Bellissima Blog | Chicago Photographer

Little P :: Downers Grove Newborn Photographer

bellissima — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 23:42:20 +0000

Newborn portraits are one of my favorite sessions. I love seeing new babies, and getting my snuggles in when I can. And the smell of new babies…don’t even get me started. I have been lucky enough to not only take photos of Little P this time, but also her big sister since she was born. Can’t wait to see these two together as they grow up.

This session started like all the others, except I realized shortly after getting to the studio that we had no heat, and my electric outlets had blown, so no space heater. The joys of an older building! So Day 1 we got as much as we could, this little one was a trooper. We then rescheduled for a much warmer studio day. Made all the difference. Enjoy!

Been a while….

bellissima — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 17:38:14 +0000

As a photographer, you have the lastest gadgets, latest social media, pretty much the latest everything. You have to. Technology is constantly changing, mostly for the good, but it is so easy to get caught up “in the next” of everything that you begin to lose focus on who you are and why you started down this journey of photographing people for a living in the first place. For me, it’s always been my passion, even if I tried to change my destiny, my destiny somehow found me. I looked up the definition….

des·ti·ny

ˈdestinē/

noun

the events that will necessarily happen to a particular person or thing in the future

You can’t change it. However, what I could change is how it consumes me. I love what I do. I think it shows in my work, and it’s one of the many reasons people hire me to photograph events in their life. All the things that come with owning your own business though are not necessarily glamorous. (that’s the part people tend to leave off). It’s A LOT of hours, it’s not 9-5, and you can’t just take a week off, EVER. As I have gotten older, and I’m watching my kids growing up in front of me, I realized something that maybe I hadn’t realized before. I need to be present. I can’t always look to the future, because I’m missing out on amazing things happening right in front of me, right now. I felt like I was watching my life outside of my own body, and not truly living it. I also realized I needed to make this time.

So there is a gap in my blogging, but I’m back! I feel like this year will be my best year ever! New focus and perspective has gotten me here. Thanks to all my clients for their continued support! Below is a pic of 2 of my favorite people.

19 East Spring Shoot :: Chicago Wedding Photographer

bellissima — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 18:53:15 +0000

Well, I don’t do shoots very often. I feel like lately I’ve perused the wedding blogs only to see fake wedding after fake wedding and I often think to myself, “I would NEVER do that at my wedding.” So when we created this one, that was my only stipulation, it has to be something that people will actually do and use. And I loved it! It was a huge collaboration between multiple vendors, and I have to say a huge thanks to Jaci from Clementine Custom Events, because she pulled everything together beautifully! Mind you, she was preggers at the time, but no baby brain for her. She was completely on top of everything. (Hint hint if you’re looking for a great planner, definitely call Jaci!) Food for Thought has taken over this new space, now called 19 East. I love it. It’s what I’d call modern/eclectic. It’s the best of metal and modern, and you just get such a great vibe from the space. To make it even better, your food is catered from Food for Thought! I go to a lot of events, and I can always tell when I’m eating something from Food for Thought. I have never had anything that I don’t LOVE from them. That’s saying a lot! And don’t even get me started on the bacon in the cup…..I just had to walk away. Literally had to remove myself from them. I think they had brown sugar on them or something. Simply yummy!

So I had to call on some of my favorite wedding pros to help out with this one, and they did not disappoint! The floral was from the fabulous Alex from Exquisite Designs She tied in chinoiserie which is an emerging trend she’s seeing in California and New York City and brought it to life here. We had a beautifully designed cake by Bittersweet Pastries that I originally had sent Jaci some examples of what I thought would look great, then voila, Bittersweet made exactly what I was thinking! It turned out beautiful. All of the stationary was done by the very talented Peggy from Erickson Design. She remembered every last detail to pull it all together (the cake bags were hysterical, check them out below). One thing we wanted to feature was the lounge area of 19 East. So we enabled the help of Bowery and Bash, a very unique event rental company for all of our group seating. You will not find plain white sofas here! There is a vintage feel to all of their pieces, and more importantly, COLOR! I could’ve selected a dozen more pieces no problem. Definitely check out their website. And to round out our rentals, we had some stunning linens from BBJ Linens, as well as table, chair, plates, glassware, and flatware rentals from Halls Event Rental. We are actually featuring a new chair from Halls in the photos, one of my new favs for the season. Lastly upstairs is a fabulous bridal suite where we had our friends at Diana’s Bridal feature some fab dresses to match our theme downstairs.

There you have it. A lot of collaboration and hard work from several of the wedding industry’s best! Enjoy the photos!

10 year anniversary :: Downers Grove Portrait and Wedding Photographer

bellissima — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 19:58:48 +0000

Hi All!

Well, we’ve been doing a ton of things behind the scenes with a new website, shopping cart, and also fresh look to the blog. So we’ve been busy, busy busy! But we couldn’t be more elated to have you help us celebrate our 10 year anniversary! I can’t even believe I’ve been plugging away at this for the past 10 years…am I starting to show my age? I think back at how crazy I was for starting a new business, then a year later starting my family. I guess I didn’t totally think that one through. But I’m so glad I did! I haven’t ever looked back. It’s been a ton of late nights, lots of weekends, but it’s no wonder the saying still holds true today, “if you love what you do, you won’t work a day in your life.” Well it’s something close to that. I love what I do, which definitely makes it much easier to leave my little ones to go to “work.” (I use that term loosely).

So in celebration, we are offering 10% off of any portrait sessions for the next month and $100 off of any wedding photography collection. Thanks to all of our wonderful clients in the past 10 years who have helped us to get to where we are today. Hope to see you all this month!

Spring Cleaning :: Chicago Wedding and Portrait Photographer

bellissima — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 02:34:25 +0000

Well there’s nothing like some spring cleaning to get the year started. I’ve been working on a new website that just seemed to always go on the back burner at all times. Followed by the blog. I’ve been working really hard these last few weeks to get them completed. We have so many new items, some you’ll see, some behind the scenes. More to stream line things for clients, and for us! So today we’re happy to tell you we completed one of the parts, the blog! New redesign, which we will still be tweaking in the next few days, but the guts of it are done! Out with the old, in with new, just doing a little spring cleaning here. Let us know how you like it!

Day 12 of the 12 Days of Blogging :: Downers Grove Photographer

bellissima — Thu, 25 Dec 2014 14:53:23 +0000

Well, we’re finally here. The 12th Day! It’s a huge effort to get 12 posts in a row done….so I hope you enjoyed it. And from my family to yours, we hope you have a wonderful holiday, whichever you are celebrating! And we’ll see you all in the New Year!

Day 11 of the 12 Days of Blogging :: Wedding Photography Giveaway

bellissima — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 19:43:36 +0000

Well, I had to make it fair. Earlier in the 12 Days of Blogging, I had a great discount for prints for our portrait clients, so I had to do something on the wedding side! So here it is! Book your wedding with Bellissima Photography by January 15th and receive a free 16×20 Fine art canvas, where you can choose from one of the fabulous wedding photos we’ll be taking! It’s valued at $199, and yours free! I know….pretty cool offer! All in the spirit of giving!

Day 10 of the 12 Days of Blogging :: Captiva Island Destination Wedding :: Part 2

bellissima — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 01:16:18 +0000

So here is part 2 of Becky and George’s wedding at Captiva Island. I don’t know how we got the photos we did. I will let you in on a little secret, all the photos you see of them together outside, it’s pouring rain. I don’t know how Becky’s makeup and hair still looked so great, cuz I looked like a drowned rat! Kudos to the stylist and make up artist, cuz neither budged!

We finally did get maybe 2 hours of dancing outside b/c it finally stopped. And we had some great photos to prove it!

I’m going to start with my final photo of the night, just b/c I can ! And you have no idea how long it took Becky’s poor brother to get this….he worked super hard, and I thank him! I had the easy part!

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Day 9 of the 12 Days of Blogging :: Becky + George :: Captiva Island Wedding

bellissima — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 05:33:07 +0000

Oh boy, been waiting to post this one! So earlier on Facebook I announced I booked my first destination wedding in Captiva Island. I was super excited! Now that my kids are older, I would love to be able to do a few of these a year, it’s just nice to get out of the city and head to a new location to photograph. I had never been to Captiva before, but I will definitely be going back! Becky had been going there since she was a kid, so her dream always was to get married there. They rented a beautiful house and had everything there. However, mother nature did not cooperate, and that area was hit with rain for a solid 2 days!!! And when did this rain start you ask? Literally as they groom started to walk down to start the ceremony. It was 2 hours earlier than any forecast had predicted! Can you even believe the timing? And it wasn’t just drizzling, it was coming down! This by far was the quickest ceremony I’ve ever photographed, but it was still beautiful…. and all smiles! Becky and George took all of this in stride, and really had fun, rain or shine! Here’s part one of their wedding!

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Day 8 of the 12 Days of Blogging :: Downers Grove Children’s Photographer

bellissima — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 20:42:21 +0000

Day 8….this is flying by! Look at this little guy! I absolutely am in love with his hair! Such a little cutie. I had to bust out all the usual toys of distraction to keep this little guy on the backdrop….which always makes the parents bust out a little and wonder how I have the patience for this. It’s mostly b/c they are not my kids lol! In honesty, he did great for his first big photo shoot. And this little guy is turning one at end of this month. So we had some balloons added in. These balloons were no challenge! So congrats little guy, and enjoy the photos!