The Wedding Album

Four years ago, on September 16th, one of my best friends got married in one of the most perfectly planned ceremonies and receptions I've ever seen. Every detail was thought out and every song was perfectly timed. For 9 months leading up to the wedding, all she thought about was this wedding so much so that after the wedding was over, she apparently wanted nothing more to do with it - hence the email that we all received the day after her four year anniversary that she had finally picked the pictures for her wedding album. FOUR YEARS later??!!
Knowing that I would blog about her, Bonnie Meteye, this topic is for you!
Most brides are similar to Bonnie in that they live and breathe for their wedding day while they are planning, but once it's over, they tend to let a lot of things fall by the wayside. Not to mention, the overwhelming task of picking 50 pictures from a proof book of over 500 images can be a bit much. But even with that being said, there has to be a deadline. In most cases, the bride gets home from her honey moon eager to see her wedding pictures and has no problem hounding the photographer about when they will be online or when the proof book will be in. Once the images are able to be viewed, suddenly, the bride does not have time to make selections and finish the process. And in that same token, when the day finally does come, a year, two years or even four years later, this bride has made her selections and is ready for the book to be made, she has no problem once again hounding the photographer as if he should have planned his work week around the fact that she would re-surface so many years later.
The fact is, in any job, there is a process and a shelf life for files and past projects. The same applies to a wedding photographer. Let's just pretend that Bonnie's photographer shoots one wedding every weekend - that's a little over 50 weddings a year. If he kept up that average for 4 years, by the time he heard from Bonnie with her decision of images, he would have shot over 200 weddings. What are the chances that this poor man has nothing else to house in his studio but old weddings with the hope that the lost bride will one day come to him to pick out images for an album that was inevitably included in the package that she bought 4 or more years ago. Yay, more work at a time that he didn't expect but for free! That's just what every professional wants!
The bottom line is, these brides should have up to 6 months, tops, to get the process completed. I think 3 months should be the cut off, but most photographers are more lenient with a 6 month reprieve. At any rate, I do understand that once the wedding is over, it's hard to get back into decision-making mode, but you have to give these vendors a break. I know, at the time of your wedding, the good vendors make you feel like you’re the only client they have, but the reality is, if they don't move forward after you, you won't have someone to call in 4 years for a book. So do not make their job more difficult and leave them stuck in limbo. Be grateful that you chose a photographer who gave you so many great images, pick your pictures and move on!

The Kardashian Krash

After a much needed break from this blog due to a very busy wedding season, Kim Kardashian has given me the energy to once again get fired up about the stupidity of people. I am not only talking about the stupidity that is Kim Kardashian thinking that marrying Kris Humphries was a good idea, but I am talking about the ignorance that fans have shown by being shocked that this marriage didn’t work out.
First off, I found it extremely hard to even watch the wedding, which should say a lot since weddings are my favorite thing in life. I have tried at least four different times to watch the entire 2 hour event, but somehow I still can’t make it thru. The reason I cannot make it thru is because of the ridiculousness of Kris Humphries.
I am an extreme Kardashian fan and many people close to me know that I consider myself to be the fourth Kardashian and I would marry Rob just to make that my reality. My name already starts with a K and I have the black hair and everything so it’s a great fit, but that’s a different subject all together. At any rate, I think Kim is great and I think the idea of being married is wonderful, but Kris Humphries, really? He has been an idiot since day one and the wedding special showed him as the idiot for 2 hours instead of only 30 minutes.
Even with all of this said, my irritation does not come from Kim or Kris in this situation – it comes from the fans out there who thought this was going to last. And for those of you who are talking about how Lamar and Khloe have lasted longer even though they dated for a shorter period of time, I just have one main difference which should always be the dead give-away of the future a couple will have together. When we saw the special of Lamar and Khloe getting married, did you see Lamar anywhere near the planning of the wedding? No, I think not. Yet in the two hour time period that we had to suffer through the wedding special of Kim and Kris, I believe we saw Kris crying about the details more than the bride herself. That should say something.
Essentially, this entry should be all about one of my least favorite things in the world of weddings, the Groomzilla, but I shall rant about that another day. This entry will simply serve as a warning to the brides out there; if you learn only one thing from the Kardasians, learn this – if your groom is more interested in the flowers and the ice carving than you are, run, don’t walk, away immediately. If your groom won’t even let you have the wedding that you have always dreamed of, I doubt he’ll be supportive of anything else throughout your married life. Just a thought!
In this case, Kim got what she needed from Kris, 10 million dollars for the rights to her wedding. In the real world, with a groom like that, you’ll be getting a lot of heartache and backlash from your family. It’s reality TV people – don’t read too much into it, but always beware of the Groomzilla.