Simon McConico | Valo Photography

This is the wedding story in which I almost lost my 85mm 1.2 lens and a church lost its window:

Well, those things really have nothing to do with the wedding story, but they do have to do with the wedding day. Erin is awesome. She has a Masters. Yeah, that makes her awesome. Dave works putting out fires. Literally, he isn’t in HR.

I first met Erin at the Marquette coffee shop, the Brew Bayou. She graduated from there and then went to Boston to work on her Masters. She was in town and we chatted about wedding plans and her day. They decided that they wanted Valo to rock their wedding, so the planning and waiting began. Finally it was the day of the wedding and we got a chance to meet Dave.

What can I say about Dave? It is always interesting meeting someone for the first time on one of the most important days of their lives. He, like Nick in my previous blog, instantly struck me as a very awesome and kind guy. Perfect for Erin. Oh, and did I say that he laughs a lot? Because he does and it was awesome.

Any old ways… The wedding was at Gesu, a fantastic church on the Marquette campus. There is normally a huge stain glass window in the back of it, but it was out for cleaning. Super sad, but either way, there was tons of light pouring into the church and that made me happy. After they got hitched we went out on the Marquette campus and rocked some photos there. We were about to leave when I realized that I was missing a lens. A lens? No… THE lens. I was missing my 85mm 1.2 (In layman’s terms, I had somehow misplaced my child). I went back into the church and they were having mass… crap. I talked with one of the ushers and he hadn’t found it. Mass was almost over and when it finished they helped me look up and down the pews for it. Nothing. Ugh. My heart fell into my shoes and tumbled down the steps into the street where it was ran over by an old rusty bus.

I was ready to go, when a lady walked up to me and said, “I think you are looking for this” and handed me the lens!!! Score!!! My life was better and I was ready to rock the reception!

The reception was awesome. Everyone from her college friends to her god mother were tearing up the dance floor. Which, that is my favorite part. We danced and photographed and danced some more. We had to leave eventually and were ready for a nap! Check out these photos to this long story.

There is one in every wedding party… Always.

No Comments | In: Weddings | tags: gesu, marquette, milwaukee, Valo, wedding. | #

Justin had an idea. He wanted to rock some photos in a super cool swank lobby of the Hyatt Hotel downtown. He gave them a call, got permission, and it was on like Donkey Kong. We got some sweet pics there then ran around outside for a  bit. Check out his photos.

No Comments | In: Senior Photos | tags: hyatt hotel milwaukee, Senior Photos, senior portraits, simonmcconico, south milwaukee, Valo, Valo Photography. | #

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!

4 Comments | In: Trash The Dress | tags: chicago, milwaukee, simonmcconico, trash the dress, Valo, Valo Photography, Weddings, wisconsin. | #

Ciera was scheduled to get her photos taken about a week ago, but then it rained. That is the downside of living in the Midwest where it rains, where there are mosquitos, and where it is muuuuuugy!  We rescheduled and got a fantastic day. We rocked photos at Dr’s Park, which is really sweet. Check it out if you haven’t. It is tucked away and has a nice little beach on lake Michigan. Check out some of the photos we took.

This is her Twilight photo. She yelled at me for not seeing the movies or reading the books… Sorry?

1 Comment | In: Senior Photos | tags: cool milwaukee senior photos, cool senior photos, milwaukee senior photos, rufus king senior photos, senior portraits, simonmcconico, urban photos, Valo, Valo Photography, valo photos, wisconsin. | #

Emily pretty much knows every senior I shot. Well… not everyone, but tons! We hung out for an hour or so and snapped some super cool senior photos in the Fifth ward of Milwaukee. Super fun and super cool lady.

No Comments | In: Senior Photos | tags: east troy high school senior photos, milwaukee, professional senior photos, Senior Photos, Valo, Valo Photography, wisconsin. | #

It is awesome getting to hang out with so many people with so much potential. The seniors that I shoot are all on the cusp of graduating and moving on to become adults. While that has it’s draw backs (Bills!), it gives me confidence that the world will be full of movers and shakers who are ready to rock n roll.

Kyle has his hands in lots of stuff. From film to business, he is starting to rock even before college. We shot some photos in downtown Milwaukee with his bike, some shirts he made, and the pending doom of rain. The rain didn’t turn into the down pour it was on Thursday, so the show went on. Check the photos:

3 Comments | In: Senior Photos | tags: cool senior photos, menomonee falls high school, milwaukee, outside, outside photography, senior photos milwaukee, Valo, Valo Photography. | #

We hit a lull in the wedding season this month and we are getting caught up on editing and rocking senior sessions. We are booking into August now for seniors and shooting almost every day. Cool to see how the photos are making their rounds, people are seeing them, then calling saying that they need to have them. Love that! Here’s another senior hitting the blog. You can’t stop this senior train! So many fun and good photos. Good luck to mom who needs to order photos

No Comments | In: Senior Photos | tags: cool senior photos, menomonee falls high school, menomonee falls senior photos, milwaukee senior photos, simonmcconico, Valo, Valo Photography. | #

DAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!! I hate having fun on photo shoots. Wait. That’s a lie. I do, however, hate all the “Fests” that take up some great spots in Milwaukee. We were going to be shooting over by Discovery world, but we ended up moving around quite a bit. In the end, it was super worth it and Lilly rocked the photos. Nuf said. Check out the photos!

5 Comments | In: Senior Photos | tags: menomonee falls high school, milwaukee, milwaukee high school senior photos, milwaukee senior photographer, Senior Photos, simonmcconico, Valo. | #

P.s. Anywhere I say DJ, you can substitute Band as well.

I have nothing against iPods. The thing is though, that they are not human. Give Apple about 10 years and I am sure we will have an iPod that will tap into our emotions and play exactly what we want to hear… buuuut, that hasn’t happened yet. DJ’s on the other hand… they can feed off the energy of a crowd. They can play requests. They can speak. They can put energy into a crowd that decided it would be a good idea to get off the dance floor…

How does having a good DJ relate to having good photos? Well… I am a big fan of dancing photos. Mater o’ fact, I love to get on the dance floor at a wedding and shake it right along with everyone else. I try to capture the energy that is flowing off of the dance floor. When people are having a good time, they, amazingly, look like they are having a good time. A DJ and some good dancing can’t fix a bad reception, but they sure can try.

Just any DJ wont do though. There are some DJ’s who don’t really care about their job. They don’t care about the music and don’t care about you. They are just there to press play and occasionally announce something. A good DJ though, is someone who will get out and dance the Cupid Shuffle with you and will not let the first 10 minuets of Thriller play.

How do you find a DJ that will rock the party? That is a good question. Your only option, pretty much, is to ask someone. Ask a friend you trust, ask a party planner, ask a photographer. What weddings were they at where the music rocked? What wedding were they at where the dance floor was packed? Bangin beats still might not get Grandma on the floor, but all your other friends will be poppin and lockin like it was Senior prom all over again.

(Yeah… that’s me dancing on a table at my wedding. That wedding was off the chain!)

Here are a few DJ’s that I love:

DJ Mercury – He is a club DJ, but knows how to rock the party. Our dance floor was packed all night long and we were rockin to the 80′s, Beasty Boys, and lots of other great jams.

DJ Q – from Music on the Move (Don’t get their photo booth… had a client who had a pretty bad experience with it. Plus, you should just get our Crazy Booth anyways.)

If you want to hire a band, check these guys out:

Bill Sargent – He brings the ruckus and is entertainment by himself on the drums, but he also has an AMAZING band with him.

(For those of you on Facebook, check out this video here)

Bands, DJ’s, Orchestras do not make photographers better. They do however help set the mood and create situations for great photos. Just another small thing you can do to not only have a great time partying at your wedding, but also create some great memories to keep. I could write a ton more on music, but I gotta stop somewhere…

Check out Part 1 Here

No Comments | In: Personal | tags: better wedding photos, DJ's, milwaukee, milwaukee wedding bands, milwaukee wedding DJ's, Valo, Valo Photography, wedding bands. | #

Oh my. Gorgeous location? The Pfister Hotel for a Milwaukee Wedding . Beautiful bride? Yuh. Great details? Uhm hmm. What more can a photographer ask for??? Crazy groomsmen? Now its a Valo wedding.

Joe and I met through Twitter. @blatzliquor and I, @simonmcconico started following each other (That still sounds awkward even though Twitter is a lot more mainstream now). I frequented his store (They have lots of tastings, wine classes, and great people) and when he got engaged, I, naturally, enquirer who was going to shoot his wedding. We met to talk about their wedding and I got to meet his beautiful bride-to-be, Claire.

Time goes by and the wedding day comes. We started out at the Pfister Spa shooting the ladies getting ready and details. From there we left to get some peoples married at Old St. Mary downtown Milwaukee. They got hitched and we hopped on a Trolly, swung by the Blatzs to pick up some beverages and then ran around downtown to take some amazing photos.

There are so many photos that I decided to do this in two posts, so this is where I leave you to look at photos and wait for another day or so

7 Comments | In: Weddings | tags: cool milwaukee wedding phtoography, milwaukee wedding, milwaukee wedding photographers, old st. mary, simonmcconico, the pfister hotel, Valo. | #