Just an {over due } sneak peek of this little doll! More to come.
Hope you have a great week!
Well, now you can have one…and they aren’t just for my wedding friends either!
Oh wait, you didn’t want a REAL kiss, did you?? Ok good, because I’m definitely not giving those out!
All cheese aside, these albums are incredible. This week has been just like Christmas for me, because I got two of these bad boys in! KISS happens to be the album company I use, and their products are fabulous. Their mantra is KISS (duh) – Keep It Simple Stupid – and that’s just what they do. Their books don’t have a lot of bells or whistles, it keeps the focus on the pictures. I like to keep things simple around these parts of MB Photography, so me and KISS get along real fine.
What is the KISS? They com e in a whole rainbow of colors: Black, Brown, Navy, Red, Apple Green and Fuschia Pink. You can also choose between real {buttery} leather or fine linen. The leather albums come with hard pages that are a few milimeters thick. The linen albums come with soft pages that are laminated for extra durability. That comes in handy when kiddos are around! I design your spreads right here on my brand spankin’ new MacBook. The KISS comes in a few sizes: 4×4, 8×8, 10×10 and 12×12. Square is the new black, baby.
How does it work? Once you pick out the pictures (or I can pick them out for you if you choose), I get busy crankin’ out spreads. In about 2-3 weeks, I meet up with you so that you can preview the designs. I will make changes on the spot so I can get your approval. Once I receive your “OK,” the book gets whisked away to print and binding! It takes about 7-10 business days for the book to be shipped once its sent to print. It gets shipped to me first so I can make sure everything is in it’s place, then I package it up real pretty-like and hand deliver your KISS. Not a real kiss, of course, just the album
What’s a KISS good for, anyway? For starters, the larger KISS books are usually for wedding albums. That’s not to say that you get your hands on one for your family picture session or newborn session. Heck! You can even upgrade to a large album if you have the Year of Baby sessions! Regardless, the 10×10 and 12×12 albums are usually wedding album sizes. The 8×8 size albums are good for Parent Albums for my wedding clients. This is a perfect size to sit nice and pretty on a coffee table or tote to a family reunion. The 4×4 albums, or Mini KISSES are perfect for just about anything! Are you a Year of Baby client? You’ll get a 4×4 KISS included in your package (you can always upgrade if you want). These books are also fabulous gifts for grandparents or family members of your kiddos. Use them to document your engagement session, gift one to your hubby-to-be with your Boudoir Session pictures, give some to grandparents after a family picture session, etc. The options are endless and these cute little books will make anyone’s day!
OK, I want one. ASAP. How do I get my KISS? Well, you could start by introducing yourself. And, I don’t give out kisses for free! Before your photo session, just let me know that you’re interested in ordering an album. Even if your photo session already took place, you can still order an album! I’ll promptly e-mail you over the album pricing sheet and you can hand-pick your very own KISS. From there, we’ll go through the process above. In just a few short weeks, you’ll have your KISS in your happy, little hands!
The MINI KISS! This is the 4×4 size in Black Leather.
This is how you’ll receive it.
Isn’t it cute?!
The opening page can have text on it to make it personalized.
This one is a wedding album that just came in. It’s 10×10 in the Fuchsia Pink Leather!
Pretty, no?!
The biggest selling point to these albums is that they lay flat on the binding. A lot of digitally designed albums will have pages that arch on the binding, much like a magazine. Not these bad boys!
The 10×10 album is about as tall as my MacBook 15 inch laptop.
Want to get your KISS now?? E-mail me at Melissabphoto@gmail.com or use the “Contact Me” link in the menu bar to send me a message.
Have a great weekend everyone!
by Melissa
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The city was still asleep when the sun made its way through the buildings. We were at the tallest point in the city and they kissed. Not just any ordinary kiss, but a treasured one. They know what it’s like to be a part and not know when they will see each other next. So just in case, they kiss whole-heartedly. Each and every time.
I’ve known Becky since I was about 6 years old. She swam for SPY swimming with me and my sister. During swim meets, I used to follow her around. I thought they were cool because they listened to Aerosmith’s “Crazy” in a CD player on repeat. It had been years. YEARS since I had heard from Becky. She sent me a message on Facebook – she was getting married. I react like I always react when I hear that kind of news – excitement!
I met with Becky and JC for coffee one afternoon to catch up and during that time, they told me their story of how they came to be together. JC is South African and came to the States as his first stop around the world. While working in Baltimore, he met Becky. He couldn’t stay in the States for long, so after a few months of falling madly in love with each other, Becky and JC went to visit South Africa… it was the last time they thought they would be able to see each other. Many tears were shed but even more fond memories were created. When Becky returned home from South Africa, they got some good news that JC was able to come back to the States and live. Sweet reunion! Now they are feverishly planning their wedding for 10-10-2010 and I’m so proud and honored to be their photographer and document a true love story.
We met at 7am in Baltimore’s Federal Hill neighborhood to take some engagement pictures. The lighting was delicious and it was so fun to see Becky and JC in action… I’m SO thankful – Becky & JC – that you willing to get up that early and follow me around town. It was so much fun and it makes me even more excited for your wedding in just a few short months!
Enjoy!
Mmm…hello, beautiful morning light.
Aren’t they an amazing looking couple?! I mean, seriously!
Ah! I loved her hot pink shoes
I miss this place…
JC you are fierce. Love it!
Their laughter is so sweet.
Couldn’t miss an opportunity to get the Domino plant in the background.
A quick shout-out to my friend Kelly, whose Uncles let us borrow their stoop for the shot below!
These last two are my favorites. Love!
by Melissa
1 comment
lovely shots … light is perfect
Oh dear. For those of you who know me, I’m pretty much a girlie girl. I own more dresses than pants, I love the color pink, I don’t fare well in nature for too long, I have a subscription to just about every fashion magazine, I think Jude Law is the most amazing-looking man ever (second only to Brad Pitt) and I like to belt out Madonna songs in my car as much as the next girl. My sister was the compete opposite. I mean, she liked the color blue and couldn’t pull off any shade of pink in her clothes. Plus, I think she hates Jude Law (gasp!). Thankfully, I can now get her to occasionally read a fashion magazine or explain that Louis Vuitton wasn’t a king in France. Although we were totally opposite growing up, we’re now as close as can be…and she’s learning (slowly) how to become more of a girlie girl.
My heart always melts when I take pictures of sweet little girls. The Ashley family was no exception. Amy and Gator (yes, that’s his name!) have two, very sweet little girls. Although both of them are little girlie girls, their personalities could not be more different. They were so much fun to watch, and it makes me so excited for Amy and Gator to experience what they’ll be like when they’re older.
We met at beautiful St. Mary’s College of Maryland and walked around the grounds. Thankfully, the scorching heat wasn’t too bad. Everyone was a good sport (OK, even if there was coercion by lollipops) and I think we got some cute pictures out of it
Enjoy!
This one was one tough cookie to get to smile! Thankfully, I was able to catch it…even if it was for a split second!
Sweet.
Note to parents getting their kids pictures taken: Lollipops work as excellent bribes. That is all.
Love this girls scrunchie nose! She was so sweet and helpful!
My favorite. I love the wispy hair!
Parents never have enough pictures of themselves. I got Amy and Gator to pose for some of just the two of them
Amy had brought hula hoops for the girls to play with. It was SO cute and the two girls wanted to try it together. It didn’t work out so well, but it resulted in a nice, non-combattive, sisterly hug!
by Melissa
5 comments
LOOOVE them!!!!!
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME! These two girls are some of my favorites!!! Emma and Maddy are great little sisters! Love how you captured them Melissa! Good job! My personal fav is the last pic shown … with the hula hoop!!!
Love the Ashley family pics!! Those girls are too sweet!
I LOVE these! They are so remarkable! you just keep amazing me!
Melissa – I LOVE THEM! I can’t wait to see the rest. I love how you captured Madison’s personality, even if she didn’t want to smile most of th time. THANKS!!
I have total hair envy. You boys know nothing about this, but it exists. Secretly. I have eye envy, too, but I don’t really think that exists. I was born with brown hair and brown eyes, so alas! I will never look like Kristina.
Apart from fabulous hair and eyes, Kristina and Nathan are a sight to envy. They are totally in love and they are both totally gorgeous. We took their pictures on the most amazing cliff over looking the Patuxent River. I had never met Kristina or Nathan before that day, but I’m so excited for them to tie the knot in October!
Thanks for meeting with me Kristina and Nathan. I wish you guys the best of luck as you start your married lives together! Have fun and remember to flirt once in a while
How do you like my new chair? They make it look pretty fierce!
These next 4 are my favorite! Aren’t they so cute?!
See what I mean about eye envy?? I didn’t even touch her eyes in Photoshop!
Oh, Love!
by Melissa
14 comments
Fantastic!!!
An amazing job of capturing the love between them!
I love the pictures. They truly capture you and Nathan.
Thanks Karla (and everyone!)! Your comments have been so encouraging
No words to tell you how beautiful these pictures turned out Melissa! Actually brought tears to my eyes!! Thank you!
I’m in love with your pics. They are great! It’s easy to take pictures of people when the camera loves them!
omg! these are so amazing!! cute cute cute!
These pictures are beautiful.
I love these pictures. Absolutely beautiful!!
I love these pics!!!
wow. Great job Melissa!!!
Melissa – I absolutely LOVE them!!! You did such a fantastic job!!!!!!!
AWESOME pics!!! Congrats Kristina and Nathan! Best of Luck!!! Great job Melissa!!! Gorgeous!!
these are great LOVE the last one!
Fast. That’s the most accurate description of Ryaln. Although he’s not quite a baby anymore… he celebrated one year and 6 months the day I took his pictures. This boy has personality and he dishes it out to everyone he comes in contact with. I LOVE it.
Just a few pictures of Rylan’s shoot last weekend. We met up with both sets of his grandparents that morning to document this time in his life. What an amazing idea! They will totally treasure this time in their lives with little Rylan. Kristie’s (who is Rylan’s Mommy) father’s pictures, in particular, were most poignant. He has advanced stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. She wanted some pictures of her boys together. It was all I could do to not cry. The time was sweet and all Kristie’s Dad could do was laugh at this little toddler spinning circles around him. Kristie’s parents have a pretty amazing love story and an even more incredible wedding album. I know, because I begged her Mom to share it with me! Regardless, I sincerely appreciate Kristie’s family for letting me peek into their lives for a few hours on a Friday morning.
And now, for a good dose of Rylan…in freeze frame. Enjoy!
by Melissa
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They kissed under a fountain of roses and realized that they were now Mr. and Mrs. They almost ran down the aisle to do some more kissing, but they decided to be polite and wave to their loving friends and family as they walked away from the ceremony. Married. It’s hard to comprehend when it all happens so fast, but married they were and honestly giddy with happiness.
Kara and Chad’s wedding was one of the most fun weddings I’ve been to. Everyone was so laid back and relaxed – including Kara and Chad. It was also one of the most fun weddings to photograph. Kara took full advantage of her garden setting at Greenwell State Park and Rosedale Manor. She thought of countless details that made their wedding truly unique. Almost everything was DIY and looked like it was straight off of Etsy. There were tons of items at the wedding that held sentimental value. Most importantly was Kara’s wedding dress. It had been passed down to Kara, and Kara’s mom helped modify it to make it fit Kara and her wedding style perfectly. It was seriously amazing and it almost made me cry every time I heard someone tell the story (I took a picture of it down below).
Despite the heat, the wedding went off without a hitch. To cap off the evening, the groomsmen surprised Kara (and also Chad), by singing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” Complete with sunglasses and the whole routine from Top Gun. It was hilarious and simply memorable! I can’t thank you enough, Kara and Chad, for letting me be a part of your amazing day! You are the kindest people and it’s obvious that each one of your family and friends think so too. I hope you had an awesome time in Hawaii (they come home TONIGHT, according to Facebook!) so hopefully this will be a sweet homecoming surprise for you both
Just a quick shout out to a few of the wonderful vendors that made this day happen:
Ceremony and Reception: Greenwell State Park
DJ: Eddie at Invincible Entertainment
Flowers: Scarborough Farms and assorted gardens
Enjoy!
The Bridesmaids each made their own bouquets the morning of the wedding. It was SO unique and each girl had a slightly different arrangement. They had fun doing it, too!
Kara found JELLIES! She wore them as her wedding shoes. She didn’t complain once about how much her “heels were killing her!”
All of the different bouquets. I loved it! What a cool detail.
It was SO hot on that day, so it was a good thing their programs could also be used as fans. A fun and easy DIY project for programs: Spray painted paint sticks/stirrers glued to a vertically folded wedding program with some die cut details. The guests were so thankful for these!
Party favors were little sachets of wildflower seeds with a hand-stamped graphic on the front.
The story of the dress. I love weddings with sentimental elements. That’s what weddings are all about, right?!
Oh Kara, you are simply stunning.
While she’s not busy giving me her model face, she can be rather silly!
She used to be a model. Can you tell?
The groomsmen. They were quite the characters!
Chad, you stud!
Insert Crying Wedding Photographer <<HERE>>.
Greenwell has the most amazing English Rose Garden for a ceremony site. It provided the most lovely and etherial backdrop for their nuptials.
The next 4 pictures are my favorites. You guys seriously know how to work it!
I love that more and more people are using cupcakes instead of one big cake! Down with cakes, I say! Cupcakes are way more fun and so much easier. No cake cutting required for 100-some people. Just grab ‘em and go. The orchids on the cake looked like little butterflies. A perfect compliment to the garden theme going on here.
There was no shortage of fun to be had at this party!
The serenade. If you’ve never seen it from Top Gun, the movie, watch it HERE.
You guys are the best!
Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Day!
by Melissa
15 comments
Melissa,
These pictures are fantastic! You captured the beauty of the surroundings as well as all the emotions of the day! It was great to see you work!
Hey Cheryl! That would be absolutely fine. Just have her e-mail me (or I can e-mail her) and I’ll work with her to pick out which images she wants so she has the full-resolution copies. Just shoot me an e-mail address and I’ll get in touch. Thank you!
Melissa,
Jan at Greenwell emailed me about your pics. I sent her your link and she wants to add a weddings page to their website. She would like to use some of the pics of Kara’s wedding. I told her it was fine with Kara but wanted to send this to you to see if you wanted to contact her.
Cheryl Culkin(Kara’s Mom)
Thank you Alicia! And congratulations on your upcoming wedding What a fabulous idea – the Charity Wedding. Thanks for stopping by!
This wedding is SO sweet and has such an intimate feel. The pictures are beautiful!
What a wonderful story those beautiful pictures tell!! Thanks for sharing!!
Absolutely BEAUTIFUL pictures. Kara looks stunning, and Chad is no slouch.;) It looks like everyone had a great time. Thanks for sharing.
Ok, seriously, these are SOOO good! What a cute couple! Beautiful shots, really you should publish some of these!!
These pics tell a beautiful story! Absolutely amazing!! I wish the bride and groom all the best!
A friend from Cato NY
Kim
These pictures are gorgeous. Everyone looks so comfortable, you would never know from the pictures that it was 104 degrees!
Unbelievable pics. You have done such a great job!
Aww, thanks Stac!! You’re so sweet
Melissa these are gorgeous… I’m a picture snob and I just love love love these, and all your work Congrats on your business!
These photos are beautiful Melissa!! Makes me super excited for Oct 2nd!!
This wedding is beautiful! You did such a great job I think these pictures are my absolute favorites of yours!
I took Bobby’s Jeep for a ride this afternoon {with the top down and doors off, I might add} and forgot to bring along a pin to hold my bangs back. Normally this would bother me because all of my hair will get tangled and will be almost impossible to comb out afterward. However, it didn’t bother me today. I threw on my sunglasses, stuck my foot out the side door, cranked my music up to some Dave Matthews Band and embraced the bangs flying in my face. Summer is half way over and I’ve barely had a free minute to just sit back and enjoy it. Sometimes you can’t control the flyaways. Instead of worrying over how you’re going to comb them out later, enjoy the summer breeze flowing through them instead!
I would like to announce that, I am no longer “a PC.” I’ve switched over to the Mac world and have to admit…I’m loving every second of it! While I will always spend about 5 minutes looking for “My Documents,” everything else seems to run smoothly! I made the switch from a desktop to a laptop. This will enable me to be more mobile for my clients. Some of the cool things I’ll now be able to do: Preview your albums in person and make changes on the spot, edit/answer e-mails on the go if I get pulled away to a destination wedding, edit/answer e-mails/blog from my couch (this was the selling point!), Skype with clients who cannot meet with me in person, and many other fabulous things. That being said, there’s a bit of a learning curve associated with learning the ways of Apple. I’m a bit backlogged due to the volume of work this time of year AND now, learning a new computer system. Thank you to all who have been so patient. I’m trying to catch up as fast as possible, so please bare with me while I learn to be more efficient on this crazy machine!
There are lots of new announcements to make concerning MB Photography that cannot be announced yet! BUT, I can assure you, there are some pretty awesome things coming down the pipeline! And since I’m impatient, there are just a few things I can share with you:
1) MB Photography is now officially MB Photography, LLC!
2) Starting shortly, I will be introducing a weekly feature on some “behind-the-scenes” elements of MB Photography. One of which includes a tour of my new home-office diggs!
3) I still have a few 2010 wedding dates available and am also booking wedding dates for 2011. E-mail me at Melissabphoto@gmail.com or use the “Contact me” form in the menu bar above to reach me. Getting married outside the US? No problem. Have Passport. Will travel!
4) I’ve mentioned this once before, but I’m so excited so I’ll say it again. MB Photography, LLC is getting a little face lift in the branding area. I can’t WAIT to show you what Erica Anne and I have been working on!
And now {since a Photo Blog wouldn’t be a Photo Blog without some photos!}, a sneak peek from a fun, little E-Sesh this evening with Kristina and Nathan…and the most gorgeous view of the river in St. Mary’s County! More to come this week!
by Melissa
12 comments
Now that I found it, what a gorgeous picture!
How beautiful and classy!! Just perfect!
What a beatiful picture! God always bless you two.
What a good picture! i love it!
Very nice picture!
LOVE IT
Very nice
What an amazing picture! I love it.
This picture is just amazing
Melissa…what a beautiful picture! You did an awesome job!
Melissa – This picture turned out awesome! I can’t wait to see the rest of them!!
WOW Kristina and Nathan! You guys are ROCKING this photo! Great Job MB!!! Love the “prop chair”! Yeah for Vintage Source!
by Melissa
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