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A huge THANK YOU to all of our wonderful clients and friends for the fantastic year of 2011 in our business. Thank you all for your love, confidence, encouragement and support!

It was definitely a year of growth and change as we had our first full year in our new studio space in Warren! Julie and I had so much fun fixing it up, accumulating countless chairs, backgrounds, lights, props, office furnishings, etc. to make it our studio home and office area, and we LOVE it!  It has evolved so much since we first started and will always be a work in progress!  It was hectic, crazy, and busy at times but we loved every minute!

We still photographed about 20 weddings and enjoyed each and every one.  We had the best brides and grooms to work with and the most awesome locations.  We especially loved all the varying locations for Romantics, like our very favorite Urban Shoots in Detroit, which have become a specialty for us.

This is the year we really launched our High School Senior program in earnest.  Last year we photographed about 8 seniors, but this year that went to at least 65!!  Julie has been the creative mastermind behind this and I am so proud of her.  We all loved the fantastic Senior Safari  for our models in early May and this grew to so many fantastic sessions!  Everyone commented that we were so refreshingly different.  We designed a dedicated logo and name for our senior division and decided to give the seniors their own Facebook fan page.  It grew from just a handful to over 500 fans in a very short time!   We have separate albums for our major locations: Locations – Urban Shoot (Detroit),  Rochester,  Studio,  Sterling Heights, and Plymouth. Be sure to check out www.facebook.com/WSPseniors.wallyspicephotography We LOVE our fans!

We also enjoyed photographing quite a few babies, children and families, many from our former brides who will always enjoy free studio sessions (files and prints not included).  It is heartwarming to see our bridal couples become loyal clients and friends as their families grow. And we sincerely appreciate the referrals!

Our main Fan Page for Wally Spice Photography has also been very active and popular, especially for the weddings and portraits as well as some of the other unique events we photographed.  Be sure to check out www.facebook.com/wallyspicephotography
We have links to our fan pages on the menu bar!

I am also so proud that both of Julie’s sons (my grandsons) have been active this year working with us.  Aaron did a lot of assisting on the weddings, contributing some awesome images.  He also helped with some of the endless editing.  Steven has shown a great interest too, he loved photographing the high school football games and also assisted on some senior sessions.  This has truly been a family business and we all love it!

I do feel bad that this blog has not been as active this year as it has in the past years, it was an extremely busy year as we grew our horizons and our face book fan pages have taken up the slack, but this will be better next year.
We are also looking to update and improve our actual website this year, but the blog will stay intact.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your continuing support as we venture into another exciting year! We learned so much this great 2011, that 2012 will be even better and bigger!

HAPPY NEW YEAR –

Wally, Julie, Aaron, Steven

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Hilary and Austin at the Detroti Zoo

Hilary and Austin at the Detroti Zoo

Hilary and Austin at the Detroti Zoo

Hilary and Austin at the Detroti Zoo

Hilary and Austin at the Detroit Zoo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Since the spring of 2011 we decided that our popular division of High School Senior photography within Wally Spice Photography deserves it own spotlight. We designed a new logo for WSP seniors and started a Facebook fan page dedicated just to our high school seniors.

Please take a look at this great fan page -   WSP seniors fan page or Use menu link

Julie is the mastermind behind all of this – since she has attended numerous high profile conventions dedicated just to the seniors. At these conventions she studied for many days with some of the best high school photography photographers from around the US.

Aaron, Julie’s son will be a senior at Cousino High school next year so he joined us as an administrator of the Fan page. It wasn’t hard to find lots of fantastic models willing to have fun with us!

We had our first senior “Safari” experience with our models and everyone had a fantastic time.
We photographed all day in many great locations. Aristocat Transporations helped us make the day extra special, as the models enjoyed riding in the Excursion SUV Limousine. Our driver, Ron was the best!

Be sure to enjoy the full photo albums and the fun videos of our Safari, complete with a few video clips in the fanpage.
Here’s the direct link to the video:

https://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=2062120913543&oid=102276456527682&comments 

After this we had a great “Reveal” party at Blumz by JR, a floral and gift shop on Woodward Ave in Ferndale to show all of our amazing images. They had a back room that worked out just super.  Thank you SO much for your hospitality.
(I’ll add a few images later)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are very excited to have many incredible fans on our new WSP Seniors Facebook Fanpage. It now has almost as many fans as our regular Wally Spice Photography fan page! (over 380)

But don’t make our original fan page feel bad – we’ve been posting on that one too – LIKE THEM BOTH!
Main Wally Spice Photography fan page or use menu link

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We were the official photographers for the Perfect Wedding Guide Bridal show at Petruzzellos  recently and had a great time.  Julie took the normal candids and detail photos of the beautiful ballroom and  how much fun everyone was having.

Julie and Diane Flores  had a fantastic idea this time for a special photo contest – I set up a background and photographed every bride (that wanted to0) next to the photo of the new square SE Michigan Perfect Wedding Guide magazine poster.  These are all on the fan page for Perfect Wedding Guide and the brides  and their family and freinds are going to the site,  liking it – and then finding the bride of their choice and Liking  their photo or making a comment under the photo. The bride with the most “likes” will have her wedding featured in the next issue of the Perfect wedding Guide.

I had so much fun taking the photos and often encouraged them to be a little different – as in “show me some attitude!”

110 brides ended up having their photo posted- and the competition is getting very heated. Kyleigh Roberts has 345, Nikki Earl has 344 and Gerilynn Karoub has 255! as of  March 27th – and we only go to April 1st.  Good luck ladies and have fun!

I enjoyed working with all of you, and IF you do not already have a photographer we would love to be your wedding photographer!  I am extending a special $200 off discount to anyone that books with us at Wally Spice Photography!

Give us a call and lets talk about your specific plans!

One of our weddings was featured in the the first square magazine – take a look at Lindsey and Scott and the stunning photos of  their dip in front of the Fox theater at night – part of our fun and famous  “Urban Shoot” and the other great images on pages 22 – 23. This spread was used in all the marketing for the contest as an example of what you can win!

This is the link to the Perfect Wedding Guide Fan Page – then go to Photos for the photo album

www.facebook.com/MichiganPerfectWeddingGuide

Album link with the photos

 

 

 

 

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We photographed a phenomenal engagement session a the Detroit Zoo Monday for Molly and Justin – he works there so this was extra special and we were lucky enough to be there when the polar bear was being fed. This made for some awesome images of the majestic bear, with the water all around us, while we were in the tunnel for quite some time – the arctic ring of life. What a fun, incredible experience for all of us – we sure did ENJOY!

See more images on our Facebook Fanpage  http://www.facebook.com/wallyspicephotography

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As I meet with more couples to talk about their options for wedding photography, we go over the timing and plans for the day. They love the great romantics they see and the unique personal locations we have gone to (like our popular “Detroit Urban Shoots”. But often there is just not enough time between the ceremony and reception and they would rather not keep their guests waiting while we have fun taking the photos.

At least half of our couples have a great solution – they elect to see each other beforehand; usually this is based on timing of the day.  But no-one can talk you into it – the decision has to be yours alone – we can only point out advantages.

The idea of not seeing each other comes from medieval days – when marriages were arranged – if he saw you beforehand – he might change his mind.  A lot of contemporary couples are now saying – let’s make this work for us.

The whole secret – it that you HAVE to have a “special moment” when you first see each other – and we help to arrange this – it should be more private – maybe you are coming down a staircase, or out a door, and he is there waiting – be creative.  Then you can say things to each other without the whole world watching and we just capture the emotion from a distance.

Then you can have your wedding party join you and we can go where ever you want – within reason of the timing, and just have FUN!  This is your snuggle time and special time with each other and the people closest to you.  Believe me, after the ceremony it gets much more hectic. ENJOY this time!

The 2 of you are your own best friends, you tend to calm each other down, and this is usually such a relief and stress reducer.  This is the most important day of your lives – why spend it hiding from each other?!
Besides, you get to wear your gorgeous dress longer!
And, you get a lot more incredible images that are natural and fun and really show your style and the creative style you chose your photographer for!

NO-ONE has EVER said “I wish we didn’t do that” – everyone has loved it and raved about it.

When you walk done the aisle it is another special moment!
Sometimes we still do a limited amount of immediate family “Alter groups” just after the ceremony – but then you can mingle with your guests and ENJOY your own party!

I went looking through the files and found so many great images of this over the years – here are a few of our favorites.

These images show what words cannot express!

It is a real option that many modern couples have embraced to make the timing of the day work for them and enjoy EACH OTHER more.  If you have any questions please feel free to call and we can talk about your options within the timing of your day!

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Hope you are enjoying the Holidays and getting ready to have a very Merry Christmas.

We usually celebrate Christmas Eve in the German Tradition, but this year Julie’s boys wanted to go up north to be with their dad a little earlier, so we had our special dinner and get together on Tuesday.  Aaron came by early to help me clean up and cook the Rolladen.  My brother Gunther came by after work and we had a nice dinner and family time.

This is our Christmas card this year – with images from this eve and some of the other best images of 2010 both here in Michigan and Alaska where my youngest daughter Tracy lives with her family – especially my little grandson Gunther who is 4 now.

ENJOY the holidays and have a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours and from Wally Spice Photography.

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For our New Studio Open Houses, we offered a free photo with Santa and asked everyone, strictly voluntarily, to bring in some non perishable food to donate to the Gleaners Food Banks in our area. Well today we took everything in to the Warren Distribution center. We ended up with 190 pounds – which they say can feed at least 200 people! Thank you for your generosity! This is especially helpful a this time – when the temps are cold and holidays near!
http://www.gcfb.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homepage

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Our last 2 open houses for our Grand Opening of our New Studio space went very well – Thank you for your donations to the Gleaners food bank and thank you for coming in to see us.  Everyone loved Santa and their free photo and often we had a chance to take a few more candids around the studio.

We had many say how much they enjoyed bringing their kids to visit Santa and many asked us if we were going to be doing it again. So…we are now answering with YES, for one last time, on Sunday, December 19th from noon until 3pm, we will be offering this again. We are asking you to bring a donation of food that we will be donating to the Gleaners Food Bank. And of course have a free photo with Santa.

Please see the details in the new flyer that I am attaching.  Hope to see you there!!

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We really enjoyed photographing the wedding of Lindsey and Scott Dec.4th. Her mom Adell is a close friend of Wally’s through OES, so this was like family. After the beautiful ceremony at the 1st English Lutheran Church in Grosse Point, we rushed downtown Detroit for a fun Urban romantic photo shoot. Despite the cold and vanishing light we got a lot of incredible images at the DIA, the Fox, Campus Martius and the Westin Book Cadillac. The evening was topped off with a great reception at the Royalty House in Warren.

These images were cropped square to go into a special frame that holds 4  10×10′s. Be sure to see the entire album on our Facebook Fanpage at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=262789&l=0dbc9cd15e&id=109141840457   This is the public link to the album on FB

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We photographed a great wedding for Dana and Steve on November 27th at the beautiful Crown Plaza Hotel in Novi. They had gotten engaged on Thanksgiving last year so having the wedding on Thanksgiving weekend was extra special. Thank you Andy for the recommendation – we photographed her daughter’s wedding 6 years ago!

This is the public link on Facebook to their album

I will be adding some here soon -

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=261982&l=7284297498&id=109141840457

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Grand Opening Open House – Come see our new studio space!!! We asked you to save the date – now here are the details – we’ve added a second date – Wed Dec1 and Sunday Dec 5th! Bring the kids for a free photo with Santa.
We will be donating any canned goods etc to the Gleaners Food Bank if you wish to help out in the Holiday spirit. …We can even design holiday cards in time to send out! Come join us!!! Come say Hi!!

Wednesday Dec 1st – 4-8 PM
Sunday Dec 5th – noon – 6PM
Our New Location:
31100 Hoover, Unit #3
2 miles north of 696, Just north of 13 Mile
In the strip bldg behind the Barber shop & Jennies Pierogies
248-547-9380; Julie cell – 810-241-2280
Cookies and light refreshments will be served.

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Well we really did it – We just got the key for the new space we are going to use as a studio! Very excited, yet also very nervous! Sometimes you have to take a risk and work hard to make it work!! It is a big change for us but Julie and I are so excited. I will keep working the weddings out of my home studio for now -.and will be using the studio space mainly for portraits and seniors. Now lots of work ahead of us!!!

It is on Hoover just north of 13 mile – just 2 miles north of 696. Julie is just north of it in Sterling Heights and the high school her boys go to is just south of us. It’s not huge and not really a store front – but we really don’t need that at this point. It will take some work to fix up like we want it but that will be fun too!

We are aiming  for the date of  Wednesday December 1st for our Grand Opening – complete with a free photo with Santa for the kids – so HOLD that date!!

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Amy and Ryan had a great wedding September 25th .The ceremony was held at the St Peter’s Catholic Church in

Mt Clemens. We had so much fun for the romantics – Ryan is a firefighter at the Sterling Heights Station and we had to make a stop there.  I love it when we can make our romantics more personal..

Then off to a fun Detroit urban shoot
at the Tiger by Comerica Park, The Fox and Hart Plaza.I have to admit Ryan and the guys did something I have never seen before – he was hoised up by his groomsmen and then hung into the Tigers teeth and just hung up there for awhile !

The reception was held at Zucaros on 21 and Gratiot where everyone had a fantastic time

Check out our FaceBook fanpage for a great video – these are not playing as well on the blog – so check it out htere!

Please copy nad past the following link!

www.facebook.com/wallyspicephotography?v=app_2392950137&ref=ts#!/video/video.php?v=1638315123888

Or = the FB symbol on this blog will get to to our Fanpage then scroll down to the video!

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We had a great time at the Perfect Wedding Guide Bridal Show in Troy on Sunday the 12th – There were a lot of people and a lot of brides – we were very pleased with the turnout. All our hard work paid off! We were all pretty kaput at the end of the show but it was worth it.

These are some images  from our show set up

We will extend  our show specials to anyone to our Facebook frends and fans and our website/blog followers.

It was great working next to our friend Mary Rodzewicz and her daughter Katie. I had photographed Katie’s wedding earlier this year and she love the images.
She has an on line Shop Direct for bridal accessories at www.Shopfor BridalDirect.com

And  her La Valle Bridal Millinery. She does excellent work and is great to work with .

Call her at 734-513-6645 and E-mail info@lavallebridal.com

We will extend these specials to our friends and fans on Face book and the website blog – so give us a call if you  or someone you know is getting married

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Cousino High School was voted to be Channel 4 Friday Football Frenzy’s Football Game of the Week last Friday. Julie and I both photographed the pep rally at 6 in the morning. It was amazing how many people showed up and how high the spirit and frenzy was. Aaron is a Junior there this year – his friend Josh plays in the marching band and we know  some of the players and their parents and the coaches there.

Lauren Podell of Channel 4 was there and did a terrific job – it was an honor to be working next to her. She loved our images and we were so excited to see that she used one of our images as her profile pic and used some of the images on her site.

Julie photographed the actual game in the evening and had so much fun.  She was in her glory, as she used to photograph professional arena football. This is true photojournalism!
We have lots of photos, links and a great slideshow on our Wally Spice Photography Fan Page

This is the video Julie just made from some of the images from the Pep Rally and the Football Game.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=226573&id=109141840457

These are  some of our favorite images: From the album on FB – be sure to look at  all of them
This is the link to the album itself …

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wally-Spice-Photography/109141840457#!/album.php?aid=220382&id=109141840457&ref=mf

This is the link to the photo album of the game itself that Julie enjoyed photographing

http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=109141840457#!/album.php?aid=226573&id=109141840457

here’s a few favorites, but be sure to look at all of them

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Angela and Kevin were one of our great weddings quite a few years back.  They  had wedding images published in some of the local magazines and even posed for us again for an add our album company was making for a bridal album.

We photographed them when they were highly pregnant and again when darling little Claire was a new born baby and now again at 6 months. Images and slideshows from these sessions are earlier on this blog and on our Face Book Fan page.

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=172656&id=109141840457&ref=mf

This is the link to the album on Facebbook, slideshow below that

These are a few of her at 6 months. We had so much fun with a few of our new props…the tutu and different head bands/flowers, etc.!! The black and gray hat Julie had bought matched The outfit Angela had perfectly!

Our Face Book Fan Page has an album with a few more images  from this session.

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200340&id=109141840457&ref=mf

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We are so exciting to be working on some new designs for our marketing materials to co-ordinate a little with our  web site.  We have a new sign ordered for our Bridal Show this weekend and lots of little “Skinny Mini” cards that have our info on one side and all different images on the other.  I am nor working on some fliers with a great promotion for our bridal show.

Here’s another version

If you have any ideas, we’d love your comments.

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We are so excited to have a booth in the Perfect Wedding Guide’s bridal show next Sunday – at Petruzzellos in Troy – (OMG – that’s in 1 week!). We haven’t done a bridal show in over 10 years… Working hard on marketing and promotional pieces – I like to design these myself, love it, but tend to take forever on every little thing….Come say HI! Tickets are free if you sign up online.

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We have really enjoyed our new growing High school senior business. Julie has been the main photographer as she has studied extensively with some of  coolest and most popular Senior Photographers nationwide.  This influence is showing in her awesome images that everyone loves.

This year we are building our portfolio and client base – so it’s a great time to get some great specials and deals.

We love our on Destination Sessions and specialize in the popular  “Detroit Urban Destination Trip”.  Also  popular are the “Nature Destination trips” and the “Personalized Detination trips”.  No limit on how many outfit changes, unlimited poses, and no limit on locations within the times allocated. The On Site  garage Studio will soon be completed – we are excited about added this feature also.

Plus YOU are never locked into set packages – you choose what fits YOU and YOUR family – you choose the sessions that appeal to you, and then choose from units of small prints, wall portraits, personalized press printed albums and many other unique personalized products!

This is YOUR session – Experience the difference!

If YOU or anyone YOU know is graduating in 2011 – please have them call us and lets work together!

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