Sometimes you just don’t want to stop working with some people. This is so true of Kim and Todd. This pair has their book smarts being doctors and all. Todd works on the human kind and Kim is a veterinarian. This pair are University of Missouri grads, so it wasn’t hard at all for us to feel at home with them. They are super people. You can’t help but smile watching these two in one another’s arms.

Sometimes I feel for parents during all this wedding planning business. It’s not easy on them either. This is particularly true if you have three daughters who all decide to get married in a period of nine months! This was the case for Teresa and Greg, the parents of the bride.

It’s important to note that even though I have been photographing weddings for 11 years now, I am happy to say I still find ways to do it better and offer our clients something better. What did I learn from Kim and Todd’s wedding? During the getting ready portions of the wedding, Kim and her mom were battling with an uncooperative zipper on her dress. The ensuing trouble shooting was no major emergency (I felt it looked fine without any repairs) but with some quick thinking Teresa found the solution.

It was in the middle of this low-grade emergency the idea dawned on me that as many weddings as I participate in, that brides should be able to benefit from that experience beyond just photography should the need arise. A few days after this wedding, my wife and I headed to Target and loaded up on an emergency wedding day kit and packed all the items into a tackle box. For each wedding going forward we will have this tackle box loaded in our car ready to assist in the even of a bridal emergency.

We know you have thousands of choices among Kansas City photographers, but how many of photographers are going to come to your wedding with a wedding day disaster response kit? Not many.

I think there should be a blog post about that kit… hmmmm.

Anyway, Drumm Farm was a beautiful spread for Todd and Kim. Kate Rohan, a long-time friend of ours from her days at Hillcrest Country Club is the event coordinator at Drumm Farm these days. We love working with her!

Enjoy the photographs!

The father of the bride has delivered his daughter to her future husband and steps away. We love this moment at every wedding, every single time.

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Boy I’m worn out. I slept a good long time last night after coming home from this wonderful, romantic wedding that took place in Smithville, Mo., with a wedding reception at Tiffany Greens Golf Club yesterday. What a great time!

One of the best parts of this wedding was something Rhonda and I did in May with the help of the couple’s mothers, Judy and Barbara. We did a bridal portrait session at Tiffany Greens and later used the images as part of a Parents Pride for her dad. Those of you who have seen our Parents Pride know how amazing these little gifts are for a parent.

Rhonda gave the Parents Pride to her dad the night before the wedding. Dang it! I love it when I get to see a dad’s expression the first time he sees his daughter as a beautiful bride and reads the message. But I didn’t get to because Rhonda felt it was going to be too emotional for the them on the wedding day. The pair have been extremely close throughout Rhonda’s life so the Parents Pride as a gift was the perfect gift for dad.

I reminded her there is waterproof mascara on the market, but that wasn’t going to persuade her to present the gift to her dad on the wedding day. Bummer!

According to all the witnesses the tears flowed after presenting the Parents Pride to her dad at the rehearsal dinner. During the entire wedding day yesterday I never saw the father of the bride with anything other than a smile on his face. That was a happy dad!

Congrats Rhonda and Jeff!!

Rhonda arrives with her nephew at Good Sheppard Catholic Church in Smithville, Mo. So often we see brides at their most vulnerable during those hours before the ceremony. Not true for Rhonda. She smiled, laughed, joked and made sure to enjoy the experience. This easier than said than done for most brides but it makes all the difference when you can relax, breathe and live in the moment on your wedding day! Way to go Rhonda!

Taylor, Rhonda's niece, was a bundle of energy and enthusiasm throughout the wedding day. We take a lot of pride in being able to work with all the different kinds of personalities children may have. It's all about patience. Taylor and her cousin Bristol rocked the flowergirl walk during the ceremony. Great work girls!

Wasn't Bristol a cutie?

We love a simple, classic portrait like this. But one of the many ways we are different from your typical Kansas City wedding photographer studio is we deliver to our clients beautiful portraits as well as beautiful images from the genuine, un-posed moments and the unprompted expressions of emotion and love of your wedding day. Most photographers are content to create a bunch of portraits and some up-close images of your rings and shoes and a bunch of generic snapshots from the rest of the day. We do not do this. We believe in creating a complete visual story of the spontaneous emotions, tears and romance from your entire day.

Rhonda's father smiles as he watches the ceremony yesterday. Ron smiled a ton during his daughter's wedding day. I hope someday I can be father to a duaghter just to experience what I know Ron did yesterday during his daughter's wedding. Congrats Ron!

This image was made from the bottom of a hill at Tiffany Greens Golf Club. We love covering weddings at this location... what a beautiful place!

I love the elevated vistas and tall grasses of Tiffany Greens. This place is exceptional.

It was a soupy and warm day to be outside in a tux and wedding dress but these two were the portrait of contentment. We love our couples!

We always love making photography for our couples that shows how they feel for one another. The first dance is always a great time to capture the romance you share!

Let the good times roll! Thank you so much Rhonda and Jeff for such an awesome time. Couples like you remind me that I have the best job in the world!

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We just completed the first draft of Diane and Jon’s wedding album. Their wedding was April 16 and it was terrific!

We’ve all heard the horror stories about friends and family having to wait months and months, sometimes even years to see their wedding albums. Our photography studio is not one of those! Glow Imagery will have your first draft of your volume ready for viewing within two weeks of your wedding day. We are one of the only studios in Kansas City to offer such fast turnaround of wedding volumes.

Enjoy!

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After much experimentation, planning and effort it is finally here: the Radiance Image Quilt by Glow Imagery!

Imagine having a quilt built with your wedding vows, the hanky you wept into when your mother first saw you in your dress, an image of the marriage license, the fabric from your veil and the wonderful images Glow Imagery created throughout your wedding day! How much would you adore that?

Now couples can have a completely custom designed image quilt featuring their favorite, most cherished images from their wedding day, designed into a handmade quilt. We can use all kinds of wonderful keepsakes from your wedding day to build a quilt that will make your heart sing every time you see it!

Here’s how it works: After your wedding day, you will sit down with Chris and his wife Genevieve Cummins, the quilt expert, and we will discuss some of your ideas and ours. As you discovered the first time you talked with Glow Imagery, we love to listen to your ideas and learn about the things that matter most to you! This is never more important than designing your Radiance Image Quilt because there are so many amazing things we can do to create a quilt that will be a priceless emotional statement about you, your friendships and family — all those wonderful things that are so important to your wedding day experience!

Want to learn more? Give us a call at 816-550-8830!

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You can find this only here at Glow Imagery! We are very excited to announce a major addition to our catalog of wonderful and emotional ways to enjoy your photography - the Signature Image Quilt by Glow Imagery!

Now you can forever enjoy the warm love of your friends and family and your amazing Glow Imagery engagement session together with a quilt they can sign on your wedding day! Imagine your guests reaction when they discover the same old guestbook has been replaced by this! They will be humming about it all night!

No other photography studio we know of is doing this so you can only get it from Glow Imagery!

Let your wedding day memories keep you warm forever! Use your favorite engagement session image from Glow Imagery as part of a handmade quilt that you can lay out at your wedding ceremony or reception for your guests to sign. The quilts are handmade by Genevieve Cummins, the wife of Glow Imagery's chief photographer Chris Cummins.

Not only is the quilt so cuddle worthy, they can be hung just like a wall portrait as home decor!

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Recently, we received a pretty swell thank you card from a wedding patron from this past summer.

I have always had two core passions in my life: photography and people. Weddings and portraits are a perfect blend of these two passions. It feels great to create something really beautiful for my patrons and create a friendship. Thanks Sarah and Brandon!

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In the spirit of the season I wanted to share with you one of my favorite Christmas memories in the hope that you will share some of your favorite memories too.

I remember one summer, I may have been about 11 or 12 years old, I was digging through a bunch of boxes of stuff in our closet and came across a mysterious cassette tape. This is before digicams, mp3s and compact discs… back when cassette tapes were the standard of peak audio enjoyment.

Curious what the contents of the tape were I placed the cassette into one of our stereos to listen to it. After rewinding and quickly pressing the play button out came the sounds of a room of children making a terrific fuss. It was still a mystery several seconds in as to what was going on. Then the familiar sound of my dad’s voice emanated from the speakers. Instantly I knew what the cassette tape was, it was my family’s Christmas morning from years earlier.

A little background is in order here. The first few years of my life we enjoyed our Christmases with our grandmother in Baxter Springs, Kansas. It’s a tiny town located in the southeast corner of Kansas very close to Oklahoma and Missouri. In my family, the Christmas memories from my grandmother’s home in that forgotten little mining town are the very dearest for my siblings and I.

Even as an adolescent just about seven or eight years removed from the original recording the sound was fascinating. The background noises of a door shutting or the sound of creaking steps can uncover past memories through other senses. Listening to the cassette tape I could smell and feel my grandmother’s house, that slightly musty, old house smell, the pine needles from the Christmas tree, the swinging door from the kitchen that was the sort they use for high traffic galleys in fancy restaurants. If love had a sound it would be what I heard on that tape.

The recording is a cacophony of holiday cheer. There are screams of joy on the recording, there are many, many laughs and throughout there is my dad yelling “Hot dog!” when he sees his children’s reaction to their newly unwrapped gifts. That saying is a Jim Cummins trademark. “Hot dog” was it’s own exclamation point. No other words were necessary to convey his joy.

I hope we haven’t lost that recording. My guess is it went back into hiding to once again somewhere in the deep recesses of my parents home, waiting to reappear with additional mystery and unleash the same delight to whoever should place it in the nearest tape player. It just wouldn’t be as fun to know to where it is and not be able to say “hot dog” when we hear it for the first time.

What’s your favorite holiday memory? Tell us about it…

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Our dog, Opal, did not make the list this year. We figure there's already enough turkeys involved in Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving should celebrate two things:

- The people we love who provide such amazing support and help us make a difference for others.

- The opportunity to improve ourselves and make something bigger than ourselves that betters the lives of others.

For Glow Imagery, 2010 has become the year of education. Like a lot of folks, 2009 was a challenging year for us. While our wedding and portrait brands did well, a lot of longtime clients (newspaper, publications, corporate clients ) disappeared. This was something of a blessing because it forced us to concentrate the energies of this studio in 2010 on the specialties that we really enjoy: weddings and portraits. Midway through the year the long lost clients came calling again, we simply said no to most of them. Even in the best of times these were not clients we knew figured into our long-term plan.

Here seven other things I am thankful for this 2010:

1. My wife - she provides strength and support in so many ways to help me make a difference for others. Love you sweetie!

2. Our Cliens - none of our dreams are possible without the opportunity to serve you. Telling the stories of the people you love and how you feel about one another through images is such an honor.

3. Chuck Lewis - I began 2010 dissatisfied with the status quo and took it upon myself to relearn what it means to be a successful wedding and portrait photographer in this day and age. That search brought me to Chuck Lewis, a Michigan-based photographer who has been in the industry for nearly 40 years. In an industry flooded with flashy “rockstar photographers” teaching professional seminars and clinics who in truth have no extended track record of experience or success in photography, Chuck Lewis was a welcome change of pace. His teachings have helped revamp much of my approach to my work and my clients in such a way I don’t think I’ll ever be able to communicate my gratitude to the man!

4. Projection sessions - This is a Chuck Lewis addition to Glow Imagery that has been so much fun. We’ve outfitted our client space to do “movie nights” with our weddings and portrait sessions. This has allowed are clients to receive a first impression of their photography that was not possible doing online proofs. It has helped our clients enjoy their photography as home decor rather than just “pictures.”

5. Napoleon Hill - We’ve read several of this author’s books this year and have found his advice for personal and business growth indispensable. Particularly his advice about creating master minds, transforming desire into its monetary equivalent and being very careful who you allow to influence you.

6. Refinancing through once-in-a-lifetime interest rates - don’t let the door it you in the rear end, Bank of America.

7. PPA - The Professional Photographers of America has been a terrific resource to learn and gather more knowledge

8. The Great Recession - it has been said out of great necessity arises great virtue. The difficult economy has forced bad businesses out of business and good businesses to get better. We feel the adversity so many have faced the past couple of years has forced us to not rely on our comfortable assumptions which were doing more to hold us back. Instead of whining and crying about the difficult marketplace and pointing fingers, we took responsibility for our future. We have aggressively worked to improve every aspect of our business. Thanks to these efforts 2010 may end up being our best year yet!

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Jessica Clark of Overland Park had some wonderful things to share about her experience working with Glow Imagery. We covered Jessica and her husband Aaron’s wedding on September 26, 2010. Here’s what she had to say:

“Chris went above and beyond in so many ways to contribute to our wedding. Due to unexpected family emergencies at the beginning of our engagement, we had to cancel on several appointments, some with very short notice. Not only was Chris courteous, he was empathetic and sensitive. When we were able to meet, he further invested by getting to know us, our goals/dreams for the day, our family dynamics, etc. He was very personable and the time spent in preparation is evident in our pictures - both due to their personalization and the level of comfort my husband and I felt.” Jessica Clark, married 09/26/2010

Read more here.

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I just don’t have words for how wonderful this wedding was. Man… Angee and Phil are crunchy as they say these days. I’ve heard that’s the new term for granola, or hippies. Don’t misunderstand me, they are grounded people with careers, educations and ambitions but they have melded these parts of themselves with their passion for art and music, especially music. Phil is a talented singer and guitarist who plays in several bands. The two are buddhists with a ton of musician friends and a love for nature. They melded all of these parts of themselves into a tremendous wedding, live-music experience at Spirit Lake in Lawrence, KS over Labor Day weekend. I still get chills thinking about how awesome their day was.

The day was also very special for their son Nate who did not disappoint when it came to amazing photos! See images from the engagement session we did for this family earlier this year.

They’re Jayhawks through and through. But get this… they met at Harpo’s. Not only that they hired a studio headed by a Missouri graduate to be their photographer. Love works in mysterious ways.

P.S. I would like to offer a special thanks to Jim Sovanski of Sovanski Photography for his help as my associate photographer. Some of these images are from Jim. He is an amazing photographer and did great work for Glow Imagery, Angee and Phil.

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