The offbeat bride: Shana, Renewable Energy

Her offbeat partner: Bill, Renewable Energy

Location & date of wedding: Our farm in Gouverneur, NY on August 2nd, 2008

What made our wedding offbeat: First, it was on a rundown, beat up, muddy, treacherous farm. There is no barn to speak of, and everything has been abandoned for a couple decades. We warned guests of snakes and potholes, and asked them to bring hiking boots and tennis shoes (they needed tennis shoes for the groom's cup tennis tournament on our front lawn).

Continue reading "Shana & Bill's Sunny Muddy Kid-Friendly Farm Wedding" →

New York wedding photographer Jody Ake takes antique wedding portraits unlike any I've ever seen.

Jody uses an old-school camera process called wet collodion, which involves coating a glass plate with hand-mixed goo and then exposing the plate while it's is still wet. The resulting "ambrotype" is a negative image on glass that's then backed with black velvet. BLACK VELVET, PEOPLE!

Jody explains, "When people come in for their portrait they soon realize that this is not a normal photo shoot. I use a huge studio view camera that's about 100 years old. I have to prepare each glass plate right before I expose it and I have to develop it immediately." Jody's clients receive their one-of-a-kind ambrotypes to keep.

To see more of Jody's antique wedding portraits and get the scoop on a discounts for offbeat brides, keep reading…

Continue reading "Antique wedding photography from Jody Ake" →