Weddings can be exciting times of joining together and unifying friends and family.  Large groups of people are brought together to celebrate the happy couple.  In this blog, I will be giving you a few tips and ideas for creating a unique and trend-setting guest book setup for guests to share their experiences and words of wisdom with you!  Here's our list of top ideas for wedding guest books!

2. Engraved Corks 

The next idea requires obtaining some wine bottles, or at least the corks (sounds terrible, right? Haha :).  The guest book is a series of signed corks that can be collected in any bottle, box, etc. Your wedding guests can engrave personal messages for you on the corks to be read later.  This option also opens doors for potential DIY projects like these.

Photo Credit: Katie Jaynes Photography 

Style:
     5. If you could describe your style in one word, what would it be?
     6. Do you do mostly candids, portraits, or both?
     7. What format do your photos come out in? Digital? Film?
     8. Would you be willing to do specific shots we have planned for?​

We open on a crisp, bright Tuesday morning.  The birds are chirping and flowers are full in bloom.  It is the day that our staff has been long awaiting; today is the styled shoot and education.  Great wedding vendors from all over the lowcountry have been brought together for the next two days to show off their talent and learn more about the event planning industry.  

The Lowndes Grove Plantation is the setting.  This historic and breath-taking venue sits as a focal point of Charleston area, along the oak-lined banks of the Ashley River.  Inside, Eventworks, The French Eclectic, and The Technical Event Company bring in all the furniture and fixtures that will adorn this beautiful building.  ​

Next up, headshots! Charleston Photo Art and other amazing photographers created amazing new headshots for the vendors.  The first day of the styled shoot was continued with a wedding education presentation, featuring Knot Ambassador Bobbi Brinkman Photography! Charleston Photo Art also worked with the two of the models (in the photo below) on an evening shoot.

We wished a good morning to all of our vendors as they arrived for day two of the styled shoot!  February 6th, 2019 brought on a day of photoshoots with our models on the property of Lowndes Grove.  

Hair and Makeup by Helen Barfield gave an added touch to our models and prepped them for the upcoming photoshoot.  

​So you’ve booked a photo shoot.  Maybe it’s for an engagement or family portraits.  Yay! But the age old question (especially for women) is: what do I wear? These pictures are going to be documented and framed; the colors and patterns need to look picture perfect!  With this post, I hope to calm your fears and stress about photoshoots.  Let’s get to it; here are 5 tips for dressing for a photoshoot.

​1. Have Different Options
Depending on the occasion or photoshoot style, you may want to bring a few different outfit combinations.  Research on the particular location can be greatly beneficial is knowing the type of outfits that will produce the best photos.  For couples, 3 or 4 combinations, depending on how long your session is, would be best to have a strong variety and creativity.  To make the greatest use of time, families are recommended to bring 1 or 2 outfits;  don’t eat up too much time making wardrobe changes.  

​2. Find Complementary Colors
I’m sure we all have old photos our mom organized.  You know, with the matching blue turtlenecks?  Wow.  Let’s leave that in the past, shall we?  Matchy-matchy outfits may have been popular in the past, but it does not make for strong, modern portraits.  Coordinating items or items that highlight the contrast between the outfits helps greatly.  

​3. Avoid Competing Patterns
No one here is telling you to not use fun patterns and prints in photos.  Not every picture requires solid colors.  Be creative to your heart’s desire.  However, beware of using patterns that are competing in color or print style.  Stripes and plaid on Uncle Charlie is not the best look.  Several varying patterns can become distracting and draw attention away from your smiling faces.  

​No one likes to worry about insurance.  There is fine print, difficult vocabulary, and unclear coverage options involved.  Weddings and events are expensive enough; who needs to spend even more money?  In the next few minutes, I hope to demonstrate to you the reasons why it is smart to buy wedding or special event insurance to cover the potential injuries and accidents during the course of planning and executing an event.  As when everything else, we would never force any client to purchase insurance if they do no wish to.  This is purely a suggestion.