busy bees!

We're taking a week off from the blog posts....busy bees working hard on our clients pictures and albums. :-)  Daily Photo will resume soon as well as lots of updates about the great weddings and engagements we've been doing. 

Ciao,

Sarah & Giorgio

Wedding Creativo Daily Photo: 06.01.2010

Happy anniversary to Daniella and Marin who celebrated their first year of marriage over the weekend!  She is such a stunning bride and we are not the only ones who think so.  Cork Catering also spotted this picture on our website and liked it so much that they are using it in their ad in the June issue of Chicago Social Brides.  See if you can spot it....like a Where's Waldo game!

© Wedding Creativo Photography / Giorgio Ventola Inc.

Wedding Creativo Daily Photo: 05.28.2010

All this month we're taking a walk down memory lane to feature some favorite wedding pictures from past years in celebration of our studio's 30th anniversary.  

Today we take the time machine back to the 80s for this confetti blast from the past!

@ Wedding Creativo Photography

Wedding Creativo's Anniversary

This month we are celebrating three decades in business, and are taking a look back at some of our favoite wedding pictures throughout the years.

Our Daily Photo today is one of our all time favorites from the Y2K era (remember when we all thought the computers would crash and nanobots would destroy us all?!?!?...here's Anne on a tractor at her parents' horse ranch home.

© Wedding Creativo / Giorgio Ventola Inc.



Happy Mother's Day 2010

Happy Mother's day to all of the moms out there! Here are some recent favorite kids portriats.  You can see more of our our family and lifestyle photography at Creativa Vita.

© Giorgio Ventola Inc.

A Milestone Anniversary for Our Business

My partner Giorgio is kind of like Peter Pan.  He is not really into celebrating birthdays and anniversaries in what I think is his own magical way of staying perpetually 18 years old.   While our years of experience is one of our biggest assets in this line of work, Giorgio is usually embarrassed for me to talk about time.  We are forward-thinkers, continually pushing ourselves to be modern and progressive artists, so I understand why he always prefers to look ahead to the future rather than dwell in the past. However, I do think it is rather significant that Giorgio established our studio in May 1980, and we (I joined him almost a decade ago) still continue to grow and explore new and exciting work every day.

To kick off our Daily Photo features looking back thoughout the years, please enjoy one of our favorites from the 1980s.  This was our very first "signature" image when we first expanded our studio onto the World Wide Web in spring 2001.  A big thanks to all of our clients, past and present -- we literally could not have come this far without you!  And, of course we are looking forward to all of our new clients' weddings and portraits this year, and we hope, many more years to come. 

To Giorgio...cento anni di felicità! Baci, Sarah :-)

© Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

early 1980s bridal portrait

Latest Addition: Fine Art Flush Mount Albums

Our new sample album has arrived to showcase the latest addition in our wide ranging line of albums -- the Fine Art Flush Mount book.  It is produced by the same bindery as our Hinge-Bound book, so they are very similar, but the Fine Art book has premium level distinctions.  Here are the key ways they are different:

Fine Art Flush Mount book: first and foremost, NO CENTER GAP! The images are printed on premium fine art papers and mounted flush to hard back pages.  Paper options include matte watercolor, matte linen, matte recycled eco-watercolor, and shimmer pearl.   Cover options include metallic image wrap, canvas, and dozens of leathers and fabrics.

Hinge-Bound Magazine book: since it is a magazine style album, the images are printed directly on the pages, and paper options include standard smooth paper and premium shimmer pearl.  With the hinge binding, there is a small gap in the center crease, but this allows these lighter pages (compared to flush) to lay flat.  This style is more cost effective than the Fine Art Flush Mount, which can make the Hinge-Bound a good option for duplicate copies or smaller brag books.

Be sure to visit our new sister site, Creativo Couture, to learn all about our albums and display goods.

Image is © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo Photography© Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo Photography

April: Earth Day + Greener Weddings Awareness Month

Spring is here, a time of year when many of us are reminded to try and add greener living habits.  It is also Greener Weddings Awareness Month, and we try to do our part with our business, so here is a reminder of some of the eco-friendly services we offer:

• online proofing for print orders and albums
• recycled watercolor cardstock for Save the Date and other cards
• eco-friendly album cover options including vegan (faux leather), organic silks and fabrics, organic hemp canvas
• eco-friendly and recycled fine art paper options for albums

If you are trying to have a greener wedding, what are some of the ideas you are including in your plans?

find inspiration and ideas for greener weddings at The Green Bride Guide

We are a new member of Chicago Style Unveiled

Chicago Style Unveiled.com loves what we do for Chicago weddings!We are thrilled to become a member of Chicago Style Unveiled, a beautiful resource for wedding planning and inspiration.

We are a Green Bride Guide member

We are excited to have been accepted in the Green Bride Guide directory.  There are several efforts we make with our business and personally to live and work eco-consciously.  We reuse, recycyle and reduce in many ways.  Back in pre-digital era, photography inherently was a pretty dirty industry with more harsh chemicals being used to develop film.  Our studio's wedding workflow is 100% digital, and along with our standard goods we have several print and display goods that offer eco-friendly and organic options including recycyled waterpaper papers, non-leather covers such as canvas, fabrics, metal, and faux leathers - including vegan materials! See more about our eco-friendly efforts, and also browse the Green Bride Guide for some ideas how to have a more green wedding.

Wedding Creativo - Social Butterfly: January 2010

Our Facebook-Twitter posts really offer Wedding Creativo friends/fans/followers more than just regurgitaed blog posts.  The scope of our Facebook world is much broader than our blog, and we think worth following for additional scoop on upcoming events, trends, and lots of ideas and finds for wedding planning or just fun stuff for couples.  Our recent January posts have included:

- Great finds on great deals - sales, shows, specials and tips for wedding planning savings

- Tips on upcoming trunk shows such as Belle Vie Bridal's Vera Wang Couture Samples

- Info about the first IndieWed show coming up tomorrow

- Ideas for wedding day overlooked details - like fancy embrodered hangers for your gown

- Suggestions for fun retro eBay finds to trick out your reception bar

- News about Wedding Creativo and lots more!

Follow Wedding Creativo Photography on facebook for regular updates! Or get the same messages from Wedding Creativo on Twitter if that's how you roll. 

Sarah Toulouse is a fan of

Wedding Creativo Photography

We place in top 10 in WPD Creative Wedding Photography Contest

For the second consecutive time one of Giorgio's pictures placed in the top 10 of the WPD Creative Wedding Photography Contest.  It is a national contest that had over 3000 entries, so top ten ain't too shabby. ;-)

Wedding Creativo @: video from Metropolitan Club event

We had lots of fun meeting attendees and other industry professionals at the Metropolitan Club's 'Love at Breathtaking Heights' event.  We were pretty busy at our own table, but managed to collect a little video, and talked with Amanda from Spilled Ink Press.  She told us about her approach to making wedding invitations and some color trends that she has been seeing lately (and I agree with what she says).  An independent Chicago-based company, Spilled Ink Press recently won an International Greeting Card "LOUIE" Award.

© Giorgio Ventola / Wedding Creativo Photography

Love at Breathtaking Heights - coming up Saturday!

We are really excited about participating in Love at Breathtaking Heights, an exclusive boutique wedding show hosted by the The Metroplitan Club.  This event is coming up this Saturday, January 23, 2010 at Willis Tower (formally Sears Tower).   There will be several door prizes, including our awesome giveaway for a premium Engagement Portrait package.  Also, Chicago Style Unveiled is giving away tickets to this event.  Be sure to leave a comment on thier site before noon tomorrow, January 20, for a chance to win!

During the door prize drawings at 5:30, we will be giving away a premium Engagement Package to one lucky couple, which will include:

• A Location Engagement Session (downtown Chicago area)
• Our custom-designed Wishes and Wisdom™ Guestbook
• Framed 8x10 Engagement Print
• a value of $700!

Here are some sneak peaks of our sample Wishes and Wisdom™ Guestbook that we'll have on display Saturday.  We will also have some special goodies at our table, so please stop by and say hi.

All images © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

oh baby!

A few favorites of little ones from recent portrait sessions over the holiday season. You can see more of our work beyond weddings at in the Lifestyle Portraits featured section at weddingcreativo.com, which shows examples of our lifestyle location and studio portraits.

All images © Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

Engagement Package Giveaway

We are excited to announce that we will be participating in Love at Breathtaking Heights, an exclusive boutique wedding show hosted by the The Metroplitan Club.  This event takes place on Saturday, January 23, 2010 at Willis Tower. 

During the door prize drawings at 5:30, we will be giving away a premium Engagement Package to one lucky couple, which will include:

• A Location Engagement Session (downtown Chicago area)
• Our custom-designed Wishes and Wisdom™ Guestbook
• Framed 8x10 Engagement Print
• a value of $700!

We hope to see you there!

More, More and More Album Options

With our album binderies continually offering new cover options every year, it is literally impossible to adequately describe the hundreds of combinations and materials available to make our couples' custom-designed albums and parent albums.  There are so many new cover options including metallic, printed and textured leathers, shimmery textiles, brocade silks, color or black and white image printed metal, image-covered acrylic, formica and even glass!  And more new materials are scheduled to be added in 2010. 

Also, we are now able to offer "premium" parent clone albums with both our Flush Mount and Italian Book Bound albums.  The parent clone sizes are 8x12 (or 8x8 square) EXACT copies of the main wedding album - meaning the same premium covers, layout, and binding style - are available for all of our premium albums.   Parent books are a new option all together for our Flush Mount line, and an updated offering for our Italian Book Bound line.

Overall, this means more choices for our couples to have a beautiful one-of-a-kind heirloom album, with better quality matching parents' albums.

© Giorgio Ventola Inc. / Wedding Creativo

This is a Flush Mount album with split cover wth a metallic-textured leather back and spine, with the front featuring black and white printed metal - yes the image is printed right on the metal, and it is hard to see online, but the image highlights show a matted shimmer of metal for a stunning effect.  You can even see reflection in the metallic leather! I don't know how our bindery makes leather look like a cracked mirror, but they are geniuses and we love them.

This is the acrylic image cover in our Italian Book Bound line.  The back and spine are black leather, with a printed image incased in glossy acryllic on the front.  Here you see the 9.5x13 main album and 8x12 parent clone - both with the same premium cover.

Here is a colored solid leather option in the Italian Book Bound line, again matching parent clones with same premium covers as main album.  The bride matched the cover to her "something blue" shoes.

To see more album covers, please visit the "Galleries" section and click "albums" on our website www.weddingcreativo.com.

Wedding Creativo - Social Butterfly: Dec 13 - 19

This week on our Facebook-Tweets:

- Great finds on great deals - sales, shows, specials and tips for wedding planning savings
- Tips on upcoming trunk shows this weekend for gowns and jewelery - we're talking Swarvosky Crystal people!
- Ideas for honeymoons in Greece and Italy with links to travel deals
- Punches are making a comeback - get a link for 11 recipes for punches that will knock your guests out
- Link to an online tool for fitness training
- Feature about a cool location for winter engagement sessions
- News about Wedding Creativo and lots more!

Follow Wedding Creativo Photography on facebook for regular updates! Or get the same messages from Wedding Creativo on Twitter if that's how you roll.

Create your own Wedding Web Site

We have been accepted as an affiliate of Wedsite.com. They have really cool layouts and features to create your own wedding website. Email us to request a coupon code for 20% savings on your Wedsite.

New Sample Albums - YAY!

Holy macaroni! We love our new sample albums that arrived this week. Here is a look at our new Flush Mount sample with insanely rockin' cover! Yes, it's leather. Yes it looks like snake skin. And yes, it even looks a little like glass or a cracked mirror and you can see your reflection in it...kind of. This is just one sample of literally hundreds of unique cover options that we have, and our bindery is always adding new materials to their already vast options of leathers, silks, canvas, metal, even glass. We love making absolutely one-of-a-kind albums for our couples and can't wait to show this at our next meeting!

Not Your Mother