Upcoming Bridal Show

The holiday season sure did come and go quickly, wouldn't you say? I cannot believe that we are only three days away from January 1st. I am exhibiting at my first bridal show on January 16th at The Landon House in Frederick, Maryland. The owner of Landon House has organized a "non-cattle call" bridal show and asked me to take part because he heard about my video and book services through a local photographer.

Right now I am finalizing wedding videos that will play at my table at the bridal show to display various options for pre-wedding and post-wedding videos. I am grateful that my office is closed this week so I have some extra time to iron out all the details.

If you are in the Frederick area, please come by Landon House for the bridal show! Although Landon House is a wedding and event venue, they are expecting to have other venues at the event showcasing their locations as well. If you know anyone who is engaged, especially if recently engaged, please tell them to visit www.frederickbridalfair.com and come out on January 16th to see some additional videos from Memorable Designs. I'd love to meet them!

Happily Married

Here is a video I created for a wedding that took place on November 14th. The bride is one of the sweetest people and she and her husband have known each other since 5th grade! He is in the Navy and they will be moving across the country to the west coast before the end of the year.

Honeymoonin'

As I mentioned in my last post, I just finished another book, but this one is staying with me because it was a gift for my husband...I decided to design a book with our photos from our honeymoon to Belize last year. I included more text in this book than usual because I wanted to highlight some of the sites we saw and include details about different spots. I also used a new "watercolor" design because I thought the colorful photos lent themselves to a more tropical feeling layout.

Update

What have I been up to? Well, I just finished a photo book (gift, will share later) and am starting to work on a DVD montage for a wedding coming up in mid-November. I am also in the very early stages of two other books, both highlighting beautiful new babies in my "family" and can't wait to see all the photos I will have to work with that capture the first moments of joy for the new parents.

I would be curious to hear suggestions you have about ways to grow my business. Please e-mail me at memorabledesigns@gmail.com with any suggestions or if you'd like to have a discussion on the phone. I am always up for trying new things and hearing ideas from others. Enjoy the beautiful leaves of autumn this week!

Celebrating a Marriage

I recently finished working with a couple out in California to create a "through the years" video for their wedding. This was the first project where I did not meet either of them face-to-face. They sent me a CD of images as well as soome loose photos and e-mail copies. The groom's mother also sent a CD of childhood images she took the time to scan. The bride and groom were both great about getting back to me when I had questions and sending me notes about their final video.

If you watch their video, you will see some of the most scenic photos of the United States landscape. I learned that yes they do spend alot of time outdoors (as is evident by their photos) and many pictures were taken out west. They made me want to travel to the mountains sooner trather than later, that's for sure. I'm sure their wedding was beautiful!

Below is some feedback I received from the groom:

"Shannon, I just wanted to let you know how great the photo DVD turned out and how thrilled our friends and family were to see it. I really enjoyed working with you and I feel grateful to have chosen you and Memorable Designs to create our wedding video. You clearly set yourself apart by being exceptionally customer friendly -- I truly felt that you would have gone to any length to create a final product that we were satisfied with. Working with you on a virtual basis (from CA) was easy -- you provided great support on the phone, over email and posting the video's online. The photos you scanned for us turned out fantastic. I would absolutely recommend you to our friends and family. You did a great job from start to finish w/ great suggestions and you were very responsive. Thanks Again!"

Feedback

Just wanted to share another "testimonial" I received from a family I worked with in August. I am appreciative that the "H Family" enjoyed working with me as much as I enjoyed seeing fun memories of their past through their photos.

"Dear Shannon,
The DVD you created for my Dad's 65th birthday was amazing! It was a huge hit at the party. The songs went with the pictures perfectly and the order of the pictures was exactly right. There were parts where the guests at the party were in tears and other parts where everyone was laughing! Your professionalism and expertise are unparalleled. You were able to turn a series of pictures we gave you (some hard copy, others digital) into a work of art and in a short period of time. It was an absolute pleasure to work with you. In summary, everyone loved what you created- the guests at the party, my family, and especially my father. Thank you for making this milestone birthday one he will never forget!"

Wedding Videos

Angela, the mother-of-the-bride (MOB) of the aforementioned wedding was kind enough to allow me to share two videos I created for her with you. Angela contacted me a few weeks ago before the Sept. 19th wedding and she requested two videos: one of the bride and her father for their dance at the reception and one of the bride and groom to be shown during their first dance. Each video has one song (the song they danced to) and uses photos Angela provided me with.

Grateful for Positive Feedback

At this time I just put the finishing touches on two DVDs for an upcoming wedding. The mother of the bride contacted me a couple weeks ago about creating a DVD for the father-daughter dance as well as the couple's first dance at the reception. I was thrilled to see her reaction last week when we met in person to preview the videos and after I made a few minor adjustments she requested, she sent me a wonderful e-mail.

"We love both videos! I was going to surprise my husband at the wedding with the video of him and (daughter), but I decided to let him see it first and I am so glad I did. He fell completely apart...He said that it crystallized the impact of his baby getting married and he recalled each event in each picture- every one of them had a very special meaning to him. He just cried and cried. He said that you did an outstanding job...He also said and I agree, that the photos, music and lyrics were impeccably choreographed. Excellent Excellent job Shannon! The thought and skill that you put into the videos has brought us a lot of joy and we can hardly wait to share our memories with our guests."

As a young entrepreneur, messages like these are very reassuring. My goal when I work with clients is to make sure they are completely satisfied with the product I create for them and I hope that the bride enjoys seeing the videos on her wedding day this weekend. With her permission, I would like to post the videos on the blog...hopefully you will get to see them soon!

Digital Photo Books

One of my first "adventures" into the world of digital photo books was creating a wedding album for myself. We gave each set of parents an album for Mother's Day and both of them enjoyed sharing it with family and friends. The benefit of creating my own book is that I was able to use photos not only from the professional photographer (which I thought were great), but also from friends who captured unique moments and angles as well. Below are some still shots of various pages. You can see how many ways I can manipulate the photos to use in different ways.
This book measures 8.5 x 11 inches and is hardcover with a personalized dust jacket with the printed title and large photo. The images above are photos taken of the book which is why there is a small glare.



These photo books are professionally printed and are a beautiful way to document your family vacation, big birthday party, family reunion or wedding. I have done a lot of scrapbooking in the past, but now that I have started designing these digital photo books, I don't know when I will go back to paper, scissors and tape.

70th Birthday Celebration

Below is a video I created for my father-in-law's birthday this past Spring. I am in the process of uploading work I have done to this blog and this is my starting point. Unfortunately, due to file size restrictions put in place by Blogger, the photos aren't as clear as they appear on the DVD because I had to reduce the file size in order to post.