Oh man. I really hate Chicago traffic. I have learned that google maps times do not always translate into real world time. I pulled in about 45 minuets late to the shoot and felt so horrible! We got to shooting right away and I totally forgot to pay the meter. Gah! There goes money down the drain.
We rocked some photos down by the lake and as we got back to the cars the light started to go down. It was actually fortunate that I came late because we got some really cool photos in the evening by Lake Drive. Enough rambling, here are the photos.
P.s. Things are CRAZY at Valo right now. Lots of weddings and photo shoots. Balance is key and tough to figure out. Thank you all so much for being such great customers/blog readers/people!
Awe yeah. So. I got hitched. To a beautiful lady. We both partied super hard on our wedding day (Like all wedding couples should) and at the end of the night her dress was pretty dirty. Now, I know that dresses are important. They are huge! You gotta pick the right one and most ladies, when they find it, bust out in tears (Seen one to many “Say Yes To The Dress” episodes). Some dresses are very expensive. Big investment. The one thing that I don’t get though, is why are people so scared of getting it a little dirty? (Probably because I am a boy and all of our clothes get dirty no matter how fancy they are).
Anyoldways. We had a great time and Jake took awesome photos. Nicole and I chatted on our honeymoon up to Door County about doing a Trash The Dress shoot when we got back into town.
So, we got into town and a few days after, there was great weather and we were off to shoot some photos. Now, the point of a TTD is not to “Trash” the dress, but more so to put it into a situation that you wouldn’t put it in on your wedding day. I do understand trying to keep the dress kinda clean on the day of, specially before the ceremony, but after, just let loose… I digress. We ran around by the Lakefront Brewery and over by the old Pabst Brewery and took photos until it get super chilly and the sun was low in the sky. Check out what we got below.
P.s. Thanks Mari for the help! You rock!
P.p.s. If you go to Comet Cafe and Andy is tending the bar, ask for a Mari and you will have a tasty drink in your hands. Tell him I sent you.
Oh my. I got married. Which means I am Murried. That is pretty awesome and I don’t know if it has all set in still. All I know is that I get to hang out with a hot lady for the rest of my life and we get to do cool stuff like go to Ikea. Anyways… thanks so much for all the love on Twitter, Facebook, and in real life.
Speaking of love… My good friend Sam Dodge (One of the MANY photographers who attended our nuptials) put together a stop motion video of our wedding and reception.
He is pretty much the man. Check out his site and some more of his Stop Motion stuff.
Also, some people might have seen this, but Nicole and I went out and took some photos after we got back from Door County (Super cool modern B&B with the best owner ever). Her dress was kinda a mess from the wedding day from all of the running around and dancing, so we decided to take it out and make some more photos. We did a lil Trash the Dress shoot and got some really great stuff. Here is a lil’ sneak peek of what is to come (One of the perks to marrying a photographer).
P.s. If you didn’t see the post from yesterday, check it out. I am teaching a class on Digital Photography.
What the heck is a Trash the Dress session? I’ve had lots of people ask me about this and it is kinda hard to explain, so instead of explaining, I figured I would just show.
A TTD session is all about showcasing you and your dress. Some people really want to save their dress and use it as an heirloom or keep it for their 20th anniversary, but some people put it in a box and never do anything with it. Hopefully on your wedding day you were able to get some fantastic photos of you in your dress and you love them. On the wedding day though, there is a limit to where you can go and what you can do as far as photos and locations. Either there is a time constraint or you don’t really want to go into the middle of a forest, the sand dunes, or an old warehouse. I get that. No one wants to get to the reception and look like they were hiking up Mt. Everest or white water rafting (although that would be a sweet shoot… holla back if you wanna do that), so those locations are out the window. With a TTD session, you can go to those places and get crazy fantastic shots.
TTD sessions are not about trashing the dress (as the name implies), but they are more about showcasing the dress in situations that you would not normally see a wedding dress in. It’s not about getting dirty, but it is being able to let go and let loose to get awesome photos without having to worry about showing up to the reception looking like a mess. Heck… bring your man and make him get all crazy with you too… Who doesn’t want to make out in a lake with the sun set behind them?
So… because this is kinda hard to explain in words, Jake and I got the idea to do a TTD session with a model to show you what this whole thing is about. The story below is our adventure into the foray of: TTD, Valo-syle.
First thing we needed was a lady who was up for anything. I had worked with Amber a while ago and knew she was a lot of fun to work with. I shot her a message and she was all about doing the shoot. From there, we needed a dress. I really do not know how you ladies do it… Amber and I went to pick out a dress from David’s Bridal. They have a huge rack of $99 dresses that we were picking from (a good option if you want TTD photos and still want to keep your real dress). I had to register and we were mistaken for a couple quite a bit. It was also around the time when people were picking out their prom dresses, so the store was crazy busy and filled to the brim with ladies. I kinda felt like I was invading a female only club… got some really funny looks from some ladies. Anyoldways… Amber and I found a dress that we liked, she tried it on and it looked gorgeous.
From there I contacted two of my good friends Kristin and Amy who work at The Fringe Salon to do Make Up and Hair for the shoot. After I got them on board, I wanted to get some flowers for the shoot, so I contacted Greg from Gregory and Company and got an amazing Bouquet from him to use for the shoot. We finally got everything set up, nice weather, great team of people, and great location… then… it started to snow. It was in the 60′s a few days before, but then the temp dropped very quickly the day before and the day of the shoot to somewhere around 30 degrees. We got out to shoot and were able to shoot for about 30 mins before it started to snow. It wasn’t too bad at first, but when you have a model in a wedding dress and sandals… well… that is just crazy stuff. She was a trooper and we were able to get some fantastic photos while we were out. We might end up doing another shoot when it is a bit warmer… but for now, check out the photos we took.
