The Florida Wedding Expo

Yesterday we were at the Florida Wedding Expo. It is one of the largest wedding expos in Central Florida, and one of the highest attended. We were really excited for this show because we felt our booth design/setup had grown a lot from past setups. I wish we had a before photo to show because our after photo is something that Amanda and I are both really proud of. We got a new backdrop with our company logo and simple design that would allow us to attach some prints. We also got some new table cloths in rose gold (one of our brand colors) to really help make our booth pop and stand out. Before we just used a black table cloth over our cocktail table and used the table cloth provide for the booth table. We would then pack the table with floor easels and place two pictures per easel. With everyone showing their “glow-up” and the “how hard has aging hit you” challenge on Facebook going on I really wished I had a picture of our old booth so we could throw that in as a funny aside.

The show was great! With our new booth, we met so many new couples, and got to make a lot of new connections. We are beyond excited to start the year off so strongly. We also wanted to say thank you to everyone who visited us at the show, and a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped spread the word about the show and to visit us there. We are extremely grateful to have you all by our side! We love what we do, and having you all in our corner is beyond encouraging.

If we didn’t get a chance to meet with you yesterday, please feel free to reach out to us using our contact form. We’d love to sit down and get to chat. We will also be at a couple other wedding shows this year, and we’d love to meet you there. If you saw us at the Florida Wedding Expo and are attending any of the other shows we are at, please stop by again! We’d love to see you and say hi. We will be at The Winter Park Wedding Stroll on February 17, 2019.

Wedding MBA

Hey Guys!

A couple of weeks ago, we headed out to Las Vegas for a big wedding industry convention called Wedding MBA. This was actually the first time we have gotten to go to it despite being in business for 5 years! Amanda and I were super excited to go on this trip because Wedding MBA started just 3 days after our 5 year wedding anniversary so we figured we would make it into a business trip/anniversary trip. The only downside was that we had to leave our two boys behind :’(

The Grand Canyon from the airplane

Here in Central Florida, we have a lot of beautiful parks with some amazing trees, but it is pretty flat. Amanda and I have been working on building our destination wedding portfolio, and since we didn’t have enough to do in Las Vegas already between our professional development and celebrating our anniversary we decided to also schedule a photoshoot in the desert (keep your eyes out for that blog post coming soon). I love nature in general (both Amanda and I support conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy), and I find Central Florida to be absolutely beautiful (when you escape the tourism and make it out into the forests), but it is incredibly flat. Las Vegas (or at least the area surrounding it) presented itself to be completely different than what Amanda and I are used to shooting, but my goodness was it awe-inspiring. We’ve already dropped some sneak peaks of the session on our Instagram and Facebook pages, but I can’t wait for you to see the final images. Needless to say, without spoiling too much of the next blog post, we had an amazing time photographing out there!

Anyways, back to Wedding MBA. It was a like being in school all over again. There are different “tracks” you can take depending on your specialty: from photography, videography, and wedding planning to officiants, venues, and photobooths. Now, you did not have to follow your track exactly. You could skip one of the guest speakers in your track and go to the videography track (which I did do) for example. Plus, it is impossible to attend all of the lectures in your field anyways because there were anywhere from 3-6 speakers in your field all speaking at the same time. Thank goodness Amanda and I traveled together. We were able to split up for most of our day and attend different talks. Then at the end of the day (the convention ended each day at 6pm) we would meet and discuss what we learned. It kind of felt like being back in high school. Have I mentioned this was all going on at the Las Vegas Convention Center? The space was huge and boy was it needed.

Aside from all of the different rooms that were set up for each guest speaker, there was a convention floor where vendors had booths set up to showcase their products and services! It was here that we had a really cool opportunity. We met with the owners of a product called Unity Cross. There is a wedding tradition to symbolize the bride and groom coming together as one. I’ve seen it done as a three strand rope being tied together, two different colors of sand being poured into one vessel, and two smaller candles being used to light one larger candle. Unity Cross is a version of that, but that also serves as a decoration for your home. Amanda and I actually used one for our wedding 5 years ago when Unity Cross was just starting out! Back to that opportunity I was talking about, we were able to become an affiliate with Unity Cross. You can follow this link here to go to their website to check out their products.

Wow, I’m sure you are tired of reading by now, but I haven’t even gotten into the details yet. I’ll end it here for now and keep your eyes out for the next blog post coming soon. This will be a multipart series I guess so we can talk about what Amanda and I learned from Wedding MBA, and what we will be doing in response to that, as well as just talking about our trip a bit more, and of course the engagement session (spoiler: it was at Red Rock Canyon!).

Behind The Scenes - How To Capture a Sparkler Exit

Sparkler Exit How-To

Sparkler Exits are a romantic and magical way to end a wedding night. It's no surprise then that they are super popular! 

1. The set-up for this shot starts with the placement of the guests. I like to make sure that they the aisle they make is wide enough that they are not showering the couple with sparks (Ouch!), but narrow enough that they are in the frame. Often, this takes a bit of coaching.

2. Next, I set up my two lights. There is one behind the couple to create a ring of light around them, and there is another behind me to illuminate the couple as they walk toward me. Both of these flashes are set to about medium power.

3. Lastly, I coach my couple! I tell them how fast to walk (not very), I tell them about the flash in the middle of their path so they don't trip on it, and I tell them when to stop for a kiss (about two feet in front of my flash).

Those three steps above help me to nail the sparkler exit time after time :)

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Orlando Wedding Photographer - About Amanda

Hi, I'm Amanda :)

Photo by Amalie Orrange, Branded Boss Lady

Hi there! I'm Amanda. I realized I've never actually introduced myself (other than my about-me page), so I figured I'd change that. Where shall I start? Hmm, well, I was born here in Orlando in 1990, but I grew up in Houston, Texas. That's where I met my (super crazy hot) husband Miguel :) We met our junior year of high school in pre-calculus, but we didn't become friends until senior year. We had to take a class called BCIS which stood for Business Computer Information Systems (A class that I'm sure is totally irrelevant now. Oh well). We found the class rather simple and spent most of the time hanging out with each other. We went of to different colleges, me to NYU him to Florida State, and we stopped talking. Toward the end of freshman year, we rekindled our friendship, and by that summer we were dating.  

See? Super hot. Photo by Heidi Veil Photography

We got married in November of 2013 here in Orlando, where we had moved after graduating college. In May of 2016, we welcomed our first son, Lucas, into our lives. In December of 2017, Jonah joined the family. Aren't they the cutest!?

A few more things about me:

• I LOVE Harry Potter

• I also photograph maternity and newborns

• Miguel and I are obsessed with Disney

• Lucas and Jonah are my world

• I graduated from Florida State University (GO NOLES!)

• I bleed Garnet and Gold (Seriously, GO NOLES!)

• Football Season is my favorite season (GO NOLESSSSSS!)

• Weddings make me happy

• Capturing gorgeous images for my clients is my calling

Our little Addition to the family: Introducing Baby Mejias

My oh my, I have fallen woefully behind on blogging. I should feel ashamed, but I don't because I have the best of reasons. Introducing the newest addition to the Mejias family: Lucas Gabriel Mejias. He was born back in May, and he is the greatest thing that has ever happened to us. Also, he has inspired me to get into newborn photography, so if you're looking for that, keep me in mind! 

I can't believe how fast he's growing and changing! Just look at the difference in the next two photos. Amazing!