Wow!  It’s been a busy couple of weeks!  School is back in session and we’re starting to photograph senior year clients.  Plus there have been several really great events in the DFW area that we’ve visited and/or photographed.

One of the more spectacular events took place on the evening of September 10 when the Rosewood Crescent Hotel unveiled their freshly renovated Ballrooms and Salons.  Delicious hors d’oeuvres and cocktail were enjoyed as guests admired the new decor.  Fauxcades, Ducky-Bob’s Event Specialists, Dr. Delphinium, Threesixty Events, Encore Entertainment, and SWANK Audio Visual collaborated to produce an amazing display of creative furnishings, florals, entertainment and ambiance.  Here are some examples:

Carpe Vita also had the “Out of the Box” Photo Booth on location and many of the guests took the opportunity to have some fun and take their own photos.

If you weren’t able to make it, here’s a little slide show of what you missed:

Sunday night Carpe Vita Photography participated in a great celebration at the Magnolia Hotel and at their Pegasus Ballroom thru June Wedding, Inc.’s annual June Social fundraiser. This year’s June Social was themed “Gina & Rocco’s Wedding” (with a tacky 80’s wedding feel) to benefit The Salvation Army Casa Shelter. As you will see, many participants made the most of the opportunity to dress up in period clothing while raising funds for a very important cause.

The Magnolia and the Higginbothams (I Love Flowers – who also contributed all of the florals for the evening) enjoying a moment with actor Toph McRae who played the brother of the bride for the evening.

Donnie Brown of Five Star Floral Design and Events (and Live Auction Auctioneer for the night) and Geni Morin of Creative Cuisine (who helped with the Silent Auction) are entertained by actor Preston Flagg who charmed everyone as the groom Rocco for the evening.

After cocktails, we walked across Commerce to the Pegasus Ballroom lobby for the theatrical nuptials.

Actresses Teresa Valenza (Maxine, Maid of Honor) and Jenine Galante (Gina, our lovely bride) take a deep breath before walking down the aisle.

Then we headed upstairs for the “tacky” reception which was beautiful thanks to lighting by L-u-m-e-n Event Lighting, linens by BBJ Linens, chairs by RSVP Soiree, florals by I Love Flowers (mentioned above), menu cards and programs by Chrissy Collins of Rebecca Hackl Events and a so sweet cake by Romano’s Bakery, Ltd.

Cameron Fox of All Star Productions and Randal and Tanya Stout (of Randal Stout Entertainment and L-u-m-e-n) are in the 80’s spirit.

June Social 2008 chair Pamm Meyers of Bridal Blooms & Creations and JWI President 2007-2008 Tommy Evans of Specialty Sound welcome guests for the evening. The Markos of The Organized Event enjoy the festivities.

Paul Dyer of Vim Studio welcomes another guest while the Von Blohns of Absolute Entertainment look on.

Doc and Kay Watson of Kay Watson Event Planning having a fun-filled evening.

How about them shoes? Both perfect for dancing the night away in. – let us know if you know who they belong to.

The band was one of our favorites – Signed Sealed Delivered. And when the band was taking a break, Jaime Chavez of Ambiance Entertainment kept everyone on their feet dancing and informed of how the evening would progress as master of ceremonies.

Meagan Hayes of RSVP Soiree shows that she can dance during the dollar dance to raise more funds for the evening while the Johns of As You Wish Events (Shari was Co-Chair of the event) share a laugh.

Actress Jana McGill bats out the Ike and Tina Turner classic Rollin’ on the River/Proud Mary as Sister Albert Maria with some assistance from the Signed Sealed Delivered band.

And the YMCA performance had all the girls on their feet…

On their way out after an evening of fun, Wendy Timson of Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, Thisbe Grace of Thisbe Grace Photography and pal Gloria Mapston did a little runway photography for us.

Click here to check out and download photos from the Carpe Vita Photography Out-of-the-Box photo booth. You will notice Steve in a lot of the photos as he was helping to get folks in to the swing of things. Here’s a sneak peek slideshow of some of the photos.

Click here to go to Pictage (our online lab) where all of the other (non-photo booth) photos from the evening can be seen and shared. In the photos online and the slideshow below, you’ll see Damon Frazier of Frazier Photography and Video hard at work videoing the event – Damon, we can’t wait to see your perspective.

And enjoy this little teaser that shows more of the fun had by all.

Congrats to all of the people involved with making this an outstanding event! And my apologies for those we didn’t recognize here by name and contribution or have a photo to show you in action – you are still greatly appreciated!

Last evening the DFW Chapter of NACE sponsored a party in honor NACE’s 50th Anniversary. The party was held at FIG and provided attendees a peek into each of the 5 decades that NACE members have wowed clients with their talents and creativity. As one would expect, many of the top catering and event professionals from the Dallas area were there. The food, beverages, and entertainment were spectacular!

We set up a “photo booth” in the 2000s decade room. The incredibly creative team from Fauxcades not only provided a beautiful and unique lounge setting in the room, they also came up with an amazing design for the “photo booth” that came complete with a custom arrow sign pointing the way. If you ever plan an event and want great decor, give the folks at Fauxcades a call. Applause to the Fauxcades team: Sandra, Katie, Raymond, Robert, and all their crew.

Here’s a little slide show with a few of my favorites from the booth photos:

And here’s the link to all the images from the booth.

NACE 50th Anniversary Party Photo Booth

Enjoy!

The Carpe Vita Photo Booth was a raving success thanks to the super speedy response from the LiveWire Special Event people (that’s their ultra cool curved couch/love seat). We hear they have amazing things for rent to really separate your event from the norm. So contact Ashley Holder at 214.774.0912 to set an appointment see what all they can offer you. The breath-taking bouquet was prepared by The Garden Gate floral gurus specifically for us – we told Maria and Junior our color preference and they did the rest. As noted directly above, your photo booth can be simple or make as big of a party statement as you like – let’s get together and talk about your ideas.

Paula Fenner of The Adolphus is a miracle-worker. Not only is she responsible for another amazing bridal show but she is so totally supportive of all the wedding professionals involved. Paula, we love you to death and thank you for hooking us up with LiveWire.

What you see above is our postcard for the booth that got stuck in California last week due to the fires. If you didn’t get to experience the booth first hand, the card explains things a little bit better. But seeing the booth in action is always much more fun than reading about it. So here are some pics and a little slide show (you know we love those) of the more entertaining participants for your viewing enjoyment.

Stacey Murdock with The Wildflower and Shari Johns with As You Wish… test out the booth. Great smiles ladies!

Randal Stout of Randal Stout Events helped us promote our new Just Married Sessions . Please notice the Randal Stout branding on the box of nuts sitting on the seat beside him.

I think Luana Stoutmeyer of Encore Entertainment and Events is making the moves on Steve. Luana, we love you dearly and love working with your incredible talent.

Here are the beauties from the booth on the other side of us – Sarah Briggs of Sarah Briggs Jewelry and Jamie O’Banion of Jamie O Skincare. Sarah’s jewelry is spectacular and Jamie’s products can make a world of difference in how a bride looks on her wedding day. They say you should really start concentrating on your wedding skin care at least 6 months in advance. Check them out online.

Here’s the booth in action with the ladies from Shemara Couture having a little fun.

Here Steve shows the ladies a bound book of proofs from another Carpe Vita Photo Booth. As referenced on the postcard above (white and red side) each photo booth rental from Carpe Vita Photography comes with the client’s choice of either a bound book of all the photos from the booth or individual prints of each photo taken.

Here’s the slide show:

All of the photos above and in the slide show are available for download at www.CarpeVitaPhotography.com/HauteWeddings07 . You can preview the thumbnails (there are a lot that we didn’t include in the slide show) and then click on them to view a bigger image. The large photo can be downloaded to your computer by right-clicking on it. The downloadable photos do give credit to the sponsors involved but the biggest contributors (who unfortunately aren’t listed) were the amazing hosts of the show – The Adolphus Hotel and D Weddings We were running out of room on the photo and figured you knew all about their greatness.  If you want a photo without the logos, use the email button on the site or give us a call at 817.410.9975.

Carpe Vita Weddings is participating in the D Weddings’ Haute Wedding Show taking place today at The Hotel Adolphus in Dallas.  The show is 12-5 and Steve will be participating in a panel discussion about current wedding trends with other Dallas wedding professionals from noon to one.

We are having an out of the ordinary photo booth (because we are nothing ordinary, right) so stop by, see us and photograph yourself for a fun keepsake from the day!  We’ll be posting the photos to download at www.CarpeVitaPhotography.com/HauteWeddings07 .  Check back for the photos if they are not there yet.   

Here’s a photo from an out of the ordinary photo booth we had earlier this year at a wedding reception at the Hotel ZaZa. That’s the groom James with the remote powering the camera surrounded by his pals. One of the guys in the photo sent us this great quote: “What a bash! Your bed (photo booth) thing was definitely a hit… there was a waiting line for the bed. It really kicked the reception into high gear.”

Gretchen and here bridesmaids got into the action too!

Here are Steve and I testing the equipment – have to have a photo for our scrapbook too!