Blast from the past

Retired wedding photographer Glen Preston joined in with the rest of the family in photographing at the wedding of Kristen (Gaines) and Joel Buchanan last weekend in Jacksonville.

Glen, who said he photographed more than 2,000 weddings in his career, asked how many photos we usually take during a day (answer, around 2,500-3,000 images). He said his first wedding he took 24 pictures. “Oh, Glen,” his wife said at the time, “We’ll never sell all those pictures.”

Big difference between the days of the Speed Graphic and digital cameras!

Retired wedding photographer joins in with the rest of the family as Kristen and Joel Buchanan pose in their get-away car.

Posted by Steve of WarmowskiPhotography.com.

Lawrence Welk, eat your heart out

Kristen Gaines had her friends and family blow bubbles as she and Joel left Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Jacksonville last week. And they had a little help — a bubble machine. Walking through a cloud of bubbles is a nice way to leave, since many venues don’t allow guests to toss bird seed, throw rice and the like. What really helps is to have one (or two, or more) of these little bubble-blowing machines to help add to the show. Great idea Kristen!

Bubble machines are a great idea.

Car show

Kristen & Joel leave Wesley Chapel for a cruise in the country. Following them are fellow club members in their classic cars.

Saturday we photographed the wedding of Kristen Gaines and Joel Buchanan at Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church in Jacksonville, Illinois. We’re currently working on their photos, but we wanted to share some classic car images.

The newlyweds are members of the Jacksonville Good-Time Cruisers. To make their hobby a part of their special day, fellow club members tailed their get-away vehicle. I wanted to get some details of the cars, but with everything going on I didn’t have the time. The club had a car show the next day, so I made the special effort to go out.

John Gaines, Kristen’s father, was nice enough to thank us for all our hard work. He said all the attention we gave on the wedding day made Kristen and Joel feel special.

John Gaines took the helm of a fellow car club member's limo.

Jacksonville Good-Time Cruisers.

Jacksonville Good-Time Cruisers.

Jacksonville Good-Time Cruisers.

Jacksonville Good-Time Cruisers.

Jacksonville Good-Time Cruisers.

Posted by Steve/Warmowski Photography. Photojournalists offering wedding coverage in Jacksonville/Springfield and across Illinois.

How do you work the radio?

Riding in many a limo with our wedding parties, I can report the biggest difficulty is trying to figure out how to get the radio to work.

You get in the limo, then you see this thing that requires a computer programming degree to get it to play a CD. So you end up listening to a pop station, and that means commercials and usually a dearth of party music.

Here’s a two-prong suggestion for everyone:

1) Make a mix CD – get the music you’d want to party to, and burn a couple copies for the big day (so there’s a better chance it’ll make it into the limo for the ride).

2) Task a groomsman or usher with figuring out the radio and loading the CD. While you’re doing your receiving line, signing your wedding license and all the post-wedding fun, he can prime the limo with music.

This way everyone can relax after the ceremony and you can start your party with your best friends!