So as most of you know I’ve done four bridal shows already this year.  During all my little adventures I’ve found a few vendors that I think deserve a little “plug time” on the blog. A few of these vendors are sorta “newbies” to the scene as I was last year so I know how important it is to network and meet awesome people. Below are a few vendors that I think you should definately check out.

Albright Sound has been in the entertainment industry since 2000. He doesn’t only provide music for your ceremony or reception he does tons of cool stuff. He can do decorative up-lighting, cake pin-spotting, and the coolest thing I think is he can do custom monograms. It’s a really cool light that is projected through a custom template with your names or initals that will appear on the dance floor, wall, or ceiling. SO COOL!!! Definitely check him out. You can contact him by visiting his webpage at http://www.albrightsound.com, by email at jared.albright@gmail.com, or by phone at (812) 847-0818.

Eyenamics Video Productions are amazing videographers.  If you haven’t checked out their 2010 Promo Video please visit their blog and do it right now.  They completely change the way you think about wedding videography.  Honestly when I thought of wedding videography I thought of someone showing up..putting a camera on a stand, video taping the ceremony and that’s it.  These guys take it way beyond.  Seriously it’s hard to explain in words so you seriously need to visit their website and blog and check out their videos for yourself.. Everything you thought wedding videography was, throw it out, because this is the way your wedding should be remembered… Oh, and of course thru pictures by me too! haha

And last but definitely not least Kari’s Kreations.  I seriously think Kari is my sister from another mister. haha But seriously, I’m not kidding.  When I first met her we instantly clicked just everything about her is amazing and from the second I met her I wanted to help her business grow.  I could tell she was an aspiring business owner that had big dreams.  I know what it’s like to have a vision and a dream and put that into effect.  They do tons of  awesome things…they can basically plan your whole party…no matter if its a birthday party, retirement party, wedding reception, baby shower, whatever…they do it all.  They even have costumed characters…which of course when I found out they have a Snoopy I almost fainted. WOWZA. He’s even cooler in real life. haha Anyways, but the coolest item they have is a photo booth…and let me tell you this ain’t your “stand in front of a white background and I’ll stand a shoot you photo booth” this is a GENUINE photo booth.  It’s got a curtain so no one can see all the crazy things your doing in there, it’s got a flat screen inside so you can see exactly what your pictures will look like and you can make sure every one’s in the picture.  It even talks to you and tells you exactly what to do.  After just about 30 seconds you get two photo strips printed out…one for you and one for your friend, or in my case one for snoopy. I’m sure he’ll treasure it forever. :o)  The coolest part, after the event whoever hosted the party gets a disc with all the images on it.  So you can see all the crazy things your friends and family did.  You can also use those as black mail later in life. haha  It’s seriously the coolest thing ever and if I would have known these things existed I SO would have had one at my Wedding… Anyways, since I’ve rambled on forever your probably thinking “Shut up and tell me how I can have a photo booth at my wedding?!”  You can call Kari at (812) 454-4032 or you can find Kari’s Kreations on facebook by becoming a fan of their Facebook Fan Page. You can also email Kari directly at kariskre8tions@gmail.com.  Their webpage is in the works and will be up soon…

Now here is the cool part. If you’ve already booked a wedding with me or your going to book a wedding with me AND you also booked Kari’s Photo booth* to be at your wedding you will receive a FREE 8 x 8 Storybook Album**. That’s an awesome deal.  So hurry up and visit her facebook fan page, become a fan, and contact Kari.  Seriously, after you talk to her and hear her passion about this photo booth and making your reception the best party of the year, you won’t be able to say no.  Your guests are going to LOVE this thing.

I’ll leave you with the photo strip of my little photo booth experience from this weekend. Oh, and I totally forget to mention that Kari has a huge Snoopy obsession just like me! I can’t wait until this summer I’m going to take my Snoopy Snow Cone Machine over and we can make snow cones together and talk everything Peanuts and Snoopy. haha :o) xoxo

*must have booked Kari’s photo booth for atleast 3 hours to receive free 8 x 8 Storybook Album.

**8 x 8 storybook album is used to display your engagement or wedding pictures by Melissa Copeland Photography.

So for any of you ladies out there who are married or have been with your boyfriend for a long time you totally will understand what I’m getting ready to say. Men don’t listen.  Yup, that’s right I said it.  You all know it’s true.. They come home from a long day and work and want to tell you all about your day.  My husband is a coal miner so he tells me about how he “pins” with the roof bolter and how the “miner” was malfunctioning  and how he can’t believe how crappy the “car” he had to drive… etc.  Do I know what he’s talking about?  Of course not.  Have I ever been 400 feet below the surface in a mine? No.  Am I interested in what he’s saying?? Not really.  I mean I listen and because I’m very paticular with detail I remember what he says so that later on in our life when he mentions things again I can mention the “roof bolter” and act like I know what “we’re” talking about, even if I have no idea.

So, you know those days when your really excited about something and you want to tell him about it.  I have done this a lot in the past year because I LOVE talking about photography and everything there is to know about it.  I find myself talking about it with him at least once a day, usually a lot more.  I know he’s not listening, but it makes me feel better to have someone to talk to.  So as we lay in bed watching George Lopez rerun’s on Nick at Nite (as we do every nite) I tell him about my day.  I start off with the photoshoot I did that do or the wedding I shot and I tell him all about it, then I tell him about any emails or facebook messages I may have gotten during the day, and of course I always make sure to mention some of my fave photographers.  I pretty much talk about the other photographers like their my bff’s. I told him about Lauren Clark putting her house up for sale and how amazing it is and how she’s moving to Oklahoma and will have 40 acres and then I’ll tell him about how Jasmine Star wrote the funniest post today about her love for her dog Polo.  Do I know these photogs in real life? No (I wish I did).  But because I follow their blogs EVERY SINGLE DAY I feel like I do and apparently my husband does too.

So the other day were talking on the phone while he drives to work as we do every day and I’m talking about how I’m making a list of “Ten things I want to do in Twenty-Ten” and how one of the items is go to atleast two photography workshops this year.  I tell him about this new photographer I found online named Melissa Jill and how I think her workshop looks like so much fun and it seems like I could seriously learn so much from her.  Okay..here it comes.. usually at this exact moment of me in the middle of my photog talk and him driving to work thinking about going down this dark hole to 350+ feet under the ground , usually when he’s just “pretending” to listen and saying “uh huh…oh yeah?….cool.” He says this… “Workshops?  But I thought you wanted to go to Jasmine Star’s workshop in California?”  OMG…did he just say Jasmine Star??? Did he also just say she lived in California?? Did he also just say he knew I wanted to go to her workshop??? Yes folks, he did.  He actually was listening..  At that moment I bet I had the BIGGEST smile on my face.  I couldn’t believe my husband had actually been listening to everything I had been saying this past year.  Okay, maybe I shouldn’t give him that much credit…he probably doesn’t remember everything..but that doesn’t even matter.  All that matters is that he knows photography is so important to me and for him to listen to even a second of me yabbering on and on about it means the world to me.

This is a picture of me and my husband on our Wedding Day (July 26, 2008). Photo by :: The Roxy Studio

I hope that wasn’t too horrible. :o/ xoxo

So for some people this is hard to believe but I have some friends online who I’ve been friends with since the 8th grade (1998). For some people who haven’t been online for as long as I have they don’t understand it. I even have a few “real life” friends who don’t have a facebook, twitter, blog, etc. So they really don’t get it. I met Katie Jo, in a Britney Spears chatroom. (yes i just admitted that I’m a huge Britney Spears fan and I’m PROUD of it) Anyways, we hit it off. We had so much in common and at the time Livejournal was a HUGE thing, which we both of course had, so we stayed in touch reading each others journal and following each other thru the ups and downs of our lives. As we got older and the internet started to change, especially with social networking, we continued to stay in touch thru facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. Thru her I met two of her “online” friends… Mary from Kansas and Kristin from Ohio.  We all four in our own ways were a lot alike.  We had many things in common but one thing that stuck out more than anything is our love for photos and photography.  Last fall we decided we wanted to do something together but with us living a total of 1400 miles apart (if you start at one of our homes and drive in a circle to each and everyone of our houses it’s about 1400 miles) we knew it would be hard to do something “together” without all of us being able to be together.  So Kristin came up with an idea.  She had seen a blog somewhere where people had been apart but taken photos and posted them every so often together.  I believe in that blog the bloggers posted a picture everyday, we all knew with our busy lives and us doing our own thing it would be very hard to post 365 pictures… So we decided we’d make it a weekly post where we would each post one photo.  We’ve been doing it since September 2009 and I absolutely love doing it.  You can visit our blog here… it’s nothing special.. We really haven’t made it our “own” yet.  I hope one day we all add a pic and bio of each of us in the sidebar with links to our blogs.. that way our blog readers can kind of “know” us.  Because a post isn’t a post without a photo, here are a few photos from our project.  To view more please visit our blog.

Don’t forget I’ll be at the Bridal Showcase in Linton, Indiana at The Heritage House this Sunday from 11am – 4pm. :o) xoxo

What better way to let your guests know about your upcoming wedding than to send them some custom Save the Date cards?  There are many designs to choose from but I thought the one below would be the perfect one to send out this February to let everyone know about your fall wedding.  Isn’t it awesome?  It has a vintage Valentine’s Day feel and it could totally double as a Valentine’s Day card/Save the Date card.

I’ll be debuting a few of the Save the Date designs (and some other cool new products) at the upcoming 10th Annual Bridal Showcase at the Hulman Center.  It’s February 7, 2010 from 12pm – 5pm.

Also, I will be making a huge announcement next Monday and unless your subscribed to receive the newsletter you won’t know about it! So above this post right under the header where it says “sign up for our newsletter”…. enter you email address and click Subscribe so you’ll be one of the first to know!

xoxo – melissa

I had the pleasure of photographing the BEAUTIFUL Baby Kendal last week. Last time she was on the blog she was in her momma’s belly.  This is her official debut! Isn’t she beautiful??

When I arrived Kendal had just got her belly full so I thought she would be falling asleep anytime…almost three hours later the little stinker was still awake.  You’ll see a few “i’m pretending to sleep” pictures but as soon as her momma would go to lay her down she’d open her eyes and give us that look like she knew exactly what was going on. haha

That is her momma’s bouquet from their wedding.

Love the one below..makes my eyes get a little watery. :o)

And she’s starting to fall asleep?!?!

no..she’s awake. hehe

If you look closely she is still keeping an eye on us. hehe

To view her slideshow, CLICK HERE.

I had so much fun photographing Kendal. I can’t wait until she gets a little older and starts laughing and smiling and crawling!!! I can’t wait!! xoxo

I want to thank everyone who came out this weekend dispite the cold temperatures and stopped by my booth and said “Hey!”  I met so many fun, photo-lovin’ brides and I can’t wait to work with those of you who have already booked me.  For those of you who haven’t quite made up your mind please shoot me over an email or give me a call and let’s set up a coffee (or tea hehe) date.  I would love to get the chance to talk to you one on one and answer any questions you may have.

Incase you couldn’t make it out for the Bridal Expo this past weekend we will be at the Wabash Valley Bridal Showcase in Vincennes, Indiana on January 17, 2010.

We will also be at the Bridal Showcase & Tasting Luncheon at the Heritage House in Linton, Indiana on January 31, 2010.  Below is some information…

The Heritage House and Francis Jewel Box proudly present “Bridal Showcase & Tasting Luncheon.” The venue location is The Heritage House, 190 N. Main St., Linton, Ind.

The Bridal Showcase is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday Jan 31 with free admission, at The Heritage House Banquet Hall. There will be many and varied vendors in this venue, along with samples, drawings and prizes!

The “Tasting Luncheon” will be from noon to 2 p.m., at a cost of $12 per person, or $20 per couple. The luncheon to be in The Heritage House Supper Club. The luncheon will include a large sampler platters of appetizers, salad, main course, deserts and of course wedding cake.

Please, make reservations for the Luncheon at 847-4480.

We will also be at the 10th Annual Bridal Showcase hosted by the Tribune Star at the Hulman Center on February 7, 2010.  12:00 – 5:00 pm.

Please make sure you stop by one of these awesome events and check out some of the new products I’m debuting for the 2010 season! xoxo

The title of this calendar pretty much sums up my motto for 2010. I had a personal blog for many years and usually at the end of every year I’d write a recap of the past year and I’d write a post on the next year to come. I don’t write in my personal blog anymore considering I have this one so I thought I’d just post a little recap/looking forward post here. Basically I have a feeling that 2010 is going to be my best year yet. 2008 was definitely an exciting year for me. I got married to my best friend and was laid off from my job. In 2009 I started my own business and really figured out who I was. I always knew I wasn’t one that could work for someone, work a 9-5 job, and wear dress pants and flats. hehe I always knew I was creative and loved to dig right into what I love but I didn’t know I could make a living doing it. In 2009 I took a leap of faith towards my dream and so far nothing but great things have happened for me. Everyday that I walk into my office I see this calendar hanging on my wall and read “this will be my year. . .” and I truly believe it will be.

Click here to download your 2010 Calendar by Valentina Design. Valentina is an amazing artist. I have followed her work for the past year now and she continues to amaze me. Definately visit her blog to see her most recent work and if you want to purchase her art, visit her etsy shop. xoxo

Disclaimer :: Just because it’s going to be “my year” doesn’t mean it can’t be “your year” too! ;o) Thanks to every single one of you that read my blog and especially THANK YOU to all my clients of 2009. You guys are what made my business what it is today and I’ll never forget that. xoxo

Terre Haute, Indiana ::  Usually here is where I start telling you where we started our session out and where we traveled to.  Instead I want you guys to tell me the three locations we visited to get these amazing pictures.  If your correct and your a new client you’ll win a $45 gift card towards a session.  If your a previous client you’ll win three FREE Accordian Wallets (that’s a $45 value, and they make great stocking stuffers!)  The only rules is Sorry Josh, Jess, and family you can’t play. :o( (contest ends December 18th at midnight)

Okay…so on for the post.  This couple is freakin’ awesome.  I actually went to school with Josh so I’ve known him for a while.  Him and his fiance are so adorable together.

and wouldn’t you know it…Colt’s fans. :oP haha I guess thats what I get for living in Indiana. haha I have gotten pretty used to shooting colts fans and I must say I actually really like the way the blue shows up on pictures.  Especially with these two and their beautiful blue eyes.

BLING!!! Her ring is beautiful.  I can’t wait to get some awesome ring shots at the wedding.

Jess was such a natural in front of the camera.  I could shoot her all day.

FAVE!!!  This one is so going up on the website…ASAP. :o)  And actually It may just be a 20 x 30 that I’ll be ordering to hang in the office. :o)

To view their slideshow, CLICK HERE.

Josh & Jess :: I CAN NOT wait until October 2010. You guys are both so natural in front of the camera and your blue eyes just POP. I LOVE the way your engagment pics turned out and I can’t wait to hear what you and your families think of them. Looking forward to seeing you guys in the spring to snap some more pics in much warmer weather. xoxo

This promotion is only available within a 25 mile radius of Shelburn, Indiana. That is why I am able to charge such a low fee. If you are outside of the 25 mile radius of Shelburn, Indiana contact me by email at melissacopeland@me.com for a custom quote.  Please keep in mind that this is the last time my family sessions will be this LOW.