Engagement: Meaghan and Jim {Delaware Weddings}

Meaghan and Jim are good friends of mine, so I was honored that they wanted me photograph their engagement session.  What made it even better, is that we did it on the grounds of where we all went to college, and where the two love birds met, the University of Delaware.  Even though we did this session in January, the weather was perfect! It was as if the weather gods knew how important this was and blessed us with a beautiful day!

These two are so in love, and you can see it. I know that they are going to have many happy years together.

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Engagement: Lori and Jon

I absolutely adored this couple.  One, Lori is gorgeous and such a sweetheart.  Two, Jon was dressed to the nines, even though Lori picked out his ensemble.  One thing that most people seem to forget is to wear nice shoes, but not Jon.  He was looking fab head to toe.  Again, thanks to Lori.

Any who, this couple is great.  They are friends of a client whose daughters I photographed way early in my pregnancy.  So they came in, knowing how I roll! Which is fun, and spontaneous.  They trooped through the cold, granted, their session was at 10am in the morning.  And...they are having an old Hollywood themed wedding.  I can just die right now because of that.  If you know me, you know I love ALL things vintage.

Here are a few favorites of these two crazy kids!



 







 

I am so glad that I brought the fake mustaches and lips along. Jon was a HOOT!







She is just STUNNING in this picture!



You two lovebirds were absolutely amazing to work with.  I especially loved the conversations they had while shooting:

Lori: "You have such beautiful eyes."
Jon: "Thank you! I know."
Lori: "I picked a good one"
Their whole session was nothing but laughter, which is what love is all about! Pin It

Engagement: Katy & Matt

It is a pretty Sunday afternoon, despite the crazy snow that happened yesterday. But all is well know with Mother Nature...for the time being.  So on this pretty Sunday afternoon, I have an engagement session that I would like to share with you.  It's full of fall, love, and pretty colors. Oh, and the soon to be bride has some pretty awesome purple shoes that I NEED in my life.

So here are Katy and Matt, an adorable and fun couple that are getting married up in Buffalo, New York in August 2012.  It's funny, because Matt proposed to Katy in Canada, so all of their friends told them that the engagement didn't count here in the U.S!  But as you can see from the images below, these two are totally in love, and were so easy to photograph!  Here's to you two!









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Snow in October?

Yes.  You read right. It is snowing in October in the Northeast.  I am not too sure what mother nature is thinking, but if I recall correctly, we are not supposed to have snow in October! Especially this close to Halloween?  Who wants to trick or treat with sludge on the ground?

This totally unexpected snow reminded me of one thing though:  Do not wait to do things you really want to do, if you lose the opportunity, you won't know when the next opportunity arises.  When I first saw that it was snowing I was a little bit worried because I have fall sessions set up for the upcoming week!  Now grant it, a snow themed shoot would be very pretty, but we weren't going for snow!  But according to the weather channel, the rest of the week is supposed to be in the 50's with no snow.  So I will be keeping my fingers crossed.

In the meantime, check out this sneak peak from my last fall engagement session. This is what October is supposed to look like!

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Mrs. Busy Bee

I know I haven't updated in quite some time, that is horrible of me. I have been quite busy lately. Mommyhood, keeping the house in order (it's amazing that a newborn can create a mess), plus getting back into work with the wedding, engagement session, and double bride bridal session that I shot in three days consecutively.  Here are some sneak peeks to hold you over!









 

And a rare glimpse of me! (I am actually working while my second shooter got this)

Also...I HAVE A NEW WEBSITE!  And you know what?  I love it. It is me (finally!).  And I am happy that it is done!

Enjoy your night folks!  I have a lot of editing to do. But first a cute and adorable baby girl is going to get some snuggles first. Pin It

Engagement Session-Fredia and James

The summer is over, and it seems like some days mother nature forgot the memo that we are in fall and not winter.  But she did give us a break this past Saturday when I shot the engagement session for Fredia and James.  They are getting married in just a few weeks, so with their wedding right around the corner we headed out to Battery Park, again one of my favorite places to photograph.  They had their son Lawrence with them, who is adorable and has the coolest glasses (yes, I am totally jealous of them).  So this turned out to be both an engagement session and a family session.  Here are a few images!

And here is a shot of the awesome family having fun on the pier

I just love the image below.  Being a mom makes me extra sappy now!

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Summer is almost over

Can you believe it?!?  Summer is almost at an end, then we hit fall.  I can't complain, I love fall.  I get to break out my jeans, and boots, and cardigans, and the weather is perfect.  Especially when heading out to the renaissance fair.  And weddings in the fall, what more can I say?  They are gorgeous!

I really can't believe that we are almost through with the month of August, and I am still pregnant.  Yes, you read right, the duckling has not left the nest.  Her due date was August 18th, so now, we just sit here and wait.  I will tell you this, pregnancy, and being overdue makes you learn patience!  I know that in my area school is about to start. Which is funny to me at least. In New York, we didn't start school until after Labor Day, but then again we finished school at the end of June, and here school is finished in May.

I am really excited for the fall because that means weddings, engagement and family sessions!  I have a few friends who are pregnant right behind me, and we are discussing their soon to be family sessions.  It's all so exciting.

I am currently booking for 2012 weddings.  Do not waste time in booking, most photographers book a year out. Waiting until the last minute usually means more stress and headaches for you! Pin It

Engagement: Heather & Mike

We met at Panera Bread to discuss their wedding. Heather and Mike are into books, and animals, and zombies, pretty much the same things that I am into.  Knowing that they liked zombies, I could tell right then that we were a match made in heaven, and I would love shooting with them.  Most of our consultation was spent actually discussing zombies, and even discussing a zombie cake for their wedding.

Heather and Mike are getting married in July, just under a month away.  They wanted a fun but different engagement session. At first, we were trying to set up an engagement session that had zombies (yes, we like zombies), but that ended up not happening. So the next best thing...water fight!  But first, we had to do their "love" pictures first.



Doesn't she have the classic 1940's look?  I am so in love with her style. And for him, he looks like he can be the spawn of Jamie and Adam from the Mythbusters...which is great in my book!









And after an exhausting and exhilerating water fight, we have the two love birds resting.  Who won?  It's a secret!

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{Another round of awesome client reviews}

I shot a wedding yesterday! Thankfully it was not too hot, and did not rain. I was worried about it raining all day, but it did hold out.  The one thing though that seemed to be crazy was the bugs. We were attacked by a swarm of gnats and other random insects that were absolutely everywhere. There were quite a few images in which everything is perfect one second then within the next people are flailing and waving bugs away.  So while the preview pictures from that wedding are being prepared, I have another round of awesome client reviews!

The new Mrs. Samantha Chestnut said this:

Marisa needs to photograph everyone's wedding! She did an amazing job, i was very impressed!I am so glad that I actually got a photographer that cares and has a warm, fun personality. She gives it a special touch that puts them way above any old plain wedding photos. She was able to give us Amazing photos even though she had to drive over an hour, the sun was incredibly bright AND while she was pregnant. If she can't do it, no one can. I LOVE my Engagement photos, I LOVE my wedding photos, and im gonna LOVE my Rock the Dress pictures too! Watch out Marisa, your going to be my babies photographer too. (but that's not gonna be for a while, lol) Thank you Marisa! You made my wedding perfect! Thank you SO much.

Heather and Oscar (who will be married soon in a destination wedding) said this:

Wow .. where to begin. My fiance' and I where BEYOND pleased with our Engagement Session with Marisa! We had chosen a location that was familiar to us, but a location that Marisa had never been too. Countless emails between us, planning out all the little details and theme for our session. Everything worked out perfectly, and we had a great experience with her. I wish we could take her with us for our DW!! The time and attention put into our overall experience was OUTSTANDING! From start to finish, I can say, that she goes out of her way to make sure that she is capturing the moment, perfectly. We are looking forward to many more sessions with Marisa *hint hint :) Thank you for everything! We couldn't be happier!

Jenna had this to say about her engagement session:

I Declare My Love For Marisa! She was awesome. She did our engagement session at Rockwood Mansion. We used the photos she took for our Wedding favors. Everyone that has seen them keeps asking who did them...so I send them here. Marissa thank you so much! You do a great job and you have a natural gift for making people feel comfortable. Keep it up.

What more can I say? Other than my clients are awesome, and I love them, and thank you!

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{Not enough hours in the day}

I am thankful to have a job in which I genuinely love what I do.  Now don't get me wrong, there is a lot of work that goes into it.  It definitely wasn't easy taking the jump and deciding to do this full time.  I mean, the security of a paycheck was not there, neither was health insurance in the beginning.  It was a very daunting thing.  But, because of a series of events, I finally decided to take the plunge, and jump in.  Now, I am thankful that I did.

Many people assume that the life of a photographer is glamorous and fun.  Fun, it definitely is.  Glamorous, it could be. But many people don't realize how much work goes into it.  When talking with many of my friends who work regular 9-5's, they tell me that since I am home all of the time, I am not really working.  If I had a dollar for each time that was said to me, then hey! Perhaps I could be that glamorous photographer.

Admittedly, most of my weddings and sessions are on weekends.  Weddings usually last between 6-8 hours.  But that doesn't include the traveling time to and from the wedding. Essentially, my work day for a wedding could last 10-12 hours.  Then you throw in the engagement session for that wedding, which is a 1 hour shoot, but once again, travel time. Oh wait, let's not forget backing up my images when I come home from a wedding!  For a typical wedding I shoot about 1400 images, and these do not include the images from my second shooter.  I back them up online and on an external hard drive.  Then comes the editing.  Ah, the editing.  I have three phases of editing that I do. The first is culling the images.  I go through each and every single individual image, well over 2000 for a complete wedding.  I delete the blurry, out of focus, not technically great shots.  That could take upwards to 8-10 hours alone. Then comes the first round of editing! Once again, I go through each picture, and edit each one individually. I don't do a batch process which applies the same settings to a group of images. Each one gets my tender loving care!

Then, the final stage, culling the images again.  To put together a final product that tells the story of the wedding day.  In total, I put anywhere between 30-45 hours for each wedding.  Now considering I have one wedding each weekend, plus the engagement session, yeah...that is a lot of hours.

Let's not forget my portrait sessions! Albeit, portrait sessions are shorter in time, and usually yield about 200-300 images. But I have the same editing process as weddings.

Besides the actual photographing and editing, I hold a list of other jobs that I do with my business. I am the marketing director.  I am the one that pushes my business out to the public.  Creating the Facebook page, all of the ads and promotions and giveaways and such.  I am also the creative director!  All of my logos and such, I designed and made.  I am the accountant also (good thing I majored in Business Management and Marketing in college-dual majors!), even though I hate numbers.  And with each client, I am the only person they talk to directly to set up their session and give them ideas.

In the end, I am a one woman super house.  Every day, even on my days "off" I spend at least 4 hours doing something business related, and then on top of that is the actual shooting time, plus editing, plus travelling, and all that other fun stuff!

But in the end, I love doing what I do.  I could not imagine myself working a regular 40 hour work week at a job that I can just barely tolerate. So even though there are times when it feels like I don't have enough hours in the day, and that I have 3 weddings plus 2 sessions to deliver to clients, I take a breath, and am thankful that I am able to do this as my career. Pin It

{It's getting Hot, Hot, HOT!}

I know that during the winter, I begged for warmer weather. Well mother nature has answered my calls, and it is beyond warm!  I guess the saying "be careful what you ask for" rings true.  Even though it is about 90 degrees today, I still love warm weather. I love the sun, the fact that there seems to be a plethora of outside activities going on, and of course the pool.  To be honest, 90 degrees is a bit excessive for me, I am happy with weather that's in the 70's.  If I could live in a place where it was 70 degrees all year round, I would be pretty ecstatic.  My husband says that Hawaii is like that, with a nice constant breeze. But alas, I have never been to Hawaii.

With the weather being warmer, and my disdain for cooking in a hot kitchen or even eating hot food, I have found a new favorite cool down snack. FROZEN SPRITE! I don't know why, but I am in love with it. I was never a big soda drinker before, but I love Sprite frozen.  And the good thing, Sprite has no caffeine!

So being that we have passed Memorial Day, many will say wedding season is in full bloom.  This is probably the warmest wedding season that I have encountered. The weather now feels like the weather of weddings I have shot last August.  It is so important to remember to stay hydrated, and not to be out in the sun too long.  I am thankful *knock on wood* that I have not had a wedding where someone has passed out due to heat exhaustion, but this weather definitely seems like the type to bring it on.

June and July will be very busy months for me. Besides my two baby showers (YAY!), I am booked for weddings the following weekends: 6/11, 6/18, 6/25, 7/10, and 7/16 before I take a break and have my maternity leave.  But in between those, I will still be scheduling portrait sessions!  Chalk it up to my pregnancy, but I am so in love with photographing babies and kids right about now!

Enjoy your day, and till next time! Pin It

{Engagement Session: Heather & Oscar}

This engagement session I love!  First let me give you a bit of background on how the events of the day unfolded.  Heather contacted me to do her engagement session since she and Oscar are heading to Tennessee to for their destination wedding.  It turns out Heather was referred to me by her friend Lisa, whom is a friend of my husband, and he has known her since they were kids.  Then to top it off, Heather is also the friend of the aunt of my friend Sarah, whose wedding I did last summer.  So yes, Delaware is small, but word of mouth is awesome!

Anywho, Heather picked Valley Garden Park for her engagement session, because that is where her mother was married. It is an absolutely gorgeous location.  It is full of lush green grass, and a creek running through the middle of it.  Getting down to the valley was the easy part, the coming back up part was difficult! Yes, we shared some laughs (actually they were "breaks") along the way up.  The "best" thing about the location? It rained the day before. So although the day we shot, Saturday May 7 was gorgeous, the grass was soggy and there were bugs everywhere.  Heathers feet were covered in mud after we walked through a patch of land where the drainage pipe was, I dropped my lens into the mud (thankfully it was on it's side and is all clean now), and did I mention the bugs.  But through it all, we trooped through! Which is why I love my clients, and I love that they trust me to gain control of the situation and get shots that they will love.

Oh, I haven't even mentioned the other people that were there that decided to personally take it upon themselves to make use of our picnic set up while we were 30 feet away.  Yes, it was a very interesting day.  So enough of me blabbing, here are their pictures!









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{Double Engagement Session Love!}

This post is extra special, because it features not one, but two awesome engagement sessions. That's right folks, you get double the love, double the hugs, double the kisses, and double the engagement rings! Why the double session?  Well, the first session was actually shot a few weeks ago, back in March.  The bride and groom used the images from their engagement session as custom labels for their favors. And what awesome favors they were!  Jones Soda bottles. I didn't even know you can upload custom labels for that!  I love Jones Soda, so many yummy flavors.  So it has been a while, but I am finally glad to share the images from Jenna and Kevin's session. Oh, and of course, a huge congrats to them! They were married this past Saturday-April 30, 2011!  Here are their pictures. Swoon!







Now, the next session I am going to show you is from this weekend with Niya and Richard.  They are getting married in June, and poor Richard tore his ACL playing soccer. So the fella was limping all about.  We decided to go with an easy-going picnic themed shoot so that we didn't have to have him walking around much.  Now, this was an epic picnic. Niya went all out on setting up the food and props. Picnic blanket, picnic basket, chicken, strawberries, grapes, crackers, cheese, humus, apple cider, and more stuff! Plus...a guitar! Yay for guitars!  Here are their photos:













So congrats to both awesome couples!  Till next time :) Pin It