Andy's Idea Factory

A lot of people ask me what I like to shoot best.  I'll be first to admit, I'm a super lucky girl when it comes to photography (among many things in my life) - I grew up behind the lens on that super-tough stuff called  film in the darkroom, I studied under an Ansel Adams long-time apprentice, and under several other great teachers, too. I have a degree in Visual Arts, and one more for good measure in Travel Photography. I'm well traveled.  And to me, what this all means the most is practice.   And practice always leads somewhere. I've been published, awarded, and covered.  I'm the volunteer Event Photographer for STARS , and as Marketing Director for YVSC I get to shoot all our events too. And on the side, I shoot for a little extra business here and there... a wedding a year, some headshots, some homes, some pets, some food, and random fun calls for things like engagement shoots or new skis, or an occasional instructional session... and I truly do love all ...

Congratulations to Ken and Jaudz of Steamboat Springs, CO on their nuptials this weekend, it was an absolute pleasure shooting their wedding! They were married at the Steamboat Springs Botanical Gardens and scooted down to the Community Center for their reception. Jaudz had family come in all the way from Taiwan, which was an extra special treat! For more of Andy's wedding photography, see Portfolio on Flickr Wedding Photography Package Pricing Wedding Website- Printroom

Congratulations to Kyleigh and Dave who were married this last weekend at the Botanic Gardens with reception at the Community Center. In true Steamboat "Bike Town USA" fashion, they asked their guests to ride in and commute via bike to the dinner. The bride and groom were chauffeured to the center on Big Mountain Pedicab. It was an honor to assist pro Paula Jo Jaconetta for this spectacular wedding! For more of Paula, see www.naturalightimages.net For more wedding photos from Andy's AJDesign and Photography see: Portfolio on Flickr Wedding Photography Package Pricing Wedding Website- Printroom AJDESIGN on Facebook

Photographing a wedding is a fun, magical experience for me; I feel like each wedding is its own unique adventure that is propelled by the personalities of the couple and their families. But it can also be a stressful day if the events are hurried, so I have a thorough checklist that I prepare for myself to make sure every shot request gets taken, my equipment is up for the job, and the day flows smoothly for the bride and groom. Having planned my own wedding, that experience now lends its expertise to my day as well. Before the wedding: I always meet with the bride and groom several weeks or months beforehand to discuss their expectations and their package of choice, but then we meet again the week or day before their day to go over the site and day of events. It's often easiest to meet just before their rehearsal to see the location once again. I take these meetings to double check: List of formal and informal shots the bride has requested Wedding colors Number of guests and...

Some people aren't planning honeymoons any more... and this year is probably the best example of that. So how can you make the break happen while keeping it in the budget? The easiest is asking for much of it in gifts, because those are inevitable, look into the many creative options you gave give your guests in lieu of placemats, glassware, and picture frames. If you've loaded a wedding website for your guests, include some of these ideas on the "gifts" page or in the literature you mail out, so they know in advance that you'd like to trade gifts in for honeymoon help! 1. Condo, cabin, or RV usage ~ ask for the gifted usage of a lake house, RV, RCI membership week, or employee family discount to help offset the costs of lodging during your stay. 2. Airfare points ~ many of these programs will expire unused airline points, so using them will actually benefit both parties. 3. Activities, dining, etc ~ put a few activities at your honeymoon destination that will e...

This was one topic I struggled with for sure... table cloths and color accents? Window decor with light catchers? Hanging lamps or additional lighting? Chair covers? Flowers on the table, tall or short? Placecard colors and font? OMG! It was overwhelming once we'd decided on our location because the options were limitless and we didn't have a wedding planner to help make those decisions. Personally, I'm more of a simple person, and our budget wasn't limitless (as most people's aren't) so I struggled between wanting to make it beautiful and frankly not giving a damn. :) So I met myself somewhere in between, and I think so should you... GENERAL DECOR First, go back to your colors. What are your bridesmaids wearing, what colors did you choose for flowers, or what are your favorite colors in general? Typically those snappy wedding experts say to stick with only 2-3 colors, unless you want it to look like a circus, and marry (excuse the pun) those colors with you...

Last week we started a Wedding Season 101 series of helpful hints for brides-to-be. We got married in 2006 and spent an entire year preparing. These tips are just my helpful hints that we discovered along the way for those of you who aren't enlisting the help of a wedding planner. This week I've got two more ideas for you for the wedding-day party favors. We'd been to over twenty weddings before we got married ourselves, five or six just in the 18 months between our engagement and the I-Dos, so we gathered a good deal of ideas to sort through before we came up with our own. We'd seen rice sachets, seed packets, music cds, and beer cozies, and wanted to give something that people would definitely use but would still remember our wedding by without necessarily being reminded of it with the cheesy text "Andy and Craig's wedding day" on it. We wound up compromising. 1. First was my mother's great idea from her knitting closet. She wanted to give the ...

As wedding season approaches and my wedding industry friends begin to hustle and bustle, I thought to share some of the Idea Factory lightbulbs from our own wedding in 2006. This will be a multi-part series of four topics: Prep, Gifts, Decor, and Honeymoon. Today's topic, PREP, is to help you get organized. Wedding planning is a long process with many facets, and doing it all on your own is daunting, so enlisting a good team and organizing your process is vital. We didn't enlist a wedding planner, but these tips can help you help your wedding planner too if you get one. Aside from the heavy duty first decisions like size, venue, band, and dress, you're going to have some smaller decisions that are just as important. There aren't many tricks to buckling down and making these decisions, so helping get the little ones sorted first will ease your mind. Here are three ideas to start... 1. Once you decide a location, you should send out your Save-The-Dates. We struggled ...