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March 2006

I’m so excited, our article is now on SPD’s website: click here!

The magazine should be arriving here shortly, it’s so much fun to see our images in print & to be able to help other photographers with their marketing and business strategies. I would love to contribute to SPD regularly since it’s my favorite magazine to read each month. The stories and images have always been an inspiration to me and have helped me get to where I’m at now. 🙂

This week’s Wedding Edition is now available at various locations around Indy! Here’s a copy of our featured segment:

Wedding Wars

Even the calmest of brides-to-be succumb to stress on their wedding days. These wedding pros share some of their wedding war stories.
By Kimiko Martinez

Little girls dream of their wedding days. So when things go wrong, it can lead to some major drama. Even when it comes to planning, the sanest woman can turn into a Bridezilla.

And who better to tell those stories than the people who deal with brides everyday? We talked to a wedding consultant and a wedding photographer to find out some real-life tales of when weddings go wrong.

Erin Hession-Wooton

Job title: Photographer (specializing in weddings), owner, Erin Hession Photography.

Best part of the job: “I love how no two weddings will ever be exactly alike; it keeps our creativity fresh, and it’s a lot of fun to be around happy couples every weekend. As a wedding photographer, you are also privileged to experience some incredible, emotional moments that take place on the wedding day.

“When a father sees his daughter in her wedding dress for the first time or when the couple takes their vows at the altar, it’s an incredible experience to witness.”

Worst part of the job: Dealing with outside service providers (labs, album manufacturers, framing companies and more). “You have very little control over their production schedules and timelines for delivery. Also, hearing the Chicken Dance every weekend gets a little old.”

Qualifications: Experience, education, organization and a great personality. “Whether you decide to earn a degree in Fine Arts or Photography or take classes locally, every photographer must start somewhere to obtain the knowledge required to successfully operate camera equipment and know how and when to use it.”

Perks: Meeting hundreds of new, interesting people at every wedding. “We love receiving the e-mails and thank-you notes after the wedding from the couple and their families; it’s great to think that we’re creating heirlooms that will be treasured in their family for many years to come.”

Salary range: $15,000 to $54,180, depending on the type of photography, and whether a photographer is self-employed or salaried.

Two stories:

“We had a wedding where the bride had six bridesmaids, but I noticed only five bouquets and the florist had already left. The coordinator called the florist, and he quickly put together another bouquet and drove back to the ceremony site so that the sixth bridesmaid would have a bouquet before walking down the aisle.

“We had to do some creative shooting so that the bride wouldn’t notice what was going on; no one wanted to stress her out. She never even knew what happened until I overheard a bridesmaid tell her about it on the dance floor that night.”

“At another wedding, the weather was looking really suspect before the ceremony. Luckily the reception was booked at a country club indoors but on the way to the reception, there was a total downpour. We took pictures of the groom watching the Weather Channel in the Pro Shop while waiting for the reception to begin.

“You can try to plan for many potential disasters at a wedding but the weather is one thing you just can’t control. They were planning on doing outdoor pictures on the golf course and veranda but obviously those plans were sidetracked that day. Just as we were sitting down for dinner though, the rain stopped and I looked outside to see a beautiful double rainbow.

“I couldn’t believe it, I grabbed the couple and we went out to the back deck for a few shots under the rainbow that afternoon. It wasn’t quite the outdoor pictures they envisioned but they’ll never forget their rainbow ending.”

View the rainbow wedding here!

A special thanks goes out to my friend and fellow photographer, Kim Ferrill. He’s certainly a great photographer and one of the nicest photographers I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. He has not only come along to help photograph a few of our weddings over the past year but he also photographed my new headshots for some upcoming publications we’re working on. (And of course, John & I haven’t had any “real” photos taken together in a few years so he caught some great moments of us together too…) Thanks K.C. for all of your help and for being a great friend, the photos look awesome and captured the spirit of our love, just what we were looking for! 🙂


Make sure to pick up next week’s INtake Weekly Magazine! Kimiko Martinez has been great to work with this month, she contacted us about submitting stories about how to become a wedding photographer & asked to include some wedding “adventure” stories as well. It should be a great issue loaded with a lot of good advice, funny stories and wedding professionals to contact for your upcoming wedding!