Krista Photography Blog

Posted on June 8, 2012June 6, 2012 by Krista Guenin · 1 Comment

Fran & James’ Fabulous Wedding Details

Not only was Fran & James’ wedding ridiculously fun, it was totally GORGEOUS! I basically loved everything about it – from the stationary, to the location, to the many MANY D-I-Y details! Fran did so much of it herself, I was beyond impressed. She’s more than crafty, she’s got impecable taste :)

The ring & the invite

James’ killer shoes (by Allana Taranto)

Getting ready details

The Sculpture Park at the museum was a very cool backdrop for the day

Everything was decorated with moss and birch, very earthy and natural, but still classy and not at all granola

Reception details

The tent looked great all lit up!

A BIG shout-out to the awesome vendors that made this wedding so fabulous!!!!

Location – deCordova Museum & Sculpture Park

Dress – Allegria Bridal

Band – Makredes Band

Caterer – La Fete Catering

Florist – Fino Fresh Floral

DJ – Brendan Howard from Murray Hill Talent

Lighting – Boston Uplights

Makeup – Deb Houghton

Hair – Wedding Tresses

Photo booth – J and B photo booth

Stationary – Paper source

Photography – Krista Photography

Second Shooter – Allana Taranto

To view more of my favorites from this wedding, check out the album on Facebook!

Posted on June 6, 2012June 6, 2012 by Krista Guenin · 5 Comments

Fran & James’ Wedding – DeCordova Museum

If you thought Fran & James’ Engagement Session was fun, you’re going to LOVE their wedding!! They got married at the deCordova Museum & Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA – what a cool venue! I’d been dying to shoot there and it definitely lived up to my excitement. Check out my favorites from the day…

Fran getting ready

All shots of James and the dudes getting ready by my wonderfully talented second shooter, Allana Taranto.

First Look!

I love to shoot people’s feet! especially when they’re wearing argyle socks!!

Seemed like the perfect place for some wedding portraits :)

Haha!

Bridal Party

Bridal Party Quintych

Wedding at the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park

The girls

Wedding at the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park

The dudes

These guys were so fun to work with!

Probably my favorite shot of the day!!!! A little pre-ceremony soda to get ready – a woman after my own heart :)

very cool shot of the rabbi by Allana

Time to get married!

The sunlight coming through the trees, the moss aisle, the gorgeous chuppa… it was PERFECT!

His family is Jewish, her family is Russian Orthodox – their wedding was a beautiful combination of both traditions

In general, at every wedding, my favorite shots of the couple are usually when they’re coming down the aisle and that first moment alone after they’ve said “I do!” – it’s just unadulterated JOY!

very cool shot by Allana

After the ceremony, we went up to the roof for a few more portraits

Allana’s take on the moment

Wedding at the DeCordova Museum & Sculpture Park

Haha!!!! Jumping for joy, right?!

Three of my favorites from the reception by Allana

Cake!

they did

Another of my favorite moments from the day… during the reception a slow David Gray song came on and I saw James wind his way through the crowded dance floor to find his bride and have a dance – it was so sweet I totally cried! I’m a sap, what can I say?

And just a couple last portraits inside the museum to end the night!

Fran & James – your wedding was AWESOME! Thank you so much for trusting me with capturing the memories!!! It was an absolute pleasure!

I’ll post about the details next :)

To view more of my favorites from this wedding, check out the album on Facebook!

Posted on June 6, 2012June 5, 2012 by Krista Guenin · 1 Comment

Fran & James’ Boston Engagement Session

For the next few posts, we’re going to take a look back at one of my favorites weddings from last year! Yep, Fran & James’ wedding was that good, it needs a few posts! Starting with their super fun summer engagement session in Boston…

They had balloons, a ride on a merry-go-round, ice cream at Quincy Market, and even ran into a fountain! It was such a fun evening wandering around downtown – and all the more fun because they were so excited for the shoot and were willing to do just about anything! Gotta love it :)

We handed the balloons to some kids passing by, much to their parents’ dismay, and then went on with the shoot…

*love*

Fran & James – thanks for such a fun evening!! I can’t wait to share the rest of your wedding over the next few posts!!

To view more of my favorites from this wedding, check out the album on Facebook!

Posted on June 5, 2012June 5, 2012 by Krista Guenin

The Great Giveaway was awesome!

I love The Great Giveaway!! Every year, it never ceases to amaze me how many people come out for it – both volunteers from GENESIS, and people from the community. This year we were specifically praying that 600 people would come, and God totally blew us away when over 800 people showed up!!! About 15 minutes before we opened there were over 300 people waiting, and almost everything was gone within the first 45 minutes. It was NUTS! But SO FUN!

It took us a month to collect all of the items that were given away, a week to organize it all, and about 3 hours to put it all out on display.

People began lining up and waiting by about 7:30am (the giveaway began at 10am)

My friend Tracy did a fabulous job organizing the event!

My lovely friend Christie was passing out balloons (photo taken on instagram). I heart this picture of her :)

All the volunteers gathered to pray right before we opened the “doors”

The masses are getting excited!!

Check out this quick little video I made of the opening of the floodgates! It was NUTS!!!

This guy was the big winner of the day, and walked away with a FREE 60″ TV!! He was pretty pumped to say the least ;)

My brother, Michael, did an awesome job with the bullhorn, keeping everyone entertained and informed!

The kids probably had the most fun! I love these two, and their deep discussion about stuffed animals. It looks like intense negotiations, haha!

Games inside for the kiddos

And a bouncy house outside for the kids big and small ;)

Um, perhaps they were over-sugared… My nephew Tristan would beg to differ

Facepainting fun! My niece Reilly and her best buddy Maddie got matching face parrots

Oh Dylan, you make an adorable basketball!

My nephew Caeden – almost as excited about the hot dog as he is about that container full of candy!

We grilled and gave away almost 1,000 hot dogs!!

I have no clue how much popcorn and cotton candy we made, but Bettina was COVERED in it!

Seriously, there were SO many PEOPLE there!!!! But within an hour almost all of this was gone, and it was just people eating hot dogs and playing games.

SUCH a fun day!!! I can’t wait for next year!!!!

to view more of my favorites from The Great Giveaway, check out the album on Facebook!

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Krista Guenin · 2 Comments

The Great Giveaway – TOMORROW!

For the past 3 years, my church, GENESIS, has done an event every May called The Great Giveaway. Basically, it’s a HUGE yard sale where everything is FREE, and it’s pretty awesome! We believe that God is generous and He gives so much to us (provision, life, love, salvation, and abundant blessings), and that we are called to be generous as He’s been generous to us. So each year we collect thousands of items – clothing, furniture, electronics, books, toys, strollers, appliances, home decor, linens, and more – and we give them away to anyone who needs/wants them! Plus, we throw in some super fun stuff for the kids to do (even a bouncy house!!), and we feed everyone while we’re at it! Frankly, it’s the funnest day of the year, and I’m getting super excited for tomorrow!!!!!

Last year, everyone lined up and was waiting for it to begin, and when it did, they all RAN in to check it all out!

The kids LOVE it!

The grown ups have been known to have some fun too…

And it’s always fun to see people walking away with things they really NEED!!

This year we’ve got about THREE TIMES MORE stuff to giveaway than we did last year!!!! Check out more photos of what we’ve got in store on the Facebook invite here.

The Great Giveaway is TOMORROW, Saturday May 19th from 10am – 12pm at GENESIS church (16 Wheeling Ave, Woburn)

I hope you can stop by and check it out!!! Be sure to say HI – I’ll be the one walking around with a camera ;)

You can see more of the fun from last year’s Great Giveaway here. And check out my post about the first Great Giveaway here.

Posted on April 18, 2012June 6, 2012 by Krista Guenin · 2 Comments

Claire & Matan’s Wedding – Hyatt Regency Cambridge

I basically didn’t blog most of my weddings from last year… but there are some that I just HAVE to share! It may take me a while, but I’m going to try to post a few of last year’s weddings, along with this year’s weddings. We’ll see how it goes! For now, allow me to introduce you to Claire & Matan…

Claire & Matan are just beautiful people. They’re gorgeous, clearly, but they’re also really beautiful people from the inside out, where it really counts. They’re lives are committed to helping people – him by working in foreign policy and her working in humanitarian aid. They’ve travelled the world putting their education and skills to work to make other people’s lives better, and I think that’s pretty awesome! It’s been so lovely working with them and getting to know them over the course of the last two years as they planned their wedding, shot their engagement session and the big day, and now we’ve designed their wedding album. But being at their wedding and hearing their friends and family speak of them, that’s when you really see how wonderful, and how loved they really are. I’m so so glad I have been able to be a part of their celebration and the beginning of their life together!

We shot their engagement session on rainy summer day in Rockport, but they absolutely made it work!

Their wedding at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge was the exact opposite – HOT and SUNNY! But once again, they made it work and everything turned out great!!

Photo below by my fabulous second shooter, Allana Taranto

Quite possibly my favorite First Look ever!

Photo below by my wonderful Assistant, CoCo Boardman

A few sunny portraits along the River

Another great shot by Allana

Allana had the brilliant idea of putting them in this tree, and I LOVE how it turned out!!

A shot from my widelux in black & white film

Then it was back to the Hyatt for the festivities!

My favorite shot of Claire and her father!

Widelux film shot of the ceremony

Their vows were so lovely, even I was crying at this point!

Allana’s view

They literally danced their way out!! Talk about excited :)

Loved this shot of Claire’s friend and her husband :)

Allana’s shots from the first dance, the Hora, and the toasts

LOVE this one Allana!!!!

Summer Wedding at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge

Dance floor by CoCo

Their dance floor was definitely a BLAST!!

Summer Wedding at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge

Claire & Matan! Thank you so much for inviting me into this happy day in your lives, and for making all of the months of work leading up to and away from the day such a pleasure!!!

*To view more of my favorites from this wedding & engagement session, check out the album on Facebook!

Posted on April 16, 2012April 16, 2012 by Krista Guenin · 5 Comments

Now Hiring!

It’s that time of year, and things are getting pretty busy over here at Krista Photography! It’s shaping up to be our busiest season yet, which is awesome! With all of this busyness comes a lot more work on the back end, and I’m realizing that CoCo and I can’t do it alone! So, we’re looking for some more help around here…

What are we looking for?

One or 2 people to work part-time.
Background in photography, graphic design, marketing, administrative assisting, or other applicable skills
Honest, detail-oriented, hard-working, creative, problem-solver who’s eager to learn – preferably someone fun :)
Experience with some combination of Mac computers, Microsoft Office, Quickbooks, Social Media, Lightroom & Photoshop
You’ll need a car to get to my home office in Woburn
Someone who can start the sooner, the better!

What kinds of things could you be doing?

Managing vendor relations
Marketing & Social Media projects
Submitting images for publication
Updating & managing our website
Wedding Album Design
Administrative Tasks
Client Communication
Scheduling Assistants & Second Shooters
Culling & Color Correcting
Digital Asset Management
IT Troubleshooting
Assisting at weddings
Various projects
Cleaning the office for meetings :)

What will you get in return?

Pay commensurate with experience and final job description
Flexible Hours
Fun, relaxed & productive work environment
You’ll probably get to hear me singing to myself a lot, get to pet my cat a lot, and hopefully have a little fun while you’re here :)
You’ll get to work with US! Who wouldn’t want that?! :)

If you’re interested, please send an email telling me a bit about yourself, why you’re interested in working for Krista Photography, what kind of roles you’re interested in taking on, a link to your work if you’re a photographer, and a resume to kg@kristaphoto.com! Looking forward to hearing from you!!!

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Krista Guenin

Life is too short

I’m going to get pretty personal here for a minute. For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, that won’t surprise you, but for those who are just stopping by for the first time – I hope you’ll indulge me…

Two weeks ago, a young woman from my church, Alanna, and her unborn son, were killed in a tragic accident while on vacation with her husband in Florida.

Alanna was a joyful, sweet woman – the kind of person that no one could say a bad thing about – just genuinely loving and kind. She always had a beautiful smile on her face. I remember the few conversations I had with her being completely pleasant, and walking away feeling encouraged and more grateful for my life and work than I was before. Our hearts have been so heavy within the GENESIS community, even for those of us who didn’t know Alanna very well. Her death affects us all because we are one Body. “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:4-5. And it’s that much harder for those who knew her well and for whom she was a big part of their lives. More than anything, my heart aches for her husband Michael, and her family. It’s an absolutely devastating loss.

For the last 2 weeks, I have been praying that God would use this for good. I have said it again and again, but her death, this whole thing is just so completely horrible – it’s so horrible that there is no way that God will not use it for good. God does not delight in tragedy, but in taking ashes and turning them into something beautiful. And I believe with all my heart that God will use Alanna’s death to bring about something beautiful in the lives of those left behind. I believe that He will reveal Himself to us, and to many. I have already seen it, and I trust that it will only grow as time passes.

I think Alanna’s legacy is her faith in and love for Jesus, and that above everything else, she would want people to know that about her, to see that in her, and to seek the same. On her Facebook page, in her “about me” section she wrote the lyrics to the song Legacy by Nichole Nordeman…

“I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy”

This is the legacy she leaves. Her entire life, and even her death points us to God. That’s what she wanted most, and I believe that’s what she’s done. And I rejoice in knowing that she’s with Him now – at perfect peace, in perfect joy, and hearing “well done, my good and faithful servant.”

For me personally, I feel overwhelmed with all I’ve learned in these last few days. I look at how she died in the midst of such joy – she’d said it was the happiest day of her life – and I realize that life is just too short for anything else. Life is too short to spend it being angry, or frustrated. Life is too short to waste our time on foolish things, on too many hours spent in front of a computer or a TV. Life is too short not to tell the people you love that you love them – not to show them that you love them. And most importantly, life is too short not to be lived in light of what we believe is most important. Alanna’s entire life, her entire personality, everything about her pointed the people around her to Jesus, spoke to them of His love. Will they say the same of me when I die someday? I hope so. I hope that I could leave half the mark on the people around me that Alanna has left. I look to her example, and am deeply challenged. I pray that my life would be different from here on out – that her life and death would not impact me just these last few weeks, but for the rest of my life.

You truly never know what moment will be your last, don’t waste them.

p.s. I wish I knew who the photographer was who took her wedding photo, so I could give him/her proper credit. I pulled this from Facebook, and she didn’t credit her photog. A reminder to all of us photographers to watermark our images… If you shot this photo, please let me know and I’ll edit the post!

Posted on March 15, 2012April 3, 2012 by Krista Guenin

Inspire 2012 is almost here!!

Inspire.

It started out as an idea… What if there was a conference that felt more like a community? What if instead of flying around the country to hear people from California talk about running their businesses, we gathered photographers from right here in New England and asked them instead? What if we did it ourselves? These are the questions that Matt & Enna Grazier asked a few of us, as we all looked at them as if they were nuts. Brilliant. But nuts… If it had been my idea, it probably would have stayed an idea, but the Grazier’s are people of action, and thank God for that!

What began as an idea, a question, grew into a real life conference we called Inspire Boston. What was an incredible and inspiring two days in Concord with 100 photographers, grew to something more the next year… Inspire Boston 2011. We added mentoring sessions, shooting workshops, and a vendor lounge and this time 125 people came from all over New England and beyond!

So, here we are, 3 years later, and it’s just 12 days until Inspire 2012 kicks off! This year, we’ve changed the name from Inspire Boston to Inspire Photo Seminars – since it’s really not just about Boston anymore. We’ve moved it to the Sturbridge Host so we could have a bit more space and be a little more centralized for our primarily MA/CT attendees. We’ve got 18 Speaking Sessions, 8 Special Classes (shooting session, portfolio reviews, etc.), a special pre-conference all-day Pictage + ShootQ Bootcamp, an even bigger Vendor Lounge, a mid-conference party with KARAOKE (clearly that was my idea!), one-on-one and roundtable mentoring sessions with the speakers and sponsors, and a killer Wrap-Party at the end! It is going to be a JAM-PACKED couple of days!!!

I’ll be speaking at Inspire this year on Facebook Marketing Strategies. If you follow my blog, you’ve probably liked my Facebook page as well (and if not, what’s stopping you?!). And if you follow both, you’ve probably noticed that I post on Facebook WAY more often than on here. Facebook just makes it so EASY for me! It has dramatically changed and grown my business over the last 3 years. Last year my weddings doubled from the year before, and this year I’m almost entirely booked up for the year already! I give most of that credit to how I share images and communicate via Facebook – but I guess I’ll give a little of the credit to my photographs too, yeah? ;) I’ve been super excited to share my Facebook strategies and theories with the Inspire community, and wouldn’t you know it, Facebook went and changed everything about their business pages three weeks before the conference! So, I’m reworking my talk and trying to learn as much about all the changes as possible, and now I’m even more excited :) I mean, what better time to talk about how to set up and use a Facebook page than right when everything about them has changed and everyone’s wondering what to do?! OK, so I’m excited and also a little overwhelmed, but I do think it’s an exciting time to be sharing about this and I’m hoping that it will be really beneficial to everyone to comes to my talk!

If you’re a photographer, and you aren’t signed up for Inspire yet, what are you waiting for?! It’s going to be FUN! You’re going to meet a TON of awesome local photographers who may just become your nearest and dearest friends (I’ve gone on vacation with ladies I met at Inspire, and don’t get me started on how much I love the Planning Team). You’re going to LEARN something new! You’re going to leave feeling INSPIRED and EMPOWERED to make some great changes in your business and maybe even in your life. It’s not too late to sign up and come be a part of it all!! I’ve got a $50 off discount code that is good for the first 3 people who use it! Go HERE and use the code KRISTAPHOTO2012 to get $50 off your registration! I hope you can come!!!

Posted on January 2, 2012January 3, 2012 by Krista Guenin · 9 Comments

The end of a year

Today I’m officially observing New Year’s Day! Every year, I normally spend New Year’s Day sleeping in (check), having a nice long quiet time of journaling and praying (check), work out a budget for the new year (um, pass, I don’t feel like it), going through my calendar for the last year (check), and reminiscing about all that’s happened (check). It’s been a challenging year for sure, especially the last few months of the year when life got doubly stressful, but as I look back I have a much better perspective and am able to truly thank God for this year!

Here’s a little peek at my 2011 in no particular order…

Shot 14 fabulous weddings from January through December in Boston, on the Cape, and in Connecticut

Took voice lessons for the first time

Renovated my home office

Fell in love with my new neph-dog, Buckeye

Brought on CoCo as a paid office assistant

FINALLY bough an iPhone!!!!

Lead a LIFEgroup of fabulous women for a few months

Got published in The Knot Boston, twice!

Said goodbye to too many dear friends as they moved away

Joyfully welcomed back a few friends as they returned home

Spoke at the Boston PUG on Facebook Marketing, and with Enna Grazier at Inspire 2011 on Branding

Shot 12 Engagement Sessions in Boston, on the Cape, and in New York

Donated over $4800 to various non-profits as part of our GIVE program!! So cool!

Sang lots of karaoke (sometimes while shooting weddings ;)

Helped organize and pull off the 2nd Inspire Photo Conference, and began planning the 3rd (it’s going to be sweet, you photogs should come!)

: photo by RAW Photo Design

Shot 10 Family Portrait Sessions in Boston, Indianapolis & Chicago

Holiday Portrait Party!

sang on the Worship Team at GENESIS on a lot of Sunday mornings

Shot 5 Corporate photo sessions

Bought a new iMac to add to my collection

Discovered the Colin Firth version of Pride & Prejudice and held a British mini-series marathon that caused some random British accents to pop into conversations for a month or so

Travelled to Dallas for my cousin’s wedding, a photo conference, and a visit with a friend – whirlwind weekend for sure!

Watched Butler lose the NCAA Finals for the 2nd year in a row. wah wah :(

Scratched the surface of understanding the word GRACE and what God’s love is really like

Spent a long weekend at Loon Mountain with some of my favorite photog ladies

Lots of visits from Mom & Dad (aka Mimi & Papa)

Discovered & fell in love with The Civil Wars, Pinterest, and truffle oil tater tots

The Great Giveaway!

8 friends got married, 3 more got engaged, and 6 had babies, adopt or get pregnant!

Spent as much time at the beach as I possibly could

2 weeks in Indianapolis, and the annual Guenin Family Vacation

Cried over the end of the Harry Potter series

Said goodbye as too many friends moved away, rejoiced as a couple of friends returned home

Watched my sister’s kids get far too big

Hunkered down for Hurricane Irene

Threw some fun parties

Cookie Face Race!

Dexter. Psych. Pushing Daisies. Mad Men. My So Called Life. The joy of Hulu & Netflix…

Turned 34. yep.

Finished reading through the entire Bible for the second time (it only took me 5 1/2 years…)

Did NOT have anyone move into or out of my house!! A first for the last many years – so thankful for my awesome roommate!

Laughed a lot, cried a lot, went to the chiropractor a lot, ate too much pizza, drank too much Coke, sat at my computer a lot a lot a lot…

All in all, that’s a pretty great year! I have more to be thankful for than I remembered yesterday – so that’s pretty awesome :)

Here’s to a great 2012!!

xoxo

Krista