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.

Let’s talk about money, #2

March 16, 2009 Posted in flowers, tips, tricks & good ideas, venues

home_wedding2

Here’s a second post on the financial aspects of planning your wedding. I’m a big advocate of the idea that there are scads of inexpensive ways to have a stylish and meaningful wedding. Consider Jennifer and Eric. Shortly before their wedding, they were able to purchase a wonderful home. Although it was a huge amount of work to finish renovations AND prepare for the wedding, they rolled it all into one grand effort. The end result was a sweet wedding in the backyard. Jennifer carried a simple hydrangea bouquet in pale pink and cream, while her b-maids carried bouquets in one shade of pale cream. The florist, Kevin Inouye, decorated the yard with hanging baskets of hydrangeas, gerberas and lilies, and edged the deck with pots of living plants in various shades of pink and white.

Of course, you’ll have to consider a few things. Do you have enough room for everyone to arrive, mingle, and eventually sit? Or do you want to do something even more informal by having everyone merely “gather round”, or is this too hard on elderly guests? You need to figure the cost of rentals: chairs, maybe an aisle runner or a chuppa. But these costs are often puny in relation to church fees to venue rentals.

Then consider whether your home is a good spot for a reception. Some couples discover that their home is perfect for the ceremony, then a nearby restaurant is ideal for the reception to follow. Given the economy, I’ll bet it is a terrific time to collaborate with restaurants on an economical menu.