The Cream City Difference

Couples often ask us what makes Cream City Photo | Video unique. We feel there are three things that set us apart: Approach,  Aptitude and Affordability.

Approach. Our approach is different than most studios in that we look to document rather than direct your wedding day. What does that mean? It means we’re not going to dominate and take over your special day.  Our fun is capturing your fun and we let you enjoy your wedding without endless posing and an obtrusive presence. Your wedding images will have a fresh, natural and spontaneous look that tells the true story of your day.

Aptitude. Our entire staff is made up of seasoned wedding professionals. Our experienced wedding photographers and videographers are familiar with most wedding traditions and with creatively handling the challenges and fast-paced nature of each wedding they document. Our album designers are visual storytellers, working with your favorite images to tell the story of your day in a creative and visually dynamic way. Our sales staff knows how to work with you and your budget to find the best package to fit your needs as well as those special photo gifts that will please your family and friends. And finally, our entire team is focused on you and ensuring that you have, enjoy and remember the wedding of your dreams.

Affordability. As a team, and utilizing the best products and talents in the industry, we can offer you the best value for your investment.  This doesn’t mean the cheapest, but high quality products and services at a price that won’t break the bank. After all, these are most important images you’ll have taken and we want to ensure they'll be there for you for the rest of your lives.

Call, text or email today for a free consultation and to have Cream City Photo|Video document your wedding...(414) 688-0858 or visit our web site.

What is a Fusion Video?

Photo Fusion – A Marriage of Wedding Photos and Video

For about 50 years, the wedding album has been the standard vehicle for remembering and sharing your wedding day. The 1980’s saw the growth of wedding video. Video brought movement and most importantly audio to wedding images. The problem was that most wedding videos ending up being long features of an hour or two that most people really didn’t want to sit through more than once. With the digital revolution of the 21st Century, the greatest benefits of traditional photographic images, video capture, audio, and the latest in digital editing tools and techniques have merged into a new output that is changing how you relive your special day.

Called Photo Fusion or Fusion Video, these mixed media presentations give you more than just captured moments. They give the sights, sounds and emotions of your day edited into a dynamic video slide show that can be shared online or watched on your DVD player over and over again. Featured in your Fusion Video are your favorite wedding images set to music in a slide show format. Interspersed with your images are video clips of some of the key moments of your day along with the audio of such things as your vows and toasts. What Fusion Video is not is: A traditional full length video; Just a slide show; nor, by any means, is it boring.

As storytellers, we photographers have become adept at creatively telling the story of your day through a collection of still images. These images, typically bound in an album, do tell a wonderful story, but they are missing something; sound and movement. With Fusion Video, we can add key audio moments such as your vows and toasts to bring an unprecedented sense of personality and life to a slide show of your wedding images.  By adding selected video clips as well, your slide show takes on a whole new sense of life drawing you those precious moments of your day. By being short, usually five to ten minutes, Fusion Video is unlike full length video in that it can be shared easily online and watched over and over again for decades of enjoyment.

If you’d like something more than just a wedding slide show, and more in depth than a traditional wedding album, consider Cream City’s Fusion Video. When combined with one of our photography packages, these video packages make wonderful keepsakes that bring all of the emotions, sights AND sounds of your wedding back to life for you enjoy over and over again.
Click here to view our sample Fusion Video.

Bridal Show Tips.

In the wedding business the period after the holidays is often known as "Engagement Season".  This means that many couples get engaged around the holidays as it is a time that people feel a natural sense of family, commitments and traditions.  If you've been dating someone you love for a period of time and you know friends and family will be in your travel plans or even in your thoughts it's a natural time for many to propose so they can share the joyous news during the holidays when they know they will be seeing friends and family.

Because of this in the Midwest the early part of the year is rife with many bridal shows.  With less weddings on the books during the colder months wedding  vendors plan to spend time at these shows as it truly provides a "one stop" place for brides and grooms to gather information and have some "face time" with vendors rather than emailing and texting for information.

So when it comes to  bridal fairs , here are some tips to keep in mind.

1.  Come prepared.  Many companies will have giveaways and drawings so pre-printed address labels are wonderful.  Also realize that when you sign up for these promotions you are giving the wedding fair as well as the vendors permission to contact you  via email or text.  TIP: Set up a separate  gmail  account for your wedding like karenlovesjim@gmail.com to put on all of you wedding communications.  The ones that you feel are really pertinent you can forward to your working email address.  

2.  The bigger shows here in Milwaukee can garner as many as 2000 brides coming through in a single week end. And that's just brides.  This does not count your mom, your BFF or even your fiancé who come along with you.  Girls who, just like you want to find the perfect vendor for their wedding vision.  To say that these shows can be overwhelming is an understatement.  We've heard these shows described as "Cattle Calls", "Disneyland lines"  and the like.  They can be busy, and they can be overwhelming if you are not prepared.

3.  Do your research.  Check the vendor listings on the publications, visit their websites and narrow down who you want to meet.  Most of the major bridal shows such as Premier Bride will give you a floor plan layout of where each vendor is.    

4.  Do expect that vendors will want to talk to you and will want to book appointments with you, but do not tolerate rude vendors.   Wedding shows are a symbiotic relationship.  Vendors book space because they want to book weddings.  You attend bridal shows because you want to meet the wedding professional that is right for you and you are hope to find them there.   It's normal for them to want to meet you outside the hubub of the bridal show booth, it's NOT normal for them to pressure you with scare tactics.  If a vendor intimates to you if you don't book at the show you will lose incentives etc, then walk away.  

5.  Be respectful of the vendors.  In most cases they've paid the equivalent of what they would earn on a wedding day plus expenses, they pay taxes and are invested in their career. If when inquiring about their pricing they give you information that is well out of your budget range thank them and refuse their literature for another bride who may be in that range.  You'd be surprised how this simple gesture will open a dialect and may result in great referrals for you, or even a custom package.

6. And the best tip ever....if the Packers are playing at any time during a bridal fair in Wisconsin, you can  practically have lunch with any wedding vendor there as the aisle will be barren and they will be bored out of their minds!

Jim and Vika's fusion wedding video

Now available for viewing, Jim and Vika's fusion video!  A marriage of still photos and videos taken on their wedding day by Cream City Photo and Video!

2012 Wedding Trends!

Do you all have your Tangerine Tango bridesmaids dresses yet? Whether the Pantone Hot Colors of 2012 are your cup of tea or not, here are some other wedding trends that may help you plan the perfect wedding.

“All-in-One” wedding locations are growing in popularity. The number of couples planning their ceremony and reception is up over 10% from 2010. Many of our couples state that having everything in one location has made it much easier on them and their guests from out of town. 

Shorter engagements. We’ve seen this one for many years. More couples are planning shorter engagements to find a savings in time and avoid the stress of a longer engagement. 

Food stations. Unlike long buffet lines, food stations help spread crowds out, offer your guests a variety of food options and provide a wonderful opportunity for themed décor.

Different dessert options are on the rise. We’ve seen wedding pies, cupcakes, sweet tables and candy bars. A wedding cake, however, is still the most popular dessert with 83% of brides opting for this delicious delight.

Cash Bars are in! Yes, it is a bit more of a challenge here in Wisconsin, but offering a cash bar or working with your reception location to bring your own is another method of saving money that is growing in popularity. 

Up lighting for drama.  Whether your venue offers it or your DJ, up lighting can be an affordable way to add color and drama to your reception.

 Inviting fewer guests. Maybe not the most popular trend, when you think of having to cut guests off of your list, but it is a logical way of saving money when you’re planning your own wedding. Recent surveys show what the average number of guests per wedding in 2010 was 152 and this year it is expected to be 144. Consider having people close to you for dinner and inviting co-workers, etc for just the dance and serve a late night snack of pizza or a nacho bar.

Adding your own personal touch. Personalized favors have always been popular gifts at weddings. Creating something personal that reflects your personality goes a long way to making your wedding uniquely yours. Over the years we’ve seen saplings given out by a forest ranger groom, flower seeds by a couple that likes to garden and a special hot chocolate mix by a couple who loves winter and had a winter wedding. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

We hope some of these trends in weddings for 2012 will help inspire you as you plan for your big day!

Chosing your first dance

The first dance is usually something that comes easily to a couple or something that they struggle with.  For many couples, there is no question on what will be their first dance as a wedding couple.  Perhaps it's a song that united you when you were dating, or a song that  reminds you of the time you first realized your feelings for that person.   For others, it's something they agonize over a little because they want the song to really show and tell the guests how they feel about each other but they just don't have a "song" that symbolizes it. 

If you fall into the latter catalog and you are struggling to find the "perfect dance" for you and your fiance, here's some popular first dances from 2011.  To make it even more personalized let's take into account personality types!

Are you a Traditionalist?

At Last- Etta James
Fly Me to The Moon~Frank Sinatra
Everything~Micheal Buble
Unchained Melody~Righteous Brothers
Can't Help Falling In Love~Elvis

Are you a Hopeless  Romantic?

True Companion~Mark Cohn
I Can Love You Like That~ John Micheal Montgomery
CanYou Feel The Love Tonight~Elton John
Truly,Madly, Deeply~Savage Garden
Feel My Love~Adele
Just the Way you Are~Bruno Mars
Wonderful Tonight~Eric Clapton
You and Me~Lifehouse


Are you a little bit Country?

It'sYour Love~Faith Hill & Tim McGraw
She's Everything~Brad Paisley
Me and You~Kenny Chesney
Amazed~Lonestar
Bless the Broken Road~Rascal Flats
My Best Friend~Tim McGraw

Are you a a bit less traditional and like to surprise?
GrowOld With You~Adam Sandler (from The Wedding Singer)
Bubbly~CobieCallait
Lovesong~Adele
Fever~PeggyLee
I'm Yours~Jason Mraz

 
Feel like going old school?

Faithfully~Journey
Crazy Little Thing Called Love~Queen
All We Need is Love~Beatles
Everything I do (I do it for you)~Bryan Adams
When a Man Loves a Woman!~Percy Sledge



If you'd like to see a great compilation of all of the most popular songs of 2012 check out this link from djintelligence.  Talk to your fiance, talk to your DJ and you'll find a first dance that perfectly expresses how you feel about each other!

Do you Pantone?

Just like the fashion industry every year the wedding industry goes through changes. Changes in what's hot and whats not, and shifts in color and design.  Very often the color schemes are based upon the trends determined by a company out of New Jersey called Pantone. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, primarily printing, though sometimes in the manufacture of colored paint, fabric, and plastics.
This year's HOT Pantone colors of the year for spring weddings is Honeysuckle:



The colors for the fall are even more intriguing:



What colors do you like?  What don't you like?  And are you planning any of these colors in your upcoming wedding?!