$10 for 10 minutes-you're RICH!

Attention customers :
We want your feedback! Gift us 10 minutes of your time and we'll send you $10 for Pictage pictures. (They have a 2 for 1 special going on too!) If you prefer to give written response on this services, we'll send it to you snail mail.


email me: april@aprilgreer.com subject: 10 bucks in my pocket


Why? We want to know more details about how to serve you better. How did your day flow? How can we improve? Timing? Meetings? Its all in the survey AND its comical.

Great news for Ray!

This morning Ray was offered a position with Homeland Security! Yay!!! This lengthy process began over 7 months ago and included heavy screening, interviews, a multitude of tests and even a visit from the Secret Service. At last he's been accepted, I'm SO thrilled for him! The school begins in just 2 weeks, so we'll be dropping everything to spend time together before he leaves for a really, really long time. :-(
Naturally, I have lots of work to do, but I won't be taking any new appointments until after Nov 20th. Just wanted to share the news, Ray is really excited about it! Cheerio!

Joe Buissink in Portland

Day 1 of 3.

Challenge instructions: focus on fleeting moments.

Gear: canon 5D, 1 lens (50 1.2)

Contraband: no posing. no cropping. no photoshop. no chimping (we all cheated here). no directing. P mode only

ISO 1600

These are all straight out of the camera, I can't STAND to NOT photoshop them into perfection, but its not about perfection. Focus on the moment, the essence, the mood, the connection. People from all over came to this workshop. From Wisconsin, to Guam, to Mexico. Joe showed us his portfolio of Christina Aguilera, JLo, J.Simpson, Christina Applegate. OMG. Joe shoots weddings like nobody's business. I love being here. I feel so alive.

On the Road

Out of the office till Monday Oct. 29th.
Its time for Herbie the lovebug & I to jet. We're going to Portland for the week to shoot a wedding and attend a boombastic workshop with Joe Buissink. Mesoexcited! For the photographers out feeling stingy with funds: go for it. Why not learn from the best?

This is is a photo taken from the Susan Stripling workshop 6 months ago. Susan's workshop helped my shooting & professional POV tremendously. I can't wait to see what Joe has in store for the group this week!

E-session Katie & Dustin

Here's Katie & Dustin from Cornelius, OR. Their wedding will seal the envelope for us (wedding-wise) for 2007. I'm looking forward to it, but also sad that the fun is over and the year is quickly coming to a close. Still going strong after a boombastic year but when the thought of a free weekend comes to mind, I can smellll the margaritas & salsa already...

I'm curious to know if my people prefer to be photographed like models, with strobes, softboxes, flashes, reflectors and all that jazz OR be completely on their own wiithout direction from the photographer, OR if they prefer to have a mix.

What are your thoughts? I'm eager to for people to share! I prefer a mix, but what do YOU want? How do you want to view yourself in 10-20 years? As the photographer's interpretation? As yourself? Without makeup? In your favorite jammies?

Busy day

After finishing a bachelor's in college, I thought the hard part was over. Wrong.

Today involved:

• processing 5 gigs of JPEG images ranging from e-session,wedding, commercial & boudoir
• answering 2.65 hours of phone calls (mom's was the shortest)
• 8:20am-12am (minus a few breaks, 1 workout and a dinner break) of sitting at the computer
• receiving new couches & install new blanco lounge furniture
• cleaning the Monroe piercing (it looks good so far!)
• shower, brush teeth, get dressed
• put on a happy face

I loooooove what I do so much that I can't stop doing it. Time to outsource more stuff. :-)

Flaming Dragon

Here's a little snap from the "Flaming Dragon" tatoo shop! I had the 'monroe' piercing done last week. The artist treated me SOO nice despite the fact that he looks serious. I felt calm until he swabbed me and marked the 'X'. My heart started racing!!

The artist (named Chris) explained, no matter how many tatoos he receives over the years, right before they poke him, his body goes through a fight or flight stage! The actual piercing was PAINLESS! Seriously, I wouldn't lie to you. As it heals, expect to see lots more pictures. I love it! I would also like to add that the Flaming Dragon has 50+ reviews on city search. Rightly so, they were awesome!

Ask a question, get an answer.

Its a small world, especially through the internet and blogging.I am writing a blog post, about someone else's blog post, whom I posted about, in this blog post. :-P Blogging is all the rage, baby.

Do you know David Jay? He just came up with the freedom club. A membership for no-holds bar photography information. Bold man. Check him out: http://www.davidjay.com/

:::: I wrote in with a question a while back and he answered it in a big way. The world feels so small now, as if DJ, this incredibly busy jet-setter is available by a few keyboard taps. Good guy- thanks DJ!!

Random rant: I hope MTV will get off the reality bandwagon soon and bring back Kurt Loder and the video countdowns. :-P

Holidays...

7 days of parental supervision but under MY roof this time, yesssss.... My parents are coming to visit!

Our plans are: brunch at Salty's, movies, mani-pedi's, wedding convo, mom's haircut, dancing to the oldies, grazing @ Sculpture park, Seattle Duck, Space needle, shopping, ferry rides, Leavenworth, wine tasting, B&B, drinking, merrymaking, and lots of poking fun. Anyone want to meet up for fun & drinks? My parents are party animals. They still think they're 30-something.

**note for clients** I will have my phone turned off until Monday Sept. 24th. We are due for a break (not a working break) from going non-stop in 8th gear since early March. I will have someone holding down the phone lines. If you absolutely need to reach me, send me an email and I'll do my best to get back to you.

The updated scoop:

• Sept. 17-23 Out of Service (except for Ali & Doug's wedding Sept 22)
• Sept 25-27 On-location shooting
• Sept 28-29 Portland, OR
• Oct. 1-3 Out of Service - last call for wedding album revisions....
• Oct. 7/8 Rockin 'wedding + On-location shooting
• Oct. 13 A big special day for E & R.
• Oct. 15-18 Album submittals for holiday turnaround
• Oct. 22-28 Portland workshop + groovy wedding
• Nov. 21-26 ET Phone home
• Dec. 17-20 On-location shooting

AUFWIEDERSEHEN!

The Cable Guy

BAD Clearwire!

GOOD Comcast!

I could've kissed the cable guy. We found out the hard way that Clearwire bites. On Monday, I begged to get a Comcast technician ASAP. He's here (4 days later) Better late than never!

The tech found *get this* the wires for cable and phone were cut off our house and some connections were even buried in the ground!!! What in the world!?! He climbed this huge pole behind our house and had to put in new wiring.

Nothing stinks more than having slow internet! Its high season for work and I couldn't get any work uploaded to our lab this week. Which translates to: everything is on hold. Its like being poked in the eye with a sharp stick. I hope it gets fixed quickly. Bad Clearwire. Phooey!

Wunderbar weddings

Well as some of you may know, I'm HORRIBLE at keeping secrets. I can't hold onto this one anymore either! So here goes!!!! Ramon Vasquez, awesome graphic designer from Creature in Seattle, tricked out my logo. We've been working together over the last month to tweak it just right. I told him what I was looking for, something raw, something edgy and assertive. He hooked me up with my very own interpretation of my name and I had to share. Its different, its over the top, its NOT what anyone expected and I LOVE IT>!

Its no fun pretending to be someone you're not and its worse when clients hire you to achieve a style you can't repeatedly deliver. The aim of this whole new identity overhaul is to continue to reach out and touch brides & grooms who identify with my craft of wunderbar weddings. Wunderbar is a German word that means wonderful, great, fantastic, fabulous. Its all of those, and its such a common word used in the German language. When I think about weddings and shooting fashion in Europe, I figured Germany HAD to be a part of my artistic makeup. At this point, I love that my logo doesn't look anything like anyone else's and I'm totally jazzed!

Finally, my own shoe fits. Let's get this show on the road! Expect many new things including a new blog & new website very soon!

p.s. member a few weeks ago I said a little bird told me about a proposal in the making, well...it was Kristin Kelly! Congratulations honey!!!! yay!!!!

Rollercoaster

Its our last night as "renters" here in our beloved cozy apartment. We're sad to leave this place that we called home for the last couple of years, but hey, all things come to an end. Our first big dream together of owning a home, has come true! We're moving into a funny old house in T-town with original hard wood floors from the 20's, huge bay windows and a BRAND spanking new kitchen. We have lots of rooms to set up for shooting and a 1,000 sqft. basement that will make a fine studio! Its way cool.

We've been on quite the rollercoaster ride the last 4 days. Purchasing a home is seemingly easy until the very end. When I heard for the 4th day in a row that things weren't going to close, again, and that we'd have to push our move date, again, and needed more verifications, AGAIN, a deep ball of frustration welled up in my throat. I will save that for another blog post. Anyhow, a while later our Broker rang my cell phone with news he was coming to the rescue and ironed everything out in a jiff. He's even going to mow our dandelion-covered lawn. THAT is real customer service!

So needless to say with 12,000 photos in the que to sort-edit-upload and a wedding every weekend from now until the end of October (save 15th of Sept.) I'm just a teensy-eensy bit excited to eliminate one stress monster from this list. With moving behind us, we can continue to blaze a happy trail ahead and get groovin. Yeehaw!

Commercial Photography

Just a quick post tonight: not many people know about the 'other' site. Before I focused on shooting weddings, I dabbled in commercial photography. Posted here are a few screenshots from the first version of a commercial website, it was built in 2005. It hasn't been updated in eons with new work. In fact the webdesigner still has the site programmed to link the old wedding website. Visit http://www.aprilgreer.com/ and click on Commercial Website or Commercial Gallery. Taking pictures in the mill was a real treat!!!

Wrapping up July in just a few days, Ray and I have a TON of new things in the works. Can't wait to splurge the details soon! Did I mention we'll be moving to a new location? In 1 week we close on a 1920's home in the historic district of Tacoma. We'll be opening a new studio space and moving into our first home!!! Needless to say our summer will be full of excitement and activites. Party on!

7-7-7

Here's the scoop on our 07/07/07 wedding! This couple booked with us so far in advance, they received their packages for almost a quarter of what we book for today! Lucky ducks! With just about everything regarding the big day, they totally lucked out! A very animated couple, they're both educators from Chicago with ties to Seattle. Three cheers for Emily + Adam! 07-07-07 Lovebirds!

Venue: Skanosia Ferry Boat
DJ: Sounds Unlimited


A little funny business in the groom's suite....



The ceremony incorporated Jewish values and several readings from family members, just beautiful!


Bill assisted me yesterday, he scored a ton of awesome shots from the balcony!

MORE funny business with the groom & his groomsman~

Here's a happy closing shot with my lucky pair! All the best!



To learn more aobut the luckiest day of the year to get married check out this story in the NY Times. A little tidbit of info:

For those with big hopes of getting wed at at the Ritz-Carlton in Las Vegas: two nights in a seventh - floor room, seven hours of spa treatment and a shopping credit of $777 at Neiman-Marcus.
Price tag: $7,707.
***************************************


And finally : at the risk of sound weak and whiney, I have to just share my thoughts here: At some point I feel silly writing about all wedding & marriage stuff when Ray and I have yet to get hitched!!! We're still struggling to set a date, a place, a theme, a guestlist. Juggling all these things is getting a little nutty for us, we're not up for reinventing the wheel. Everyone asks what our plans are and we don't have answers! We have NO idea. In fact, we have a few other priorities right now, like purchasing a new home/office. We decided to buy first THEN get married (do it all backwards!)

The crux: With all the family splitting off into different directions next year for international travel, my bro is going overseas for 7 months, I feel like things are just working against us. If not next year, then 2009? I mean, we CAN wait, but I just wish there was an easier way! Its either before March or after October! Major bummer.

I'll just ask if anyone has any brilliant ideas? I feel like eloping at this point. Only that I really want to celebrate with family. (insert frustrated sigh here)

So enough of my gripes, because as they say on Flip this House : Save the drama for your mama.

A NEW Look?

WOW! If I can dig up my camera in the suitcase, you'll have the chance to check out our 2 days' worth of R&R from San Diego. Highlights: Shamu show, fireworks, Ray's favorite cake place & the beach!

San Diego is OFF the hook!!! Lots to do & see! Ray is in the Coast Guard Reserves as some of you may know. At both Sea World AND the San Diego Zoo his entry cost nothing (normally $80+ in entry fee). I was so impressed with their acts of kindess towards the military. These deployments are incredibly tough on families, and in fact, my brother is headed to Iraq again next year. A close friend's tour of Iraq was recently extended several months. Just when he thought the ride was almost over! Poor guy. I hope things get alot better soon.

Overall, two thumbs up for San Diego! Very, very nice place. I would like to return very soon. For a very long time.

Today, I feel like I've caught a bug. I'm going down for the count. Seriously, I have swollen throat glands, itchy eyes and sunburn isn't helping! I REALLY don't have time to be sick right now. We're booked solid until mid-July. This is NOT cool. I'm headed to bed right after this.

Finally, the MAIN topic of the day: I've been hunting for a new look. Its SO obvious isn't it?

Clients deserve it and I'm ready for a big change! I was so jazzed to walk away from the Susan Stripling workshop in April, with several weddings & photo shoots lined up to excercise the learned techniques.

With all this excitement its time for a facelift. Now where do I start? My blog? Website? Logo? Do I just need a complete studio overhaul? I'm anxious to start. Where should we begin? Leave your comments below, I'd love to read your opinions!

Availability + Travel Dates

We've had a lot of questions about where & when we're out of town for weddings. Listed below are booked dates for 07 & 08, we'll try to keep this updated for you as the season starts to heat up!



06.22-24.07 La Jolla, CA
06.29-30.07 Chelan, WA
07.01-06.07 Riviera Maya, Mexico
07.07.07 Seattle, WA
07.12-14.07 Laguna Beach, CA
07.14.07 Portland, OR
07.27-28.07 Portland, OR
08.04.07 Snohomish, WA
08.11.07 Olympia, WA
08.18.07 San Juan Island, WA
08.25.07 Bainbridge Island, WA
09.01.07 Seattle, WA
09.02.07 Bothell, WA
09.07.07 Newcastle, WA
09.22.07 Rochester, WA
10.06.07 Seattle, WA
10.13.07 Seattle, WA

03.08.08 Seattle, WA
08.02.08 Portland, OR

Free Stuff!

The Knot magazine sent me tons of copies of their LAST edition, they're discontinuing the magazine to accomodate the shift in brides shopping for vendors from print ads towards online services!

SO...I'd be happy to share the last copies of this magazine with anyone who wants them, plus its on me! 15 copies remain on my desk currently, if you'd like a copy (a $4.99 value) Please email me here : april@aprilgreer.com and let me know where to send the copy or copies to. I'll cover postage and handling, etc..... Its a great last edition! Get yours today!

New Wheels

Check this out, these fancy-schmanzy wheels will be my 27th b-day present (to myself) on 06/28. Toasting the 1 year anniversary of being an entrepeneur and to the hard work and great business in the last 12 months. Only thing missing is a benefactor...currently accepting donations...anyone? takers anyone?

Dear Ann:

Has someone pulled the Ann Landers act on you lately? Huh? Who is Ann Landers? What is she doing on my blog?

I'll tell you! Ann Landers is one smart cookie. Sadly, she passed away in 2002 but her legacy lives on. She had the gift of senisibility and shared it via the newspaper for many years.

The Ann Landers gig is when a stranger hears your problem and makes complete sense out of it. They solve your business in layman's terms.

Picture this: you blab on and on about a ridiculous thing that NO ONE wants to hear about and frankly doesn't give a shit. But you continue to blab until you become obsessed. You begin to lose sleep. You think about it constantly. On the toilet, in the shower, on the road, on the phone it stays in the shadows but never solves itself. Tired of no helpful responses from the homies, you take the obsession to a new audience. The new set of ears immediately understands the crux. They ungarble your thoughts, spread it out nice and easy and serve it back to you like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after school.

I'd like to share my little Ann Landers scoop for Thursday.

WHAT is the garbled mess you ask? the struggle of perfectionism: how do we succeed on the days where we don't feel at our best and nothing less than the best is expected? What should we do as photographers when our passion for shooting STILL can't achieve the amazing dreamy shots we want to provide? How can we pull through it? Is it acceptable?

Alex Hayden pulled an Ann Landers on me today. Go figure!!! A talented commercial big-wig photographer known all over Seattle and beyond, whom I hardly know, just gets it.

His 2 cents: you have to work towards your goal all the time. Some days your photography is sublime. Other days your photography is merely average. The key? Ensure your 'average' is far better than everyone else's 'sublime' and you'll be fine. Sounds like someone needs to start a column!

ann landers-isms:

• Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
• Class is the sure-footedness that comes with having proved you can meet life.
• Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.
• The Lord gave us two ends - one to sit on and the other to think with. Success depends on which one we use the most.”
• Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.
• Nobody ever drowned in his own sweat.

Whopper of the day: Too many people today know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Featured Wedding Pro: David Galliett

Rented Elegance - Bellevue, WA

wedding decor & design

Rented Elegance! Two weeks ago I met with David and his staff at Rented Elegance in Bellevue to get the scoop on their great company and dig for a few clients needing spectacular decor. I specifically wanted to meet with David because he offers a unique vision to decor & decoration. He designs the decor himself.

linens are altered and repaired in-house
How it all began: David married his wife (a doctor at Overlake hospital) in San Francisco back in the day.... When it came time to plan and decorate for their own ceremony, they found decor pricing and creativity didn't match up. In the old-fashioned American way, they opted for the DIY route (do it yourself) They designed decor and built everything from scratch. In fact, their wedding is STILL featured for being fabulous and one-of-a-kind at the venue in San Fran. Wow!

chandeliers of all kinds available

What impressed me the most about David is the easy going approach to finding out clients' needs and the fact that everything is in-house. From sewing to design its all there! They have a welder on hand to specifically create new designs of David's latest creative whim. Rented Elegance pricing ranges from $5k-? they offer local, corporate, and celebrity events decor. Pick your theme, they do it all! Swanky, southern, traditional, modern, the list goes on and on! They also welcome client feedback. "Bring a picture, we can work with your ideas." he said.

David reviewing client ideas (glasses/blue shirt)

I was blown away by their wedding portfolio and the humble, fun nature amongst staff members. They really get it done! It was very family oriented and close-knit. I'm just a photographer and I felt special being there, I can't imagine what's its like being a client...

Andre was cheerful and bubbly

Meet David, MaryLou, Angie, Andre, and the rest of the crew here: www.rentedelegance.com and see what the buzz is about! Of course, before you shop and drop the dough, be sure to interview and get a custom quote from them. Swing by for martinis and let them take care of you! Enjoy these snaps of their swanky lobby...

Rented Elegance mascot

For suggestions on the next featured wedding pro or to request a feature spot on my blog please contact me at april@aprilgreer.com or visit www.aprilgreer.com