Melissa & Anthony {engagement session}

When we first met Melissa & Anthony I absolutely loved the two of them!  I love how they interacted and how the 4 of us could joke and laugh together like friends that have known each other for years!

I was thrilled when they decided to book us to capture their wedding and even more excited to capture their engagement session shortly after meeting them!

We had a great day for their season and lucked out with some warmer winter temps!

We started their session out at a special place in Melissa’s heart- a park she grew up going to and the place he proposed- South Shore Park.

I’m so happy I could capture so many great new memories in this park that they can cherish for years to come!

The area by the water was just breathtaking!   Such beautiful color for the winter!!!!  I was absolutely in LOVE with this location!!!

What better way to end this session but to get an awesome sunset/night shot of them with the beautiful city behind them!  This is the skyline as we know it now and I’m so excited to see the future of the Milwaukee Skyline in the year and years to come!  

Thank you again Melissa & Anthony for choosing us to capture your journey!  We are so honored to be a part of your day and to have captured these memories of you during your engagement!

Michelle & Ben

Melanie & Martin {engagement session}

I was sooooo excited for Melanie & Martin’s engagement session!  Let’s face it not everyone is willing to freeze on a winter day for photos in the snow!   I was excited to do a winter wonderland session with these two and even more excited when Melanie told me she had some ideas for her session along with props!  PROPS?  UM HECK YES!!!! I love props!!!  I seriously do!  A lot of my couples don’t bring props- but when they do- I just LOVE the extra element it adds to any session!!!!!

I’m a huge fan of pinterest myself and the ideas it can stir to add to a session or a wedding day!  It’s eye candy for me to photograph and elements to help tell a story!  So I was thrilled to see what Melanie all had in mind!

Like any winter session we had to reschedule once for a warmer day- our original day had a Zero degree wind chill and I offered to move the date so they could enjoy the session a little more!  They agreed and the 30 degree day we had instead was much better!  We met at Grant Park at Seven Bridges for their winter engagement session!

I was super excited for the props Melanie & Martin brought and was pumped for this awesome session!

Some of the props were found at one of my favorite spots:  TJMaxx!

These mugs are the best!

Laughter on a session is my favorite!

Martin you are such a kind man and this picture of you holding Melanie’s hand says it all…

I love Ben’s detail shots!  Melanie’s bling in the snow…

Throwing hearts in the air – EPIC Glitter toss!  ;)  I love a reason to throw confetti – so these hearts are just awesome!

Melanie & Martin you two are beautiful inside and out!  Thank you again for having us capture your journey!  These engagement photos make me so excited for your wedding day this year!   Michelle & Ben

2016 Goals

If you saw my refridgerator right now you wouldn’t recognize it belonging to me – in fact I barely recognize it!  It’s filled with fruits, veggies, meat and really no junk.  Fact is I’ve never watched what i’ve eaten, and i’m addicted to sweets!  :)  YIKES I put that out there!  I made the biggest goals for myself this year than I’ve ever made!  I’ve continued to slowly watch my scale number go higher and higher and I’m not ok with what number it’s become.

Growing up I never had any weight issues- so this is new to me!  Well it’s been me over the past few years.  I’ve put on weight that was never in my life before and I’ve become someone I barely recognize looking in the mirror.  I’ve never had the motivation before to actually do something about it- what clicked?- hmmm, I ask myself that over and over.  I don’t think there’s one exact thing that finally made me jump to do anything – just a combination of a lot of things!  Planning to go into a new year always makes me set goals- but this year I’ve gone BIG!  LIKE HUGE!!! LIKE CHANGE MY LIFE goals!  YIKES!  Admitting what I’ve put out there for myself is crazy- and I honestly think it’s long overdue!

My daily motivators- I now have on my bathroom mirror- my daily tally of if I’ve eaten low carbs, no sugar days and days I’ve worked out!  It helps staring at it daily!  If my scale doesn’t lie then I’ve actually lost 8 lbs so far in 3.5 weeks!  WHOOT WHOOT!  A small amout worth a mini celebration!

Like I said before I made other huge goals for myself – and so far I’ve been sticking to those too!  Maybe I’ll save all that for another blog post! ;)

Besides eating healthy, working out and making those goals I’ve also made goals for my business!  To be more open, take more time to blog, and focus on hopefully having a little less craziness this year!  Last year we did 30 weddings, that didn’t sound too crazy to me- but when I added up how many events/sessions I photographed last year it came out 113 sessions – SERIOUSLY – that’s 1 in every 3 days something – a newborn, a maternity session, a family session, a senior, boudoir, engagement session, etc.  I honestly don’t know how I managed to do that many sessions last year and have a family!  I’ve put our business first over a lot of family time and husband time.  I’m hoping this year we find a better balance!   It’s another huge goal- but i’m excited for what our year holds!

So DREAM BIG people!  Share with me your goals and what you are doing to accomplish them! Its February and I’m hoping you too have a success to share with whatever you’ve accomplished so far in the past month of the new year!!!!

Happy Thursday!

Michelle

Katie & Kyle ~ { Wedding Day }

When we first met with Katie & Kyle – I was a little nervous- hey we were meeting with Ben’s good friend when he lived in Madison and the two used to work together.  I think anytime I’m presented the opportunity to work for family or friends I feel the butterflys- oh dear I hope they think my work is good enough for them and man I hope I don’t leave any disappointment for their day!  Hey i’m only creating here memories that will last forever :)

Katie & Kyle booked us on the spot after meeting with them a little over an hour talking about their day! PS I NEVER expect any couple to book on the spot! :)  But honestly the two are an amazing couple!  They have a great balance of being goofy together but have the other balance of caring that is so special!

When I met with Katie for their timeline meeting I was faced with a new challenge!  Their family lost someone very special to them about a month before the wedding day.  A best friend of Kyles (his best man) and Katie’s brother in law.  Katie wanted to keep everyone on the day of, as happy as they can be but yet still have his loss and memory close to heart.  I knew then how much these two have been through already together and with family in this loss.  I also knew that if they could go through all the stress of planning a wedding and losing someone so close I know they can get through anything together.

Katie & Kyle’s day was beautiful!  Beautiful sunny day and a great tribute the friend and family member that couldn’t be there in person that day.

Katie & Kyle Thank you for choosing us to capture your day & for treating us like family!  We are soooo excited for your future together!!!!!  Thank you again <3 Michelle & Ben

Here’s a few highlights from their day:

~ First Look ~

~ Ceremony ~

~ FIrst Kiss ~

~ So Precious and Cute ~

~ Candy Bar and Ring Shot ~

and the WINNERS ARE……

So I’ve delayed the winners being announced because I really thought I was going to do an awesome video message with me pulling the names out of a hat, fumbling trying to pronounce names…. BUT that would require me to get dressed up & do my makeup.  But with a toddler running around, weddings every weekend, wedding meetings, engagement sessions, edits, albums to work on etc yea that didn’t happen quick enough! :)  You get the point!   SO today I decided nevermind I’m pulling the winners and here we go!!!!  

First let me say that WOW Thank you again to everyone that is our FAN!  You are all AWESOME and if I could mail each & every one of you a gift I would!!!!!!  We are the business we are today because of loyal friends, family & clients that seriously was built with our beginning weddings sharing photos or tagging wedding party and that led to numerous “word of mouth” clients we then got in the years to come!  We truly are thankful for FACEBOOK and what it has done for our business!  I know a lot of things have changed in recent years and many of you may not even see our posts because Facebook decides what shows up on your newsfeed!  But for you that do see a post or two, comment, tag,  “like” photos etc – we are grateful!!!!    

I HAND WROTE each & every fan’s name on a little piece of paper – (I couldn’t find any easier way with facebook to export my fan list) and that alone was a task, however it was awesome to reflect on people that have been our fans for YEARS!!!  Seriously 1015 fans names went into my hat!  Some of you we have had the honor of photographing & meeting and a few we have never met!  :)  But it was completely RANDOM and all you had to do was be our fan to be in the drawing!  So without further ado here’s the names that got pulled from the hat…..  

Erin Valusek  

Michelle Schrock  

Ashley Timmermann  

Wanda Hunnicutt Mecone  

Stephanie Berger-Steinert  

Jill Sandercock  

Nick Petterson  

Victoria Roberts  

Edward Fries

& Margaret Vitale Dombrowski!  

I will try to send each of you a message through Facebook to give me your addresses so I can mail you a treat – if you don’t see a message – please check your OTHER box or message me (some profiles are restricted to sending private messages)!  

CONGRATS again to our 10 winners and Thank you again ALL of you for being our FANS!!!!  

Michelle

{ Wedding! } Meghan & Nick’s Big day!

I was contacted by the bride’s new mother-in-law if I knew any great photographers in the Arizona area- I of course do know a name of one I admire, but if they were interested I’d fly there in a heartbeat to shoot Meghan & Nick’s wedding.  And that was just the beginning.  I was soooooo excited to connect with Meghan & Nick through a skype session to get to know them better and the details they were planning for their big day!  Thank goodness for technology!  I was beyond excited to be a part of their day and of course to spend a weekend in April in 80 degree weather! :)  ANYDAY! :)

 

I was beyond impressed with Lake Havasu, AZ.  I honestly didn’t know what to expect except a Lake! :)  It’s really beautiful there!!!  We stayed at The Nautical Beach Resort which is where the wedding and reception would be held and the site was beautiful.  I said it was a good combination of both the mountains and also felt like being in Florida or someplace tropical.  Flowers were blooming and the resort colors just happened to make my couples wedding colors!

 

The day was filled with sooooooo much emotion and love.  I couldn’t help hold back tears behind my camera when Meghan & Nick did a first “touch”.  They did not want to see each other before the ceremony but decided to meet up at a corner of a wall to hold hands for be there for each other.  It was the sweetest thing ever and i’m always touched when a groom sheds tears as well!  Then throw in Meghan’s beautiful daughter McKinley to the mix and seeing how much Nick loves her as his own daughter just melts my heart!  In fact I think they melted all our hearts through the entire day where there obvious love for each other and McKinley.

 

We were beyond blessed to be invited to be a part of their day!  Thank you Meghan & Nick for your kindness and allowing us to capture your memories of your beautiful day!

– Michelle

Location: Lake Havasu, AZ http://www.golakehavasu.com

Resort : Nautical Beach Resort http://www.thenauticalbeachfrontresort.com/index.htm?lbl=ggl-en&gclid=CKHr4cu0ssUCFYNDaQodXQEADQ

Andrea & Dean { Wedding Day } 3.14.15

Hey y’all! Amber here with my first OFFICIAL Blog Post! This wedding was beyond adorable and I have loved getting to see a sneak peek into this beautiful day!

Andrea and Dean an adorable couple who tied the knot on March 14th 2015. The date is a very special date. I’ll give you a second to see if you can figure out why……… Don’t worry i’ll wait………..

Did you figure it out? If your a math lover like my hubs then you quickly said um DUH PI! 3.1415(9) Andrea is a teacher and when picking out dates 3.14.15 was just meant to be! I think it is simply adorable!

They incorporated the date into their cake! How cute?

BUT the cuteness didn’t stop there! NO! They gave out mini pies as wedding favors!! HOW CUTE IS THAT?!

And of course Ben worked his magic and got an AMAZING detailed ring shot!

Here is one more showing off the rings!

 

~ Flowers ~

The flowers were SO beautiful! Very colorful and unique!

~ First Look ~

I LOVE seeing first looks! Its such a special moment between a Bride and a Groom these are beyond precious, the moment the Bride and Groom FIRST see each other!

I am a sap and this just makes me tear up! They are both SO in love! You can just tell by the looks in their faces!  These moments are PRICELESS!

Now even tho these moments are precious and priceless they can quickly turn well goofy!! These moments are natural, unmade up and just show the fun that this couple  has together!

This wedding was beyond beautiful! Congratulations to ANDREA & DEAN! Thank you for letting us be apart of your special day!!

~ Blog post written by: Amber – PR Manager ~

~~ Vendors for this Wedding! ~~

~ Getting Ready/First Look:  Intercontenital hotel – downtown milwaukee, WI

http://www.intercontinentalmilwaukee.com

~ Flowers: Marius Bell Floral – Shorewood WI

https://www.facebook.com/mariusbell/info?tab=page_info

~ Ceremony/Reception: Hubbard Park – Shorewood WI

www.hubbardlodge.com

~ Officiant:  Judge Derick Mosley

http://www.marriedinmilwaukee.com/wedding-officiant-derek-mosley

Coming soon!

I am SO excited to be “ taking over “ the blog! Stay tuned as we have many things in store for this blog! Between Michelle and I we will be able to keep up with the blog way more!

 

I will be soon posting up recent sessions, wedding trends, tips etc… With Pinterest, there are SO many amazing things out there and it can get a tad overwhelming! Take it from a Bride who’s been there! We will be narrowing it down and maybe giving more practical tips and trends. Along with photo’s of those things from who else but Nakasato Photography! ALSO If you have any idea’s of what you might like to see comment below and we’d be happy to look into it!

 

~ Amber

Meet ME! ~ Amber Grimes – PR Manager ~

Hello everyone! I’d like to introduce myself! If you didn’t read Michelle’s last blog post check it out here: https://nakasatophotography.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/exciting-things-happening-here/

 About me!

Well, I could pretty much copy Michelle’s favorites from their website, as they are pretty much mine! I think this is why we get along so well!

 I am OBSESSED with make-up! My collection isn’t quite as bad as the Beauty Guru’s on YouTube BUT it’s getting close…..

 I am a total girly girl!

 My favorite colors are Tiffany Blue and PINK.

 I love all things glittery and sparkly.

 I am a coffee addict! ~ I Love me my fufu drinks as my daddy calls them, and cannot wait till after my pregnancy when I can get some espresso back into my system. Decaf just doesn’t cut it!

 June 14th 2014 ~ I married my best friend Andre Grimes. We had the BEST photographers! ;)

 The day after we got married my brother Scotty ( Best Man in the wedding.)  shipped off to become a MARINE yes that’s right a UNITED STATES MARINE! I’m a tad proud of my brother! He is currently stateside in Cherry Point North Carolina.

 December 13th 2014 ~ We found out that we were expecting! This will be our first! Of course tears of joy filled our eyes, then moments of ” Is this real?” 2 pregnancy tests proved it was!

December 24th ~  We surprised my parents with my brother (Scotty) coming home for Christmas, then after they got over that shock we told them that we were expecting! Yes more tears! Lots of shock for my parents! Poor things! But it was all good shock! :)

 We found out in March that we are having a precious baby BOY! He is due August 17th! His name will be Liam Michael. On my side of the family Michael is the middle name of all the firstborn sons, so we decided to keep that tradition going! We couldn’t be more excited and cannot wait for him to be here!

 I come from a family of 4 boys! I am the oldest! So yes I am and was spoiled!

 My Husband is a Full-time Student at the University of Nebraska Lincoln working on his Biological Systems Engineering Degree. Yes he’s a smarty pants and busy as all get out!

 We are hobbits and LOVE NETFLIX!

 But, we love being outside during the summer and catching rays of the sun! I will almost always be outside on our patio eating or reading any chance I get! We also spend lots of time at the Pool!

This job is a true answer to prayer as ALL I want is to stay home with Liam, and this will allow me to do so! I am so excited to see where this will go and where it will take us! Both for my husband and I and for Nakasato Photography!

Exciting things happening here!!!

So life happens and time slips away- WAY MORE than I’d like it!  Every day I do my best to answer many emails from current, upcoming & sometimes past brides, edit images from recent sessions/weddings, chat with vendors, get orders for prints placed, set up meetings with brides and the list goes on.  It is soooooo exciting to see our business in the spot it is in today!  6 years ago this June we did our first ever wedding and all of this was just mearly a dream of a girl working a full time career as a Retail Store Manager.  

In my career as a Store Manager there were manager meetings that helped us not feel overwhelmed with the many many tasks and responsibilities we had.  I’ll never forget a meeting we had once with the company’s HR manager and her excercise for us – we all had to make a list of all of our day to day responsibilities as you can imagine it’s a large list!   We then had to figure out if this is a task that only we could do or could it be something we delegate to another member of our team.  It was always eye-opening to see that maybe some of the tasks we view that WE have to do, don’t really HAVE to be done by US!  Would I love to do EVERYTHING for my business yes- but as a mom and growing business owner it’s becoming more and more impossible!  

So here I am today – creating a list of all my tasks and realizing that YES there are things I can delegate out and don’t HAVE to be done by ME! :)  For the overall growth of our business it needs to happen.  I need to rely on others to help me get it done and be able to use my valuable time I have for the tasks that I do need to complete myself and making sure that all my brides have an amazing experience with us!  I think all of this is called “growing pains” :)  

So I’m excited to say I’ve got lots of plans in the works right now, but one that I can announce is that I now have an Assistant that will be our PR Manager.  Meet Amber!!!!!!  

I first met Amber 6 years ago – she was a bridesmaid in my FIRST EVER wedding we shot in Nebraska!  And last year Amber was one of my own brides I got the honor to shoot her wedding for!  

Seriously this girl will be a great addition to us – she my kind of girl- LOVES people, AMAZING personality, LOVES Sparkles, Glitter & sunshine ;) , loves Tiffany blue, loves make up, loves to shop, need I go on?  I think we’re meant to be besties but live too dang far apart! :)  

So what will she be doing you may ask?  Amber will be in charge of emailing vendors from each wedding making sure they have photos of details that they helped with for each wedding, contacting local /national blogs, websites & magazines to get my beautiful couples weddings published, growing our Nakasato Couture Brand / Etsy shop & helping me keep up with BLOG posts!!!!  It’s been sooo long since i’ve had “extra” time to do these things – all things that will help benefit our business!

I’m soooooo excited to have her a part of my team!!!  There’s still many more aspects to our business that i’m focusing on and perfecting as we grow so stay tuned for more adventures and exciting things happening here!!! :)  Drop Amber a comment on this post or an email to welcome her to my team – amber@nakasatophotography.com

My new PR Manager