The printing is absolutely crystal clear and gorgeous.

RedTree also offers 5×5 mini albums. They are perfect as parent’s albums– which is exactly what my parents and in-laws received for Christmas! I own this swatch ring of gorgeous Italian leathers, suede-like nabuk leathers, and gorgeous Japanese silks for all my lovely brides to choose the perfect cover for their heirloom album. I went with a champagne colored leather that matched my wedding decor and dress.

I went with the big mama, a 12×12, and you can see how stout she is. 10×10 albums are also available.

This one is blurry, but it gives you a hint as to the thickness of the pages. They feel VERY sturdy.

RedTree uses micro-fold technology, so that we can create big gorgeous spreads for you like this one that go across the middle, and you lose nothing of your photo in the gutter.

So, this is my plug not only for these gorgeous RedTree albums, but for a wedding album in general. In this digital age, many brides just want a disc of files and that’s it. But this tends to make me get on my little soapbox and remind people that an album is an instant family heirloom. You will not get something of this incredible quality on a DIY photobook site, and your wedding is a once in a lifetime event. It deserves to be honored and commemorated with something tangible. Why have all those gorgeous photos taken if they are going to simply sit on a hard drive somewhere?

I understand that wedding albums are expensive and don’t seem to always make it in the budget. But, this is one of the only lasting things you will have from your day– and what a better way to commemorate all of your cute DIY details, your perfect wedding dress, all the people who you love and travel to be with you, and your gorgeous flowers? Sometimes my brides choose to use wedding gift money to purchase an album for themselves after the big day, or sometimes it is a gift from parents. Either way, I just wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t urge you to have one of these priceless treasures for yourselves!

Big thanks to Josh at RedTree and my fab wedding photog, Scotty Perry!

A year ago my office looked like this. Disaster, no?

And now, now it looks like this:

<sigh of contentment>

While it is not totally done yet, its definitely happier in there. A goal for this year is to add a screen on the wall and more seating so that I can have all of you, my lovely clients, in to view your photos, big and beautiful, and consult about how and you’d like to display your lovely photos in your home.  The shelf above my computer usually contains one more white photo frame, but it was, for the Christmas season, taking up residence on my mantle downstairs to display this subway art.

This frame contains a little something I whipped up one day on the computer.

The photo on the left is some art I made! It’s been in the hopper for awhile to make a blog debut. I thought about giving it its own DIY crafty post, but this will have to do for now. Basically, I took some old fence boards (we got a new fence this fall), had the hubs cut them to my specifications, and glued them on another piece of random board we had laying around. The backer board is about an inch thick, which is nice, because it gives the piece the look of standing off the wall a bit. I glued the boards on with wood glue and then clamped them. Then came the part that took the longest. I was going to stencil the words, but when I couldn’t find a stencil of my liking, I printed out an alphabet of a font I liked and then freehanded the letters while looking at the font. I used some white craft paint that I watered down a bit so that the paint seeped in to the wood a bit and didn’t look so stark.

Thanks for stopping by and viewing the office. Next you should drop me a comment or an email and tell me what you would love for me to photograph with you this year!

These letters on the fence were probably my favorite wedding detail.

It’s tough work being a flower girl.

Okay, sweetest thing ever. After this sweet little boys dance with his momma he immediately went over and held up this sign for her. I about melted. So did his momma, I think.

Gaylyn and Brandon had a rad flipbook station at their reception. So fun. You get in front of the cameras and make a 6 second movie of you doing whatever you want, and they turn it into a flipbook! It was a total hit!

Best wishes to the beautiful couple!

Love love love this bouquet! I think it is the PERFECT Christmas bouquet! I think it looks like little reindeer antlers

Their sweet pooch is wearing a bow tie. Love it.

If you have decided not to do place cards and table assignments, one thing you will likely want to do is reserve a few tables for the bride and grooms family. If you click the download link at the bottom of this post, you will get this pretty little sign I designed for you. It will appear with three on a page. So, if you print it on some cardstock, (and you can flip it over and print it on the back side too for a double-sided sign) then stick it on cardholders on your table, you’re done!

Hope this is helpful, and please feel free to share with brides-to-be you know!

Download Reserved for Family table signs

Do you need a family Christmas card picture? Or have you just been dying to have a great family photo?

Here’s the Details!

-Booking now for Saturday November 5th (every 30 mins from 9am-11:30, 1-5pm) (rain date is Sunday, November 6th).

-For $125 you get:

• 15-20 minute family session at an outdoor location (price for a family of up to 4, additional people, please add $25/person)
• 5-10 fully edited images to choose from in an online gallery
• 1 digital file of your choice ($75 value)
• 25% off any prints/canvases you purchase from your session!
• 15% off photo Christmas cards!

-To book your family mini-session, click on “contact” above or email me at jgrace at jgrace.net. $50 non-refundable retainer is due at the time of booking to hold your spot, and the rest is due at the time of the session.

Hurry and book your Holiday mini-session today!

I had a great time with these two, and they were so flexible and easy to work with. Chris was a great navigator for us as we drove around downtown and I would yell “Okay, lets stop right here!” Can’t wait for y’all’s big day in 2012!

While we were shooting down by the water, I noticed that from the angle of where we were, this statue made the letter “A,” which will be the initial of their last name! Gotta love happy coincidences like that!

Michelle had to show off her juggling “skills.”

Can’t wait til your wedding in April!

This next series of photos were pre-empted with something along the lines of “How do you feel about hiking up there and standing in all that really tall grass?” They went for it… and I looove the photos we got from it.

Both of you look fierce!

I can’t get over how perfect this next picture is.

To happy ever after, Meghan, Graeme and Blake!