Happy Leap Day! Since today was an extra day that only happens every four years, we thought that we’d give ourselves an extra day off too.*wink* So off we went to the little town of Jenks, Oklahoma. We spent several hours there looking through every antique store they had. I’d definitely recommend the place if you’re on a hunt for cool vintage items or props like us. We found cool books, a painter’s ladder, another suitcase, and an unexpected item that I have been wanting for the longest time! I am so excited to show it to you but not today though. You’ll have to wait for Friday ’cause I have yet to take a photo of it since it will look better in prettier light.

Overall it was a fine day to be out, sunny and just slightly cool. Although I would have liked it more if the wind stopped blowing the dogwood trees’ flowers in my direction! I’m allergic to them and it made my eyes looked puffy all day and my throat hurt but nonetheless I still enjoyed today. And I heard the song above playing at one of the stores, how pretty darn cool! I love MGMT. ♥ Enjoy! And come back Friday and I will show you the coolest vintage prop {it actually works!} I bought!

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? Could you believe that February is ending in two days!? Wow, it just flew by so fast! We definitely got a lot of breaks this month. Since it is off-season with weddings here, in Stillwater at least, we spent our precious time drumming up ideas on our display table for the Hello Lovely Indie Bridal Fair on March 11. I can’t wait to take a photo of our booth and show it to you. It will be after the bridal show though since it’s going to be a surprise. ;) We’ve also managed to squeeze in some mini projects this month. Scott has designed templates for the Wedding Photobook and Guestbook that we offer and has finished one of each album. And we just received them!

What do you think? Above is a sample of our new Wedding Photobook we offer. This is the ImageWrap style, so the cover is wrapped in a custom print on canvas material. We are also offering the book in different colours of leather. It has taken us time to find a photobook that we are happy with and we are so excited with how it has come out. I love how the cover material, finish, and our photography style creates a cover that almost looks like a painting! If you have a chance you’ll have to come by the bridal show to check it out. Below is a sample of our new Guestbook which has a leather cover, and by the way, I think it’s super cute since it has these questions that guests can answer or they can leave some advice for the couple. Both books are layflat, and either can come with an ImageWrap or Leather cover {lots of colors to choose from}. Trust me they are gorgeous! It took Scott 3 weeks to design the templates and put these together. He made sure to jazz up the designs because as blue elephant photography we definitely can’t stand something boring.

Anyway, we have a special that we are offering during the Hello Lovely Indie Bridal Fair! We’re offering a $2000 package which includes an all-day coverage {and the rest of these of course} and we’re throwing in a Wedding Photobook for FREE! {Yes, that’s a $300 value}. So if you just got engaged or a bride, make sure to book with us. And please stop by the booth and say Hello! ♥

So I was doing what a wife is expected to do, you know…folding laundry, when I discovered something. I found 2 pairs of Scott’s socks that had holes in them! Has he gone mad? From what it looked like, he had still been wearing them even with holes! I had to laugh since he has a lot of socks, I got him 5 pairs recently. Well, I guess he really loves these ones since he could not stop wearing them. I kindly asked him if we could throw it this time, and he replied with a smiley ‘Yes’ *big grin*. Anyone else out there attached to their socks!?

On the brighter side of things, OSU, the local university here is holding the CLA Music Festival tomorrow night at 7pm at the Wes Watkins. Scott and I are big in supporting local businesses and events. So if you are in the area, do check out the music madness since there are a lot of talented bands that will be playing. Also Stillocal will be giving away lots of prizes during the show! And as part of our support we are also giving away a FREE Engagement or Just Because session. So if you’re engaged or wanting a just because session with your loved one, make sure to be in attendance and win win win!

Oooh I was pretty proud with our gift certificate! ♥ Scott made it and I finished it with up with a pink polka dot bow. So what are you guys up to tonight? Happiest Friday and have a fun weekend! Support your local everything!

Wedding season is right around the corner! If you or someone you know is deep in the wedding planning process, I’m sure the idea of having engagement photos has come up. First, let us clarify that an engagement session is a casual photo session with your fiancé that highlights you as a couple. Some couples may feel it is a waste of time and money but we strongly feel this is a valuable opportunity. Apart from documenting this amazing time in your lives, there are several important reasons to get engagement photos, especially if you are looking for a professional wedding photographer.

First of all, this is a great opportunity to test out your wedding photographer. Engagement sessions usually last more than an hour. So, it allows you time to develop a relationship with that photographer. It also gives you a chance to reaffirm whether the photographer you picked for your wedding is the right one for you. In case you clash with the photographer, get engagement photos done as early as possible. Second, as wedding photographers, it helps us give you better wedding photos. Once we get to know your personalities, we can work on getting you unique wedding photos that mean more to you. You will learn our style of shooting before your wedding day and you will be more comfortable being photographed on your special day.

Finally, engagement photos can be used in so many ways while planning your wedding. They are great for personalized save the dates or wedding invitations. You can make a fun guestbook using the photos. We’ve also seen them creatively used in centerpieces, reception slideshows, and wedding websites. Finally, some parents use a photo when making an announcement in the hometown newspaper.

Convinced yet? Well, before we go, here are some engagement photo tips…

Get your photos done as soon as you set the wedding date. Normally you need atleast 8 to 12 months to plan a wedding. This gives you time to test out your wedding photographer and use the photos in your wedding planning. It also gives you time to just enjoy the photos during this moment in your life. Find out from your photographer exactly what products they offer. For instance, if you are wanting a custom photo guestbook, save-the-dates or if you will need the files to make a reception slideshow.

Engagement photos should be unique and special to you as a couple. Get your photos done in a place that has meaning to you or around an activity that you love to do. Also be conscious of the season. As natural light photographers, we encourage outdoor photos and fall photos look very different from spring photos. Engagement photos should be fun, creative, and unique to you. Have fun wedding planning!

A huge Thank You to Stillwater’s Community Connection for the feature earlier this month and The O’Colly {Page 2B} for the reference today! Happy Hump Day!

Today didn’t start out really great for me, not because it’s a Monday{ha}! But because I had very little sleep and kept waking up every single hour through the night. Cedar or juniper pollen must have been high yesterday since my head felt fuzzy after we came back from our little fishing trip with our friends. The next thing is I needed to sleep almost sitting down since I couldn’t breathe and my sinuses hurt so much and made my throat so dry. So I skipped work and slept in some more in the morning and went to work after lunch. I did feel better. But despite the grogginess, I am really hoping Spring is just around the corner. This afternoon within 5 minutes, the weather changed from being cloudy, to raining, to hailing, then everything stopped and cleared up, then the sun was shining so bright and there was a faint rainbow in the sky. Wow! It’s only here that I am amazed by the weather change everyday, let alone in 5 minutes! Anyway, I was going to take hail photos but then I am really missing Spring so much that I had to dig through my photos from last year to cheer me up.

Yes, I am in denial. And I miss the light, the smell, the joy of springtime. I really want Spring to come soon! So I hope it could hear me or else I will break into a tribal spring dance to get all the buds blooming and the leaves sprouting! Green green green! See you on Wednesday! Have a good one!

Happy Friday friends! What are your plans this weekend!? I hope you have something either exciting or relaxing in mind. I’ve mentioned a lot of times how Oklahoma’s weather is unpredictable and tomorrow we are having some rain! Just a few days ago it said it was going to be sunny with a high in the 50s. Oh boy, I feel so bad that I have to move our client’s shoot some other time. The rain could turn out to be a fun shoot but they still have little boys and yup we don’t want them to get sick and cold. Anyway, I think I need a drink today! It has been a tough week with my day job but here’s some good news…I am not going to China this month! Yay! I’m going to skip this trip. I’m pretty positive my colleagues can do without me on one trip. So hooray that I get to spend more time with Scott!

I so need this break since we have so many house chores that we need to do. We’re also looking forward to some antiquing this coming weekend. Well, I’m going to keep it short this time and let you enjoy your weekend. And leave you with this happy song and hope it paints a big smile on your face. :) Also don’t forget, if you’re local to Oklahoma, the Hello Lovely Indie Bridal Fair is coming up on March 11. Check out my previous here for more information. Pretty please come by and say Hi to us! We would love to meet you there! ♥

Hi y’all! So how was your Valentine’s day celebration!? I hope you guys enjoyed your day a lot. Everyday is a day of love for us but we did go out for some wine and yummy bruschettas last night with our friends to make it fun and extra special, so that was exciting! On the other hand I even have more exciting news for you! Drumroll please…We are officially having a booth at the Hello Lovely Indie Bridal Fair! Yay! Here’s a flyer that I found from their page for more information:

It is actually our very first show so imagine me jumping up and down when one of the Hello Lovely ladies, Hannah, called about being one of the vendors there. I am so stoked! I like that the fair is small and more organized, 20 hand-picked vendors, cool barn location, and lots of fun and giveaways in store for the attendees. Eeek! So if you are engaged, a mother of the bride or groom, or would just love to attend, please do! Tickets are pretty affordable and can be purchased at the Hello Lovely website or at the door. And pretty please stop by to say Hi! We would love to meet you there!

Happy Monday Everyone! How did your weekend go? Scott and I had so much fun yesterday since we got to visit a really cool businesswoman and artist in town, Jenny of The Crimson Poppy. We’re big into supporting local businesses and love her creative work so we thought we could connect with her. She is so talented and so nice and cheerful to talk to! And her paper flowers were so darn gorgeous! She’s an awesome multi-tasker. She was talking to us about business, the upcoming Hello Lovely bridal show, various types of florist papers, the DIY Flower Kits she made, while at the same time she was unconsciously making pretty small flower pieces. She’s one busy girl! And I’m sure it has been crazy these past few months for her with interviews and features everywhere. I love her feature on Southern Weddings and Brides magazine; the flowers she made for them were stunning!

It all started when Jenny decided to do something different with her own wedding…using paper flowers! She found instructions and do-it-yourself kits online but quickly out-grew them in the search for more realistic creations. Many of her beautiful works of art were discovered by taking apart real flowers, lol. Well, in the process of doing all this research she had created many wonderful items like cards and decorations. With the encouragement of friends and family she started selling these creations in local shops and online. It wasn’t long before she was being asked to create flowers for weddings and even the Golden Globes and The Oscars! That’s right, she gave away DIY paper flower kits to celebrities in their swag bags. Wow! Isn’t that awesome?!

I love these gigantic flowers that she had and I think they’re actually pretty popular right now with brides. Instead of a regular flower bouquet, I’ve seen brides just holding one gigantic flower. Pretty unique! And what’s more unique is having one made out of paper that looks so real and hey you can actually keep it forever. Anyway, I’m just so excited to share this since I just love it when brides bring something different to their weddings…be it a paper flower bouquet, boutonnieres, a hairpiece, or what, I’m sure Jenny can get it covered *wink*. Support your local everything! Stop by her website or like her Facebook page and help her win a commercial, I’m sure you will like what you see.

Hooray! Friday has finally come! And we can finally share a shoot that we’ve been falling in love with all week…a cozy cabin engagement shoot. We’re also so excited because this is our first engagement session of the year and the shoot turned out to be so much fun! Emily was actually the one to come up with the idea. While we were all brainstorming ideas on where to take photos, Emily happened to be visiting some family land. Emily described cabins filled with antiques along the shores of a drying up lake. She didn’t even have to ask for we fell in love with the idea in an instant! So, we all drove out to the land together with vintage goodness dancing in our heads, and when we got there it was…like a dream.

This past summer was extremely dry and the drought had left the lake practically dried up. It has left behind petrified looking trees shooting straight up out of the sandy mud. It was so very breathtaking but surreal…especially as the sun was setting.

Emily told Jeff that if he is ever going to propose, not to ask but just to give her a ring. She didn’t want anything big or a dramatic scene. So, one day they were having dinner at an Irish pub and Jeff pulled out a ring just as she had previously asked…and she happily took it. She admits though that she was a bit surprised since she thought he may propose on a trip they were planning. But she says that she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Jeff and Emily are extremely competitive with each other and will make anything into a contest {Emily usually comes out on top}. They both enjoy trying new things and traveling. In their free time they like playing games and going to the movies. Jeff and Emily are finishing up their degrees in Economics and Bio-systems Engineering at the same university. So, not only are they fun to hang out with but they’re obviously super smart, lol.

We love this e-session so much! And there’s more photos! So be sure to check out the slideshow on their Event Page. Have a fun weekend everyone!

Happy Wednesday! Due to inclement weather this past weekend, we had to move our schedule around a bit. So no photoshoot :( but no worries, we still have a fun session to share! Quentin & Victoria came to us last November to get some Just Because photos done. This is the first time to post any because they wanted them to be a surprise for their families over the holidays. Take a look!

As you can see this was in the heart of fall and all the trees were glorious. I’m so glad that Sophie and Bella, their pomeranian’s, were able to come out and play! And boy they loved it!

Kitchen utensils? Power tools?! Lol, this couple was so much fun! We always try to find something that a couple has in common and we center the photoshoot around that. This time there was a twist! The thing is that they don’t exactly share everything but for every interest or hobby one of them has, the other has a complement. They each have their own bookshelves with different types of books. One has a PC…and, yup, the other likes Macs. Victoria likes to spend time in the kitchen {she bakes the best banana bread} and Quentin spends time in the garage {his truck is his baby}. The best thing about this couple is that they encourage each other even when it’s “different”. It would be so boring anyway if two people are too much alike right!?

Quentin and Victoria have been together for 5 years and we asked them if they would share their porposal story. They have such a sweet story! Quentin has a handy man business on the side but was worried about how long it may take to save up for a nice ring. As luck would have it, he had a client that had a beautiful loose diamond. The client made him a deal, in exchange for a summer’s worth of yard work, he could have the diamond. All he needed to do was find the perfect setting. The ring is beautiful so I think they got a great deal and such a labor of love!

Quentin and Victoria have a new passion for running. And as you may expect they have simliar shoes and water bottles…matching but different.

While we were running around we came across a fallen eagle’s nest. How crazy is that!? I swear I could fit in that nest no problem…I mean it was B-I-G! Anyway, there was no sneak peek on this one so head straight on over and visit their Event Page for more sweet his & her photos. Have a great week!