Wedding Tip #34 - 3 is a good number...of years!

It seems appropriate that wedding tip number 33, about being married 3 years. How is this a wedding tip? Well, the tip part comes first and it's not long winded.

Remember that you are planning a marriage and life together not just a wedding day!


After the music stops, all of the flowers wilt, and the cake is eaten, all you have is each other. (And your photos...of course!) I'm lucky to be married to a man who is hilarious. Well, at least to me. Everyday he makes me laugh, and the follows up with "that joke was just for you -- don't facebook it!" Yeah, he knows me well. Well enough to anticipate what I'll do. Well enough to tell his friends "you're on your own bro" if they make a sexist joke around me. Neither one of us is perfect, but we're pretty good together. We're opposites, but it works. Being married isn't easy. I don't believe couples who say they never fight. Disagreement can be healthy, you keep each other from doing stupid stuff. However, at the end of the day, you take some of the things that the other one does that you find totally ridiculous, and you let it go. Why? Because in every marriage you have to make choices: do you want to be right...or do you want to be happy? Lucky for me, Anthony really enjoys being happy. ;) Happy Anniversary honey! I love you.

P.S. This post was Anthony approved, except that he thinks I'm not the only one who finds 'the dude' hilarious.

New Website Text

Check out the new text for my bio & investment section of my website:



Who is Katie?
Katie Ring is a photographer and educator in greater Boston. She has
over five years of experience photographing weddings and portraits.
She keeps her style fresh by photographing fine art projects such as
“status update” and “fairgrounds.” Katie is formally trained in both
fine art and photojournalism and her style is a blend of the two. This
makes for one of a kind photographs! As a self proclaimed Blog &
Facebook addict; she is also a lover of tea and the color pink. She
can often be found on her porch aka “summer office” watching the boats
in Salem harbor.

Investment
Wedding photography begins at $1800 for a 4 hour wedding session.
Always included are: engagement session, planning meeting(s), edited
and optimized photographs, Pictage photo website, and print/album
credit. Katie is a wedding expert, just check out her blog! Since
every wedding is different, Katie builds custom photography coverage
for you. Why start at 4 hours? Because it’s better to have a great
photographer for a few hours than an amateur all day long! Schedule a
consultation with Katie (free!) and she will create a quote for your
unique needs and budget. Destination and all-inclusive coverage is
$2800 - $4000+

A la carte portrait sessions begin at $200. From bump to baby,
maternity photo collections capture it all! Starting at $500 for 3 (1
hr) sessions.

Because Katie strives to give each client the specialized attention
they deserve, limited wedding bookings are available. Some products
include: albums, brag books, guest books, prints, digital negatives,
photo canvases, slide shows (on DVD or with projector rental), and
easy ordering for friends and family including individual photo
downloads!

A note from Katie: "I feel truly lucky to enjoy my work as much as I
do. I love photography and working with my clients is often like
spending time with friends. Whether I am photographing your wedding
day or your children my goal is to create photographs that represent
your treasured memories and heirlooms. I love my own wedding photos,
and I am thrilled to have the honor of creating the special reminders
of memories that stay with you after the moments have passed."
-Katie Ring

Wedding Tip #12 - Portland Maine, Raves & Favs

I was in Portland Thursday & Friday and I wanted to take this chance to talk about some of my favorite wedding vendors in Portland. There are all places I used in my own wedding, and they're so great I wanted to give them the RAVES they deserve.

Spoil Me
43 Exchange Street, Portland, ME

When I got my dress from Spoil Me, they were still selling all types of women's clothing and hadn't switched over to bridal - but they had the best dresses! I got a simple white sheath dress to wear at our after party and my mom got her mother-of-the-bride dress here.

(Yeah, my mom didn't want the traditional MOB outfit!) I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had changed over to a bridal salon. Not only is it an adorable store with great dresses but the people are great too! When I went with my friend Abby, Emily helped us, and she was very attentive as well as just fun to have around! I stopped back in to say hello to her and we had a nice chat about how much with both love this business. How lucky are we to be able to hang out with happy brides? It's always nice to meet someone who loves weddings as much as I do! Also, if you're thinking boutique = expensive then then you might be pleasantly surprised to learn that the dresses we saw were in the $2400-$3700 range. While this is certainly more expensive than the big box bridal stores, you also get much better quality and service with a boutique. And by Boston-standards, theses prices are quite reasonable! The two Portland brides I've been chatting with (Lindsey & Abby) both rave about Spoil me too! I've also blogged about spoil me in a previous "choosing a dress" post.

D Cole
10 Exchange St, Portland, ME

I LOVE D. Cole, they are the best. Anthony and I both got our rings here. Why are they the best? You can trust that you are getting great quality jewelry - they refuse to sell anything that's going to break or fall apart. I am by no means a diamond expert. However, I've learned that the setting is as important as the stone. Stones that are hand set are much less likely to become loose over time than stones that are machine set, and when you go into D. Cole you can see the jewelers working from just next to their showroom. They were also happy to work with Anthony on designing my non-traditional pink sapphire ring! (which is SO ME)

They spend time with you, and because they don't work on commission you won't feel the pressure you feel at other jewelry stores. This is a local family-owned business. Dean and Denise Cole started the business and now their son Ryan and this fiancee Lindsey also work there. They're all super friendly - go say hello! (Tell them Katie Ring sent you!) If you're not in the market for wedding jewelry you should still stop in if you're in Portland. They have a great selection of sterling silver jewelry that you can treat yourself to! Hmmm, speaking of, maybe I need a new Pandora bead...

Papier Gourmet
26 Free St, Portland, ME

I got my invitations here after searching through stores and online for my pink and orange color combination. This is now a popular color choice, but in '07, when I did it - it was much less common and hard to find. They have the best selection of paper, including one that was pink on one side and orange on the other, just what I was looking for!

You can walk-in and look at samples but if you make an appointment they'll go over all the options with you! They have options to just order the paper or have them print the wording as well. It's also helpful to have an expert to help you with wording, and they emailed me the layout to approve before printing. I opted to assemble my own to save a little, but for the time-deprived bride you can pick them up pre-assembled making things totally easy for you!

*Please note that I am not paid for any of these endorsements. I just appreciate great businesses and I want to connect brides to the best products and services.

Wedding Tip #5 - Using color as a theme

Natalie asked: "Now here is my question for you, and I think you might be able to relate. How do I incorporate my favorite color (PURPLE!!) into my wedding without it becoming obnoxious or annoying people?"

Natalie, of course I understand - I LOVE pink! The key is to use accents of your favorite color so that the room as an nice air of purple but it doesn't seem overwhelming. A good starting point is to choose another color to mix with purple. Using more than one color that compliments your favorite will keep one color from overwhelming your decor. For my wedding I wanted to use pink (because pink is awesome) and Anthony wanted to use orange (Go Syracuse) and now it's a hot color combination! What trend setters we are ;)

To help you see color combinations I'd started adding to my flickr a wedding-planning image bank. (Please bear with me - this sorting and uploading is taking longer than I thought it would!)

If you see images you like there, in a google image search, or in magazines, you can start pulling them together to make inspiration boards (see my last post).

This is how my colors came together:


Invitations: (these set the tone for your wedding) Mine were orange on the outside with a pink bow. They folded open to reveal pink inside and the invitation was printed on white paper with pink and orange lettering. There was a pocket for more hotel & reception information below in the pocket.

Cake: We chose a simple white cake with a white lace pattern of frosting. Then we had the florist add the same petals and roses that we were using in the rest of the decorations. This way we knew our cake would match perfectly and we saved some money on the fondant decorations. Don't get me wrong, if you can afford a beautiful "ace of cakes" style cake go for it - I just decided to simplify here.



Ladies: My wonderful bridesmaids wore dresses that were made of an iridescent fabric. They were mostly orange but as the light caught the dresses it had accents of hot pink. Their bouquets were pink and orange roses. My dress was not quite ivory, not quite blush pink. But a good color for a pale girl like myself! I carried different shades of pink roses and my bouquet was wrapped in extra fabric trimmed from my dress when it was altered.



Gentlemen: The groomsmen wore back suits with ivory shirts. The only color was in their boutonnieres - they had pink and orange small roses. Anthony wore a black tux with ivory shirt, vest and tie so he stood out. He also had a pale pink rose.



Ceremony: In the church we had simple vases of pink and orange roses (same as the bridesmaids bouquets) and a wreath of roses around our grandparent's remembrance candle. We also did small groupings of roses and ribbon on the ends of the aisles. The only other color was the pink and orange (fake) rose petals that lined the aisle. The church doors had wreaths on the outside and we moved these, along with the flowers on the pews to use again at the reception.





Reception: Let's see... we re-used the pew decorations and put them between each of the large windows. We also used the wreaths on the doors of the ladies room stalls. (I thought the bathroom was a bit sub-par and this helped a lot) We chose all white linens (table cloths, napkins, & chair covers). The chairs had alternating pink and orange sashes. The centerpieces were wreaths of pink and orange roses with Eiffel tower style vases filled with orange colored water and bittersweet in the centers. But what I think really made the ambiance in the room was the lighting my awesome DJ, Erich Kruger, helped me add! (see the cake photo above to see the effect). We had lights with pink and orange gels aimed at the ceiling so that the room would literally glow pink and orange. It looked GREAT in person, but unfortunately with some of the photos with flash (like below) the effect is lost. As a photographer I know lighting is VERY important - talk to your reception hall coordinator and ask to see the room at the time of day of your event and with the lights dimmed to their usual wedding levels!

A note on color & reception and ceremony locations. It is best to choose colors that will work well with the decor that is already in the room: Painted walls, carpets, chairs if you're not covering them, ect. Both my church and hall had a bluish teal, but luckily that looked out with pink and orange. If your chosen colors clash with decor at your facilities you may want to consider choosing another accent color of covering some of the existing color at the hall.

Wedding Tip #2 - White or Ivory?

I was asked: "Random question... I think you had an ivory dress. Did the guys wear a
white tux shirt or ivory? I am afraid the ivory looks a little dirty but I want to make sure the white and ivory don't clash."

My answer: Have the guys wear ivory too! Otherwise in group photos your dress will look off. Don't worry about the ivory looking dirty... when it's the lightest color in the photo it will look great! For our wedding Anthony and his guys wore ivory :) I think it looked great but here are some photos so you can judge for yourself.



An update since I was just asked this questions again. ;)

So the answer is yes, if you're wearing ivory, have him wear an ivory shirt! Anthony wore ivory and it was perfect & didn't look dirty at all. Your photographer will balance to ivory if you're all wearing it and it will look great. If you can I suggest bringing a fabric sample from your dress when you go to look at tux shirts so you can try and match. When in doubt go with a lighter ivory but stay far away from bright white!