2010 June | Champaign and Urbana wedding photographer

Champaign and Urbana wedding photographer | Holly Birch Photography bio picture

Welcome to my blog!

Hey! Thanks for coming to my blog! If you're here as a bride or groom, I hope you like what you see. I'd love to meet with you in person to talk about your wedding day and how I can help you. I love photographing weddings and hope that shows in my work!

Things I love: the Illini, the color orange, lobsters, my husband, my son, weddings, my Nikon D700, socks, my dogs, Johnny Cash, American Idol, my iMac, The Sound of Music, Hereford cattle, a pair of good-fitting jeans, the Food Network, & macaroni and cheese (and my Grandma Hazel wants me to add her in here too).

Scroll down to view images from recent weddings and sessions! Also, be sure to "like" my Facebook page to keep up with announcements & specials!

Monthly Archives: June 2010

June 29, 2010

Lauren + Grant | Memorial Stadium wedding photographer

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Lauren and Grant were married on June 26 at University Place Christian Church in Champaign, followed by their reception at Memorial Stadium on the University of Illinois campus. And in between we snuck in some photos at Meadowbrook Park in Urbana. As I was driving from the church to the the park, I was having a conversation with myself about how much I love photographing weddings. The heat index was crazy high that day, and I’m pretty sure there was a heat advisory. But as miserable as my body might have been, I loved every minute (read: 12 hours!) of being a part of Grant & Lauren’s big day. My assistant Kara and I had a great time hanging out with you guys all day! Thanks for having us. I hope you love the photos as much as I do!

One of Kara’s shots:

I don’t normally post many ceremony shots, but I should! I was pretty happy with how these turned out, especially considering how dark this particular church is inside. (Oh, and someone needs to fill me in on the story of the black eye!)

Kara’s shot of the couple about to get away on a motorcycle:

I can’t decide which of these next two I like better.

I told them to give me attitude. They did!

Somehow we lost 4 groomsmen between the church and the park. But I absolutely love this shot!

Running onto the field!

What a good-lookin’ crew!

Huddling up before the big play:

The couple got the football as a gift for having their wedding reception there.

I think the girls can take them.

Bridesmaids always take directions very well!

I totally forgot about all the little rubber pieces on the field. Sweat + rubber granules don’t mix. Sorry ladies!!

They recovered well, don’t you think?

One of my favorites from the entire day. I was NOT leaving the field without getting this shot. Thanks to the guys for sticking it out with me for one more shot!! I think it was totally worth it.

Posing with Red Grange:

One of my favorite shots of Kara’s from the day:

Another fave of Kara’s!

She also snagged this great one of the kiss after the bites of cake:

I’ve said this before, but the father-daughter dance is one of my favorite parts of any wedding. Lauren and her dad did not disappoint!

Visit my proofing site to see more in a couple days!

Vendors:
Ceremony: University Place Christian Church
Reception: Memorial Stadium
Florist: Tammie Lawson
Caterer: UI catering
Planner: Nuptiae
Officiant: Ron Brown
Dress: David’s Bridal
Tuxes: Express
Chair covers: Elegant Presentations
Videographer: Bob Dignan
Cake: Debbie Short & Pam Brewer
DJ: Bugbee’s DJ Plus (Miranda Church)
Hair: Hair Design 4
Second photographer: Kara Slating

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Tags: Memorial Stadium, University Place Christian Church, wedding photography

June 29, 2010

Maximus | Accordion wallets

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Last week I finally got in a quick photoshoot with Maximus for his 2-month photos. He did a very good job cooperating with Mommy for the session! I was also able to quickly put together this little accordion wallet design and my lab printed and shipped it to me in just 2 days! I got 3 copies–one for Aaron & me, and one for each of our moms. Don’t worry, Mom–you’ll get yours on Sunday. I love this booklet too because it matches his birth announcement design. I think we may carry the theme through until at least his 1st birthday because it’s so cute and of course is orange and blue.

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Tags: accordion wallets, Maximus

June 28, 2010

2011-12 wedding pricing | C-U wedding photographer

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My 3rd & 4th quarter pricing for the 2011 and 2012 wedding seasons will be released this Thursday, July 1. Please get any outstanding contracts to me by then to lock in the current pricing. I’ve added a NEW 4th package to the mix that will be the “everything but the kitchen sink” photography package that you won’t want to miss!

Also, I recently contacted all my current clients to let them know that I can now process credit card payments over the phone. You can also still pay by check or cash as well. I’m trying to phase out my use of Paypal for business transactions, and you can read some of the reasons why on the Cowbelly Pet Photography blog. If you have a few minutes, please go read why some of Paypal’s practices are not fair to service-oriented businesses like mine! Fortunately, I haven’t had this happen to me yet, but I can see how easily it can happen.

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Tags: 2011-12, packages, payment, Pricing

June 22, 2010

Kim + Brian | Urbana-Champaign wedding photographer

Posted in Wedding 2 comments

Kim and Brian were married on June 19 at First United Methodist Church in Urbana, followed by their reception at the Hawthorn Suites in Champaign. I could tell that they and their wedding party were all great friends as they genuinely were all having a great time together, from lacing up Kim’s dress to melting in the hot sun at the Arboretum to the swing dance lessons before dinner. That’s right–swing dance lessons, taught by the Dancing Illini. I also loved that Kim and Brian were pretty easy going, as evidenced by the above photo, and several more of the MANY photos to come in this post. And to think, I was afraid of asking Kim to lie on the ground, but she was totally all about it! And needless to say, I was stoked!

I’ll try to go in chronological order this time. I knew the day was going to start off great when I shot this photo and declared to Kim that it was a “keeper.”

Ok, so I already messed up. Obviously this is NOT chronological. Oops! But isn’t this dress gorgeous?!

Is that a good lookin’ crew or what?

Yeah, I made them kiss a lot. Oh, you know they liked it!

Ladies’ man:

This is one of my absolute favorites, and possibly one of my new all-time favorites. To me, it looks like it should be in a wedding magazine. I will do my best to make that happen!

This was the girls’ idea, and I’m glad we did it!

Then we shipped the wedding party off to the swing dance lessons while we stayed behind for a bit at the Arboretum and then the fountain/Hallene Gateway by the Alice Campbell Alumni Center.

A favorite! I wish I would have Brenizer-ed this. Next time!

Large canvas anyone?

I know it was about 92 degrees outside or something ridiculous like that, but they just turned it up a notch.

These two were crazy on the dance floor! Though this shot is actually from their grand entrance at the reception.

Two crazy kids + my new dance floor lighting technique = awesome!

Ok, I know this post is getting crazy long and we’re going back out of chronological order again. My apologies…

Some more details:

We had some fantastic light.

Another fave! Ok, I’m done now… at least until next Saturday!

Vendors:
Cake: Round Barn IGA
Florist: Blossom Hill Florist in Danville
DJ: Complete Music–Kyle Dietz
Officiant: Pastor Shannon Caughey from Twin City Bible Church
Dress/Tuxes: Michelle’s Bridal
Hair/Makeup: Rod Sickler

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Tags: Brian, FUMC Urbana, Hawthorn, Kim, Wedding

June 20, 2010

Kinnerly + Matt | Lake of the Woods wedding photographer

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Kinnerly + Matt were married on June 12 at the Pavilion at Lake of the Woods. They had planned to have the wedding ceremony outdoors by the lake, but Mother Nature had other ideas. About 5 minutes before the ceremony was to begin, they called it and brought everyone inside. It was a good thing too, as the clouds opened up and it poured for a couple of hours. We got lucky though and later on got to take some outdoor shots as the sun was setting.

So happy!

I found out throughout the day how excited Kinnerly was to have me as her wedding photographer. Her sister and her new mother-in-law both expressed her kind words about my work.

They both loved this tree where the ceremony was supposed to have been held:

The wedding party was a fun bunch. I found it hilarious that they didn’t like being strung out in one long head table, so they pushed the two tables together after dinner so they were all facing each other!

A favorite!

The flowers were perfect:

So was the dress! It was very flowy and light, which is kind of different from a lot of wedding gowns I shoot.

I have a new favorite ring photo!!

Groomsmen/ushers waiting for the festivities to begin:

I love this photo for two reasons — one, Kinnerly’s mother is zipping up her dress, and two, she’s pulling double-duty and getting ready to affix the cake topper which is an heirloom that was on both her grandparents’ cake and her aunt and uncle’s cake many years ago. How awesome is that?

Details!

The delicious cupcake tower was made by Cakes by Rosie! Rosie, if you’re reading this, your lemon cupcake with lemon curd filling was one of the best cupcakes I have ever had! Here’s a pictures of the white cupcake with raspberry filling, which was good as well (since Kinnerly let me bring one home for Aaron, I got to try it too!).

Kinnerly and Matt had a lot of handmade touches to their wedding, which made it feel very intimate.