Goal # 11 on our 101 in 1001 list has been a long time coming.  We’ve been offering the same gorgeous wedding and guest book albums since about a year into shooting weddings.  We’ve had sample albums of weddings for a really long time, but we’ve just never quite gotten around to designing and ordering a guest book album sample. Until now.

Feast your eyes on the album goodness.   This is one of our wedding albums.  Supple Italian leather cover.  2mm thick lay-flat pages printed on Fuji Crystal Archival paper.  And it smells like a new pair of shoes straight out of the box ;-)  If an album were a type of food, we’re talking about a decadent, super rich, chocolate desert.  Yum-my.

Next up, the chic little brother of the wedding album – the engagement session Guest Book.  Don’t be turned off by it’s smaller stature, this little baby can still hold it’s own.  This thinner, linen covered version of the wedding album still has the same gorgeous ability to showcase your most precious memories.  Since there are a lot more images from a wedding than an engagement session, it’s usually about half the number of pages.  These albums are created with a clean, spacious look, leaving lots of white space for guests to write messages to the happy couple.  Now, there’s a guest book that won’t get thrown in a box as soon as you get back from your honeymoon!  We offer this same style of album for portrait sessions too, although the designs are usually a bit more traditional.

So that about does it!  And if you’ve every wondered about the value of buying a wedding album we invite you check out this great post from our blog archives: FAQ: Do I Need a Wedding Album?  Have a great week everybody!

I’m turning thirty in November. Yep THIRTY. As I inch closer and closer to the big three-oh, I’m realizing than my metabolism just isn’t what it used to be. I’ve always been a pretty unhealthy eater and whenever someone has asked me about it, I’ve defaulted to the Scarlett O’Hara: “I’ll worry about tomorrow” (aka, “as long as I stay skinny, I don’t have to worry about it.”) Well, as much as I hate to admit it, tomorrow has arrived. I used to be one of those lucky few who ate whatever I wanted and stayed skinny. It’s probably a mix of age and the fact that I spend 90% of my life sitting in front of a computer screen, but either way, It’s become increasingly hard to ignore that my clothes just don’t fit as well as they once did. Time to make some changes.

The logical first step was to cut back on the soda – one of my greatest vices. I’ve been a 1-or-2-a-day Coke drinker for as long as I can remember. And since it was already #74 on my 101 in 1001 list, I figured there was no better time than the present. These jeans aren’t getting any looser on their own. My journey began on August 1st and as of today, I’ve been soda free for two weeks! The first three days (with the severely annoying caffeine withdrawal headaches) were a little rough, but since then it’s been pretty much smooth sailing. I think I’ll reward myself with a nice big glass of water :-)

On top of that, I’ve been trying to change some of my eating habits as well, like eating a lot more fruit and trying to cut back on the carbs. I’m a super picky eater so the eating right thing is a little hard for me. I’d love to hear some of your healthy eating suggestions, so leave me some comments love below. Wish me luck!

5 novels in a year – doesn’t sound too hard, right?  That means I’d have to read a novel about once every two and a half months over the course of one year.  As a person who doesn’t read for enjoyment very often, I still had my doubts about whether I would really make the time for it.

To get started on this goal I downloaded Water for Elephants on the iPad back in March.  I started reading the first chapter and didn’t put it down for the next 24 hours.  I only stopped reading to sleep – literally.  And then I remembered something about myself – something from my childhood that I had forgotten all about in the busyness of  adult life – fiction is like crack to me.  I absolutely LOVE a good story.  I get totally sucked into the characters and the plot line.  (It’s the same reason why I love movies so much, they just happen to be a lot smaller time commitment that reading a book.)  So in the last six months I haven’t read 5 books, I’ve read 7 and managed to cram in 2 business books on top of that.

Now that I’ve rediscovered how much I love to read fiction (thanks to our 101 in 1001 list) I’m pretty sure I’ll be reading A LOT more.  I even set up an account on Goodreads.com so I can keep track of the books I have read and want to read.  I love that I can rate each one and connect with other friends to see what they’re reading and what they thought of the books on my list.  It’s fun!  If you’re a reader you should check it out :-)

Here’s a quick list of all the fictional goodness I’ve been devouring.  There’s a link to Goodreads for each book so you can read a summary if you want. (Beware of spoilers though if you have any intention of reading any of them – especially the Hunger Games Series.)

1. Water For Elephants:  FIVE STARS – Loved it!
2. The Hunger Games:  FIVE STARS – Loved it! The whole series is pretty much amazing, but this was my favorite of the 3 books.
3. Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, Book 2):  FIVE STARS – Loved it!
4. Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, Book 3):  FOUR STARS – Really liked it.
5. Divergent:  FOUR STARS – Really liked it
6. P.S. I Love You:  TWO STARS – It was ok.
7. Never Let Me Go:  THREE STARS – Liked it.

To celebrate my (Ryan) 31st birthday, we decided on a whim, to take a little road trip down to Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point), Mexico for the weekend.  I’ve never been to Mexico before and we really wanted to use our passports again.  Also, we got to cross two things off our 101 in 1001 list!  #38 Go on a vacation (WITHOUT WORKING) and #49 Use our passports one more time before they expire.  WOOHOO!  Check and check!  It was a super fun adventure.

I like to through up little gang sign every now and then – here’s my “I’m 31 and happy about it” sign.

Here is the view from our room at the Las Palomas Resort and Spa.  We spent most of our time in that giant pool closest to the ocean (Sea of Cortez).  The ocean water was very warm and uncomfortable and every once in a while you’d feel a bit of cold water pass around you – a little scary because . . . hmmm, it’s Mexico.

Take a short walk to the other side of the resort and this is what you see.  Desert and yes, nothingness. See that crazy winding dirt road?  Yes, that’s pretty much the way we came in.

Most of our three days was spent relaxing by the pool and beach.  We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t talk about business the whole time.  And I’m proud to say we didn’t . . . ok, maybe we did like twice!  Here we are trying to get our tan on.

The main pool had a zero edge view out into the ocean and an awesome swim-up bar!

I think we were the only two people in Rocky Point.  It was surprisingly deserted for pretty much the entire time we were there.

Adios Mexico!  BTW, thanks for the tan that you forgot to give me.

When we added goal #16 (have a wedding published in a bridal magazine) to our 101 in 1001 list we had no idea we’d be blessed enough to have TWO weddings published in magazines at the same time!  WOO-HOO!  And it’s all thanks to the two fabulous couples who gave us the honor of capturing all the time and effort they put into creating a beautiful and memorable wedding day.

Flo & Brad’s Wedding: Featured in DIY Weddings Magazine

Flo & Brad’s modern DIY masterpiece took place last September at the Novelty Hill-Januik Winery in Washington State.  They put tons of thought into the details of their day and made it a true reflection of their style and personalities.  Our favorite detail was probably the favors – Flo actually baked chocolate mint cookies and packaged them individually for each guest!  They were served along side individual servings of milk – regular, chocolate & strawberry!  So adorable :-)  It was because of all the wonderful details that their wedding was chosen for a four page feature in DIY Weddings Magazine’s Summer 2011 issue.

Flo was even kind enough to mention us in their interview for the feature:

“Q: What advice do you have for other brides?
A: Research. Take the time and meet with at least three vendors before signing.  We did a lot of research in figuring out where we wanted to have the ceremony and reception before we found the perfect place with the perfect events director that worked at the venue.  We lucked out and met who would be our photographers at our best friends wedding and fell in love with them.  Finding people you know and can trust makes all the difference in the world.  Your wedding day is going to fly on by, take a few minutes with you and the groom to enjoy the moment knowing that the pieces are in place and that your friends, family and various vendors, etc. will make it all happen.” 

Thanks Flo  - we love you guys too!

A big thanks to the all-star team of vendors that helped create their day!
Venue: Novelty Hill-Januik
Flowers: The Petal & Stem
Cake Artist: JW Desserts
DJ: John Meyers
Makeup: Erica Madera

Shaina & Matt’s Wedding: Featured in Arizona Bride Magazine

The feature in Arizona Bride did such a great job of summing up Shaina & Matt’s gorgeous wedding last October that I think I’m just going to have to borrow it:

“Taking cues from the Tempe Center for the Arts’ contemporary vibe, Shaina Solocheck & Matthew Rozen filled their wedding with modern takes on old traditions.”

Their wedding was such a blast!  Not only were the details incredible, they also incorporated so many fun, unique elements like having dueling pianos as the entertainment at their reception and an ice cream sundae bar instead of a traditional wedding cake.  They wanted their wedding to be on their terms and decided that they didn’t have to observe traditions just because “that’s what everybody else was doing.”  A cookie cutter wedding was just not in the cards for this awesome pair and we absolutely LOVED it!  Magazine worthy – I think so!

Props to the top notch vendors that helped make their dreams a reality!
Event Coordinator: Planned to Perfection (Sherri)
Venue: Tempe Center for the Arts
Florals: Ever After Florals (Jen)
Catering: Santa Barbara Catering (Melissa)
Entertainment: Big Picture Interactive Entertainment
Hair: Indulgence Head 2 Toe (Shelley)
Makeup: Faces by Marlais

Oddly enough, I happened to have taken a behind-the-scenes shot of Ryan while he was shooting the photo of Shaina & Matt that was featured.  I think we’ll have to call this image “The Making of a Magazine Feature” from now on. LOL!

Thanks again to Flo, Brad, Shaina & Matt for helping us check this goal off our list!  You guys ROCK!  And to DIY Weddings and Arizona Bride for featuring our work.  We are truly honored :-)

A couple months back, a friend of mine invited me to go see Billy Elliot: The Musical when it was playing at Gammage.  I completely forgot to blog about it even though it did help me check #89 off of my 101 in 1001 list.  No pictures allowed inside the theatre though so you will all just have to use your imagination a little big.

Overall, it was a great show with super fun music by the always awesome Elton John (“hold me closer tiny dancer!”).  My only negative comment was because of a little “technical difficulty” that happened on stage during the show.  There’s a point in the show where Billy is dancing in a dream sequence and he’s supposed to be suspended in the air over the stage doing (what I imagine) was some awesome “circ de soleil” style choreography.  Well, apparently something went wrong because what the audience actually got was an awkwardly long sequence of another cast member trying to hook the Billy character onto a wire followed by an equally awkward sequence of Billy standing motionless in the center of the stage with the other dancer doing random choreography around him.  That’s the beauty of live theater I guess – you never know what you’re going to get.   (Just a thought for the cast though – you may want to have a backup plan with choreography for Billy that’s suited for the stage just in case the harness doesn’t work.  You know, so the audience doesn’t have to stare at his motionless back as the emotional music swells.  LOL.)

Either way, I had a blast and was reminded how much I love musicals.  My weekly episodes of Glee typically keep this side of my soul delightfully filled, but when it all comes down to it there’s just nothing quite like a night at the theater :-)  If anybody is planning to attend West Side Story in September or Wicked in February, feel free to invite me along. LOL!

As of today, I get to proudly check off  #85 on my 101 in 1001 list!  It’s so easy for me to simply pick up something from a drive threw window when I get hungry. My whole life I’ve always enjoyed the convenience of occasionally picking up a chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A, or a cheese burger from Whataburger.  This “no fast food thing” started about a month ago when I was having dinner at Majerle’s Sports Grill with my Aunt Linda.  She’s an RN at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.  Linda really motivated me to eat better and take my OMEGA 3 pills everyday.  Now that I’m in my thirty’s I’m realizing that eating fast fast food a lot is a habit I need break. Denise and I have been dining on lot’s of great home cooked meals lately as a result.  We’ve learned to make these really yummy turkey and pesto pita wraps just like the one’s at Pita Jungle.  And I LOVE Tostada Tuesdays at the Gotcher home :-)

We’ve been working on goal number #27 on our 101 in 1001 list ever since we bought our house and we’re so excited that it’s finally complete!  We are super psyched to take you on a little tour of our new in-home studio! As many of you already know, it’s been a long time in the making.  Here’s how things went down:

1. We bought our house – this room was actually one of the biggest selling points for this particular house because we knew we wanted to start meeting clients in our home.
2. We bought most of the furniture within a few weeks of moving in.
3. We spent weeks agonizing over what images to put on the wall and then we finally ordered canvas prints.
4. We found an awesome deal on a TV.
5. Ryan & his Dad spent about 3 weekends installing the recessed lighting, putting in a bunch of outlets and mounting the TV.
6. We hired a contractor to come patch up the big hole in the ceiling where the fan used to be.
7. Then we spent a few weeks adding all the little decor touches.
8. A month later we actually got around to shooting some photos of it and blogging about it. LOL!

Step 2 took place in July 2010 so the whole process took about 6 months.  Considering that we spent the bulk of September and October out of the state shooting weddings, I’d say that’s not half bad!  A little longer than we’d hoped, but it was totally worth the wait :-)

Feast your eyes on the goodness . . .

We wanted the space to feel like a comfy living room with a hint of modern gallery mixed in.  Our guests will be invited to view our work and get to know us while enjoying a glass of champagne and soaking up all that makes up the Simply Knot brand :-)

Here’s what the view will be like for the couples that come to meet with us.  (Picture the two of us sitting on the Chase talking to them – kinda like the image at the top of our blog, hint hint ;-)  There will be a slideshow of images and a presentation using our iPad on the TV.  Then they can flip through some sample albums while resting their drinks on our handy custom coasters.  ”It’s gonna be grand” if I don’t say so myself.

And of course, they can also request an introduction to the real head of our family, Miss Molly . . . who has recently claimed the studio as  her favorite room in the house.  Probably because of the rug.  She misses the better traction of a fully carpeted house :-(  Sorry pup.

YAY!  Can’t wait to meet with our first couple in our finished space!  Hope you all enjoyed the tour!  Don’t forget to leave us some comment love!

On April 25, we celebrated SEVEN years of marriage!  Crazy, right?  I can honestly say, it’s been an amazing seven years and it has flown by.  I feel so blessed that I get to spend my life with my best friend.  There’s honestly, nothing better in the world.  Our wedding was one of the best days of our lives and not just because it was an awesome party, but because it was the start of our incredible journey as husband and wife.  I wouldn’t change a minute of these last seven years and I can’t wait to see what our future together holds.  I love you Babe!  Okay, enough mushy stuff – let’s get back to our adventure!

For the last couple of years, we’ve been shooting weddings on our anniversary.  This year we actually had the weekend mostly free so I wanted to celebrate by doing something really fun and different.  Ryan’s 101 in 1001 list ended up being the prefect resource for some fun ideas :-)  I’m all about killing two birds with one stone so I decided to surprise him with a Hot Air Balloon Ride (which also happens to be #89 on his list)! YAY!  I love anniversary adventures!

For those of you that know us well, you know that we are NOT morning people.  We’re both total night owls (Ryan especially) so when my alarm went off at 4:00am that morning I actually discovered that he hadn’t even gone to bed yet.  Whoops.  He was pretty confused when I told him he had to get ready and that we had somewhere to be in half an hour.  (And I did promise him a nap when we got home from our surprise adventure.)  A short 30 minutes later, we arrived at the very dark and deserted Chandler Municipal airport.  I seem to remember him making a few jokes about me taking him out into the middle of nowhere to kill him. LOL!  As soon as the truck with the giant hot air balloon basket in tow showed up he pretty much had it figured out :-)  We ended up sharing our Hot Air Balloon adventure with one one other super sweet couple who were also celebrating an anniversary!  It was pretty perfect.

Our balloon driver Shane and his assistant drove us all out to a dirt lot behind a little church to prepare for launch.  Here’s how things started out:

The guys helped hold open the balloon so they could start to inflate it using a big, high powered fan.  Ryan was clearly hard at work . . . . taking photos on his iPhone :-)

Once they turned the burners on it filled up pretty fast.  All aboard!

Loved the view of gorgeous colors looking up into the balloon.

The sun was just starting to rise as we lifted off.  The views were pretty spectacular.  We climbed up to about 5,000 feet.  I thought I would be a little freaked out by how high we were, but I totally wasn’t.  The ride was so gentle and calm – it was actually kind of surreal.

Shane brought along a couple of fun flying “props” for each of us to try!

Wonder where they ended up after such a long  journey back to earth?

My little parachute man got stuck in the ropes, but he managed to get himself free eventually and float out to freedom.

Our fellow balloon passengers were kind enough to snap a quick photo of us.  And yes, there’s a reason we look kinda sleepy – we WERE!

This twistable handle is how the driver controls the bursts of heat that go up into the balloon.  The one thing I never realized is that the fire only controls how high you go.  There’s no way to control your direction – you just have to go where the wind takes you.  As you can imagine, this can make landing a bit of a challenge.  You really do have to know what you’re doing and be able to improvise with whatever comes you way.  Our driver was kind enough to let each of us do a little “driving.”  It felt pretty cool to have that much “fire power” at your fingertips.

More gorgeous Arizona views.

I LOVE that you can see our shadow in this shot :-)  It’s hard to tell from the photo, but we actually flew really close over the tops of houses towards the end of the ride when we were looking for places to land.  It was really fun to watch all the little kids and their parents run out into their backyards and wave to us.  We were literally close enough to talk to them.  It was pretty fun stuff.

We ended up landing in a large green belt in a neighborhood.  At the start of the ride, Shane explained that there were three different kinds of landings in Hot Air Ballooning #1) the basket touches down gently and comes to a stop, #2) it touches down and bounces a couple times due to the wind picking up the balloon, or #3) the basket hits the ground, falls over and you get dragged until it stops.  At the very beginning of the ride he warned us that it was kinda windy out and we could be in for a #3.  We were all totally game for it though, other than my slight fear of crushing our camera.  But hey, that’s why we have insurance right?  LOL!  As we approached the grass all of us started chanting “Number Three! Number Three!” to psych ourselves up for what was ahead.  In case you’re wondering, we ended up with a pretty gentle #2 :-)

When the balloon set down, we all took our shoes off and “walked” the air out of it.  Kinda reminded me of parachute games in elementary school gym class!

After the balloon was mostly deflated, we were treated to a champagne toast and yummy breakfast treats (which I was enjoying too much to take pictures of apparently.)  Overall, it couldn’t have been a better experience :-)  We had such a wonderful time and walked away with amazingly fun memories!  If you’re looking for a unique experience, definitely check out Aerogelic Ballooning.  They took such good care of us and made our anniversary so special.  I guess now the hard part will be figuring out how to top this next year!

For some time now Denise and I have been talking about making our business more focused on the experience of shooting with US.  We thought, “How can we differentiate ourselves from the mass of people out there in our industry?”  In Seth Godin’s book The Purple Cow, he talks about making your product remarkable.  He writes,

“The old rule was this: Create safe, ordinary products and combine them with great marketing.

The new rule is: Create remarkable products that the right people seek out”

We have learned over the years that our “product” is not just our photos, albums and canvas prints.  It’s more than that.  It’s us.  So, how the heck can WE be remarkable?  We are just a happy couple that likes to shoot other happy couples.  (Thanks to our awesome former bride Lilia for summing us up so perfectly!)  There’s a reason we like to be BEHIND the camera.  We don’t always want to be the center of attention. It took some time to adjust to the idea, but when it all comes down to it, we came to the conclusion that it made sense to target clients that identified with us on a personal level. We want clients that want US – Ryan & Denise. The best part of the Simply Knot experience is building a relationship with our couples. That’s how we are able to tell their love story through our images.

Once we decided to move forward, we knew that the first thing we needed to change was our website and blog.  Our website is, most often, the first impression a potential bride has with us.  So, without further adieu, we are so incredibly excited to announce the launch of our new (much more personal) website! Not only does our new site show off our work, it also lets people really get to know “Ryan & Denise”. We’d love it if you would stop by and check it out.  (And if you’re reading this post, you’ve probably already notice many of the redesigned blog features.)

By the way, we are by no means claiming to be the inventor of this business philosophy, just an adopter. You can thank Seth Godin and a ton of other great photographers that paved the way for us.  We’ll close with one more quote from The Purple Cow:

“In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing.  In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”

What makes you standout and be remarkable?

-Ryan