Janey + Jason = Love.

I am not sure where to start on this one. There is so much to say about Janey and Jason. The two of them are simply amazing. We hit it off from the first time that we met. For anyone who doesn’t know, I take all my clients out to dinner before we do any photographing. Dinner was amazing with them, I learned so much about the two of them. When we go to dinner we are really able to make a connection with our couples that we could not obtain otherwise, and it shows in their images!

So last week we met them at Trolley Corners downtown in the snowy weather. I had never been there before and had no clue what I was getting myself into. The place was recommended to me by Liz from Ruk Creative. We headed inside and spent about 10 min outside. I love this place! There was so much to offer and Janey & Jason just made the place even better. The two of them are totally in love and I couldn’t be any happier for them. I am really looking forward to their wedding in Manti at the end of March. Thank you for allowing me to be your photographer!

Check them out!!

Let me know what you think and leave a comment.

 

WOW!!! An Amazing Engagement Session!!

Ok so I know that I have been neglecting my blog the past few weeks; it has been busy busy busy! I have been meeting with brides and grooms, it has been a lot of fun. Come back often- you are going to find out about some amazing deals that I have in store for senior sessions and you will get a load of images to view.

Now for today’s post!

There is not a whole lot of things that I enjoy doing more than being a photographer, just to list a few.. Snowmobiling, snowboarding, Mt. biking, and well photographing. So when I met Cassie at the bridal show, I nearly passed out. I was going to be able to photograph Cassie and Aaron snowboarding!! I have been looking forward to this session since I found out about it. Their engagement session was beyond a blast. I cannot thank them enough for allowing me to be a part of their wedding day. They are both die hard snowboarders and live at the resort every second they can, and it shows!

For their session the weather was perfect and the snow was amazing. As far as the pictures go.. well you will have to see them for yourself. Make sure that you leave a comment and let me know what you think of them! For any other bride or groom that wants to be different but might not think there is a photographer that can do what they want- Give me a call, I will tackle anything!

Check out their amazing images!!

OH AND THE FREE DESTINATION WEDDING IS STILL UP FOR GRABS>> SEND IN YOUR INFO TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE CONSIDERED!!!

 

The Wedding Festival — COME TODAY!!!!

Ok so I seriously think that the month of January has more bridals shows in one month than in all of the other months combined! It is insane.

So I will just cut to the chase. This weekend at the South Town Expo Center the wedding festival is being held. If you are getting married or thinking about getting married I would highly suggest that you be there. For more information visit www.weddingfestivalshow.com

Or you can just look here!

Show Hours:
January 25 – 4 pm to 9 pm
January 26 – 11 am to 8 pm

Location:
South Towne Expo Center
9575 South State Street
Sandy, Utah

Pricing:
Registered Brides - FREE
All Others (11 & Over) - $5.00
Children (Under 11) - FREE

Ok Now to the best part… If you are a bride or groom and needing a wedding photographer you will not want to miss our booth. For anyone that books at the show are will be able to receive up to almost $600.00 in a la carte items!!! That is right. $600.00
I told you that you would not want to miss this opportunity!

See ya at the show!

 

I’m Giving Away 2 FREE weddings!!

Yep, you heard it right. I am giving away 2 free weddings.

Here is the deal:

Your wedding must be out of the state of UTAH!

All I ask for is that you provide me with 2 round trip tickets to the destination, a 2 night hotel stay, and a rental car. THATS IT! In return I will provide you with FREE ALL DAY wedding coverage and a sweet destination session (not on the wedding day).
Specific details will be discussed when you have been chosen.

I am only giving away TWO of these weddings, so e-mail me your wedding details including a photograph of you and your fiance. ASAP!! Do it now or lose it!

Send all inquiries to free@jasonmcgrewphotography.com

-Jason

 

Hire a Professional Photographer!!

I have been getting a lot of inquiries lately and am loving it. I love to be able to sit down with brides and grooms to talk to them about their wedding day. I want to know as much as I can about my clients! That is one of the reasons that I take my clients out to dinner before we do any shooting. I cannot even begin to explain what a difference it makes in how pictures turn out when I take clients out and really get to know who they are, rather than just showing up to photograph the most important day of their life without any clue who they are and what makes THEIR relationship special and unique. Knowing my clients is so important. Getting to know my clients guarantees pictures that truly represent them- their relationship, personality and love. I cannot stress enough to potential clients how important it is to hire a photographer who really knows what they are doing. I hear so many stories of couples hiring their friend or family member or someone down the street who has a nice camera and claims they are a ‘photographer’. Maybe your friend/family/neighbor is a professional photographer- if so, book them!! However, 9 times out of 10, brides book these ‘nice-camera-using person’ because they are wicked cheap. Let me guess- they will take your engagements, bridals, and complete wedding day and they will burn all the images on a disk for you to print at Costco for $0.17, and they will do all of this for you at less than $500! What a steal right? Not right. Well the steal part is, you sold your most important day of your life for decent (or a lot worse) photos because it was cheap.

BRIDES & GROOMS: DO YOURSELF A LIFELONG FAVOR AND HIRE A PROFESSIONAL!!!

Almost always the stories end up with the newly married couple wishing they spent the extra money on a professional. I hate to see any couple trust the most important day in their life to someone that THINKS they know what they are doing and has not had proper training to professionally photograph.

Most clients don’t know how much professional photographers who earnestly care about their clients invests in a photographic education. I am constantly reading and working on different techniques. This is my life, my passion and a dream come true! It is not just a hobby or something to bring in a little extra cash for toys. Professional photographers live to capture your special day. LET THEM. You will have a better time and wont have to worry about your images turning out poorly. The old adage is still true, more than ever with photography: “You get what you pay for.”

I hope this may have helped someone who might be considering skimping on their wedding photography. Just remember, your photography is all you will have to remember your wedding day, why leave it to someone who isn’t a professional?

 

The Show!

Blog followers know exactly what ‘The Show’ means; it means the Bridal Extravaganza Show at the Grand America yesterday! The big one that I have been working on for so long now has finally come and gone. This show was so different from the Provo show- a ton more brides, a billion vendors (including a lot more photographer competitors) a totally different flow, and a brand-new booth set-up for JMP (that’s me!)

I wasn’t kidding when I posted several comments about new exciting things I was bringing to the show this time. I must say we went all out! I have to stop right now and give a HUGE thank you to all the people who have been a TREMENDOUS help to me. Cort (Kaylin’s dad) spent so much time figuring, building, packing, lifting, setting up and taking down with me, I really truly appreciated it! Teryn, Lauren and Landon- thank you so much for all the assembling, organizing, creating, designing, setting up and taking down that you did for me also! I know that if it wasn’t for all the help I was given, I wouldn’t have been able to get it done (and get it done right!) I am sorry that it all came down to the last minute- leaving us going to bed at past 2am. Wow, what a whirl-wind of a week it has been! BUT IT IS DONE AND IT WAS INCREDIBLE, if I do say so myself. I am not being cocky as much as I am just proud! We took an idea and made it a perfect reality! (Note the “we”, I am proud of every last one of us!)

Another thanks goes to all the brides, grooms, friends and family that came to the show! I am so thrilled about meeting so many new couples! There were so many that I could just imagine what a great time we would have going out to dinner to get to know each other better, and shooting all their sessions and wedding day! So many great people stopped by the booth. I know that the show was crazy, loud, crowded and busy, so I really appreciated the time that they gave to talk to me for a minute. My biggest and only hope is that more than anything, they got the impression of who I am as a photographer- somebody who is truly, excessively passionate about photography- that being a photographer for me is a dream come true, and that I would love nothing more than to give a piece of that passion to each couple, in beautiful and unique photographs of their life-changing wedding day!

A billion thanks goes out to my loving wife, who did incredible amounts to help get this show together, stayed up so late the night before the show, and then even took care of our sick little boy throughout the little sleeping time we had left of the night, got up at 6am (HUGE for her, she hates mornings!) and stuck it out with me the whole day! That was a very long day, truly a 48 hour day, my biggest thanks goes out to you Kaylin! I love you so much and loved having you there with me. You are the best!

Well, as you can tell, I am a man humbled once again from all the love, help and support that I have been so generously given. However, enough thanks for now (there will never be enough thanks for all that was done) because now, it is time for pictures!! Time to show off a group effort I am very proud of! (Side note: we needed to take SO much stuff that I didn’t have room to take my profess. camera, so these pics are from our lovely little point&shoot.)

THE BOOTH THAT SET THE NEW STANDARD (at least for JMP):

Yep- we brought in our own walls, equipped with crown molding and base boards, our own wood flooring, really nice furniture (loving our new leather Natuzzi couch, babe), real plants and flowers (all designed and arranged by my wife, she’s cool like that), some seriously sweet albums, and some ROCKIN’ massive framed photos!! It was SWEET!!!

 

The Cypress Album!!

I have been so busy lately. I love it!! Yesterday was the amazing wedding of Rachelle and Brandon. Big congrats goes out to the two of them. They had a wonderful reception dinner. Rachelle’s father gave the best tribute speech that I have ever heard! It was sweet, spiritual and heartfelt. How special are they to have one another?

As anyone knows that has been following the blog, I have been preparing for the Bridal Extravaganza show at the Grand America. I am so excited for this show. I have a lot of great stuff that is going to show up. Be prepared to have your socks knocked off, I’m setting a new standard!

Last of all… here are pictures of the special new product that I am offering: “The Cypress Album.” These albums are one of a kind. They are custom, handmade, fine art albums. This particular one is custom matted to each image. The entire album is bound with ribbon that has been imported from Japan and is wrapped in fine fabric from Switzerland. All the albums come with a custom album box to store your album when you are not showing it off. Best of all, they offer a wide variety of color combinations for your choosing!

Once again these albums are amazing. If you can’t tell from these images, come to the bridal show this weekend and see it for yourself!

This is the bag the protects the presentation box:

The presentation box:

Oooo, awww, look what’s inside!

The amazing fine art pages:

That’s all folks! Come to the show this weekend to drool over it yourself… ok, don’t literally drool, that would be bad! See you tomorrow?

Here’s the details one last time:
Grand America Hotel- 555 South Main Street - Salt Lake City , UT 84111
Running from 11:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.

 

We’re back and ready to work!!

Ok, so we got back from the long awaited vacation to Island Park and had a complete blast. (check back for photos soon!) We are right back into the swing of things today as it is Rachelle and Brandon’s wedding at the Salt Lake Temple! I can’t wait!!! They are so much fun and I sure hope they are not afraid to get cold!

On a side note.. tomorrow I am showing off a brand new product that I am offering! That’s right, you can see it first on the blog and then at the bridal show this saturday at the Grand America Hotel.

Here are a few of my favorite images from Rachelle and Brandon’s sessions to get you all excited about their wedding!

 

And….We’re off!!

Yep.. we are literally walking out the door as I am writing this. We are headed on our long awaited Christmas trip to Island Park, ID. We are so excited to in the freezing cold testing out our new snowmobile all week!!! YA YA YA!!

But what this does mean is that I will be out of the office until December 31st. If it is urgent please give me a call and leave a message, other than that I will not be making calls, editing images, replying to e-mails or anything of the sort. Once I get back I will get back to you as fast as I can. This trip is all about taking a break and enjoying the season. .. Oh and snowmobiling and snowboarding!

Merry Christmas and I’ll see ya when I get back!

 

Hallmark does it again!

For those of you that have not been following my blog long, I graduated from the top photography school in the nation back in June. The Hallmark Institute of Photography. Today I woke up to a wonderful surprise when I received and e-mail from one of the staff asking me for an image of myself, as I was going to be the next graduate spotlight. My time at Hallmark was amazing. I can’t talk highly enough of it. They blew me away with the knowledge they poured on us and the amount that I learned and progressed in my short time.

A big thank you goes out to the faculty and staff for all they did. Merry Christmas!

See it for yourself here!