November 26, 2002
Thank Yous and Recommendations

Before I get off the wedding track entirely, I wanted to take a moment and publicly hail our photographers. Cristina Taccone and Sybilla Herbrich from blissfoto were really fun to work with, and we LOVE our photos.

We got two large albums that chronicle our day, from the moment we arrived at the venue until we packed up the car, plus a large box of every other photo they took (about 40 rolls in all!). There are shots of me getting ready, Al getting ready, my niece and nephew, Al's brother, my best friend, my dad, both families, and all the goings on at the ceremony and reception in a mix of black and white, sepia, and color. They're wonderful.

I'm smiling in so many of the pictures because, of course, I was happy, but also because Cristina and Sybilla made me laugh so much. No cheeseball, eyeroll-inducing moments—just fun. They said I was the most mellow bride they'd ever worked with, but I think they just made it easy to be relaxed. If you're getting married soon, do yourself a favor and talk to the women of blissfoto. You'll like their style.

While I'm on the subject of thank-yous, I also want to call out to Hillary and Melani (I'm not sure I've spelled her name correctly; sorry if I haven't!) at The Party Helpers in San Jose. Both were incredibly professional, efficient, and kind. The food was excellent, and we felt we couldn't have done better than having Hillary as our account person and Melani as our on-site coordinator. I don't know if Melani has a knack for blending in with every family the way she did with ours, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Finally, a big thank-you also goes to Just Desserts, and specifically to the crew at the Metreon. We really lucked out with solicitous (but not obsequious) wedding vendors, and the Metreon JD staff is a great example of this. Ask for Debbie or Gabriela if you want to order a wedding cake, and they'll get you taken care of. Aside from the great service, the cake itself was... scrumptious? delicious? mouth-watering (even now)? I can't think of a great enough word to describe it. And it was beautiful.

I'll post some of Cristina's and Sybilla's photos soon (they've got shots of the food and the cake, so I can showcase blissfoto, The Party Helpers, and Just Desserts all at once!)... as soon as I can get them scanned, that is.

Posted by Lori at November 26, 2002 06:08 PM

Comments

Hi,

I am looking to have blissfoto shoot my wedding...how much did they charge you and what did that include?

Thanks! Jennifer

Posted by: Jennifer at April 9, 2003 8:59 PM

Hi Jennifer. I can't remember the exact price, but it was in the same ballpark as other photographers we looked into in the Bay Area, and about what we expected to spend (somewhere in the neighborhood of $4-5K). We got the 7-hour package, plus negatives. (See the text of the post for more details on what we got.) The thing that I really liked is that there was no limit on film; what you're paying for is their time and skill. I'd recommend asking to see a whole book from a wedding they've shot; that's what we did, and it's how we knew right away that they were the photographers for us. As Cristina said, "a monkey could put together 20 great wedding shots." What you want to see is not one great shot from 20 different weddings, but how a photographer (or photographers) is going to capture an *entire* wedding.

Posted by: Lori at April 14, 2003 3:47 PM

great site! I appreciate the wedding recs. I'm planning for a June '04 wedding, and got a brochure package from blissfoto. They look like they do stunning work, and when I read your key words "fun" and "relaxed", I'm sold...thanks for the resources!

Posted by: Diana at October 14, 2003 1:09 PM