Nashville brides, are you looking for not only a killer Nashville wedding ceremony/reception venue but GREAT people to work with and orchestrate your wedding?  Look no further!!!  CJ’s off the Square is having an Open House hosted by Williamson County Weddings and Events, and you should come by and check the place out and all the other amazing things they offer!

Go ahead and mark your calendars for Saturday, February 27th from 3-6 p.m!!   On display will be WCW&E’s complete 2010 Wedding Invitation Collection available now in their boutique as well as giving clients a sneak peak at the nearly completed event pavilion opening in April at CJ’s Off the Square!!

Come and go anytime from 3-6 pm. Complimentary valet parking will be provided and this is a free event, open to the public.

If you are planning to come, feel free to RSVP at this link.

See you there!

Have you messaged us on Facebook and gotten no response?

….And then still no response?

…Wondering if we’re ignoring you?

Never fear!

We’re not ignoring you!   =D

We do love hearing from you on Facebook, but if there is something time sensitive, please feel free to directly email us at Zach@grayphotograph.com and Jody@grayphotograph.com and you will hear back from us in a much more timely fashion!

Anyone know how to send auto responses through Facebook???  Is there an app for it?  ha ha…

We had the honor to be a part of the beautiful wedding of Whitney and Drew…  It wasn’t beautiful simply because it was in Florida, or because it was in the FABULOUS destination wedding local Carillon Beach Resort, or because we had a killer sunset on the beach to shoot photos of these guys… It was a beautiful wedding because of the couple.

We were drawn to Whitney & Drew’s story… how they both love the Lord… how they wanted to honor God in their relationship, the love and respect they have for each other, how they were so genuinely excited to be committing themselves to each other,  how they actually have two streets back in TX that cross each other bearing their names (if that’s not a sign, what is??) and of course, waaay long before Whitney even met Drew, she knew she wanted us.  We like a bride who knows who she wants :)

As mentioned, Whitney and Drew chose a destination wedding in Carillon Beach Resort, which has a designated staff and event space to solely handle Carillon Beach Weddings. Once we arrived there, we knew why they had made the choice.  The resort is beautiful, relaxing, and they have a staff there who is AMAZING (yay Victoria & Avis!)!!!  The wedding was absolutely perfect and the guest list was to match, with only their absolute closest friends and family attending – all who have been a part of their relationship and lives.  We cannot tell you how thrilled we were to be welcomed into this personal, intimate, and meaningful wedding celebration and capture it.

The weather the day before was cloudy and overcast (not to mention COLD!), but by the time their wedding day festivities began, the sun was shining down!  The photography highlight of the day was immediately after the ceremony ended, we rushed down to the beach (in the decked out golf cart :) to catch the last bit of remaining light, and as we made our way over the steps of the pier to the beach, we were met with the most BEAUTIFUL sunset.  Whitney & Drew ignored the windy chill and worked it in the 20 minutes of sunlight we had left to shoot in!   It was the most gorgeous sunset you have ever seen and exactly what they were looking for in their photos.  Love it!

It was a great day and we are SO excited to show you the images!!  For those of you still wondering if we travel – yes!  We do!  We love traveling, so do not hesitate to call us if you do not live in Tennessee! :)

To view Drew & Whitney’s images online once they go live, sign up for their online guest book.

Enjoy the images!

Drew holding his wedding gift for Whitney, getting ready to send it off to be delivered for his soon-to-be Bride!  We think she liked them… :)

And now Drew receiving Whitney’s gift to him!

LOVE these guys and their excitement in finally being married.  We don’t think they stopped smiling all day!

And now, killer sunset…

Off to warm up and celebrate!

Ok, here is the groom’s cake.  As you can see, Whitney & Drew are represented with the dogs they each have AND also the street sign that has their names on them back in Texas!!  Lol, this was tooooooooo cute.

After their exit, we went and shot around on the Carillon premises with all the lights they had turned on just for Whitney & Drew!  This would have been quite the challenge without our trusty video light and of course, Zach’s mad lighting skills.

Thank-you, Victoria for letting us shoot in your back yard!

Some of the awesome vendors from the day were:

- Accommodations & Florida Wedding Venue – Carillon Beach Resort. We cannot speak highly enough of Victoria and her team who were superb.
- Townsend Catering – Donna and David Townsend.  This seriously was the most AMAZING catered food we have ever had in all of our travels.
- Elegant Tents and Events -  Vicki Blount
- Nouveau Flowers - Christina Springfield
- Wedding Cake - Confections on the Coast

Florida was absolutly beautiful for a wedding.  If you could chose any place in the world to get married, where would you pick?  …I think we would go for Bora Bora… :)

From time to time, those that really deserve to hit it big in the music industry actually get their break. I am so glad that I was here to see it. :)

Some of you guys have been wondering about some twitter comments we have been posting and it’s time to finally share the latest and exciting news in our lives!

It’s been four years since we have been married, and after paying off our debt and then saving, saving, saving, Zach and I will no longer be renters and are buying a home!  Once we officially started the process, it’s moved very fast, but we had been ready and prepared and this has been a long time coming.

So to catch you all up a bit, we set up a meeting a few weeks ago with a highly recommended realtor, Melissa Archer, President of Cobalt Premier Properties, looked at a gazillion properties online, and then a few days later looked at our favorites that met all of our qualifications.   One of the places was absolutely perfect so we visited the home like 4 times (and believe it or not, we actually looked at this place about 4 months ago for kicks and had been in love with it ever since!) and then decided to put in an offer!  After meeting with Melissa again and submitting the offer, it was accepted the next morning!

We are pumped and thrilled and are now just holding our breath and making sure everything goes smoothly on the seller’s end. We just had the home inspection and closing is set for Feb 5th, barring that all goes well!  There always can be hiccups so keep us in your prayers!!

We would show a picture of at least the front of the place but 1) it’s not entirely official yet, and 2) we recently had some friends buy a home, put the pic up online, and someone tracked them down on the internet and left a note on their car at their house.  Ah!    :) Have no worries though, we will put some shots up once we seal the deal!!

Sooooooo, for now, we will leave you with a picture of this lovely chair that I think would look killer in our dining room around our black dining room table… of course with 5 more of them as well (not sure if I can convince Zach on this baby though)… =D

We have maybe jumped the gun a little bit thinking already about how we are going to decorate, but we can’t help it!  On Sunday, we hit 6 different furniture shops and all the stuff was TOTALLY lame.  We like contemporary.  We’re definitely diggin’ things along the lines of Pier 1 Imports, IKEA, liking some stuff from Restoration Hardware… but it’s so hard to find furniture that you really, really like and want in your home, you know?  And there’s so many elements to having a greatly designed and decorated home, where do you begin?  Furniture, paint, knick knacks, ah!!

Any suggestions are welcome so send us web sites to check out :)  Bring ‘em on!

(Image by: Shaul Schwarz)

Unless you have been living under a rock you have heard about the earthquake in Haiti that has wreaked devastation on the country and people who live here.

We spent some time online reading the news, looking at images and watching the stories and began to feel the “important” things of our life beginning to fade.  There is nothing like a good dose of perspective to help you realize how the things that seem so hard and difficult to us, really are not as bad as we think.

(Image by:Jonathan Torgovnik)

So, what can we do to help this awful situation?  We can pray and we can also give.  However, we’ve heard that some have been leery of giving due to the corruption in the country.  How will we know the people will actually get it?  How do we know that once the aid has reached the country that it will go to the right people?

We were sitting in church yesterday and were told that we (Journey Church in Franklin) actually have a team of people who were already in Haiti before the earthquake came through at a mission’s project called Conduit Mission – a Christian non-profit organization based out of Franklin, TN with the goal of being a “conduit” of God’s power, God’s love, and God’s resources.  The Conduit partners with organizations that are providing basic living needs such as food, clothing, shelter and medical care.

What’s even cooler is Conduit Mission has been investing in the Haitian people’s lives and are there to stay, not just to give food/water/clothing in this time of crisis, but they are also invested long-term.

(Image by: AFP/GettyImages)

CM has a challenge for everyone to donate $25.  That’s one meal at a restaurant, a new t-shirt or five Starbucks drinks…  For the last week we have been looking at furniture (which we will share more about super soon!), but we were thinking MAYBE they need that money a little bit more than we do…

If you have been wanting to give, or feel called to give, Conduit Mission may be the option for you.  For the next few days, all donations will be sent straight to the relief efforts in Haiti and they are working on getting into a city that has yet to see any relief of any kind.

Donate Here

Below is a short video up on Conduit Mission’s site…

For those of you still on the fence about attending  Jason Aten‘s workshop on January 25th, he is extending the $150 discount until January 22nd and contributing 10% of all registrations to Haiti Relief.  Fore more information on Jason’s heart behind this visit him here.

Even with all the gripes of taxes and politics and the list can go on, we really are so blessed to live in the country that we do.  Thank-you Lord for the roof over my head and running water…

Sooooooo you all know we have iPhones now.  Amazing.  So we thought we would share what Apps we have put on our phones, how they have revolutionized our lives and see what aps you think we might be missing out on!!

Our Favorite iPhone Apps

- Starbucks finder: Locate the closest Starbucks in your area and even get hours of business, address, phone… any info you want!!  Ummm… AMAZING!! Though the program is pretty cool, it does need to be updated.  When we were in FL it took us to a closed Starbucks.  Boo…. You can also customize your own drink on your iPhone, but we really don’t know the point behind that… maybe soon you’ll be able to “Bump” your phone to their register and your order will automatically go in their system.  Just another form of human interaction eliminated…
- Echofon: Our fav Twitter app to use and find out what everyone is up to every second of every day!
- FaceBook: Enough said (we could say more, but we just said “enough said.” You know what I mean?)
- WordPress: Love it that we can approve and read comments right from our phone! Suh-weet!
- Xmas Radio: Who doesn’t love Christmas music any time of the year??? Or should we say 365 days a year! Oh yeah!
-  You-Version Bible: Gotta love technology!  To be able to carry 66 books of the Bible all on your little iPhone to read at any time… pretty awesome
- Bump: The quickest way to exchange all of your info with a new contact – just a bump!!  Finally got it to work the first time with Sara France.. yay!
- Flashlight: How many of us stumble around the bed at night with the lights off – do it no more!!  Use your handy-dandy little iPhone Flashlight app and you’ll get a strong, consistent light for your every walking need in the dark.
- To Do’s: I (Jody) am a Queen of writing To Do lists and getting great satisfaction out of checking each item off… Just started using this one… Let me know if there is a better one out there!

Games

- Pac-man: A classic!
- Lineup: This little addicting game that anyone can play as long as they aren’t color blind and can tap their iPhone screen… It’s amazing…

Fun

- iSwap Faces: So we have just played with the trial version but it is HYSTERICAL!  You can swap faces of people within ten seconds and you’ll die cracking up…. A Zody head (Zach and Jody combined) looks really weird…  It was great fun the first few times.

Alright, so what’s your favorite app and what app’s are we missing out on?    We definitely like the ones that make our lives easier!!

We are super pumped to be hosting the amazingly talented Jason Aten at our studio  in downtown Nashville for his his Starting Out Right workshop on Monday, January 25th!

Jasen is pretty much the bomb when it comes to business and you do NOT want to miss this. We will be there at the workshop all day as well and this will not only be a great time for getting inspired to take your business to the next level, but also to have some great one on one time with us and Jasen as well.

REGISTER BY January 15th, and SAVE $150 dollars!! Check it out!

As a photographer you can have great images, but if you don’t have great BUSINESS skills or knowledge, it will be hard for your business to take off and be successful.  The cry for more business workshops has been answered by Michigan based photographer and speaker, Jason Aten and his one-day intensive will be taking place right here in Nashville, January 25th at our studio space in downtown Nashville.

Jason brings a background in management and marketing from working at as an executive at a Fortune 100 company, and the experience of starting – and building a successful boutique studio based in the midwest.

You’ll leave with answers.  You’ll leave with a PLAN.  You’ll leave with the best practices and key strategies to help grow a business built to last.

View the Starting Out Right: Business Help for Photographers website for more information!

Learn about Goal Setting, Marketing and Branding, the Client Experience, Setting up Systems for Success, and Workflow and Sales.

Who should come?: Photographer/Small Business Owners.  Whether you’ve been doing this for less than 2 years or more than 10, this workshop is designed to help you learn best practices to grow your business.

Cost: $450 ONLY $300 per person! Includes all materials [business planning and budgeting tools, contract worksheets, participant manual] and lunch.  Also includes chances at some pretty cool giveaways, including a 6 month free subscription to ShootQ, a Livebooks subscription site, a one-year Pictage Lite membership and MORE!.  More giveaways to be announced shortly!

Dates/Locations: Workshop will run from 9AM – 4PM and will be held at 808 Broadway, Nashville, TN at the Gray‘s Studio.

Sponsored By:

For those of you reading this who do not live anywhere near Nashville, never fear, this workshop is being taken to San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, San Diego, Cincinnati, Jackson (MS) and New Orleans.