Happy Independance Day!

One of my favorite times of the Wedding Day are the few moments in the dressing room, just before the bride and groom get to see each other for the first time.  There is such a hum of anticipation that I love capturing.  These are two of my favorite images of the day, taken just minutes before Jen and Scott began their day together.  (Jen calls the image on the right her tribute to Sara Jessica Parker.  :)

Jen and Scott's recent wedding at the Golf Club at Newcastle incorporated some of the most interesting lighting I have ever seen.  The ceiling was transformed into a purple sky, and tear-drop candles on the orchid trees gave the finishing touch.  Gorgeous!

After much research, we have finally found a wedding web ordering system that is both easy to use and won't require a higher price for orders placed online!  Starting immediately, we are happy to post photographs from our upcoming weddings to the online ordering gallery at no charge.  This will make it super-easy for all your friends and relatives to order photographs directly, giving you one less thing to worry about!  :)

Sometimes creating something new takes us back in time to techniques that are actually old-school, such as infrared photography.  'Infrared' refers to the light values outside the visible spectrum.  It's tricky to work with and requires patience and geriatric cameras, but the results are surreal!

Every time we photograph a wedding at the Golf Club at Newcastle we are obsessed with finding new locations, new perspectives, and creating new images that we have never done before.  Here are just a few of my favorites from Mandy and Adam's Wedding just a week ago!

If you are one of their friends and family who would like to see all of the wedding photography from their Wedding Day, please preregister to be notified when their wedding photographs are ready to view. 

Jen and Scott's wedding party was were so fun and easy-going, they were amazing to work with.  They had me laughing start to finish!  

If you are one of their friends and family who would like to see all of the wedding photography from their Wedding Day, please preregister to be notified when their wedding photographs are ready to view. 

Now that Ken and I have officially become 'committed bloggers', we want to make sure that our daily posts are giving you the information and entertainment you want. 

Our question is simple:  What would you like to see more of?  Wedding Fashion?  Tips for great photographs?  Images from Real Weddings?  Personal stories?  Recent albums?  All of the above?

Please feel free to either comment or shoot us an email at info@azzuraphotography.com and let us know how we can continue to make the Azzura Café your favorite place to escape from the daily grind.  :)

One of our favorite ways to get to know our couples is by having an on-location engagement portrait session.  The sessions not only give our couples some beautiful images they can order for gifts for friends and family, but also gives us a chance to photograph them before the wedding. 

A tip for great engagement photographs is to coordinate your clothing choices so they compliment each other.  Not only does this create a clean look to the images, but it helps draw your eye to the couple by allowing the clothing to be a non-distracting element.  Both of the outfits Joshua and Erica chose were perfect for a sunset at the beach!

These photographs are just a snippet of all the many, many details that Leigh Anne and Dave so thoughtfully put together.  I loved how they blended their sense of style with the elegant atmosphere of the Fairmont to create something totally different than anything I had seen there before.

Imagine a wedding where nearly all of the guests are from other areas of the country, and a couple who passionately wants to show them all that the Northwest has to offer.  Leigh Anne and Dave created a weekend for their friends and family that was such an incredible Seattle experience for them, starting with an Argosy boat ride and finishing with a breathtaking wedding and reception at the Olympic Fairmont Hotel.  Tomorrow I will post some of the amazing details that Leigh Anne created, and you will see why it took my breath away. 

This was Leigh Anne's favorite image of the day, and definitely one of mine as well!

I am the first to admit that I am not a particularly girly-girl, so when I get giddy over jewerly you know it is extraordinary.  My confession: I am officially completely in love with Abaloria's custom jewerly.  We recently  photographed some of her latest pieces and I ended up with about five of them, so I know I am teetering on addiction.  If you want some wedding pieces that are totally unique and under $300, check out Brandy's work - you may love it as much as I do! 

We spend so much time behind the camera, it's always a bit of a shock when we end up on the other side!  Azzura was the featured photographer at the recent Destination Weddings NW launch party on May 14th, which was an absolute blast and covered by Evening Magazine.  When the show aired, I was so impressed with all the work that Heather Sharpe did to put it together, combined with the efforts of other vendors such as Aria Style who graciously donated their gorgeous space and floral decor, Real Card Company, Herban Feast, Totally Tabletops, Pedersen's Rentals, and The Wedding DJs!  And, of course, I loved seeing Ken caught in action!

For those of you who are curious, check out the video clip!.  The first part of the clip is about Theo chocolates and Bainbridge Island Vineyard, but just past them the last 1/3 is all about the event.  For those of you who are REALLY curious, take a look at all the photographs from the May 14th event - if you attended the party, you may be in a few of them! Feel free to download and use them for blog food of your own.  :)

 View all the photographs from the May 14, 2008 Destination Weddings NW Launch Party 

I fell completely in love with the photographs Ken created of Susan and David as soon as I saw them.  Susan and David are a tremendously sweet and fun couple, and Ken perfectly captured their unique relationship in the images they chose as 30-inch portraits on display at their reception.  Gorgeous! 

The colors of the new season are absolutely blowing me away - lush, bold, rich patterns seem to be popping up everywhere.  This pallette was inspired by Aria Style and created with the help of Totally Tabletops.  Susan has created a fabulous new line of wedding and reception linens, and these are part of one of the new wedding collections.  Simply fabulous!