L'atelier Couture Presents Tara LaTour!

For those of you who know me, you know I never miss a thing. Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon, I was struck with a sudden illness that kept me from being at the AMAZING event put on by L'atelier Couture Bridal for Tara LaTour! The good thing is that I was able to photograph some details for the event earlier on in the day - and I have an incredible team of photographers and friends who were able to step in a capture this incredible evening! I have to seriously thank Marc, Louisa and Nate for stepping up to the plate last minute and doing an amazing job! As many of you know, Tara and I have collaborated for a few years now on her collections. We photographed her 2013 collection a couple of months ago and it is absolutely one of my favorite! L'atelier Couture is the premier bridal salon in Minneapolis and when they began carrying Tara's gowns, they found the perfect opportunity for a party! Last night's event was a true celebration of the Minneapolis wedding industry! Munster Rose put together some amazing florals and Gateaux Inc created some amazing deserts - all styled around the inspiration of Tara's collection, which was the children's story "Where the Wild Things Are." Paperista made the stellar invitations, Emily J offered a super-fun Lash Bar and the brand new clutches and perfume (yes! perfume!) were on display in the Nelle Showroom!

Even though I wasn't able to be there, it was great to have some BIG images around the space of our shoot with Tara! We are so lucky to be in a market and an industry that is centered around collaboration and encouraging one another! For those brides out there that are still looking for their perfect gown, definitely make an appointment at L'atelier - I'm convinced they carry nothing but the best!

WEDDING STYLE // Wearing Color

Jessica Biel wore pink and all of a sudden the wedding world is a buzz with colored dresses! However, celebrities and brides alike have been wearing color for years! There's no doubt about it that celebrity weddings set trends in the industry. I was just at Bridal Fashion Week in New York City and all of the major collections included sleeves and lace - clearly inspired by Kate Middleton's choice in her gown. An upcoming wedding that everyone is on-the-edge of their seats for is Blake Lively and Ryan Reynold's wedding. Her dress has been kept top-secret until Martha Stewart Weddings magazine will reveal all of the exclusive details in an upcoming issue. Because of the hype, her dress is bound to start trends. Many people think that the reason brides where white is because it is a symbol of purity; however that is not the reason behind this trend at all. In the mid-1800's and thru much of the 20th Century, wedding dresses were formal dresses that would be re-used for another formal occasion. Brides could wear any color, besides Red or Black, which were associated with prostitutes and mourning, respectively. When Queen Victoria was married in 1840, she wore white. This was very controversial, because white was the color of mourning in France.  Around the same time, the printing press had become quite popular, allowing photographs to be published, reproduced, and shared with the world. Yes - Queen Victoria was the first 'celebrity' wedding to set the trend of the white wedding dress. Brides all over the world began to wear white, and it also became a symbol of wealth to wear white, because if you could afford to wash and re-wear your white dress, that meant you had money. In the mean time, the middle class continued to wear color. It wasn't until the 1950's that the white wedding dress really became the mainstream choice for brides. It has become classic and timeless in our culture and I think it's fascinating that this statement came around because of celebrity trends and not necessarily religious or ceremonial needs.

I love color and I love the impact a colored wedding dress adds to the party. They have a little more personality and WOW factor for your guests; however, if you are choosing a colored dress, make sure it is absolutely a color that fits your personality, party, and theme. Brides who embrace colored wedding dresses can look radiant, but if all of the pieces don't come together, you could look back at your wedding pictures in 30 years and think you look like a bad trend...and no one wants that!

Color can be done absolutely beautifully and a good rule of thumb to make everything cohesive is to plan your color scheme and details around the color of your dress. Vera Wang's  Spring 2013 collection showed bright reds to deep burgundy and even straight black. Tara LaTour's latest collection incorporates her signature color-fading treatment, a periwinkle blue dress and even a copper number.

There's no doubt about it - color is changing the wedding industry. Below are some examples of some of those current dresses on the Market from Vera Wang and Tara LaTour. For those local brides in Minneapolis, there is an exciting event coming up for you to test-out-color! On November 7th, L'atelier Couture is hosting a fantastic party to celebrate Tara LaTour's latest collection. From 6:30-9pm, you can join the best of the wedding industry for a night of drinks, art, and colorful dresses! See the invitation below - we would love to see you there!

FOUND // The Art of Wedding

One week ago, we hosted FOUND // The Art of Wedding. It was an event to bring together our city, our industry and our clients to celebrate wedding art and it was a SMASHING success! It's always been a dream of mine to put an event like this on and it was the perfect time to do so! We're guessing anywhere from 300-350 of you stopped by throughout the night, which was an amazing turn out!8 weeks ago, I had this little idea to have an art show and lucky for me, some of the best vendors in town were on board with my little idea turning into a big event! A night like this could not have happened without the following artists and sponsors, and I want to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to each and every one of you who helped me pull this off! Artists //

Photogen Inc Rivets and Roses Munster Rose Paperista Capture Studios Tara LaTour

Sponsors//

514 Studios Minnesota Bride Style Architects BeEvents Coca & Fig Crispin Avant Decor Flow DJ

A very special thank you to Capture Studios for making this SUPER COOL video clip from the night, it's truly inspiring! I would also love to thank Leslie, Natalie and Desiree from Rivets and Roses for all of the photographs below!!

I hope everyone who came found a little bit of inspiration during the night! If so, mission accomplished!

LOVEe

Published & Making History // Minnesota Bride

Ladies and Gentleman, I would like your attention. For months now, I’ve been dying to share with you the wedding of Alyson and Jesse. This wedding meant SO much to me, for so many reasons, but most importantly for the positive impact I hope it makes in our market and industry overall! Alyson and Jesse are my first LGBTQ+ couple and it was my extreme pleasure of photograph their wedding! It’s been a personal goal of mine to gain more LGBTQ+ couples, because I truly believe in gay rights, marriage and equality for all. When I met Alyson and Jesse, it was very clear that they were the perfect clients for me, and we really connected over the entire experience of their wedding! What is even more epic is that I feel like we’re making a big difference and taking part in a little bit of history, because the Newquist’s wedding is the

FIRST. EVER. LGBTQ+ WEDDING. EVER. PUBLISHED. IN. MINNESOTA!!!!!!

When I found this out, it really hit me how important this time is for our world and the incredible impact it will have on the wedding industry! I’m a person who is all about making a difference and to be a part of this movement is incredibly exciting to me. I feel honored to be a part of it. I’m also very proud that Minnesota Bride believed in this story enough to publish it, and the fact that this is all happening pre-leagalization in Minnesota is even MORE exciting!!!

Alyson and Jesse were two of the handiest and craftiest brides I’ve ever met! These two decided not only to have a DIY wedding, but they purchased 40 acres of land up in Finlayson, MN and opened a wedding venue, called Juliane James Place, for future couples to host their weddings and events at! I, myself, have used the space to photograph Tara LaTour’s newest collection and also to host the ELEVATE Workshop this past fall! The property is nothing short of gorgeous and I highly encourage you all to check it out! I will be doing a full blog post on Alyson & Jesse’s wedding in the next few weeks, but I wanted to share the news of this incredible feature in the newest issue of MN Bride, which is hitting the news stands as we speak! This feature means more to me, simply because of the issue at hand on LGBTQ+ marriage. I hope it does impact not only our city, but our industry and Midwest market overall! As a vendor, I’m incredibly proud and that is the best feeling in the world!

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You can find the newest issue of Minnesota Bride all over the city from grocery stores to Target to Barnes and Noble, so make sure you check this out!

We will also be handing out complimentary issues on Friday and FOUND // The Art of Wedding event! Hope to see you all there!

LOVEe

Tara LaTour + Photogen Inc = The Shit!!!

I am soooooo excited to share these images with you! Like, little kid-jumping-up-and-down excited!A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a girl named Tara. In that letter, she asked me to photograph her final Collection for her graduate program at Parsons (yes, like project runway Parsons...only real students are even more bad-ass!) The hitch was that she was in NYC, I was in MPLS and her deadline was in a week and a half. She sent me a link with some cell-phone-shots of her dresses and my jaw dropped. I knew that I needed to do absolutely everything I could to photograph this amazing pieces of art! The universe came together for us and it just so happened I was going to be in NYC that coming weekend, so we started planning our last-minute shoot! The best part about my job is this sense of collaboration I get from working with other artists. It's amazing to just create with other amazing people who also have a vision. Tara really gave me free reign at the shoot and everything just simply fell into place! Before the day was done, I knew I wanted these images to be shared with the world and be published . 1) I wanted people to find/know/experience Tara and her beautiful collection. 2) I think these images are fucking amazing and I am way too excited about the whole project to NOT share this with you!

Through our conversations, I really began to respect Tara even more. She is on a mission to 'Revolutionize' the wedding industry and I absolutely believe she will do this!

A special THANK YOU to the Wedding Chicks for publishing this spread on their blog and sharing this with the world! Check out their review + Post HERE! (And we would love to hear your comments on the spread + designs overall!)

Here's a look at all of our original spreads! Please head over to the Wedding Chicks blog to see more photos + behind-the-scenes sketches from Ms. LaTour!

Here's to being remarkable!

LOVEe