If you’re looking for a quiet, beautiful, waterfront venue for your wedding, you’ll want to consider Woodlawn Farm! Woodlawn, located in Ridge, Md., features three acres that include expansive views of the Calvert Bay, as well as beautiful gardens and lawns.
Woodlawn couples enjoy exclusive use of the property and the option to stay at the manor house. The manor, built circa 1798, includes a gathering room, a kitchen and bedrooms, which all serve as beautiful backdrops for the bride and groom’s preparation photographs.
Once outside, couples have the option of three different waterfront locations for their ceremony. Underneath the gorgeous tree pictured below facing the water is my favorite location there! There are several options for portrait locations as well — the long dirt road leading to the manor, the front porch of the manor, the fields and lawns surrounding the property, the pier stretching out onto the bay and the bay itself, to name a few. It’s a photographer’s dream!
If you’re interested in learning more about Woodlawn, send them an email at info@woodlawn-farm.com.
.jpg)
I like to think of the wedding day as a short story or a chapter in the larger book of your marriage. And just as all good stories have a beginning, middle and end, so does your wedding day. For me, that means the story begins with the quiet details of the day — your wedding dress hanging before you step into it, the pearls your grandmother wore on her wedding day and passed on to you, or the handkerchief your best friend lent you for your something borrowed. These details have meaning and should be recorded in the same manner that all of the other important moments of your wedding day are.
So how can you make sure these details are captured? Here are a few things you can do to assist your photographer in documenting everything from the dress to the rings.
1. Choose one person — a family member or bridesmaid perhaps — to be in charge of collecting all of the items to be photographed and placing them in one area. Once you’re photographer arrives, he/she can go straight to work staging these items for photographs and won’t have to disrupt you while getting ready to locate anything.
2. In addition to your engagement ring, make sure you have both wedding rings with you. This will save time tracking down the location of the other ring if it’s in the best man’s possession. Sometimes it’s not possible to even get the ring beforehand if he’s at another location. You can assign someone to return them to the best man if needed once the photographs are complete.
3. Arrange for your bouquet, bridesmaids’ bouquets and corsages to be delivered to the location where you are getting ready. If the flowers are at the ceremony location and you’re somewhere else, the opportunity to photograph them may be missed. And, if you choose to do any formals at your getting ready location, the flowers won’t be included in these photographs either.
4. Ask one of your bridesmaids to remove the tags from your dress and other packaging from jewelry that you may have purchased. This ensures that not only are the items ready for photographs, but that you won’t be left searching for scissors when you’re ready to get dressed.
5. Set aside a copy of your invitation with the other details you would like to have photographed. If you’re worried you’ll forget this one, mail a copy of your invitation to your photographer when you send out all of the guests’ invitations and ask him/her to bring it on the wedding day.
6. And finally, here’s a list of all of the items you should gather for photographs during this time: the dress, special hanger if you have one, shoes, handkerchief, engagement ring, wedding rings, other jewelry, perfume, bouquets, corsages, invitation, garter and ring bearer’s pillow or box for rings. If you can think of any details that I’ve missed, please share in the comments below!
Maybe you’ve spent hours on Pinterest researching the latest wedding trends, or you have an idea of how you want your day to look, but you don’t know where to begin. Enter Erika of Love Nora Adornments.
Love Nora Adornments provides vintage rentals, handmade decor and custom styling for weddings and photo shoots. Her inventory includes antique couches, side tables, antique trunks, old windows and doors, chalkboard menus, distressed crates, mason jars, vintage luggage, and all of the other details that make your wedding unique and are so much fun to photograph!
Erika will take your vision, give it life, and exceed your expectations in the process. Her talent, creativity and attention to detail are remarkable!
Be sure to visit her web site to see more samples of her fabulous work or send her an email at Erika.LoveNora@gmail.com!
There are lots of external factors at a wedding that can take away from the beauty of a photograph. During the toast, the biggest of these, in my opinion, is a speaker in the background. Imagine a father giving a tearful toast to his daughter with a large black box next to him. Chances are because of the size of the speaker, you’ll focus more on it than the tear rolling down the dad’s cheek.
While I will work every angle possible to exclude this from the image, there are a few simple things that you can do beforehand to help your photographer capture only the people and emotion involved in this moment.
First, ask the DJ or band to bring a portable microphone so that the person giving the toast has free range of the floor. As a bonus, it’s always nice when they’re able to speak near the bride and groom’s table allowing for some wide shots that include both the speaker and couple’s reaction in the same image. If your DJ doesn’t have a portable microphone available, ask your maid of honor, best man and any other family members giving a toast to step away from the DJ’s table and equipment, as far as the cord will allow before beginning their speech. And remember to do the same, if you speak yourself. If you’re having a smaller wedding in an intimate setting, forgo the microphone altogether.
When looking back through your photographs, you’ll want to remember the events of the day and not the logistics that made it possible!
THE DETAILS.jpg)
.jpg)