Here’s a design we recently created for Elizabeth and Sam – we presented them with a few options, but this is the one they picked and it was one of my faves!

This is a 5×7 card that was printed on pearl stock, which is a nice, heavyweight card stock with a shimmery finish.  We can do Save The Dates in 4 x 5.5, 5×5, or 5×7 flat cards or fold-over notecards.  We also have magnets available as well, they can either be ordered as a stand-alone product, or can be attached to your notecard.

We have a pretty much limitless designs to choose from, or, like the case above, we can whip up something completely custom.  One of the looks that’s popular right now is letterpress, and we have several templates that replicate that letterpress look, but are much less expensive than the real thing.  Here’s a sample I made using one of our 2010 couples (their engagement session will be appearing on the blog soon!)

(Note: For the Save The Dates below, I used images from earlier engagement sessions to create some samples. These were not products that the couples ordered, so if you are a friend/relative viewing this post and are wondering why you didn’t get a Save The Date, that’s why!)  :)

If you want to stay true to the letter press look, you can keep the back as a solid pattern, as shown, or you can add more text/images, or a personal message.

Our 5×5 cards are popular because of their unique form factor.   The one thing to note though is that the post office requires extra postage on square envelopes, so that’s something to consider when going this route.  (You can also elect to put them in 5×7 envelopes, though I personally think the 5×5 envelopes looks cooler, but that’s just me!)

Here’s a couple options with the square format – the backs can be anything – again, you could fill up the back with a single image, or leave an area to hand write a personal note, include your grandma’s chocolate-chip cookie recipe, whatever you want!

Save The Dates ideally should be mailed out about 6 months before your wedding, or even further in advance if you are planning a destination wedding. Remember, you only need to send one per household, so if you have 250 guests, you probably can get by ordering 125-150 Save The Dates.  We recommend scheduling your e-session at least 6 weeks before you plan to send out your Save The Dates.  These designs really represent the tip of the iceberg, there’s so many cool things we can do thanks to Photoshop.  If you have an idea for something unique, let us know!

All of the cards include envelopes (white or parchment) and can be ordered in bundles of 25.  (We can do holiday cards, thank you cards, etc. as long as a minimum of 25 are ordered.)

I was so excited when Donna told us she wanted custom Thank You cards.  Donna knows how to break the rules and her only guideline for the design of these cards was “nothing bridally”.  Okay, done!  I mean, this is the woman who walked down the aisle to Metallica’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, in case you need reminding.  So I knew I could get a little adventurous with this one.  :)

So I decided to go with a vintage-y damask background, but then I grunged it up with textures, some vignetting and a dark palette.  The cover image was given a scratchy, old camera treatment, and Andy made this cool Photoshop action to make a rounded border that slightly warps at the edges, like an old tv screen. To really make it pop, we choose a pearl card stock, which is a very thick, very shimmery paper.  Holy crap, these cards are hot.  There is no other way to describe them.  I gasped when I opened the box, for real.  :)

The inside shows off a few details from the weddings and the bottom is left blank for Donna to add her own message.  The inside has the same shimmery effect as the outside of the card.  It’s hard to see it in the photos, but it’s almost a metallic look.

For the back, we kept things simple, with an inset image with one of my favorite black-and-whites from the wedding:

Oh and P.S. for those camera nerds reading this – the camera in the images above is an Olympus Pen-EE  S, a half-frame camera circa 1962.  I think it’s probably the handsomest member of my camera collection.  :)

This has been one our favorite (and most popular) products this year – our custom sign-in books.  I’ve mentioned these before a few times on the blog.  Kelly’s guestbook can be found here and here.  We liked this one from Amanda & Dave’s Chicago engagement session so much that we decided to order a sample for our studio.   We offer a few different styles in guestbooks – this particular book is a beautifully press printed coffee table style book.  It’s a hardcover book with a laminated canvas cover.   This book is 8.5 x 11 but we also offer these in 8 x 8 and 11 x 14.

I am really partial to the 8.5 x 11 size because it opens to an 8.5 x 22 spread, which leaves plenty of room for big images with enough white space left over for your guest’s signatures.   It’s a very distinct size ratio and just looks modern to me.

See how this book goes on for miles?  That’s what I mean.  The pages are matte to make signing easy.  (This book is also available in glossy pages too which would be great for engagement session album or boudoir book, etc.)  The pages have a nice weight and feel.  And the best part is that the book is bound with hinged pages, meaning it opens flat, like a flush mount style album.  It allows you to see the whole page, and design a spread that crosses the gutter of the page.  See the photo below to see what I mean about the hinge.

As you can see the gutter (i.e., the middle of the book where the page is split) is pretty small – and you can see here how the book opens completely flat so you can really view each image as it was meant to be – without it disappearing into the binding.  I love this feature.  :)

These books always end up being a huge hit at weddings.  The guests tend to interact with them more than a regular sign-in book.  It gets passed around and admired.  People tend to draw little arrows and point out their favorite photos.  :)  It’s a great way to use your engagement images and share them with your friends and family.

If you are one of our clients and are interested in this product, you can use part of your album credit towards it, or purchase it as a stand-alone product.  We need a minimum of 3 weeks lead time to put one of these babies together, but if you have a wedding during prime season (June-Sept) the more notice you can give us, the better!  We also have some sign-in book options using silk and leather bound books and photographic prints – talk to us and we can explain all the options!  You can even coordinate your guestbook to match your wedding album.

But all that said, we can also whip together some really cool things that will have your guests talking at the reception.  Something that’s been very popular this year for us is photo guestbooks.  We take your favorite images from your engagement sessions and print a coffee-table style book, leaving a lot of extra white space so your guests have room to sign.  I think these are so fun, and way, way cooler than the old lined sign-in book.  And I’m not just saying that to sell guestbooks, I promise.  :)

The biggest issue I have with old fashioned guestbooks is that  most of them are designed so many people sign ONE page….so you are left with a book that’s 75% blank.  It also tends to end up being a list of people’s addresses rather than an actual memento.  Photo guestbooks have a photo on just about every page, and just enough white space so your guests can write something meaningful yet give your book a very well-loved and well written-up appearance.  It also is a great place to showcase your engagement images – which really is a special time that isn’t well documented in most people’s lives.

We can design your book to be clean and simple, or have it coordinate with your wedding colors, or any other graphic elements you are using in your wedding.   Some people have actually opted to order two books – one for guests to write in, and a “clean” copy to store away.

Another option is displaying a canvas or large print at your reception.  This is a really stylish way to show off your bridal or engagement images.  Here we had a 24 x 36 canvas created from Cara’s bridal session, which was then displayed at her reception.

You aren’t limited to one image….for instance, one of our storyboards would work out great as a display image as well.  Once your wedding is over, you have a nice big piece of artwork for your home, ready for mounting on your wall.  All of our canvases are completely finished on the back and can be framed as is, or you can add a traditional frame, if that’s more your style.

On a personal note, Andy and I get a real kick out of seeing our images being used at the reception.  Because we offer online proofing for our weddings, we usually are not around to see our clients’ reactions when we present their images.  But with guestbooks and display images, we almost always get to deliver these items in person, and it’s one of the most fun parts of our  job.  It may sound a little selfish, but it’s totally true.  :)

Hey everybody!  Just wanted to share a couple photos of some new 5×5 albums that we recently received in the studio.   This is probably the third post I’ve made about mini albums, and I promise you, there will be more.  I just love them.  They are great little companions to go with your main wedding album, and they are a good size to keep in your purse, or leave out on your desk.  Plus they just feel good to thumb through.  The album company we use offers a nice variety of covers, with great colors and textures.  I love to pet them!

I have a bad habit of randomly ordering these little albums in colors that I think will look cool, even before I have a good idea of what I’m going to use the album for.  That was the case for this one, a 5×5 in Hollywood Orange.  The swatch card it’s from is called Garbo, and it’s a suede-like fabric with a little bit of nap to it.  It feels soft and has this nice tactile quality.  We had the sample sitting in our studio for awhile and I was so excited with Bill & Dawn decided to use that very color for their proposal album.

Here’s a spread from their album:

One of the reasons we recommend going with a square album is because a lot of time our clients selections for an album will have both vertical and horizontal orientated photos.  If they ordered a 5×7 album, the vertical photos would be the full size of the book – 5×7 – but the horizontal images would either have to be cropped square or be sized a lot smaller, leaving a lot of blank page in the book.  With a square format book, everything has a little bit of white space, but the image sizes remain pretty consistent.  And we generally will crop a few images square to have some full bleed images as well.  The borders are optional, and we have a couple different styles to choose from.  I think they make the books look so classy – I especially love this treatment for our boudoir albums.

Wondering about the white gloves?  That’s our standard way of handling any books going to clients, in order to guarantee that they are in perfect shape when we deliver them. 

Another book we recently received is a 5×5 in Tourmaline.  This fabric is vegan-leather, but it has the substantial feel of leather and has a really pretty, metallic-looking finish.  It reminds me of a gemstone.  I’ve been intrigued with this fabric for awhile, but it was hard to really visualize from a swatch how it would work for a book.  I think it’s gorgeous though.  I’d love to do this in a larger book.

I like this photo because it really shows off how shiny and metallic this book looks.  It would be absolutely rad when combined with metallic prints.

These books can be ordered with any session – and come in 10 photo and 20 photo sizes.  Pages can be black or white and there are a ridiculous number of cover options available – silks, brocades, vegan leather, real leather, etc.  We also offer these in 3×3, 5×5, 8×8 or other custom sizes.

Say hello to Kelly & Eric – they will be getting married Saturday (tomorrow!) at The Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, MI. They were gracious enough to come to our side of town for their engagement session just a few short weeks ago. After grabbing some coffee and getting to know each other a bit, we hit the road and explored some Grosse Pointe landmarks.

Isn’t Kelly beautiful?  I don’t know how we did it, but we’ve booked the most gorgeous ladies this year!  Kelly is just a total sweetheart and we’ve enjoyed meeting with her and helping hammer out all the final details for her wedding day.  Eric is really funny and a good sport, and I know we are going to have a LOT of fun tomorrow photographing their wedding. 

We decided to take advantage of one of the two waterfront parks Andy and I have access too.  (Each of the Grosse Pointes – there’s five cities making up the Grosse Pointe area – has their own waterfront park…..except our city….we have TWO!)  Both are great locations for photography – one has a boardwalk overlooking Lake St. Clair, and the other one has a marina & pier – so you can get two unique waterfront backgrounds, and they are located about a 45 second car ride from each other.  If you are stumped trying to think up a location for an engagement session with us, know those two locations are always an option. 

Kelly & Eric decided to have us design a guestbook for them, and we were so happy to oblige.  A guestbook is a terriffic way to showcase your engagement pictures, share them with your friends and family, and collect all your family’s well wishes.  If you are thinking about a guestbook, it’s best to try to schedule your session about 6 weeks in advance of your wedding.  But the nice thing about our coffee table books is that we can get them designed and printed very fast.  In this case, we had a design ready for Kelly & Eric about a week after their session, and her book arrived about 7 days later.  Take a look at their design below, you can use the arrows or pick up the page corners with your mouse to transition to the next page.   We are so happy with how it came out, and I’m excited to see the guests’ reactions at the wedding tomorrow! 

Shown here, is our 36 X 24 mural hanging in one of our meeting rooms at The Event Studio in Birmingham. The image has a nice matte appearance, combating glare when viewed from all angles. The printing quality is truly gorgeous, and colors are brilliant, adding to the “Fine Art” appeal of these pieces. How fresh and radical would your favorite image look on metal?

These are currently available in the following sizes: 24 x 24, 24 x 36, 36 x 48. Want to try something different? Fine Art Metal Murals just may be the thing for you. Give us a call at 313.915.2302 or drop us an email for more details.

But first, I am way overdue on posting more pictures from Dennis & Amy’s e-session in downtown Detroit. Amy & Dennis are a super sweet couple, who moved to Atlanta a few years ago. They were total troopers coming up in March for an e-session. As someone that lived somewhere warm year round, I know exactly what kind of shock it is to return to Michigan when it’s cold. And it was freezing this day.

So we totally had a security detail kick us out of the RenCen, but it was so worth it for this picture. 

After being unceremoniously booted from the RenCen, we jumped on the People Mover and went for a little tour.

We really liked these images so we decided to use them for our newest sample, an 8×12 Guestbook Album:

I will be posting some more images of this book later.  We decided to do metallic prints for this album to really get the colors to pop and it looks A-mazing!  So happy with it!

Amy & Dennis – thanks again for braving our frigid cold and being such good sports.  We can’t wait for your wedding in August!

I’ve been holding off on posting about this until the one I ordered as a surprise gift was delivered to a client.  But I think it’s safe now. 

We are now offering storyboards!   These are available in 10 x 10 and larger sizes and you have your choice of a styrene-mounted print or a stand-out or canvas wrapped print.  The styrene-mounted option is shown in these photos.

Wait, I think some definitions are in order:

Styrene Mount: Each print is lightly textured, adding depth and dimension, and then it is permanently mounted on to a sturdy plastic-like material.  This results in a print that’s practically indestructible.  I wouldn’t run it over with your car or use it as a fetch toy, but you can absolutely display it on an easel, just like shown above.  Framing is not necessary, though you can go that route too if you want to keep it old school.

Stand-Out: Like it sounds, the print is mounted on a much thicker piece of material, so it pops out from the wall.  I’ll post pictures to the blog soon.

Canvas Wrap: The most dramatic of options, the image is actually printed on canvas and stretched over a frame, just like a painting.    While you can frame this if you wish, the trendy thing right now is to hang it on the wall as is.  Classy, modern, and cool.

I love these for weddings because you can capture all the little details from the event and show them off.

Just in case you are totally getting sick of my blue walls, here’s a different view:

Want one?  Give us a call!  

From top-to-bottom there is a 3×3, a 5×5, and a 4×6.

Here’s another view:

Even though these are small books, they are still made with fine quality materials and workmanship just like our larger albums.  Think thick, sturdy pages, yummy fabrics, and nice substantial bindings.

They are even more charming in person.  We are now offering these directly from our proofing site.  These come included in some of our wedding packages, or you can add one as an a la carte option.