My assistant and I love taking detail shots and seeing the unique things couples put out for their table decorations or even what they are wearing sometimes. Everybody has their own flavor and I thought I'd show a few today. Let's start off with the love note left behind on the hotel bed for the bride's soon to be husband to find later that night. A romantic and fun gesture for sure!!

Certainly wedding cakes, like this spectacular one from Radisson Ballroom in Merrillville, are one of the standard things we are going to capture....

Cake toppers are always fun as well...

Not sure if you would call the next one "weeble wobbles" or "bobble heads", but they are fun nonetheless and quite the likeness of the newly married couple!!

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I think a wide shot of the reception hall or church also count as a detail shot. Here is one of the Radisson Ballroom redecorated as a lounge area...

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Let's not forget about the bride herself as the veil and areas of the dress make for great detail shots and help to tell the story of the wedding day. These type of wedding photos can make for a sexy addition to the album...

Ring shots would certainly fall under the category of details and make for a great layout in the album. My favorite way of doing ring shots is to place them in the scene with another element of the wedding such as the bouquet or in the case of this wedding at the winery - amongst grapes and wine bottles.

The wedding dress itself can be a challenge sometimes. It's always best to have a wide open area if possible. We took this gorgeous dress up to the choir loft and used the church as our background.

Sometimes just an element of the dress can be so strking that it deserves it own photo...

Other times, the wedding dress itself can be the backdrop for the jewelry, garter and wedding shoes...

Table decorations are important to include as well. Very often the bride's family will have a hand in creating these items on display...

Here is a detail collage of table decorations (including the bride and groom's own photo of their hands forming a heart) combined with one of my formal shots from right after the ceremony.

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Very often I will take some nondescript images knowing that I'm going to use them creatively later for either a collage or as background in the wedding album.

This first one has a tabloid magazine that I found laying around combined with some girls getting ready images.

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The "wedding belles" as they got their hair done...

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Flirty and fun best decribed one of the brides and made for a great background images for one of the pages in the wedding book.

Indian brides always have great color at their celebrations and these henna decorated hands make for striking wedding detail images...

Don't discount old family wedding pictures as a simple, but effective layout at the reception hall or in the church lobby before the ceremony. A great conversation piece as well as decor for the album.

One of my favorite things to do and something I'm very proud to be known for is my wedding and engagement photo collages. Some are simple like the shot of the cake topper with an inset of the bride and groom from their reception at Avalon Manor.

Others are more complex, such as this shot below of the same couple's engagement photos. The original shot taken simply has them kissing beneath the Chicago Theater. I had some pedestrians to remove from the scene along with the advertisements on the marquee. I placed other images from the Chicago Engagement Session within the marquee and added their wedding date as a coming attraction. I then filled the empty foreground with other engagement photos of the happy couple dancing along the lakefront of Chicago. It's one of my favorite photo collages.

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I'll be displaying many of my favorite wedding and engagement photo collages in this posting along with some of my other work with kids and high school seniors. Be sure to click on each image to enlarge it for best detail.

Next up are the wedding photos of Austin and Megan. The main image is the gazebo at Ellendale Farms in Crown Point. I melded this shot with the bride and groom's first kiss at their ceremony at St. Michael's in Schererville and reception photos at The Patrician.

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Those of you who know my wedding work only, may not know that I have a studio in Merrillville. The shot above is of local author and web designer Nichole Baiel. She needed publicity photos and I made this "word cloud" collage that illustrated her creative skills in writing and design.

Another "word cloud" montage is of the adorable little girl Ava, whom I photographed last Fall in Chesterton, Indiana at Coffee Creek Park.

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Here is another studio kids photo of Justin for his "one" birthday.

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Most of my collages are in the size of 16x20, 11x14 and 16x24 and are great as Stand Out wall prints or Gallery Print Wraps. Wedding Package #3 come with one of these 16x20 wall prints.

Here is a super close up of the guest book at Heather and Flo's wedding reception in Hammond at The Knights of Columbus hall along with one of their first dance photos.

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Family events work great for these photo collages. This is a family bonfire party taken around Halloween in Grovertown, Indiana just east of Valparaiso.

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I love to take ring shots up coose and use them as the background of a photo collage. It is my favorite way to take ring shots. Sometimes I will place them inside the petals of the bouquet of flowers or in the case for this Fall wedding, a giant leaf sitting upon a tree stump at Ogden Garden in Valparaiso.

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My high school senior photos make for good collages with the students name and graduating year placed within. Here is one from Hobart student Chanler, a 2011 graduate and three sport athlete.

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Speaking of high school, one of my favorite events that I have covered is this Highland High School rendition of South Pacific...

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Getting back to weddings, sometimes I like to make a collage out of different elements of one single photo. Here is Chris and Elise from their wedding at Valparaiso University at the altar of the Chapel of the Resurrection.

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Sometimes melding an illustration together with photographs can make for unique images. These are winter engagement photos taken in Chicago along with an illustration of the city in black and white.

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One of the more unique wedding receptions I've photographed was the masquerade ball of Jack and Rebecca at Marquette Park Pavilion along the beach in Lake Michigan.

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Lastly, let's take a look at two photo collages of the same couple. The first one is Austin and Megan's engagement photos in Chicago at Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. When it came time for their wedding the following Autumn, I took their rings which were sitting in the basement of Megan's St. John home and melded them with formal shots in Crown Point and the ceremony at St. Michael's church.

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For weddings, I usually do at least four of these photo collages. I make one each for Getting Ready, Ceremony, Formals and the Reception. They are a big hit with the couples and their families and I really enjoy creating them.