If at first you don't succeed, try and try again

An old adage that fits my situation perfectly. Try as I may, my blogging continues to take a back seat amidst the mile long to do list of a small business photopreneur. I know the advice I'd give anyone struggling with a attaining a goal is to try again, therefore, I'm taking a dose of my own medicine. In large quantities.

How?

I'm joining photography awesomesauce's month long challenge to develop a better blogging habit. No I'm not writing the next best seller, just sharing a bit of my work and piece of my universe with you. So, come along for the ride.

Look forward to seeing your comments.  xo Ronnie Ronnie Bliss Photography_0003.jpg

Upper Marlboro, Wedding + Reception | Suliat & Akanni Sneak Peak

For some their wedding day is just a blur and they wonder what just happened. For Suliat Adedayo and Akanni it was anything but a blur. April 11th was a day that started with prayer, filled with the high energy and excitement, with lots of friends and families, and star studded performances. A unique father daughter-dance, with both fathers: one sharing, the other gaining, united by love, dancing with a woman they both call daughter. To my very own favorite love song "Olo mi" performed by the one and only Tosin Martins. I'm not sure which captivated me the most, Tosin, the song or the electric charge between Suliat and Akanni as they danced that I nearly forgot to click the shutter on my camera. A million thanks to, my wonderful co-photographer, Toyin Photos who kept on shooting, otherwise, you would have missed much of that scene. And then there was the surprise performance of Banky W - "Yes/No" by our very own Nigerian-American Got Talent Temitope and her friend that got Suliat into tears of joy.  Turns out Akanni had mentioned the song at the family introduction last year, well this year, Suliat Adedayo said "Yes" loud and clear at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland and danced the night away at Camelot. One of the refreshing part from both Suliat and Adedayo was a departure from the predictable change into traditional attire. Suliat STUNNED in a body hugging, show stopping, breathtaking black and gold evening gown that leaves no doubt who the celebrant is. To put it in a wise person's word, Akanni 'took his eye to the market'.

Enjoy the highlight images of the night while I put the finishing touched on their personal website.

Father and Daugher

The long awaited moment

You guessed the question ... who gave this woman in marriage? I .... 

and I ...

we had witnesses

girls will be girls ...

and boys will be boys ....

and Suliat? well .... you had to have been there to witness the dancing!

One PERFECT MOMENT!

And the impromptu audition ... but she didn't skip a bit ... she can dance and sing.

 

This beautiful wedding is made possible by the love and passion of these awesome wedding vendors

Attire:   African Boutique

Photography:   Ronnie Bliss

Co-Photographer:  Toyin Photos

Master of Ceremonies: Timothy Shadare

Cake:  Fluffy Thoughts Cakes

Catering: Mama Shad Kitchen / Mama Touch

Special Musical Guest: Tosin Martins

Music:  DJ Diddy Mula

Live Band:  Latunde Silver and the Great Harmony Band

Makeup – Lola’s Beauty Mark / Faces of Beauty by Ify / Dondonni Makeovers

Wedding Coordinator:  Trendsetters Wedding & Events

Wedding Coordinator:  White Crown Affair

Wedding Program:  Design Fortune

Video:   T & A Production

MASTER THE ART OF ADDRESSING YOUR WEDDING INVITATION – PART 3

Welcome back to day 2 of the quick 3 day step by step process of mastering your address list. Let’s get to work.

Today we are going to add several useful fields to your address list so that it becomes both an address list for sending off your wedding invitation and a checklist for the follow up tasks. After all, this is one of your first assets as Mr. and Mrs. Blissfully Wedded.

Before we proceed, were you able to come up with 5 or more names from yesterday's exercise? You deserve a pat on the back for that. Next, we add 2 sets of info to our address label - events and relationships. Which event are the guests invited and what is their relationship to you.

So for events column, go ahead and add the following labels:  "Save the Date"  "Invitation"  "RSVP"  "Thank You". Optional fields that could be added are Bridal Shower, Bachelorette etc

How are they connected to you? One or six degree of separation? It is important, critical really, that you identify your relationship with each guest and you'll see why. You wouldn't dream of addressing Aunt Sally as ‘hey’ would you? Meaning, some relationships are formal while others are casual.  Let's add an additional field to the address label to sort the list for future use. It helps weed to out those perfunctory invites from the BFF relationships. So, let’s add the following fields: "Relationship"  "Email"   "Mobile"  "Home". A few useful labels but not required for this project are birthdays, anniversary. These optional fields are those that will make your list a valuable treasure years after your wedding.  For now, your list should look something like this:

Mastering The Address List - img 2

 

 

 

 

 

For practice purposes, go ahead and populate the new fields as well. Tomorrow, we will merge the field to a mailing label ready to peel and affix to an envelope.

Mastering the art of addressing your wedding invitation is part of a series, please check back tomorrow as we merge the fields in our address list to a label. If there is a field you need for your event, go ahead, add it. It’s your list. As I have stated, there is more that one way to perform any task. The goal of this series is to show you how to create a  list that can be reused for years to come.

If you cannot wait for the entire series, send me an email, let’s take care of your need right away. If you find the information in this blog useful, please consider sharing with everyone you know.

Thanks for reading. I hope to see you tomorrow.

Master the art of addressing your wedding invitation - Part 2

You came back? Great!

Let's get started with a quick 3 day, step by step process of becoming a master at creating and address lists and labels. Follow along as this is one of the easy, useful and manageable ways to create and maintain a great address list you would be proud of. Ready?

At first glance one would think an address consists of the name, address, city, state and zip. Well ...  yes and no. On paper ... Yes In software speak ... No.

Since we are going to use a software, we focus on turning that No into Awesome. To create that awesome list, it is necessary to understand that your software reads everything as a field and pulls the content.

To achieve an addressed envelope that looks like this: Mr. & Mrs. James Love 1234 Lovelace Street Suite 2002 Friendship, AR  71942

The address list setup could look something like this: Title   Name   Address1    Address2    City     State    Zip

I recommend using an Excel spreadsheet or similar software to make sorting a breeze in the future. Since this is fairly simple to do, and you are going to master this list, lets start with an assignment. 1. Enter each of the list fields above in your spreadsheet, one label per column so it looks something like this:

Mastering The Address List - img 1

 

 

 

 

  1. Start your very own mailing list using the labels above.
  2. Enter 5 names. You do know 5 people don’t you? You don’t? Here’s a hint, start with your name, the groom, your parents, the groom's parents, all the girls in your bridal party, all the groomsmen… see how easy it is to come up with 5 names.
  3. If you're on a roll, don't stop, please continue populating your list with your guest list.

Tomorrow is day 2 of the quick 3 day step by step process. We will add additional fields and populate each field. On day 3, we will create a mail merge and print to a label.

Mastering the art of addressing your wedding invitation is part of a series, please check back tomorrow as we add more useful fields to our address list. If there is a field you need for your event, go ahead, add it. It's your list. As I have stated, there is more that one way to perform any task. The goal of this series is to show you how to create a  list that can be reused for years to come.

If you cannot wait for the entire series, send me an email, let’s take care of your need right away. If you find the information in this blog useful, please consider sharing with everyone you know.

Thanks for reading.