Archive for the ‘Photo Booths’ Category

Welcome back to another installment of Real Weddings Magazine’s Partner Profiles!

Today, we highlight a super sweet couple, Brandon and Kami Storz, from Sound Image Entertainment.  These two are quite the dynamic duo, a fabulous team!  Take it away… you love birds!

Sound Image Entertainment

Tell us a little about your company?  We are a unique and fun husband and wife team who work hard to make each client’s wedding day enjoyable, memorable and stress-free. We offer a variety of services including DJ, MC, Coordination, Ambience lighting and Photo Booths.

When did you establish your business?  Brandon established back in 1996, Kami jumped on board in 2004.

What sets you apart from your competition?  Anyone who has planned an event before would know the importance of planning. We encourage extensive face-to-face planning sessions going over every entertainment and time-line detail. On the wedding day, we offer a two person DJ/MC and Coordination team instead a single DJ or a DJ with an assistant.

Where do you find inspiration?  We find inspiration everywhere:  magazines, networking events, seminars, TV. But we directly get it from each wedding we do. Every one is unique and memorable in its own way.

When you opened shop, what was your promise to your customers?  Our mission at Sound Image Entertainment has always been to provide the highest quality, most reliable and exceptional disc jockey service to the quality conscious client who demands only the very best.

Do you have any hidden talents?  Hmmm… that’s a tough one. Brandon says that Kami’s hidden talents are baking and tap dancing. Kami says Brandon can do anything once and can perfect it. It’s totally unfair. :) He is amazing at carpentry and really enjoys graphic design and making Web sites.

Do you regularly blog? What’s your blog site?  We try to regularly blog, we are really bad sometimes but check us out anyway:   soundimagedjs.com/blog

Above photos by Rachelle Photography

What’s your favorite local restaurant?  Well we have very different tastes but we can always agree on Chinese or Mongolian Bar-B-Q. But Brandon’s favorite is probably Mikuni (or any sushi place) and Kami’s is Weinerschnitzel. (I am a simple soul..)

What’s your favorite local charity?  We don’t have a favorite local charity but we do a Breast Cancer Walk Event every Mother’s Day for the Network of Strength. Brandon DJ’s while Kami and their boys walk in it.

What is your favorite fun thing to do locally?  We are kinda homebodies so we love watching TV but it’s always some sort of wedding show. Platinum Weddings, Ace of Cakes, Whose Wedding is it Anyway. Weddings really are our life. We love doing anything with our boys too, we eat out a lot.

Do you have secret vice or indulgence? What is it?  Brandon is so simple in his needs, anything business I would say is his vice. He loves working. Kami’s… anything with sugar. She could live off sugar, candy, she really loves to bake.

What are you most grateful for in life?  Our family. We have four sweet boys, and they really are our everything.

If you were to plan your own wedding, or re-do your wedding, what elements would be most important to you?  DJ, DUH… jk Brandon Emcee’d our wedding and eventually took over for dancing. (Yeah I know). In all honesty we had such a simple wedding I would have done more for our pictures, I have only a few printed and wish I had more that I liked. I took all that time in looking pretty, making my venue pretty and my pictures were just so-so.

What advice would you can give to brides and grooms getting married today?  Research. A lot of brides and grooms don’t know where to begin and before they start anything they set a budget without researching. Surprise after surprise they had no idea how much things cost. It can be frustrating, overwhelming and very discouraging for them. Research, figure out what you want and how much it costs, then you can plan better and achieve all you want and not have it consume you.

Find out more about Sound Image Entertainment by visiting their Web site!

Lighting photos courtesy of  Sound Image Entertainment

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The Couple:Tifni Towns and Donny Vettel

Wedding Date: August 15, 2009

Photography by True Love Photo

Tell us a little about you and your beloved:  Donny and I met at work and had been friends for a few years. We would go out every week with a group of our friends. One day things changed, and we decided to try going out on our own without our friends. I always knew that Donny was an amazing guy, but it was on our first real “date” that I looked at him in a different light. It was then that I knew he was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. You always wonder how you will get proposed to and Donny exceeded any expectations that I had. It couldn’t have been more perfect and more special. My dream, ever since I was a little girl, was to get married at Wine and Roses in Lodi. My grandfather would take my family and me there for brunch when I was little and it was a very special place to me. I was lucky enough to have the wedding of my dreams there with the man I had always dreamed of marrying.

What was the most amazing part of your day? One of the most amazing parts of the day was walking down the aisle and seeing /marrying the person I was going to spend the rest of my life with…there’s no other feeling like it. Another amazing part of our day was having so many of our friends and family present to share our special day with us. All of our guests hold a special place in our hearts and to have all of them in one place, on one day was truly amazing.

What else would you like to share about your big day? With all of the months of planning and preparation that went into our day there’s always bound to be a little bump somewhere in the day. All of the stress/anxiety/nerves I had leading up to the ceremony disappeared as soon as I saw Donny standing at the end of the aisle — that is what made the day perfect for me. With an amazing venue, dj and photographer, we were able to create the perfect combination of classy wedding and a great and memorable party atmosphere that we had dreamed of.

The photo booth we had was a great hit and would highly recommend. It was a great way of capturing our guests and their crazy personalities. We also created a Kodak photo book using our engagement photos. We left a black page between every picture page for guests to sign and leave little notes.

Ceremony & Reception Site:  Wine & Roses Hotel, Restaurant and Spa

Officiant/Pastor:  Kevin Brown

Photographer:  Beth Baugher with True Love Photo (Words cannot describe how amazing Beth Baugher is! Not only is she an out-of-this-world photographer, she is such a great soul and fabulous lady to be around. She has a great way of making you feel comfortable in front of the camera and was great at catching those “special” little moments when you don’t even know she was taking a picture. Beth will be a friend for life and will be the one I call if ever in need of a photographer again.)

Cake:  Ettore’s European Bakery

Make-up:  Devan Yoder

Hair:  Jenn Homen

Invitations:  Scarlet Design and Invitation Consulting

DJ:  Exquisite Events and Entertainment

Bridal Gown:De La Rosas’s Bridal & Tuxedos

Bridesmaids Dresses:  De La Rosa’s Bridal & Tuxedos

Florist:  The Big Bang Events

String Quartet:  Mersonacta Quartet (AMAZING quartet, and not your “typical” string quartet. They are a young, fresh group who are very talented and great to work with.)

Favors:  Picture Perfect Photo Booth Rental (We wanted to stay away from the “traditional” wedding favors and give our guest a fun experience and something that they would enjoy and enjoy they did! We rented a photo booth from picture perfect photo booth rental and they were great to work with. They helped us create a logo with our names and wedding date in our wedding colors that was placed on the edge of the picture guest received. There was a line for the photo booth the entire evening and our guest really enjoyed the experience and still to this day they talk about how much fun it was and its nice to go to their houses and see their photo booth pictures on the refrigerators!)

Honeymoon:  Maui

First Dance:  “Then” by Brad Paisley

Photos courtesy of True Love Photo.

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Photo courtesy of Profinish Design.

Here’s a wedding trend that’s guaranteed to generate smiles from ear to ear.

Setting up a photo booth at a reception is not only a unique way to keep your friends and family entertained in between drinks, dinner and dancing, but one that’s sure to create lasting memories as well.

“They are fun, nostalgic, and a great way to help guests ‘kill time’ while the couple is taking photos after the wedding with the photographer,” says John Vu of Profinish Design in Sacramento. “They help with creating a fun atmosphere and help guest warm up to the occasion.”

Many brides and grooms are choosing photo booths over traditional party favors, making customized printouts so their guests can take home a visual keepsake from the event.

“Something magical happens when people get in the booth and close the curtain,” says Chris Terry of Encore Entertainment in Sacramento. “At every event I see the same thing, early on many guests are serious, they haven’t started loosening up, and then they get into the booth to take some pictures. They always come out of the booth laughing. When you throw in props like funky hats, boas, fedoras, and a cane, things really come alive.”

Photo courtesy of Encore Photo Booths.

The Encore Web site allows guests to order reprints and enlargements of photos from the event, including print customization and incorporating wedding theme and colors. “We try to make the print a piece of art that’s appealing to the eye so you just don’t have photos but a cool look that takes the guests back to the special day,” Chris says. “The bride a groom also get a USB Thumb Drive at the end of the event containing all of the photos and prints taken.”

John at Profinish notes that there are more options than just the commercial booths you see at arcades or malls. “There are many different kinds, from a photo kiosk (a stand with a camera and backdrop), to a curtain booth (table clothes and laptop), to full-fledged photo booths (like the ones I have manufactured) that are light weight and take better quality photos,” he says. “I like to educate people about this as much as I can, considering that the term ‘photo booth’ could be a broad commodity. It’s almost kind of like finding the right photographer these days, with quality of photo prints, booth, service, etc.”

Some booths also offer the added benefit of viewing the photos in a real-time slideshow. “We just finished installing 32” LCD monitors on all of our booths,” says Chris at Encore. “After about a half hour of taking pictures the slideshow will begin and a crowd usually gathers as the guests enjoy hilarious pictures their friends have taken through the event.”

Needless to say, if you’re in search of cool favors and some more fun for your guests at your wedding reception, have one of these qualified local photo booth providers hook you up and get ready for the memories to start flashing by.

Profinish Design
John Vu
http://www.profinishdesign.com/
916-760-1499

Encore Entertainment
Chris Terry
http://www.go-encore.com/
916-248-8445

Blog Post by Always a Bridesmaid Columnist Darren Elms.

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I am seeing more and more couples renting photo booths, and I have to admit that I love this trend. Every couple that I’ve run into who had one at their reception just raves about it!

Photo booths remind me of when I was a kid — there’s such a feeling of nostalgia around them for me.

But what’s great for couples is the fun and whimsy they can bring to their reception!

At the recent Delta King show, I got to see my friend John (owner of Profinish Design Photo Booths), and you should have seen all the brides and guests flocking to his space because they wanted to try on the array of fun and funky hats that John brings for guests to play with in the photo booth!

Frankly, I want to have a party just so that I can bring in a photo booth!

If you’re interested in getting a photo booth, check out:

Profinish Designs Photo Booths: www.profinishdesign.com

Picture Perfect Photo Booth Rental: www.pictureperfectbooth.com