That's why I am SO EXCITED to announce today's Holiday Giveaway! We have some pretty generous folks contributing to this year's Twelve Days of Christmas, and the folks over at KISS are definitely one of them!

For those of you that aren't familiar, KISS is the company we use to produce our gorgeous wedding albums, and we couldn't imagine working with any other folks than the guys who have lovingly crafted our albums since the start of our business. Kevin and Shaun are the innovator-brainiacs behind KISS and they've built a company around an album process that is simple, easy, and fast, which as a photographer and small business owner is pretty much priceless. Can I get an amen??

Brag Time: I swear that Kevin and Shaun never sleep a wink, because every time we chat they have a new project up their sleeve. If you want to work with a company that is built on vision, innovation, and simplicity look no further than KISS - they're always dreaming up news ways to make the lives of photographers more simple and free. Ummm, yeah I'll have these guys on my side...

Today's Giveaway: KISS is giving away $200 in store credit to use toward anything at KISS - wahoo! Just leave a comment about one area of your business that you need to simplify. The contest ends tomorrow 12/10.

Hugs,

Erin

This lovely morning I thought that I would unveil to our dear readers one of my most favorite creations - Christine and Drew's truly lovely album design. This wedding was our first feature to grace the delightful internet pages of our favorite wedding planning blog, Style Me Pretty, and the details of this event make me smile and swoon even now, months later. I absolutely ADORE Christine and Drew, and this album was so easy to design because everything about their day was so beautiful. You can read all about their Point Loma garden wedding here and view their SMP feature here.

To view the entire design story, click on the image below. Enjoy!

]]> http://theyoungrens.com/blog/albums/christine-and-drew-album/feed/ 4 http://theyoungrens.com/blog/albums/amy-and-garett-album/ http://theyoungrens.com/blog/albums/amy-and-garett-album/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:00:58 +0000 Erin http://theyoungrens.com/blog/?p=1735 It's your first family heirloom. Honestly. When I got engaged, the first thing I did was dig through our old worn out cabinet that holds our family albums, searching for that dusty white leather album that lay underneath the rest. I wanted to see her day - the day my parents got married 30 years ago. What it felt like, who was there, what her dress looked like, the smile on my dad's face. I was searching for - what else - photographs. Their album only contains 20 or 30 photos, but those slightly faded prints are treasures to everyone in our family. There's a picture of the two of them standing underneath a cherry blossom tree in full April bloom saying their vows. A picture of my mom's long draping bouquet of soft pink spring flowers flowing in the breeze. A family picture with all of my grandparents still alive along with my aunts and uncles. Myself, my cousins, and siblings weren't born yet, everyone was still single or newlyweds. Its a reflection of where I am in my own life. A series of moments that have lasted forever simply because someone took a picture and placed them in an album to be preserved.

For Jeff and I, we always photograph weddings with an album in mind. We capture certain moments and particular details because we know that they are needed to create a complete and one of a kind wedding story. I've never showcased any of our designs here on the blog before, but I decided it was about time to start showcasing some of our favorite work. To start I want to feature one of my favorites - the beautiful and classic Amy and Garett.

A few specs: I do all of our album design myself using Photojunction, a free software owned by Queensberry that is meant specifically for design wedding albums. You don't have to be a Queensberry customer to use it. In fact, they've worked with tons of different album companies to include certain specifications within the software depending on which kind of album you are producing. For example, this album was a 12x12 leather album from Kiss, and the software allowed me to design and export my files completely according to Kiss specifications. Its brilliant! Adobe's Indesign is also a fantastic program for album design if you'd like to check that out as well, but I would only use CS4 because it has certain alignment tools that CS3 doesn't.

To see all of Amy and Garett's album design, click on the image below.

Hugs,

Erin

These guestbooks are beautiful 8x8 flush mount, leather albums that feature your images from your engagement session. I design tons of white space around the images where guests will actually sign and write notes using a beautiful archival black pen that we provide. Its such a great way to archive your beautiful images while remembering all of the friends and family that came to your most special day!

Most of our couples opt to get one of these books, and one of my most favorite recent designs is from Mark and Kate's session up in Julian this summer.

View the entire design below. Enjoy!

Hugs,

Erin

If you've been reading our blog over the past couple of months, you know that we've built a fabulous relationship with Queensberry, an album company based out of New Zealand that builds beautiful handcrafted albums. A few months ago, Queensberry notified us and let us know that they were working on re-branding their entire image, including their sample albums and website, and asked if they could use some of our images - particularly Ashley and Brad's wedding from earlier this year in Oceanside, CA. They loved his hands, they said. And really, who wouldn't?

So just imagine our excitement to see the brand-spanking new Queenberry website unveiled with tons of new images and sample albums featuring our work (think lots of jumping and wild hand-clapping from yours truly). It is such a huge honor to partner with a company so full of passion and commitment to quality. The folks at Queensberry (Heather, Nigel, and Gino just to name a few) are amazing people and we've enjoyed every minute of working with them. Check out their new website at www.queensberry.com and check out the album gallery to see Meredith and Jeff, Amy and Garett, Ashley and Brad,  and Sean and Stephanie all featured!