Nadine & Jeff - Why you block out time

Nadine and Jeff,

First, congratulations! Nadine, I met you the day of, and you were wonderful every second of the day. Jeff, you're quite lucky, because Nadine was wonderful every second of the day! No, Jeff was great too. Actually, they are extraordinarily kind people who ensured everyone had a blast. Thanks so much for letting us be a part of your day. Now, Nadine and Jeff did several things different from the pack, and I want to show how it fit them and made their day better.

What I was truly grateful for is the nearly 3 hours of blocked out time in between to drive from Arlington to Old Town Alexandria, spend two hours having fun, and then driving back. For those not around the DC area, we figured 30-45 minutes one-way for the drive alone. Surprisingly, we hit no traffic, and it only took us about 20-25 minutes each way. So this left more time to relax and take great pictures around the area at different locations.

Here are a few:

The Car ride over
Along the Potomac
Using the Car
And using the car

Now I know not everyone can do this. But when you have time, your chances for a real gem dramatically improve. (That and trust in your photographer.) This painter graciously agreed to let Nadine and Jeff be her subjects for a few minutes! This is also one of those rare, but perfect spots where color and black/white are acceptable.


I'm going to cherish this moment. I love it! And it captured their feeling too right after the wedding.

This post isn't meant to convince couples to change their schedule. But, take note that in the 15 minutes some couples allocate, you can't experiment or take many risks. We took LOTS of risks. Not all worked. But so many did! I recommend couples think of a spot away from the church or reception spot for another location. I recommend couples block off time for special shots. Maybe this means doing more things early. Maybe this means pushing the reception back a little or not making any of the cocktail hour. But each couple should think about what they want, and how important these fun/post-ceremony shots are.

Here's two more from the day:

The dreaded LIST

I know I'm behind on tips, but this is certainly warranted right away. The dreaded list, otherwise known as the formal shots you want of you, your spouse and your family and friends.

I want to thank Faye and Keith from California for being an amazing couple July 21 in Va. Beach. What they did was great. They they illustrate why my recommendations work.

What I recommend, and what happened. And this is the same advice I give everyone:

We are a photojournalism studio. We let the day flow. We know formal pictures are important, but they should not dominate the day. Post-ceremoney, we take about 1o shots, and try to never go over 15. Why? Shots take 2-3 minutes each. Sure, a shot of the bride and groom takes a minute, but a shot with grandma, uncle Bob and aunt Rita and the bride and groom takes 2. Then add in more people -- getting them to the altar and posed properly, takes 3 minutes. It averages out.

We will take as many formals as you want, but we recommend that you limit the shots. And here's the reason why: You get tired. You get sick of pictures. You, the bride and/or groom are standing in the same spot while everyone else has to maneuver. Your jaw starts to hurt. Seriously, it does after so many frames.

So, we work to minimize the post-ceremony shots by adding time during the getting ready shots to get each side's family beforehand. Any shots we can't fit, we move to the reception.

Now, honestly, I take a couple of shots beforehand, about 10 or so after the ceremony, and another couple at the reception. This is pretty typical, and it works well, so long as there is time scheduled for it all.

Faye and Keith put together a list of shots six pages long for me on July 18, a few days prior to the wedding. It actually wasn't as astronomically bad as it sounded. But I called to explain what I wrote above. And then I gave this piece of advice:

How many times do the same family members need to be in the pictures? Do parents need to be in multiple shots, sometimes yes. But do grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other friends need to be in two or three pictures?

Will your friends and family want a shot of your wedding? Of course. But do you think they're going to buy two or three formals? Likely, they're only going to need one. So just put them in one picture.

Also, Faye and Keith didn't do this, but other couples have forgotten to put their wife or husband in the shots with them. REMEMBER, you two are getting married. You BOTH should be in EVERY FORMAL SHOT TOGETHER. Maybe one or two a part, but really, be there together.

So Faye and Keith took my advice and narrowed down the list. We still had shots before, after and during the reception.

But again, and time after time, this happens, nobody wants to have formals at the reception. You want to have fun, and drink and eat. So that's what you should do. Faye and Keith scrapped all four reception formals. And they have no regrets. They had a blast instead!

Think about this when you're making your list. And do the following:
1. Formals are must-have shots. Not an excuse to get a formal of every person you ever met.
2. Include both of you in the shots (except beforehand getting ready if you're remaining traditional.)
3. List the shots with every person's name in the shot. If there are 2 people, or 20 people, put all of their names in. Realize that anything over 10 people takes about 4 minutes to set up and take.
4. Think, do we really need this shot, or will the people in it really buy it?
5. Can we combine our shots? Can you put both families together for one group shot? Can my siblings and your siblings be in it together, etc. This speeds things up.
6. Is my jaw ready for this?
7. Did we play accordingly? If you have a one-hour cocktail hour immediately after the ceremony, we need 30 minutes for 10 formals, and 30 minutes for fun shots.
8. TELL EVERYONE on the list to be around for formals. Don't let them leave before being in the shot.
9. If possible, have a close friend or relative stick around to help round the families up for the shots. This too makes things run much faster!

OK, hope that made sense! Enjoy!

Hilary and Michael

Besides being madly in love with each other, Hilary and Michael, put together a very classy wedding for more than 100 May 12. They did a bunch of things right in my book like leaving lots of time beforehand for getting ready shots. They served fantastic food throughout the reception. They even had a great band play so nearly everybody danced at some point. The candles, the lighting, the dress. Really well done! Everyone had a blast. And look at Michael's girls! They're perfect in these! Hilary is so good with them too!

They had some help with arrangements from Paige Cortes, a new coordinator in D.C. If anyone is looking for a good coordinator, let me know and I'll get you in touch with Paige. I don't like working with many coordinators, but she knows to make it about the couple, and not her!

Nicole & Tom

Nicole & Tom took advantage of Virginia Beach's sand May 5 to celebrate their day! They had a beautiful beach wedding, and something they did that worked perfectly with the photography, was having Tom also wear white. Not all guys can pull it off (me for one) but Tom and the guys looked great against the sand. You could tell they really thought about their colors, from the clothes to the flowers and of course the decorations. They had a great day, and we were honored to be a part of it! Enjoy you two! We had a blast!

Rene and Joe

Ahh, Rene and Joe. Another classy wedding to keep the season's mojo going. They had their reception a few blocks away from Elaine and Kit, at the infamous Cavalier! Essentially, they rocked the house with a cute church, lots of great time in between on the beach and then solid dancing at The Cavalier. They are tremendously good for each other, and I'm so proud to have been a part of their day.

And I have to send this big shout out to my wife, Rebecca, who has been kicking major tail lately with her shots and editing. She is now proficient enough to edit the shots you see here, and shoot this to help diversify the day. I have to admit it, her shot of Rene and Joe's church exit is better than mine. I've trained her so well! Of course, she'd say, she's trained me so well, but I say tomato, she says tomata...kind of thing!

Oh, and you gotta love the bars! Any time a couple can do this on their wedding day, you know they're ready to party! Love the passion guys!

Elaine and Kit

Elaine and Kit really started off the hectic spring schedule well. They got married at a great spot in Virginia Beach, with cool light and a nice breeze. Most of you know that I love to celebrate our armed service personnel, and Kit is in the military. I want to thank him for his service, and for putting the pressure on me. See, he's a photojournalist too, and we were able to get some great shots of him having a blast with his very sweet partner Elaine. The two of them make an excellent couple, and they had some wild dancing at the end of the night. It's been fantastic to work with them. You can tell they know how to have a good time! And I had to throw in the shot of them passing the people at the pool. How many couple's let me do that!!!

Personal Accomplishments

WOW, what a spring. As if JPG Photography couldn't get any busier with seven weddings in seven weeks for me, and another four for Dan in that same time, we've had personal accomplishments and responsibilities to contend with.

As you all know, I work for a daily newspaper in Maryland, The Daily Times. Well, if you're wondering why I've been behind, it's because my newspaper, which is owned by Gannett, (it publishes USA Today) named me USA Today's Maryland Correspondent May 1.

On top of my regular duties, I have to help USA Today reporters with news from Maryland, and I get to write a few stories myself. I've been published twice already, with a story and a picture each time, and I'm working on my third right now. I've also been given the reigns of a political blog for the region, Shore Politics, at www.delmarvaNOW.com.

I also received five writing awards from my state's joint journalism body, including one from the Associated Press for investigative reporting. I had my first picture published in The Washington Post in late June too. It was a shot of Md. Gov. Martin O'Malley with local officials, in full color, and it ran across three or four columns. That's journalism talk for a medium-large size picture. That's a cool feeling!

Dan also earned his share of awards from the Virginia Press Association. He's covering stories with national interest, but with a local feel, and readers are loving them, along with his pictures. And he's doing all of this while living with his in-laws because he and his wife are building a new house in Suffolk, Va.

So, thank you all of your patience with the Blog. It's been an eventful three months.

Holly and Andy

The murky weather and a less-than-tidy room for the bride to get dressed in notwithstanding, Holly and Andy's wedding went off without a hitch. This was a unique wedding for me since Holly's family has known my wife since, well, forever, and it was an honor for me to have the chance to shoot it.

Here are a few teaser shots from the day. The full package of photos should be through the editing process soon. Holly and Andy's friends and family can go ahead and register at www.pictage.com (don't worry, it's free) so they can receive an e-mail notice when the pictures are up. All you have to do is go to Pictage and search for the Goodman-Bennett wedding. The rest is self explanatory.


- Dan

Damp, but delightful

My string of weather-stricken weddings continues. Kate and Mike were a couple of the most recent victims, but they didn't seem to mind. In fact, they were great sports about the dreary skies; anyone planning to get married in the spring -- those April showers always carry into May -- should take a page from their book and be ready to roll with the punches, err ... clouds, as it were. We photographers can control a lot of things, but alas, the manufacturers have yet to build a camera capable of meteorological manipulation. So on with the show!

Kate and Mike Carpenter chose to get married at a church near the University of Virginia since they're both Cavaliers, and their reception was in the Alumni House just down the street. It's a beautiful campus with so many fantastic places to shoot -- when there's not a monsoon, that is.







All in all, everyone seemed to truly enjoy themselves, including the photographers, and all the relatives and guests were a dream to work with.








The dancing was enthusiastic to say the least ... check out the joint articulation on this next shot. As much as I talk to folks about my years as a college athlete, I can never boast about being able to do this without hurting something.

There'll be plenty more shots like these once we've finished the editing process, but I hope those tide you over in the meantime.

For Kate and Mike's friends and family, the edits will be posted to www.pictage.com. If you want to go ahead and register there (it's free), you'll get an email notice when the images go up. All you have to do when you're on the home page is use the search box to look up "Kate Ashford" or "Mike Carpenter." That'll pull up there listing, and ten it will ask for the pass code, which is this: 050507. Easy enough, right? Enjoy!

Shelly-John Engagement

OK, I have a small confession to make. I love my brother-in-law. Yeah, weird. I know. You might also notice a resemblance of him to the lead singer in Saline. Well, that's because HE IS the lead singer of Saline, the excellent band who does all of JPG Photography's music!

John Messner is one of those singers who's so talented that everyone in a room doesn't move, fidget or sneeze. And now he has found his love, Shelly! These two can't get much cuter. They've been together for several years, and they rekindled a friendship after a few years of separation. They met in their teens as fellow campers. Yes...campers. Rebecca, my wife, actually had Shelly as a camper one summer when she was acting as a counselor. The little things!

They are creating this theme with board games and family-centered activites for their guests, and we started getting it all together during a shoot in central-Pa. last month. It's going to be a blast!

We're so proud to add you to the family Shelly! I'm psyched about shooting your wedding. Thanks so much for this honor!