StudioWed Denver is a collection of expert wedding professionals who share a hip and stylish planning studio in the Highlands area of Denver. StudioWed is complimentary for all engaged couples. Brides and grooms can meet with a variety of top wedding professionals all in the same day at the same place! On the first Tuesday of each month, StudioWed hosts a complimentary open house for all engaged couples and their families. Join us for a glass of champagne, browse the studio, review vendor portfolios and leave with a fabulous StudioWed swag bag. We look forward to seeing you at StudioWed on Tuesday, March 2nd from 5-8pm. {article via (Save The Date Events)}

4500 West 38th Avenue, Suite 100, Denver CO.

“THE LIST is a hand picked selection of top wedding professionals in Colorado. Each professional is expected to be highly skilled, creative, and provide superior customer service.   The application process involves a thorough interview as well as reference checks.”

We are excited about this site and hope you find it useful in gathering inspiration for your wedding!

It’s no surprise that I love my job.  I hate to stop working because I love it so much.  Remember my New Years Resolution’s and my 2010 goals? I swore I would give myself an intervention … from … that’s right, my iPhone!  Truth is – I haven’t.  I can’t.  I am addicted.

But that brings me to what I wanted to talk about most, and that is productivity.  I have been focusing on 2010 and what an amazing year it will be.  How I want to change my business, myself, and all of those goals.  But no matter what your role is, your job {a mom, an accountant}, you should never let that role describe yourself as a whole.  This seriously sung out to me  I try to be more productive, and read, or write, or get inspired.  Then, my phone dings.  It’s a new email.  Or it lights up, because I got a new Facebook message.  All of a sudden, I am distracted, and no longer focusing on the task at hand.  And, while I repeat to myself, that social networking {Twitter, Facebook} are essential parts of my business, they definitely don’t define me, my business, or my work ethic.

So I challenge all of you to make a list.  Make a list of the things that are distracting you.  My list from the other day went a little something like this:

• Ava
• My iPhone
• The barking dog that never stops outside of my office window
• Writer’s Block
• Nothing to talk about
• Emails that need to be responded to

Use those things to make you more productive.  In my case, I turned off some notifications on my phone.  I use that phone to be more productive when I am on the road – and it works, but I don’t need every tiny notification.  And while I love my daughter dearly, the days that she is home with me, I am not nearly as productive as the days that she is with a sitter, so I stopped working so much on those days.  Those, are family days {or Mom & Ava} days.  While I think all the time that I have a boring life, writer’s block, and nothing to blog – when have I ever been at a loss for words, and I hear from a lot of my blog readers  that you like it when I share my personal life.  No excuses – I can make that change too.

What are the things that are making you less productive and defining you?  Can you make changes to overcome those boundaries?

Happy Friday!

First … sorry for my long delay.  I still owe you all the best of 2009 wedding post.  It’s in the works.  I also have a few recent sessions to get on the blog.  Truth be told, I have been busy with a lot of stuff behind the scenes.  I am SUPER excited that StudioWed Denver opened yesterday!  I am thrilled to be part of such an amazing group of vendors.  For those of you who have meetings scheduled in the coming weeks … we will be seeing you and showing you ‘the goods’ there

Secondly – we have been battling the ickies here.  The little one got sick a few weeks ago with an ear infection that hasn’t seemed to go away.  Or, it went away for a few days and came back with avengence on Sunday.  So, that has also been occupying some time.

Third … a few words about house cleaning.  You will notice some new additions to the site!  Take a look around and let us know what you think.

And finally … I PROMISE that there are lots of posts coming.  Stay tuned.  I am going to try to stick with my New Years resolution and blog at least 2-3 times a week.  For those of you that don’t blog regularly, blogging is quite a task  There’s a lot more that goes in to it than meets the eye.  It’s really no excuse, I’m just sayin’

Because everything is better with a picture … here is a quick image from our Best of Weddings 2009 post.  Ashley and Scott’s wedding at Rembrandt Yard in Boulder.

If you are planning a Colorado Destination Wedding, researching vendors for your wedding, or are recently engaged, this is a complimentary event where you can view some of the latest wedding trends.  You can register for the event by going to: studiowedbridal.eventbrite.com

Congratulations! We are excited to announce that Karie McLain Photographer, LLC has been chosen to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards^™ 2010. This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service and professionalism. 

The Bride’s Choice Awards™ are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds (brides and grooms) through extensive surveys and reviews, which means your past clients have spoken on our behalf and selected you to receive this honor.

A HUGE thank you to all of my clients, past and present, who voted for us.  This award means a lot knowing that my clients had a say in it!

A lot has been going on behind the scenes here at KMP.  For one thing, we are SUPER excited about StudioWed.  The website is now live, so I would encourage all of you potential clients, and current clients to check it out.  We know it will be an amazing resource for you if you are planning a wedding.  You can click HERE to view the website.  The studio is scheduled to open in January!  Stay tuned for more information.

Secondly, tis the season to be engaged!  The Knot put out recent stats that stated that 40% of couples get engaged over the holidays.  If you are just getting engaged, or recently engaged, and getting ready to look for photographers, here are a few articles that we feel are important in making your decision.

10 Reasons Professional Photographers Charge What They Do

Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Wedding Photographer

This next paragraph is mostly for photographers, and answering the questions I have recently received: Because we return a ton of images to the client after the wedding, I go through and make an initial album design for my clients.  I began using Project Workroom for my clients to review the design and make changes.  Let me say, it has been amazing!  Check them out!  I use Adobe InDesign to design the layout of my albums.  It has drastically decreased my design time … and is so much more fluid than Photoshop.  If you are not using InDesign, you should be.  I use the software now for my marketing materials, album designs, business cards.  It is just a fabulous Graphic Design software!  It also allows you to make templates that you will use again. My clients make their changes, submit them to me, and the album is sent to print!

As I said last week, I make my albums no nonsense designs.  The images speak for themselves on clean white backgrounds.  I also hate to cram too many images on a page, as I feel it gets distracting from the story.  Here are a few recent album spreads.

That’s it … It’s my 2 cents on album design.  I hope it answered a lot of you photographer’s questions.

Sessions will be 30 minutes.  They will include an online gallery to view and order your images, and you will receive 1 digital file so that you can design your photo Christmas Cards.  If you want to see any of our designs, just let me know!  We can design something killer for you and your fam

Don’t forget to check out our Portraits Gallery to get an idea of how these sessions work.  They aren’t your typical family portrait session!  They are way more fun!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!