The official details on our December 9th open house and client appreciation party went out to our mailing list a few days ago! If you didn’t get it and want to be on our list for the future, sign up for our newsletter using the box on the right of the page. To check out our newsletter on the web, click here for the online version.
And, of course, for those who missed it here’s the party info!

**********************************

We’re having a party, and we want you to come!

WHAT: Client appreciation party + open house
WHEN: Sunday December 9th from 1-3pm
WHERE: Blue Olive Studio - #410 55 Water St. Vancouver (buzz blueolive)

Let us treat you to wine, appies and gift bags. Meet cool new people, check out our latest stuff, and feel free to bring anyone you know who you think should check out our work!

Past clients, present clients, people who might want to be clients, and anyone who wants to come over to check out some more of our work and meet some new people are all welcome.

Please RSVP by email or on Facebook

Fancy custom gifts made from your photos for past clients we know are coming! Oooooh, Ahhhhhh

*******************

Share This

Blue Olive Photography now has an official Facebook Page!

To celebrate, we’re giving away free stuff. Up for grabs are 2 prizes, each the winner’s choice of a fabulous photo session with us or a custom designed brag album with images from one of our past sessions (for our past clients, of course). Each has a $500 value and will be perfect as a personal treat or even as a gift for someone else. Ooh la la!

So, how can you get oodles of love and affection from us along with the chance to win some fabulous Blue Olive Swag? Easy.

1. Visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=6163993860
(or simply search for Blue Olive)

2. Sign up on the right hand side to be our Fan!

3. For a bonus entry, if you’ve found yourself on the other side of our cameras in the past review us for an extra chance to win

Contest runs for one week until next Tuesday, November 20th.

Are you a recent client? Invite your family and friends to get in there for you - they could win you an album!

Interested in our work? Win a photo session!

Just want to see more? Visit our Facebook Highlight Galleries for never before seen Blue Olive Work!

See you soon! XOXOXO

Share This

Lovestruck - New York Fashion Week meets the Vancouver Wedding Scene

3 days, 3 fab venues, 3 events. Lovestruck promises to be a showcase of the senses from the best the Vancouver wedding industry has to offer, a chance for the modern bride to get inspired, informed and confident about the decisions that lay ahead.

The weekend starts off on Friday with an opening gala and fashion show. Saturday is full of informative workshops on everything you are wanting to know - complete with lunch, of course. And finally, Sunday is your chance to check out each of the vendors while enjoying canapes, pampering, and picking up your gift bag.

Tickets are selling out fast, so visit the site to read more and to secure your spot at the hotest wedding event of the year!

http://www.lovestruckbrides.com/

Reilly and I will be on hand Friday evening for the gala as well as on Sunday. Those of you who visit us at the show will be among the first to see our newest products. Hot off the press, ultra clean modern design and our imagery come together for a set of products that you will fall in love with. Come check it out

For our brides - we have special pricing just for you. Get in touch by end of day Monday to get ordering instructions.

See you at the show!

Share This

On Sunday, December 9th from 1-3pm we’ll be holding our first ever client appreciation party and open house! Past clients, present clients, people who might want to be clients, and anyone who wants to come over to check out some more of our work and meet some new people are all welcome.

Watch the blog for more details! Lots of great stuff in the works!

Share This

I was interviewed for an article that ran in the Vancouver Province yesterday on trash the dress sessions. Eri, one of our recent brides, was also able to contribute - as we’ll be doing her session tomorrow!

The full text of the article can be viewed on the Province site here.

Here’s an excerpt:

Tie the knot and trash the dress
It’s a new kind of liberating bridal tradition that’s starting to catch on
Cheryl Chan, The Province Published: Sunday, September 09, 2007

When Eri Wagner dons her beautifully beaded, silk-and-satin wedding gown next week and walks barefoot on Jericho Beach, photographer in tow, she won’t care about hiking up her skirt.

It’ll drag on the sand. It’ll catch on logs and tall grass. And when she reaches the edge of the ocean she loves so much, she won’t stop.

“I want me and [husband] Shawn jumping into the ocean together,” said the 27-year old bride-to-be. “It’s OK if my dress is completely ruined.”

This isn’t your ordinary wedding photograph shoot — the gardens, parks and sunsets.

This is a Trash the Dress session, a gleeful romp of post-wedding destruction, where brides climb trees, sprawl atop hay bales, frolic in fountains, crawl on moss, or ride horses and rollercoasters in their pristine white dresses.

Wagner’s photographer, Miranda Lievers, said the Trash the Dress concept has been around for years. Called “day-afters,” dress trashings are common at destination weddings, where brides don’t want the exotic landscape to go to waste.

She credits John Michael Cooper, a Las Vegas photographer, as being “instrumental” in increasing the profile and branding of this new kind of bridal photo. A popular website, Trashthedress.com by Louisiana photographer Mark Eric hosts photos of dress trashings.

The trend is only just catching on in Vancouver. Only eight Canadian photographers are listed on the site, including one in the city. But “it’s definitely picking up momentum,” said Lievers. Her Gastown company, Blue Olive, did five Trash the Dress sessions this year with four more scheduled between now and May.

The brides who do it say it’s liberating, a catharsis, a fun way to combat the prissiness of the regimented wedding day. Photographers say it’s art. Critics say it’s disturbing, a twisted action worthier of bitter divorcees than blushing brides.

But “Trash the Dress,” with its rebellious, anti-wedding undertone, is a bit of a misnomer. “Trashing the dress is never the purpose. It’s about not being inhibited by it,” said Lievers. In most cases, the dress can be salvaged. “Drycleaners do amazing work nowadays.” …

After sessions (trashing optional!) are a fun way to create images that further reflect the personalities of our clients, and that typically just aren’t possible on the day of. Sessions are fun for our current clients, and also a great way for those of you already married to get some Blue Olive art for the wall if you weren’t able to have us for your wedding.

Contact us for details! Sessions are available weekday evenings and select Sundays by appointment.

Share This

WOW!

It’s so hard to believe that September is already upon us. This summer has absolutely flown by for us - and with a whopping SIXTEEN weddings in just 7 weeks ending next weekend, it’s no wonder! That’s an average of more than 2 each week! After that we’re back to a normal one wedding per weekend for a while, so we’ll be slowing down soon. Next summer is shaping up to be just as busy, so those who are starting to plan, now is definitely the time to get in touch!

We’ve had so many - so, so many - amazing clients this year. I feel so honoured to have been there to document the weddings of such wonderful people. We’ve laughed and cried (yup, I pretty much tear up at every wedding, you just can’t see ’cause I have a camera to hide it with and have been humbled by the experiences we’ve had over these past few weeks. I just cannot express how much we love what we do and how honoured we feel to have the opportunities we are granted by each of the couples who invite us to document their day.

When we do this many weddings in a row it’s almost like we never leave our creative space… it energizes us and keeps the flow going. We’re constantly coming up with new ideas and phenominal images as a result, and I can honestly say that each wedding we shoot is better than the one before it. I love it when we get in that zone, and I can’t wait to share more of the images we’ve been capturing lately when I have a chance to update the site with new work in the weeks ahead.

This weekend we’re shooting the wedding of Rebecca & Joey on Saturday, and we’re really looking forward to this one. We had such a great time with them at their engagement session and we have some plans in place for some great images tomorrow, so I’ll be looking forward to sharing those early next week. Then, on Sunday, we’re off to Ucluelet (near Tofino on Vancouver Island for those of you from elsewhere) for the beach wedding of the season of Deanna & Jimmy! What a perfect way it will be to welcome in September!

But, we won’t be stopping there. Next week we are getting the chance of a lifetime to shoot a wedding post game at Nat Bailey Stadium! Can you believe it? Following the last home game of the season for the Vancouver Canadians baseball team, Lisa and Delany will be heading onto the field to tie the knot in front of thousands of friends, family, and fans. And we’ll be there to capture it all!

So - be sure to check back next week for lots of great images from 3 wonderfully unique events. We can’t wait to share them with you!

Happy long weekend everyone!

Share This

Due to a last minute cancellation we find ourselves available on 07/07/07. As one of the most popular dates this year we’re hoping to make one lucky couple’s day complete! Please contact us if you’re searching for a photographer for this hot date.
Cheers!

Share This

I’m so excited - our podcast is up on Posh Wedding Video Podcast - a website featuring video interviews with some of Vancouver’s best wedding vendors! You all need to check out the site at www.poshwedpod.com - it is a GREAT way to “meet” a number of hand selected local vendors as you work through your wedding planning.

You can watch the interview with Reilly and me through the site, or by clicking the image below. The site uses Quicktime (click “movie doesn’t play? click here!” when it opens for the mpeg version if you prefer), and takes a bit to load so walk away and grab a coffee while it downloads so you can watch it uninterrupted.

Share This

One of the things that I love most about Vancouver is the amazing network of women who own and run some of the best shops, spas, and services that our city has to offer. It is on this note that I was so incredibly honoured to be invited into the first edition of the CRAVE Vancouver book as a featured business owner!

The CRAVE book - editions available in Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, and soon to be Portland - is a girl’s shopping guide to the city with a neighbourhood by neighbourhood focus on over 200 boutiques, spas, and service businesses. In their words - “CRAVE Vancouver is a celebration of women entrepreneurs that showcases some of the most creative, interesting, and gutsy proprietors throughout 10 of Vancouver’s favourite neighbourhoods.”

In addition to the photo rich neighbourhood guides complete with maps and store contact info, women have been chosen in each neighbourhood to share some of the secrets of their success, which is where my piece appears.

Miranda Lievers - Blue Olive Photography

“Know when to delegate! Invest your energy in what is most important for you and your business in order to not burn yourself out… and, of course, Network! Other business people can be one of your most important resources. They’ve done it before and are often willing to share what they did to get where they are – tap into that to move your business forward quicker.”

Inspiration/Motivation for starting my business:
I know what my parents wedding photographs look like and I know what my grandparents do as well. It’s cheesy, but those moments are gone in a heartbeat. It is powerful to be able to capture them and record that time in history. The first time that I brought a grown man to tears with the images I had produced of his daughter I realized how important good photography is and began to build the business plan for our studio.

How much money did it take to start?
A lot more than you’d think! Photographers just need a camera, right? With all the equipment, the backups, the computers, and the software needed behind the scenes to do it right it cost around $25 000 originally with more being invested all the time.

What I like most about owning my business:
I get to do all the jobs! I never get bored. I can be the marketing girl one day, the strategist the next, and even the photographer when that suits my fancy.

What I like least about owning my business:
The paperwork

Personal time off indulgence:
Watching Next Top Model. I pretend it’s market research.

People would be surprised that:
I have hardly any photos of myself. I’m always on the other side of the camera, and our vacation photos consist of beautiful landscapes but very few images with either of us.

Favourite guilty pleasure shopping place:
Bodacious on Main

You can find the website for the book here. The book has just been released and will be available at businesses around town, in bookstores, and on Amazon.com.

Share This

Gotta love technology issues! We’ve had lots of problems this year with our webhost and in the last couple weeks we’ve started having major problems with our email. We’re in the process of moving everything over to a new host, but in the meantime if you get a bounced message or if you emailed us and haven’t heard from us, you can get a hold of us at blueolivephoto@gmail.com - that’s sure to be more reliable until things are back to normal!

We’ll be blogging our recent weddings in the coming days and I can’t wait to share them with you! The highlight of late was a literal romp in the ocean in Tofino with our eager bride and groom and Reilly and I with our thankfully weatherproof equipment - can’t wait to share those!

Cheers!

Share This