Samuel Luna Photography Contest - Free Wedding Photography! [CLOSED]

[DLUGO]

Photography is a way to your heart, a way to capture every special moment & hold it forever. It is an art. It's a walk through the moments we've experienced & places we havent. & Through photography we preserve history. Pictures have helped me capture my fathers life and helped me get a sense of how he was. My father passed away before i was born and all i have from him are pictures which ive learned to appreciate how amazing pictures can be. We now have a daughter & if godforbid something happens i want her to see & feel how much her father & i loved each other. Winning this contest would mean THE WORLD to us because we would have amazing pictures to look back on & pass on to our kids. Photography is number one on our wedding day because after the parties and spending it is what remains; it is the best way to immortalize your special day. You only get one chance of capturing your wedding day which is another reason why it means THE WORLD to us. We want to thank you in advance for considering us <3

[Jamaica2013]

I value photography as a visual expression of life.  Our wedding will be a sacred event in our lives that we will cherish forever.  Selecting a destination wedding is exciting but it also comes with some remorse.  My fiancé and I both have elderly family members that will not be able to travel the distance because of their health.  Photography is important to me because it is a means of sharing our special day with these love ones.  My 84 y/o grandmother has made me promise that I will have lots of pictures to share with her.  She told me that she wants to see our wedding from beginning to end and the art of photography will allow me to fulfill her wish.  The pictures taken at our wedding will become a part our history.  When we have children we will be able to pass this part of our lives on to them and they will do the same generation after generation. 

[Naomi Swanson]

How can you put into words the importance of photography.... I guess sometimes there are no words which is why we have photos. Having life's most precious moments at your finger tips is truly incredible! I believe that beautiful moments happen everyday and we have no way of capturing them all. The beauty thing about a wedding is that it's a preplanned moment that you can be ready for..Literally capturing anything and everything..   Having a photo that can express what your feeling and who you are as a couple is truly art.... Having a photographer that brings each picture to life is like having artist beside you well u tell your story...   I know for Gideon and I having family so far apart (Africa to Canada) photos will be the only way to share without words how special our day was.. Letting all those who could not physically be with us feel like they were right with us... Having something we can be proud to one day share with our kids and their kids... A moment of love that will last a life time.    Plus who doesn't just love good pictures!! AMAZING!!

[Tulumbride2013]

Photos of my day are the most important aspect of my wedding. Years from now when my husband, children and I look back on that day, photos will be essentially memories, in physical form. I love this idea of the destination wedding, it gives me this feeling of freedom. But there are so many of our family members that cannot make it. My loved ones that are too old to make the trip, our friends that are expecting babies and cannot fly, and those who (in this economy) just flat out cannot afford to make the journey. It is comforting to know that we will have people at the wedding taking photos to share when we return home. Those that could not make the trip still have the opportunity to feel the emotion our guests felt. Photography is more than just pictures, they are literally a still moments in time when we have the chance to relive the feeling that we felt on that day. Completely priceless. We all have loved ones that have passed before their time, and for me that was my sister, who 3 years ago, died at age 30. Its comforting to look back on her photos and remember her in her happiest of forms. I hope that with photos of my wedding day, I can remember myself in my happiest form, a bride. I can forever share these physical memories with my offspring, and friends and family that will later come.

[[email protected]]

I had 2 options for my dream wedding:  Ireland in a castle or on the beach in the Caribbean.  Ireland laws are difficult and the Caribbean in January would be cold.  So I decided on a natural setting in Las Vegas in Red Rock Canyon. 

 

My wedding day hit many snags and so the photos were going to be the most important thing to me.  A month before the ceremony on January 21, 2009, my grandmother became ill.  My husband and I had planned to go to Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas.  Mygrandmother, aunt, and best friend were flying in the from Ohio, my mother from New Jersey, and myself and fiance from Boston.  Everything that could go wrong with my wedding went wrong.  One month before the original wedding venue's minister would not let us do our own vows and dropped us.  I found another chapel.  Then my grandmother became ill.  I had always been close to her spending a month every summer with her.  As one of 34 grandkids, she was so sick I would be the only one she never saw married.  This was devestating.  

 

My parents divorced when I was younger and I have NO photos of growing up.  We used to have 30 albums in the living room with photos from trips and everything I used to do.  These photos were the new memories of my life that I could show my children. 

 

My plan was to take the photos from the ceremony and plan a photo shoot on the strip and Red Rock so we could put together something for Grandma.  We were planning a reception at the Akron Zoo the following August and I wanted to put something special together for her so we could relive the day she missed together. 

 

The minister at the Chapel messed up the DVD and there was no sound.  So the vows that meat so much to us, no one can here, including Grandma.  The photographer decided to adjust the color on the photos because I was so pale.  Now I looked pink in all of the photos!  We hired a second photographer to go out and do the Red Rock/Strip shoot.  We got a few photos.  Before I could get a few photos with my MOH and MOB it started to rain.  In Vegas!  It rained all night!! 

 

No Red Rock photos!  No strip photos!  No photos from the dinner and cake we were having!  Now Grandma would miss it all!

 

My husband calmed me by saying, "We're moving to Vegas this summer.  We can renew our vows and do it again."  It worked for that week but then when we moved here, here's what happed:

 

July 4, 2009, was the renewal.  We did this for the video and photos to take back and share with Grandma and 100 family members at the reception.  The minister forgot to ask us for our special vows.  The ceremony was only 1 minute 15 seconds long!  Then the photographer had problems with her camera and we ended up only doing a few strip photos.  We couldn't go out to Red Rock because her car was having problems.  This was the same photographer from January.  We were supposed to finish up later in the month but she moved!

 

Still no video and only a few photos!

 

We have a photographer hired for the reception in August with the family.  We showed Grandma the few photos we had but no video still!  The photographer I hired showed up 1 1/2 late!  She missed the dance, cake, reunions with family members!  My husband and I worked on the first dance as the Final Dance from Dirty Dancing and she missed it!

 

On 9-9-9 we were invited to renew our vows with 99 other couple at the top of the Stratosphere.  We did.  There was supposed to be a photographer included but they never came around to us.  We sought out the photographer and turns out they left for the night!  No photo at all!

 

On Oct. 31, we hired a photographer and paid her.  She showed up with her camera and did the shoot.  It went well.  She burned a CD of unedited images and was supposed to send the edited images later.  NOTHING!  I tried to salvage  few of her images but they weren't worth it!

 

On July 4, 2011, I spend months planning.  I hired a reputable photographer.  Checked out references.  Got a contract.  I wanted a new location on the strip in the Cosmopolitan hotel.  I've seen amazing photos there and decor is amazing.  Hired a hair and makeup person.  She never showed!  One hour before we were supposed to meet the hair and makeup person didn't show!  I went down to CVS at the hotel and purchased mascara, bobby pins, and hair spray!  I did my best.  The photographer showed.  We did a 2 hour shoot.  Bellagio fountains, Cosmo, RiRa, the ceremony was at the Las Vegas sign.  Paid the photographer.  Paid the minister.  Paid for flowers, dress, etc.  One week later, the photographer said she would post the photos.  The nothing!  After much heartache, she still after 1 year, is nowhere to be found!

 

The last chance.  On our 3 year anniversary, I was going to do it right.  I spent $1500 on a good photogrpapher.  New dress.  Red Rock.  The ceremony I wanted.  The videographer.  I bought an airbrush makeup machine and did my hair and makeup myself with much practice.  Stressful but worth it.  I thought.  It was over $4000 for the whole thing but I would finally get the photos and memories I wanted.  AGAIN!?  It was record winds of 70 mph+!  I was devastated.  We were holding on to each other during the ceremony.  I was laughing to keep from crying.  We had to stop the photos again!  We finished a week later but could never go to Red Rock because the permit expired.  Here's one of the photos:

 

 

 

Three and half years.  No video!  No photos!  And over $10,000 of my hard earned money spent.  In my dreams, one day I will have something to show Grandma.  She just celebrated her 86 birthday last week. 

[[email protected]]

With all of the things that have gone wrong, this is what the photography is about:

 

The photographer missed the unexpected dip my husband did in our first ceremony for our first kiss.  It's only in my memory. 

 

The first time I was called his wife and the look he had in his eyes.

 

The tears my mother had streaming down her face and the having no memories of that.

 

Each time we renew our vows, the loo in my husband's eyes changes.  The first time it was special and exciting.  It doesn't get any less special.  That love grows throughout the years.  Those words carry more meaning.  The photos capture the emotion and the love.  The intesity grows every year of our marriage and words become harder to say.  Not because they have less meaning but becaue they have more.

 

I have wanted someone to capture that. It's not about poses and lighting.  But those images express what is going in my mind and my heart when I look at my husband and see in his eyes what I mean to him. 

 

It's something I don't want to carry just in my mind.  I want to be able show others and remember decades from now.  Good photos give you chills and bring back those feelings.  That's what I've always wanted.

[carajoe08]

Out of all the costs associated with our wedding, photography is #1 on our list. My Dad used to shoot local wedding photos almost 30 years ago, and still does sports photography for a college closeby. I learned to look at photos in a different way, to see them more as a story, versus a single shot. Although I can never be nearly as good of a photographer as my Dad, I also love to take my own photos that capture a feeling or certain atmosphere. Having a "photographer" in the family also puts extra pressure on me, as I try to choose a photographer that will be able to answer the questions I know will be coming from my Dad. Questions about equipment, knowledge, and background. I hope that my photographer will be able to laugh along with my Dad's silly questions, but also be able to back up his reputation with great skills. I want my wedding photography to take everyone's breath away, as I know quite a few of my invited guests won't be able to actually be with us on our special day. These photos will have to visually tell the story of my BIG day to those who were unable to attend, and I want them to feel like part of the wedding, and get the true spirit of the love that Joe and I have for each other and our families. We may not have a huge budget for our wedding, but these photos are an investment in our future, and a way to bring us back to one of the most happy moments of our lives.

[JaymeLynn]

Photography for our Fiji destination wedding is so incredibly important to both of us. As two military pilots, we have little time together between deployments, so we really have to make the time we do have together count. It would be so wonderful to have inspired photographs of our wedding day as a reminder of our love and commitment when we are apart.

[jovn28]

They say pictures are worth a thousand words. And simply as that, it describes why pictures would be significant on that day.

Every picture will capture moments that only exist in that period in time. It will capture emotions of friendship, family and love- and this exactly what our celebration is about. With a beautiful back drop of the sea, sun and sand, through your lens and what you can capture, we can look back and hopefully evoke similar emotions we felt that day!
 

[ShanAsbjornsen]

For my fiance and I having beautiful wedding portraits to be able to look back at over the years and show our grandchildren is extremely important. When I think about how it would feel to walk into our home and see it hanging on our wall and it gives me the chills. Winning the contest would mean so much to Us! When I showed my fiance the Samuel Luna Photographs used to advertise the contest, he said, "they look like paintings". That is what I want for us on our wedding day, portraits that look so beautiful they could be paintings.