AisleDash

In an effort to raise awareness and acceptance of gay marriage, Ellen DeGeneres plans to give out one photo of her wedding to Portia DeRossi to any media outlet that requests it.

Unlike many of her peers, she won't be selling the pictures for a profit -- she simply wants to bring attention to her cause. She's certainly doing a good job of getting the public interested -- she made the emotional announcement about her wedding plans on her show last month. Plus, Justin Timberlake has offered to write and perform a special song for Ellen and Portia at the wedding, and Jenna (Bush) Hager told Ellen the wedding could take place at the Bush family ranch in Texas.

Rest assured, we'll be putting our request in shortly!

One way to get those appealing, candid snaps of your wedding day is to place disposable cameras on the tables at your reception, and encourage your guests to shoot away all day. However, whilst buying a disposable camera is cheap, each photo has to be developed and that can cost a small fortune.

Technology has moved on and there are other, easier options available. For instance, many of your guests will be carrying compact digital cameras or cell phones with a built-in camera. So at a wedding of 100 guests, there will be a whole bunch of candid moments caught on camera. Maybe as many as 250 pictures. Why not use that incredible source of memories?

With Uploadyourday.com your guests can upload their photos onto an online gallery and add personal comments. You simply pre-purchase the pack of your choice and after that it's incredibly easy to use the service.

There are three packs available:

• Classic at £99.95
• Custom at £119.95
• Designer at £149.95

Basically, the packs contain 80 log in cards with a unique user name and password for your gallery, 20 table instruction cards, 100 thank you reminders (to remind your guests to upload their photos), a user guide, and a DVD to keep all those images on once the gallery is complete (you have a live, online gallery for 8 weeks).

A great, practical idea and one that we love.

Wednesday Wedding Wrap-up is a weekly roundup of highlights from the past week, covering wedding blogs and websites, reality TV, even particularly hot scoop right here at AisleDash. Think we missed something? Leave your favorite highlight in the comments!

Polka Dot Bride has the perfect way for you to get the DIY rush with an uber-fabulous result ... but it's not cheap.

The Bride's Guide handles the always controversial question of how a couple who wants cash instead of gifts can spread the word.

Weddings by Socialites has pictures of a wedding that almost makes us want to get married all over again -- or at least go to the beach and eat some candy!

Here at AisleDash we've got some classic wedding one-liners sure to give you a giggle.

Barely wed and already the center of some controversy, Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly have caused Queen Elizabeth to formally ban the selling of pictures of royal events to tabloids forevermore.

The royal newlyweds gave Hello! magazine unprecedented access to their Windsor Castle wedding, which had the elder members of the royal family a bit ruffled. However, the Queen herself was reportedly unaware of the fact that she was posing for pictures that would end up as part of a 59 page spread in a grocery store checkout line, and when she found out, she was not amused.

Peter and Autumn brokered a deal worth nearly a million bucks, which many speculate went towards the cost of the lavish wedding. However, the deal has since been regarded as a serious error in judgment, and the royal family fears that the deal might have given up the family's right to privacy. From now on, a ban will apply keeping such deals from occurring at royal events such as weddings and christenings.

Having a difficult time thinking of a gift for your groom? Something personal, something different? What about a book of boudoir photos? The art of boudoir photography has been around for a long time. But it's back in style in a big way.

While we were at the bridal bazaar, we saw some examples of beautiful photos. At Woman Captured, the entire crew is female. You can feel comfortable getting whatever type of photos you think your groom will enjoy. The photos range from tasteful and playful to downright risqué and sexy.

Want to keep it a surprise? They can help you with that, too!

Check for a photographer in your area if you'd like to try some boudoir photos. And check back soon for an interview with a boudoir photographer to find out more about the process!

There was once a time when instant photography was cutting-edge. Polaroid pictures that develop within minutes before your eyes have long been a wedding favorite, often used in guest books. But now that digital photography is so widespread, these once high-tech cameras are essentially obsolete.

Polaroid recently announced that they were shutting down facilities and exiting the film business. The film is harder to find, getting more expensive as supplies dwindle, and will soon be completely unavailable. If you want to do a Polaroid guest book or use the cameras for any purpose at your wedding, you might want to stock up now.

Wednesday Wedding Wrap-up is a weekly roundup of highlights from the past week, covering wedding blogs and websites, reality TV, even particularly hot scoop right here at AisleDash. Think we missed something? Leave your favorite highlight in the comments!

Black*Eiffel has some of the most unique and playful wedding photos we've ever seen -- life is so unfair!

Portovert wants you to know that a green wedding doesn't have to break the bank, so they're telling you how to have a "freegan" wedding.

The Preppy Wedding gets us ready for summer weddings with pictures and links to bridesmaids' dresses in one of summer's classic fabrics.

Brides.com has a fabulous "Go Green" gallery, sure to inspire even the least eco-friendly bride-to-be.

Every couple has a love story to tell. The artists at Blue Olive Photography out of Vancouver have a knack for capturing the unique characteristics of each couple they photograph, telling the couple's story in photo-journal style through a series of beautiful and uniquely set images. Playing upon themes and places that are integral to the couple's lives as well as seasonality and style, they create these ultimately frame-able, modern, emotion-clad images. Additionally, the more casual and touching images of the ceremonies themselves highlight one of life's best celebrations. To see them is to hear the couple's love story. This is not your ordinary photography.

Remember prom? When I went, I remember my mom making sure she got pictures of me alone, without my date, because she knew we'd probably break up and we'd want pictures of just me in my prom dress, with my hair and makeup all done. She was right -- we broke up and I'm really happy to have some pictures that don't include some guy who's not my husband.

I feel like bridal portraits are the same thing, but since it's a wedding, not prom, I had no desire to have a whole session devoted just to me. My personal feeling is that, if for some reason I end up no longer married to my husband, I don't want to look at any pictures of my wedding day, even if they are only of me.

A bridal portrait was actually included in our photography package, but we switched that out for an engagement session and guest sign-in album. Now, almost four years to the day later, I have no regrets -- we have beautiful engagement pictures, our photographer did get some shots of us alone and together on our wedding day, and I didn't waste any money on having my hair done twice or dress cleaned and steamed. What do you think?

The first step in finding a great photographer is obvious: You need to look at sample work - and lots of it. However, this is easier said that done: Making appointments and driving all over town to look at portfolios while the actual photographer hovers over you giving you the hard sell is not the most pleasant experience, as you can imagine.

Flickr, the photo sharing site, has a vibrant community of professional wedding photographers and many couples are using it to find their photographic match. It makes perfect sense: You can review their work anytime, anywhere, so you can make up your mind in your own time. In addition, browsing the work of different photographers, even those outside of your geographical area, will broaden your horizons and give you ideas for getting the most creative pictures possible.



We asked some of our favorite Flickr photographers (see their amazing work in the gallery above) for advice on what to look for when using Flickr. Their exclusive tips for Aisledash readers are after the jump:

Having your picture taken with a sign expressing your thanks is sure to make anybody smile: It's romantic and sweet and shows your playful side. A thank you is always appreciated; doing it creatively simply gets you bonus points!

However, keep in mind that you should send out thank you notes as soon as possible after receiving a gift so you should only do this if you can get the pictures quickly - or use them to thank special people like your parents or members of your bridal party after the wedding is over.

The fact that you took the time out to thank them during what is undoubtedly a very busy day makes it even more special for sure.

(Image courtesy of danielkrieger.com)

Gallery: Thank You Photos

I am not a big fan of traditional wedding albums -- those gigantic faux leather albums with the bride and groom's names in gold leaf on the front. But I love the idea of having some way to organize wedding photos, both the formal and informal, as well as the dozens of pictures from engagement parties and showers and the wedding weekend. And now, thanks to Blurb, you can create your own sleek, slick photo books for any event and occasion. Gold leaf names not included.

Blurb is an online photo publishing service; you download their simple software, add and arrange your photos, and then order as many copies of your book as you like. You can choose your size and shape (options range from an understated 7X7 square to a 13X11 that would be lovely on your coffee table).

The Blurb website walks you through various types of books, including weddings, with samples and suggestions. The books are stunning, with a magazine-style layout and high quality paper and binding. You can create your book yourself or invite wedding guests or attendants to help you; once the book is completed, you can order as many copies as you like or make it available in the Blurb store for friends and family to purchase.

We suggest that you assemble a series of books to document your wedding: engagement, showers, honeymoon, first home, first year. Come to think of it, you might want to start shopping for a bigger coffee table, too, or at least some pretty bookshelves.

If you hire a professional photographer for your wedding then you can expect to fork out quite a hefty chunk of your budget. You're looking at a minimum of £1500 ( about $3000) for bog standard stuff, and prices can quite easily go up to £10 000. Photographers justify this because they say it's the only permanent way to keep your wedding day memories and there's a lot of art involved, and printing costs are high blah blah blah.

Okay fine, they have a point. (By the way, as I said yesterday, you can do more than plain old wedding albums these days - consider photojournalism and fabulous cinematography as well. At a cost though.)

At those prices you're expecting photo perfection. Right? I'd certainly expect nothing less than that. But what if you don't hire an expensive photographer? What if you get a friend to do your pictures? What if you have some photos that should be fabulous but are not, because of silly imperfections? What if you need objects removed from an image, or a person added in, or a facial blemish wiped out?

Well, it's easy enough to touch them up yourself if you're a whiz on Photoshop but not many of us are. So what you need then is someone to do it for you. Someone like Carciofi Design.

You can send them a hard copy which they will scan and then digitally retouch, or you can send them a digital image. Charges start at $65 an hour, which is a bit pricey on the face of it but then, having some experience in retouching images myself, I know how fiddly it can be and I'd say that for a special photo you really want to look great, it's worth it.

So, no longer any need to cry over lousy wedding pictures.

I read an interesting post by Terrica over at Fabuluxe Events this morning. She's highlighted 20 new concepts that have changed the face of weddings.

On my own, I'd not have come up with such an exhaustive list but everything she has written about is spot on. The biggest change in wedding planning (in my opinion) is the impact the Internet has had, and the most spectacular new photography trends, ones that I really really love, are photojournalism and cinematography.

There's something just brilliant about making a movie of your wedding day and if you're about to get married and haven't thought about doing this, then I can only encourage you to try and jiggle and tweak your budget to include an HD movie because, believe me, your day passes by in a dreamy haze and it's impossible to recapture every moment with memory alone. Yes, you'll have photographs and they are great, and videos are good too, but they just capture the highlights, whereas a film is going to give you a fantastic, in-depth look at everything that took place.

One thing that Terrica didn't mention though, and it's one of the most astounding trends in weddings, is just how much money couples are spending on their big day. It's not something I endorse or even understand, quite frankly, and I'd have sleepless nights if I spent over £30 000 ( about $60 000) on celebrating one day in my life. But there you go, OTT weddings are all the rage.

And my two favourite planning trends? That would have to be the DIY bride, and the 'green' bride, without a doubt.

You might be getting the information in a somewhat roundabout way, but, hey -- free stuff is always good. Especially when it's free wedding stuff!

Australian wedding blog Polka Dot Bride has a post on USA Giveaways happening in the month of January for brides getting married in the USA. What do you still need for your wedding?

• Need a full day wedding coordinator? Visit Blue Orchid Designs for more information and to register. All entries must be received by January 31 and winners will be announced on Valentine's Day.
  
• How about a photographer? Enter the contest at Karenscape Wedding Photography, where they are giving away a photography package every four months for a year. If you live outside Manhattan, you will likely have to pay a travel fee, but the photography is so cool it might be totally worth it!

Register away, AisleDashers! And let us all know if you win!