About our blog

People say to me all the time: “You're so lucky. You get to go to weddings all the time." They're right. We are lucky. We get to be among people having a great time, looking and feeling their best and participating in what is often the most important day in someone's life.

Here’s the other thing we are lucky to see: the terrific style and creativity that our clients bring to their celebrations. If there is one thing we’ve learned while photographing weddings, it is that a wedding doesn’t have to be expensive to be lovely. We dedicate our blog to sharing the terrific ideas that we’ve seen before and will see this coming season, with a focus on ideas that are simple, elegant and stylish.

All these images are the work of us or our associate photographers from events we've photographed. So, we say "thank you" to our clients who have shared their warmth and happiness with us.

About John & Theresa Valls

Because we love to travel, we photographed our first wedding together in exchange for two plane tickets to Europe. That was our original plan: we'd photograph a wedding or two, basically just enough to underwrite our love of italian food eaten in Italy. What we hadn't counted on, however, was how much we would grow to love everything about shooting and working together.

John's wedding photography is influenced by his advertising work with agencies, companies and magazines he shoots for. Avoiding an overly-produced style for his photos, John's images reflect his light touch as well as his ability to capture what is descriptive, yet beautiful.

My background in design management helps us create wedding albums that are both contemporary and timeless. I'm an avid believer in the strength of a killer edit, so I work with our clients to compile a photo selection that will meaningful and satisfying 25 years in the future.

8 great cakes

April 12, 2007 Posted in cakes

I love cake! After all the wedding guests are served, John and I have been known to snag a slice to prop up our flagging blood sugar after a full day of chasing around shooting. My all-time favorite cakes have come from Joseph’s Dessert Company. I remember a lemon cake that was easily the most delicious I’ve ever tasted.

Probably everyone has heard this tip before: you can have two cakes for your wedding, one smaller fancy one for the ceremonial slicing and toasts, and another less fancy one that stays in the kitchen and gets served by the wait staff. No one particularly knows whether their slice is from the mothership or the homely half-sister. I have, however, seen this backfire once when the unprepared wait staff trotted out BOTH cakes–the fancy one and the less-lovely sheet cake. Ooops.

Another way to make a smaller (read “less costly”) cake look more impressive is to display it on a footed pedestal. Not that his cakes are smaller, but I have seen Joseph assemble cakes on a beautiful silver plated footing and think it adds a certain something to the presentation. I’ve always wondered if a vintage hatbox would make a cool foundation for a cake.

Here’s some cakes from last season.