Click the eZine below to read it in full-screen mode. To visit the Web site any of our eZine advertisers, click on an ad. You can also download the PDF.

I just received Fundy’s Album Builder and full suite.  If you are a photographer and design your own albums this is a program you have to look at.  Fundy and his team have spent a lot of time and energy making this program as intuitive as possible.  As any photographer knows album design and creation can be trying at times.  It can also be another way of expressing your personal aesthetic and presenting the photographs in a way that concludes your vision of the event.  Album Builder is easy to learn, Fundy hosts step by step how to videos that are easy to follow, and easy to make personal.  I prefer a minimalist approach to wedding album design that allows people to enjoy the photos without distraction.  I am going to try my hand at designing my first album for Isaac’s Bar Mitzvah.

We will feature Fundy and his team on our web site soon.  In the meantime take a peak at a feature they did on me on theirs.

Photo courtesy of Lauren Brown

An inadvertent omission…  This beautiful photo was taken for Leslie Lukas by photographer Lauren Brown.  Please visit her website at www.laurenbrownphoto.com to see more of her work.  Sorry about that!

Leslie Lukas is a Montana wedding planner and floral designer.  She is a regular contributor of BRIDES magazine for the mountain west, and has recently been seen on Grace Ormonde Wedding Style.  www.leslielukas.com

Photograph by Morgan LaMare

MWG:Tell us what you do and what you love about weddings?

LL: As a full time wedding planner and florist, I plan and design weddings from concept to completion for destination clientele as well as local brides and grooms.  The candid me loves the personal connection that I have with the families during such an intimate time.  We get to know each other through the process, and it is so validating when I am able to create a concept that I know they will cherish their entire lives when they look back on their wedding.  The professional me loves the challenge that planning a wedding in Montana brings, from weather-related plans, to vendor relationships and dynamics, to the  organization of it all.  It nourishes the need for me to do something from start to finish and see it unfold before my eyes…..smoothly, of course!

MWG: Share a bit of advice with other wedding vendors on social marketing.  (ie FB commenting on other peoples posts, and anything else you do)

LL: I feel that with free marketing tools such as FB and blogging at my fingertips, it is important to work it into my weekly schedule to showcase my latest projects and achievements.  In today’s technological age, I cannot ignore the potential to reach my clientele in this way.  On another note, I constantly remind myself that if I want feedback and positive comments on the posts that I create, it is important that I do the same for my colleagues.  Scratching backs in this industry is important.  When a colleague posts an achievement or their latest project, I take the time to tell them they are doing a great job.  I feel this attracts positive energy to our entire wedding community.  It is also a great idea to offer a bit of advice, and showcase the expert I am by being the first to share the information.  It is eye-catching to potential clientele that you are up on the latest trends and care about what is going on in the wedding scene.

MWG: Share a story about your favorite photo of one of your weddings?

LL:  This photo captured by local photographer Morgan LaMare says it all for me….it was taken at Chico Hot Springs, where I first got my foot in the door and began my career.  Every time I see such a joyous couple like this under Emigrant Peak, it makes my heart sing and takes me back to my roots of when I first started in this industry.  I’m sure there will be many more photos with this same back drop, but it will never get old for me. I am all about the couples, but I am also in this industry because I love design, planning, and the conceptualizing that I get to do.


MWG: Finally, what do you like about the MWG?

LL: MWG is a collection of Montana’s top vendors.  I feel that the advice on the blog is sound, the layout is  beautiful and it is a good representation of what the vendors within its pages have to offer. It is such a great value, too.  Its standings in the major search engines have grown to the top, and we can all sleep well at night knowing that potential brides are finding us through MWG.  I am excited for the future of MWG as it works towards a stronger online presence with the e-zine and focus on searchability.

TUMBLR for our vendors, IT IS EASY!  Blogging is an imperative part of any business these days.  Our prospective clients want to see what you have been working on lately and get a glimpse of your personality and your blog is the easiest way to keep things current.  TUMBLR is the easiest format to create a blog that I know of.  Follow these simple steps and you will have your blog set up in less than 30 minutes, I promise.

Before you start gather some photos that you would like to post.  If you don’t have any of your own, contact some of the photographers that have worked on weddings with you and ask them, typically they are more than happy to share as long as you give credit.

Second, decide what you want your blog to say about you.  Right now you have a clean slate to work with, decide the impression you want to make and start working on it.  (How often in life does this opportunity happen???)

Go to https://www.tumblr.com/login
Sign up with your email, a password and your url.  I strongly suggest you use your company’s name for your url.  For the Montana Wedding Guide it is montanaweddingguide.tumblr.com

One of the many great things about Tumblr is that you can create many blogs and manage it from one account.  For example, I have my one account under my name and from a drop down menu I can blog about Montana Wedding Guide, Nashan Photographers, and my husband’s businesses as well.

Now you can create as many blogs as you want and a theme to go along with each.  If you want to get really fancy you can have someone design a page for you that matches your web site, otherwise you can keep it easy and choose one of the ready mades.

Call your web designer, tell them your TUMBLR url and ask them to link it to your web site and voila you are officially in the 21st century!

Once that is set up, you are ready to start blogging.  If you have created more than one blog choose the one you want to write an entry for.  On the top bar you will see a set of buttons giving you the option to add text, photo, quote, link, etc.  I almost always like to blog with photos, so I usually click on the Photo button.  Upload the photo I want, write a little blurb about it and hit the publish button.

If you have questions the Help center at TUMBLR is easy and smart.  Look up your idea and questions.  In our next newsletter we will post some ideas on what to blog about and how to make a blog campaign easy to create and execute.

If you are looking for a fun weekend of photography learning and a lot of other fun things check out the details of Larry’s photo workshop.

http://www.montana-photo-workshops.com/2011/820/

Dear Vendors,

After much thought and consideration we have decided to dedicate our energy to making the Montana Wedding Guide have an even stronger web presence and following.  Instead of printing a guide we will be distributing postcards throughout the state directing people to our site for more traffic on our web page.  At a time when we have to save our natural resources and as our client base relies more on the internet for information it makes more sense to work on our internet marketing rather than in printed material.

With that in mind we will be sending out a newsletter that will detail some of the new ideas we are implementing.  If you have ideas that you would like to share please speak now as we are always open to hearing what you think would be helpful.

Thank you all for your continued support.  Check back with us in a few days to see our new PR piece for the 2012 year.

Melanie

Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend.