gwyneth colleen photography » portland, or wedding photographer

wedding cake inventiveness

weddings are this huge industry…I cannot even fathom it, and I am part of the machine. My sister got married a few years ago, so I remember concern over costs…from the big stuff like meals and venues all the way to smaller stuff like favors.

I have been obsessed with this penny-pinching idea ever since I read about it on offbeatbride.com. One particular vendor appeals to budget conscious brides by allowing them to RENT a wedding cake. The cakes look beautiful and artistic; they’re decorated to match whatever extravagant idea the bride has in her mind’s eye… The secret element that allows them to go for the low, low* price of $150 is…they’re not really real. They’re styrofoam. The manufacturers even build in a special compartment where they’ll hide an actual piece of cake so that traditional brides can still feed their grooms some butter-creamy confection. (I find this part extremely amusing/resourceful/ridiculous.)

*But…$150 to RENT some fondant covered styrofoam? Seriously? I mean, sure…you can get just-as-delicious sheet cakes from the bakery, and you’re still saving money while maintaining appearances, but…$150 to RENT a “cake”? I suppose if you don’t have a sister who went to culinary school and worked in a bakery frosting wedding cakes for a while, that might be your best option. Thankfully, someday when my prandsome hince** comes along, I will be calling said sister and letting her know it’s time to go to Michael’s and buy some pre-cut styrofoam rounds and the cheapest, nastiest frosting they make. 😀

**What? you haven’t heard the age old tale of Rindercella and the Prandsome Hince?

Also, a real quick notification: I’m out of town/state until July 10/11-ish. I will be checking email as I get internet access, but as I’m sleeping on a different couch almost every night catching up with all my old college chums, I cannot guarantee that I’ll be able to get back to you as quickly as I’d like. Please bear with me…and if you have my phone number, go ahead and give me a buzz!

back to Top•get in touch•share on facebook•email to friend
rachel6 July 2007 - 11:00

I still think you are crazy. CRAZY.

tasha8 July 2007 - 13:28

we did a reading of the prandsome hince at one of our ladies nite outs.. it was hilarious.

geography related bitterness and affection

(and a lot of parenthetical expressions)

first, the bitterness:

I think “Live Free or Die Hard” should have something to do with New Hampshire.

affection:

The reason I have any bitterness about that is because I *HEART* New Hampshire. I have since before I moved here. I was thrilled that the winding stream that is life deposited me here. And I’ve lived in my current apartment longer than I’ve lived anywhere since I graduated from college. (Coming up on a year without moving at all, baby! Maybe someday I’ll tell you about living overseas and going to grad school and then going overseas again and then job hunting and then picking up and moving w/o really having a job yet, because…you just gotta GO for it!, and the year I moved 3 times.)

I’ve mentioned this before, but I think Portsmouth, NH is pretty much the best city/town in the United States. I’m from upstate NY, as much as a Navy brat can be from anywhere (Ballston Spa…a very random, historic, and dichotomically charming and uninspiring small town north of Albany), but I love Portsmouth. It has the delicious historic district with the federal style houses painted marvelous colors that make my heart go pitter patter…old churches with amazing doors, stone and brick walkways; it exudes the very essence of New England. If I ever become a famous rockstar wedding photographer and can afford to live whereever I want, I will buy a brick home in Portsmouth.

So, Portsmouth and other NH brides…make my dream come true! I’ll take good care of you, I promise!

back to Top•get in touch•share on facebook•email to friend
rachel1 July 2007 - 00:49

I was wondering where you were going with this one… and then it tied together (?) in the end.

nose to the grindstone

i’ve been hiding this from you for months now: but i can’t hide it any longer. just for today, i’m going to let the real me peek through.

i hate capital letters. i appreciate punctuation and grammar and spelling…but i hate capital letters. it probably has more to do with my love of symmetry than with any particular affinity for e. e. cummings. in fact, it definitely does, because i don’t love e. e. cummings.

i’ve been using capital letters for professionalism’s sake…and, after today, i shall continue to do so (unless there is an overwhelming outpouring of support for my bold and vulnerable stand.)

all of that is neither here nor there, though.

my sister’s gone. she’s on her way back to new jersey. yesterday we went to boston, and on our way down we were listening to alanis morrissette and talking about “ironic”…and how it’s ironic that she wrote an un-ironic song about irony. it IS, however, ironic that new jersey is named “the garden state.” because…have you BEEN there? (to be fair, the part of jersey from which she hails is kind of green and full of flowers and trees and deer, etc…and it’s much closer to philly than nyc.)

this morning i’ve been plowing through halida and jeff’s wedding photos. family formals are usually a quick “line ’em up and shoot ’em…and move ’em out.” that doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for creativity, but i still make an effort. i just LOVE the following image of jeff’s family. his parents are on the left, jeff and halida in the center (y’know, in case the white dress didn’t tip you off…), and jeff’s brother jonathan and his fiance caroline (seen in the below post–yeah, i LOVE this family!) are on the right.

back to Top•get in touch•share on facebook•email to friend
andrea3 July 2007 - 00:09

i am here to show “an overwhelming outpouring of support for [your] bold and vulnerable stand”. just say no to capital letters.

h&j5 July 2007 - 09:13

i agree…your personality, character, charm and incredible spirit scream professional AND fun so let go! you rock! thanks for everything. -h

‘Tis the Season

I’m so behind on posting! I’ve got 3 weddings to write about…scratch that…4! I still haven’t shown you all my May 19th wedding *hangs head in shame* and there are some beautiful images that I’ve been looking forward to sharing.

But…I’ve been bogged down with image processing and album designing. As I told one client this week, “’tis the season”…Wedding season is in full swing, and I’m having a blast.

However, I don’t expect to be making any great strides on my to-do list this week; my sister is in town (up from NJ…she brought her dog with her, and my poor little cat didn’t come out from under the bed all day.) Then next Monday I’m leaving for Indiana for just over a week. I went to college there, so I’m looking forward to catching up with LOTS of friends before I shoot Nick and Katie’s wedding in South Bend on the uber popular 07.07.07.

I wouldn’t leave you without any photos, though…Jonathan is Jeff’s (see below brother. He officiated at their wedding (for better or worse the 24 hour internet-ordination era has come upon us. If nothing else, I do like that it allows couples to choose a loved one to preside over the most important promise they’ll ever make), and he brought his charming new fiance Caroline along with him. We got to steal a few minutes at the most gorgeous time of day to do a mini-engagement session on an island in Maine…on the beach…at sunset…with a PIER! (and bonus–they were already decked out in their finest duds.) I was like a kid in a candy shop. Without further ado…


I was lovin’ that sunflare…


aren’t they cute?

I’ll try to put more photos up this week…but I make no promises.

back to Top•get in touch•share on facebook•email to friend

[…] is jeff’s brother…so i first met jonathan & caroline at halida & jeff’s wedding in june 2007. (and of course, halida & jeff were at this […]