Monday, October 4, 2010

Carol and Bonar Wedding Teaser | Peachtree City Wedding Photographer

It was very exciting to see one of my best friends get married this past weekend!   Carol and I met 8 years ago at a dreadful place called Forever 21.  We worked there.  Two angry little Korean girls.  That’s what the chaos of a place like Forever 21 with terrible store policies and crowds of angry customers will do to you.  That was the beginning.  I can’t believe within the 8 years, so much has happened.  Obviously, we quit forever 21, and to this day, we still don’t set foot into their stores.  We changed jobs.  Changed malls.  And plenty of long islands later, we both graduated from college.  Changed boyfriends. Changed careers.  Met lots of interesting people who came in and out of our lives, and through all the ups and downs, we stayed friends.  Now 8 years later, we watched each other get married as each other’s bridesmaids.  Bridesmaid and photographer, in my case.  And I’m happy to have been a part of it all.  There were 8 years of wonderful memories, and I’m sure there will be many more to come.

You can see that Carol made a gorgeous bride…

We also gave her the opportunity to unleash the strange inside her,  and I mean strange in the best way possible.  So we all ended up doing the robot. :)

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Thursday, September 30, 2010

What Would You Do with 15 More Mins in Your Day?

Whoa.  Already October 1st, huh?  Ever since we got married, I keep feeling like life is on fast forward.  This past week, among many things, we celebrated my dad’s 60th birthday and Carol’s 27th birthday, watched my friend Bruce bury his 49 yr old dad, and now we’re getting ready for one of my best friends to get married this weekend.  I’ll be both a bridesmaid and a photographer.  How about that?  I can’t help but think that life is not ever going to slow down.  Life here is really short and temporary, and it must be filled with only the people and the things that matter.

I, too, have fallen victim to the myth of the time crunch and constantly feel overworked with no time for much else.  If you had 15 more minutes in your day, what would you do?  Here’s my list in no specific order:

  • Talk to God
  • Learn to cook… starting with the slow cooker recipes
  • Teach myself another language.  On the queue is Italian, Spanish, French, and Greek.
  • Memorize a bible verse
  • Practice the guitar
  • Call my family to not only check up on them but deepen our relationships
  • Write a note of encouragement to someone
  • Go for a walk around the neighborhood to be healthier
  • Journal and blog more

The truth of the matter is I fill my life with so much stuff that doesn’t matter, ie facebook & surfing the net (with the excuse that my business relies on it), TV, I leave very little time for all the important stuff.  Currently, I’ve been reading this book called 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think, and it has not only been a butt kicking but it’s also been giving me hope on living a more balanced life.  I’m not sure if it’s just the nature of my job or just the fact that I am able to work from home, but it’s really hard to draw boundaries between my personal and work life.  Also, I’ve been living in the myth of the time crunch, and I need to stop lying to myself.  Facebook is definitely not work.  Now, I’m beginning to see that not only drawing those boundaries is possible, but that I could probably fit in all the things I listed above and much more.  It’s gonna take some work and self control, but let’s celebrate our 168 hours that we have and fill it with all the things that matter.

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You Have More Time Than You Think | Thursday Thoughts » Esther JuLee Photography - October 14, 2010 - 12:37 pm

[...] Part 1 of the journey if you’re interested: What would you do with 15 more mins of your day? [...]

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

John and Mindy Wedding | DC Wedding Photographer

We’re very blessed to have people who are willing to pay the extra to have us shoot their wedding in different parts of the country (and some even overseas).  This one in particular was in DC.  John who had taken an interest in photography a while back and has even shot a few weddings on his own had been following my blog for some time.  I was excited to hear from him when he was booking his own wedding photographer, and it was a huge honor to be a part of their special day.  You can really tell that they are people who really love others and pour into others’ lives.

Here’s a few photos of my favorite parts of the wedding.  The pure and genuine emotion.  Even though you stay “strong” during the entire ceremony, it’s always hard not to cry when you’re thanking your parents and hugging them.  It’s just an emotional time.  Even though I promised myself at my own wedding that I wouldn’t cry and get the mascara dripping down my face, as soon as I saw my mom tear up, there was no turning back.

And you can’t forget the great fun at the reception.  Lots of dancing, laughing and perhaps a little drinking. ;)

If you want to see a more of the day, here’s the wedding post here

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Whisker Works Photobooth Props | September Giveaway

Are you having a photobooth at your wedding, birthday party, etc? Or do you have a friend who is?   One of you lucky readers will win the sassy couple set (valued at $20) for your own photobooth or as a gift to a friend.  Who doesn’t love some staches, anyways?  These can even be used for halloween.

It seems like photobooths are getting more and more popular at weddings and so are these mustaches.  And for good reason.  They keep guests entertained and they leave the couple with a little something extra to remember of their wedding day.  If you have an upcoming wedding, you should SERIOUSLY consider having one.  We’ve shot a handful and they’re always fun to shoot, and we even had two photobooths for our own wedding.

Here’s a little more about Amber, owner of Whisker Works, who makes mustaches for a living!  How awesome is that?

Behind the Stache: After years of working as an art director for advertising agencies from Orlando to Honolulu, I now delight in telling people I make mustaches for a living, out of my home down a dirt road in country Missouri. My name is Amber and I’m a vegetarian, Army wife, sister to seven amazing people, and guardian to two fantastic kitties. I love gardening, have visited more than 40 states and really enjoy watching Always Sunny in Philadelphia with my husband, Alex.

How Whisker Works came to be: My husband and I celebrated our marriage last October, and at the reception I displayed a dozen mustaches on sticks alongside disposable cameras for guests to have fun with. They were a huge hit and we received countless compliments from friends and family. Better than that, we have photos that show the happiness and hilarity the mustaches brought to our wedding – they’re easily some of our favorite photos from that night.  After a couple of months in Missouri, where we moved for Alex’s Army career, I realized I needed to find a creative outlet – and the wedding mustaches kept getting me compliments. I decided to see if anyone out there might want to have some of their own. The day I signed up for Etsy, I had my first sale! Eventually after a couple hundred sales, and the feeling as though this might be bigger than I expected, I decided Whisker Works deserved its own place on the Web. And here we are!

For more info visit the site and etsy shop.


Here’s how you can win yourself these staches:

  1. Like us on facebook or follow us on twitter.  And then Twitter, facebook or blog about this giveaway.  If you Twitter, please use @estherjulee in your tweet so your tweets can be tracked.  If you don’t want to come up with your own tweet, feel free to use this:  HAVING A PHOTOBOOTH AT YOUR WEDDING?  Win a Sassy Couple handmade mustache set on @estherjulee #giveaway  http://bit.ly/whiskerwork.
  2. For an additional entry, bisit WhiskerWorks.  Then leave a comment on this blog post with the name of your favorite stache or set!

*This giveaway is only open to those who live in the continental U.S. and ends on Tuesday, October 12 at 11:00AM EST. The winner will be chosen by random.org and will be announced on the blog.  Good luck everyone!

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Congrats to Lisa Turner!  Will be posting more details on the next giveaway for October.  We have some beautiful wedding accessories lined up.

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Teaser Tuesday | Atlanta Wedding and Lifestyle Photographer » Esther JuLee Photography - October 12, 2010 - 11:05 am

[...] for whatever reason, older tweets mentioning the whisker works giveaway are temporarily unavailable on twitter, so I am going to wait one more day to announce the [...]