» Weddings

J. Love Photography’s New Year Begins with a Military Wedding

Jill — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 16:47:27 +0000

J. Love Photography had the honor of being part of Jeff & Katie’s wedding day this past weekend. The groom is a paratrooper with the Army. He came back from Afghanistan long enough to marry his longtime girlfriend who just graduated from college. They were surrounded by family and friends from all over the country to share in their special day.

The wedding was held at Zion Lutheran Church and the reception was at Barton Hills Country Club. We also made a quick trip to the beautiful University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center to capture images of the bride and groom in the three-story, lush atrium there.

Dorian Deaver was the D.J. for the evening. His selections of music and great effects kept the crowd very happy! Enchanted Florist in Ypsilanti did the gorgeous floral arrangements in burgundy, plum, purple, red, and moss.

Congratulations, Jeff & Katie! May you have a long and happy life together.

The Value of Creating Keepsake Albums of Your Captured Moments

Jill — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:46:42 +0000

So often, I talk to people about their wedding, their anniversary, a milestone birthday and no album was ever created. Images stay stored on computers or in boxes rarely to be enjoyed.

J. Love Photography had the opportunity to create an album for a couple who renewed their wedding vows after 20 years of marriage recently in Hawaii. The photographer gave them a CD with loads of images on it and my prospective client had neither the time nor the interest in figuring out what to do with them. I stepped in and created a beautiful album for her of those images, images of mine, and even images she had taken on their trip. She gave it to her husband as a surprise for his birthday a few months later. I scanned images of their original wedding and faintly placed them within the album where they weren’t obvious, but almost gave the effect of a ‘memory’. Their comments about the album I created for them renews my belief that images of important events in our lives with an album to grab and share and relive the moments is worth every penny we pay for them.

You might have seen the album I did similarly for a couple for their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. And I’ve done such albums for things like large family get-togethers, a woman’s journey into feeling beautiful again after having children, a group session of siblings, a baby’s first year, engagement sessions, and on and on. Many people buy a duplicate album for someone close to them as well, especially for weddings and baby’s first year. All of the album examples here are double page spreads.

If you are considering making the investment in professional portraiture, consider making an album of your own or having your photographer create one for you. If you feel like it’s too much extra to invest, many photographers, such as myself, have layaway plans. We understand and want to do what we can so that you can enjoy and share the art we created for you for years to come and not store it in a box or worse yet, never have any record of the priceless moments in your life at all.

J. Love Photography Photographs a Wedding Reception at the University of Michigan Museum of Art

Jill — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:03:33 +0000

I waited a long time before I agreed to photograph weddings. Photographing weddings is the most difficult thing we, as photographers, do. Nothing can be restaged, it is the most important day of a bride and groom’s life, and we go for hours nonstop making sure we don’t miss anything. The pressure is on! Finally, the romantic in me gave in and I began photographing weddings year before last. I’m so glad. Sharing the moments of such a happy, monumental occasion in the lives of couples with their friends and families is joyful, exhilerating, and makes me feel hopeful and renewed, as silly as that might sound.

Here are a few of my favorite images of Meg and Sean who were wed this summer and held their reception at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. We began photographing the bride and groom with their families at the bride’s parents’ home in the area. It was a beautiful summer day and their backyard water garden made a perfect backdrop.

We were honored to be part of the very first wedding reception ever held at UMMA. What an amazing venue. This sweet couple were so in love and with the backdrops of original art including stained glass made by Tiffany himself, our job was a visual delight from the word go! The food tasted as wonderful as it looked and was created by Food Art, out of Ann Arbor. The color theme of fushia and lime were enhanced by fresh flowers from Tom Thompson Flowers in Ann Arbor.

It was a beautiful summer night in Ann Arbor. When we were finished, we chattered all the way home about what a great event it was and how fabulous the images were going to be! We hope you think so too.

I just finished Christmas cards for the family and the wedding album is almost done. I will post more soon.

J. Love Photography Begins Bridal Season

Jill — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 21:23:03 +0000

I did my first bridal show Sunday in preparaton for the 2011 bridal season. A few years ago, a professional photographer friend asked me to assist them at a wedding they were going to photograph. I hadn’t done weddings for a lot of reasons; I had only recently gotten into portraiture, after being involved in commercial and fine art photography for a long time. I knew that weddings required stamina and skill and tied up weekends. It takes a great deal of moxie and preparedness to take on the responsibility of photographing a bride and groom’s very important day! It also takes a unique set of camera equipment that is expensive and requires skill to use properly. The most important quality of a great wedding photographer is passion. Nothing can replace it. I knew by my second wedding I was hooked. It was a natural progression… I’ve cried at every wedding I’ve ever been to and I was born with the last name Love and I’m known for the passion I put into anything I do. Need I say more? Why it took me so long to come to this is beyond me. But I’m here now!

There is nothing I can do to change the current trend of paying more for chair covers than a photographer but continue to do what I do best; creative, artistic storytelling through images. Nothing that is quality craftsmanship is inexpensive… NOTHING. I attended a seminar yesterday taught by a great wedding photographer out of the Detroit area. There are still many of us who believe that making the investment in wedding portraiture is something that will pay for itself over and over again so we continue to share ideas and learn new techniques to guarantee our brides amazing images.

This image is a prime example of the difference a qualified professional can make in your wedding portraits. It was 6:00 a.m. the morning after her wedding. She wasn’t happy about being up that early. We didn’t need her hair done or makeup on. We knew before we event got on the plane we wanted this image and dragged this fabric all the way there because the bride wasn’t wearing a veil. In the end, this image from a destination wedding was worth everything it took to create it. Don’t you think?

Photographing a Bride and Groom Before the Wedding

Jill — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:13:05 +0000

I prefer to spend an hour to two hours with a bride and groom before the wedding to create lovely portraits in a comfortable, fun, and often familiar setting. We want to document the day and tell the story through pictures. It’s very important because as all of us know who have been married, our weddings fly by and we barely remember them between the adrenalin and whirlwind events. So it’s up to the wedding photographer to capture all of the emotionally charged moments of this big day so the bride and groom can relive them over and over!

The art-related theme for Meg and Sean began early at the bride’s parents’ home. I can easily say that the setting there rivaled the University of Michigan Museum of Art, which we would move on to next! Maureen, the mother of the bride, is a true artist and has paid attention to every detail in every corner of every room creating the most artistically decorated home and gardens we’ve ever seen. The bride and groom had a great time playfully posing for us both inside and outside and we captured it all for them. We were also able to get many great family photos as well.

J. Love Photography only does a limited number of weddings a year. At this point, I want to do them myself working tandem with another pro who is exceptional (many of you know Dawn). Our wedding photography speaks for itself. So do our albums. I believe this one day in people’s lives is a story worth capturing from beginning to end.

It is an investment that comes back tenfold because the collection of images in an album bring people back to the moment. I know firsthand.

My husband and I just celebrated our 9th anniversary. We played the same music we danced to at our wedding. We drank champagne out of our flutes, and we went through our wedding album page by page, picture by picture. We were sad at some of the people who are no longer with us smiling at us through the pages. We laughed at the fun we all had. And we remembered exactly how we felt that day; happy, in love, excited, and so blessed. Next year we’ll do the same thing all over again. The years can’t erase our memories because we have our momentos like our album to instantly transport us back there.

Your wedding day is too important not to invest in a professional wedding photographer to capture these moments for you!