Bridal Emergency Kit

People let me tell you 'bout my best friend...

And that would be my bridal emergency kit. In the whirlwind that is wedding day things are often forgotten and left behind. Fear not my friends because this is where the emergency kit fits right in. Forgot to eat this morning, need a mint before the big kiss, have a nervous tummy from all those butterflies, we have got your back. Here are just a few things that I will never leave home without on the big day.

Tape: Double stick and Scotch tape are my everything on wedding day. Use it to stick a stubborn floral garland to the table or to hold up that strapless dress.

Chapstick: I know your matte lipstick is slaying right now, but in this Colorado altitude your lips will be craving the moisture. 

Mints & Gum: With all that lovin' and kissin' you're going to need it!

Protein Bars: Some brides and bridesmaids forget to eat the morning of the wedding. Don't get me wrong, you have a million things to do that day and you want to look amazing in your dress, but please eat. PLEASE! I have been known to shove a crunch bar in your face right before walking down the aisle to prevent you from passing out. 

Hair Spray, Hair Ties, & Bobby Pins: This is a must! In my eyes you can never use enough hair spray so go nuts! I've used bobby pins to fix broken corsages on grandma and to put whispy hairs back into place. And you will be so happy to see at least three hair ties on my wrist for when the party gets started and you are ready to tie that hair into a messy bun.

A Sewing Kit & Safety Pins: I have sewn on more buttons and fixed more bustles than I can count. 

Tissues & Oil Wipes: To wipe your happy tears (no ugly crying ladies) and to make sure your forehead doesn't get too shiny.

Band Aids: For the blisters you will have on your feet even though everyone told you to break in your shoes ahead of time. 

Tums & Assorted Medicines: This is my most asked for item. People need Advil for their headaches, tums for their tummy aches and some Claritin for when those allergies just wont quit. 

This barely scratches the surface of the things I bring in my bridal emergency kit, but I come prepared. All of out clients get full use of our kit. One less thing for our brides and their guests too stress about on your big day. 

White Outfits For All of Your Bridal Parties

If you've got it flaunt it...

Or buy it, same thing. So you said "Oh hell yes" to the guy, now it's time to say yes to the dress... and no I'm not talking about the wedding gown. Being engaged means lots of fun, festivities, & lots of parties. Which means a lot of all white outfits for the bride to be. We love an all white 'fit any day, but there's no better excuse than being engaged to rock your milky attire. Here is your style guide to the perfect white outfits for all your bridal parties. From edgy to conservative we have all of our girls covered. I'm partial to a few of the brands I've been shopping since college, so don't you worry we kept everything under $200 for you. 

Conservative: 

A longer hemline, a high neck or a sleeve can often give off a more conservative vibe. This is perfect for an engagement party. Your parents, his parents, and most likely grandparents will attend this event, so make sure to keep it classy. There's plenty of time to wear some shorter, tighter numbers at your other bridal parties.

Maxi:

A maxi dress can work for almost any of your parties, but I think these are best for your bridal shower. In this full length gown, you'll be feeling like a bride in no time! If you are having a more casual or bohemian style wedding, a maxi dress will have your guests feeling your theme before the big day. 

Jumpsuits & Rompers:

Get realll! There is nothing more chic than a jumpsuit. Especially a white jumpsuit. No need to wear a dress to all of your events. This look will make you feel girly while still giving you room for activities that a dress just doesn't provide. Try a romper or jumpsuit to spice up your wedding wardrobe. 

Show Your Curves:

These dresses scream bachelorette party! Crop tops, body con, and some peek a boo cut outs are perfect for your last hurrah!  Show a little skin and dress to impress your squad in these sexy dresses. Boys you can look, but don't touch. #engaged

Knee Length:

A knee length dress doesn't have to mean covering up. These dresses add a little sex appeal to the classic knee length hemline. A slit in the from or open back can create a beautiful silhouette that will fit any and all of your bridal parties.

Versatile:

Go for the wild card. Wear something off white or something with a high neckline. These are the kind of dresses that you can buy now and continue to wear after the wedding buzz is over. In all honesty, I loved all these dresses and couldn't figure out how to group them in a way that made sense. All of these dresses are amazing so I had to have them on the blog! Take your pick, you really can't lose here.

All of these dresses can be found at Tobi, Necessary Clothing, Nordstrom, or Lulus.

Thank me later. 

Oakley Ranch Vintage Styled Engagement Shoot

Nothing says home like a comfy couch & the one you love...

So why not bring that same feeling of home to an outdoor ranch in Boulder? That is exactly what we did in our most recent styled engagement shoot. The inspiration behind this shoot was to bring vintage glam and the feeling of romantic homeyness to a rustic style farm. With the help of some amazing vendors and friends we were able to bring this vision to life. Talk about #blessed. Take a look at some of the magic we captured thanks to an amazing team and some lucky golden hour lighting.

I'd like to give a shout out to all of our vendors and collaborators that made this dream reality.

Photography: Emily Mae, Fort Collins

Flowers: Fiori Flowers, Boulder

Furniture Rental: Yours for the Day, Boulder

Venue: Oakley Ranch, Boulder

Invitations: Alexa B Creative & Design, Denver

Coordination: Promise Event Planners, Denver

with help from Mackenna from Chasing Whimsey Designs

Vendor Spolight: JXC Photo

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This Husband and wife duo have a love of wedding photography. Heres more on JXC Photo:

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Tell us about yourself and your company?

We are a husband and wife team of wedding photographers based out of the Denver area. JXC Photo is the evolution of a combined five years of wedding photography experience between the two of us. Josh has passions for mountain biking and project cars as well as photography, and Christie writes freelance editorial for magazines and works on several books in her free time.

Why did you get into the wedding business?

Christie: I met Collin Richie (www.collinrichiephoto.com) while writing editorial for a magazine in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I'm from. He was the staff photographer for the magazine, and shot weddings for his company on weekends. When Josh (who had been a photography hobbyist for many years by then) moved to town, Collin asked Josh to be his assistant at a wedding when he found himself in a pinch. Josh became Collin's full-time assistant, and eventually, I helped Collin with his company's administrative end, and picked up shooting weddings for a local studio in the meantime. By the time we left Louisiana for Colorado, both Josh and I were experienced wedding photographers, and hooked to the point where we wanted to photograph weddings long-term... and then, we built our business in Denver. Tah-dah!

How would you describe your wedding photography?

At our core, we are photojournalists. Christie's educational background is in storytelling, and Josh began his photography journey by documenting his international travels. We also place attention on the traditional "posed" shots that a majority of couples need at their wedding, such as family photos and couples' shots -- and anything else our clients might request -- when necessary. Our favorite photos reflect a focus on the context of the story we're observing -- emotional and physical -- along with knowledge of lighting, color, composition, and art. Our photography packages automatically come with both of us so we can give each wedding full attention to all of these factors. It also helps to be in two places at the same time. ;)

Who are some of your biggest influences?

Josh: Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Christie: Photographically, Annie Leibovitz. Literature and everything else, Kurt Vonnegut and Mark Twain.

What is your favorite venue? Colorado and elsewhere?

Honestly, we've loved just about every venue we've photographed in Colorado. One that stands out is the Overlook open-air ceremony site at YMCA of the Rockies, but to be honest, anywhere in the mountains during the Fall season is breathtaking. On the New Orleans side of things, we thought Preservation Hall was a really neat place to get married, in a city with so, so many neat places to get married.

What is your most memorable wedding to date?

Two of our friends got married in North Carolina, and they had a water slide at their reception. That was pretty memorable. So many of them are memorable -- Christie witnessed a US Marine groomsman straight up faint during a ceremony. We photographed a rehearsal dinner for a Jewish wedding earlier this year that involved a few very moving rituals that we won't forget anytime soon. Fairly often we see wedding rituals that send goosebumps running down our spines (in the good way, of course), and just thinking about some of those really makes us thankful that we get to do this for a living.

Tell us one thing we might not otherwise know about you!

One fall, Josh rode a bicycle from Colorado Springs to South Louisiana so he could "see the leaves change colors." He also spent about six months in Japan working on farms in the countryside.

Christine was once an entertainment editor for a magazine and got to interview people like Ice Cube, John Waters, and Brian Posehn

One editorial gig sent Christine and Josh careening down the Mississippi River in a canoe and camping on a river island infested with boars.

Josh Hall & Christie Matherne Hall

JXC Photo

Wedding Photographers

Denver, CO

jxcphoto.com

https://www.facebook.com/JoshxChristie/?fref=ts

What is your favorite moment during a wedding?

Josh: The first dances. You can see them really react to each other, and you can see all the people around them, and the decorations in the room. There's a lot of context to capture during those minutes.

Christie: Lately, I've been enjoying watching the couple as they stand listening to the officiant. The guests are more or less just waiting for the vows to start, whereas to the couple, this is the longest few minutes of their lives so far. I love to find new ways to capture that intensity.

What advice would you give to a future bride?

Hire a professional wedding photographer who has experience. Weddings come in all shapes and sizes, and the more your photographer is caught off-guard by unforeseen circumstances, the more likely it is that they will miss something. Combined, we have photographed over 300 weddings from North Carolina to New Orleans to Denver, and every one of them had a new situation for us to learn from. We've shot alongside many different photographers and observed/researched many different ways to do what we do, we've fine-tuned it over the years, and all of that shows up in our work.

This is an example of our creativity at work.  We're always looking for an unconventional angle to help tell the story of a wedding day, and this is a great example of it.

We love this moment between a bride and her father, and here, we use bokeh (the blurriness) to separate the two of them from the rest of the photo in-camera, because this moment belongs to the two of them.

So many of our clients tell us how much they love our candid reception photos. We use off-camera flashes on light stands for evening receptions like this one, and they often become client favorites.

This is one of our favorite shots from our time shooting weddings in New Orleans. The classic elevator shot is romantic, and depending on the elevator, it can be a difficult one to get. 

These two lovebirds had such chemistry in their engagement shoot. We love getting in close to create images like these.

We find that much of the wedding photography industry is focused on brides, likely because it's mostly brides who are shopping for photographers these days, but of course we put as much emphasis on the groom when we're photographing a wedding. We like this shot because the white space surrounding him, combined with his reflection in the mirror behind him, allow the viewer to focus on his intense facial expression. Personally, when we look at this photo, we think about the myriad of thoughts racing through his mind as he's fastening his watch, minutes before he faces his bride for the first time. And when he looks back on this photo, he's able to see exactly what time it was, which is another thing we love to throw in our compositions: context.

 

 

July 4th Pom Pom Garland

Happy 4th y'all!

Break out your barbecue & your American flag gear and lets get geared up for this much needed long weekend. I love this holiday because it filled friends, family, potlucks and too much Coors Light. If your anything like me you still don't have concrete plans, but you know your most likely going to have to bring a dish or something. Ugh. If your the hostess with the mostess and throwing the party, your going to need a few extra touches to make your party stand out from last year. Cuz baby you're a firework...too much? Whatever. Look up a cute cocktail recipe and trade your red cups for mason jars! Your friends will think you're so fancy because glassware. I already had these colored mason jars laying around my house, but clear mason jars will work even better. Fins them at Target or King Soopers or just about anywhere. Adding a striped straw completes the color pallete. You go girl!

If your feeling crafty and don't feel like adding another American Flag to your collection we will teach you how to make a red, white, & blue pom pom garland. I was feeling the pom poms because they're almost like mini fireworks. Cute huh? I think the garland is a fun and unexpected addition to any buffet table or door way. Making the garland is easy to make (under an hour of your precious time), but took me way longer than it should have because I was all wrapped in the new season of Orange is the New Black. Stop your Netflix binge for one whole hour and turn on some music instead. Here's the step by step:

1. Go to any craft store and buy red, white, & blue classic yard. Also buy a thin twine or fishing wire to tie your pom poms too. This is what I bought. Candle and antler not necessary but added for cute factor.

2. Find something that you can wrap the string around. I used an upside down bar stool. Select your first color of yard and make a small knot around the first post to secure the yarn. A single or double knot will work perfectly.

3. Now wrap the string around two of the poles. Wrap the string around tight enough too keep it taut, but don't wrap it too tight. You will have to slide the string off the ends later. The amount of times you go around depends on the size on the poms you want to make. I made medium sized poms so I would say it was wrapped around about 60-75 times (Sorry I didn't count! Orange is the New Black remember?)

4. When your finished wrapping, cut the string off the ball of yarn with about 6 extra inches on the tail. From the ball of yarn cut off an 8 inch piece. In the center of the wrapped yarn, between the two poles, tie the sting around both side and create a tight knot. This will be the center of your pom so you want it to be a tight as possible. I wrapped the 8 inch piece around twice and then tied it in a double knot to secure it.  Repeat this step about 6 times leaving 2-2.5 inches between each center of the pom.

5. Now that you have all the centers secured, you are going to want to grab your scissors and cut in between each center in the middle. Make sure to pull the yarn tight before cutting for crisp edges.

6. As you cut a pom pom will form. Roll the pom around in your hand to fluff it up and even it out. Then you should have a little pom with a tail. This tail will be used to secure the pom to the twine or fishing wire, so do not cut it off!

7. Repeat steps 1 through 6 using the red string and then the white string. Soon you will have a bunch of little pom poms laying around. Depending on how long you want your garland or how close you want the poms to be to one another, you may want to repeat the first 6 steps with each color again. I created my garland to hang over a door way so I needed more poms.

8. Now grab your twine. Start with the end on your left side and the ball of twine to your right. Pull out about 8 inches of twine. That will be the end. 8 Inches in, pick whatever colored pom you want to start with. Now use the two long strings to secure the pom to the twine. You can double and triple knot it to make sure it is secure. I pulled about 3 inches of twine away from the first pom and tied on the second pom. Repeat this step until you run out of poms. When your finished, leave an 8 inch tail at the end and cut twine.

Congrats! Now you have a pom pom garland! 

(Sorry the finished product photo isn't as cute. It was dark by the time I finished this.) Anywho, now its time to deck out your party in something cute and festive! Have the best Fourth of July weekend my friends! Stay safe and happy crafting! Or drinking and eating as I'll be doing...CHEERS.