Make sure you scroll to the end to see Adam, the groom, photobombing his wife’s portraits with a cartwheel!

The winners are Hannah Howard and Rhonda Gillis, who we chose because at the core of their stories was the love in their family and a desire to preserve the memories of their families. Rhonda and Hannah, we’re giving you both 1-hour photo sessions on location anywhere in the local area. Contact us for details.

We thank everyone else for sharing your stories with us. Even though we couldn’t give you all the free family photo session, we hope we’ll get to do family photos for you sometime this year.

LaRon and Kali are so great to be around. They seriously love each other and act like they’re best buds. You can see some of their joking personalities come through in these photos. This was my favorite kind of engagement session… the kind where we have to give very little direction and just let the couple be themselves.

We spent our time on Jekyll Island at this incredible engagement session. We can’t wait to shoot their wedding in Atlanta later this year. We’re soooo stoked!

Enjoy…

We all like free stuff. That’s why we’re giving away a free family photo session! “How do I get it?”, you may be wondering loudly inside your head. Easy. Just become a fan of Chris Moncus Photography on Facebook and tell us there why your family should get it. We will look over all of the responses this Friday, February 5, and choose who we think needs it the most.

You can help us choose by commenting on some of the stories. If their story touches you, let us know. If you think other members of your family or friends can help convince us, have them comment on your wall post.

Even if you don’t want the free pictures, become a fan on Facebook and you’ll get the first shot at specials and giveaways.

We can’t wait to see all of the responses!

The Team

I believe the wedding team should be just that – a team. Not just a bunch of hired hands but a team that values each other’s services. Beyond just vendors and more like a group of experts in their own field trying to make your wedding day the best it can be.

The wedding team should run like an expensive watch. It should be made of the highest quality parts that all work together in perfect harmony. If one gear is out of alignment the rest suffer.

A bride’s selection of vendors can make or break the team. She should start with an experienced coordinator to help her. A great coordinator/planner can speak confidently about other vendors’ quality and team spirit. If the coordinator knows that a particular photographer works well with a particular videographer, she knows they won’t be fighting for shots but will instead help one another to get the best shot they can. Think of how a caterer and a baker can work together to create a super-tasty dinner/cake combo. You get the picture.

The coordinator is also the vendor wrangler so to speak. She gets to be the one handling last minute problems and not the bride. The bride doesn’t even have to know that the caterer dropped a plate of meatballs. The coordinator is the one calling to be sure the team will all arrive on time. She is a stress-free bride’s best friend.

Planning Prevents Problems

The planning stages are also critical. Here are a few tips we can offer:

• Details. Details. Details. (Give as much info to your vendors as possible!) – When I know that the decorations were hand made by your great aunt, I’ll be sure to get lots of photos of them. If you tell me that you bought them at the party store then less time will be spent on photos of them. You probably can’t overload us with details, so make sure you pass them on to us.
• Quality Vendors Play Nice - Vendors should abide by the unspoken code to work together. Caterers should pause setup to allow for photos. Photographers shouldn’t walk in the videographer’s shot. Photography and videography vendors should talk ahead of time to be sure they are on the same page. In short, professionals act professional.
• Think The Schedule Through – For example, if you need flowers in the pre-wedding photos, make sure the florist knows that and is arriving early enough to get it set up . Also talk to your video and photo guys to set up a shooting schedule before you set the hair and makeup appointments so that you will have allowed plenty of time for the shots.
• Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute to Book – The best vendors and locations tend to go first. We are already booking weddings for September 2011 – 21 months away!

Looking Back

When you are on the way to your honeymoon, all the guests are gone, and your vendors have packed up and gone home, you want to look back and know that you had the easiest, most beautiful wedding ever because you took the time to hire the right vendors who worked together to make it happen.

We’re Team Players Who Absolutely Love Shooting Weddings

Want us to be a part of your wedding team? Contact us and tell us about your wedding.

If You’re Wondering Who We Enjoy Working With…

• Wedding Planner/Coordinator - Cocktails & Details
• Hotel/Wedding Site/Caterer - Jekyll Island Club, Epworth By the Sea
• Videography – iMint Media
• DJ – Island Sound
• Florist - The Flower Basket

But we love meeting new people too!

Got Tips?

If you have other tips or stories, please help the wedding world by adding them in the comments.

We had a table with our wedding guides, cards, and a few photos, a tv with a slideshow of some our favorite images, and a sitting area for brides to look at albums and talk with us. Here are a few shots from the day.

We spent New Years Eve with friends playing board games, eating good food, and playing music.

2010 already promises to be a great year. It’ll be our first time attending and displaying at a bridal show. It’s the first year we’re printing photo books. Thus far we’ve almost booked more weddings for 2010 than we shot last year!

We hope your 2010 will be amazing. If we can help you remember 2010 with pictures, let us know.

If you’re looking for a wedding photographer for anywhere in the Golden Isles or beyond, we’d love to chat with you about your wedding.

The images below were chosen for different reasons. Some because they are great images (in our opinion). Some because they have a story. Either way they hold a special place in our memories of 2009.

Dana + Billy: St. Simons Island, GA – Casino/Neptune Park

This photo was one of those you take because you know it will look good, not because it looks good right then. Why? Because Neptune Park on St. Simons Island was LOADED with people that day. We had to carefully remove 6 or so people and 3 trash cans from the scene to get to this image.

Megan + Chad: St. Simons Island, GA - Beaches

We grabbed this as we were heading to take more photos. They got ahead of us and were enjoying the first few minutes of being married.

Charity + Dustin: Downtown Brunswick, GA - Old Court House

This was one of those “what is our photographer doing?” moments where I said “stand there and just trust me”. They were about to get in this sweet Caddy and I noticed the reflection in the wheel. They loved the shot! “Oh that’s why you were laying on the ground pointing the camera away from us”

Rachel + Paul: Jekyll Island, GA - Historic District

Not much of an amazing story behind this one. The amazing story is with the couple. I didn’t plan this. We were walking to a new location and I turned around and this is what they looked like. You can see how much he adores her. She never would have seen this face had we not turned around at that moment.

Wendy + Tony: St. Simons Island, GA - Beaches/Casino

This is what you get when you tell a couple that just got married to kiss for a picture. I felt like I was shooting this for the poster of an action/romance movie.

Jamie + Ben: St. Simons Island, GA - St. Simons Community Church/Neptune Park

They wanted fun pictures. Enough said.

Katie + TJ: Waverly, GA – Maiden Creek

I just really liked this image.

Katie + Trey: St. Simons Island, GA – Epworth by the Sea

Katie said she wanted sunset photos but sunset was right in the middle of her reception… so we worked the schedule around it. As soon as the picture break came around we snuck out the back door to head to the bank of the river and get her sunset pictures. We were all blown away at how good they were and how “worth it” it was to reschedule the reception around them.

Krissie + Norman: Waycross, GA – Obediah’s Okefenok

“We’re getting married in a swamp.” Well you don’t hear that every day. It turns out Obadiah was her great-great-grandfather and his home from way back then is now a historic landmark and the area around it, a swamp, is a wildlife preserve. It was a beautiful area for a wedding. The shot below is one actually taken in the swamp area. You don’t get images like that very often.

Mallery + Earin: Brunswick, GA – First Methodist Church

They had just lit the unity candle and came back to the middle. With the pastor stepped off to the side and a song being sung it seems as if they are the only ones there. The focus through the cross is no accident. These two have based their relationship on their relationship with Christ. This is an image that once I saw it on the back of Amanda’s camera after the ceremony I actually screamed with excitement.

Regina + Tommy: St. Simons Island, GA – Their home

This love story needs to be told. After 25 years of marriage, they divorced. After healing and post-/pre-marital counseling they remarried. They’ll tell you that without God they ruined their marriage and it was with God that they repaired it. What a story.

It was a rainy day which forced us to stay inside for all pictures. So when life handed us lemons, we got confused as to why life would do such a thing, and then proceed to get some great pictures inside. I doubt we would have really explored the space as much as we did had we had the outside to work with. So, thanks God, for the rain and some amazing photographs.

The ceremony was short and sweet. The pastor, Curtis, did a great job. Music was well-done. The reception was at Epworth by the Sea on St. Simons Island and from the start was incredibly fun.

Mallery and Earin are long-time friends and we’re so happy for them. Congrats you two! Thanks for letting us be your photographers. God bless!

And now for the slideshow

Watch it fullscreen with the far right button.

tj+katie from iMint Media on Vimeo.

The wedding of tj+katie.

Amanda and I want to wish you all a merry and blessed Christmas. 2009 has been incredible. We can’t wait for 2010!

We also wanted to offer a Christmas present to any brides who book us as their wedding photographer before 2010 is here. How about a FREE engagement session? You’ll save $350 bucks on your wedding! Now how’s that for a Christmas present?!

If you’re not engaged but know someone who is, send them a link to the site and get them in touch with me before 2010. Pass on the good news. Twitter or Facebook it.

Again, merry Christmas. Eat a lot and enjoy your friends and family.

- Chris & Amanda Moncus

One of the best moments was when Raegan, who wasn’t a big fan of the sand, all of a sudden started smiling big. A couple was walking their dog behind us on the beach and Raegan loved it. They stuck around for a couple minutes to keep her smiling (which we really appreciated). As we found out later, it was a fellow local photographer Brooke Roberts who was helping us out. Thanks Brooke!

We got to work alongside iMint Media, their videographer, who we wholeheartedly recommend for wedding videography. TJ and Kim are the best.

So now to the photos. Scroll to the end for a slideshow (with lots more pictures) of their wedding.

And now for the slideshow.

And now for the slideshow

Here’s the results of the labor. We had fun to say the least.

Setup Info: 1/200 at f/2.8 at 16mm. Canon 5d Mark II. Two flashes: one at camera right, one a camera left behind us. Reflector at camera left.