos in the tightest of venues.

3. Canon 70-200 2.8 IS Mark 2

This lens is expensive but worth it. If you can't afford it then I suggest either renting it or getting the 2.8 IS Mark 1. Another alternative is to purchase the Sigma 70-200 2.8 OS which is every bit as good as the Mark 1. This focal range is vital for a wedding ceremony especially those where the venue or officiant demands you stand well away from the couple as they exchange vows. It allows you to stand at the back of the church or on the balcony and still capture intimate moments with ease.

4. Canon 50 1.4

A great lens which costs around $400! It has a constant 1.4 aperture which allows low light shooting in the dimmest of receptions. A fantastic portrait lens and great for grabbing shots of the wedding party and guests.

5. Canon 135 2.0 L

This lens, a "Luxury" L series lens, is in my bag to achieve only one type of shot; bridal portraits and beauty shots of the bride. The detail it picks up, the colors and the vibrance are second to none. And the bokeh (or background blur) is so creamy it almost doesn't exist!

So there we have it, 5 lenses complete my lineup when I attend a wedding. To compliment the lenses, I also carry 4 Canon 430 ex ii speedlights which I place around the reception hall on Manfrotto Light Stands. I then bounce the flash units off the ceilings as the party in the reception is under way. They allow me to get shots I would never have been able to in darkly lit halls. Finally, I carry an array of SD memory cards ranging from 4gb to 16gb and a host of spare camera and flash batteries.

I hope you've enjoyed reading what I carry in my camera bag to weddings and I hope it helps you set your own gear bag in order.

Choosing the style of wedding photography that will suit you can be an overwhelming task these days. There are so many different wedding photographers and each has their own approach, a signature style. While traditional wedding photography has a predictable set of groups and formal poses, the modern photojournalist approach is incredibly varied, as individual as the bridal couple themselves. The only way to choose the right wedding photographer for your special day is to browse through their portfolios, until you find a style that you love.

Here are a few tips of what to look for when browsing through wedding photography portfolios

The Feel

Forget about technical details to start with. Look at the series of images and see if they capture the feel of the day. Does the emotion and happiness shine through. Do you like the pictures, do they wow you, inspire you. You don't have to want exactly the same format for yourself, but the feeling has to be one you connect with.

The Format

There is such a wide variety of wedding photography these days that there is no specific format that has to be followed. Having said that, if you are thinking of having some special portraits, or want a certain type of group photo, then look out for these sorts of shots in the portfolios as you browse. A good portfolio should display a varied selection of formats from informal spontaneous shots to carefully composed portraits and group shots in some shape or form. As you browse get ideas of what you would like for your wedding and jot down notes. You'll be able to give your chosen photographer a better briefing once you are clear on your likes and dislikes.

The Details

Wedding photography is all about capturing the whole of the day so that you will remember every detail for the rest of your life. Look out for images that show close-ups of details; the decor, the flowers, the lace pattern of the veil. All these are part of the atmosphere and complete the picture.

The Light

Light is the photographer's paintbrush. It is what creates the feel and atmosphere of a photo. A good wedding photographer will use natural light when possible, and flash when necessary in an unobtrusive way, to create beautiful portraits and images. Avoid portfolios where there is too much flash or harsh lighting.

The Setting

Wedding photography tells a story. The bride and groom will be the main characters and the chief focus, but the setting, background and landscape is an important feature too. A portfolio should give an idea of the venue, views and landscapes; they can be shown as backdrops to the couple or as separate landscape shots.

Once you have selected a short list of wedding photography portfolios that you really like, arrange to meet the photographers. Their portfolios should have given a good idea of whether they are a good fit for your wedding but make your final choice based on how comfortable you feel with the photographer in person.

Desk Calendars

Photo calendars are printed in either A4 or A3 size depending on your preference and they can be hung on the wall, the desk, the back of the door or anywhere else that you will be able to view and use it. They are especially useful as desk calendars not only because they are personal and great looking but because they allow the user to remember important dates and appointments, marking them down on their new desk calendar.

Photo Gift Ideas

You can use any type of digital picture to create the design for yearly photo calendars. Digital photos are the most commonly used because of the number that most of us now have. However, for other gift ideas you can scan old baby photos or old wedding photos and use an updated version of these to create a stunning and heartfelt photo gift idea. The design of the calendar, which includes a customisable cover as well as personalised monthly pages, is such that you can choose 13 photos.

Birthday Calendars

Birthday calendars are a great gift idea all year round. Use recent pictures of the recipient or combine recent digital photos with scanned paper print pictures in order to create stunning and incredible birthday gifts. Create a celebration of the person's life by using pictures from various stages of their life. You choose the month in which the calendar starts so you can help any family member or friend celebrate their special day, no matter what the date.

Anniversary Calendars

Anniversary calendars are another great way to combine old pictures with new ones. Update your own wedding photos to create an anniversary calendar for your husband or wife. Pick their favourite photo and use this for the cover along with any title that you wish. Choose a further 12 photos for the monthly pages and write captions to accompany each one. Alternatively, use pictures taken over the last year and start a tradition of giving romantic and loving anniversary calendars every year.

Mothers Day And Fathers Day Calendars

Mothers Day and Fathers Day are the two days of the year when we really celebrate the family. Giving gifts and greetings cards is a part of this celebration. Desk calendars customized with family photos of you, your siblings, and your children, will be very well received by your Mum or Dad and cherished for a lifetime. The quality of the calendars means that they can be kept for many years to come and not just for the twelve months until next Mothers Day.

Other Desk Calendars Customized With Your Photos

Desk calendars can be customized with any photos or pictures. You can even use company logos or advertisements in order to create an effective promotional product to improve brand awareness of your business. Whatever industry your company serves you can ensure that your company is the first that potential clients think about whenever they look at their desk calendars.

Chances are your special day was a whirlwind of memories, getting ready, photos, well wishers, cake cutting and a new partner to share it all with! Seldom will there be days that will generate more memories and more material to put into a scrapbook.

Just when you thought your days of picking out the perfect patterns, designs and colours for all parts of your wedding was over, you go to put together a scrapbook of your special day. Once again you are knee deep in deciding on colours, patterns and the perfect pieces to commemorate your perfect day with the perfect wedding scrapbook layout.

1) Don't Whitewash Everything

All too often, I have seen scrapbook after scrapbook which have gone with a white or off white colour as the main colour for the book. While this is a safe bet, its also a boring one. My attitude is nothing ventured, nothing gained. Be a little more adventurous, there is real beauty to be found in a light lavender or a silver/grey theme that can immortalize the moment in a beautiful and individual way.

However if you want a wedding scrapbook that looks like everyone else's, go right ahead.

2) Tenderness is good, Fun is better.

When flipping through wedding scrapbooks, one thing I have noticed is that many scrappers seem to put a lot of soft light studio photographs in their wedding scrapbooks. This should be avoided for two reasons. Firstly, If you want to put a lot of professional photographs together, put them into a photo album. Secondly, everything will look like its in slow motion and should be set to a sound track. This is not how your day went and that's not what your book should be showing. Include the odd or off the wall photos, the bride fixing her makeup, the happy couple dancing, the band and people enjoying themselves. This brings me to the third tip:

3) Don't forget about everyone else!

Yes, it was your special day and it was about you and your partner and the life you will be sharing together. However, don't forget about the multitude of friends, family and well wishers that turned out to be there for your special day. Make sure your wedding scrapbook layouts leave room for pictures of friends, partying, dancing, eating and generally having a great time!

You don't want everyone thinking no one turned up to your wedding do you?

So there you have it, three easy tips you can follow to avoid the common pitfalls people fall into when designing their wedding scrapbook layouts.

That's all for now, good luck and happy scrapping!

As you plan your wedding photography, remember to think about the specific shots you want in your wedding album. While the typical posed shots are pretty and will guarantee that all important friends and family members are photographed, sprinkling your wedding album with some unique images will ensure you will cherish your photos for years to come. Try these special photo opps for images that will shine through the formal poses, capturing the true emotions of the day.

The Big Day

This is the day you have been carefully planning for months, and a lot of preparation is involved. Have your wedding photographer on hand as you primp and the excitement steadily builds. These behind-the scenes-shots at the salon, your parents' house or dressing room will record the nervous joy and anticipation. This is the day; your wedding photography should capture the poignancy of these special moments. Black and white film works perfectly here.

The Dress

You may only wear it once, but this gorgeous compilation of silk and lace is a work of art. Your wedding photographer should capture the masterpiece in all its glory. The perfect way to reveal its essence is to photograph it in its element. Hanging in a window in the dressing room with the sunlight pouring in, your dress will reveal its natural beauty.

Mom and Dad - Letting Go

Your wedding is an emotional day for your parents. They feel a mixture of pride, joy and sadness. Their little girl/boy is all grown up and entering a new stage in life. Capture these emotions and conflicting feelings during the wedding ceremony and throughout the day. Especially make sure your photographer takes a shot of each of them as they focus on you during the ceremony. Even though you won't be watching them as you exchange "I Dos;" these precious images will capture the full force of their emotions.

Just Married

On this busy day, there may be only a few moments when the two of you can steal away and spend time together. But just after you are pronounced "man and wife," the two of you will just have each other. Married at last! Your wedding photographer should not miss those first few moments as a married couple. Try to give yourself a few minutes alone after the ceremony to relax and reflect the significance of the occasion. You will cherish these photos in your wedding album.

Candid Bridesmaids and Groomsmen

Your girlfriends. You have laughed together and cried together and shared the gauntlet of emotions together. The images from your wedding day should reflect that special bond that only the best of girlfriends can share. While the line of bridesmaids is a good shot to have in your album, you should capture some more creative photography shots for your photo album. Make sure some of your shots reveal the vibrant personalities of you and your girls. Have your photographer capture the giggles, the private whispers and the carefree hugs and exclamations, for this is the true essence of your friendships. And don't forget the boys; get some creative shots of the groomsmen too!

Away into The Sunset

Get a parting shot of the two of you walking towards your "ever after." One of my favorite versions of this shot: the two of you photographed from a distance, looking towards the horizon. Your new life starts here; the sky is the limit!

Choosing the perfect location for your pre-wedding photoshoot is a tough decision to make. And it gets even harder when you're getting married in Vegas because you have so many tourist attractions to consider. But not to worry! I've compiled a list of the best locations in the city so you don't have to keep searching anymore.

Below are the Top 8 Vegas Attractions:

1. Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden
The Bellagio Hotel also has a conservatory and botanical garden that can serve as wonderful backdrops for your wedding photos. Each year, the conservatory changes into 5 different themes-Chinese New Year, Holiday, Summer, Spring and Fall. So if you want to catch a particular theme, you may want to arrive at the right season. Nevertheless, every theme is absolutely breathtaking that it won't really matter which one you get to see.

2. Bellagio Fountains
The Bellagio Fountains is simply one of the most romantic attractions you can find in the city. Go ahead and strike a pose as the waters dance, lights change, and soothing music plays along in the background.

3. Gondola Rides at the Venetian
Always wanted to go to Italy? Take a gondola ride inside the Venetian Hotel and feel as though you're drifting through the canals of Venice.

4. Las Vegas Neon Graveyard
Be more creative with your photos by using signage! Vegas has a neon graveyard where all the used neon signs are put to rest. There you'll find gigantic signs that can really add an effect to your pictures. You can strategically use those letters and words to say what you mean, or simply choose random ones for fun.

5. Las Vegas Strip
Make use of the city's bright lights by having your pictures taken along the surrounding hotels and casinos.

6. Replica of the Eiffel Tower
Experience Paris even without leaving the country by visiting the Eiffel Tower replica at Paris Las Vegas. You can have the photoshoot at the foot of the tower, or you can climb way up to the top for a more romantic effect. The best times to do the pictures would be in the late afternoon and night, just when the lights are starting to come out.

7. Stratosphere Tower
It's hard to miss this location especially that it's the tallest tower in Vegas. Its observation deck gives your wedding photos the chance to have a panoramic background of the city.

8. Welcome to Las Vegas Sign
Of course your photo session won't be complete without a pose at the 50-year-old "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. Be sure to drop by this famous landmark before you set out and get married.

Those are the top 8 locations you should consider for your wedding photoshoot. Make sure you go to each location so you can really find out what Vegas is all about. If you find yourself wanting more, go ahead and visit other popular destinations and make the most of your stay in this marvelous city.

Weddings are busy, beautiful and yes, even stressful events. And in the hustle and bustle of everything that makes a wedding, well, a wedding, it's not hard to imagine that something might get missed. That's understandable, but you want to make sure that 'something' doesn't fall under the category of missed photographs. That is why one of the most important aspects of wedding planning needs to be the selection of your photographer. Remember... long after the cake has been eaten and the wedding dress is pushed to the back of the attic, you'll still be looking at your wedding pictures and remembering the joy of your special day.

Most wedding photographers have a check-list they go by; one the bride and groom are usually asked to fill out prior to the wedding. If not, make sure you provide the photographer with a list of what photos you want taken. If you are unsure of what you should include in that list, you can find photo check lists in bridal magazines and websites such as shutterfly.com or knotforlife.com. Not using a checklist is asking for trouble... and missed photo ops you'll never have again. To avoid this unfortunate mishap, make a point to select someone (the bride's mom, a favorite aunt or sister in-law) who will be responsible for working with the photographer; a checks and balances system, you might say.

Owen and Melissa would have benefited greatly from doing so; things got so hectic that they ended up without a single shot of just the two of them! Thank goodness for cropping tools on photo sites!

Other tips to keep in mind when hiring your wedding photographer include:

1. Examining their portfolio. Do you like their work? Are they creative? Is the lighting and exposure up to par?


2. Ask for references-and follow up by contacting one or two of them.


3. Remember that not all wedding photographers need to be 'professionals'. There are plenty of hobby photographers whose work is top quality and definitely wedding-worthy. Ask family and friends for suggestions, contact your local photography club or the photo-journalism department of a nearby college or university.


4. Make sure the photographer fully explains what you are getting for your money. Are you getting full rights to the photos? How much time is included in the price? How long will it be before you receive your photos?


5. Get it in writing. This includes receipts for payments made and a 'contract' for what you are receiving in return for your payment.


6. Feel comfortable with the photographer. Do they listen to what you want?

Your wedding photographer will most likely take up a fair amount of your wedding budget. That's why it is important to get as much for your money as possible without compromising the quality of your photos.

The wedding dress places the bride at the centre of attention and for many brides it is often the primary consideration in the planning of her wedding. It is a strong visual statement of her personal style and status as dictates the overall style of the wedding, governing the dress choices for bridesmaids and the maid of honour it also provides the focal point for the narrative of the wedding shots. Often the wedding dress is a bespoke piece. with a lot of time, money and emotion invested in choosing the cut, fabric texture, details and accessories, and as such is deserving of the very best photography.

To produce contemporary wedding images akin to those portrayed in the glossy magazines requires a great deal of technical experience in lighting and exposure, combined with an attention to detail and composition. an experienced commercial photographer knows how to select optimal settings and locations, background textures, colour, interesting angles and lighting, available or artificial, to suit the style of photography desired. By the clever combination of these skills the talent and creativity of a professional wedding photographer can produce atmospheric images which can be dynamic and or romantic, contemporary or classical. Pictures which uniquely tell the story of your wedding.

Portrait photography of the bride, using "contre jour" or back lighting as it is commonly known produces a sense of form and depth to a scene, while considered composition will show sensitivity to the style of the dress, for example contrasting the big fairy tale bustle look against a setting of bold traditional architecture or complementing the silhouette of a figure hugging gown with the smooth clean lines of a contemporary glass facade backdrop.

Visually rich wedding can be enhanced by incidental occurrences, a breeze for example bringing movement into the photograph, lifting the brides veil, creating sculptural shapes in the air, or sunlight reflecting in her hair. A sharp eye and fast camera response is crucial to capturing these fleeting moments in nature which produce the kind of spontaneous lively pictures that make for a series of professional quality wedding photographs. A skill of a good photographer is shown in the ability to use lighting and composition to bring out the fine details of a shot. Digital photographic enhancement is commonly used in contemporary commercial photography, and is another key skill your photographer can offer to bring about brilliant image clarity.

Creating successful fashion magazine style images for your wedding album relies on effective communication between the subjects and the photographer. With portrait shots, where good poses produce striking images, it is important your photographer has a strong sense of visualisation and can communicate composition ideas effectively. The benefit of using a photographer with some commercial photographic knowledge, one who can produce variation in shot selection and composition, is the resulting choice offered will be a comprehensive array of images which transcend an ordinary recording of an event by delivering a special quality and individualism to the story of your wedding day.

If fashion style wedding photography is what you are looking for it is paramount to choose your photographer with the skill set and experience to really do justice to your wedding day, by reviewing portfolios and testimonials you can glean an insight into the merit and expertise of a photographer to enable you to make an informed choice. Never underestimate the value of time spent choosing the right photographer for your wedding or indeed your engagement photographic sessions, as these are the photographs you will want to treasure.

The first wedding anniversary is also known as the paper anniversary, and this means that traditional gifts can be made from or relate to paper in some way.

First Wedding Anniversary Gifts - Photo Calendars

The photo calendar is a great gift on many levels. Every month and even the cover of the calendar can be customised with photos and designs of your choice and the calendar allows for the natural and easy addition of text too so you can add messages of love throughout the year. For the cover you can choose a photo and include a calendar title and each monthly page offers room for a picture and an accompanying text caption.

First Wedding Anniversary Gifts - Photo Books

Photo books can also incorporate a number of pictures. Design a cover using one photo or a montage of your favourite pictures. Choose one photo for each and every page of the book and decide whether you want a standard design layout or one of your own unique creation. Finally, decide whether you want to include a presentation tin with your order.

First Wedding Anniversary Gifts - Customised Wallpaper

Customised wallpaper may seem extravagant as a gift for any occasion, but newly-weds often find themselves in a new home and leading a new life. What better way to celebrate both of these life changing occasions than with wallpaper customised with photos, designs, and text? Customised wallpaper is extremely tough and durable so you can use it to decorate any room from the living room to the hallway or even in your bedroom to accompany personalised bedding sets.

1. The Wedding Invitation Your wedding album should begin with a scan of the wedding invitation. Usually, you put a great deal of thought in the design and text of your wedding invitation. Therefore, it would be a shame not to include it in your wedding album. Furthermore, it contains other memorable information, i.e. the wedding date, the location, which makes it a great item for the first page.


2. The Preparations The next couple of pages should be dedicated to the preparations of bridge and groom (usually starting with the bride). This section can be subdivided, if necessary into subsections such as "The Dress", "The Garter", "The Reveal", etc.


3. Family, Bridesmaids and Groomsmen Now should follow a couple of pages showing the wedding party, e.g. the happy couple with their parents, the bride with her maids, the groom with his men, the happy couple with the best people, all family members together and so on.


4. The Venue Next part of the wedding album must be a couple of pages dedicated to the venue where the marriage ceremony is about to takes place. Photos could feature: the venue as a whole, the chairs for the guests, the spot where the priest will marry the couple and various bits of beautiful decoration.


5. The Ceremony The ceremony is for most couples the most emotional and memorable part of their wedding. Therefore, one should put as many pages as necessary to do the moment justice. One should not miss: the entrance of bride and groom, the priest's speech, the first kiss, the ring, the readers.


6. The Group Shot(s) Now must follow one or many group shots with friends and family in various combinations. The moment directly after the ceremony produces a lot of nice pictures, because everybody is still very emotional and a lot less nervous. They need to go into your wedding album!


7. The Reception, the Grand Entrance The next major part of your wedding album will be the celebration. This usually starts, much like the ceremony with at least one page dedicated to the venue. One can show the place from the outside, the entrance, the table decoration, the buffet and always very decorative: filled glasses of Champagne. This page can be combined with pictures of the happy couple (and the guests) entering the hall.


8. The Toasts It follows at least on page with toasts and speeches. Obligatory is a shot of bride and groom giving their speeches. One can complement the page with additional photos from the various groups on their tables.


9. The First Dance A page with the happy couple's first dance is obligatory, maybe followed by various combinations of father and daughter, mother and son, father and daughter-in-law, mother and son-in-law, all of them ballroom dancing.


10. The Cake Cutting No wedding album can do without a page dedicated to the cutting of the. This works the best, if the cake is first shown intact, followed by a shot of bride and groom doing the first cut, followed by a funny sequence of photos showing bride and groom eating the first piece.


11. Bouquet and Garter Toss Also obligatory, a couple of fun shots showing the bride throwing her bouquet and the groom throwing his garters (if he was wearing any). It looks always great if there are some nice photos with the bouquet and garter in midair and the overjoyed people who caught them.


12. The Party Wedding celebrations are long and a wedding album would not do them justice if they contained not at least one more page showing how much fun everybody had. These pages are perfect to put crazy and funny shots that would not fit into any other part of the wedding album.


13. The End Every good wedding album finishes with one or two pages dedicated to the happy couple. If the groom carried his bride off in a fancy car, then that has to be shown now, otherwise several romantic shots of the happy couple hand-in-hand (maybe with a nice sunset in the background) also work fine.

Shopping for a bridal gown, veil, and wedding jewelry is one of the highlights of planning a wedding. In fact, many brides have been dreaming about their wedding gown since they were little girls. But what happens if you buy a wedding gown and start having second thoughts about it? These are some tips on how to handle wedding dress regrets.

If there is one piece of advice every bridal consultant wishes engaged women would listen to, it is stop looking at wedding gowns once you have picked yours! There will always, always be another beautiful gown to admire, and you could shop forever, but then you would have nothing to wear on your wedding day. After you have placed a deposit on your bridal gown, the best thing you can do for yourself is to close the dress shopping chapter of your wedding planning. And besides, you will still get to shop for wedding jewelry, a veil, a headpiece, shoes, and lots of other gorgeous accessories.

But what if you just can't shake the feeling that you have made a bad choice and ordered the wrong gown for your wedding? 99% of the time, this second guessing is simply pre-wedding jitters. Call up the bridal salon and make an appointment to try on the sample gown again. The chances are very strong that as soon as you put it on you will remember exactly what you loved about it. If you still are not sure, try on a few other dresses, and you will probably be reminded that your original dress is still the one for you.

Sometimes brides love their wedding gowns, but others plant seeds of doubt in their minds. A common scenario is that the bride goes with her mom to pick out a dress. After she orders her gown, she takes a few pictures of herself in the sample to show her friends. Not having seen the gown in person, the bride's friends start saying that they do not love it. Why? Because pictures taken when you are wearing an ill-fitting sample gown when your hair and makeup are not done just never look that good. Or you show your friends pictures of your dress online and it looks weird on the model, even though it is spectacular on you. A good way to save yourself a ton of anxiety is not to show a lot of people photos of your dress. Share it only with your best friends who you know will be supportive, and let everyone else be surprised at your grand entrance on your wedding day.

With all these tips in mind, there might still be occasions when brides come to realize that they have definitely chosen a wedding gown that they no longer love. At that point, it is time to re-select. You only have one wedding day (hopefully!), and you deserve to feel incredible for it. You will also be living with your wedding photos for the rest of your life, and it would be a terrible shame to hate the way you look in your pictures. Some salons may allow you to transfer a deposit from one gown to another, but most will not. In that case, you can sell the first gown online and treat yourself to the wedding dress that you really love. Just promise yourself that you will really stop shopping after that!

Choosing a wedding gown is an emotional decision. In most cases, regrets are unfounded, and when you take another look at your dress, you will fall in love with it all over again. And just remember that your fiance is going to think that you are the most beautiful bride in the world whatever dress you choose to wear.

Wedding is an important event in any individual's life. This is the time when friends, relatives and other close people gather and celebrate some of the most unique moments. Every couple wants to capture those special moments in a camera and enjoy them for the rest of the life. Not only your photographs have to be of good quality but also the picture frame in which you would place them should be attractive. Nowadays, there is a wide variety of picture frame available in the market to choose from. So, whether you are looking forward to gift something to a newly weeded couple or you just got married, such frames make for a perfect choice.

As there are different wedding frames available in the market, it becomes difficult for you to choose the one that suits your budget and requirement. Keeping it in mind, this piece of article aims to highlight a few popular frames to choose from.

1.Wedding Collage Frames

Using these frames, you can display your wedding photographs in a creative way. It is one of the most inexpensive ways to display several photographs in a small space. Rather than selecting a few wedding photos, you can display as many wedding snaps as you want in collage frame.

In case you want to customise your wedding frame, select a collage that comes with an attached mat. Here, you can ask your guests to write something special and sign it. You can decorate the collage mat with poems, quotes, verses representing the most important day of your life. Available in a wide variety of colours, styles, sizes and types; choose the one that beautifies your wedding photographs.

2.Engraved Wedding Photograph Frames

They are one of the most common frames available in the market. It is a known fact that people love receiving engraved gift items. However, make sure you give good quality of frame. Gifting inexpensive and low quality metal frames degrades the importance of gift. The three most common and popular embossed frames are sterling silver frames, solid pewter frames and silver plated frames.

Such frames should have a smooth flat surface so that engraving can be easily done. They should be made of either thick or solid metal so that embossing does not show with forms of metal.

So, consider the above-mentioned two types of frames while buying a gift for a newly wedded couple.

Despite lots of proclamations about the demise of marriage and sensational headlines stating that the institution of marriage is dead or at the very least is long past its sell by date, this year another 275,000 (ish) couples in the UK will say "I do".

In making this commitment to marry each couple will, on average, spend around 瞿20,000 on their wedding, which is a staggering 瞿5.5 billion. In the current economic climate weddings are playing their part in keeping various sections of the economy buoyant.

Most of the average wedding spend goes on the venue, the food, the entertainment and the honeymoon but significant amounts are also spent on the wedding dress, the bridesmaid dresses and the photographer.

Whilst the art of wedding photography has changed little over the years the camera equipment used and the way in which the photographs are presented to the bride and groom has undergone a bit of a revolution. Today most wedding photographers will use top-end digital SLR cameras that allow them to see what they are shooting as they go through the day. These new digital cameras also enable the photographers to shoot significantly more images than would have previously been viable with traditional film based cameras.

The finished wedding portfolios are often played back to the bride and groom on a screen to allow them to select the images they want printing or supplying on a CD or DVD.

One of the more recent innovations is to supply the final photographs on a USB flash drive. The flash drives are either branded with the photographers details (obviously with a view to generating more business) or occasionally printed or engraved with name of the bride and groom and the date of the wedding.

Some bride and grooms have taken this one stage further and are now commissioning their own printed USB flash drives onto which they are then loading (or getting professionally loaded) what amounts to an "electronic scrap book" of the event. This can include photos from the courtship, the engagement, copies of the announcement(s) in the local papers, the wedding invitation, the wedding vows, the wedding photo's and clips from the wedding video.

These "Wedding Scrap Books" USB flash drives are then sent out to friends and family after the honeymoon as a thank you for attending the day. They're also used to give everyone who attended (and those that could not make it) a fantastic memento from the wedding day.

With the price of custom USB flash drives falling all the time expect to see more and more of them used to celebrate weddings in this way.

When photographing somebodies wedding you are essentially telling a story, a story about a specific family and group of people. So it is essential that you as the photographer take a little time to photograph the little, personal details. The details which help the story flow and which help bring variety to the wedding photo album.

A few examples of these details are; the flowers, the ring, the cake, the wedding dress & shoes, the table plan, champagne being poured, etc. All of these are examples of things which are specifically designed by the bride and groom for the wedding, hence being personal. Every wedding is different so whatever you find you will be helping to build a bigger picture about what the day was like. Being a documentary style photographer myself, I hope for an image to tell a story on its own. I look for opportunities where the composition, timing and subjects all come together to create a moment which I can photograph, but it is still important that I take some time to shoot the details as these are the images that break up the album and help convey the overall story.

A great advantage of arriving at the wedding venue before the guests is that you get to photograph the rooms while they are still perfectly set out and untouched. This is a great time to shoot the details, especially the table decorations. Things like the place names, glasses, napkins, anything that will help remind the bride & groom about decisions they had made while planning their wedding.

It is worth remembering that to take these sort of images you will need a lens capable of focusing at short distance. These details are often small and look better photographed on their own and without any other distractions within the frame.

To give you a head start in photographing the details at a wedding, talk to the bride and groom beforehand. Ask them what colour scheme they will be using, ask them where the flowers will be displayed, ask whether you are allowed to photograph the ring. These precautions may seem slightly unnecessary now, but every wedding is different and while you will find yourselves photographing the common details like the flowers, rings, dresses, there may be something about the couple you don't know. Something that will be an essential, distinctive detail within the photo album and a personal touch.