Tampa Bay Wedding Photographers – Seminole Heights Garden Center Wedding: Jessica and James

Jessica and James were married in March at Seminole Heights Garden Center in Tampa, Florida. It was a very overcast spring day, but the rain held off just long enough for a beautiful outdoor ceremony. The Garden Center is a pretty little property in the historic Seminole Heights neighborhood. The style of this wedding was vintage with a “rockhounding” touch – not something you see at every wedding!

One of my favorite ring pictures ever! The absolutely beautiful vintage ring set was chosen by the groom. He did good!

The brides vintage style was created with a combination of antique pieces and handmade accessories. The birdcage veil and matching belt were both made by the bride!

The couple describes their wedding theme as “Sunday dinner at grandma’s house”. This required many vintage and handmade touches pulled together by creative family and friends. BBQ was served on tableware pieces collected from flea markets and antique malls. Dessert was served out of dishes borrowed from family members, some of which were heirlooms giving the feel of family tradition to the event.

The vintage theme included a variety of antique dishes and tableware, a wedding pie dessert bar, and homemade cookies as favors.

Its not often you see a geology theme added to a wedding, but this event did it very well.

When the bride and groom are both geologists, why not incorporate it into your theme? Each table had live plants in wooden boxes along with a rock and the story behind it. Many geologists have rock samples they feel very sentimental about, and this was a great way to incorporate it into the wedding. Some of the guests even got into the theme by wrapping gifts in old geologic maps and posters. There was even a fake rock in the playground in the garden that of course we had to use for some pictures.

Colorful paper flags marked out the aisle for the outdoor ceremony.

The outdoor ceremony was held on the steps of the Garden center building with simple decorations of a paper flag garland and potted flowers. The nice thing about a venue like this is that elaborate decorations are really not needed. This was a sweet, happy wedding for a couple that could be described the same way 🙂

Congratulations Jessica and James!

Vendors:

Photography: Steely Joe Studio Photography

Venue: Seminole Heights Garden Center, Tampa Florida

Thomas and Kathryn’s engagement

Brrr – It sure is cold outside! But that doesn’t mean you can’t get cute outdoor engagement pictures. Just focus on each other and not how cold your fingers are! A few weekends ago we met up with Thomas and Kathryn at the U of A for an engagement portrait session. Since it was the day after Thanksgiving, the campus was pretty much abandoned except for a few other photographers doing Christmas portraits. It was nice to have the run of the place without waiting for people in the background to get out of the shot! Here are some of my favorites, there are a few more on my Facebook page.

They were just going to walk towards me, but this happy little skip made for a cute image!

Such a sweet couple (and I love the boots).

We took this one in the doorway of the chemistry building.

There were still a few trees with leaves on them, but not many! At least enough for some nice background color.

I really like this picture - the backlighting (and Ed holding a reflector) make this image really nice.

By the way, some of you may have noticed the redesigned logo being used on these images. My website is about to get a total face lift – and the re-designed logo was one part of that. It is going to look so awesome – I can’t wait to roll it out!

Heather & Rob’s Engagement

I know, I know – I’ve got to get better at updating this blog more often! A few weekends ago, I met Heather and Rob for an engagement session at the Inn at the Mill in Johnson. It’s a great place for portraits because it looks nice all year and has lots of good spots for portraits. I am friends with members of both their families (I found out at the shoot) so I will see several familiar faces at the wedding this fall!

This was a spot I had not tried before for portraits - up on the patio right outside James at the Mill.

Heather and Rob are a fun couple and there was lots of smirking and laughing during the shoot, so I had to get at least on picture of them cracking up!

Happy you = happy me!

Whew, I can’t believe how behind I have gotten on this blog – now I know why companies hire people to write their blogs for them.

You know, sometimes circumstances conspire against you during a portrait shoot, and the results end up good, but not great. That is what happened a while back at War Eagle: the sun came out with a vengeance, and the place was packed with people, which drastically narrowed our options for settings. We were constantly dodging cars, people, and fishing lines. After looking at the results, we decided a second shoot would be the best solution. After all, I don’t want a bride to be unhappy with her engagement portraits since (in my opinion) the whole point of that session is to put you at ease that you chose the right photographer for you wedding day. So we went back out to War Eagle on a beautiful evening, and the place was practically abandoned. Much better results! Now we are both happy with the results. Here are some of my favorites from the second shoot:

Evening light is great for portraits. I love that backlit effect you can get that time of day.

This gate may actually belong to the house right next to the War eagle property - hopefully the owners don't mind, we didn't see anyone to ask!

This shot was done with a zoom lens from the back of the mill. It's easy to do shots like this when you are the only people around, but would have been impossible our first trip out there.

Monika and Derrick’s Engagement Portraits

This past weekend I went down to Little Rock to do engagement portraits with Monika and Derrick. They are getting married in less than a month and will be my first spring wedding of 2010. The weather could not have been better for February with temps around 55 and lots of sunshine. It was such a nice change from the cold weather! We actually got to do outside pictures, which for this time of year is never a given. Here are a few images from the shoot:

This image was taken in front of the Chinese gate in front of the Martial Arts Garden downtown. The bright red makes a great backdrop.

I love this image. We were getting a little too much sun in this location, but I don't think it takes away from the image.

Book before the Bridal fair for 2009 rates!

Happy New Year, everyone! If you are planning a wedding and are looking for a photographer, I would love to meet you at my booth on January 16th at the Springdale convention center. The increasing cost of supplies has made some changes to my pricing necessary and the new pricing will go into effect on January 16, 2010. So call me now and save yourself some money! And don’t forget to check out my website for details on how you can “test drive” your wedding photographer.

Portrait rates will be increasing slightly as well, so for those of you thinking about booking spring portraits, don’t put it off any longer!

Nubia & John’s Engagement Portraits

I don’t know if I have ever been this far behind on updating the blog! The weekend before thanksgiving was very busy, and I am still trying to get caught up.  On that Saturday, I met up with Nubia and John at the Inn at the Mill in Johnson for engagement portraits. It is a wonderful place for portraits and looks nice pretty much year-round. Although it was November, there was still lots of green things growing and of course the architectural features always make nice backgrounds. Nubia and John will be getting married in June. They are a great couple and I am happy to be working with them on their wedding photography. Here are a few of my favorite images from the shoot:

Kiesha and Justin’s Engagement Shoot

I just realized I had forgotten to post any pics from Kiesha and Justin’s engagement session on the 31st of July! Anyway, I had a really great time with this because the location and date were very special to me. July 31st was my 5 year wedding anniversary, and we ate at James at the Mill the evening of our wedding. By the way, I had a 10:30 a.m. wedding – not something I would recommend unless you are really a morning person! All you brides out there can do the math on how early the bridal party had to be at the salon (who opened early). Anyway, when Kiesha called and wanted to set up a portrait shoot for the 31st at the Mill, my husband and I decided to make a date out of it. We met at the restaurant early enough to have a nice dinner before Kiesha and Justin arrived, then strolled outside to do the portraits – it was really nice! We had not eaten there in five years, so it was really a treat. Kiesha and Justin are a very sweet couple and I look forward to covering their wedding on the 4th of September.

The Inn at the Mill is a great place for portraits. There are so many nice settings in a small space.

Often the best ideas for pictures come from the subjects themselves, and this cute imgae is no exception.

Brittany and Justin’s Engagement Portraits

I met Brittany and Justin at the River Valley Extravaganza bridal show in Fort Smith. It was my first year to do any sort of advertising in Fort Smith. Justin and Brittany’s wedding in September is my first booking in the River valley area. We did the engagement portraits at Devil’s Den (I promise I can do engagement portraits other places – it just so happens my last 4 were all out there!).

Justin and Brittany

The first couple I did engagement portraits for out at Devil’s Den came up with the idea to take thier shoes off and stand in the water below the spillway for portraits. It has since become sort of a tradition.

Devils Den Spillway

It looked like we were going to get rained out, but we got most of the shoot in before it started sprinkling. Since they already came ready to get their feet wet for the waterfall pictures, we did some neat images with their feet off the dock watching the raindrops on the pond.

raindrops on the pond

Amanda and Scott’s Engagement Shoot

Tuesday was a beautiful day at Devil’s Den (by far my most popular location for engagement pictures). The dogwoods and redbuds were all blooming and the rain the day before made the waterfall at the spillway very pretty. Amanda and Scott were fun and very easy to work with and I look forward to photographing their wedding on on June 6th.

Amanda and Scott

On top of the Spillway

Scott finds a new friend