THE Wedding Workshop!

Saturday was the first day of the wedding workshop, and it was a great
day of teaching and shooting. A hectic, fast day, but so much fun!
The photo us from todays image critique.

Wedding Photography Giveaway Winner!

Wedding Photography Giveaway Finalists!

Hey Everyone - Valerie Here, writing my very first BLOG post. Yay!

The day is finally here and we are going to announce the finalists for our Wedding Photography Giveaway. Just to let everyone know we have three finalists - below you will find their picture, names, month of their wedding, city of the wedding and their story about why they are entering our wedding photography giveaway. We randomly picked the order that the finalists are listed on this post...thus they are in no particular order.

After choosing your favorite couple please vote for them using our poll located on the sidebar.

Our Rules:
Only one vote per person please - cheating will not be tolerated and it could end up disqualifying a couple if it happens .


Voting ends at 11:59 pm on March 16, 2008. We will be announcing the winner on St. Patrick's Day.

Good luck to all our finalists! And thanks for taking the time to vote in our giveaway!

And the finalists are ...




Susan & Dan - October 2008 - Madison, Wisconsin

Susan and I met about two and a half years ago on the first day of graduate school. We both came to UW-Madison to earn our Ph.D.s in physical chemistry. I decided to leave the comforts of family and friends in Maryland to come out West, and Susan moved from Minnesota.

By a very happy accident, we both joined the same research group and quickly became friends in and out of the lab. She’s beautiful, smart, sweet and can make me laugh like no one else. Of course, I fell in love with her! But what was I to do? Susan was completely oblivious to my feelings for her, and was very against the idea of dating anyone from the department—let alone her own group. I had to devise a plan to get her to go on a date with me.

When Susan and I went out to dinner with a group of friends, I “accidentally” left my wallet at home. About halfway through the meal, I let everyone know my “mistake.” Susan, being the wonderful woman she is, offered to pay for my meal. I accepted on the condition that I could take her out to dinner sometime.

The rest, as they say, is history. A little more than a year after our first date, I surprised Susan with a ring in a hollowed out chocolate truffle. We’re to be married Oct. 26, 2008 at the Mansion Hill Inn here in Madison surrounded by our immediate families and closest friends.

The wedding is going to be very special not only for the promise and commitment we will make to each other, but also because this will be the first time our families have ever met. It is the one time in our lives where the people most important to us will be in the same state (and amazingly in the same room) and we would be so happy to have wonderful photos to remember it by.

These moments are so important to us and the pictures will be treasured forever. Unfortunately, because a graduate student’s salary is only enough for rent and food, we simply cannot afford the photographer this wonderful day deserves. Dave and Valerie Watkins were kind enough to give us this opportunity, and we can’t thank them enough!





Avin & Dave - July 2008 - Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin

Everyone hopes for a fairytale romance, but sometimes it doesn’t unfold the way you expected it. This is one such story. The love Dave and Avin share overcame obstacles and persevered through tough times and hard decisions and now they look forward to July 12th, 2008 when they will share their marriage vows and begin a new life together.

This not-so-common fairytale begins when Dave shattered his cell phone one summer day in 2005. As he walked into the Fargo, North Dakota Radio Shack, he was furious and frustrated, but his frustrations soon turned into excitement when he left with a new phone and the phone number of his future wife. After only a couple dates they knew their relationship was something special, and soon after they meet they realized they wanted to share their life together. That realization came with fear, like it does for most couples, but for Avin this was different. Avin came from a different world, with different rules and different customs and was expected to follow these rules and customs even if they contradicted what her heart was telling her. Dave and Avin’s love became stronger than either could imagine, but Avin was still expected to follow the rules, not her heart. Avin’s family did not support Avin falling in love with anyone other than someone who was both their nationality and religion. Being from north Iraq, Avin had few options, but she did not want options. She knew she wanted Dave and Dave knew he wanted Avin. Their hearts were in line, but their cultural differences proved to be a major obstacle when Avin’s parents forbid her to see Dave.

It quickly became the summer of 2006 and Dave and Avin were in love, but things were difficult. Along with the lack of support for their relationship from Avin’s family, the couple had found themselves living in different cities. Avin moved to western North Dakota for an internship, and Dave moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a new job. This left almost a ten hour drive between them. Despite these hard times for this young love, Dave proposed to Avin. They both knew this is what they wanted, but Avin knew she would have to say goodbye to her family, possibly forever, due to the conflict. Although it was the most painful decision of her life, Avin had no doubts that this love was the one thing she could not live without. Avin parted with her family, who she had lived with for over 21 years, to be with Dave, who she would spend the rest of her life with.

Relocating to Madison together to get away from the controversy added to the difficulty; they were distancing themselves from their remaining support system and starting a new life. This is when Avin and Dave leaned on each other a little more and both were there to hold each other up. As Dave and Avin plan their wedding, experience new highs and help each other get through the lows, their love grows. It has become more and more obvious that all of their sacrifice has been worth it. Their fairytale continues on July 12, 2008 when they will proclaim their love for one another in front of their family and friends and begin their life together as husband and wife.






Betsy & Mike - August 2008 - Buffalo Grove, Illinois

Once upon a time a girl met a boy...
Mike and I have over come many obstacles in the eight (8) years we have been together. We met in college. It amuses us greatly that both of us being from Illinois had to go to Indiana to find each other. Mike graduated a year before I did putting our relationship to its first of many tests. A long distant relationship. Once I graduated I accepted a job in Wisconsin. After many miles on our cars we realized something needed to change. I moved back to Illinois and within a few months, Mike asked me the question I had longed to hear from him for seven years at the time. He proposed. Of course with tears of joy I accepted. Love was never a question in our relationship but timing, location, and cost were. We've been saving now for months to have a beautiful wedding. We would love nothing more than to have help finding a photographer. We know marriage is hard and we have more challenges a head of ourselves. Our parents are helping us as much as they can but it doesn't seem to be enough. We would love our wedding to be captured for all its beauty and what it represents. A girl who fell in love with a boy and had their wish come true. A life together.

Wedding Giveaway Extension

You may have expected to see some info and results regarding our big wedding photography giveaway, but we've decided to extend the deadline for a few more days to March 11. Rest assured though that will be the final deadline.

If you didn't find out about the contest until it was too late to get your info in, then this is your lucky break! We have a few really good entries, and we would love to hear some more stories! It's not too late! Check out the details here.

Cheers!