Bowling Green Weddings | Jennifer Creed Photographer

Product Spotlight | Bowling Green Wedding Photographers

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:03:51 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me spazzing out about a client coffeetable album we got in recently! We LOVE our album company, and get so excited when our clients order albums. Lindsay picked out a new fabric that I hadn’t yet seen a swatch for, and when it came in, I was pretty much jumping up and down I’m in love! Lindsay and Gerrit are currently living in England, so I had to keep these images under wraps until she got it. But now is time to share!

This is an 8×8, 31 spread album, and it is gorgeous! Super thick pages lay flat when open, and the texture of the cover is to die for. There’s also an image comparing it to my phone, to give an idea of how tall it is haha.

And here are a few of my favorite spreads! (Lots of black and white…I was loving it for this wedding! And the borders aren’t actually printed, just to separate the white background of the spread from the blog background.)

Ky Engagement Photography | Leigh and Jacob

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:26:34 +0000

So if you’ve read my blog much, you know that I LOVE engagement sessions! Fav.o.rite. It’s such a fabulous time to get to know a couple, and with all kinds of time to get creative without any time constraints (like on a wedding day). I also love the opportunity to get to know a couple better, and for them to get a better idea of how we shoot before the wedding day.

Well, today we got to do a session with some very dear friends of ours, who we already know quite well, and who we are so excited for! Leigh and Jacob are both fabulously talented vocalists, and Jacob is currently studying music ministry (and other things…I can never remember exactly what haha) at Baylor University. They are two of the sweetest people ever, and we (and all of our other friends!) were so happy when they started dating and then got engaged I’m a huge fan haha.

The weather has been super on and off the last few days, so we weren’t quite sure what today was going to look like. We ended up with some awesome moody, overcast skies today and had a blast experimenting with a little bit of an edgier feel than the usual for us!

So fun Pretty sure we all spent most of the session laughing!

I just LOVE this one. Definitely had one of those jumping up and down moments after I took it….photographers, you know what I’m talking about!

So, wanna know what’s really stinking awesome? Leigh MADE that sweater she has on! How incredible is that?!

FAVORITE!

This one is Chris’s favorite. He says it looks like Alice in Wonderland haha.

Just a few of our favorites! Thanks for hanging out with us today, Jacob and Leigh! We love you all, and can’t wait for your wedding!

Everyone have a fantastic rest of the weekend

Bowling Green, Ky | Headshots | Meghan M.

admin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:28:23 +0000

Today was a blessing.

Today, I got to shoot some headshots for my lovely friend Meghan. Meghan has ALWAYS been one of my biggest supporters, and such an amazing friend! You’ve seen her on here several times before And she is just rocking out at life right now! It is so so so great to see your friends work so hard and chase after their dreams. Later this summer, Meg is planning on moving to Orlando to audition for Disney and work with a record label (um, amazing!), so she needed some headshots! This has been a dream of hers for just about as long as I’ve known her, and I am SO pumped to see where life takes her! She also had another friend of ours, Caitlin of Caitlin Denman Photography do some headshots for her so she would have lots of variety. (Check it out here!) So fun

And here are two of my favorites….she’s so gorgeous!

I <3 her smile!

Thanks for checking these out, everyone! Meghan, I love you and am so so so excited for you Remember me when you’re famous

Have a wonderful evening, lovelies!

The WKU Music Department | Giving Back

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:33:28 +0000

Today I’m super excited to show you some images from a personal project I’ve been working on since last fall. As many of you know, my degree is actually in music, from Western Kentucky University. Music was a huge, huge part of my life for a really long time. So even though I decided about half way through college that I didn’t want to teach music, it was kind of hard just to stop being around music all together. I wanted to do something to give back a little bit to the community, and particularly to the music department. For the part it played in my personal life, Chris’s life (he’s also a musician…a man of many talents ), and the many ways they enrich the lives of the people of Bowling Green. There are really some phenomenal musicians and people that are involved with the music department, and I am proud to know many of them!

So, it became my goal to document activities through the music department so they would have some updated photos to use for recruiting and promotion (instead of pictures of people who graduated before I even started at WKU haha). I had so much fun, and highly encourage you to check out some performances, and support the arts. Arts education is SO SO important…I could talk about it forever. But I won’t here haha.

Presenting some of my favorites…featuring (in no particular order) the Big Red Marching Band (directed by Dr. Jeff Bright), the WKU Symphonic Band (directed by Dr. Gary Schallert and featuring Lee Blakeman), the WKU Chorale (directed by Dr. Paul Hondorp, and featuring Dr. Wayne Pope and Dr. Liza Kelly), the WKU Jazz Band (directed by Dr. Marshall Scott, and featuring Vince DiMartino and Dr. Wayne Pope), the Bowling Green-Western Chamber Singers, Chorale, and Chamber Orchestra (directed by Dr. Paul Hondorp and Dr. Bill Scott), the lovely ladies of the Treblemakers, and the handsome men (including my husband!) of the Redshirts! Whew! Enjoy (Click thumbnails to see images larger)

A post about everything…and nothing.

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:40:33 +0000

Hello my lovely blog readers!

It has been such a beautiful day! I hope everyone is having a relaxing Saturday evening after soaking up lots of vitamin D from the wonderful sunshine today I’m scared to even go back and look at how long it’s been since my last post, but thank you all for sticking around anyway! I don’t really have any new pictures to share today, but I’m in a mood to write and ramble about life a little bit tonight. I feel that while this is our business blog, that it’s also ok to sometimes be transparent about the things going on in our life. Our struggles, triumphs, and who we are. So, I hope that’s ok with everyone.

(Excuse the quality...cell phone image!)

Last week I was at my parent’s house for a few days. My grandmother was in the hospital and not doing well, and it has been tough on my mom especially. My grandmother is in a fairly advanced stage of Alzheimers disease, and it’s been hard to watch for the last several years. I don’t want to really go too deep into it…but I have kind of had a hard time deciding how to feel about everything. It’s just been tough. But…fast forward to being at my parents house (I swear this is related…just stick with me)…I noticed this super awesome little table that I’d never seen before, and immediately thought about how perfect it would be in our living room (I figured they had found it on Craigslist). So I told my mom that I was pretty sure I needed it, unless she had plans for it. I wanted to paint it blue (the color of our branding!). Well, it turns out that the table belonged to my grandmother. And that my mom remembered her taking the table outside and refinishing it and working on it. She told me that I could have it, and that I could even paint it if I wanted.

So, being in the crafty mood I’ve been in lately, I traipsed to Lowe’s and found some paint, tracked down the primer, and set to work. [I know....really, should have left the table the way it was...but it's so cute, I promise!] And the whole time I was working on the table (three coats of primer and two coats of color later, and one more layer to go…) I was thinking about how special it was for me to have something with a story. To know that my grandmother once made the same brush strokes on the same table in a different time. About how we both wanted to make the piece our own, and use it in our home. And about how some day, (unless my mom reposesses it haha), this table might sit in my daughter’s house, maybe with the painted stripped down and refinished, or painted another color, or however she’ll make it her own. It was just really cool to me. Our family has never been overtly touchy feely emotional, but this subtle reminder of our similarities and the thread that goes through our lives is just really awesome to me So, thanks mom, and grandma I love it! (Finished pictures coming soon…I need to sand it a little and do another coat of paint).

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Ahem. On a lighter note…haha…I redesigned our website (Bowling Green Weddings) a little bit last week! If you haven’t seen it yet, you really should go check it out! We have some new featured weddings and engagement sessions, as well as updated Jennifer Creed | Style galleries! I was never really thrilled with the last version of our website…it just never seemed totally complete to me, nor did it really portray our style exactly right. But I really am loving everything about the latest version! (For now at least )

I get a lot of questions about who designs our website or what template company we use, so I thought this would be a good time to address that! The Jennifer Creed | Photographer website has always been done through the fabulous ShowIt Sites, and I am so in love. They are the perfect website company. Everything is completely customizable! They do have some templates to help get you started, or you can start totally from scratch. Later this week, I also am planning on showing you more about what you can do with their client+ sites! They are also great because unlike most flash websites, the text is totally indexable (so Google can find you). Pretty much amazing. And I don’t even really come close to using all the features available! (Just an fyi…no one paid me or otherwise coerced me into saying any of this…I just love them )

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Speaking of Jennifer Creed | Photographer….a few words about our business name What’s in a name and all that jazz. When I first started my photography journey, I operated under the name Image Jolie (Loosely French for “pretty picture”). Which I loved…and was great at the time! But after lots of thought, I decided to change the name and re-brand to Jennifer Creed | Photographer in 2008. One reason was that people had a hard time pronouncing Image Jolie, or were afraid of pronouncing it wrong so they would just be like “Oh yeah…Jenny from….umm…whatever that business name is” haha. But the primary reason was to highlight the personalized experience we want our clients to have. And we want our name stamped on it…it is our seal of approval. Although the business name is my name, it also includes Chris. We’re proud of the fact that we shoot every wedding as a team, and that we are both primary photographers (instead of me and some undisclosed second shooter). And in the end, there may be other photographers with a similar style, a similar price range, etc….but there is only one of Us.

We love cultivating a personal relationship with our clients and getting to know them and what makes them tick, and portraying that through their images. We love knowing our couples from their engagement, to their wedding, then hearing when they buy their first house, and (while we haven’t had this yet…but some day!) hearing about their first children. It’s just so cool to be a part of their memories To know that the images we capture are going to be what gets passed down through the generations. I love it! And that’s why, instead of being Jennifer Creed PhotographY (a common mistake…that I try not to let drive me crazy ), our name is Jennifer Creed | Photographer. Because it’s more than what we do…it’s who we are. I am a photographer. I capture moments and memories. And I love every minute of it

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So dear readers…I leave you with wishes for a lovely weekend! Thanks for sticking it out through my long and rambling mood. But there’s a box of Girl Scout cookies calling my name! This week I am hoping to (*finally*) post some images from a project I’ve been working on since last semester of various groups from the WKU music department. So check back soon!

Bowling Green, Ky | Engaged | Misty & Matt

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:06:02 +0000

So….about today. Today was cold. Today was windy. Today was snowy. But….I LOVE today! Because today, I got to do the BEST part of my job. Capturing people in love. Capturing the kisses, the laughs, the shared glances, and hearing their stories. And, I even got to shoot with my husband! It really just doesn’t get any better. This was the first official session Chris and I have shot since we attended Imaging USA in January. We have been dying to get out and really try out some things during a real live session, and today was perfect! And I just have to say…we HAVE to shoot more engagement sessions…they are seriously one of my favorite things ever

Misty and Matt are so incredibly sweet together. I’ve known Misty since we were freshmen in college, but hadn’t really had the chance to get to know Matt until recently. All I can say is that these two definitely have that special kind of love…that we-can-handle-anything kind of love. It was so beautiful to see the real “them” come out in front of the camera today….especially Misty, who has told me before she has a hard time not making her “model” faces for the camera. I feel so blessed that they have allowed us to see inside their relationship, and celebrate along with them. We can’t wait for their wedding in July!

Normally I would just post one or two for a sneak peek, but I made an executive decision (because I can! Ha!) that since today was a snow day and I’m mostly caught up on other work to edit more and post more than normal Enjoy!

Uh huh. You know it’s a good day when something like this happens in the first 5 minutes of the shoot!

HAD to post this one because of the location This is the inside of the very newly renovated Van Meter theatre on WKU’s campus. It’s not officially open yet and I didn’t think we would be able to get in, but someone on the construction crew let us in. It is amazingly gorgeous in there!!

Gorgeous.

Something about this just really draws me in…we had lots of awesome moments from this spot, but I am just loving this one

So sweet.

Misty and Matt-thank you, thank you, thank you for braving the cold with us today, and for just being awesome in general Love you all!

Bowling Green Weddings | Kentucky Wedding Photographer

admin — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:14:14 +0000

So, it’s for real been a super exciting few weeks around here We have been so blessed! It seriously still blows my mind every day when I wake up and I am EXCITED about my job. Excited to get up and work, and edit, or talk to brides, or research, or even do bookkeeping (ok well let’s not push it on that one but… ). I am so happy that I get to shoot with my husband. I was thinking today about how awesome it is to get to see one of the happiest days in a couple’s life not only through my lens, but also through his. (The images he takes are almost always people’s favorites!) And it’s so wonderful and such a blessing to be reminded of our own vows every time we shoot a wedding together. I could really go on forever right now about how wonderful he is (I am super sappy today haha…must be Valentine’s day closing in…), but I’ll stop there.

So on to some exciting news! First, our official WeddingWire badge is in, which means we are one of the top 5% of vendors on the WeddingWire network. We were the only photographer in the Bowling Green/Paducah area to receive this award, and one of only 11 photographers in the whole state!

Second, today we had a wedding featured on the OneWed Bridal Blog! OneWed is a fantastic source for ideas for your wedding day, and we were so excited when they wanted to feature Allie and Ian’s wedding! We also had a super sweet write up on us on the Sloan Images University blog last week, which totally moved me to happy tears

We also have some WONDERFUL brides for 2010…I cannot wait to work with them! And with Valentine’s Day coming up…if you find yourself with something new and shiny on your left hand, we would love to talk to you

Thanks again (I feel like I say this every day but I really mean it!) to all of you for being so wonderful! Have a great Valentine’s weekend!

Elizabeth and Leila | Lizzie Loo Photography

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:00:22 +0000

Monday of this week I got to go visit my good friend Elizabeth Lauer of Lizzie Loo Photography in Shelbyville! She has the CUTEST photography studio ever in downtown Shelbyville! If you’re ever in the area, you should definitely stop by. The whole shop just exudes the Lizzie Loo brand, and it is fabulous. Liz has such a fantastic style Her window displays are to die for! And, her precious dog Leila can always be found sitting on her chair in the window! It’s always so wonderful to hang out with another photographer and bounce ideas off each other and refresh your creativity. Such a breath of fresh air! We also went out to shoot a little bit, it was so gorgeous outside!

Here are some of my favorites! I’m trying out one of the slideshow features today…I’d love to hear your opinion on which you prefer (each image posted individually, or a slideshow). From my stats, I don’t think many of my viewers are visiting from mobile devices, but I’m not sure!

Michelle and Pedro are married! | The Grand, New Albany, IN

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:31:06 +0000

12-31-09. New Years eve. Everyone is out partying, watching the ball drop at midnight, and sharing a kiss with their love. But not me…I had food poisoning! But…January 1, 2010 dawned bright and gorgeous (though it was cold!), and I was feeling better and ready to go celebrate Michelle and Pedro’s marriage in New Albany, Indiana!

Their wedding was at The Grand theatre in New Albany, IN (which doesn’t appear to have a website, but you can Google it!), which is a really awesome, gorgeous venue! They had a very small wedding party (one bridesmaid and one groomsman), which made for such a beautiful and intimate ceremony. Michelle’s bridesmaid was her sister, Jennifer, and it was wonderful hanging out with them and their sweet mom all morning! They are such a close family, and it was so beautiful to see and capture

Michelle also did a fantastic job of scouting out some locations for us to take pictures after the reception! It was so much fun! So, here are some favorites

The Grand has such fabulous, classy details throughout the whole venue! Love it!

Always love the moments right before walking down the aisle

They had an Elvis singer at the reception. So fun!

Just loved this random spot in downtown Louisville we stopped at!

Alrighty! That’s it for today Thanks for sharing your day with us, Michelle, Pedro, and family! You all were wonderful!

Up is in for 2010!

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:06:25 +0000

As per the fabulous Jeffrey and Julia Woods, (and American Airlines) Up is in for 2010! 2010 has been such a wonderful year so far, and I am so excited to see what else God has in store for us this year. We got to start out the year right at PPA’s Imaging USA event in Nashville, TN, which was just incredible. We met so many incredible and inspiring photographers, and made many new friends. (Shout out especially to Kate Crafton and Anna Bonick who we ran into quite a bit ) So many things changing in our business to better serve you, and we are SO excited!

Imaging USA was also hugely inspiring for us as a couple. Hearing Dane Sanders speak about getting off auto pilot really hit home for us. It’s so easy in our culture to just kind of sit back and go through on surface level. Our communications limited to a screen, having people telling us what is happening and what to think at super speeds, living just to get through another day….what kind of life is that? Not one I want to live any longer that’s for sure. So we are making more time for each other, to really be in the moment, and to connect with other people on a real level. We’re dreaming big and not giving up

You also may notice our blog has a new design! Belatedly ringing in 2010 with style Lots of new features to play with, like slideshows within a post (that you can also make fullscreen!):

So…just a few things we’re excited about We hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, and can’t wait to see what 2010 has in store for you as well!