Alyssa and Ari are from New Jersey and are having a 4th of July wedding this year. I’m so excited for it, I really think it’s going to be a really fun day. She is ALSO doing a peacock themed wedding which is really exciting! It’s officially the year of the peacock for the Gaupers. :)

This is just one of the ideas I put out there but I love it so much I wanted to share it immediately! :)

I can’t wait to post photos from their wedding, it’s coming up so fast!!

View more of Derek & Sam

I love the little wedding advice thing on the back of the RSVP. I think having something like that makes it more fun to get the RSVP’s back since you can read through the things people say. 

I LOVE the sparkle in the card and envelope! It’s not overwhelming barbie sparkle, but just a hint and it’s just really lovely.

In addition to these I designed the Save the Dates, Guest Book and Rehearsal Dinner Invites.

GUEST BOOK:

SAVE THE DATE:

I can’t show the rehearsal invites yet since they have not been sent out but I’ll update this post once I can. :)

I just cannot wait for their wedding this July! It’s going to be so great!

I got a bunch of different sizes so you can really tell the big differences between them because often what we think something will be like is far from what it is. The first four are all hinged albums. The biggest difference between hinged and flush is that the flush pages are printed on a thick photo paper but them mounted to a board which gives it a very small gutter (center of the book). You can still have photos span across the spread on a hinged book but the gutter is a tiny bit larger which you should be able to see from the photos. The hinged books are not mounted to a board, but printed on pretty thick paper and they lay pretty nice unlike a “magazine style” where the pages are stuffed into the center of the book and you lose a lot of your image.

Hinged books are great for parent wedding albums, portrait/seniors, families, children and if your on a budget and can’t make a flush mount work, your own wedding album as well. However, I’ll always make a case for a flush mount when it comes to your wedding album, but I’ll get to that at the end. :)

We do offer leather and fabric options for covers on the hinged books but my favorite are the photo covers and print covers.

This first set of images is just to show you the difference in size between them all. The orange book is a 10×10, the blue swirl book is an 8×8, the small rectangle one is a 5×7 and the front square is a 5×5.

This little 5×7 album really surprised me. In my mind a 5×7 seems awfully small but this is a wonderful little size. The photos are certainly big enough and for this type of a session, it’s just perfect. This is a “dirt don’t hurt” session which is our take on a “trash the dress” session. It’s just fun and whimsical so a small book like this is just perfect. The cover is also my favorite of all of them. I just can’t get enough of the color! 

This is the 8×8 which also surprised me which was a great size it was. This is perfect for an engagement book or a guest book. In this sample, it’s an engagement book. They are having a peacock themed wedding so this solid printed cover was the perfect choice. It’s simple but still makes a statement because of the bold print. The photo below it illustrates the hinge in the book the best.

This is a 10×10 wedding album. The printed covers are so great when you have a good “brand” to your wedding. Just by looking at the cover, you have probably developed ideas about who these people are and I love that. 

…and this little guy is a 5×5 album of Owen! When I knew I wanted to get a 5×5 sample I knew right away it would be of him since he is also tiny. I like this because it’s nice and small and cute and if you did photos every year of your child, it would be adorable to have a little 5×5 collection of their first years. 

Ok This is the big daddy of all the albums! The flush mount. I completely understand that wedding albums can be expensive and if your purchasing it a la carte or after the fact you may not be understanding it’s worth. When your hire a photographer, your trusting in their creative skill, their professionalism, their ability to have a vision for your day and carry that out. Your looking for images that tell the story of your day so you can always remember it in the best light. So why wouldn’t you put a top of the line album in your budget? It is the final piece to the vision and is what will stay in your family forever. This is the one physical item that holds the memories of your wedding and what will be passed down to your kids.

20 years from now, dvd’s may break or get lost or they might not even be the standard of what we use. Do you remember zip drives? Those used to be a big deal too haha. A wedding album isn’t something you will lose, isn’t something that will go out of style. It’s timeless. Everything has gone so digital that important things are getting lost and looked over. Valuable things like wedding albums. Yes, technology is awesome and I’m certainly a fan, but I believe that some things must remain sacred and a great wedding album is one of them.

Some of you may say, “I get it Holly, but I really can’t afford it” and I understand that but do challenge you to look at other things your spending your money on with your wedding if your on a budget. Weight their value. Even if you simply cannot pre-purchase an album, I will always still be an advocate hiring a great photographer and then saving up for the album later if you simply can’t swing it before. Logically, there is just one day, one chance, to get amazing photos. You have all the time you need to save up for an album. There is no point to hiring a super cheap photographer who doesn’t do work you love just because their “package” includes and album and fits within your current budget. Whats the point of having that album forever if it’s full of photos you don’t love? If you have no other options financially, hire the photographer you love, get photos you’ll love forever and make it a part of your monthly budget to save a certain amount towards and amazing album afterwards.

Ok so with all that said…here is a 10×10 flush mount with a polished crocodile bone leather cover. This book also comes in a really nice leather box as well. I didn’t take photos of it, but the hinged books come in a hard dark brown box.

Since many of our clients are not local, I hope this helps to get an idea of what our albums are like. If you have any questions at all please let me know!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If you are not a wedding client of ours or already married but never got an album, I do album design work for anyone and everyone because I’m such a firm believer in the fact that it’s never too late to get one made!

Here are some samples of my design work:

www.gauperphoto.com/fiddleralbum

www.gauperphoto.com/miller

www.gauperphoto.com/hoekstra_album

If your interested, please email me for pricing. Holly@GAUPERphoto.com

The Save the Dates finally got sent out to everyone so I’m able to post it on the blog finally! I got my copy in the mail today and they look so good! We had them printed on matte paper which I think turned out great.

I am IN LOVE with their wedding logo I designed. I just love all the colors.

They also have an engagement book and guest book that match as well but I had them shipping straight to them so they would be there in time for Christmas so I won’t have able to have photos of those items until after the wedding in July unfortunately.

Sam’s wedding is going to be really awesome and I’m just so excited about her theme! I am also designing the invitations for her wedding which have to be done by the end of march so I’ll be posting them as well as they get sent out. I LOVE doing wedding brands for our brides, it really makes me feel more connected to the wedding and it’s fun to see my work loved in so many ways beyond the photos. :)

…and it just wouldn’t be right to do a post without a photo of them. SO excited to get to photograph them again in July! Their wedding is actually the day after my birthday and it’s in Iowa so we have to travel but since I have to work on my birthday I guess its not so bad when it’s for them!

If your interested in working with me for your wedding brand just email me and we can talk over the details, Holly@GAUPERphoto.com. I’m working on getting a price list and more information together to put up but for now I’m just dealing with everyone on a case by case basis.

As I’ve said before, I started taking on some design work and I am LOVING the projects I have right now. This is a wedding logo I just finished for one of my new favorite brides, Gabbi. She has been so much fun to work with and doing stuff like this makes me even more excited about their wedding.

A good wedding “brand” is so important in my opinion. In a big way, it sets the tone for the wedding. Your save the date, invites, ect. should all be branded the same way and before anyone gets to your wedding they already have an idea of what it might be like.

By looking at their logo, I bet you’ve already decided that they are not boring, stiff people and thats what it’s all about! Any way you can communicate who you are within your wedding is one of the most important things.

It might not be a monogram, but I think it’s better. To have your names displayed in a really cute and well designed way is something you can keep in your house if you have it printed big and framed.

If your interested in having a wedding logo done for you and your wedding, just drop me an email! They are $200 which gives you 3 designs to choose from and 2 rounds of revisions.

Well I guess later is better than never? I couldn’t post it before since she had not sent the cards out yet and then we moved so everything got pushed to the side to attempt at unpacking and making our new place a home…which I’m still working on.

But Kristina was one of my favorite brides this year so I was really excited to be able to design holiday cards for her. She pretty much trusts me to design anything it seems so really, who wouldn’t love that kind of client. I hope to blog about their wedding soon. It was one heck of a crazy day and trip home but I’m so happy with the images and well…I’ll wait to do the blog post to tell the whole story.

I am starting to take on some design work again, just to give my brain a little more diversity. I’m only taking on projects I feel I have time for and really, that I’m interested in doing. If what you want is the kind of style you see here. Colorful, full of patterns, sort of fun and crafty but still modern then by all means drop me an email. I am capable of designing in other styles, but I just enjoy this style the most so it’s all I’m doing for now.

I’ve been asked this a lot so to clarify, I don’t design logos. I’ll do a logo for a wedding brand, but not a business. If you are interested in a logo design, I suggest checking out Erika Jessop (http://erikajessopdesign.com). She is super talented and does a lot of logo work.

I have a wedding brand I’m working on for one of our brides for this July and so wish I could show off what I’ve done so far but she hasn’t sent anything out yet so I must hold off. I’m SO excited though, it’s going to be great.

I’ve also turned sam into an Etsy addict! :) She bought some amazingly cute headbands for the shoot and I think is planning a sort of peacock themed wedding. I literally squealed hearing her ideas and seeing a picture of her dress. I think it will rival hopes dress even!

They bought an engagement book and guest book to go along with their photos so I thought this would be the best way to show off all their best pictures. :) I haven’t designed the guest book yet, but that will come soon.

We also tried our hand at video. We have not had time to put it together yet since we are still crazy busy but I’m really excited for it. It seriously makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside watching them talk about each other. It’s great to shoot couples who really have the love and they are just super cute together. I’m basically extremely excited to trek to Iowa for their wedding day. :) Seriously people….the LOVE!!! look at it! :)

Bottom left photo is one of the etsy headbands! The fabric roses were so amazing. I learned how to make them a few months back but mine are not as awesome as these at all, haha

Thanks for sticking it through the day with us guys, it was a long shoot but I think very worth it! Soooo Soo Excited for your wedding!!

NOTE: These are the images for the album design, so the middle is the cut of the spread which is why some of the white lines don’t match up. I’m not lazy or overlooking it, it’s just because the cut. Don’t judge. :)

]]> http://www.mudeyes.com/derek-sam-peacock-themed-colors-and-fall-goodness-kalamazoo-engagement-photographer/feed/ 6 http://www.mudeyes.com/biggest-wedding-post-ever-hopeevan-grand-rapids-wedding-photographer/ http://www.mudeyes.com/biggest-wedding-post-ever-hopeevan-grand-rapids-wedding-photographer/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:53:36 +0000 Holly http://www.mudeyes.com/?p=2420

When I sat down in my chair this morning to write about hope and evan I was kind of befuddled as to where I should start. There are so many different things to say about them and their wedding day that I fear I will just blurt them all out and make no sense at all. I want, no… I need you all to know how awesome they are.

I feel it’s important to start by saying why I like them so much. They get us. They understand and appreciate our style and work. That really lays the groundwork for us to really do our best for them. They were fun, enjoyed taking pictures and photos were at the top of their priority list and thats the way we like it. They gave us tons of time to shoot on the day of, did a first look and really knew how to just being natural, have fun and love each other in front of a camera (let me tell you, thats not easy to do sometimes!). They are for sure my ideal wedding clients. They are both such incredibly nice people and I really feel honored to have been able to use our gift in photography for them. Believe it or not, the night we wrote them back to say we were available to shoot their wedding, they had literally just gone with someone else. I was devastated, she was devastated, sadness all around. Then, a few days later we hear from them and heard they got out of it and we were good to go! Happiness all around. :)

I guess I’ll continue by walking through my day.

Ryan and I arrived separately since he had some things to do and I didn’t want to leave that early (being a girl, I’m fairly high maintenance on wedding days). So I left later and got him lunch along the way and went to the venue. When I walked in the GOEII center I just have this feeling rush through my whole body. This place was…AWESOME. It was what I have been hoping to have for a while.

It’s really kind of like duck duck goose. Church wedding, Church wedding, Church wedding, Church wedding, RENOVATED FACTORY! and then we run around in circles because we are so excited to shoot there.

So I walk in, sit down and inhale my turkey tom from jimmy johns and just take it all in. The white leather couches that were as soft as a baby’s butt, the amazingly old wood flooring, the tall ceilings and abundance of natural light streaming in from every angle. It was magical and I was happy.

Hope arrived shortly after and I followed her back through the building to where she would be getting ready and…wait for it…. it’s a LIME GREEN room. My little heart could hardly handle how awesome everything already was.

First thing I do is get the dress and details to get those shots done with so I can then focus on the people as soon as I can.

Hope’s dress is one of my favorites of the whole year. It’s diferent and fits her personality perfectly. Her shoes were awesome, jewelry was perfect…everything was just so her.  I found this great pipe to hang the dress and shoes on and it was pretty easy to get some cool shots which was really nice not to have to run all over creation for sweet shots. This thing was right outside her room. :)

…and seriously, peacock earrings? YES PLEASE!

While I was doing detail shots and hanging around the girls, Ryan took the guys out for their session. I never go on the guys session so I don’t really know what all happens there but the pictures are sweet is all I know.

Ok so we get bored of stuff and try to do as many new things as we can but man, jumping shots just never get old to me. Every group of guys does it differently and it’s always very interesting, haha.

If the girls are done getting ready early (it does happen…sometimes) or if ryan is running a few minutes late with the guys I will start with individual shots of each bridesmaid and some bride shots. There was a huge empy room with the greatest light so I knew that would be the spot.

Ok so I’m super jealous of her. I SO WISH I had this very photo but with me in it from my wedding. GIVE IT!

Fun Fact: This is what was outside of the window she is looking out of up there! A gross pool and a creepy chucky doll. Haha oh the glamour!

Also, this goes without saying but hope is stinking goregous. Every facial expression is photogenic and she just made our job so much easier. I should also mention how great her hair was. Her sister is a hair stylist and goodness sakes, must be a good one because hope had some of the biggest coolest wedding hair of the year. Her name is Sandy Kladder if you want to look her up! :)

WE LOVE LINES! YESSSS!!!

The first look is gaining in popularity and I can’t wait for more people to jump on that band wagon. It really does change the vibe of the day. It’s not just about getting better and more pictures or even just about not making your guests wait and less stress. The first look is really an awesome moment to have and I honestly think people who choose not to do it because they are saving that for walking down the isle are the ones missing out, not the other way around. With a first look, it’s just you two. You get to talk, see how your groom likes your dress, listen to him say how beautiful you are, ect. You get to spend some real intimate moments together that you would never do standing together in front of the church during your ceremony. When you walk down the isle, even after he has already seen you, it’s still a huge moment. Your walking down the isle to marry him, trust me, he will be beaming either way.

From a photography standpoint, first look photos are wonderful and special moments. We stay at a comfortable distance to get photos but also give you your space to just be together. Then, we get to have time to do a really nice bride and groom session and when your not stressed out because your running out of time, your able to really enjoy it and have fun. Hope and Evan were very smart to do the first look since they gave us a ton of time for bride and groom since it was the most important thing to her. We were really able to get some amazing shots for them.

So that wasn’t all the photos for the first look since I can’t really put every image in this post but they are awesome. If your questioning a first look, just let us know and we can direct you to their gallery to see more of what we got from it. After the awesomeness that this was, we had about an hour and a half to do bride and groom photos and I was a verrryyyy happy girl! It was so relaxed and fun.

Sometimes Ryan just kills me with how cool he is. This shot is EPIC! I swear, his giftedness makes me crazy. I love that man so much.
I love the following two pictures. The left is the PERFECT serious faces. I mean, they have happiness in their eyes, relaxed faces and both just look amazing. However, although we love a look like this for photos, we still know and understand how important being who you are is. The photo on the right is Hope and Evan. It’s love, it’s fun, its pure joy and happiness.

I thought I would put the two happy faces together, but them remember how much hope went crazy over Evan’s serious face in the middle photo (which can be seen in the reception slideshow video at the bottom of this post). But since that face didn’t last all that long until he started laughing, it only seemed right to include them both. :)

It was supposed to rain that day. I was devastated but miracles happen and it didn’t rain for any of the sessions outside. What makes the miracle even better is that the temperature was comfortable because it was overcast and the stormy sky looked stinking sweet. Thank you God!
My favorite father daughter shot. EVER. enough said.

We had such a great time shooting their wedding. I can honestly say I would love to go back and shoot it all over again. It was so laid back, had perfect weather and they were just such fun people to shoot. On top of everything, they have the love and it really shows. They really understood the style and kind of work we do and I know appreciate everything which just means the world to us. Best Day Ever! We have a couples shoot planned for them so this won’t be the last you see of them. :)

CUSTOM THANK YOU CARDS

For wedding thank you cards, I like to use the same type of design style I did in the wedding album. http://www.thegaupers.com/fiddleralbum I like to take your colors and style and incorporate it into the book and thank you cards over just leaving it all blank and boring. If you know me, you know I’m not boring and if you met Hope, you would know she isn’t either. I knew right away she would be the perfect person to bust out the stripes with! Custom cards are a super duper awesome way to say thanks. No more generic ones from target people!

SNEAKY VIDEOS!!

We did a slideshow at the reception of the wedding photos we took that day and their reactions, especially hope’s were just so loud and hilarious I had to secretly video it to remember her excitement for always. :)

Oh, and not to toot my own horn but there album design is crazy awesome. One of my best. Check it out!
http://www.thegaupers.com/fiddleralbum

and again, we secretly caught her reactions on video again, hahaa. I think she likes the album?

WHEW! That ends the awesomeness of hope and evan’s wedding extravaganza. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I have. :)

We have run out of cards again so I thought it was time to design something new. It took me a whole day of thinking and bad ideas to come up with this. I have been wanting to bring in the stripes more since it’s such a huge part of who I am so I am pretty happy with it. I’m really excited to see how the back of the card prints since it’s such a teeny tiny mosaic. :)

I love how our brand grows. It is nice to have a vision for it unlike a couple years ago. Having a clear vision of what I want our business to look like really helps to keep me motivated and on track with how we grow our style with our photos as well. Having a strong brand that I’m confident in really does change the way I shoot/edit and feel about myself. It’s weird, maybe I’m the only one who thinks like that, but whatever works!

I also designed some sweet thank you cards to send out to our clients as well. I am really happy with the design but the printer messed up the paper so I have to get it fixed before I can thank our clients for being so mindbogglingly awesome. :) I have a lot of pieces to the brand, the stripes, stitches, dots, green, curly flower graphic, logo, ect. So I’m trying to make it all work together so it all feels complete and makes sense. I don’t want to really limit it so much that everything is identical since thats just not our style but I know there are some things that are not exactly cohesive but i’m working on it. :)

I am just now finishing up my last two weddings in our summer season. I then have about 2 weeks before fall wedding season starts. We have had a pretty slow summer compared to most probably but are booked solid this fall! So I hope to finish everything up next week so I have a few days to just not work and relax before all the madness begins!

I put myself on a pretty intense editing schedule so I can keep up with things and not get behind and it’s fairly stressful. However, I believe when its november and I’m done with everything, it will be worth it. It also makes our brides really happy to get their photos back insanely fast! So if you all want to just pray for me this fall that would greatly appreciated. Just that I can stay motivated, stay on schedule and keep my sanity..and possibly find some time to spend with Ryan too. :)

So, thats all for now. Back to editing the best wedding EVER! I cannot wait to blog about Hope and Evan!

Have a great week everyone!!

]]> http://www.mudeyes.com/new-cards-and-keeping-my-sanity/feed/ 0 http://www.mudeyes.com/my-t-shirt-is-finally-for-sale-heres-how-it-got-started/ http://www.mudeyes.com/my-t-shirt-is-finally-for-sale-heres-how-it-got-started/#comments Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:37:16 +0000 Holly http://www.mudeyes.com/?p=1839 Back in 2006 I took a class that forever changed all of my artwork. Mr. Chamberlain at Cedarville was the most influential teacher I have ever had. Mind you, I’ve been through 5 1/2 years of college including summers so I’ve had a lot of teachers. I pushed harder in his class than any other and let me tell you, I worked my dang butt off in all my classes in college so that’s saying a lot.

He was just the most kind and honest teacher who had really high standards…and well, I love a good challenge. This was a semester long project and the goal was to do 50 designs of one thing to get you thinking more creatively. We were also to have one final piece that was far more finished than the rest as well. I have a photo album on facebook of all my pages here: skull book

Granted, they are not earth shatteringly inspired but the project really helped me grow and think differently about things. My final piece for the book was my skull painting. This piece was done on acrylic paper with acrylic paints watered down, dry and thick. I also used pens, ink, sharpies and colored pencils. This is probably my favorite painting I’ve ever done.

After a while I decided to illustrate it which is what was entered into the artsprojekt competition. Last year I found out it made it into the top 10 which means they would produce the shirt. It has taken forever for it to get printed but alas it is finally for sale!

…and….they printed the teeth with metallic gold ink so now he’s a pimp.

These photos are taken from their website. I take no credit for how that model is posing, hahha.

My name is in it!

Sooo it’s pretty cool it is finally here. You should all go get one. :)
www.zazzle.com/hollyjlynn