When I first started shooting weddings nine years ago, I shot them solo. I’d show up alone with my film camera and do my thing. When I became a real business five years ago, I decided that I would rather hire an assistant/second shooter for all my weddings. Ever since, I have always had at least one additional photographer {and sometimes one more additional ‘people-wrangler’} with me for every wedding I’ve photographed. Not only is it a huge help to me to have someone to assist carrying bags and spit-firing ideas off of, but it’s also fabulous to be able to be in two places at once. Weddings move so quickly and my second shooters all know where to be when and what I expect of them. Plus, it puts my couples at ease knowing that someone is with the groom and someone is with the bride and all bases are covered.

I had some wonderful, over-the-moon, awesomely fun assistants for my weddings in 2013. I mean, these ladies were on top of it all. Not only would they drive all over the country side to help me capture beautiful weddings, but they did so smiling, laughing and having a great time. They pinned flowers, tied bows, tamed children, arranged families for formals, bribed ring bearers, carried my gear, coaxed smiles out of the impossibles, and added peace of mind to my soul. To thank them for their amazing work, I had Natasha of Rickrack and Ribbons create a couple custom packages for me. I was thinking she would find some camera fabric, sew them up and call it a day…but I was blown away when I saw the end result! So fun!! I asked her to create custom camera coffee cozies for my back-up second shooters and included a Starbucks gift card with those. And for my two main seconds, I asked Natasha to whip up these beautiful lavender-scented neck wraps with matching eye masks along with a coffee cozie and Starbucks gift card. The neck wraps are my fav as you can microwave or freeze them before wrapping them around your neck–how awesome after a long day of shooting! I think all four ladies thoroughly enjoyed the gifts!!

Check out Rickrack and Ribbons’ Etsy shop here :: she offers custom coffee cozies on the site and you can email her ideas, too! She does fabulous work and can make pretty much anything out of fabric. Honestly, it’s amazing.

🙂

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