One of my favorite events to photograph is the Latin American celebration of a young girl celebrating her 15th birthday with her friends and family. This celebration is to mark the milestone of a young girl becoming a young woman in her community. Much like a wedding the celebrated youth has a court filled with her closest young friends and family that stand with her and do special dances throughout the event. The event is filled with elaborate ball gowns, tiaras, food and sweets as well as other activities such as photo-booths, entertainers and more!
Ariana’s family booked us for both photography and video coverage and we also provided a pre-party photo session so that we could photograph her in the beautiful red ballgown she had chosen so that photos could also be used in decorations during the event.
This event had everything: Aztec dancers who performed and blessed the Quinceañera and her family, an all female mariachi band that performed during the dinner and cocktail hour, low-rider vehicles for taking photographs with, photo-booth and a DJ who rocked the party late into the evening. Not to forget our company there to capture everything in photographs and video!
Check out the highlight video below:
And enjoy some photographs from the event:
Vendors who made this day possible:
Venue – Legacy Event Center
Mariachi – Mariachi Alma del Folklore
DJ – Aaron Fernandez
Dancers – Grupo Tlaloc
Catering: Tacos El Cuate
Photo & Video – Crystaline Photography & Video
One of our favorite mountain venues to work at that’s within our free travel range is the Silverthorne Pavilion. This venue is great because it’s located in a mountain town with close proximity to I-70. You get all of the mountain views with a lot of great city amenities near by! Including lots of hotel accommodations to choose from. It’s one of the more affordable locations to host events in the Rocky Mountains! The pavilion has areas for couples to get ready on site, indoor and outdoor ceremony options and a great hall that includes a stage which is awesome for couples looking to host larger entertainment such as a band, etc. We’ve covered weddings at this location in every season!
Courtney & Tyler chose are basic photography package with just one photographer (myself) to cover their big day. Since everything was held all at the same place it was easy for me to cover every aspect of their big day! Check out some photos below from this amazing wedding!
Photography: Crystaline Photography & Video
Planner: Blue River Weddings & Events
Caterer: Black Diamond Gourmet Catering
Hair & Make-up: The Beauty Market
I get behind on posting photos from amazing photo-shoots purely because of how busy we are, so this session is about a year old! (yeah, yeah I know!) But I thought it would be fitting to show off just how amazing winter engagement sessions can be. Winter weddings are really starting to take off… maybe because there are savings to be had for booking an off season event. If you are a couple that loves the winter season, but are not quite willing to host your big day during the chillier months then maybe a winter engagement session will be just what you need. Wear your chunky sweaters, put on your over sized boots and venture out into the cold like Gaby & Chris did for some fun romantic photos!
I photographed Rachel’s mom’s wedding to her step-father over a decade ago in the early years of my business. Having her trust me to also cover her big day as has been one of the biggest joys of my career! It’s a crazy feeling knowing that their daughter is all grown up and ready to start a family of her own! It also makes you realize how short the passage of time really is and also how important it is to have someone there to capture the memories because they go by so fast. One of the bride’s mother’s biggest regrets from her own wedding was not hiring us to do video at her event, so they made sure to have us capture that for Rachel & Brandon this time around! They also hired my husband’s DJ company, Digital DJ to take care of the entertainment. The couple’s amazing early Spring wedding was held in Denver at Wedgewood’s Brittany Hill location. It was great getting to utilize all the beautiful natural sunlight that streams through all the windows at this venue for their morning/brunch themed wedding.
Check out some of our favorite photos and their highlight video below!
Vendors who made this day possible:
Venue: Wedgewood at Brittany Hill
Officiant: Amazing Colorado Weddings and Ceremonies
DJ/MC: Digital DJ
Photography & Video: Crystaline Photography and Video
November is becoming a more popular time of year to get married, due to it being a little bit off “wedding” season. There are usually savings to be had if a couple chooses a venue during their off peak times. And if you book around the Thanksgiving holiday you might still get a time when all your relatives are planning on gathering anyways! It’s typically not a great time to get married outdoors because the weather is hit or miss and the trees have lost all of their foliage, but with a beautiful venue with indoor photo options it can still be a wonderful event.
Ashlee and Jacob still wanted to host an outdoor ceremony, but provided blankets for guests to warm up. The ballroom at this venue is really close to the outdoor ceremony site so guests were able to view the quick outdoor ceremony and had straight up to the mansion to warm up and enjoy the cocktail hour while we finished up with a few more photos of this couple with their small wedding party. Check out some of our favorites from an awesome venue we love working at Willow Ridge Manor in Morrison, CO.
Venue: Willow Ridge Manor
Photography: Crystaline Photography and Video
Officiant: Rev. Scott Awbrey
Cake: Nothing Bundt Cakes
Caterer: Rocky Mountain Catering
Released Alexie’s Quincenera Video from this past May today! What an amazing event. A church ceremony in the morning followed by an evening full of fun for all the guests! There was a party bus and horse carriage rides for the court, photo-booth for all the guests, multiple food stations with donuts, popcorn and a taco truck. Dancing went late into the evening with special dances performed by the court and an appearance by juggler entertainers. This event had it all! Check it out!
I’ve shared a few images from this wedding already on Facebook, but now that their highlight video is officially completed I just wanted to share it along with some of my favorite photos from the event! This day was honestly a blur for me… large weddings usually are because there is so many photos to take and so much to do! It goes so quickly! Kaylee’s mom, Lisa came to me after I did the video of her son’s wedding back in February. They loved their video and I think really enjoyed working with me. Since I was willing to put together a great package for photo, video and DJ with my husband’s company, Digital DJ we were able to provide all three of those services for this event. We like to offer savings to couples looking to book multiple services together with us as we truly love working together. There’s something to be said about knowing for sure that you and the videographer are going to be able to stay out of each other’s shots and that the disc jockey has your back and you have theirs! My husband, Michael’s help has been instrumental in numerous occasions… so when couple’s are willing to use us together we like to reward them!
But enough about us… let’s talk about this fabulous wedding! Lisa and Kaylee put their heart and soul into this event! And it was amazing to see how many people came out to share their love and support for this couple. Right away when they told me what time they had booked their ceremony for at this venue I knew it was going to be a challenge as the sun was slated to set at the exact same time the ceremony was to begin! And I knew that if they ever were going to have beautiful mountain views in their photographs they were going to have to do the majority of their formal photographs beforehand. Kaylee and Matt, however really did not want to see each other before the ceremony. Of course I completely understand that, but I really had to impress that there’s not much a photographer can do to ensure those beautiful views in the absence of light! So a plan was born… they exchanged hand written vows between a wall before they saw each other and we dubbed them actually reading their vows with the footage of them reading them in their full length video. We then captured a first look between them alone before we dove into the the other photos and this moment was absolutely magical and heart felt. I’m so glad we were able to do this before the craziness of the wedding! There were so many other great things about this wedding. The funny moments while the guys were getting ready, the fun all the ladies were having jumping on the bed as Taleen and I entered the room, the limo ride with the ladies that Taleen got to capture on the way up the mountain and the beautiful wedding ceremony itself along with the best “asking Dad for his daughter’s hand in marriage” story told during the Father of the Bride’s speech that I’ve ever heard! It was an awesome event! Mike kept the dance floor packed all night and made sure each and every event during the reception went off without a hitch! Thanks again for having us be such an important part of your day! Enjoy some of my favorite moments below! ~Jamie
Vendors who made this day possible:
Hotel Accommodations – Denver West Marriott
Venue – The Pines at Genesee
Transportation – Sunset Luxury Limousines
Disc Jockey – Digital DJ
Florist: Frontrange Florals
Photo & Video – Crystaline Photography and Video
How does one go about choosing a photographer for their wedding… there are a lot of lists out there to give you some ideas on what to look for. Most of them say to look for someone with experience, insurance, back-up equipment, etc. So I’m not going to touch on qualifications in this blog post. I figure once you weed out the contenders by their qualifications and the price point for your budget the next thing you are going to look at is their style of work. And really there is no right or wrong answer to this question. It’s really choosing the photographer whose photos speak to you and what you like.
Last week I overheard a bride talking to her bridesmaids at a bridal show we did and her conversation went something like this ” I looked at the venue’s preferred photographer and his work was so bright and washed out. I don’t know, I didn’t like it so I went to such and such’s site and and their photos were bright and colorful….” Just listening to her talk I knew immediately that my blog post was going to be about “Style” this month! From early on while I was in photography school myself and fellow students were encouraged to develop a style. In other words, ” a way we saw the world in our photographs.” Close to twenty years ago there were only two categories for wedding photography: Film or Digital and then in the last ten-fifteen years or so film sort of went out the door and it became traditional or photo-journalistic. Now there has become a wide arrange of photographic styles and even a resurgence of film photography! I can kind of see the appeal for film photography again since it is so different from what’s out there nowadays. Film photography has such a different feel to it than digital, but it also has a lot more challenges. The number one challenge is not being able to see the image until it’s processed after the wedding! So if you go this route you better make sure the photographer you hire knows what they are doing because they won’t be able to double check the image as they are going along! This is the number one reason photographers would get out of shooting weddings in the film years! And the other large hurdle is the cost of film and processing. When I started out photographing weddings twenty years ago if you shot it with film you maybe took 100-300 images and they had to be very deliberate. One photo of the cake, two photos of the first dance. With digital I can take as many as I want to get the best shot… and probably the number one reason I will never go back to shooting film for weddings! While I love the feel you get when you are processing an image in the darkroom, I hated the stress of waiting to see if I got a usable shot for someone’s wedding! No thanks!
As far as digital goes… there are so many ways you can shoot a wedding with a digital camera and the look is pretty much all done after the wedding in the post processing through Photoshop. I thought I’d touch on what’s most popular right now and what my style is and why I prefer it! But first touching on the three different approaches to actually photographing the wedding:
Traditional – A traditional photographer typically will photograph the parts of the wedding that are most important. They may go off a list of the most important shots to the client and may focus heavily on posed portraits. They might have a modern take on the posed portraits, but a lot of what you will see is basic wedding coverage. Someone who considers themselves only a traditional photographer might spend a lot of time with setting up groupings and poses and might not be very good at capturing the emotion of a moment.
Photo-journalistic – A true photo-journalist will never stage a photograph. They will only document things as they happen. Since the term comes from newspaper and magazine photographers you may want to imagine the style of someone documenting an event purely for shock and awe. If having some family photos taken at your event is important to you then I would stay away from someone who says they only do photo-journalism style of shooting. Photojournalists usually do not like taking staged photos at all and may not be willing to do any group portraits.
Mixed Artistic & Documentary – This is the best of both styles. This is a person who is willing to photograph what the client wants, while putting their own artistic spin on the photographs. They will also focus on documenting the entire day much like a photo-journalist. Sometimes a photography company will offer two photographers. One photographer will concentrate mainly on getting the must have traditional shots while the other may spend more time capturing candid moments. This is the way we approach every wedding we’re hired for (even if it’s just one photographer). We do a little bit of the “traditional” poses because it’s the only way to guarantee a shot with grandma and then a whole lot of documenting everything that happened on your special day. From close-ups of your wedding accessories to fun photos of your guests dancing!
Styles of Post-Processing Photos After the Wedding –
Straight Out of the Camera – This will be the cheapest available from the photographers out there… If someone is charging $500 or less for a full day of shooting 6 Hours or longer, more than likely this is what you will be getting. They are what we call the shoot and burn photographers. They will download your images and hand you a disk with the photos with nothing done to them to improve the image. If you find someone who will do more than that for that price snatch them up because they will be burnt out before too long!
Light & Airy – Or what I like to call bright and overexposed. Sometimes I really like these images and then other times I look at them and think how much better the photos would look if the background was just a bit darker and not washed out. Often times the photographer will de-saturate the colors in the photos to make the colors more pastel in tone. The photos tend to have a dreamy feel to them, which I think can work for some photos (including the one below), but if it’s done on an entire wedding can be a little bit too much. This trend typically leads to images with super bright highlights, little contrast, and a more whimsical feel.
Moody & Dark – A relatively newer style in wedding photography is the dark and moody way of editing the images. So it’s the exact opposite of the light and airy look. I sort of compare it to watching a dark Batman movie or murder mystery flick. Really, what the photo editor is doing is editing the photos so that the color is gone and replaced with greys. Again, with some images this can be cool, but doing it on an entire wedding I think is going to date your photos. Much like selective coloring on black & white images back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s was a fad. Do you really want to go back and look at your images and go, wow I should not have gone so trendy!?
Classic/Natural – This is processing the photos closest to the truest color and exposure of the day so that the photos match the natural look of the surroundings. I say that the images will look classic which means ten years from now you won’t be going through your wedding album and go “ugh” look at how dark my wedding images were because I went with the trendy fad that was popular at the time. Your photos will look as good as the day you took them! This is the style that we aim for… correct exposures, colors that are true to how they looked on the day of your wedding which will give you timeless images that you will cherish for years to come!
So after 18 years in the business, I really have developed a style! It’s a hybrid of the traditional and photo-journalistic styles… Or what I like to call documentary storytelling! Along with an appreciation for classic naturally edited images! So now you know what the different types of “styles” there are in wedding photography… I even think there are more than what I listed as I also found one called “Adventurous Style” which I guess is like hiring someone who works for National Geographic to photograph your wedding (often times an elopement because I don’t think many guests are going to hike a peak to watch you get married). Hopefully, this will help you discern what kind of photographer will work the best for your vision… and if my style appeals to you please check us out!
Oh and by the way, I’m not opposed to adventure… just haven’t had much opportunity for it in the wedding world! I would love to go climb a mountain top with the right couple! Most of us photographers are willing to do just about anything to get “the” shot!
~Jamie
Again a little behind on the blog postings with all of the events we covered in December, but really excited to share this end of Fall wedding at Willow Ridge Manor of Mary & Mike. It’s amazing to me how different the venue photographs every time we are there due to the time of year, lighting etc. The sun goes down a lot quicker in November than it does in July so just gives all of the photos a completely different feel to them. Still beautiful just sort of more dramatic in my opinion! These two were so cute with their “nerdy” theme. I loved the beakers and text books that they used not only for their centerpieces, but also their cake display. They also put candy in test tubes for their guests to grab on the way out the door. It totally fit their personalities! Check out the photos below!
Here are photos from this amazing outdoor ceremony location!
Love, love this angle of the first kiss! Special request from the bride and only an angle you can get if you hire two photographers!
Wedding party photos and some of the couple alone….
Getting into the reception photos with some more detail shots of this adorable wedding!
Here’s a shout out to all the amazing wedding vendors that made this possible: Venue – Willow Ridge Manor, Catering – Rocky Mountain Catering, Disc Jockey – The DJ Guy, Cake & Flowers – King Soopers, Lighting – Firefly Event Services, Transportation – Premier Charters, Onsite Childcare – The Nanny Brigade.
It ended up being the perfect Fall day for this wedding in Morrison, Colorado at the Historic Morrison Church. Tatiana and Michael had a beautiful and lovely event complete with Irish touches! The mother of the groom made the child’s size kilts that were so adorable! And the bride did all of the floral arrangements herself. I really love covering weddings here because they end up being some of the sweetest and simplest events. The location is a small chapel with room for maybe 100 patrons which limits your guest count to close friends and family making it very romantic.
We were getting a little nervous about storm clouds moving in from the West at the conclusion of the ceremony so the bride and groom decided to go with plan “B” for taking more photos of just the two of them afterwards. We had originally thought about doing the photos downtown Morrison and at a park just West of town, but with the rain looming I’m glad we decided to stop at another park that I knew of to the East of us on our way to the reception at the Irish Rover in downtown Denver. We ended up being at the park at just the right time to catch some amazing sunset shots and these were some of my favorite photos of the day.
The bride had two surprises for her groom on their special day and both were musical in nature. The first was an Irish String band that played music at the chapel and the second was a bagpiper that played their grand entrance at the reception and both were a perfect fit for this event! I did also really like the reception being held at this Irish bar. It was defiantly not a typical wedding reception because of the location and size of the room, but again worked for this event and the couple’s theme. And kept everything cozy and intimate.
