The venue changes everything. It's usually one of the first things a bride thinks about and once it is in place many other decisions are easier to make. Will it be a destination wedding? In a church? A nontraditional venue? Outside? Inside? Outside under a tent? At someone's house? On the beach? At the courthouse? Maybe a chapel in Vegas? The venue really helps set the tone for the wedding.

So let's just say you are getting married here in Columbus, Ohio. There are many options to suit any budget and wedding size. My husband and I got married in a small church here in Columbus and had the reception in the fellowship hall downstairs. It fit the budget and was a beautiful church with stained glass windows and wooden pews. They let us use our own minister and our own music. For Nathan and I ... it was perfect. Having the reception in the same location really helped the budget and was more convenient for everyone involved.

Here's a few of our favorite venues in Columbus ...

North Bank Park Pavillion
Not a venue for the last minute bride, this gorgeous waterfront glass building is in high demand. Best to plan at least a year ahead for this one. It is most beautiful at night with the Downtown skyline as it's backdrop.

Whetstone Park Of Roses
You can get married outside under a gazebo or surrounded by blooming, fragrant roses. It's a beautiful and versatile place to tie the knot and you can have your reception on site at the shelter house.

Franklin Park Conservatory
A Columbus classic it is truly beautiful inside and out. A great alternative to a destination wedding, you can be surrounded by the tropics on even the coldest, grayest February day. With all those beautiful blooming plants and flora you can cut down on your flower and decor budget too.

The Venue & The Loft
If you are looking for a downtown loft with exposed brick walls and a cool vibe this is the place for you. Modern, urban and sophisticated.

That's just scratching the surface, there are so many more amazing places to get married and have receptions in Columbus. Smaller places like The Kelton House or grand places such as Columbus Museum of Art or off the beaten path places like The Depot,  CAPA Theatres, Via Vecchia Winery, The Bendora Chapel, the Columbus Cultural Arts Center or even The Columbus Zoo.

Photo Credit: Robin Oatts

Ideas. Daydreaming. Looking at Bridal Magazines, Wedding Blogs and books at the library? I know I'm not the only girl that dreamed of the big day all her life. I even have a journal entry from when I was a teenager with a list that reads "Very Important Things To Remember For My Future Wedding" with notes like "please only use fresh flowers". As if I was pleading with my future self to be reasonable and step down from the ledge leading to a world of silk flowers and fake flower bouquets. Although I must say there are some really creative things you can do with tissue paper and a small budget. I'm just saying. I had one friend needing inspiration for her wedding so much that she who had a party when she became engaged, everyone brought stacks of bride magazines and we all helped her earmark ideas and pretty things.

So whether the bride is a girl who's been dreaming all her life of her wedding day or a someone who finds herself suddenly engaged with no idea of where to begin wedding blogs can be a terrific source of inspiration, tips and sources. They are free, easily accessible no matter where you are, open 24 hours a day and usually updated daily or very often. Besides who am I kidding, I still love looking at Wedding Blogs even though my 5th Anniversary is this very weekend. (Sidenote: I can't believe it's been 5 years since I planned my wedding and married the love of my life!)

Here are some of the blogs I loved while planning my wedding. I'm sure there are MANY more amazing ones out there I've yet to find. If you know of any great ones leave a comment with the web address so we can build a resource for any brides who stop by here.

Style Me Pretty

Something Old, Something New

Weddingbee

I wanted to add these blogs as well because while they may not be wedding blogs there is so much here to inspire you for wedding planning and a whole lot more. Because really when it comes to inspiration, you can truly find it anywhere and I personally am more inspired by the designs and photography on these blogs than any cookie cutter wedding industry publication or bridal show. These are some of my all time faves.

Poppytalk

Design*Sponge

Oh! Joy

Hula Seventy

Here's Looking At Me Kid

And here are a couple more really nice wedding blogs I found while putting this round up together.

Junebug Weddings

Brooklyn Bride

Leave a comment, what blogs inspire you for wedding planning or anything else?

Photo Credit: Robin Oatts

So this week we are diving right into the Wedding Planning series we announced last week with an obvious question. Who is going to plan your wedding?

For me, hiring a professional Wedding Planner just was not an option. We didn't have the type of budget for that and I really wanted to do it myself and enjoyed it enormously. After all I was the kind of girl who had been dreaming this day all my life. I enjoy planning things down to the most miniscule detail, scheduling, researching, sourcing, shopping and organizing. I poured over my favorite wedding blogs for inspiration and ideas, looked at countless magazines and even listened to wedding podcasts. If all this makes you tired just thinking about it, you might want to keep it simple or enlist the help of a friend or professional.

However, when it came down to the BIG DAY itself I knew I couldn't do it all by myself. I also wanted to be able to be in the moment without rushing around. I wanted my Mom to just enjoy the day as well. So I asked one of my now best friends to be my wedding day coordinator. I knew she would understand and be sympathetic to my love of quirky details that could get overlooked otherwise. We met several times before the big day to plan and go over the schedule in great detail. It was a gift of love from her to us to undertake such a task. I knew that she was the only one I trusted and told her if the day came and the cake fell apart or got dropped what to do. She had the tools needed to get it done. She brought along her teenage sister as a junior assistant and they both carried everything off perfectly. Sure a couple things didn't go exactly as planned (they never do) but she improvised and problem solved and it all worked out.

I told myself countless times before hand that something surely would go wrong and mentally prepared myself. That was a good idea since one of the groomsmen got bumped off of a flight from Germany back here to Columbus and barely made in time for the reception. No problem, we just moved one of my brothers from Usher to Groomsman. It was a bummer but at least he was there for the reception. Flowers for the centerpieces not opening up so they could float on water? My Friend/Coordinator used the petals instead. Everything worked out and I was able to relax and enjoy this once in a life time day knowing someone was there to take care of every last thing. My friend was someone I wanted to be included in the wedding party in a special way and she enjoys doing this sort of thing so it worked out perfectly.

I was very fortunate. Normally you have to pay someone to care and be generous enough to provide that kind of coordination and attention to detail. If you don't have someone you trust to step up to the bat for you in that way I suggest you consider a Wedding Planner. Wedding Planners can provide service that ranges from just coordinating your day like my friend did for me to planning everything so you don't have to worry about a thing to somewhere in between. It doesn't mean you don't get to plan your own wedding or have a say, it just means you have much more help and resources you might not have otherwise. Columbus has many qualified Planners and while I don't have any personal experience with any of these, I'm listing a round up of just some of the ones that come reccomended.

Emilie Duncan Event Planning

Something Blue Wedding And Events

Devoted To Details

Joie de Vivre Columbus

The BridalSmiths

Professional Organizations for Bridal Consultants/Wedding Planners in Columbus with extensive lists of consultants in Columbus.

Columbus Bridal Consultants

Wedding Professionals Of Columbus

Photo Credit: Nick Fancher  ... And yes, that's my wedding day.

For me, planning my wedding was one of the most fun things I've ever done. My husband proposed in October of 2006 and we were married in May of 2007, so we had a little over 6 months to plan. Last week I was talking to a friend who just got engaged and I could barely contain my excitement, asking questions and wanting to hear all her ideas and what they have decided so far. I find myself just dying to help anyone planning a wedding or offer up any advice from what I learned. So yeah, I'm a girlie girl who loves weddings and I am not ashamed to admit it one bit.

So being in the business of photography here at Genre Creative we tend to think about weddings a lot. After all we do wedding photography and we have a photo booth we rent out to weddings and events. It probably won't surprise you at all to hear I absolutely love assisting Robin at weddings and helping make that day as special as possible. I'm a romantic, through and through.

Since I love this topic so much I thought I'd start a new series here with tips and ideas for Wedding Planning in Columbus, OH. It won't be exhaustive and I'm certainly no expert. I had a modest (at best) budget and a smaller wedding. I tend to think a little more off the beaten path and I hope to share some ideas here with you that maybe you haven't thought of or that you can use as a resource. Venues, florists, catering, dresses ....and of course photography. Let's plan a wedding!

Do you have a case of the Monday's? Need a little cheering up? Some inspiration? You may have already seen this on Facebook or going around the internet but I couldn't resist sharing it. If you are feeling sorry for yourself this should give you the kick in the pants you need to get out and do SOMETHING with whatever you've got. Use your talents and don't let your resources or situation in life hold you back. This is (to me) the heartwarming true story of the year and a really cool short film. If Caine can build an Arcade from cardboard, what's our excuse? 

Why. Why. Why.

I couldn't get the question out of my head. It didn't matter that I understood how to adjust the settings on my camera but I just needed to know for myself WHY it worked that way. It was like a road block in my head. I looked online for awhile asking the question a million ways but not knowing the proper terms and finally found an answer on a message board that read something like "It has something to do with the light rays.". That satisfied some of my curiosity but then FINALLY a guest instructor in one of my classes broke it down and said the name for this concept is Circles Of Confusion.

My understanding now is that when the aperture is larger (meaning the shutter opening is wider but the setting number itself is lower like F/2.8 the light rays are less spread out so the depth of field is more shallow and less things are in focus.  When the aperture is smaller (meaning the shutter opening is smaller but the setting itself is higher like F/16) the light rays are more spread out and more objects are in focus and the depth of field is less shallow. As you may already know the higher the F stop (or Aperture) the more in focus, the lower the F stop the less things in focus (i.e. shallow depth of field).

So I guess what I am saying is the answer to my question was "It has something to do with light rays.". I wanted to post this just in case someone else like me had the question and was searching for some kind of answer, obviously I'm still not an expert on the topic. For a more detailed scientific explanation go here.

Untitled, 1965-68 and 1972-74,
from Los Alamos, 2003
Private collection
(c) Eggleston Artistic Trust

That's a good question. It's a question that gets asked at the beginning of some photography classes and gets thrown around in certain circles. I don't know if I could pick one. I've certainly admired Richard Avedon for awhile now and his book "In The American West" has been very inspirational to me.

In one of my classes last quarter I was introduced to some Masters of Photography I'd never heard of before. William Eggleston really stood out to me. He captured everyday life. Plain ordinary objects, people living their life in a sort of documentary style way. He was one of the first non commercial photographers to work with color film. He was a Southerner. I love his photographs. They are almost like snapshots at times, like a peek into the world he lived in. The colors are beautiful and make me nostalgic and wistful. Finding new inspiration is one of my favorite parts of being in school.

How about you? Who is your favorite photographer? Who inspires you in photography or otherwise?

Spring has arrived early in Central Ohio! Our Spring On Location is coming up in just a little over a month. April 28th to be exact. We'll be offering 15 minute studio sessions for $100. You get 5 digital files of your choice to keep and use as you wish. In addition you will still have the the option to purchase professional quality prints from our online gallery.

If you sign up early you get your pick of the best time slots so now is a great time to get in. Spring is the perfect time for family photos with kids portraits with Mother's and Father's Days just around the corner. For more information and to sign up go here.

We would like to extend a special 20% off of the Basic or Exclusive Soap Box packages to anyone else who officially entered the contest. Contact us for more details.

Thanks again to everyone that joined in! Stay tuned for more contests in the future!

Despite getting her first tooth the night before, Emma was all smiles. She really turned on the charm right as I was changing lenses or getting setup in another room. You're killin me kid.

I usually pick a few images to show (and maybe I will do a larger preview another time) but for now...this single image kind of summed up the shoot.

XOXO, Robin