The Root Photography Blog

Getting Ready : Connecting Rooms

October 2, 2012 by Jensey 7 Comments

So, I’m hoping to start sharing monthly wedding tips, and I’m so excited to kick things off with this one!

It happens all the time (especially our lovely Disney Fairy Tale Weddings): Our couples get ready on their wedding day in two separate locations. Usually, this is separate rooms at the same hotel, but at Disney, it’s often separate rooms at hotels ~30 minutes apart with parking. This can be frustrating when creating the timeline of the wedding day, and a waste of precious photo time when it comes to logistics- Nate dropping me off with the bride, driving to the groom for 15 minutes of photos, then back to the bride’s room or a first look location. See the problem here?

When we photographed Dani and Dan’s wedding last month, I loved that she’d booked connecting rooms for her and Dan. The biggest benefits of this were that instead of sending a bridesmaid on an errand to pick up this or that from Dan, they were able just to go next door, and Nate and I were able to float between the two rooms, ensuring we never missed a moment.

This is now our #1 suggestion for couples getting ready in hotel rooms, and if you need any more convincing to make this happen, just look at this photo Nate snagged while Dani was being laced up- Favorite times a million. :)

Mindy + Tim : First Look on the 1st

October 1, 2012 by Jensey 3 Comments

I would like to send a huge thanks to Mindy of Budget Fairy Tale for October’s First Look on the 1st! You can visit her blog here, and read her full wedding recap here. :)

We had always known we wanted to do a “first look” before our ceremony simply for logistic reasons. We didn’t want to have to rush through our photos between the ceremony and reception, and we also wanted to join our guests at our cocktail hour (hey – we were paying for it, after all). But my strong, feminist side has always had a problem with the way traditional first looks perpetuate the myth that the bride is somehow more important than the groom and has to be hidden away for a big reveal. So we elected to do a “reverse first look,” where Tim came up behind me and I turned around to see him. This actually worked very nicely for me because I had yet to see his full wedding day ensemble. So when I turned around to see him, I actually was truly surprised and excited! It was so nice to have some time to ourselves before the chaos hit.

One of the unexpected perks of the reverse first look was it resulted in one of my favorite pictures from our wedding day, which is the photo of me standing in the grass among the fallen petals of a Jacaranda tree, waiting for my soon-to-be husband. Even though I had walked around the grounds of the Disneyland Hotel several times before, the place felt different and the area felt so much more magical to me at that moment, and I was standing there by myself waiting for Tim it really hit me that my fairy tale was coming true.

Related posts on the blog :

What’s a “first look?”

Carrie and Patrick’s First Look

Erin and Steve’s First Look

Alex + Steve : Wedding Part II

August 21, 2012 by Jensey 1 Comment

Continued from Alex and Steve’s Wedding Part I. :)

While we continued photos with the newlyweds, Alex and Steve’s guests enjoyed being serenaded by the Main Street Dapper Dans! How’s that for wedding entertainment?