Montana Wedding Guide

Audrey Hall and Todd Harris marry in Livingston

2008-10-03T08:39:00.001-07:00

One of the first people we met here in Montana in 1989 when we first skied at Bridger Bowl was Audrey Hall. Since then we have worked together both as photographers and on the paper that I started in 1991 which is now the Tributary, and stayed friends sharing the main similar passion of photography. When Audrey and Todd decided to marry they asked my daughter, Keegan Nashan to photograph their wedding. Shooting a wedding is a stressful job, adding to the pressure was the fact that Audrey is a wonderful photographer and Keegan is only 15 years old. When Keegan came home and showed me the photos I was happy to know that she had done the best work to date and that Chieko, one of my associates graciously agreed to accompany her 'just in case.'

Here are some of my favorites and if you would like to see more visit: http://nashan.com/clients/clientresults.asp?name=633

2008-09-11T05:21:00.000-07:00

Erin and Erik just got married in Bozeman, Montana. The flowers arrangements were created by bloom. I loved the casualness of the entire wedding. Just a couple of hours prior to the wedding there was a hail storm which made everyone thing the ceremony would have to be held in the pavilion. Luckily the sun came out for the rest of the day and the wedding was held outside, by the ripe apple orchard.

I loved the pink theme that was carried out with the bridesmaids' dresses and flowers.

The wedding party in front of Ross Peak. You don't need many flowers to make this scene breathtaking.

Little details that most people don't notice....

The same perspective, same lens, different aperture and completely different photo.

The recession....

Erin wanted some photos in front of the red barn and I tried to make it a bit more playful with the use of the logs as pedestals for everyone. (Thank you groomsmen for doing the dirty work for me.)

Erin gave each bridesmaid a beautiful gold necklace with their initials on it.

Someplace I have never shot before.

I love the negative space around them.

I also LOVED the back of her hair.

"Wedding Photography Unveiled: Inspiration and Insight from 20 Top

2008-08-27T08:58:00.000-07:00

There is going to be a book published about Wedding Photography. It will be released in March of 2009 and has insights from 20 top photographers. If you are interested you can preorder at amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/Wedding-Photography-Unveiled-Inspiration-Photographers/dp/0817459103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219773508&sr=8-1

Carrie and Randy's Livingston Wedding

2008-08-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

On July 5 Carrie Patterson, one of the photographers who advertises on the site, got married in our lovely little town on Livingston, Montana at Deep Creek Grange, a venue that is starting to advertise with us. It was a bit nerve wracking shooting another photographer's wedding. But I have know Carrie for several years now and I have to say she was her wonderful self on her wedding day.

Their wedding was just featured on one of my favorite blogs by Janie Medley, a talented floral designer based on the East coast, and a wonderful person. Here is a link to her blog. She features some incredible weddings on her page!

http://thebridescafe.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/post-18.html?cid=126366758#comment-126366758

Anyway, back to Carrie and Randy's wedding. Carrie did a lot of the planning herself and designed the 'collateral' since she is also a great graphic designer. She and Randy love wine and decided to carry that theme throughout the wedding.

I love the bottles of wine with the corks holding the page numbers. The flowers in the wine boxes were simple and lovely.
Oh my god! We walked outside into the alley in town and there was a great airstream that a woman let us shoot in and on. (I actually asked permission this time!) Who could ask for a more beautiful bride?

A few weeks ago as I was talking to another bride she mentioned that she loved the spread Annie Leibovitz did of Sarah Jessica Parker for Vogue. http://www.style.com/vogue/feature/051308 I had just looked at the photos and they were amazing. I am a BIG (pardon the pun for those of you who saw the photos) proponent of 'stealing' images and making them your own. Here is one of the photos by Annie Liebovitz, truly one of the greatest environmental portraitists alive.

And then my photo inspired by hers.

While on a trip with Carrie to a photographers conference in Vegas. We found out that she was going to wear dyeable shoes. Since she is a friend and we are very candid Chieko and I strongly suggested to Carrie that we go show shopping. We went to zappos.com the following week and she bought some sweet shoes that are oh so photographable. (I love to make up words.)

And the perfect dress for Carrie.

Making it NEW

2008-07-27T06:33:00.000-07:00

About 10 years ago I saw a photo by one of my friends, Audrey Hall, who had shot a wedding up at Springhill Pavillion. It was a beauiful photo of the couple on the road that went on until infinity. Everytime I shoot up at Springhill I think of that photo. How do I capture the feeling of this beautiful place but make it fresh for each couple? How do you incorporate the personality of the couple and intertwine it with the sence of place to make portraits that are beautiful, fun and meaningful? Here are some photos that I took at Jill and Graham's wedding that I think do just that.

This first one is more traditional but still just a bit unusual in its composition.

Whenever I asked Jill to move her personality really came out. I love this shot of the two of them, her sincere smile and body posture shows just a bit of her charisma and happiness.

On the following photos I used a special infrared camera. I Love the way it distorts the grey tones into an unusual tonal range. I also love the moment while they were walking back to the reception after the quick photo shoot in the field.

Choosing your officiante

2008-07-27T05:51:00.000-07:00

Montana is unusual in many ways. In regards to weddings it is one of the only states in our country where you can have anyone marry you. For a few dollars your friend or relative can go to http://www.themonastery.org/?gclid=CIi6qN-S4JQCFSEbagodWmxMSQ and become an 'ordained minister'. My husband did this recently and married two couples over the last year. Jill and Graham had a very close friend do the same thing at their wedding. Here is one photo of them at the Springhill Pavillion located just out of Bozeman.

When someone you know marries you the ceremony becomes more meaningful and interesting to you and to your friends and family who are listening and participating. At Jill and Graham's wedding their friend brought in their personal history, shared how the two of them interact with each other, and instances that demonstrated the deep love and respect that they have for each other. He did it in a way that was witty and entertaining but still had a reverence for the magnitude of the promise they were making to each other.

Over the last 17 years, I have photographed hundreds of weddings and love listening to how people decide to share their promises with each other and their guests. I think you can hire an officiant/minister/judge to do the job, and if you are very communicative with them it can be a personal ceremony.

Choosing what is said and what is not said in your ceremony conveys a lot to the guests who are listening.

Following a theme....

2008-06-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

Over the years I keep seeing more ways that couple's have found to make their wedding unique and personal. I just shot a wedding where the main flower was was one of my favorites the peony. Cameron, the bride wore a dress that had peonies lace on the dress and they had hundreds of the flowers throughout the wedding.

I was just reading an article in Bride's magazine and it talked about using herbs in your floral arrangements and then I actually saw it integrated in such a beautiful natural way.

At the ceremony site they had more of the flowers in the beautiful fountain.

And then the gorgeous arrangements on the tables.

In my experience if you can incorporate something you love into your wedding it will come out looking really very elegant and unique.

Some Special Photos...

2008-06-08T06:05:00.000-07:00

Barbel, one of my close friends and associates, is always thinking of something different that we should incorporate into our photography. Over the last year she has been talking to her brides about doing some sexy shots while they are getting ready. She just photographed a wedding at the Rock Creek Resort in Red Lodge, Montana and did some photos that I think are beautiful and that you may want to do on your wedding. It only takes a few extra minutes and it makes for a great surprise for your husband! (You can give them to him for your three month or four month anniversary!)

Here are a few shots that she took. (I did ask the bride if she was alright with us using them on the blog and she said she was!) There are a bunch more but the bride asked me to only use the images that didn't show her face.....

Incorporating Traditions....

2008-06-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

I photographed a wedding last week out in California, and I know this is a Montana wedding guide but Jackie and Jason incorporated some Chinese customs to honor her heritage. Nowadays it is important to make a wedding personal and reflect your style and history. What better way to do that than incorporating some family traditions. This was my first time witnessing a Chinese Tea Ceremony. Evidently it starts by honoring the eldest family members and works it way through the various relatives. Jackie also changed into a traditional Chinese dress for the tea ceremony and then back into the gown that she was married in.

EMAIL NOTIFICATION!

2008-05-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks Cindy has been doing some research and found what I think is the best notification system for readers of our blog. If you would like to be informed by email every time we make an entry scroll down under the archives section on the right hand column and "Enter your Email Address" in the box and hit subscribe. They will send you an email you have to click the confirm option and you are set.

if you know of someone else who is planning their wedding and might find some of our advice helpful please send them this link!

We are all so excited about this new option and hope that you find it to be a helpful tool. please leave a comment if you have any thoughts on the service!

Part 1 of MY WEDDING MISTAKES

2008-05-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

I am going to try my best to make entries into the blog once a week with helpful hints that brides might be able to use to make their wedding more fun, affordable, beautiful and interesting.

Every year around this time I troll the alleys of Livingston and gather large bouquets of lilacs. If I were to get married again I would plan my wedding during the early spring so I could have lilacs and lily of the valley as my flowers. I come from a family of do it yourselfers (is that a word?) and sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. For my wedding, 17 years ago, I bought my own flowers the day before my wedding at the market in LA and arranged the flowers myself the morning of my wedding. I have to say I wouldn't recommend the latter part of that plan. My bouquet was too large and it didn't have a 'style' to it. If you do want to save some money in regards to flowers you can choose flowers that are in season because they are more affordable during that time of the year. I would definitely recommend hiring a professional florist for this. You can choose the style of your flowers and not have to worry about the details on your wedding day. I always recommend that my clients choose vendors who's work they love and who they feel will take care of all of their needs on the wedding day. After all of the hours of planning your wedding celebration you should be able to relax and celebrate all day long!

If you have something that learned from your wedding day please leave a comment for others to see.....

I'll write about my photographer next time.....
Melanie

Launching Montana Wedding Guide

2008-05-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Hi my name is Melanie Nashan, I am the owner of montanaweddingguide.com (Montana Wedding Guide) and Nashan Photographers. I have been shooting weddings in Montana since 1991 and love my job and living in this gorgeous state. Over the years we have worked with hundreds of brides who have been married in Montana, most of them are planning their first wedding, some brides live in state and others who are planning a destination wedding, and find the process overwhelming. I try to always offer my advice and recommend vendors because I know how many decisions have to be made in order to plan a beautiful wedding and empathize with the idea of doing it for the first time.

So last year I started thinking of creating a wedding planning site. Over the last year everyone in my office at Nashan Photographers has been talking about the idea to create an online Montana wedding guide that would help make planning a wedding easier for Montana brides. In our minds we wanted a site that would offer the following services:

a variety of links to various vendors that work with brides in Montana

their expert advice that would make planning a Montana wedding easy

photographs of weddings in Montana that give the feeling of our beautiful state

ideas of wedding details that a bride planning a wedding in Montana might want to use

a web page that is contemporary and pretty to be on

a blog that would be updated often that would give an insight into the various experiences we have had at our Montana weddings

So at the beginning of May montanaweddingguide.com went live. It has been a large undertaking and has required countless hours of work by Cindy, Chieko, Carrie and myself. I am very excited about the prospects of our site growing and becoming an integral part of any bride planning a wedding in Montana.

If you are a bride or a vendor and have any questions or suggestions please leave a comment on the blog. I am always open to new ideas and trying to make the page more useful to everyone involved.

Thank you to everyone who has worked hard to create the site and to my friends and vendors who have agreed to advertise on montanaweddingguide.com (Montana Wedding Guide) during it's infancy. Your support is greatly appreciated!!!!