This week of my life brought to you by time spent in the lovely company of Stephanie, Ryann, Troy, Alex,  Adam, Lindsay, and Bryan.

While doing my most favorite things:  walking, biking, eating breakfast, eating lunch, watching Troy make homemade pizza, drinking coffee, sitting by the water, and going to happy hour.  And photographing it all.

Thank you to my friends and husband who remind me to take a break and make all the hard work of running a business worthwhile.

I got such a great email response to yesterday’s post on my fine art guest sign-in books … so I decided to blog today about my fine art wedding books.

For 2011, all of my wedding books will be made by the top-of-the-industry vendor … a small family-owned company in New York City.  All of the books are handmade — mounted, stitched and bound that way.  They are printed on super thick paper with a photo finish and bound in amazing silks or leathers.  I seriously LOVE these books.

Last week I met with a client and when I placed a sample wedding book in his hands he said, “WHOA.  This is LEGIT.”  Haha, he’s so right.

Each book is custom-designed based on the couple and their wedding story.  I like to keep the spreads as simple as possible … which showcases the images and keeps the fine art aspect of the book in tact.  I love photography/art coffee table books … and these are the inspiration behind each wedding book design.  I don’t do overlapping images, varying opacity, text, or cheesy scrapbook layouts.  The books are modern and yet completely classic at the same time.

Some spreads from Ryann and Tim’s wedding book (this is my sample album.  Love it!):

*note all photos are in focus when printed in the books.  I just shot some of the spreads with super shallow depth of field, causing the photos to be of lesser quality here :)

I love the sage shantung silk cover that Haley and Danny chose for their wedding book below:

I offer wedding books in 8×8 inch, 10×10 inch, and 12×12 inch square designs.  They are either 30, 40 or 50 sides … depending on the wedding collection you choose.  Below you can see the difference between the 30 sided and 50 sided books:

Photographers, if you have any questions about the company I use for my books or anything else, shoot me an email or leave a comment below.  I’m happy to brag about them to everyone :)

Woohoo!  I recently received samples of a new product I’m offering — the fine art guest sign-in book.

When I got married, I didn’t have a guest sign-in book.  What was I going to do with a boring-looking book filled with signatures? Nothing.  Therefore, I love the idea of a coffee table sign-in book that showcases a couple’s engagement photos as well as sweet messages from all the wedding guests.

These books are custom-designed and printed on thick, matte, fine art paper (almost like watercolor paper, but smoother).  The covers are hard with a photo printed directly on the surface. All the inks are archival and made to last a lifetime.

The photos below don’t do these books justice — they are simply awesome and gorgeous in-person.

Depending on the number of wedding guests, the books have more or less white space for everyone to sign and leave messages.

The guest sign-in books are 8×8 inches and 30 sides, with the option to go larger.  Some couples love the books so much that they don’t even want guests to sign the pages … they simply want an awesome book for displaying their engagement images.  In that case, the photos can take up a lot more room and even bleed straight to the edges of the page.

These books are part of my wedding collections for 2011, but it was 2010 clients who inspired me to start offering them.  If you are a 2010 client interested in one of these books for your wedding, shoot me an email for more information.

*All of the photos in the books are actually in focus … I just shot the books this way for effect ;)

Emily and Colin are really special people … to me and to many others.  This wedding was really special for them, obviously … and also for me.  It was the first wedding I ever booked.  Emily and Colin (and their gigantic trust in me) were the catalysts for me becoming a wedding photographer.  And what a trip that has been.

For over a year now I have listened to Emily dream about and plan her wedding.  The details, the ideas, etc.  When she asked me to shoot her wedding, she was my coworker at the library.  But soon enough, I was calling her my friend.  And yesterday I got to see my beautiful friend get married.  And I got to see her wedding come to life.  It was an amazing day.

Emily’s dad is the talented florist responsible for all the bouquets, corsages, boutonnieres, ceremony flowers and reception centerpieces.  They were perfect.

Guests were given pennies to place in jars representing different organizations.  Emily and Colin will donate a certain dollar amount for every penny collected.

It was awesome to see my old library coworkers and friends.  The next couple frames are them explaining to me how their 4 car caravan got pulled-over on the drive to the reception.  Michelle charmed the officer and they escaped with a warning :)

Michelle was a great personal attendant to Emily all day … and her dance moves were kinda the best.

My favorite photo of the night is below.  Emily and Colin, I love you both!  Thank you SO much.  I’m still struggling to find the words to describe how much it has meant to me … that you asked me to shoot your wedding over a year ago … before I even had a good camera … and all you had seen were my photos of the food I ate on my honeymoon :)

Emily and Colin were married in Markesan at Emily’s family’s church on Green Lake.  The party continued at Becket’s in Oshkosh … with gorgeous natural window light, super awesome details, and yummy red velvet cake.  Their friends and family were some of the nicest people ever and the day truly was lovely and awesome.  Congratulations, Emily and Colin!!  Enjoy Hawaii (insert jealous remark)!

Additional vendors not mentioned above:  Cake by Bluephie’s; Invites/programs/save the dates designed by Troy Slama and printed by The Paper Deli; Reception dance music by All Events DJ Service (who is simply fabulous to work with).

*My husband, Troy, made a cameo in these photos (can you spot him?) … just because he’s awesome and did all the beautiful print design work for the wedding.

I loved this session!  More on that after the photos.

This session rocked my little world.  Elizabeth and Joe are so nice, sweet and loving with each other.  They styled their session so so perfectly … from the attire to the lakeside picnic.  I had a great time laughing with them and freaking out over the beautiful light and the locations we discovered around the old sugar beet factory.

Lifestyle engagement shoots like this make my day.  Elizabeth and Joe, you two made my day yesterday!  Thanks for being so fun and so natural.  I can’t wait for your September wedding at the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford :)