Vendor of the Week: Sixpence Productions

Nov 17th

by: Lauren

So excited to introduce you all to Sixpence Productions this week! Sixpence Productions is an amazing film team that will capture your wedding in a beautiful and innovative way… see for yourself in the video below!

A Rosemary Beach Wedding… Coming Soon: Jenny + Jesse from Sixpence Productions on Vimeo.

Why do you see yourself as being Modern, Vintage, Classic, or Eclectic?

We definitely produce modern wedding films, but we strive to create productions which are classic, elegant, and timeless. I do love to film with Super 8mm film occasionally, so that gives some of our films the “vintage” feel, but it’s not how I would define our style. We’re truly striving for “timeless.”

What is your favorite wedding detail you’ve ever seen or created?

Oh my gosh, that’s a tough question. I always love seeing details which tie into who our couples are as individuals. He’s a writer, so they have an old fashioned typewriter loaded and ready to go as their guestbook. She’s a graphic designer, so they “brand” their wedding with their own monogram and other design elements.

What is your favorite store or brand?

L’Occtaine and MAC. I can’t get out of either of those stores without buying something! I’m also a bit of a tech nerd. I love buying new gear to film with. Actually, the gear doesn’t have to be new. I also love old gear like our Super 8mm cameras!

What is your favorite thing about weddings?

Getting to share in one of the most important days of a person’s life. We’re blessed to be trusted with documenting a wedding for our couple and for future generations.

What qualities do you possess that enable you to work well with brides and grooms?

We don’t ever forget why we are there in the first place. It’s not about us and our creative vision for their wedding film, it’s about our couples, their families and friends. Their relationships and their stories. I don’t ever want to be that cinematographer who’s so wrapped up in their own ego and creative vision that I forget why I’m filming in the first place.

What steps do you take to ensure that your clients will have amazing wedding days when working with you?

LOL, we play well with other vendors, so that’s always a plus. We try to be as unobtrusive as possible, but I’m not afraid to ask a bridesmaid to pitch in if I see one of our brides struggling with something.

Sixpence Productions

contact: Joanna Banks-Morgan

email: joanna@sixpenceproductions.com | phone: 850.249.2300

website: http://www.sixpenceproductions.com/

twitter: Follow @joannaraebanks | facebook: “Like” Sixpence Productions!

location: Alabama, Florida, Panhandle | type: Cinematography | style: Classic, Modern, Vintage | price: $$$, $$

Eclectic Lavender and Red Wedding

Category: REAL WEDDINGS 4 Comments

Nov 15th

by: Lauren

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Bright, fun, and inspired by nature, this eclectic lavender and red wedding from Kate Breuer Photographers is sure to put a smile on your face! Emily and Christoph’s wedding took place in Germany, but they also incorporated many American elements, and it all turned out beautifully! Emily is here sharing her insight with us today:

What (or who) helped you most in your planning process and/or on your wedding day?

While I received a lot of really helpful advice from close friends and family members, I worked with a wonderful caterer, Katharina Prior, of eVation in Rheinbach, Germany. She gave me a lot of helpful suggestions and put me in touch with the appropriate vendors, since I was planning my wedding from overseas. My husband, Christoph, and I were having a German and American wedding and it was important that we worked with vendors that spoke both English and German. Katharina understood this and helped me communicate with those vendors to get just what I wanted. Once I met with Kate, through Katharina, she gave me a lot of great advice about the little details on the wedding day. She’s seen a lot of beautiful weddings and was always available to answer any little questions, even when they weren’t related to the photos. She has become a really good friend, and I felt as though she really cared about this being the wedding of my dreams, not just producing great photos for her portfolio. Also, my matron of honor, Katie, was getting married a month before my wedding, and it was a lot of fun to compare notes with her.

What was the most important thing to you when deciding who to work with for your wedding?

It was really important that I work with people who spoke both English and German. The wedding itself was going to be spoken in three languages: English, German, and French, but I only speak English. Since my husband was finishing up his PhD, he didn’t have a lot of time to help with the planning of the wedding. So, it was important that I could properly communicate my needs and desires with the vendors personally. It was also important that everyone understood that we were having an American-style wedding and were willing to try new things with us. Surprisingly, a lot of vendors didn’t appreciate that we were breaking from German traditions and we chose not to work with those who couldn’t get on board with what we were trying to achieve. It worked out beautifully, as many of the guests found the unique (to them) ceremony and reception a fun change of pace.

What was your inspiration for your wedding details and/or design?

I never really chose a wedding theme. I found it really difficult to narrow it down to a soundbite. First, I am drawn to nature and my favorite place growing up was my grandparent’s farm in Indiana. So, I wanted a venue and location that felt rustic and close to nature. Once we found our venue, I took a lot of inspiration from the surroundings. The Burg Heimerzheim reminded me a lot of the English countryside and in Germany there are a lot of wild poppies growing in the fields, so I immediately thought of lavender and poppies as the flowers and colors for my wedding. I love pastels by Degas and Dutch still-life paintings, so I took inspiration from there for the mood, pulled a lot of images from blogs and Pinterest for the little details, and combined it all together for my own style. I really admire other brides who can pick a theme and elaborate on it to make it something amazing. It’s hard!

What was your favorite thing about your wedding?

It’s difficult to pick just one thing I loved about my wedding, but I think my favorite would have to be the vintage tractor that delivered my dad, my bridesmaids, and me to the ceremony. It reminded me a lot of my childhood and was an homage to the long line of farmers on my dad’s side of the family. I think that my father particularly liked the reminder of his parents, who have passed and were unable to be there with us. My dad was outside the hotel taking pictures with the tractor before we left and that made me really happy. Also, I heard from my husband, that the guests were particularly delighted with the unique entrance, saying that they could hear us coming from far away, making it that much more special.

What is your best advice for other brides?

I don’t know if I should be giving advice, as I was planning my wedding while planning a move to London and finishing up my master’s degree in Publishing, and therefore have since thought of a million little things that I left out or wish I had done differently. However, looking back on it, I would say the best thing I did was imagining the day and writing down exactly what I wanted to happen every step of the way. This helped me to visualize the little details that I might have been forgetting when thinking of the big picture. Also, pick the few things that are the most important to you (for me, it was my wedding outfit, the decorations, and the music) and really devote yourself to making those things perfect. You’ll never have enough time to make every moment of the day perfect, so if the few things you cared about most are exactly as you want them, you won’t even notice if something else doesn’t go exactly as you hoped. And one more thing, communicate, communicate, communicate. I realize now that I should have better prepared my photographer for exactly where the tractor would be pulling in, or where my husband and I would be after we walked back down the aisle, so she could be there to capture those moments. I’m sure I had her running around a few times trying to figure out where I was going, but she was a trooper and still managed to get great shots!

I think that’s some pretty great advice- thank you for sharing Emily!

I love how Emily’s decor was inspired by nature and memories of her family farm. And how fabulous is the bright, fun color palette of lavender and red?! I love it!

Are any of you drawing your inspiration from something close to your heart? I’d love to hear what that is!

Vendors who made it all happen…

Photographer: Kate Breuer Photographers / Reception Venue: Burg Heimerzheim / Second Photographer: Kristin Langholz

How To Handle Unexpected Issues On Your Wedding Day

Category: WEDDING PLANNING 3 Comments

Nov 14th

by: Jessica

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Every bride dreams of having the perfect wedding day. Most spend months- even years- planning their one special day. My husband and I had picked a date that was 14 months out from our engagement because we wanted a summer wedding. Having 14 months to plan was both good and bad for me. It was a long time to wait to marry my best friend, but I knew that I didn’t want to plan our day in less than 4 months. I wanted more time to be engaged and to just enjoy that time. I also know how much work goes into planning the day and didn’t want to rush things, making it even more stressful than it needed to be.

For months we thought about how we envisioned our day; the experience we hoped our guests would have and all of the details. After having attended so many weddings ourselves as vendors, we felt like we had an advantage and that we’d seen it all: vendors not showing up, missing bridal party members, lipstick stains on the white wedding dress, and so much more. We’ve witnessed what can (and will) go wrong on wedding days, and the many ways it can be handled. Needless to say, we were confident that we had thought of all the things that could possibly go wrong, and we made backup plans incase they did.

As it turns out, we thought of almost everything- there are only so many things you can plan for. I’m not here to scare you and tell you that something awful will happen, because I’m sure it won’t. But here at ELD, we’re all about the truth, and yes, something small may happen- but trust me, your day will still be great. Today I’m going to share some of the unexpected issues we encountered and how we chose to deal with them…

Get creative.

A few months before our day we got the dreaded email from a bridal party member letting us know that he was no longer able to be in our wedding. For years, I had always told brides that it’s ok to have an uneven bridal party, that it doesn’t look bad in the photos, and that those who can be there are the ones you want there. Never did I think I’d be taking my own piece of advice. I was sad for my fiancé, that one of his friends let him down. I was angry that he waited until three months before the wedding to tell us, but I had to be thankful it wasn’t days before. Most of all, I was simply disappointed. It took me several weeks to get over the fact that there wasn’t a resolution for this situation and that I would just have to let it go. The only real issue it caused was that there was one more bridesmaid than groomsman to walk down the aisle. We solved that by having the first groomsman walk down with two bridesmaids. He didn’t complain one bit and it worked out perfectly!

Have a back-up plan.

For several weeks prior to our day the weather had been most unpleasant. We had days of continuous thunderstorms, rain off and on, and even some flooding in surrounding areas. Planning an outdoor wedding in Minnesota is extremely risky and we knew that from day one. We had picked our venue, Rosenwood Farms, because if it did rain on our wedding day we had the option of moving the ceremony inside the barn, which would have been just as beautiful if it had been outside. That was our back-up plan. Was I a bit worried? Sure. But we had a plan and I was confident that no matter which spot we got married in it would be beautiful.

Trust others (especially your fiancé) and delegate.

Two days before our wedding, a large storm ripped through town taking down several trees at the farm. When we arrived Friday morning to begin decorating we learned that along with the trees, the storm also took out all of the power. Yep- the entire property was without power. That was something I never had even considered happening. It took a few minutes for the shock to wear off, but it wasn’t long before we were playing the “learn about generators” game. My fiancé had decided that I needed to focus on the decorations and that I should leave the power situation up to him and our coordinator, and that’s exactly what happened. I am very thankful for him taking charge of the surprising situation because it was one less thing I needed to figure out and it allowed me to keep moving things forward. I trusted that any decision he made would be the right one.

Image by Leo Evidente Photography

Stay positive.

Everyone who was helping out with our wedding reassured me that even without power the party would be amazing. I never freaked out or panicked- I literally kept saying to myself and everyone one else, “Alright, we’re rolling with it!” By the end of the day, two generators were set in place and a third was arriving in the morning. It wasn’t an easy task but they took charge and made best of an unwelcome surprise. Even to this day, many of our guests don’t know that we were without power and had to scramble to make things happen. And regardless of that fact, they all had a great time.

Just let it go.

It was minutes before I was about to walk down the aisle. I was sitting in the house alone, watching the guests take their seats through the window. I was filling with excitement. My mother came to join me as she was about to walk me down the aisle. I was fortunate enough to have the experience of watching our bridal party walk down the aisle (many brides don’t get that opportunity). As we got up to walk out of the house, I realized that she was not wearing her wrist corsage. I had a moment of panic because it was then that I also realized that none of the groomsmen had their boutonnieres on either. What the heck happened to the flowers?! As I took my mother’s arm I asked, “Where are your flowers?!” She just shrugged and said, “They were lost.” I was in disbelief. Lost? Really? How does one lose so many flowers? That’s when I heard my song start to play; it was time. There was nothing that could be done at this point. What was I going to do? Stop the ceremony so they could be found? Feeling frustrated and confused I just took a deep breath and said, “Ok, then that’s how it’s going to be. I’m sorry you don’t have flowers Mama.” Tears welled in her eyes and she said to me, “You’re the only flower I need.”

There were other little surprises that happened that we didn’t plan for, but none of those things mattered enough to ruin the best day of our lives. Our power-outage story is something that comes up all of the time. Sure, on that day it was frustrating and even a bit scary, but today, we know it’s what made our wedding even more special. I hope that your day is absolutely perfect, I really, really do. But if it’s not, just remember that you have the ability to make that surprising situation good or bad. You can choose to let it ruin your day or choose to just let it go. I highly recommend just letting it go, knowing that someday you’ll look back and laugh about it.

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So do you have any plans in place in case unexpected issues arise on your wedding day? Share them in the comments- you might help out someone else! :)