Ring shots. Bling shots.

If I ask for your rings and sneak off with them during the reception or at any point before or after the ceremony, now you'll know what I'm up to.  I'm just such a sucker for photographing details...  especially rings & other shiny things, dresses, and can't forget shoes!  Here's one of my favorite ring shots to date.  Catholic school salt and pepper shakers at a catholic wedding.



Of course, I couldn't resist doing a "collection" of my own.  I wasn't quite manicured and ready for hand modeling, but they'll have to do.  :)  So here you have it.. in case you were curious to see it.  My bling:









These are just a few from the set I took.  :)  I'll be sure to set up a separate album for bling shots on flickr and facebook.

Guestbook Ideas.

I love the fact that you can pretty much personalize every aspect of your wedding.  Guestbooks are probably one of the last details people worry about during the wedding planning process, but there are definitely creative ways to personalize it for your wedding.  I've gone ahead and put together some ideas I've collected.

Here was a wedding I did spring 2009.  Jean and Mike brought it when it came to putting personality into their wedding.  You can see their style and personality was reflected in pretty much every aspect of their wedding (slideshow here).  I thought their guestbook idea was toooo cute, where you could put individual messages into these small envelopes and seal them shut.



Another idea instead of having a standard guestbook is a photobooth where guests can use a chalkboard or a dry erase board to write messages for you.  Here's a recent one I did for Tara and Jamie's wedding but sans the message.  The next photo was from a photobooth Jacob did Spring 2009.  I'm not a huge fan of the background, but you get the idea.  These photos would then go into a custom photo book, so your guests can leave you a crazy photo from your wedding along with a message.



Lastly, this is probably what I will be putting together for my own wedding, but a custom photoart guestbook with engagement photos.  These next few photos are from our studio sample.  They come in a variety of covers, and you customize it with your name and date in silver or gold.  The text also comes in cursive.



The hinged gutter allows for all the pages to lay flat so it's easier to sign.



This is one of my favorite spreads from the guestbook.  We custom design all the spreads and have 1-2 design sessions with our clients to make sure it's perfect.



Here's another favorite!



You can definitely get creative with it.  Scrapbooks are nice too (but do take a lot of time).  I've also seen a large gallery print by the entrance that you can sign on, but I find them to be generally messy looking especially if you don't have a lot of blank space in the photo.

Something else I saw on theknot that could be helpful is to have fun pre-printed questions for your guests so that you won't get the congratulatory message over and over again and it will make each message more personal.

• How did you first meet the bride and groom?
  
• When did you know they were in love?
  
• What's the secret to a great marriage?
  
• Can you share a funny memory about the bride and/or the groom?

Also wanted to say a big thank you to those of you who have joined my fanpage on facebook.  I've hit 1000 fans! :)  If you haven't already joined, you can join here for updates on your fb.

Tara and Jamie Photobooth!

We are very happy to announce that we are officially offering some new services and products: photobooths, custom photobooks, and flip books. 

It seems like photobooths are getting more and more popular at weddings.  And for good reason.  They keep guests entertained.  They leave the couple with a little something extra to remember of their wedding day.  PLUS, they're a ton of fun to shoot!  If you have an upcoming wedding, I would consider having one.

I debated going to party city to buy a handful of props (i.e. crazy wigs, etc), but then I felt like I've seen the same types of props overused in a lot of the photobooths.  I talked it over with Jacob, knowing that I wanted them to be unique to each wedding, so we decided that we would bring only one prop and then get creative with what we could find on-site.  It's amazing what you can find to use as props.

The guests at Tara and Jamie's wedding were definitely not camera shy.  We told them to get wild and crazy for the photobooth, and that's what they gave us.  It was even our first time getting mooned!  I'm keeping the blog PG, but if you were a guest at the wedding and would like to view the rest or purchase any of the images from the photobooth, you can go to www.estherjulee.com and under the clients tab, type in the bride's maiden name as the password.  If you have any trouble with ordering, please email us at jacob@estherjulee.com





















Jacob did a fantastic job with all the photos and definitely knew how to work the crowd.  Hope everyone is having an amazing start to their week!  As for me, I had a pretty rough night of editing, so I'm gonna go catch some zzZz's.

Melissa and Paul Wedding Slideshow.

There is so much going on that I want to share, but I'll have to break it down into separate posts.  First of all, I'm blogging from Boston!  I flew into NYC yesterday morning and then took the boltbus straight up to Boston.  I'm really excited about the S.H.E reunion with Sophia and Hsiao, but before I can even think about exploring more of Boston with the girls, I need to finish a ton of work because this friday I am going to Indonesia!!

Finally, I finished editing and putting together the slideshow. :)  I'm very excited to present Melissa and Paul's wedding slideshow.  I am very glad to have been part of their wedding day.  Melissa and Paul, all their friends and family, and even the vendors were a lot of fun to work with.  I want to also thank Eugene for second shooting with me. :)



Here is the list of venues and vendors that contributed to the day:

Ceremony: Immaculate Heart of Mary Church
Reception venue: Villa Christina
Food & Bev: Villa Christina
Cake: Villa Christina
Videography: Wages Video
Florist: Anik Designs
DJ and Coordinator: Lethal Rhythms
Lighting: Party Over Here Productions
Vintage Car: Charisma Coach
Wedding Dress & Bridesmaids dresses: New Natalie's Bridals
Bridesmaids custom jewelry: Bosca Creative Jewelry
Custom handmade veil: Zoica Matei
Cake Topper: Ann Wood Handmade

Tara and Jamie E-session (Teaser).

After two rain-checks on engagement sessions (literally got rained in on both times), last Friday happened to be a perfect day for these two.  What do they say... about third time's the charm?  I know it probably would have been more appropriate to post one of the outdoor photos after saying all that, but this one from the tail-end of the session is my favorite of the day.  They look so good together.  :)