Orlando Wedding Photographers - Husband & Wife Team Announcement!

I've mentioned this in passing a few times, so I guess it's time to make this blog-official! (It's kinda like Facebook official, right!? I’m going to go with yes.) My incredibly awesome and talented husband Miguel has decided to join me and become my dedicated second shooter and possibly more (More on that later!). We are SO EXCITED for this change!  

Here he is with our oldest (Lucas) at Christmas 2016. Aren't they so cute!?

Over the next few weeks, we will talk more about what exactly this means for Flora Bloom Photography. There will be a few changes happening, but I promise they're all good! (Think more perks for our clients and better service over all). You'll get to hear a bit from Miguel himself, and he is dying to talk to you all! I will even share some photos he's taken since he's been shooting with me, which I am super excited for. He's done a really great job so far, and I am so proud of him. Seriously, he's wayyyy better at this than I was when I first started working with clients. He blows me out of the water.

I can't wait to see where this new adventure together takes us! For example, we’ll be heading to Wedding MBA in Las Vegas later this year. I’m super excited for that, and not just because it happens to fall on our 5th wedding anniversary week. 

Anyway, I don’t want to give away too much because we’ll be covering a lot more about this change in some future blog posts. So I’ll just leave you with this (AMAZING) picture of Miguel with our younger son, Jonah. Seriously, we have the cutest babies! (I might be biased. I kinda don’t care.)

Are you looking for an Orlando Wedding Photographer for your wedding? Click here to contact us to schedule a coffee date!

Mid Century Pastel Chic Styled Shoot - Haus 820 - Central Florida

This shoot is probably my favorite styled shoot I have ever been a part of! The details were gorgeous, the venue was perfect, and everything turned out amazing! The vendor team on this inspiration shoot did an incredible job. 

Venue: Haus 820

Planner: Bella Sposa Events

Florals: Flowers By Lesley

Rentals: RW Events

Tabletop Rentals: Dishie Rentals

Cake: Bakers Cottage Cakes

HMUA: Before The Aisle

Dress: One & Only Bridal Boutique

Stationery: Kara McKean Designs

Model: Melina Sabina

Are you on the search for your own Orlando Wedding Photographer? Click here to contact us to schedule a coffee date! We'd love to hear all about your wedding day plans :)

The Four Biggest Wedding Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them - Part Two

This is Part Two in a series. To read Part One, click here.

Last week, we talked about how to handle it when family tries to have too much say. This week is more about when you try to put too much on your plate.

Mistake #2: Doing Too Much Yourself

Listen, I get it. Weddings are EXPENSIVE! Gorgeous florals? Expensive. Excellent photographer? Expensive. Dinner for 150 people? Expensive! Weddings are also a once-in-a-lifetime event, and taking on too much can make them so much more stressful than they need to be. 

My mother and I did the centerpieces for my wedding ourselves after getting the quote back from the florist and deciding that was way too much money. But you know what? We could have easily recovered that money from other parts of the day (We had FOUR different favors! FOR 200 GUESTS!) and had the expert do the flowers. And they would have been so much more beautiful than the hodgepodge of things we came up with.

When you leave the entirety of decorating up to you and your entourage, it makes for a VERY busy morning of. You should be relaxing and enjoying being pampered the morning of your wedding, not sweating your booty off trying to finish everything in time.

How To Avoid This Mistake

Hire the professionals. Start with a wedding planner. Trust me when I say that wedding planners are 100% WORTH IT. They save you so much headache and heartache, and they make your day flow like a dream. They also know what they are doing and how to keep you from making a huge mistake with your planning.  

Hire a florist for the centerpieces, bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, and ceremony decor. Hire a calligrapher for the wedding invitations. Hire a DJ for the music. 

Need ideas of where to cut corners so you can hire the pros you need? Start with serving only wine and beer. People will still have a good time, I promise! Have your escort cards do double duty as favors, or forgo favors all together. Choose the cheaper dinner options. No one will really care that they didn't get filet mignon at your wedding. Just make sure they're fed!

Saving the money is usually not worth the added stress.

Next week we'll tackle Mistake #3, so be sure to come back!

Are you looking for an Orlando Wedding Photographer for your Central Florida wedding? Click here to contact us today.

Our Love Story - Part 5

Our Love Story is a series. Click here to see the other parts.

September 2009. Miguel and I had been dating for just about 3 and a half months. I was living in Manhattan, attending New York University. Miguel lived in Tallahassee and was a student at Florida State University (GO NOLES!) I'm going to be real for a second. Long distance relationships are TOUGH. I know I wasn't prepared for it.

We talked on the phone and texted back and forth all the time. We used Skype when we could. One weekend in October, I went up to the mountains in Vermont with a group of friends and had no cell service. I was miserable the whole time because I couldn't communicate with Miguel. Looking back, I may have been a little over-dramatic. 

I flew down to Tallahassee to visit him in late October, about a week after Vermont. I remember waiting outside of the airport with the words "gray Honda Civic, Texas plates, light spot on the side" playing over and over in my head as I desperately scanned the cars in the pickup line. When I finally saw him, it was like every cliche movie airport pickup scene. I ran into his arms as fast as I could and nearly knocked him over in the process. I knew that his arms was where I was meant to be.

I had already been having a hard time up in New York the school year before and was looking at transferring to the University of Texas. Most of my friends had gone there, and it is a great school. I also looked at Florida State because I had been raised a Seminole, and it was less expensive to go to FSU as an out-of-state student than UT as an in-state. But when I started dating Miguel, it bugged me to think that people might accuse me of transferring to FSU just for him. So, I did the worst thing I've ever done: I considered UF. Eventually, I came to my senses and applied to transfer to Florida State University for the upcoming Spring semester. 

I moved to Tallahassee in January of 2010, and Miguel and I haven't spent more than a few days apart since. 

The Four Biggest Wedding Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them - Part One

Recently I polled my married friends to ask them what their biggest regrets were when planning their wedding. If they could do it all over again, what would they do differently? I got a few surprising answers (one wished she hadn't worn a veil), but a lot of people put the same things. 

1) Letting family have too much say.

2) Doing too much themselves.

3) Not investing enough (or any at all) in their wedding photos.

4) Not hiring a videographer.

Notice that no one said they wished they'd spent more on their food, or that they'd had top shelf liquor, or that they'd hired a band instead of a DJ. Why is that? Because those things do not impact how you remember the day for the rest of your life. 

When the wedding day is over, when all is said and done, you will have your memories, your photographs, and your video. The flowers will die, the food will have been eaten, and the venue will move on to their next couple. 

Over the course of the next four weeks, I will break down these four biggest wedding mistakes and how to avoid them. First up: Letting Family Have Too Much Say.

Mistake #1: Letting Family Have Too Much Say

This is one a lot of people private messaged me about. Probably because they didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings if they saw the comment on my post. This is also mine and Miguel's biggest regret. When it comes time to plan your wedding, suddenly everyone has an opinion. My mom insisted we have the wedding 100% indoors (I always dreamed of an outdoor wedding in the Fall), my father wanted a top shelf liquor bar (Miguel and I were planning on beer and wine). Before I knew it, the wedding we had was the polar opposite of the wedding we wanted. This was a theme with my friends: they let their family take over. 

How to Avoid This Mistake

Give the people who are really important to you one specific task that is all theirs. Maybe your mother would really love to DIY the favors. Maybe your sister would have a ton of fun putting together a playlist for the DJ. Pick a relatively small task and make it theirs. This will help them to feel super involved with the planning while leaving you free to make the decisions on the things that really matter to you.

Stay tuned to read more about the number two mistake next week.

Are you looking for an Orlando Wedding Photographer for your Central Florida wedding? Click here to contact us today.