new. | sheboygan wedding & portrait photographer

You know that feeling that you got as a kid on Christmas morning?? Just itching to open presents to see what was behind that paper?? Yea...that is how I felt today as I anxiously waited until 3pm when I was FINALLY finished working [because let's face it...when you are waiting on a package from the UPS guy...and you KNOW its a good one...time just ticks by sooooo SLOW]. I got home and on my kitchen counter [thanks to my mom for waiting for the UPS guy to get to my house! :D:D] was....dun dun dun....a big ol' box from B&H Photo :D love that place. I think if I ever go to New York that is going to be the first store I go to. 

Anyway. I have been waiting. and waiting. and waiting. for the day that I could purchase a Canon 5D Mark II. And that day finally came! I ordered it...got free shipping AND a free compact flash card. Score! LOVE it. I LOVE a good deal. Plus SanDisk is offering some sweet rebates as well if you purchase certain compact flash cards. So I was basically in deal heaven. 

Anyway....my point is...what better way to celebrate a new camera than with a photo shoot...of the pup and the two kitties. Now...Tucker he tolerates the camera...basically because he knows he's gonna get a treat out of the deal. The cats, Ozwald and Tippy...they are a different story. Normally I bust out the camera and they are no where to be found. Well, tonight I was able to get a few snaps of Ozwald and one of Tippy. So, enjoy! 

Tucker! He's such a good model :)

 This is the 'Mooooooooom. Whhhyyyyyyy do you have to take my picture sooooo many times?!?!'

 Me! In the mirror...yes...it is propped up on some of the clothes in our closet. We are remodeling so...space is limited. :)

 Tippy...she was apparently hungry enough that she didn't run away when I was snapping this.

 Ozwald...he looks skinny in this photo. Oz is a hefty cat...to say the least....

oh, and...the new site...is rockin' :D Mike is putting the final touches on it so I can start filling it with goodies! I am so excited to have a big reveal! Can't wait for you all to see it!

oh...and one more thing...if you are recently engaged or know someone who is about to get engaged make sure they stop by the Stephanie H. Weill Center on January 9th for the bridal fair! I will BE THERE!! :D:D So excited for that as well!

Save the Date | Wedding & Portrait Photographer

Holy moly. It. Is. December. First...how did the year pass by already?? sheesh! I feel like it should only be March. But, oh well. So...as I have mentioned before...I am getting married :D:D next May. Hold on...let me repeat. NEXT MAY. Like 5 months from now May. Like oh-my-gosh-I-only-have-five-more-months-to-finish-planning May. Now, I'm not freaking out. Well, not a lot anyway :) really we have all of the big stuff done. So that's good. AND I just finished designing our Save the Date/Christmas card :D:D so excited about these. Wanna see?!?! (ok..well, you really have no choice cause I'm gonna show ya!) 

The front....

 The back...

I just love them! And they were super easy to make!

Hope you all have a great weekend!! 

xoxo

Maggie

email me! :) / visit my website! :)

PS -- look out cause there are going to be some BIG changes happening on the blog and website within the next few weeks! Our goal is to have the new site up and running by January 1st! :D:D

All About Me | Wedding & Portrait Photographer, Sheboygan WI

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving...everyone in the US that is :D I also hope everyone not in the US had a great weekend as well. I had a fabulous 4 day weekend stuffed with good food and some shopping :D:D gotta love black Friday! and yes, we were some of the people that braved the pre-dawn and sub-arctic temperatures on Friday. All for what....a couple of hard drives. ha! well...ok, we didn't get JUST the hard drives but that was the real motivator. I did score some rather sweet deals. And Tucker, the dog, got a new bed out of it. Well...ok let me rephrase that...I bought Tucker a new, bigger, bed so the cat could sleep in the smaller not-so-tucker-sized bed. And do you think that is how it went?! ummm...no. 30 seconds after putting the bed on the floor Oswald looked at Tucker and said (well...if he could talk...) "hey...dog....outta that bed. it looks way comfier than this other one. move it." and what does Tucker do?? He MOVES. ugh. Dog. I would think that since Tucker is like 10 times the size of Oswald he would make Oz move. But.No. Goofy.Dog. If you would like to see a picture of these two characters...click here :) Sorry for the terrible quality of the picture...it was taken with my phone.

Now.

On to the reason for this post! 

Question #4 in my getting to know me series!

Question #4 is: What is your favorite book?

Now. Really. I have a lot of favorite books. Because I LOVE to read. I love to read just about anything. At least once. If I like I will re-read it...multiple times. So...on my list of books most read:

The Harry Potter Series

Twilight Series

The Horse Whisperer

In The Woods

The Da Vinci Code

Angels and Demons

The Last Symbol

And a whole slew of other books that I have read and have forgotten about :)

And...what is a blog post without a photo?!?! :D:D

What I am about to show you is the front page of my new site that we are working on! I am so excited to show you!! And I really can't wait to get everything moved over to the new site!! 

Click on the picture to make it bigger!

I am curious to know what everyone thinks! So, leave some comments to let me know if you like it!

xoxo

Maggie

email me! :) / visit my website! :)

Guest Book & Wedding Album | Wedding & Portrait Photographer

Good afternoon!! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I know that I am! :) Friday night Mike and I had date night :D:D dinner and a movie. We ate a Jimmy Johns (oh how romantic I know :P) and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. It. Was. Amazing. I LOVE the Harry Potter books. I have to admit I have read all of them 3 or 4 times.

Anyway...that is totally not the reason for this post. haha. 

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my new guest book album and new wedding album. Well, now I am going to show you some of the spreads from each of the books! I was really excited to be able to make these books and be able to show them to some future clients. I think it is a really great marketing tool for me. So, without further a-do....

First up is the guest book:

This book is 8 1/2 x 11" and press printed. 

Press printed means that it will have thinner pages and is similar to a magazine. All of the books that I offer have the lay-flat pages.

I ordered it with a leather cover and a foil stamp in the lower right hand corner.

There are 20 pages total (or 10 spreads).

The pages are designed so that there is plenty of white space for guests to sign their names and leave a personal message for the couple.

I really like this versus the traditional name ledger guest book.

Most pages also have text on them so that the guests can answer a question about the couple and give them advice.

The couple is Ashley & Tim...

(click on the photos to make them bigger :D:D)

To view all of the pages from this book please click here.
I have also started a referral program...so...if you book a wedding with me AND a you refer a friend to me and they book with me (they must book with me BEFORE your wedding date)....you will receive a free 20 page guest book! Pretty sweet deal! :D:D 

Next up, the wedding album. Let me tell you I have been drooling over this album since I got it in the mail. I cannot WAIT to do this with our engagement photos and wedding photos. 

So, the wedding album is from Chelsie & Casey's wedding on back in September. This was one of the weddings that I shot with the lovely Kayla of Kayla Richards Photography. 

This album is a 10x10 and is flushmount printed. 

Flush-what?! you ask. Well, the big difference is that the flushmount pages are thicker. I love them because they make great coffee table books and are super sturdy. This makes it easy for anyone to look at it. And, they are pretty resistant to finger prints. So no one is going to be smuding your book!

This album I also ordered with a leather cover, but no foil stamp.

It is also 20 pages (or 10 spreads).

To view more pages from this album click here.
It was so much fun to make these books! I can't wait to make more! If you have any questions about the books or the referral program please send me an email at info [at] mlphotoanddesign [dot] com.

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!! 

xoxo

Maggie

email me!! :) / visit my website!! :)

Getting to Know Me | Sheboygan County Wedding & Portrait Photographer

Welllllllll....Happy Wednesday :D:D I

ts the middle of the week...and its kinda gross outside. The downside to fall...grey short days. Yes, as I write this...it is almost dark. And its only 440pm. sigh. But, that just means that the new year is that much closer! 

I figured it would be good to start in on that good ol' list of getting to know me again. If you missed the first few posts, you can check them out here, here and here.

So, this would be question numero tres. And for those that don't know spanish...number 3 :)

What is your favorite TV show?

And, really right off the bat lets get one thing straight. I probably have toooooo many of a lot of things. And yes, there are a bunch of shows that the mister and I watch. But I can honestly say that I have been a true fan of Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice. From. The. Beginning.

Yes folks this girl right here has tuned in every Thursday (and Sunday...because Grey's used to be on on Sunday nights after Desperate Housewives...oooohhhh yes.). 

It was funny because the in the last couple episodes one of the doctors on Grey's got to a grant to go to Africa and practice medicine there. The name...the Carter Madison grant. ok. cool. why does this matter??? Well...for those of you who used to watch the show 'ER' ....ummmm....helllloooooooo!!! John Carter was on ER and went to Africa himself and founded that grant! So...props to you...Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers for connecting those two shows together :D:D Did anyone else catch that??? 

And for those of you that I just put to sleep with that little minute of sure television genius...well, get over it. haha! kidding. kidding. I just get a little excited sometimes!

Let's see....other favorite shows...

Family Guy

Dirty Jobs

The Simpsons

Mythbusters

The Clevland Show

Brothers and Sisters

Anyway, now you know a little bit more about yours truely :) I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!! 

xoxo

Maggie

visit my webstie! :) / email me! :)

Erin & Justin | Engaged | Manitowoc Engagement Photographer

I met Erin & Justin on a cold afternoon about a  week ago. We had tried to meet the weekend before but we were rained out. And of course with that rain came some fantastic wind. So I was a little bummed that all of the pretty leaves had fallen off of the trees...but the leaves on the ground certainly made for some excellent photos of these two laying down! We met at Silver Creek Park in Manitowoc. Silver Creek Park is amazing, it is right on Lake Michigan and has trees and beaches...it also doubles as a frizbee golf course. It was really neat to explore the grounds with Erin and Justin. We played on the swing set, climbed up hills, rolled around in the leaves, had their puppy in some, and jumped across rocks in the middle of a little river! And despite how chilly it was, these two braved the cold to show their support for their favorite baseball team...the Brewers :D:D

click on any of the photos to view them larger!

 a kiss in the leaves :)

 family picture!

 acting normal?! :)

 

 skipping down the hill!

  wheeee!!! down the slide!

 

 sneaking a kiss on the monkey bars

To view more photos from Erin & Justin's Engagement Session...click here!

Erin & Justin thank you so much for letting me capture this fantastic time in your lives!! I am so excited to  photograph you both on your wedding day!!!

xoxo

Maggie 

visit my website! :) / email me! :)

Albums | Sheboygan County Wedding & Portrait Photographer

Happy Halloween! :) and Happy Sunday!

Last week I ordered and received 2 sample albums. To say I was happy...was an understatement :) I was ecstatic! I was just about jumping up and down when I saw the box waiting for me when I got home :D:D

On a side note...its just like Christmas when a WHCC box is waiting at the door :D:D

So, after posting on twitter that I had received these albums I got a few requests to see them....

well...here they are! :D:D Enjoy!

of course Tucker had to help :)

 right - wedding album; left - guest book

  The wedding album is called a flushmount album - meaning thicker and sturdier pages. The guest book is a press printed, hinged album.

 Top view...

 Flushmount -- open ....here you can see the thicker pages and laying flat

 and closed....

 Here is the press printed, hinged guest book....this book also lays flat!

 and closed.

I just love the look of both of these albums! I will post the layouts of each book soon! :D:D Can't wait to show them off! 

xoxo

Maggie

email me! :) / visit my website! :)

Hutchison Family Photos | Sheboygan Family Photographer

Last weekend was pretty yucky around here. Rainy. Cold. And grey. BUT...the Hutchison's still had a fun Saturday afternoon with me! We were able to get some adorable family portraits...right in their back yard! I love it when clients have a woods in their backyards :) I also love it when clients kids are not camera shy! It makes my job muuuuuuch easier! I'm pretty sure the word of the afternoon was 'cheeseburger!' because...let's face it...cheese...yea that's so like 1990. just sayin' hehehe :) 

Anyway, meet the Hutchison's:

I work with Lisa at my other job. So when she told me that it had been a while since they had family photos I told her that I would LOVE to be the photographer for them :) Lucky for me she said yes :D

Lisa's parents also joined us for the photo shoot:

Lisa's two little girls are adorable and they LOVE getting their picture taken...

Yes, they even had to show me their Halloween costumes :) toooo cute :D

There is one thing that Lisa and her dad have in common....their love for VW buses. I absolutely LOVE that they wanted both buses in some of the family photos!

The girls decorated the bus before we took some photos with it...

Even the family dog got in on the fun photos!

And last, but certainly not least....my favorite photo of the day....

That grin is soooooo cute!

Thank you Hutchison's for sticking out the cold and rainy weather! To view more photos from their shoot, click here!

xoxo

Maggie

email me! :) / visit my website! :)