features….

I LOVE wedding blogs. I peruse them and ogle all the gorgeousness and plan what my wedding would be like if we did it now. I always say that if I redid my wedding, I would keep the groom and change most everything else. I MAY even be not-so-secretly plotting a 10 year vow renewal when I see all the awesomeness. And there are some AMAZING blogs out there. So....when a few of my weddings were featured on some of my favorites in 2011, I was over the moon excited!! I know I shared this news on facebook, but I thought I would here too, to give these awesome blogs some love. Be sure to check them out. 

this first one is from the end of 2010, Jessica and Angie's winter "TTD" session was on postcards and pretties

Cassie and Jessie's lovely wedding was on Sparkle and Hay

Haley and Joe's Enchanted Barn wedding was on Landlocked Bride

a lot of my lovely couples made the first page of

Meggy and Eric were featured on Love and Lavender

the awesome Deb, of Keepsake Blossoms, featured me on her blog (check out her AMAZING bouquets. she ROCKS!)

and lastly, one of my pictures made it into PRINT....when Arizona Weddings magazine featured some of Deb's work in their May issue. (left page, lower right side)

thank you SO much to all these amazing blogs for the features. AND to my amazing couples for...well...you know. being you!!! 

a love affair with film.

if you have been "around" my blog or facebook for any length of time you will know that I am so in love with film photography. there is just something about shooting in film that makes me happy. the wait for the scans, the challenge to "get it right" in camera, getting ACTUAL prints, the grain and just the over all look of it. I tried to shoot quite a bit of film this year, and I am going to try to shoot even more in 2012. I am toying with the idea of switching fully (or even 75/30 or similiar) to film for 2013. thoughts? Here are some of my favorite film photos from 2011. some of these have probably already  been on my blog, but others have not....

 

 

this year, one of my goals is to shoot more film....of my family and at my shoots. If you would like to add film coverage to your wedding or do a couple/love shoot on film, let me know. I would also be willing to do film mini sessions, if there is any interest for that, let me know. I also want to try my hand at shooting medium format film and document my families day to day more in film. So.... I hope to continue this journey. 

Best of 2011--The winner(s)

Thank you SO much to everyone who voted in the best of 2011 contest!!! The winner of the 16X20 canvas was…..

#17 Cortney and Chris!!

it was a close race though, and the second and third place winners were close on their heels (and within one vote of each other) so….I decided that each of those winners would receive an 8X10 mounted print.. they were 

#11 Tim and his grandma

and #3 Leah and Mason

congratulations to the winners! I will get you your prizes as soon as I can! 

and thank you AGAIN to everyone who had me photograph their wedding in 2011. It was an amazing year!!! and 2012 is shaping up to be amazing too. I am taking a few months maternity leave and then I will be doing about half the weddings I did in 2011, but WHAT weddings they are. I am excited to be shooting at places like, Badger Farms, the Enchanted Barn, many outdoor locations, Florida (twice!!!), and SO many awesome places around the state! It is going to be a great year, and my couples are amazing! Yay for 2012! 

Welcome to this World

For those of you not on my facebook page… (and I bet you all are right?)…the newest Muellenberg was born on December 23, 2011. We are so excited to have added our little man, Grant Edward to the family! If you guys know me at all, you know that birth photography is very near and dear to my heart, so of course I had planned to have the birth photographed and was so excited about that. Well. Grant had other plans. namely to come as fast as he possibly could. my entire labor was 2 hours and we were at the hospital for a little less than 30 minutes before he was born. sooooo…..my grand plans for lovely birth photography (along with others like that of a repeat water birth) went out the window. So….this was supposed to be my birth photo post, but instead it is the "moments in the days after birth" post. I had been saving this LOVELY song by Renee and Jeremy for the honor of the slideshow. I adore this song. everyone go to their site and buy their music. Like NOW! 

Just a note, some of the images are from right after he was born. There is NOTHING graphic and nothing that would make me blush for you all to see or anything, but….there is a bit more skin than a normal picture of me on the internet.just to give you guys a heads up. you don't HAVE to watch the video ;) 

password: grantedward

The Best of the 2011 contest

For the past couple of years (here are the 2010 and 2009 winners) I have done a "best of" contest with tons of categories, and winners and voting….and well…it has been so much fun. but this year….with a new baby….i just can't DO all that…. (and if I am being honest? I JUST got some of the 2010 winners their 8X10s right before christmas. a year later…..it is just too much) so this year I am modifying the competition a little bit. I am going to post ONE photo from each wedding I photographed. Everyone has one week (until Wednesday Jan 11th at 11:59 PM) to vote on their favorite….and then the winner will get a 16X20 CANVAS of their winning shot. So stakes are high this time!!! 

To vote, just leave a comment here on the blog (on this post with the number and names of the picture you are voting for. Due to facebook rules, any votes left on facebook can't be counted. sadly. 

*a little note…you may ask all your friends and family to vote, but people can only VOTE ONCE. if I find duplicate votes from people (or people pretending to be other people--and YES, I can tell) I will delete the votes….if there is rampant cheating I will just call off the contest and print a 16X20 of my kids. ;) So. don't ruin it for anyone. not that any of my clients would encourage cheating, but sometimes friends and acquaintances can get a little over zealous in trying to help their faves win!*

*another little note…I started out thinking I would choose a bride and groom image from each wedding, and as I was selecting, I decided to just choose MY own favorite from each wedding. one that really spoke to me…so you will see a mix of images….*

#1--from becky and brent's wedding

2. from Amanda and Ritch's wedding 

3. from Leah and Mason's wedding 

4. from Amy and Vic's wedding 

5. from Susan and Miguel's wedding 

6. from Laura and Nic's wedding 

7. from Meagan and Michael's wedding

8. From Jamie and Dan's wedding

9. from Amber and JR's wedding

10. from Lisa and Dan's wedding

11. from Michelle and Tim's wedding (tim and his grandmother)

12.Haley and Joe's wedding

13. Jillian and LaRoy's wedding

14. Andrea and Travis

15. Sara and Shawn's wedding

16. Josie and Eric's wedding

17. Cortney and Chris's wedding

18. Cassie and Jessie's wedding

19. Rachel and Mark's wedding (film---second shot for Dani Stephenson Photography)

20. Jessica and Brent's wedding

21. Tyler and Kristina

22. Meggy and Eric

23. Lucia and Jeremy

24. Maddy and Matt

25. Ashley and Lucas (second shot for Dani Stephenson Photography)

26. Erin and Lee

27. Abbie and Andrew

Thank you SOOOOOO so so so so much to all my 2011 couples. It was a great year and I enjoyed each and every wedding so much. You guys are all amazing. And thank you to everyone who shot with me this year: Jessica Sands, Amanda Crowe, Emily Schmidt, Dani Stephenson and Rebecca Eby, not sure if I could have made it through the year without awesome photographers shooting alongside me. THANK YOU. 

The 2012 workshop is here--Wedding Bootcamp

Dani and I get an incredible amount of inquiries to mentor or give advice, etc. We always say to keep a look out for future workshop and here it is:

This workshop will be focused on Weddings only. We have the most incredible models for an open shoot during the workshop as well as cramming in as much as we can about all things weddings. 

Only 9 seats available! Email or Facebook to reserve your spot!

Danistephenson@hotmail.com or Krystal@krystalmuellenberg.com

abbie and andrew.....the last wedding of 2011

2011 has been AWESOME. simply put, one of the best years ever. I will go into that more later, but abbie and andrew's wedding day was just a cap on an awesome year. I adore my clients. you guys are AMAZING!!! abbie and andrew's day was a little wet. and a little dark....but that didn't matter because it was full of a LOT of love, family and fun. it was a truly lovely wedding! 

and as my last wedding before my maternity leave (I was the huge 36 week pregnant photographer huffing and puffing) I was soooooo beyond lucky to have my friend and fellow photographer Jessica Sands along with me. She is so super fabulous. If you are looking for a photographer for your 2012 wedding look her up. she rocks. and I couldn't have done this wedding without her. 

now on to the pictures! 

i loved her bouquets. soooo neat! 

  

  

  

 

by the time we did their wedding party and couples portraits it was DARK, dark, DARK. which was fun and added a new dynamic to their pictures, I think. ALSO, I don't want to knock anyone, but it is a REALLY GOOD reason why the photographer you hire should have the experience to know what to do in any situation and the EQUIPMENT to handle it. sadly to say, not all of the photographers out there do.

  

b 

  

  

   

 

 

 

ashley and lucas....the wedding (minneapolis film photography)

about a month ago I accompanied my friend Dani Stephenson as she shot this lovely wedding up near Minneapolis. I absolutely love shooting with Dani (in fact, contact us about our combined packages) and I love shooting in film, so this was a dream for me. Of course Ashley and Lucas put together an absolutely gorgeous wedding as well. What a great day. Thanks Dani, for bringing me a long and Ashley and Lucas for letting me share in your day

almost all of these photos are film, but there are just a few (8, if you want to try and spot them) digital thrown in :) 

  

  

   

  

 

CUTEST first look ever. 

 

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

mindy and jesse....engagement

i am so excited to photograph mindy and jesse's wedding next year. i know it will be super fabulous! and doing their engagement session was just a small taste of the fabulousness. mindy is a great photographer and helped me shoot some weddings in 2010....and I absolutely ADORE photographing other photographers. (plus she did me a huge favor and took my weekly maternity photo, and did an amazing job--see her facebook page). It was kind of chilly when we did their session and we made it quick because it was over the holiday weekend, but mindy and jesse still rocked it. Here is a small taste of their session! 

  

  

  

  

erin and lee...the wedding

i have been super blessed this year to be a part of some amazing weddings. weddings that make me over the moon happy and have a perma grin for the rest of the week. i LOVE how personal and fabulous so many couples are making their special day. i knew from the moment erin contacted me I would enjoy her and lee's wedding. I photographed erin's brother's wedding in 2009, and took a photo of her and lee then that spoke of how much they loved each other (it's in the blog post from meri and randy's wedding, see if you can spot it!) Erin and Lee were married at Huntington Farm's near Viroqua, and it was just a fabulous day. Although. um. SUPER COLD. especially for their wedding party which was made mostly of friends from warmer states, like texas and tennessee. thanks everyone for being good sports as I drug you through the SNOW for pictures. and now. THE PICTURES! 

Also, I have to say a HUUUUUGE thank you to my super awesome, super talented, super wonderful friend Jessica Sands of Jessica Sands Photography. I couldn't have done it without you. You are a rock. I absolutely ADORE shooting with you. (check her out, everyone, if you haven't already. she is fab!)

Erin got ready at the Heritage Inn in Viroqua. what A GORGEOUS place to get ready. I know I am a broken record, but seriously. people. GET READY SOMEWHERE COOL. with nice light. The church basement? NOT A NICE PLACE TO GET READY. get over the fear that your dress will wrinkle. It probably won't. YOU HAVE A CHOICE. for pictures, the church basement is not a good getting ready spot. (//okay end pyschotic rant//)

  

when I got to huntington farms, the groomsmen were throwing snowballs at the roof of the barn in an attempt to dislodge the snow so it didn't fall on unsuspecting guests' heads 

erin and lee designed their own invitations

  

  

  

  

  

  

Thank you to everyone involved! What a great day!