MEET LOUISE FROM BOW OCCASIONS - LONDON PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Louise and I got to know each other through Twitter. Having realized that we both live in Kent and not too far from each other, we've decided to meet for a chat about all things weddings and such. Louise is a Kent wedding planner and she also writes a great weddings and events blog. Make sure you check it out, you will find a lot of inspiration there if you are planning your wedding! I particularly like her stylish colour inspiration boards, my favourite so far has been this one - it might have something to do with my love for yellow, he-he! 

Louise needed some photos for her website and marketing materials, so we headed into London on a freezing (but sunny) Sunday afternoon. She looked fab and braved temperatures below zero for the sake of photos - a woman after my own heart!

 

PERSONAL WEDDING WEBSITE BY EXHIBIT EMOTIONS PHOTOGRAPHY

Today I want to share something with you that I design for my amazing couples. A personal wedding website comes as part of my wedding photography package. It's a great way to showcase your engagement images and share some information about your coming wedding, like the ceremony venue and reception venue details, directions how to get there etc. If you are registered on wedding gift websites - you can share the link and your guests can buy you presents you actually want! ;-) You can share the website address on your wedding invitations - will make it easier for your friends and family to get directions to your venue from the website, rather then going to google maps and searching themselves. You can share how you fell in love and why you cannot live without each other!

I'm photographing David and Lena's wedding in May next year. I'm really looking forward to it as it's in Ireland, so I get to visit the family as well! Guys, I hope you like your website and check out how many days left till your wedding here !

Have a look at their wedding website and scroll over the images below to see why they are getting married! You can also view the website without leaving my blog as it works right from this page!

Happy Friday

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GREEN WEDDING ACCESSORIES AND GIFT IDEAS

This is the first post in the whole series of posts I will be writing about eco wedding ideas, inspiration and all things 'green'. So, watch this space ;)! 

I've always wanted to be friendly to our environment. Being a wedding photographer, I want to inspire brides to be eco-conscious when planning their wedding. Being 'green' is more of a necessity these days then just a fashion trend. We all need to give back to our planet after taking for so long. Even tiny little things help! So, in no particular order :-) I want to share some of my findings on green wedding gifts and accessories:

 - Dedicate a Tree with Woodland Trust - you can choose to dedicate one, three or ten trees from a list of 23 woods across the UK. It'll be brilliant to know that the memory of your wedding day will live for generations to come.

 - Donations and Virtual Gifts with National Trust - I mean, how cute would the 'Save the red squirrel' gift be?! 

The following websites can be used as an inspiration for your wedding decor and wedding gift ideas:

 - Biome Lifestyle - stylish and ethical home decor and furnishings

 - By Nature - there are just so many cute things here! There is practically everything you need for your family, home, garden and what not. They even sell organic flowers.

 - Love Eco - how about these organic Love cushions made from recycled materials

or this absolutely gorgeous Bamboo Baby Bouquet - each bloom is an item of baby clothing made from bamboo and organic cotton:

 - Fair Gift - fair trade products from wine to stylish furniture. I found these beautiful T-light holders that can be used to decorate a wedding reception:

  - MIKI Organic - stylish and contemporary design, clothing, jewellery, stationery and wall decor

I'm overwhelmed by the variety of stylish eco-friendly accessories you can get for the green wedding. I will definitely be sharing more of my findings with you!

Happy Tuesday!

x

MEET OLIVIA SOLETO WEDDINGS

Me and Olivia, who is a bespoke London wedding planner, have wanted to meet up since March I think, but just couldn't organise our schedules until about 3 weeks ago. We both had a free Wednesday afternoon, so we headed to Marylebone for some on-location business (but fun!) portraits. My main goal was to reflect Olivia's personality in my images as well as personality of Olivia Soleto Weddings. We had a fab time and it was great to chat about all things weddings!

EXHIBIT EMOTIONS PHOTOGRAPHY GOES GREEN

I've always wanted to be good to environment. And I'd like to think that I have been so far to my best ability. Even when I was a kid I was always throwing every little bit of rubbish into a bin - not on a pavement. When we were going for picnics with family or camping with schoolmates - we always cleaned our site. It made me sad to see people who didn't do any of that, people who just didn't care. I own a small business now and I can make choices in regards to how I run it, and I've made a choice to be as sustainable and eco-friendly as possible, to be the most 'green' wedding photographer :-). It's not even about how I run my business - it's about our lifestyle and responsibility for our environment. Here is how I contribute to make everything a bit greener:

 - my business cards are printed on 100% recycled and recyclable paper *so if you want to get rid of my card - please recycle! ;-) *

 - if you are my bride you will receive your engagement and wedding photos on a dvd in a case made from sustainable organic paper or hemp

 - I use Couture Earth wedding books which are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled acid-free archival paper and utilizing environmentally sensitive materials, like hemp, from conscious suppliers. The entire book making process is powered by green wind power. Carbon offsets and trees are planted with a portion of the proceeds from each book

 - I try to communicate with my clients mostly online, and I try not to print anything out unless I really need to. If I do - I make sure it's printed on paper that is carbon neutral and comes from sustainable forests

 - I work from home, and if I need to meet my couples I travel by public transport which helps to reduce carbon emmisions

 - I do most of my work on a laptop. I charge it, then unplug and only plug it back in when my battery is dying, helps to save electricity :)

 - I buy organic food and try to support local suppliers when I can

 - I recycle everything including food leftovers 

So, these are just little bits I do to be a green wedding photographer, to run an environmentally responsible business and be an eco-friendly person. I'd love to do even more than that! 

If you are a bride and planning an eco-chic, eco-friendly, organic or natural wedding read THIS POST for inspiration!

Please share what you do for environment and also if you have any ideas of how I can become even 'greener' ;-)

And because every post is better with a photo, here is one for you from the engagement party I photographed recently. Can't share all of them with you due to the privacy of the event, but it was absolutely gorgeous! 

 

BEHIND THE SCENES AT REAL WEDDINGS

When I'm blogging a wedding and sharing photos with you - sometimes it could be hard to imagine me actually taking them. So I thought I'd share some behind the scenes photos from real weddings I photographed, just so you can have an idea what I'm doing, and how that turns into your beautiful wedding photos :-)

Next photo is taken by a guest at the Windsor wedding I photographed in August:

I'm such a poser...

Special thanks to Juliet McKee and Alex Beadon for snapping photos of me!

Hope you gonna have a fab weekend! 

Dasha

x

FEATURED: PHOTOPRO MAGAZINE

This post is loooong looong overdue! But better late than never :-). Together with my friend Antonina Mamzenko (who is a brilliant family photographer based in London) I have been featured in the September issue of Photo Pro Magazine (the UK's biggest and fastest growing magazine for professional photographers)! Happy dance! They dedicated the whole page to our interview about the shoot we did a while ago. There is a photo of yours truly in the top right corner :-). When the issue was out for sale, I walked into our local newsagent and bought all the copies they had. I sent one to my mum and although I didn't see her reaction, but she sounded very proud over the phone! Soon after that I traveled to Ireland for the engagement shoot with Lena and David (whose wedding I'll photograph next May). When I was waiting for my plane in the airport, I noticed a guy (well, he was more of a man) who was reading the magazine and our interview! Made me feel a little bit famous! :-)

JIMMY CHOO, DUNE, GLITZY&GLAMOROUS - SHOTS OF WEDDING SHOES TO DATE

I love photographing wedding shoes! I know how much they mean to a bride and how much time she has probably spent looking for them, because I've spent a looooot of time looking for my perfect pair of wedding heels. I think my bridal shoes are the best shoes I've ever bought for myself! They totally deserve some special attention from me and my camera and a place in your wedding album. I like to get creative when photographing them, and show off the beauty of heels or bows or anything that makes that particular pair stand out and relate to my bride.

I've put together a few photos of wedding and bridal shoes I've taken at my recent weddings. Enjoy, ladies! :-)

 

PICK YOUR OWN SUNDAY

Yesterday my husband organized a great day out. Weather was perfect and the sun was shining through yellow leaves. I felt like I just wanted to turn my face towards the sun, enjoy its warmth, and smile! We kicked off quite early (10am is quite early to leave the house on Sunday morning :-) ) and went to the Hewitts Farm located on our doorstep in Orpington, Kent. Such a great place for a family day out! You can pick your own fruit and veg and they literally have everything! We were eating apples and plums straight from the trees, and I can tell you - there's nothing better! You bite into an apple and it's so juicy and full of taste and flavour, all you want to say is 'eeemmmmm'! It makes you appreciate the real food and where it comes from. We had a great day walking around the farm tasting apples, sweetcorn, pears and plums, and even picked our own perfect pumpkin! I would encourage everyone to try and go to a 'pick your own' farm to get fresh local produce - it just tastes so much better than what you'll get in supermarkets!

Hope you are enjoying the sunshine, and happy Monday!

These plums:

turned into a homemade jam in a few hours after we picked them!

IN FRONT OF A CAMERA: TIPS AND ADVICE

Being a wedding photographer means that I'm usually the one behind the camera taking photos of people. I must say it feels good and I love capturing expressions, kisses, hugs and smiles! However, the experience of being in front of the camera for some of you, who have never been there before, can be quite daunting and feel a bit uncomfortable. Guys, I know how you feel! I've been in your shoes. I've been photographed three times on my own, and one time together with my husband (who doesn't really like his photo been taken, which is common for guys). In this post I want to share my experience with you, and give some tips on how to feel more comfortable in front of the lens and get beautiful photographs as a result. 
 - Meet your photographer before the engagement shoot or before your wedding day. It will help both sides to get to know one another and feel more relaxed about the whole thing. If you don't have time to arrange a meeting - suggest going for coffee on the day of your pre-wedding shoot. Again, it will help you to loosen up.
 - Concentrate on your partner, not on your photographer! It's about the two of you and that special something you share together. 
 - Make the most out of this time together. You might be caught up in daily routines and maybe you don't see each other as often as you wish, so this shoot is the perfect time to say 'I love you' one more time. Say things that usually make you laugh. We all have secret words and phrases that no one else knows that make us smile. Cuddle up to each other. Hold hands. If you like to mess around - do!
 - Trust your photographer to get beautiful images. Every relationship should be built on trust and this one is no exception. Trust your photographer to see those special moments between the two of you.
 - Relax! Yeap, it really is that easy! Relax and enjoy your time. Think about it this way: would you rather enjoy the couple of hours with the person you love most or would you rather worry how you look on camera and be stressed out? I think the first option is the way to go! ;-)
 - For ladies: consider for your hair and make-up to be done professionally. 
 - For gents: consider having a haircut and a shave ;-)
 - For both: consider getting a new outfit which you are gonna rock during the shoot! 
Michael contributed to these tips, so guys - pay attention! ;-)
And because every post is better with a photo, there is one below for you. It feels as if I wasn't even there. They probably shared something funny. Quietly, just between the two of them...

And that's us captured by lovely Dominique: