YOU Are Important

I was just sitting here thinking of all the blessings in my life and YOU came to mind.

YOU are the person who supports my vision and encourages me to grow and become somebody in my life.  YOU are the person who believes in what I do enough to send new friends to me.  YOU are the person who smiles back at me when we have conversation.  YOU are my friends.

Start A New Chapter Every Day

In this life we have ups and downs.  I have mostly “ups”.  Downs are for those who don’t believe in anything.  My windows are always open.  Shut windows never receive fresh air.  An open heart also receive fresh revelation about the people I meet.  And that would be YOU.

I am also thankful for so many that I cannot begin to express it.  MY wife, Onda, of 40 years has so many differences from mine that it causes me to stop and think … just a bit differently about things.  Your character and integrity is without question.  I can count on you to love our sons, daughters-in-laws, and grandsons.  Yes, YOU are instrumental in my life.

Marty & Emily, the Bello Romance Photography team

My wonderful new associate, Emily, brings a fresh young outlook into my life that breathes new life into our photography world. Yes, YOU bring new perspectives that bring value to our relationship.

My marketing guru, Tony of Be Branded, has the keenest insights into marketing business. I trust his viewpoints of the “big picture”.  Yes, YOU bring giant thoughts into my mind to help me expand as an entrepreneur.

Others in business, like Kathy of BuzzJoy, have been great supporters of what we are doing.

My pastor, Larry of Evangel Christian Church, has been a spiritual giant in my last 27 years or so, which has caused me to balance all the things in my life.  Yes, YOU bring insights that help keep me balanced in all walks.

To the rest of my professional friends and the associations (Indianapolis Perfect Wedding Guide, Indianapolis Wedding Professionals Network, Indy Wedding Ideas, etc), YOU have been a constant source of encouragement

Yes, YOU people are so recognizable to me, in that you have been brought close to my heart.  Do YOU recognize yourselves in this story?

She rests in his arms

YOU are also my brides.  Because of you I have had the greatest opportunity in the world.  The ability to capture beauty in motion on a special day in your lives.  I have seen the storylines of fairytale, elegance, fun, classy, stylish and so many themes over the last 30+ years.

Thank YOU for being there for me.  Without YOU, there would be no ME.

I just had to say thanks.

Marty, Bello Romance Photography

As a wedding photographer at Bello Romance Photography, I am becoming more in tune to the varying dynamics of the different relationships I see every day.  From recently engaged couples to newlyweds to those celebrating their fortieth anniversary, every relationship has a different dynamic.  Thus far, I have experienced and observed different personalities and perspectives.  Every relationship is unique, but I think I can find a bottom line in this madness.

I see a correlation between the couples that I feel will stay together, and those that won’t.  I feel as though the more compatible couples laugh more.  Each enjoys the other not just as their lover, but also as a friend.  They carry on about funny stories, inside jokes, and even their body language just seems more trusting and relaxed.  If this sounds like you and your other half, KUDOS!

I love working with these couples.  The easier the couple works together, the easier the photos flow.  Our romance photography is about capturing that moment.  You can imagine how much more of a challenge it is to capture those moments when they exist so scarcely in the relationship?  Granted, I like a challenge every now and then, but I would much rather be shooting their last wedding.  Brides, I love working with you all, but when your wedding is over, I only want to see you again for anniversary photos and  family portraits, (or maybe coffee.  That would be nice, too.)

            Many things come and go, but the important things last forever:  Your commitment to your best friend, and the photos that show it.

Little Black Dress

You caught me with your eyes

We all love a great photo!  You know, the ones that make you gasp when you see it.  Ladies, when you see that perfect pair of shoes or that beautiful little black dress and your mouth drops in awe, you know the feeling.

But what separates good photography from great photography?

Contemporary trends are on the rise.  Photoshop has enabled photographers to create some interesting styles.  Creating the great image first should be the priority.

Deciding on a great photographer should be first and foremost about the development of a close relationship.  Personalities should not clash.  If that relationship is NOT developed closely, it becomes only technical images, the photos that “must” be shot verses the images that are “captured”.

Most veteran photographers can capture timeless images as well as new-age and edgy images.  Many photographers, new to or not focused on the wedding industry, do not have the experience in all situations that a veteran might have.

Kiss-licious

If you want your wedding images to make a statement and meet your needs, evaluate your style decisions intimately.  These images will be on your wall, in your album, on your computer for all to see for many years.

Part of the fairytale

Brides of 2012, even the last several years, have been more about the photo journalistic style rather than posed.  Parents still want the posed images, so that trend may never cease.

Maybe you’re a glamour high fashion girl, a casual girl, a tomboy, classy girl, or a girly girl.  Whatever kind of girl you are, it is important to get that special photographer who knows how to “light” your physical strengths as well as capture your personality.

Some photographers see without depth or lack of creative thought.  This can be a hindrance to your wedding images.  They may be the photographers who only know to photograph the kiss, the candle lighting, the aisle exit, the first dance.  Basically the essentials.  Snapping the event, not the moment.  In doing so they may fail to capture the intimacy or romance associated.

One thing that enhances any trendy 2012 wedding is the addition of a photo booth.  We have now added into one of our packages a photo both experience, complete with the memory scrapbook.  We use a wonderful company called Top Hat Photo Booths, with Bruce and Carol Lockhart and their wonderful staff.

In closing, dear bride, choose carefully but from your heart in this matter.  These images will be with you forever.  That means “forever” you will be looking at either remarkable, timeless images or images that you’ll regret.

Emily Brauchle

In business, when you find someone who shares your vision, that is a dream relationship.  When you find someone like I have found as a partner in business like Emily Brauchle, you find someone who is passionate about what she does and will sell out to build the brand.  She always amazes me.

Colleen Page

Now when you come into a business partnership “relationship” with a friend of another business who wants to grow and become that passionate individual like yourself, you then feel like you are not spinning wheels, but getting good traction to accelerate.  That person we have found is Colleen Page of La Dolce Salon in Carmel, IN.  She offers that “Sweet Champagne Experience” in her salon, the same way that Bello Romance Photography offers to “Capture Romance”.  In our newfound relationship, we have merged to offer that sweet romance to our clients / friends.

In this world of fleeting relationships that fade away, or burn out, we have found a good heart in Colleen.  Now together, we can offer our clients a wonderful salon experience and then beautiful images to follow along.  This Sweet Champagne Experience” followed by “Capturing Romance” in images has elevated this experience to another realm.  This combination can make for the most wonderful wedding day experience.

La Dolce Salon & Spa

The bottom line to all this that makes it work is the lack of ego.  When one photographer won’t talk to another, it’s either because they are jealous or afraid of the competition.  The same with a salon owner.  No matter how kind we are, there will be those who are intimidated or jealous.  Not so with La Dolce Salon and Bello Romance Photography, a great Italian Merger of sweetness and romance.

Champagne and Chocolate

Bello Romance Photography

I am thankful for a woman of the caliber of Colleen Page and truly feel blessed to have her as a friend to Emily and I.

La Dolce & Bello.  La Dolce is sweetness, and Bello means beautiful.  Sounds good,like an Italian Merger should.  Doesn’t it?

Bring on the Champagne Mimosas, Chocolates, and the Romance.  Let’s party!

Village trekking through the Himalayas near the city or Darjeeling.

I’ve decided now is an ideal time for me to write a blog.  I return to the keyboard more knowledgeable.  After spending two weeks in India, I am a bit wiser and feel as if my view of the world around me has sharpened.

The ideal life is short, and the ideal relationship is long.

Dear reader, we all want our time on earth to be a wonderful experience, but we also want to share it with the right person.  I believe these go hand in hand.

I imagine that’s why a wedding is such an important event.  It’s a celebration of two special people finding each other, exicited to face life together.  Two people meant to be.

Furthermore, I think that the reason why weddings in 2012 are so costly is the mindsets of the modern man and woman.  They want their memories of the momentous day to be good ones.  In twenty-five to thirty years, you’ll still want to have the memories of your wedding be some of your happiest.  It would be a shame if the overall feeling of the day was tainted by stress or chaos.

Preserve your memories in the manner that you want to remember them.  As a wedding photographer I can honestly say that there will be a difference between images taken at weddings in the Omni Severin hotel or the Ritz Charles glasshouse, and the weddings in an American Legion or the local church basement.

No matter how your walk through life may be or where it may begin, every starry-eyed newlywed will want to remember the magic in their relationship the day the bells ring.

At Bello Romance Photography, we aim to capture and preserve the timeless romance of your relationship.  What makes our photography worthwhile to me and many couples is the feeling we capture in your eyes and in your relationship.  We do not lean on the crutch of good architecture in the venue you booked or the landscaping of the country club grounds.

While your investment in a beautiful setting is important and will reflect beautifully in your photos, Bello Romance Photography makes sure to capture the feeling in your relationship.  While beauty and environment will fade, change, or whither, your strength in one another will not.

Indiana wedding at Valet Vista

We Capture Romance.

Trendy wedding theme: VINTAGE! ANTIQUED! DISTRESSED!

wedding photography actions

Bridal shops display their modest, lace dresses and planners are going crazy trying to think up yet another way to personalize the most inventive idea for a centerpiece to make their brides’ intimate outdoor wedding spectacular.  Candles, crafts, antique furniture.  Photographers are popping out of the woodwork with muted tones, cross processing, and warped color curves to make their images old timey and vintage.  It would be a wonder to find an old abandoned truck that hasn’t been posed by in a field.   Textured, distressed, and yellow.  That, my friends, is the vintage style in a nutshell.

You don’t need to be a frequent Tumblr user, Pinterest fanatic, or StumbleUpon addict to know what style I am referring to.  Just check out the girl in the thick hipster glasses sitting across from you in the coffee shop.  The style of today is yesterday, and as vendors, we serve our clients and give them what they desire for their wedding day.

My question is, how long will this déjà vu fashion last? As wedding professionals and business owners, how much stock do we put into this current fad? Will it last long enough to matter?

Is vintage timeless?

My thoughts are that this vintage epidemic will fade.  There will, as well as there should be, always be those artists who will forever stay true to their vintage style and products.  However, stay true to your brand and artwork, because without consistency, your branding becomes weak.

Romance is about the connection between heart and soul.  It is not just about marriage, but about the friendship involved in the marriage.  It is about taking your sweetheart into another world, a world where only she exists.  Whether it is her fairy tale, her “once upon a time”, or wherever, she wants to feel as the most important in his life.

A romantic moment.....

Is your dream about romantic moments?  Those moments where you are swept away into your fairy tale world?  Only you live there.  Is it about the connection that lingers where you can still feel the warmth of each others’ breath after the kiss?  That kind of moment?

Is it about her beauty and how she looks to you, oh husband?  Your whole life is wrapped around every beat of her heart.  She is what you have been waiting for your entire life.  The woman who completes you!  That kind of moment?

About her beauty?

Is it about the party?

Is it about the party and the celebration?  The gathering of all your friends and family in a united love affair about your wedding day and the great marriage to follow?  About capturing your friends in excited moments, the looks in their eyes?  The happiness?  The joy?  That kind of moment?

Ah, the tropics.....

Is it about the destination you travel to enjoy the event?  Maybe Hawaii, Jamaica, the Bahamas, or another tropical location?  Maybe an Alaskan cruise?  A Norwegian cruise?  A getaway in your heart?  That kind of romance?

When I define romance, I see the “connection”.

A mother watches as her daughter dances with her daddy at the wedding.  A walk in the park where your little girl reaches for your hand, just to know you will take it.  A toss of the football where the son and his father engage in man activities.  A loving look that says not only that “I love you”, but “I care”.  The knowing that your special “someone” will always be there through thick and thin, no matter what.

That’s how I see romance.  And that’s why “We Capture Romance” at Bello Romance Photography.  Yes, it is about the “capture”.

Call them what you will.  Souvenir, keepsake, memento, token, reminder, symbol.  We collect them and keep them to remind us of the most important instances in our lives.  Certificates, movie tickets, tee shirts, snow globes, postcards, collectables, and of course the most common keepsakes of all, photographs.  Stick them in your scrapbook, drop them in that drawer, or shove them on that top shelf.

Everyone does it to ultimately make sure they remember that significant event in their lives, for the rest of their lives.  I’m going to just jump into the example of your wedding, because I’m sure you are all waiting for it.  I am, after all, a romance photographer.  One of the most momentous times in your life: when you declare to your family, friends, and God, who you have chosen to spend the rest of your life with.  If it sounds like a big deal, it’s because it is.

Whoever you choose to be your photographer, and whether or not Bello Romance Photography is the right match for you, not only will I beg you to at least choose a wedding professional to capture the event, your event, of the year, but I will also urge you to make sure you decide upon that keepsake.

Get a wedding album, and get it done right.

A wedding album is a perfect way to remember over and over again the best parts of your wedding.  At Bello Romance Photography, we work with our couples to create a book perfectly suited for them, inside and out.  All of our wedding albums are custom designed with the newlyweds in mind, and all of our page designs are approved upon before we send them off to the lab to be printed.

Brides, I hope that whoever you trust to make your wedding album, I hope you choose to have a final say in the result of not only your purchase and investment, but your memory.  Your keepsake.  As important as a wedding album is, and I believe it to be, make sure it is treated with the same importance. ­

After visiting the Conrad for the ISES luncheon, I headed to the northeast side of Indy where I met a family who operate a jewelry store, DeJoan Jewelry.  My most beautiful and trusted friend, Colleen Page, owner of La Dolce Salon in Carmel met me here because she knew I would understand the vision of the owner and the family.

As we walked in, I noticed a beautifully organized space with a friendly atmosphere.  Colleen introduced me to the Parraga family.  Joaquin, AnaMaria, AnaCristina, and Denis.  I did not have the opportunity to meet the youngest entrepreneur, the 17 year old Jordy, but I understand that he has a unique insight about business.

Joaquin, the father, gave Colleen and I a tour of how he conducts business.  He is a designer of unique jewelry, custom crafted.  I was so impressed by his work and his ethics about the conduct of his business. He even shared about his “Free Repair Wednesdays”, where you can bring in your jewelry for repair, labor free.  What a marketing genius he is.  His place fills up on Wednesday.  Pure genius.  Most think about money, whereas Joaquin think about his clients.

He told about his family and how each member has a unique entrepreneurial talent.  Joaquin was a very engaging man and I can see why his clients love him and his family.  All of them were smiling, not looking as though the the day was tedious.

Perfect moment for romance photography...

Now at the beginning of this new friendship, Joaquin  and his family extended a warm invitation to collaborate with Colleen and I to grow together.  It was that “knowing” concept.  We all think out of the box, not looking to money as a means.  It’s just an end.  The means is the vision we all shared.  We want our brands to be sensational and unique.  As a photographer, I understand how much a commodity photography is.  However, at Bello Romance Photography, we strive to Capture Romance.  With Colleen at La Dolce, she wants that Champagne Experience.  At DeJoan Jewelry (pronounced Day-Jo-Wan), I saw the most beautiful customized sculpted jewelry.  This man and his family are artists, not just jewelers.

Great wedding up-do.

I am proud to have found some new friends.  I thank God that He led me to this relationship, as he led me to my Emily, a great photographer on our staff, with a keen eye for customized album design.  Thank you Colleen, for the introduction.  And thank you Joaquin, AnaMaria, AnaCristina, and Denis.  I will eventually meet young Jordy, I am quite sure.

Come visit their store, located at 9105 East 56th Street, Suite G, Indianapolis, IN 46216.  You can call them, but you should come in for the experience.

Come visit La Dolce Salon at 1119 S Rangeline Road, Carmel, Indiana 46032.

If you’re looking for dazzling romantic, and glamorous images, please visit our Bello Romance Photography studio, by appointment only at 635 N. State Street, Suite C, Greenfield, IN 46140

Yes , the days are getting better.

Lindsey making the "Pageant Girl" look on Lorianne

My first meeting with Lorianne was most wonderful.  I had the chance to be introduced to her “court”.  Her Maid of Honor, Lindsey, was designing her stylish coiffure, as I was asking questions about her day.  We were discussing her photographs and she told me she told me she was a “Pageant Girl.”   She and Lindsey were in pageants for many years and, in fact, that was how they met.

Wow! Lorianne transformed. Love that dazzling smile!

There's no place like home

We headed to the church, Riverside Community in Machesney Park, after the perfect hairstyle was completed.  It was such a beautiful church along the Rock River.  The sun was shining into the windows creating some wonderful lighting perspectives.  After we finished photographing and departing the gents, Lorianne emerged looking stunning as a Pageant Girlshould.  She also had the most dazzling pair of “Dorothy” shoes.

The ceremony was beautifully done and the pastor’s humor left everyone at ease and enjoying the moments.  Although there were a few tears, the “I Do’s” were said and they exited the aisle as all couple do.  The Bello Romance Photography formal funnies would follow.  Everyone was having so much fun, as formals should be, The Bello Way.

Time to head to Sam’s Ristorante for the reception appointment.  Upon entering we contacted our DJ for the evening, DJ Brian Hollis.  who informed us how the evening would progress.  Introductions came, dinner was served, then on to the party.  Dancing, dancing and more dancing.

John & Lorianne's romantic encounter. Ah, romance!

I have to say that I met so many wonderful family and friends.  Thank you, Lorianne & John, for allowing me the pleasure to photograph two wonderful people.  You guys rock.

I am so glad I met my “Pageant Girls”, and now I KNOW the Director. Woohoo!