We Have Moved!

Our blog has officially moved into a NEW home! We are excited for the new addition to our beautiful new website, the Michelle Robinson Photography Blog!  Don't worry, this blog will stay up and connected, but we will be posting new content on the new one!

Thanks to 17th Avenue on Etsy for helping us create a beautiful home for our blog!

Want to see our new blog home? Check it out!

Want to see our beautiful new website? Check it out!

Top 10 Things To Do Before Your Wedding Day

Your wedding day is a day you will never forget, but while planning you can be overwhelmed by all the details. But don't worry!! You will get everything done and it will look BEAUTIFUL! When planning for Sara's wedding, we did a lot of these things to help the stress melt away! And they truly do work and they created wonderful memories that we still talk about today! These are not in our favorite order, but these are our top 10 things for a Bride to do before her wedding day! Of course, the groom can do these as well! :)

1. Laughter: Have you ever heard of the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine.”? My mother use to tell me that a lot of the time, and it truly is! When you feel like you’ll never make it out of the wedding craze, taking a break to laugh with a girlfriend is great. Of course, don’t forget the coffee with the girl date!

2. Pick Up The Phone, Call Mom: Along with having a good laugh, calling your mom/dad/best friend is sometimes the next best thing. It is so relaxing and helpful. It also releases any stress and makes you think of great memories! Even if you don’t feel stressed, it’s just a great thing to do.

3. Let Others Help: Or in other words, delegate! You are the bride and only you know what you TRULY want, but we are here to help! Vendors, friends, family members are all here to help with invitations, dress shopping, and other wedding details! Let us help so you can have peace, feel more centered, and enjoy the experience with your soon to be husband!

4. Soak in the Tub: Everyone knows the amazing powers a nice soak in the bathtub will do! A hot bath, candle light, along with soft music playing in the background will soothe the soul. Sara highly recommends to have even more of a soothing bath, you can use bath bombs from LUSH Cosmetics. She promises that you will feel like a new woman when you step out!

 

5. Keep Hydrated: Water is great all the time, but it is especially when you are the bride! Staying hydrated will keep awake, fresh, and just better all around. It is so much better than that extra cup of coffee or an extra scoop of ice cream, that is for sure! Another wonderful thing that keeping hydrated does is that it will keep your skin glowing beautifully! You could spice up your water is a little bit of crystal light add in, or fresh fruit (lime, cucumber, orange, or lemon) for added flavor!

6. Write in a Journal: One of the things I did for Sara’s wedding is I wrote in a journal from a year out to Sara's wedding in May 25th, 2014. I wrote about the movies we went too, finding her wedding dress, and the fun sleep overs she have to practice her wedding makeup with her dear friend. It was a year of beautiful memories that could or have been forgotten! A lot will pass from when you get engaged to the wedding day, so writing in a journal is something I really do recommend! Along with writing to remember the memories, it also helps you cherish the emotions you were feeling, to capture it all down for generations to come!

7. Do Stretches or Yoga: You could do either or, but both are fantastic to relax and soothe your body. Yoga can help stretch those tight muscles, minimizes tension, and improve your outlook on the experience! Sara has been to yoga for years and she gives is lots of thumbs up.

8. Aromatherapy: Essential oils work their beautiful wonders when wanting to use it for soothing and relaxing your mind and body! You can use lavender, jasmine, chamomile and others that uplift! You can mix up your own or go to Young Living and purchase a few of their mixed essential oils. If you don’t want to place oil on you, you could also get or make your own aromatherapy scented candle! (This could also be a great house warming or wedding gift!)

9. Take a Deep Breath: This ties into Yoga and Aromatherapy, but deep breathing soothes your body and mind. It takes the craze of a day and lets to refocus your mind and lightens the mood. If you do this in the bath or while using aromatherapy, it works wonders! Sara uses it all the time, especially Lavender. :)

10. Date Nights: Brides sometimes can get lost in the details of planning a wedding that they forgot to spend time with her soon to be husband. Take some time out to spend alone with your fiance! This could be a dinner date, a walk, and movie date, but any one-on-one time with your soon to be husband is a great night! Just challenge yourself to not talk about the wedding, but other things going on. Having that one-on-one time with him could make you feel even more butterflies!

These are our top ten ideas that YOU should do before your wedding day! Even after the wedding, these tips are wonderful when you need a self pampered evening! We hope that you give them a try. :)

Brittany + Garrett | Engagement Session

It was a just so much fun meeting our lovely bride and groom, Brittany and Garrett, when I did their engagement session this past week at UNC Carolina!  A place that holds a lot of great memories for these two. Brittany was attending UNC Carolina while Garrett was at NCSU when they met through a mutual friend Adam! Adam set up the couples first date in May over four years ago and soon these two are going to be married at the Great Hall at Castle McCulloch. While they are busy planning a wedding, working, they both are currently getting their Master degrees at NCSU!  They are just the sweetest couple ever as we spent our time photographing we talked about their careers, cotton farming, weddings and Coldstone ice-cream!

Thank you both for walking me back to my car and for one of the most delightful evenings ever!

Just For Our Brides: It's All In The Details!

Details, details, details! It is all in the details! Think of it! You spend so much time finding all these perfect details to accent your wedding beautifully, shouldn't they be photographed? Documented for you to cherish and remember the memories attached to each detail?  The details not only add to the wedding, but it transfers beautifully over in your photographs to have for generations!! It makes a WORLD of difference when your details are all together for us to photograph right away. Something brides will ask us is "Michelle, when you say details, what does that all include?" That is a valid questions, what does it mean when we say details! In this blog I will be showing you lovely brides a few different ideas of details that would be AMAZING to photograph the day of your wedding! Each detail to every bride is unique and cherished in unique ways. Here are some of our favorite details to photograph, but we love all different types of details!

Dress:

After all the time spent choosing the right gown, it is something that you should have photographed! For us, this is how we start our day by seeing you getting even more gorgeous then by photographing your dress! It is a little window into what the day will hold. A tip with the dress, make sure that you have the right HANGER to display your dress on.  Instead of the plastic hanger it comes with, you can get an elegant customized hanger!  Even a wooden hanger makes an elegant display for your dress! Trust us, this detail you will not want to miss!

 

Rings:

Another critical part of the wedding details are the RINGS. We really love the BLING, please make sure all three rings are ready for their close up as soon as we start photographing! While you will be wearing them everyday from that day onward, it is wonderful to have a lot of photographs of them!  Once we have the ring shots THEN they can go back to where they belong. :)

 

 

Veil and Hairpieces:

Veils, whether long or short, add their touch of softness to each wedding! Just as an example, Sara had a birdcage veil for her wedding and it was perfect to photograph the rings on! They are beautiful to photograph on or off the bride (and sometimes groom)! Especially when photograph details, the veil will add a beautiful glow to the picture, it will be worth it to have it ready!

 When doing Carla and Richards FIRST LOOK we got this beautiful image with her veil!

 

Shoes: 

Shoes! Sara is a complete shoe girl! Who does love shoes, especially those you wear on your wedding day? Don't let anyone bring you the shoes later, have them with the dress so you don't have to worry. Everything will be together and ready for us to photography! Here are two important tips we have learned throughout our course of photographing: first, you NEED to break in your shoes before your big day! Secondly, when we take you out for your couple session, it is important to think of pointy heels and grass! If you purchase heel stoppers, it will save you worry on your wedding day to spend dancing with your husband!

Jewelry:

Speaking of shoes, lets not forget about the earrings, bracelets, purse and necklaces! It is so tempting to put these on but please wait for us to get ALL the details and then slip these on after your dress!

Keepsakes:

A favorite broach from your grandmother or handkerchief from your mother, it is important to photograph for you to have! Something that we really love learning about it favorite keepsakes that each bride cherishes.

Flowers:

Flowers add a beautiful backdrop to all your other details while photographing. Please have ALL your flowers delivered to wherever you are getting ready so that we can have a few for your before photographs! Especially if you are considering, which we encourage, a FIRST LOOK.

Invitations:

Invitations, just like all the other details, add that special flare to each wedding. It creates and adds another dimension to your detail photographs and its something you will want to keep! You can either send us an invitation (which we will accept! :) or have a copy of one on your wedding day that we can use!

Gifts:

Letters and/or gifts adds beauty and happy tears to a wedding day! Whether they are shared between bride and groom or for your parents/attendants. Every bride, groom, or parent has a different response to these letters/gifts. They provide a beautiful moment of peacefulness or excitement before the wedding ceremony! Just a tip, if you do want to share a moment together, think of where you would like this to happen and will you include this in your first look(?)!

The groom was given a surprise gift, right before the wedding! While he was out of town on a business trip, the bride did a bridal portrait session and included his Harley Davidson Bike!

You can even do special gifts for your children! A special gift for a son.

These are most of the details that you can have photographed! From head to toe, everything about your details are important. Everything has it place and if it is important to have in your wedding, we want to make sure it is photographed! There are a numerous amounts of other details that you can add into your wedding day, just let us know! The more details, the better! We hope that this helps you when it comes to planning your wedding details! We just can't get enough of them.

Why Every Couple Should Do An Engagement Session!

As a wedding photographer I understand why a couple should have an engagement session . . . but maybe you are wondering why you should have a session and what is it's importance? I am excited then you stopped by!! An engagement session is so much more than having your photographs taken.  It is a time that our clients can begin to experience what they can expect from us! Also, it is a great way for us to connect even more with each other! We believe that your time in front of the camera should be fun, easy going and relaxed. So here are a few reasons why you should have an engagement session!

Engagement sessions are a great trial run! This is the time for you both to just relax and get comfortable in front of the camera. An E-session affords you the time to learn posing, gain confidence and have fun doing it!  It usually takes a couple about 15-20 minutes to warm up and after that, everything clicks beautifully. On your wedding day, you shouldn't have to try to learn or worry about posing, you already are a pro from the engagement session! It is amazing then how everything flows together and the bride and groom are showing off with the best poses!
 

An engagement session lets us get to know one another!  An engagement session is a fun and relaxed time in which you get to know more about me and how I flow, work, but also have fun! I also have this time to get to learn more about the two of you and it the love story began. By the end of the session, we all are comfortable with each other and ready for your big day! By getting to know my bride and groom, creating a connection between us, it allows me to truly capture their personalities!

Boost your confidence for the wedding day! Besides learning to be more comfortable posing as well as in front of a camera, this time will help you build confidence. Once you see your engagement photographs, you will have confidence to pose without us even helping and know how to rock in front of the camera! If the session is taken at the wedding venue location then you could remember your favorite(s) spots you loved! You will remember what your favorite poses were, be a PRO, and it will feel like a piece of cake! You won't even need to worry about anything when it is time for your romantic session images.

Images to use! Don't get me wrong, Sara takes a lot of pictures of us all the time and I do love them! But I really do love when we have professional pictures taken of us. Isn't that the same with you? You probably have tons of self-taken images of you two, but when have you gotten your images professional done together? The quality of these images are what add to memory of the image, even still viewed in digital form! With quality photographs from your engagement session, you can do some many things with them! You can hang some beautiful prints on the wall in your home or to keep one your desk at work! You can also include these photographs into your wedding by creating “Save the Date” cards, at the wedding have an engagement book for guests to sign, or even a photograph to display at the reception!

Still wondering if you should have an engagement session?  Oh, YES! (In all caps too!)

I highly recommend it, so much so that we have some big changes coming! So keep posted as we will be sharing that quite soon!

Idona and Craig | The Berry Hill Estates | South Boston, Va

It is always an amazing experience to photograph at a venue that you have never been to before! The Berry Hill Estate will just blow you away! It is just simply gorgeous with beautiful green meadows (650 acres of them!), this timeless historic plantation dates back to 1728. It was the perfect backdrop for Idona and Craig's wedding!

Idona and Craig are not only the sweetest, but they are so dedicated and hard working.  They planned a destination wedding while finishing school and working full time! It was really sweet to hear of how they first met and started their journey together. They met each other in the cafeteria where Idona was finishing up Medical school! Just before they got married Idona graduated and Craig works in the Pharmaceutical Industry in which he travels quite a bit for his job, Wow!! I can't just stop there, I also loved learning that Idona purchased her wedding dress from the same store they film "Say Yes To The Dress at Bridals By Lori" at!  How neat is that?!

One of the most touching part a of the wedding day was that their ceremony was held in the same church Idona's parents were married in. It was beautiful seeing how her parents still hold hands when they are together! Sara and I just couldn't stop "aww-ing" at this amazing couple! (I hope aww-ing is a word!).

Craig wanted Idona to have her dream wedding as she worked so hard to finish Medical school so not only did they do Berry Hill Plantation but he took her to Hawaii for their honeymoon! That is so unbelievably romantic! They have such the sweetest souls! Congrats to the Mr. & Mrs.!

 
Wedding The Berry Hill Estate
Wedding Dress Bridals By Lori
Cake KittisKakes
Flowers Jordan House of Flowers
Makeup Sharon Davis