Letter of appreciation...

So I just had to share a recent letter that we received from one of our brides from this fall. It's always great to receive such kind words! We truly feel so fortunate to work with such fabulous couples on such an important day, so receiving positive feed back is the icing on the cake for us.

One of my favorite parts of the day, in addition to shooting tons of candids, is the time that I have with just the bride and groom. Sometimes this ends up being more time then others, depending on how much time the couple alots...but none the less I always love capturing the romance and emotion between the couple! It's great to see that Charice & Ryan truly appreciated this time too!!!

Thanks again for the kind words guys!

-April Look



You and your team are very talented and fun to work with. Thank you for capturing our wonderful day in a way that I feel no one else could. The best part of the day for us both was of course the ceremony but also the time before the reception where it was just Ryan and I, April and her associate. No guests to attend to or wedding party, just us. We felt like we had a moment to ourselves and got a chance to reflect on our love for each other and the rest of our lives together- you captured that. I will always remember that part of the day the most when it felt like the world stopped and it was just us two- nothing else mattered. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time or for taking us away for a little bit. I can't believe how many pictures we have and it will be so hard to choose. Ryan's brother got married 3 weeks before we did and they only have about 10 pictures of just them two to choose from their photographer. Their photographer did not take the time to capture just the bride and groom. Thank you so much for your good work!

Bachelor Contest...

So I must admit that I have been watching this seasons Bachelor.
There is something about watching the girls cat fights, and romantic dates with Jason that entertain me. Fortunately I DVR it, so the 2 hour episodes are really more like a hour after I fast forward through commercials.
I thought that it could be fun to do a little contest with those of you who also are watching The Bachelor. (for those of you who don’t, keep watching the blog as I am sure we will have other contests in the future that may better relate to you!)
Anyway we would love for you to participate, feel free to invite friends and family to as well.

The prize: For wedding clients or past wedding clients the prize is a $200 fine art print credit. (this credit can’t be used towards albums or other products and is meant to be used solely for fine art prints)

For non-clients a photo session with Derrick & April on location. ($200 value) Non-clients can’t give their credit to current clients to use as a fine art print credit.

The rules: Send us an email to info@creativelookimagery.com with who you feel Jason will pick, before next Monday 7:00 central time. Also post your full name and birth date. Incase of a tie names and birth dates will be added and the individual with the highest number will win.
So for example, April Ann Look 9-10-1981 my name added up is 12 letters plus my birthday is 2012. Only one entry per wedding couple, and one entry per person.

Good luck, I will be posting who I think Jason will pick in a future blog.

Happy Birthday Derrick!!!

Today's is Derrick's Birthday. We have a fun day planned. (I will be sure to blog later in the week with some pictures from the day) Koeplin and I are also letting Derrick sleep in this morning. (yes, 8:30 is sleeping in when you have a 19 month old, he has already got to sleep an extra 2 hours!) Needless to say we will be out of the office a majority of the day, so if we don't get back to you today, we will be sure to tomorrow.

If you have time today be sure to send Derrick an email or leave a comment with some Birthday love.

Here's a self portrait Derrick snapped of himself awhile back in a public restroom. I do wonder what the other people in the restroom thought. :)

12.5.08 Cammy & Adam are Married!

It always brings a tear to my eyes as I watch our couples say, "I do." Of course I am a bit of a sap and never tire of seeing a wedding. I love everything about wedding days. I love seeing all the fun the girls have getting ready, the dress, the bride coming down the aisle, the moments between the bride and groom, the cake, bouquets, decor etc. But Cammy & Adam's wedding was extra special for us. Cammy is a very close friend of both Derrick & I's from our Whitewater days. We had some great times together, so it was great to see Cammy say, "I do," to Adam. From the times that Derrick & I have spent with Cammy & Adam it's quite apparent that they are head over heels for one another and so ready to husband and wife.

Cammy & Adam's big day was in Lake Geneva at the gorgeous Grand Geneva resort, which meant that we were able to drive through Whitewater on our way there. Derrick and I always talk about getting back to Whitewater, but somehow haven't found the time to do so in over 6 years. (I know it doesn't sound like much of a destination, but its where we met some of our best friends and where we fell in love!) We didn't have a lot of time there but it was great to pass through the charming little town as many memories flooded our heads. It definitely seemed ironic that we were passing through the town and apartment complex that not only we had met at 6 years prior, but where we had met Cammy and where Cammy and Adam had met as well.

Cammy & Adam's day was nothing short of spectacular. They met up in the lobby of the Grand Geneva prior to their ceremony, so that we were able to do their portrait sessions prior. With them having an evening ceremony this worked out perfect, and allowed for the rest of their day to flow seamlessly as they went from their ceremony to greeting their guests at cocktails.
Cammy works for BBJ Linen, so of course they had the ballroom at the Grand Geneva looking breathtaking!
Ladies, if you are wanting linens, chair covers etc. BBJ is definetly the best, be sure to contact Cammy and the other girls there.

Derrick & I unfortunately had to take off once our coverage was through as the roads were becoming bad and we had quite the drive home. Though I am sure everyone had a great time into the wee hours!

Cammy & Adam, we are soooo happy for you both and of course had a great time working with you! Love you guys! April & Derrick

Wedding Show 2009...

(heres a few pics we grabbed of our booth and a pic that Becky from Appleby was nice enough to snap of Derrick & I in our booth)

Derrick & I had a great time at the wedding show this weekend, and enjoyed meeting all the wonderful couples that stopped by our booth. 

The show seemed to peak some great interest in our services, as we booked some great couples there and are meeting with some other fabulous couples later in the week. Our remaining 2009 dates are becoming sparse, which is a great thing obviously!  The spring and early summer of 2010 also seems to be booking even quicker then past years.

Keep in mind that we are offering the show incentive until this coming Friday January 16th. So if you are considering our services you may as well take advantage of the additional $300 off.

The show was also exciting as many of our current 2009 couples swung by our booth to say hi. It's not often that we get to see so many of our couples all in one day, but seeing all of you through out the weekend solidified to me that we truly work with the best clients and that 2009 is going to be a really fun year as we get to work with all of you!:)

It made me feel great as I spyed one of our grooms walking down the row and from a ways back I heard him turn to a friend and say, "That picture is awesome." Just then he looked at our sign and then to me and had a big smile on his face, as if excited that the awesome picture was shot by his photographer(s).

Unfortunately take down took us far too long last night and we were beyond exhausted when we got home. With it being such a crazy weekend for us, Koeplin stayed with my parents, so we were so excited to see him last night. Though we didn't have as much energy as he did today, we enjoyed spending the day with him and relaxing a bit before getting back to work tomorrow. 

If anyone has any questions or would like to set up a consultation just give us a call or send an email. We may be in and out throughout the week in appointments and shoots so if we don't answer just leave us a message and we will be sure to get back to you right away!

Have a great night!

April

New Web Site & Day 1 of the Madison Wedding show

We're really excited to announce the launch of our new website.  Which may or may not be visible to everyone yet.  If it's PINK it's new!  If you can't see it try emptying your browser cache.  Otherwise as the site 'propagates' (that's web-designer lingo for settling into our domain name) over the next day or so it should be fully viewable everywhere.  In the interim we know there are going to be a few issues that we want to apologize for a head of time.  One being that our Wedding Film (video) samples aren't all uploaded and current.  Hopefully this will be resolved by early next week.  Otherwise there possibly could be some small design bugs that need attention, but that we won't be able to realize until this site is fully 'propagated.'  If you happen to notice anything like this please let us know.  But otherwise we hope you find the site easy to use and great at showcasing our work!  ***NOTE CLIENT LOGIN IS NOW OFF THE SPLASH PAGE (ENTRY PAGE)  AND NOT IN THE MAIN SITE***

On another note:  

1 day of the Madison Wedding Planner and Guide show down, 1 to go...  For the first time in recent memory there was decent weather and no NFL playoff games with big local interest, which meant a really fantastic turn out.  We really enjoyed meeting all of the great couples who stopped by our display today and look forward to working with many of them though this exciting time in their lives. 

It's also great to catch up with all the different vendors we get to work with over the year and say hi.  It's not always possible to do this when we're all running around like crazy during the 'busy' season.  We even got to go out with some of the other Madison Photographers for food and drinks afterward.  It's really great that there's such a good network of quality photographers in our market for everyone to choose from and we enjoy keeping in touch and making new friends who share our passion for photography.

Hope you enjoy the new site and we look forward to day 2 of the show tomorrow!

Wedding Show Season

Tis the season that we both love and dread. Tis the season for wedding shows!

We love it, of course, because we get to showcase our newest work and meet lots and lots of people, some of which we end up getting to work with and many who are just caught up in the whirlwind and excitement of wedding planning.

We dread this time of year because of all the work that goes into pulling one of these shows off and no matter how much work we put into it in the months in advance it always seems like there’s a mountain of last minute details to be taken care of. From designing and printing new materials, to selecting and printing new work to be displayed, making Wedding Film demos to be played, choosing how to set up and decorate our booth with-in the space we have, and the list goes on and on. It’s becomes a lot like college, lots of all-nighters and cram sessions trying to get everything done.

And of course we always launch our new website about this time too, so there’s the small task of creating that, which is never a small task. We’re really excited about the new design and hope to see it launched in the next couple of days, we’ll keep you posted and appreciate any feedback, once it’s launched, that can help us make sure everything is working properly on computer screens everywhere.

We took part in a very successful show in the Wisconsin Dells last weekend and look forward to meeting more with all of the brides and grooms we hit it off with there. Some of which I’m sure we’ll get to see again this week in Madison at the Wedding Planner and Guide Show. Gail, from Crazy Daisy, did an amazing job putting on the show and promoting it. And despite the icy roads there was a great turnout, even though we almost didn’t make it ourselves (it took us almost 4 hours to drive there Sunday morning because the roads were so bad.)

We’ve already had plenty of drama this wedding show season, from brochures being printed wrong, to not receiving over-nighted products we were supposed to receive and then having to drive out of our way to attempt to have boxes pulled off airplanes (which wasn’t successful by the way), to sliding sideways down icy roads. In the end we know it will all be worth it as we’ll get to meet and work with some awesome couples who’ll open up their day for us to document and share.

So if you’re planning a wedding, check out the Madison Wedding Planner and Guide Show this weekend. Stop by and say hi, we have a great show related offer. And keep an eye out for our new website!