Last night, I came across a fun site – Taaz – which brought back memories of playing an old dress-up software game with Nina and Kate.

It allows you to upload your own photographs and play with different hair and makeup styles – I think the site may be helpful, or at least fun, when you’re planning your wedding day hair and makeup styling.  At the very least, it’s a good way to kill some time with a glass of Merlot.

Here’s the result of my makeup artistry and hairstyling expertise in a before and after photograph using the tools available on the site. Well, maybe I need some work – I’m not totally digging my florescent highlights upon further review.

While I highly recommend using a professional makeup artist on your wedding day and we have some suggestions for you,  some brides are more comfortable with applying their own makeup.

From a photographic perspective and especially if you’re wearing a veil, makeup is much more important than your hairstyle.

Here’s a few tips for your wedding day makeup.

•    Mix your foundation with a little moisturizer. It will give you a lighter, more natural coverage.

•    Limit the amount of concealer to the amount that just covers blemishes.

•    Powder is very important to reduce shine, especially during a hot summer wedding. It’s better to use a powder with some color rather than translucent color which can give you a washed-out look.

•    I hate glitter and pearlized finishes – to the camera and especially when flash is used, it looks like tiny holes in your skin. I’ve spent countless hours retouching little white spots from glitter.

•    Select a blush that’s close to your skin color – the camera’s sensor really heightens  the difference between light and dark tones.

•    Don’t go overboard with mascara, which can darken your eyes and create shadows over your cheeks.

•    And, don’t go too dark with your lip color – the camera sees the contrast to a much greater extent and your lips can look quite dark, especially in black and white photographs.

We do really need the down time to recharge the batteries after a long wedding season, but we’re starting to feel that surge of energy and excitement for out first wedding of the season on April 5th.

This is the time of year when all of our couples are beginning to finalize their wedding plans – there are so many details and decisions that it seems to be an impossible task. Here’s a few ideas to get you started on your journey.

Planning a wedding can be a stressful undertaking – we joke that it’s like book camp training for marriage – vows, readings, religion, guest lists, family issues, bridal party decisions, cake, flowers, transportation, photography, wedding dress, bridal party dresses and tuxes, invitations, itinerary, honeymoon – and you and your fiance may have very different ideas, requiring some compromise.

One of the most important decisions revolves around the color scheme for your wedding. You can’t shop for a cake, bridesmaid dresses, tuxes or flowers without having a firm color scheme in mind.

Some brides have a favorite color and know beforehand that their color scheme is going to be based on the favorite color.

If you don’t have a color scheme in mind or a favorite color, don’t dismay, there’s lot of help available online.

Here are the hot, trend-setting colors for spring of 2008.

Fall is typically a time of muted colors but this year is seeing cool hues with bright undertones.

Your color scheme really revolves around your gown. if you’ve selected an ivory, vintage gown with needle lace and button back closure, you may enjoy pastels and neutrals that suit a 1930′s vintage or garden wedding or perhaps Martha Stewart’s more subdued color palette.

If your style leans more towards diamond white A-Line or Empire Waist gowns, investigate some of the more fun and playful palettes like black and white, aqua, lime green and coral.

Your venue’s architecture and ambiance may play a part in your color scheme selection.

Sherwin Williams has a fun online tool to help you select complementary colors – just click “find a color”, select your primary color and it chooses two complimentary selections.

Have fun with your wedding planning and know that everything will work out. Take one thing at a time. You’re wedding is going to be beautiful and all of your family and friends will have a wonderful time while celebrating the beginning of you new life together.

We try to get involved and help with your itinerary, but whether due to distance or timing, that’s not always possible.

We see the same little glitches happen week after week and can predict how smoothly the day will go based on the itinerary. We can even tell you which hair salons consistently run late.

No names mentioned here, but ok Kathy won the prize for the fastest dresser in the history of wedding preparation – 4 minutes from walking in the door of the bridal room to walking down the aisle – very impressive!. I have to say that she was calm, cool and collected but might have wished for at least 6 minutes.

So here’s some suggestions to help “de-stress” your wedding day – this is mostly for the ladies – guys are easy – shower, tux, a little BrylCream – they still make this stuff – and we’re out the door.

Make a physical list of everything you need to do and organize, have a written itinerary, give everyone a copy and on your wedding day, don’t be afraid to delegate. Your friends are happy to help. Put someone in charge of paying vendors, handling the rings and other necessities.

Try to get a good night’s sleep. You want to feel rested and clearheaded – skip the extra glass of champagne at your rehearsal dinner.

If convenient, plan a massage, get your nails done or anything to make you feel more bride-like on the morning of your wedding day.

Have a bustling practice session with your bridesmaids – some dresses are very complicated to bustle.

Hair and makeup always take longer than expected – add an hour to the time the salon estimates and if possible, bring your hair stylist and makeup artist to you – many salons will travel and I really feel that it’s worth the extra expense.

If possible, have the bridesmaids dress in the same location and add 45 minutes to the time when you really want them together.
Consider the size of your bridal party – we’ve photographed weddings with 29 people in the bridal party – and it’s fun – but, the larger the bridal party the more organization it takes and the more chance for stress on your wedding day.

Think about the distance between your dressing location, your ceremony and reception. It may make more sense and give you more time to relax, to choose a hotel near either site.

Put together a “first aid” kit (we do bring one with some essential wedding day items) with analgesics, spot remover, scissors, band aids, medical tape for those not-so-perfectly fitting gowns, crochet hook to help with those endless buttons, sewing kit, bobby and safety pins and a glue stick.

Plan an hour to get something to eat – while nerves may curb your appetite, it’s a very long day and some food and water are critical.

Use professional transportation to take you to the ceremony unless maybe you live out in the country with a squishy driveway – have a backup plan in case the limo is late or gets lost – leave extra time!

Consider a professional event planner – Barb and I have mixed feeling about this – we’ve seen some party planners who are terrific and helpful and some who are better at the creative side of event planning, but when it comes to itinerary planning – well, not so much.

Choose the right photographer! Unlike any other vendor at your wedding, you’re going to be with your photographer all day long. Choose a wedding specialist – someone with whom you feel comfortable and someone who will “go-with-the-flow” on your wedding day. A “bossy” photographer or videographer is going to create a lot of stress.

Everyone is different and it’s normal to have a million different feelings running through you on your wedding day – try to have fun! (Barb and my biggest wedding day regret). Don’t let the small stuff bother you. It would be highly unusual to have everything go according to plan on your wedding day. Try to keep in mind the “big picture” – that this is one of the best days of your life!

We see many of the same pitfalls week after week and thought that we would start a series of articles to help our couples with their wedding plans – from a Bride’s Perspective.

Christine and Jeff were married this year at Grove City Chapel with a reception at the Shakespeare’s at the Olde Stonewall Golf Club.

Here’s Christine’s take on her wedding day and planning. Steve

“The most stressful part of a bride’s wedding day is not the flowers, the cake, or any of the other million details she’s spent the last year planning – it’s the people. (Really.)

Take it from a bride who’s been there (as of this past June 23rd!)- no matter how much you love your relatives, no matter how great your friends are, at some point during the week of your wedding, you’ll want to lock them all in a closet. (Sad, but true.)

There will be, of course, a few exceptions, as there were in my case: my mom, who is also my best friend; my brother, who was also my honor attendant; and my grandfather, who walked me down the aisle.

But what every bride really wants is to experience what she sees the brides in the magazines experiencing – romance, peace, and true intimacy on her wedding day. Fortunately for me, I booked the two most fabulous (and no, I’m not just saying that) photographers in all of western Pennsylvania, and they were absolutely, without a doubt the single best investment of my wedding.

For those moments when my groom, Jeff, and I were alone working with Steve and Barb, it was absolutely magical. The romance, the intimacy, the peace – I had it all. And for those brief moments when Steve would steal us away to take some pictures (“just interact with each other!” he’d tell us), the world was quiet, the people disappeared, and I felt like I was living a fairy tale. (Guess that makes Steve my fairy godfather?!) (ed.note – godbrother maybe! – I’m blushing)

So now that I have some real bridal experience under my belt, Steve and Barb thought I just might have what it takes to offer a “bride’s perspective” to some of their writing and marketing ventures! This is yet another dream come true for me, as just a month prior to my wedding I finally finished my thesis for my Master’s degree in English. So you may see me writing from time to time in blogs, newsletters, or other future endeavors!

And before I go, let me put your mind at ease: despite how stressful the people involved in a wedding can be, what they say is true – your wedding will be perfect, no matter what happens. Besides, you always have the morning after to look forward to when you wake up with nothing to do and you remember that no one has the phone number for where you’re staying…ahhhh!”

Wedding photography used be considered to be at the bottom of the photography food chain if you will, a stepping stone to build a more profitable portrait business. But today, wedding photography has developed into a true art form and is the primary concentration of many of world’s top photographers.

I look at who are generally considered to be top handful of wedding photographers around the world and similar traits crop up, not the least of which is a passion for people, and ok, maybe you need to be a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.

It’s a given that you have to be a professional, creative photographer, but it takes much more. It’s interesting to see that many of the world’s best wedding photographers came to the profession from other walks of life.

Joe Buissink was a psychologist, David Beckstead was a forest fire fighter, Denis Reggie a football photographer, and I’m still working on this, Parker Pfister was a cement truck driver. So maybe, understanding people, working closely with other people in a high stress environment, anticipating the “moment” and well, help me out with the last one.

Many of you who know me well, know that I have three passions in life – my family, photography and flying, and that as a 17 year old, flying for a living seemed to be a bit more exotic.

So, with a newly minted philosophy degree from Pitt, I pursued an airline career, but always kept my passion for photography, running a part-time business photography business on my off days. As we got busier, something had to give and it was the aviation business.

While the joke in the airline industry was always “I hate to fly and I hate people”, in fact you really needed to have a love and understanding of people.

Each week, you worked with a new group of people and virtually lived with them for 4 days. It’s something very foreign to most people in the work world who see the same faces every day, but great preparation for wedding photography.

And it seems that many of the top wedding photographers around the world are a little older, the definition of which get redefined about every 10 years. But, maybe it takes some life experience to mature as an artist.

Steve

We have gotten a ton of calls recently from prospective clients looking for just wedding coverage and a DVD of images.

While we do offer a DVD of digitally mastered images with a fine-art wedding album, we really believe that, as much as we are in the electronic age, one day a couple is going regret not having a wedding album.

I think the proof of that has been an explosion of new companies who design and order wedding albums for brides and grooms (and photographers who have never designed an album or find that it’s just too much work). They have found that many couples have a DVD of images, but don’t know what do with them, or find that putting together their own album is a daunting task.

And, proofs are just a starting point for us for both a vision of a finished image and a vision of how an image can be used in a creative way in a wedding album.

Here a couple of examples of before and after – a DVD proof and my vision for a finished print. We go through a similar creative process when we design a wedding album.

Our current and former clients who have been through the album design process realize how much work is involved in design, re-design, finishing and retouching prints and that by far, most of our work, both actual and creative, is done after the wedding.

Oh, I have to admit that sometimes at 2AM, after hours of hours of pouring over a clients wedding album, Barb and I wonder if we shouldn’t just be doing shoot and burn wedding photography and spending all those hours working on something more profitable, like photographing little league teams, but it’s all worth it in the end when we’re able to present, what we hope is a work of art, to our clients.

While the guys sometimes give me strange looks (maybe next time I’ll put a copy of Martial Arts on the table , I incorporate a fashion look in my wedding images and get a lot of great ideas by studying the latest trends in fashion photography. Well maybe not the ads for Marc Jacobs – they do get your attention, though.

Have you noticed the color orange popping up in ads and fashion related websites? It’s my prediction that shades of orange are going to be a popular color for bridesmaid dresses for the 2007 spring season.

Here are the hot color predications for the spring 2007 season (courtesy of Fashion Trend Setter)

And the fall color predictions.