Heather & Walter // 5.21.2011

Wedding Videographer // “Visual Elegance”

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:24:53 +0000

Today we wanted to post about our videographer that we chose for our wedding! They are called Visual Elegance based in Greenville, SC. You can check out their website HERE! Their names our Jeremiah and Ashley Grant and they work as a husband and wife team. We found them because they did a wedding for someone that we went to church with. Heather also knew Ashley because of a church retreat that we attended back in high school. We both already knew Jeremiah because we were good friends with his brother back in high school! We really love their video work and wanted to do a post so we could tell you all about them to! Here is a picture of Jeremiah and Ashley and a video of a recent wedding they did.
Be sure to check out their FACEBOOK fanpage as well!

Jenna + Clay | Feature Wedding Film from Visual Elegance on Vimeo.

Engagement Photos!

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:46:49 +0000

Walter & I headed to DC this past weekend for OUR engagement shoot, with my AMAZING friend Natalie Franke. I had never had my picture taken other than yearbook pictures back in the day. Natalie made is so comfortable & so much fun. I would do it again 10x if I could, I had a blast. So check out all our photos here and give her some much deserved blog love for being fabulous.

Vendor Myths – Good Branding, Websites, & Blogs

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:13:48 +0000

The biggest turn-off when looking at wedding vendors for my wedding was terrible branding, websites, & blogs. Sure, I am more observant of these since I work in the industry but every client you have notices… trust me! If the first thing I see when I pull up a website is a homemade logo, a website that looks horrendous & unorganized, or a free wordpress blog template I just x-ed out. There was no point wasting my time there. If that vendor did not put enough effort and care into investing into their company, they wouldn’t be a good fit for me. Sure, there were plenty of brands I didn’t particularly care for (as a matter of fact I’m not too fond of the new Walmart logo either haha!) but that’s not a problem, a bride will still like you as long as it’s professional. I can not ever stress how important a professional logo is. As soon as I started my business I knew I needed a good logo, a good website, and a blog. That’s just as important as having the right gear, & knowing how to take good pictures (or whatever you do in your industry). It’s critical.

You get around 10 seconds (if that!) to make an impression on a consumer. If they don’t like what they see in the beginning, you might not ever get a second chance. First impressions truly are critical. You might take beautiful photos, sell beautiful cakes, or have great catering. That consumer will never know because you had a horrible website. I found this a lot less prevalent with photographers, it was more other vendors like venues, caterers, florists, DJs, etc. This is even more important for these vendors though. A consumer might see a photo they like and stay on the website… they can’t eat a cake, or smell a flower on the website. It’s crucial to make an impression & invest in good PROFESSIONAL branding. I have an amazing designer Amy from Candy Apple Studios. She does amazing work & I love how professional she is.

You might still be wandering if it helps, I promise it does. I have had countless compliments on many of my branding materials such as branded envelopes, my splash page, and how I package my prints. It makes a good impression to have good, consistant, & professional branding. So please all the amazing vendors out their with amazing products to sell who are getting skipped over because of a bad website… get a designer & get business!! You have to have a good brand for any one to ever care about the product you sale… and unless your a graphic designer it has to be done by a professional!

My Amazing Wedding Planner

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:40:40 +0000

I have had my wedding planner booked for the past month (or maybe more, time is flying!), but I have been a little slack on blogging. Hopefully I can get more on track, Honduras really threw me off!

Now, onto my planner…

We booked Carla Eustache, from Style Perfect Events, in Charlotte. She has been so great. She customized a package for me, because I wanted to do a lot of it DIY & I guess I am a little bit of a control freak. I have the majority of my ideas already in my mind, & I just am not the kind of person who can hand my wedding over to someone else completely & have them run with it. I love being in the middle of all the planning & getting to vocalize my ideas to her. She comes back with all of these amazing suggestions & ideas, and is making my ideas become reality. I’ve only had 1 meeting with her too, so I am so excited to see how amazing this is going to be. She has full planning packages to handle every details, DIY packages like mine, Partial Planning Package, & Day-Of Coordinating Packages. If you are getting married RUN over to her site, she is phenomenal!

She also offers Free School of Charm classes for brides at Hobby Lobby in Charlotte! If you are getting married you do not want to miss out on these, so SIGN UP!

So why a wedding planner? First off Stacy Reeves has an AMAZING article on this. But some “wisdom” from me…

I know none of my brides usually have one, so is it a waste of your budget? NO!! It is by far one of the MOST important parts. Even if you don’t get a planner to actually plan the wedding for you, it is absolutely necessary to get a GOOD wedding coordinator. By good, I mean you shouldn’t trust that the venue saying they have a coordinator, actually means they are good, usually (almost, always!) they are more worried about the venue than the bride! Most brides don’t realize it, but if they don’t have a coordinator or planner, they usually turn to whatever wedding professional (like the DJ or Photographer) is near to coordinate the wedding, unfortunately as much as we want to help coordinate it, we just can’t & do our job too.

A wedding coordinator just makes the day go smoother, so that the bride, groom, & family are enjoying the wedding. I know with my wedding, I don’t want my mom worrying about setting up the decorations the day of, or my dad worrying about when to go down the aisle, and I definitely don’t want to be stressing about anything other than not tripping going down the aisle (that’s a hard enough task!). The day just goes so much smoother, if you get a good coordinator (GET CARLA!!) the decorations will be up for you, they will make sure your vendors have set up their chairs, tables, tents perfectly, they will make sure you are sticking to your timeline, that everyone is in the right place at the right time, and the day is going off without a hitch. Doesn’t that sound nice? A perfect or at least almost perfect wedding? YES! That is why coordinators & planners are so important, so if you haven’t gotten one there is no excuse! If you are worried about your budget, get a full planning package & the planner can help out with that too.

Vendor & Bride Myths

Sun, 23 May 2010 21:10:01 +0000

Wedding Planning… oh the joys of it, but also it’s the reason I feel so behind in blogging & everything else. I desperately apologize for that. I hit the one year mark yesterday. It was an exciting thing. Now it feels like the wedding is actually coming, now that I only have 364 days left. The first few weeks of planning are definitely the hardest. I have gotten a lot accomplished but I will talk more about that later! Before you can get anything accomplished you must contact a vendor. This process has made me learn a lot as both a bride & a photographer. So this post is for both!
Vendor Myth #1
I always heard as a photographer, to encourage the brides to meet you & get on the phone with you immediately before you discuss pricing. Maybe, I am a strange bride. I will give anyone benefit of the doubt, but I really don’t think I am any different than any other. (brides feel free to chime in!) I did not like being told I can’t know the pricing over an email. I ruled everyone out that did that to me (and not just photographers, every vendor!) Sure, I LOVE to meet my brides before they book, and I LOVE to meet my vendors before I book them, however if they are well over my budget, why would I waste my time going? If every other bride was like me, I was overwhelmed with people I was talking to. I was probably talking to around 30-40 different vendors. If I spent 30-40 minutes on the phone or at a meeting with every one of them, I would have spend 15-25 HOURS just meeting with vendors to book 2-3 of them. I am not saying you have to change your practices as a business, nor that you shouldn’t ask a bride to meet with you. Just some food for thought from a current bride. It’s annoying to have to put your phone on silent because vendors are calling you like crazy or having to be told NO you can’t have my pricing until I meet you. Us brides have to narrow down our list somehow & quality narrowed mine down first, and then I needed my budget to take it down even further. Some brides will turn you down for prices, but at least be considerate to their time & email the price list out. It helps a lot!
Vendor Myth #2
This plays off the first one & is short. DON’T AUTOMATICALLY CALL YOUR BRIDE (and really don’t keep calling when they won’t pick up). This really could have just been me, but I am a professional photographer & I use my phone for business. I don’t like having vendors call over & over when I am waiting for business calls! Common sense would say… if a bride emails you email them back, however if they call you call them back. What is the point of having an email if all you are going to do is call? Vendors don’t realize (I know I didn’t!!) how many other vendors brides are dealing with. No joke, I was getting 10-12 calls every day. It was frustrating, because I had to keep my line open for my clients!
Vendor Myth #3
Brides are overwhelmed so be patient with them & BE RESPONSIVE. I had NO clue how much I was taking on & I work in the industry and have been to sooo many weddings. Check back up with them in follow up emails, it lets them know you care! Plus they might have gotten busy with something that came up & need a reminder. Also, I can not stress this one enough BE RESPONSIVE & PERSONAL!! This was my biggest pet peeve in vendor searching. I turned down a LOT of great vendors, because it took over a week for them to respond. In a world of iPhones & laptops, there is no reason to keep a bride waiting that long. Nor is there any reason to send out a form email! If I got sent a form email, I crossed them off the list. I contacted some of the TOP of the TOP in many of the vendors & I got personal and fast emails. So why can’t the vendors who aren’t as busy show the same courtesy? A bride wants to get to know you, not the same email you send to every bride. Also a bride should be contacted within 24-48 hours. It’s frustrating to wait that long, especially when you are on a timeline. I had the biggest problem with venues on responsiveness. I had a couple times I was trying to get in touch with the venue for over a week, and then find out it got booked (and probably in the time I was trying to contact!) Brides are on timelines & have to book certain things before they can book others, so don’t keep them waiting! (i.e. Venue before Caterer, etc.)
Bride Myth #1
Brides, PLEASE respond back to your vendors when you don’t want to book them. It’s common courtesy! Just keep a list of who you contacted & make sure to respond back. I know I forgot to respond to some people & I feel terrible, because I didn’t keep a list in the beginning. On the flip side, it’s really nice just to hear back “no, sorry I found some one else”. No one is going to yell at you or hate you (and if they do, that is completely unprofessional!!) Just be nice to them, and tell them no thanks. There is also nothing wrong with saying why either, as long as you are nice about it. Vendors would love to know how to improve & it’s nice to hear “You were great, I just found someone more in my budget.” If anyone is like me, when someone doesn’t respond you think the worst & it’s nice to hear it wasn’t that you are terrible, just out of the budget!
Bride Myth #2
BE FLEXIBLE IN YOUR DATE AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. This is a pet peeve with me about brides. A lot of brides settle on a date just because they love it & settle for vendors they don’t like because they refuse to change. Prioritize your list & book the most important thing for you and the others ASAP before nailing down a date. My wedding started as June 9th, 2011. It has changed 3-4 times since. I knew my photographer was my most important so I nailed down my date as May 21, 2011 when I booked them. A date really isn’t important, as cool as you think it is. July 19th, 2004 was any normal day in 2004 but it’s special to me because Walter & I started dating that day. Any day becomes just like that just because it’s YOURS. I know maybe times I have had 5-10 people interested in one day & if they would be willing to change ONE weekend, I wouldn’t be booked. So make sure you get your priorities right, I promise your date isn’t as important as your vendors!
That’s it for today. I hope I helped some, to give the bride & the photographers perspective from both sides! I would have never known any of this until you get put on the other side of the issue. Let me know if you want anything addressed about how I felt as either the bride or photographer on any matter & if I have dealt with it I would be more than happy to post it!

The hardest part is over!

Sun, 23 May 2010 21:09:42 +0000

It’s my turn now to be the bride, to be on the other side of the camera, and it’s harder than I thought it would be. I have so much more respect for my brides (not that I didn’t have much before) now that I am going through the process! It is overwhelming to say the least. Now I am glad to say the hardest part is OVER. Everyone has been asking “Who is going to shoot your wedding?”. It’s the first question I get asked. I can now say that it is going to be…
BenQ Photography from Dallas, Texas!!
It was the hardest decision of my life & there is so much amazing talent out in the world of photography. Ben & Chrys stood out though. Their work is so fantastic. They work with both natural light & lighting, they also shoot in both digital & film sometimes. I am so excited to have them fly here May 21, 2011 (it’s official now!) to shoot our wedding!! Since I can not describe how fantastic they are look at some of their amazing work:

Guess What? I’M ENGAGED!!!

Sun, 23 May 2010 21:09:22 +0000

Bear with me… it’s really long! There is a video that Walter made at the bottom if you don’t want to read everything, but check it out even if you do read it

How did we meet?
We met in 6th grade in Sunday School, I was visiting Parkwood Baptist Church in Gastonia, NC. He apparently thought I was really pretty, I knew he was the kid who never talked & had a combover. (No, really he didn’t talk at all!) That’s kind of how it went for the next few months. I really got to know who he was when we had 180 weekend & the 6th grade girls had to stay at the Burks house (Walter’s house!). He of course wasn’t there, but Kelsey & Victoria (his sisters) told me all about him!

Fast forward a few more months, and Walter’s family moved to England. Some girls from England wanted to chat on AIM with some American girls. My mom thought it was necessary for me to get Walter’s screen name and talk to him “because he was probably lonely”. I, of course, did not want to talk to the kid with the nerdy combover who never talked, plus I figured he had no clue who I was anyway. She finally won, and we started talking. Over the next 6 months when he was in England we became best friends, and were for the next few years.

How it all started:
I hate to admit but a few months after Walter came back from England in 7th grade, he asked me out. He was my best friend in the whole world and I honestly didn’t want to lose him, so I said no I didn’t want to lose him as a friend (MAJOR MISTAKE!) I immediately regretted it because I really did like him a lot more than friends, I think everyone knew it too! Fast forward to 8th grade… I had decided that no matter what happened I wanted to go out with Walter! So I made sure to do everything I could think of to let him know I liked him. He asked me out on July 19th, 2004 (on AIM, ahhh middle school!) and we have been together ever since. And to answer the question, no we have never broken up, not even once!

To see a video of our 5th anniversary plus some really funny pictures of us (and yes that is him singing!):

The Engagement

The beginning
Well, we have dated for almost 6 years now, so of course I knew I was going to marry Walter, the question was just when. We decided together we wanted to get married the summer of 2011 a few months ago. So I knew I was getting married already. This helped because it gave me TONS of time to plan, which I needed. But this made it really hard on Walter to surprise me when he proposed. A week after we had told our parents, he gave me a letter. He told me he would give me a letter every single day until he proposed.

He handmade the letters to look vintage, because he knew I loved vintage things! He took regular paper & envelopes and made them look vintage with stamps! You can see below everything he used!

What the letters started as!

The ingredients

The final product!

In the end there were 27 letters!

Walter got me a cute matching box to keep everything in too!

In the letters, there were surprises & dates & fun little gifts!!

The actual day:
We went to the Outer Banks for my “birthday”. I got clues the week before to figure out where each place we were going was. We started the day at a great cafe & then went to Rodanthe. After Rodanthe, we went to Jockey Ridge State Park. We went to dinner & then to hike in Nags Head Woods to see the sunset. Nags Head Woods was in the middle of nowhere and I have no clue how Walter found it. We went through a neighborhood & then into the middle of nowhere. Some people told us people who have lived there 20 years didn’t even know about it! We hiked about a mile through the beautiful woods and ended up on a secluded beautiful beach. After looking around and taking some pictures we sat down to wait for sunset. Walter then pulled out a letter. Of course, my heart dropped. I was thinking this location was perfect for him to ask and of course I got a letter not a ring. This is what I saw when I opened the letter…

He grabs my hand and walks me over to the sand, tells me I’m beautiful & he loves me and gets down on one knee. It’s all a blur pretty much, but I remember he asked me to marry him & I said yes.

We stayed and watched the most beautiful sunset of my life and it was magical! Now onto the ring…

We are planning on getting married in May of 2011 & to everyone who wants to know… I have no clue who is going to be my wedding photographer (but I am looking at some people amazing people!)…

And I guess I have to say… we lived happily ever after? haha