A Very Romantic Wedding

Amy and Greg's wedding last night was spectacular. The fact that they got married on Valentines Day just shows how romantic and totally in love they are with each other. They were constantly caught looking at each other and saying the sweetest things. At one point, Greg looked over at Amy and told her how beautiful she was. That made my heart melt!

Their ceremony was at the beautiful Marty Leonard Center in Fort Worth and their reception was at the Western Garden Cafe. Everything was so beautifully decorated in shades of red and pink (you cant have a Valentines wedding without incorporating the colors!!!)

I wanted to hurry and get a few sneak peeks up before they left for Cancun. Hope you enjoy them and have fun on your Honeymoon!

Have a safe and fun trip. We will see you when you get back!

Valentines Day Contest

Last month we had a Valentines Day contest where couples submitted a picture of themselves and solicited votes from their friends and family. The winner of the contest will receive a free portrait session with us here at ShutterSpire and will be featured on our 2011 Calendar for the month of Feb.

And......... the winner is........... Rachel Zimmerman!

Congratulations to Rachel and her Valentine. I am really excited to meet you both and capture a few memories for you.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

International Charity Model Search

For a mere $50, you receive a 60 minute session with one of our wonderful ShutterSpire Photographers, an 8X10 image of choice, and enterance into the contest.

Proceeds from the session fee and any votes you get go to support Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep!

Schedule your session now as we are filling up fast. The last day for this contest is April 1.

Valentines Day Contest

We have officially begun the voting for our Valentines Day Contest. Posted are the contestants for the cutest couple. You may vote for your favorite couple in two different ways.

1. Make a comment for the couple on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/shutterspirephotography)

2. Leave a comment on this post stating which couple you are voting for.

You may vote only once per site per day. Open voting will be from February 1 - 13, and the winner will be announced on the 14th.

The winning couple receives a free portrait session!

Let the voting begin! =)


Rachel Zimmerman



Jackie Baker



Faith Brewer



Charlotte Lowe



Brandie Ann Ramos

International Charity Model Search

ShutterSpire Photography is participating in the International Charity Model Search to select North America’s Cutest Family and to raise funds for the non-profit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep Foundation. (NILMDTS.org)

Are your loved ones North America’s Cutest Family? We’ll give you the opportunity to prove it! Many exciting prizes will be awarded, and the grand prize winner receives a new car!

Model Search Special:
$50 entrance fee includes a 60-minute model session, one image submitted to the national gallery, and an 8 X 10 of that image for you to keep.

Finalists will be determined by online votes. Each vote is $1 (no limit on the amount of votes you can cast), and all proceeds from votes benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS.org).

Grand prize international winner will be determined from the 52 city finalists. The winners will be selected from the finalist gallery by photography and modeling industry experts. The winning family also receives a session with the renowned portrait artist Sandy Puc’ and international recognition.

Call 214-516-5088 now to enter your family in this exciting contest.

*Contest open to residents of the US and Canada. For more information, visit http://sandypucmodels.com/.

Wedding Wire Bride's Choice Award 2010

For Immediate Release

Crandall, Texas – January 22, 2010 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced ShutterSpire Photography has been selected to receive the WeddingWire 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for photography!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

ShutterSpire Photography is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that ShutterSpire Photography is among the very best photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at http://www.weddingwire.com/biz/shutterspire-photography-crandall/efe6228f68bf2d5b.html.

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding vendors. WeddingWire enables engaged couples to search, compare and book over 100,000 reviewed wedding vendors nationwide, from wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding vendors, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. In addition, WeddingWire has partnered with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO) to provide its network of local vendors and online wedding-planning tools in the Weddings section of www.MarthaStewartWeddings.com. For additional information, please visit www.WeddingWire.com.

Valentines Day Contest

We are running a Valentines Day Contest, and we want you to be a part of it.

Send me the cutest, funniest, sweetest, best picture of you and your love between now and January 31. I will be posting all of the images on Feb 1 for open voting. Your friends and family, along with all of my friends, family and fans are welcome to vote BOTH on this blog by commenting under the pic that is their favorite and on Facebook by 'liking' the picture or making a comment. To get to the ShutterSpire Facebook page, just go to www.facebook.com/shutterspirephotography.

The winner will be announced on Valentines day and will receive a free session with us.

Can couples from outside the DFW metroplex join in on the fun? Sure! Just remember, if you win, you need to either travel to the metroplex or pay traveling expenses for us to come to you.

I am looking forward to seeing all of your pictures!

Grand Wedding Giveaway

Congratulations goes out to Diana Simmons for winning the Grand Wedding Giveaway!

Earlier this year, ShutterSpire was involved in planning a bridal show. Unfortunately, that show was not able to continue, but several vendors were generous enough to continue to offer their services for the Grand Wedding Giveaway. Now, Diana Simmons and her groom will receive some very nice services, free of charge.

• ShutterSpire Photography is giving them a bridal and engagement session, an 11X14 to show at their wedding, and eight hours of wedding day coverage.
  
• Events By Secmele is giving the bride and groom full wedding coordination.
  
• Roman Video Productions is giving the couple ceremony coverage with highlights.
  
• Make-up by Beauty Is...
  
• Curtis Miller Jewelers is giving away a very nice wedding planner.

Again, congratulations to the lucky couple! We will see you in October for a spectacular wedding!

Valentines Day Contest

We are going to run our first contest!

Send me your favorite, cutest, funniest, or best picture of you and your love by January 31. I will post the pictures and your friends and family, and all my fans can vote on the favorite. The couple with the most votes by Valentines Day will win a free portrait session.

Send in your picture as soon as possible! You can email it to christina@shutterspire.com.

Good luck!

Amy's Bridal

We had an awesome time shooting Amy's Bridal Pictures. She is so much fun to work with - a natural model!!! She is getting married on Valentines Day (how romantic) at the Marty Leonard Community Chapel in Fort Worth.

Can't wait to do your wedding. For now, here are a few sneak peeks at your bridals.

Kurtz Family

We had so much fun today taking pictures of the Kurtz family. We had a great session at the Arboretum, despite the mud. Annabelle was going from one storybook house to another. She is so adorable and such a natural model. She even struck tons of poses for us. Her dad had to remind her on a few occasions that she is a little lady with a dress on... all she wanted to do was play! =)

It was great seeing you again, Carl and we will have the rest of your pictures up soon.

The best daddies make toys out of leaves and sticks that their daughters find in a park =)

Annabelle striking a pose for the camera. Watch out daddy! She is going to be a model.

My favorite one of all time!

Annabelle pulling her dad around the park.

Blogging, Facebook, and Updates

Hello everyone. I am truly sorry for not being more diligent on blogging and I will spare you all of the excuses. All I can promise is that I will try harder.

While I have not been blogging, I have been faithful to Facebook! I have quite a network of friends and fans that produce the most interesting posts. I HAD to share one. This is the prime example of why you do not hire a 'budget' photographer or videographer!!! Watch as a bride's wedding day is ruined....

New Cameras

ShutterSpire has been able to get new cameras in the last couple weeks, and we can't be more excited. We went up to the Canon 7d's, and the picture quality is astounding. You won't believe the difference; and that means even better pictures of you on your wedding day or for your portrait session. Check out this picture that Tim took while a storm was rolling in. We did not edit this picture at all. I am impressed with all of the cloud detail.

Video

I have recently gotten into video, and LOVE it. I have been making DVD slideshows for my clients out of their still pictures and they are coming out amazingly beautiful. Additionally, our new 7d's have video capacity. This means that we have a whole new set of possibilities at our fingertips. Just wait to see what the future of ShutterSpire holds.

Expose

Our new Expose site is up and running at http://expose.shutterspire.com/. This is a way to pass on information and display our new Boudoir service. These sessions are really fun and I enjoy making women look and feel beautiful. Go check it out and tell me what you think.

His & Hers Bridal Open House

ShutterSpire Photography, Events by Secmele and Cowboys Golf Club are hosting an upscale event catered to both the Bride and Groom. This fabulous event will include top-notch vendors, champagne and hors dourves, displays, and even a fashion show. Come out and see us on January 10 from 12-5. More information at http://www.hishersbridalshow.com/

ta-ta for now.

I do have more exciting news, but I will save that for another post. If you want more up-to-date happenings, visit us on Facebook and become a fan. http://www.facebook.com/shutterspirephotography

Erika and Raul are Engaged!

We had a great day today. We had the privilege of photographing Erika and Raul’s engagement pictures. They are the cutest couple and so much fun to spend time with. At the beginning of the session, Erika told us that they are not used to getting their pictures taken, but I think they are naturals. They came up with so many cute poses and looks that they made our job easy! The location they chose was the Arlington Highlands because it is a favorite date-night spot for them. In fact, their first date was there at Gloria’s Restaurant.
I hope the both of you enjoyed your ‘date’ with the paparazzi =) We are looking forward to your wedding in May.

Randle Family Pictures

We had so much fun today with our friends Secmele, Damien and their family! We went downtown and took their family portraits. Wow, trying to keep up with FIVE kids was an adventure for us. They were running in different directions all at once, but it was great. What a wonderful family! All the kids were so well behaved. That is a true testament to how Secmele and Damien are fantastic parents!

I couldn’t put up all my favorites from this shoot, (what would be the point in waiting for the finished product??). Here are a few that I really liked.


Secmele and Damien have been married for almost a year now and they are adorable together!

This one of them is my absolute favorite! Hope you all had as much fun as I did.

Expose Unveiled!

We had the best time this weekend by kicking off ShutterSpire's new service, Expose. One of my former wedding clients (you have seen Jessica's images all over the place) got three close friends together and we did a boudoir session! They got a hotel room in Dallas and we had a blast. All four girls were absolutely beautiful and perfect models (so I can't take all the credit for the images) =)

Evonne Makeup Artistry and Leanne Weber Hair Stylist were on site and made the girls feel like movie stars while Christina (me) from ShutterSpire took the pictures. The four girls and I were there all evening, and we would have stayed longer had some of us not been required to be at work in the morning.

Ladies, the pictures are looking as beautiful as you are and I can't wait for you to see your galleries. I should have them done in a couple of weeks.

News update

We, here at ShutterSpire have been very busy lately and I am excited to share with you all of the wonderful things we have coming up!!!

We are doing a boudoir shoot this Sunday for one of our past brides and a few of her friends. We are really excited about that. This will jump-start our boudoir services that we endearingly call Exposé.

We have been working diligently on our Vendor Network and have quite a few vendors enrolled. We are in the process of trying to get everyone up on the site and get pictures taken for them.
On a similar note, we are also working on the Bridal Show that we are sponsoring and Cowboys Country Club is hosting. The title of it is His and Hers Bridal Show and it will be January 10, 2010 from 12-5. It will be a very upscale event that you will not want to miss. More details to come in preceding months. Keep checking www.hishersbridalshow.com for more information (should be up in about a month).

Recently Booked Brides

We want to welcome and thank our two newest brides and congratulate them on their upcoming weddings.

February 14, 2010 – Amy and Greg will be getting married in Fort Worth

May 22, 2010 – Erika and Raul will be getting married at Rolling Hills in Arlington

Congratulations to Shaalon and Peter

This weekend, we had the privilege to cover the wedding of Shaalon and Peter. They got married at the Grace Avenue United Methodist Church in Frisco. Their reception was held at the beautiful Marriott Hotel at Legacy Town Center.

They were a great couple and we had a lot of fun shooting their images. Peter was even a good sport and played along with a ‘begging’ proposal shot that we wanted to do.

Since both Shaalon and Peter are Indian, we had Indian food at the reception. It was the first time I have ever had Indian food… and I was pleasantly surprised about how much I liked it. As with any type of ethnic food, dessert was my favorite =)

The wedding was beautiful, the reception was great, and we really appreciate being a part of their big day. I also want to take time to thank their vendors for providing such fabulous services.

Dress – Circle Park Bridal
Tux – Men’s Warehouse
Jeweler – Ashok Gopaldar
Flowers – Gayle Larsen
Hair and Make-up – Farah Mohd
Limo – Premier Transportation; Al Garcia

Vicki and Pete are Wed

Last weekend, we had the opportunity to be a part of Vicki and Pete's nuptials. They had a beautiful wedding at the Holiday Inn Express in Addison. It was a fabulous hotel with wood trim throughout. The ballroom that they had was so nice and the wedding turned out fantastic, thanks to Secmele Randle Weddings and Events and the help of Vicki's family.

Vicki was such a pretty bride, and she was so animated. She made the cutest faces and I was able to capture many of them. This was an emotional time for both Vicki and Pete, and you can truly see the love they have for each other in their pictures. The images should be finished and will be viewable on our website on Monday, August 17.

Hodgepodge

I want to apologize profusely for neglecting this blog. It has been a busy few weeks and I have not had time to write anything!!! We are getting ready for some upcoming bridal shows and having to enter over 1000 brides names into our software so we can send out the promos has been exhausting. At any rate, we have had some promising consultations this week (Thank you Erika and Leslie) and I hope we are able to work with them on their wedding.

The August Newslettter is out with new information, suggestions, and specials. We have a special every month. Check every edition of our newsletter for a new special. If you would like to receive an e-copy of our letter, please send an email to info@shutterspire.com with the subject line, NEWSLETTER. I will make sure you get a copy.

How many of you loyal readers still want the "How to Take Better Pictures" articles to come back? Please let me know.

Otherwise, have a great day and the weekend is nearly here! =)