BRAND NEW BLOG!!!

I am excited to announce a brand new blog for Pamela Marie Photography!!! Which means this blog will no longer be updated.   Please adjust your bookmarks to the new blog’s new location. You can read more about the new site at this specific posting.

Yayayay!!!

Lots of love and see you there,

Pamela

(New Blog: http://pamelamarie.net/blog/)

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Love is in the air!!! Happy Valentine’s Day to all you who are enjoying it this weekend! I hope you’re all having a romantic evening out on the town or cozied up at home, whichever you prefer. Mark is taking me to a dinner theater, and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never seen a play while eating before… What a novelty.

I’ll share pictures and tidbits from the evening tomorrow, but until then… Congratulations to all the girlfriends who are joining the ranks of brides-to-be this weekend!! I’d love to see your shiny new rings!

Finally, just a quick reminder of the current promotion I am running: All new 2010 brides who book my services this month will save $250… plus I’ll take free photos of your engagement ring… Yay!

Wedding Planner: Consulting Services on a dime

Have you thought at all about hiring a wedding planner? Those in the biz will say that the biggest benefit of having a professional around is that she will basically pick up all the stress of planning your wedding, and put it on her own shoulders. How great is that?? I’m sure you’re already feeling the strain of picking out the perfect dress/shoes/venue/caterer… the list goes on… and you may have only recently become engaged! Imagine what it’s like for the last few weeks when everything comes together. Not to imagine all the stress that budgets may bring.

Planners will manage your budget, your planning timeline, and your vendors. They have relationships with vendors that may bring you savings, and they know which companies bring consistent reliable results. They help you realize your own ideas and they add suggestions to polish them. They keep things moving on your wedding day and deal with any issues that arise (and they *may* – that’s experience talking). They are your best advocate, particularly on your wedding day when you would rather relax and enjoy the occasion!

Now… you think having a wedding planner might not be in the budget? Consider this… Sumer Schmitt of Simply Perfect Weddings may have just what you are looking for! She is now offering 1 on 1 consulting services for clients who are interested in a one-time brain-picking sit-down session. That means you can get the guidance and even some vendor discounts at a fraction of the normal cost of hiring a planner! For the month of February, the rate is only $150 for 1 hour with Sumer + goodie bag. Plus you get a $100 credit toward other packages with Sumer. Check out her blog post for more info. Great deal!!

So meet Sumer, wedding planner extraordinaire. I’ve worked with her on several occasions and have found her to be extremely personable, responsive, and incredibly dedicated to the details. I wholeheartedly recommend her services to all brides.

Happy planning!

fabric wedding flowers

I’m a DIY-er at heart, so when I started brainstorming ways to personalize my own wedding, I decided a wonderfully creative way to add my special touch would be to make my own flowers! Over the past week or two I’ve been playing with different concepts, with scraps of fabric and thread I have around the house. What do you think of some of the styles below? Obviously they’re not finished and they’re not in the right fabrics/colors, but you can get a feel for the different options I’m playing with. I’ll also be adding in beads and crystals to finish some of these off. Right now I’m leaning toward the style in the last two photos (sans the button). The last one can be wrapped a lot tighter, too, to look like a rosebud. What are your thoughts??

(Forgot to mention that the main flower in the first pic is also the flower in the third pic. I’ll probably add tulle in to that one.)

Busy Week!

It’s been a wild week over here! I’d been hoping to finish up some album designs this weekend but with the lack of power, I settled for some cutthroat games of scrabble with Mark. Which means all that work built up a bit… so yesterday was a busy busy day! I finished up a client’s album as well as two parent albums that I will be ordering as samples. I’m becoming an album machine… finishing up 11 different clients’ album designs over the past month. Whew! Here are three spreads from three recent albums, for your viewing pleasure …

Chris and Tracey:::

Jamie and Maureen:::

Frank and Molly:::

I realized today that because I’ve been so focused on getting things done (great for my clients!), my blog has kinda fallen by the wayside (bad for me). So here I am back on the bandwagon. On the business end, I’m going through a bit of a redesign of my logo, and hopefully soon I’ll be releasing a brand new blog! Which is probably a good thing because as Mary over at Birchtree Photography pointed out, there’s another photographer out in Iowa who has a similar logo to mine. She even has the same middle name! Harumph! Anyway I’m really excited about all the changes and am looking forward to sharing them all with you!

On the personal end, I’m keeping busy with my own wedding planning. And despite being a wedding photographer and familiar with the industry, I’m amazed at the overwhelming volume of wedding-related material I’m finding out there!! How did I not know about all these blogs and websites earlier?? I’m certainly learning head-on what all my clients are going through, and you know what my key take-away for my own business is? Keep it simple. Too many options and your head spins. Sometimes I feel like it’ll fall off.

The pic above is of my littlest sister Elizabeth… she’s luv luvin’ the snow! Haha

SNOW!!!

Anybody hear about a little snowstorm this weekend in Pittsburgh? Now that my power’s back on, I thought I’d share a couple shots I took on Saturday… starting with my fiance Mark in front of the house…

…and the back porch…

And then Mark took a whole series of me. I think I like this one the best…

Once I was done shoveling, I went for a quick walk while Mark finished up. And found a winter wonderland in the alley by our place!

That guy in the background was watching me take pictures. I’m not so sure he was excited I took one of him

As I walked back, I passed our neighbor attempting to get home after being stranded at work all night (in the pic above where she’s driving the final leg down our street). It took her hours to travel a route that normally takes 10 minutes, and she had to stop and shovel her car out, periodically along the way!

Later that afternoon since the power wasn’t on yet, we decided to walk to Kuhn’s for some groceries. Look at how beautiful the light was!

(how handsome is Mark!!) I detoured us down to my winter wonderland to see how the sun was treating it…

Answer: It was GORGEOUS!!

There were a LOT of people walking around downtown, a surprising number really. The shoveled part of the sidewalk was wide enough for only 1 to cross so periodically we had to jump in the snow piles to let someone else through. I have to admit I really appreciated the community feel, though. Everybody was so friendly and alert!

On the way home, we had to walk in the street because some folks hadn’t shoveled their walkways yet… so we stuck to the main roads…

And what more romantic way to spend a freezing cold night than cuddled up in front of the fireplace, playing scrabble!!

I hope everybody is staying warm and safe!!

Love this!!

I think Ellen is hilarious. Granted, I find a lot of things funny- I’m not much afraid of laughing. But Ellen, she’s fall over, wet-your-pants, tears coming out of your eyes funny!! Anyway I found this spot from the show which cracked me up, and I thought I’d share. Maybe I could use a new chair in my office… can you picture me processing pictures in this thing???

I hope you’re all keeping warm!

2010 Promotion: Save $250!! {wedding photography}

I’m in a good mood! Did I mentioned I’m recently engaged to be married myself? The excitement of planning my own wedding might have something to do with my bubbly mood… Anyway, I’m feelin’ it’s time to spread the love… so have decided to offer a promotion::: Any new 2010 brides-to-be who book my photography services between now and March will receive an additional $250 OFF my normal rates! Plus, I’ll take complimentary photos of your engagement ring, so that you can share with your friends and family who aren’t quite so near! Interested? Let’s talk. Can’t wait to see your rings!

And now, on a personal note… Since Mark surprised me with some flowers yesterday…

…I decided to grab a couple of pictures of my engagement ring featuring the blooms…

and why not one on the back patio?

I hope everybody’s enjoying the wedding planning process… Looking forward to meeting you!!

Pamela

Happy New Year!!!

I hope everybody enjoyed the holiday festivities and you aren’t having too much trouble settling back into your normal routines! Mark and I appreciated the quality time with our families, both Pittsburghers and out-of-towners. One of my favorite gifts was this little toy mouse that the family cat Canon received. Despite it being filled with catnip, I don’t think Canon was too sure about what that little mouse was up to!

I’m keeping busy with album designs and print orders over these next couple of weeks, but will be posting some more once things ease up. Wedding season starts up again in April, so I have a lot to share with you beforehand and only a couple of short months to do so!

Be well in 2010,

Pamela

Tonya and Kelton’s Oakland engagement session

I hope everybody’s having a wonderful holiday season!!!! I know I’m enjoying the cookies, the presents, and the sleeping in. I could get used to this!

In the mean time, I’m excited to share some of my favorites from Tonya and Kelton’s photoshoot. We met up at Pittsburgh’s Mellon Building on a brisk day this winter for their engagement photos… and they brought along their adorable little dog Peanut for some pictures, too.

Enjoy!

We started off at the Mellon Building. It was a bit dirty on one side, so we just avoided that side. These guys warmed up pretty quickly!

I love this next shot of Kelton. As you know, I am a huge black and white fan, so I converted this one to b/w also for your pleasure

It was late afternoon so we had some gorgeous sunset light to play with…

…which of course also meant we could create some beautiful silhouettes!

Peanut was so excited to join us, we could barely keep him still for some pics! Still we ended up with some great shots; here’s one of my favorite close-ups.

I love this next one- Peanut peering back at Tonya and Kelton, sneaking in on a private moment. Just like kids! Ha!

Since autumn had passed and with it most of the leaves on the trees, we were pretty excited to find this beautiful red backdrop out near Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning. Love it!

This next shot is one of my favorites from the session- Tonya will be such a gorgeous bride!

Of course we had to use some of the tall weeds scattered around the Cathedral… if only we’d realized that the ground was a bit damp before heading in!

Love the look Tonya’s giving in this next one. Totally playing it up for the camera! Haha!

And of course Kelton had to show off for the camera, too…

Before wrapping up, we hit a pretty church on 5th Avenue for a couple of photos…

Love the personality in this next one!!

Tonya and Kelton, I had a wonderful time with you both. Looking forward to shooting your wedding next Labor Day!!

Until then… friends and family of the bride and groom can access all of the images from the engagement session here. All prints are 50% off for the first week, in this case until next Sunday evening, January 3 2009. (You will see the discounted rates directly in the price list online when you attempt to buy an individual image. After January 3, the rates will automatically return to their normal level.) If you have any questions, just let me know, using the contact form on my website. Enjoy!