- the Blog!
It’s barely Spring and it’s gorgeous already! We’re so excited to be posting some of the magical moments we’ve gotten to share lately with our lovely couples in upcoming blogs…
For now, a big HAPPY SPRING to all of our friends! Ringo and Lenny are loving these mild afternoons…
-Matt and Ivy (and Ringo and Lenny!)
We’re so excited… and we’re packing boxes like crazy! We’ll be moving this week to our new place, and saying goodbye to the old. Things are kind of hectic with the move, so it might take a couple of days to get back to everyone’s emails. Bear with us, we’re working on it, and we’ll be back up and running as soon as we’re settled in!
We are really excited about this new phase…Ringo and Lenny? Well… not so much. They don’t like boxes, or the idea of having to leave the neighbors who give them treats and goodies. I think they’re going to miss their routine at the old place a little. ; )
For all our friends who love puppies, Ringo and Lenny’s custom bed was made by Ken, over at ModPet. They love it, and we love that they’re not trying to get on our couch anymore! ; )
Cheers!
Matt & Ivy
“It tastes like butter.”
Being married to Ivy is the most amazing thing. From time to time I have to just stop and thank her. For being so amazing.
Marriage is all about compromises, they say. And that’s true. I compromise a little. She compromises a little (ok, sometimes she compromises a lot). I think the most amazing compromise sometimes is just letting your spouse be themselves, however that is expressed.
Enter: Milk.
I like milk. A lot. Milk in cold cereal. Milk in hot cereal. Milk in ice cream. Milk in a glass. And not the watery skim stuff. Whole milk.
Ivy and I have learned to share a lot of things, but we weren’t able to compromise about the milk thing. She doesn’t touch anything other than skim milk. “It tastes like butter” – and apparently that isn’t a complimentary flavor for cereal. So we compromise! Take a look in our fridge and you’ll always see two milk cartons: whole, and skim.
Oh… and Ringo and Lenny don’t seem to care which kind of milk we drink… as long as they get some, too.
Here’s a toast to happy husbands (and wives) – and compromise. : )
Cheers!
-Matt
The Ivy Weddings afternoon advanced workshop recap is here! We’ve been dying to blog this, but between weddings, sessions, traveling and editing, it’s taken a little while to catch up on the blog.
We had an amazing time getting to meet all of the photographers who came out for the afternoon workshop… a hands-on experience photographing real couples on-location. Photographers from across the metroplex (and one from across the state!) joined Matt and I as we worked on lighting, interacting with our couples, and all the in-betweens that make up a photoshoot. Two couples modeled for us, and we split the time between two gorgeous locations.
The afternoon began with some makeup by the lovely Jenny Torry, who helped the ladies rock their looks. : )
After everyone had met up, we started the outdoor portion of the workshop. We talked about how to encourage your clients to interact naturally, and how to shoot in different situations. Chris and Ashley modeled an Engagement style shoot for us, and we spent a lot of time talking and explaining how we like to shoot. We didn’t take as many shots as we normally would, but here are the ones Matt or I took during the day.
When we’re photographing clients, we love to utilize different angles and looks. I’m not as tall as Matt, so I sometimes climb things to get a higher perspective. : ) I suggested the attendees stand on the table for some cool shots from a totally different angle….and I love that Christi took me up on it and jumped on the table, too!
Here are some of my shots from beside and on top of the table….
FAVORITE!!!!! Ahhh, Ashley and Chris, stop being so perfect! : )
One of Matt’s many shots…that I LOVE. : )
A behind the scenes shot during Chris and Ashley’s session- and yes, that hottie on the right….? My hubby teaching by example. ; )
Ashley, you are so gorgeous! Love your smile!
Shot by Matt.
After being outdoors, we went indoors and talked a little about off camera lighting, and different set up for lighting. Here’s one example shot…
Now for some fun photos from our second couple, Kate and James. They modeled a Day After session for us…and after photographing Kate’s family, and her sister’s wedding, it was fun to finally get some photos of her in her wedding gown, too!
An artsy black and white – taken with a homemade lens…. and James, rockin’ his groom’s shot.
Behind the scenes shot of some of the photographers trying to learn how to photograph with a horse! I’ll tell you, it’s a lot harder than it looks….especially if the horse is hungry. ; )
The shot of Kate with the horse is one of our favorites, too…I don’t know if Champ is thinking of munching on her dress, but I love the windblown look! : ) Plus, we had to include a shot of Kate’s bouquet…because we made it ourselves and (for photographers who don’t know anything about flowers or vintage bouquets), we think it’s pretty cool! lol
Kate- your eyes! You are so darn pretty. : )
Love, love, love! I cannot wait to put this on the website!
How cute are you two!?
The workshop attendees were taking solo shots of the bride, and we think this shot of Kate (not paying attention to our camera, but to theirs) is stunning.
I asked James to let me get some solo shots of him, and I found out that he rocks solo shots. Like, really really rocks them!
After outdoor shots, we got some indoor shots of Kate and James also…and Kate changed into the veil I wore on my wedding day.
After two kids, we love the way Kate and James still look at each other, and how he makes her smile. : )
Behind the scenes…
We’ll end with one of our favorite images of the day.
We are indebted to JTorry Artistry for her fabulous job on the ladies makeup, and to our couples who modeled for us. Ashley, Chris, Kate and James- you made our job easy! Thank you for having such a great attitude and being willing to let us move you around a million times. We love you guys! : ) Thanks to all of the photographers who came out, listened to us, shot with us, and shared some pizza- we had such a great time getting to know you all!
Keep in touch : )
Matt and Ivy
For information about future workshops, be sure to follow us on Facebook!
Just a couple weeks ago we had the amazing experience of getting to host a pair of workshops. We had such a great time, and we’re really excited to be giving ya’ll a small recap. We’ll start with the recap of the morning, beginners’ workshop.
We met our group early, and we covered a lot of information, so time really flew! We enjoyed talking with everyone and spending time with all of the workshop photographers, so much so that we decided to have our next set of workshops on separate days – meaning we get to spend the whole day with each group! We had a blast getting to know all the attendees, and we are so glad that they all made the effort to come out and have some fun with photography. : )
We promised models for the Advanced Workshop, but we thought it would be fun to surprise our morning attendees with some models also. : ) We enlisted two pre-teen/teen models, Miriam and Joseph, to help us on the workshop and – we just have to say- they were AMAZING!!
Here’s a behind the scenes of one of the workshop attendees, Melissa, rocking some photos with model Miriam. You know it’s going well when your model is this happy seeing the back of your camera!
When we teach a workshop with models, we mainly focus on allowing the attendees to photograph so everyone coming to the workshop has a chance rock their cameras and create some fun images. We got to blend a little of the time with some examples of how we work together and let everyone see how we shoot, and interact with our teen models. We promised everyone we’d post a few of our favorites from the frames we shot, so here they are!
Thank you to Greg, Rebecca, Melissa, LaShonda, and Barbara for making it out to the Beginners’ workshop! We had so much fun spending the morning with you all!
Make sure to visit the blog later for a recap on the oh-so-fun advanced Afternoon Workshop. Oh, and YES. We will be offering more workshops in the future. We’ve had lots of inquiries about the next available workshop date, so we’ve started thinking of one! We don’t have a date set yet, and wedding season is in full swing, but we’ll be sure to announce it just as soon as it’s ready.
Be sure to keep up with the Ivy Weddings fanpage on Facebook so you can be the first to find out about future workshop openings!
-Matt and Ivy
Ivy and I talked over a few fun ways of having a drawing for the winner of our first Ivy Weddings “Love Series” giveaway. We decided to let one of our little helpers make the final call. He can’t read or write, after all, so we figured it would be a fair call! It almost went off without a hitch, too, until Ringo decided our setup was too tall for him…
Watch the video to see if you won!
If you know us (or happen to be one of our brides and grooms), you know that we love love. One of the things that we believe is really important is making time to spend with each other, even when life (and business!) is at its busiest. So, we decided a few weeks ago to start a giveaway “love series” that we announced on Facebook for our fans and couples, and we wanted it to be one that focused on fun and romantic dates…. so let us send you on a date! (Oh, and if you’re not in the dating/marriage phase yet, it makes for great times with family and friends, too! ; )
Our first giveaway is something we saw in a store window a few weeks ago… and I totally feel in love with it! How cute is this heart shaped picnic basket?
It comes with 2 wine glasses, ceramic plates, silverware, tablecloth, napkins, salt and pepper shakers, and a little cutting board.
And guys, if you didn’t know, your girl will love you for taking her on a romantic picnic. Trust us. : )
(Picnic basket is valued at: $119)
SO HOW DO I WIN THIS CUTE THING?
This isn’t a contest, or anything super complicated, because we like to keep it simple. : ) If you want this adorable heart shaped basket, just comment on our Facebook photo here and tell us what you’re favorite picnic food is!
The Details:
1. You and your spouse/fiance/boyfriend/girlfriend (or your mom!) can each enter.
2. Comment under the picnic basket photo on our FACEBOOK page, and tell us what your favorite picnic food is.
3. Make sure to enter early – commenting ends Sunday, June 12th at 10PM!
We’ll put everyone’s name together and draw one, and announce the winner Monday. This is the first giveaway, so keep up with the blog and facebook fanpage for the next giveaway!
Thank you, and we can’t wait to see who wins this! ; )
-Matt and Ivy
Ringo and Lenny have a gift for gusto. That’s great for us, because it means we can become the world’s greatest superheroes just for bringing home a couple “extra small” chew bones (HUGE chew bones, if you’re a 3lb morkie). Wait until they find out we have a whole bag of these things…
(I think my mom has a picture of me somewhere, as a 4 year old enjoying a plate of spaghetti, making the exact same face as Lenny.)
-Matt
I LOVE love love shoes. I don’t know when the shoe love started, but since we’ve gotten married, I’ve collected quite a few pairs of shoes. Matt’s even built me two shoe racks, and put me on a shoe budget, so I don’t buy nearly as many as I’d like, but it helps us have enough room to walk through our closet this way ; )
This weekend (May 28th), we will be hosting our photography workshop. Can I tell you I’m excited? It’s going to be amazing, and the list of participants is already looking so fun… I can hardly wait! I told Matt today that I need to buy some cute shoes. Must. have. new. shoes. It’s a big event after all, and my last pair gave out after my last shoot. Since my hubby is so sweet, he’s agreed to go with me to buy shoes. He says it’s because he’s such a great husband; I secretly think it’s because he wants to make sure I don’t come home with three new pairs ; )
Have a happy Tuesday! And if you haven’t registered for the workshop yet, definitely DO~ we’d love to have you! You can visit The Workshop page to find out more, and to register!
People always ask us, “So, how small are Ringo and Lenny?”
“Pretty small.”
I thought I was used to “small” dogs, since I grew up with a dachshund who I used to carry around all the time (sorry, Wrinkles, I realize now that you didn’t enjoy that as much as I did). But Ringo and Lenny? Carrying them both in one arm, they check in at exactly half Wrinkles’ size. Sometimes it makes me wonder how it must feel to be so small.
I mean, you must realize you are small when you go running towards a little bird on the ground and, rather than flying off, it just sits there and stares at you. That was the experience Ringo and Lenny had this morning when we took them walking in a nearby field. Needless to say they had to do a lot of running around to actually get the flock of birds that had landed to pay attention to them.
The rest of the day? I’m hoping they’ll just keep sleeping like this… ; )
-Matt
