I can’t believe the holidays is just around the corner.  I’m so not ready for it.  I’m still wondering where summer went, hah!  The holidays means a lot of things and one of them are the endless parties!  This past Sunday an old friend and once next door neighbor, Meakara, held a pre-holiday event at her shop Private Label Bridal Outlet.  This place is amazing!!  Where was this store when I got married?  I will be referring everyone I know over there because the dresses are affordable beyond belief.  If you’re getting married or just looking for a formal or cocktail dress this shop must be the first place you go.  Meakara will take great care of you.  With the upcoming holidays I know many of you will have parties to go to.  If you still need a dress you still have time to order one from Private Label Bridal Outlet.  I think Meakara can get you a dress in about two weeks.  I want to add you can find beautiful accessories at the shop as well.  All of a sudden I feel like actively looking for parties to go this holiday season.

Well, here are some pictures from the event.  I thought it would be fun to set up a photobooth.  At first people were hesitant to get in front of the camera, but after a few drinks, a mini make-up session and some pretty dresses it turned out to be a hit.  It was an exhausting evening for me since we also had a wedding the night before, but it was nice to mingle with old friends  gain, some whom I haven’t seen in over 10 years!

I decided to set-up a photobooth to add a little extra fun to the night.  The DIY back drop turned out quite nice.  Thanks to my friend Davy for the excellent last minute hemming job!

Hoooorray!  We received our very first flushmount wedding album last week.  Unfortunately, we had to give it up a few days later to our clients to whom the album belongs to.  That just means we’ll need to order a sample for ourselves very soon because I miss the album already!  It’s a good thing I snapped a couple of pictures to share.  Ronelda + Dexter’s wedding album was massive!  It’s a 10×10 leather album and we’re talking about 25 spreads (50 pages) thick.  Although I forgot to weigh the album to confirm, the packaging slip said it was 10.5 lbs.  That’s heavy.  Anyway, the client decided to go with the classic black leather cover which felt so nice and soft. Much, much softer than it looks…

You have the option to imprint on the spine or the front cover in four available colors.  Silver is shown here.

Thick archival pages.

The album pages lay flat when open.

Flushmount means that each image spread is printed and then mounted to an archival page/board.  This allows for us to custom design each page layout.  Our layout design is aimed at two thing:  clean and simple.  We believe in a design that will be timeless.  Trendy, special effects and fancy layouts will appear cool now, but will it stand the test of time?  Trendy always goes out of style.  Ten or Fifteen years from now will it still be cool or just plain tacky?  Something to keep in mind =).

There are two options for binding 1) panoramic or 2) split.  Panoramic means there’s no gutter at the spine while split means there’s a gutter.  This album is an example of panoramic binding.  Panoramic binding allows more design flexibility and you don’t lose any part of the image to the gutter.

Each page is printed on Kodak’s Supra Endura photo luster paper with UV coating.  There’s also Kodak’s Metallic Endura paper with a linen texture option.

As you can see the spine is very well constructed.  As we mentioned earlier, this album is 25 spreads (50 pages) thick.  We recommend no more than 20 spreads.

Of course we had to slap our name onto the back cover =).

As part of your wedding day investment, we strongly suggest taking one of these high quality photographic albums into consideration to re-tell your wedding day for years and years to come.  After all that’s been said and done a wedding album that captures your story will be one of your most precious keepsake.  We’re proud to offer the flushmount albums in three different sizes: 8×8, 10×10 (recommended) and 12×12.  In addition to the options mentioned above there are over forty cover materials to choose from as well as cameo options that can be built into the album cover.  We hope to get a couple more samples in from Forbeyon, our choice for album print & bind, to showcase the different album options that are available.  After much research and finally seeing their album samples at the WPPI Seattle Roadshow this past August we were very impressed with their album products!  We look forward to working more with this company.

Looking for new ways to showcase your photographs?  We are now offering Canvas Thin Wrap, a stylish and frameless way to display your favorite pictures.  Your image is printed on a canvas material and then laminated over with a satin or glossy laminate.  This beautifully mounted and finished print is available in a wide variety of sizes.  A 1/2″ spacer mounting block can be attached to the back of the print to provide a contemporary float effect when hung on a wall or an optional easel stand can be ordered instead.  Please contact us for more information and/or if you’re interested in ordering one of these!

Closer-up of the canvas texture.

Optional 1/2″ spacer mounting block.

For this client, we ordered the 8″x12″ Canvas Thin Wrap w/satin laminate and got both the mounting block and easel stand.  This will give the client the option to hang the print or display it in a variety of locations such as on a table, mantle or shelf.

Guess how many times we’ve gotten an engagement session inquiry from a guy?  Just guess!  A few months ago I would tell you none, but Herb came along and changed that.  Like many other “firsts” in this journey we’re on I was very excited about it.  This is going down in Nara Photography’s history for sure.  Herb contacted us back in August after recently proposing to Amanda.  They had already had a date in mind for their engagement session and it was in October.  I tried convincing them to do it earlier for the weather’s sake, but learned in the process that Amanda lives in San Francisco and would be in Seattle that weekend.  The same week we were emailing each other Amanda’s work schedule freed up and she was able to come up to Seattle.  We took the opportunity to meet up with both Amanda and Herb at a Tully’s coffee shop and we all clicked right away.  Little did I know that our meeting would lead to even more coffee shops!  On the day of their engagement session we met Amanda and Herb at a bakery/cafe in Pioneer Square.  Following that we headed to the Tully’s at Alki Beach.  We learned that it was one of the places Amanda and Herb went on their first date.  It was there that they carried on a three hours long conversation and it was then the beginning of everything.

We had a lot of fun doing their engagement session.  It’s funny how both claimed to be shy in front of the cameras, because we ended up with so many not-so-shy, sweet, romantic, fun, gorgeous and even some sexy pictures!  I actually had a really hard time picking some out for this blog post.  To see even more photos from Amanda and Herb’s engagement session in Pioneer Square and Alki Beach click here for their slideshow.  Every time I listen to the song I think of these two.  Amanda and Herb are running off to Italy next spring to get married… just the two of them.  So excited and happy for them!  Wish we could pack ourselves into their luggages and tag along =).