Chelsea Nicole Photography – Las Vegas and Destination Alternative Wedding Photographer » The latest work from Chelsea Nicole!

Wanted to give a big shout out to all my fab couples whose shoots were featured this past month! I love ya guys. Also, big thanks to these wedding blogs for the continuous eye-candy and inspiration. I’m honored to have my images included in the mix!

• Recycled Bride –  featured Whitney & John’s wedding wedding coordinated by Stephanie Smith and held at the gorgeous Springs Preserve here in Las Vegas.

• Ashley Gain Wedding & Events – Arizona based wedding coordinator, featured a bunch of my couples in a fantastic article, ‘Lucky in Love’ on having a destination wedding in Las Vegas!

• Forget Me Knot Weddings – Tying the Knot in Style, featured Kristen & Marlon’s colorful ‘Retro-Urbanist’ day-after trash the dress session in downtown Las Vegas.

• Tattooed Bride – featured Melissa & Josh’s rockabilly-style engagement and wedding as well as Kory & Trent’s engagement at the dry lakebed:

A slightly off-topic feature…

• Belle Amour – featured my Dexter party images. Debs, the writer of this British wedding blog is also big Dexter fan, so she shared my excitement about the Season five trailer!

• The Wed Bug – Daily Wedding Inspirations, featured Mindy & Neil’s engagement session in Santa Monica and Venice Beach, CA:

• Destination Inspirations – Inspiring Destination Weddings Everywhere, is an awesome place to go for destination wedding ideas! Jess featured Kristen & Marlon’s day-after trash the dress session .

Features are my little reminders of how fortunate I am to work with the COOLEST couples ever. So a big thank you to all my couples and a big thank you to all the places that have featured my shoots! I wanted to share a few recent ones.

If you’re a bride, photographer or artist looking for some crazy-great inspiration – start stalking the sites below!

1. Pictage.com Homepage:

I’m in love with Pictage’s new website and branding. So, when they launched the new site in February, I was totally thrilled and honored to see that TWO of my images where chosen for the front page rotation! Heck yeah!

2. Sella & Dot featured a few of my images in their beautiful site design (website homepage, newsletter & bridal boutique for May 2010):

3. Cake & Pictures: Cake & Pictures provides brides, coordinators and editors with an exclusive directory of the very best wedding photographers in every corner of the world. I’m super excited to have been invited on-board to be featured in the Las Vegas region!

4. Sienna Wedding - Finds for the Modern Bride featured a few of my couples photos in their ‘True Love’ feature:

5. Para ti Novia – Redefining the Modern Latina Wedding featured a bunch of my trash-the-dress couples in an really cool article on ‘Getting Creative’:

6. Fabulously Wed – Inspirations & Eye Candy from wedding coordinator Tami Brown, featured ‘Love in the Desert’ with Ozzy and Nicole:

7. The Wed Bug – Daily Wedding Inspirations featured Alan and Elena’s engagement photo shoot at the dry lake bed:

8. Ruffled – Vintage Settings for the Modern Bride featured a recent vintage day after session uniquely themed to my couple Cara and Nathaniel:

**Update: Cara & Nathaniel were also featured in Rock & Roll Bride’s Thursday Treats!

I’m excited to share Whitney and John’s wedding which was recently featured on Style Me Pretty’s wedding blog! Click below to check out the feature accompanied by a fantastic write-up from Whitney on why they picked Las Vegas as their destination wedding location and behind-the-scenes details on how everything came together:

Whitney and John’s wedding was held at one of my favorite locations here in Las Vegas, the gorgeous and eco-friendly Springs Preserve.Whitney looked amazing! Makeup in the 702 did up her hair and makeup, and I was crazy about the chic Vera Wang wedding dress and long veil she was rockin’.

For her something blue, Whitney had the bottoms of her Stewart Weitzman shoes painted blue. It was such a creative touch – I loved it!

A BIG shout out must also go to Stephanie Smith who coordinated and made sure every detail was perfectly in place. I always love getting to work with Stephanie – she’s not only one of the most organized people I know, but has the biggest heart and gives her all to each and every couple.

And speaking of details, there was no shortage of eye-candy! I loved the combination of purples and greens and the old-fashioned bird cage holding the lovely programs by Bella Figura. Also, as an extra-special touch Whitney and John used the names of their honeymoon destinations in Africa for their table markers.

The happy newlyweds!

Also be sure to check out the Gallery on SMP with tons of additional images from Whitney and John’s beautiful day.

Whitney + John: I love you two and am so happy I was able to spend this gorgeous day with you! Hope all is great back in Boston! Come back and visit again soon.

As you probably already know, I have a very big crush on a certain ultra stylish wedding website (Style Me Pretty). Abby, Elaine and all the girls at SMP are my kind of people – also obsessed with details and pretty things. So I was absolutely delighted to be a part of their new feature called the “Inspiration to Reality Challenge.” I love the whole concept and how it works! Each region puts together a team of fantastic wedding vendors, then they choose an inspiration board designed by one of SMP’s readers and put their creative juices together to bring it all to life.

I’m beyond excited to share some photos from the Inspiration to Reality shoot that our Las Vegas team put together – and that it’s a 4-part feature on the front page of Style Me Pretty this weekend!

Our shoot took place at one of my FAVORITE ceremony and reception locations here Vegas, the gorgeous Springs Preserve! I loved how the blues popped against the warm desert backdrop. And our model bride, Gabi looked stunning with hair & makeup all done up by Allyson, Lauren & Monet at Las Vegas Style Sirens.

The Vera Wang gown provided by Dawn at Couture Bride Salon was THE perfect fit. And the whole look and style was a great match for the vintage aviation theme Tracey (of Your Las Vegas Wedding Concierge) came up with based off the movie The Aviator.

I first saw this dress on Gabi a couple weeks before the shoot. A bunch of us girls were hanging out in the bridal salon while Dawn was trying different dresses on Gabi. It was too funny because it was almost as if we were her bridesmaids. When she came out with this gown on there was one big synchronized “Oohh!” It was definitely THE ONE.

The ensemble was topped off by Stella & Dot Jewelry from stylist Carrie Hogan and a fantastic blue veil from MUMO hair accessories.

Jesus (our groom – who also happens to be the Catering Manager at Springs Preserve) was looking pretty darn sharp as well.

Details, details, details – I was definitely lovin’ all the eye candy! From the amazing feather bouquet by Emplume, the totally unique cakelets by Kristen at Gimme Some Sugar (SO love this idea to have multiple smaller cakes rather than one main one, or in addition to the main one), signature drink by Dress the Drink, peacock chair decor by Wildflower Linens, beautiful centerpiece by Randi at Naakiti Floral, the invitations that arrive in a vintage steamer trunk by Tifany at Gourmet Invitations, and so much more!

Be sure to hit up Style Me Pretty to see a ton more images in the 4-part feature! Here’s the links:

• Inspiration to Reality: The Board
• Inspiration to Reality: The Design
• Inspiration to Reality: The Design II
• Inspiration to Reality: The Design III

And I saved the best for last….

Here’s the behind the scenes video created by my incredibly talented other-half, Jayse!

BIG shout out and thanks to everyone that helped make this shoot a reality!! It was a blast working with such an awesome team people.

I’m so excited to announce that I’m now offering fusion coverage! Below is an example of what could be played at the wedding or sent as video-invites. Kory and Trent are awesome musicians so we convinced them to bring their gear out to the desert for their engagement session. We had such a blast and this was the Fusion Video Jayse put together for them:

“What would we want for our ultimate wedding photography coverage?”

Jayse and I start many local-pub conversations this way. Of course we talk with our mouths half-full of way-too-fattening-nachos (extra jalapenos for me, extra olives for Jayse please).

“What would we want for our ultimate wedding?” It’s a guideline for everything I do and all of my product offerings. Over the past six months these conversations have led to one missing component from our ultimate wedding coverage: Video.

But, wait! I’m not talking about your typical hour-long all-encompassing video. While there’s definitely a place for that (and I would be happy to recommend some really cool local videographers if that’s what you’re looking for), Jayse and I agreed that the kind of video we LOVE and wanted for our couples is a short-n-sweet, stylized piece from the day.

Jayse is no stranger to film. While I am editing photos, Jayse is usually across the desk from me designing and creating neat visual effects shots for big blockbuster films like Wolverine or 2012. In fact he’s currently working on Oliver Stone’s sequel to Wall Street. We both love great cinematography and we love great stories. And we knew if something more like the films we loved could be captured, edited, color-toned and rendered into our eager little hands – we’d have something we’d be proud to show off – or share it on our iPhones – or upload to our Facebook page – or watch on a big-screen.

And thus, we are very excited to announce:

Fusion: photography style video

Fusion has been officially added to my new 2010 wedding catalog! Contact me for more details. Or, click here to find out a bit more about fusion and how it works!

So – Fusion – there you have it. Hope you like it as much as we do!

*****

UPDATE: Kory and Trent’s engagement session has been featured on Rock and Roll Bride! Click here to check out the feature which also includes lots of extra images.

Lindsey and Nate’s engagement session was featured today on Rock ‘n Roll Bride – one of my favorite sites for alternative-style weddings! Check it out to see more images from their fun shoot and some words from Linds:

Congrats Lindsey! You totally deserve the attention. You freakin’ ROCK girl and I’m so excited for the wedding day. Also, big thanks go out to Kat for the feature!

I received a nice little surprise in my inbox a couple days ago:

“Congratulations! We are excited to announce that Chelsea Nicole Photography has been chosen to receive the WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards^™ 2010. This award recognizes the top 5 percent of local wedding professionals from the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service and professionalism. The Bride’s Choice Awards™ are determined exclusively by recent newlyweds (brides and grooms) through extensive surveys and reviews, which means your past clients have spoken on our behalf and selected you to receive this honor.”

wo0ho0! Thanks to all my couples for the amazing reviews and support! I love ya guys!

P.S. If you’re local or happen to be in Vegas this weekend, come visit me at the Las Vegas Bridal Expo at Mandalay Bay this Sunday Jan 24th from 11-5pm! Click here for free tickets. I’ll be booth#217 and have a fun surprise in store at the show!

Amber and Bill’s vintage Vegas wedding was featured on the front page of The Wedding Chicks! Click below to check it out:

Major props to all those that made this wedding so wonderful: Juliet of Green Orchid events for making sure the day went seamless, Teresa at Enchanted Florist for lovely floral, the team over at Red Rock Casino for the excellent location (along with the cake and super cute mini root beer floats), and last but not least Amber+Bill for their mad good taste! Luv ya’s!

First: Apologies to some of my waiting couples! I’ve been quite the busy-busy-bee. Though this time is usually referred to as the “off” season for weddings, I’ve somehow managed to book shoots every weekend until Christmas. After that I’ve blocked out a couple weeks of real off time to spend time with family and enjoy hot cocoa in front of the fireplace with my love. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

So, please forgive me if between shoots and travel I’ve neglected my little blog and with keeping it up to speed on all the latest! I actually have been working non-stop on edits and all that fun stuff! I pinky-promise that there’s lots of photo-filled posts coming your way shortly.

But first, I’m excited to share a recent feature! A few weeks back Eva and Lukas’s wedding made an appearance on Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book Blog. Click below to go take a peak:

So I must admit – I do have a love-affair with a certain little blog.

It’s true love though, rest assured. It’s a love that developed because this is not a blog that floods your eyes and brain with an avalanche of scattered, random wedding “stuff”. No. It’s not a blog that’s here and gone tomorrow or that exists only to assault you with ads and spam and blah.

No. Not at all.

It’s a blog that celebrates LOVE, fantastic style and weddings. Perfect combination, in my world! This is one of those special must-bookmark blogs that’s super-careful in selection. It’s a blog that has literally put magazines out of business. The people behind it research, consider, debate and only put forth what they consider the best of all things wedding-style related. It’s a blog that frequently makes me think, “Awwwllll, I want THAT for my wedding!”

And so – for a year I’ve longed to be a part of it: maybe just some little block of blue 8-point text that would say Chelsea Nicole: she has pretty-style.  Alas, I knew the challenges were formidable: Style Me Pretty only allows what they consider to be the top THREE photographers of any region to be in their coveted ‘Little Black Book’. They spend a long time to pick each. And sometimes, when they can’t find good enough photographers – the spots remain empty. They use multiple editors to research each photographer’s work before passing it to another review cycle. Then they read reviews, community activity, and ask well-known photographers for their input.

Well my friends, the patience has paid off!  I’m VERY excited to finally be included in Style Me Pretty’s Little Black Book!

Here’s a snippet from the email sent from Abby Larson (editor of Style Me Pretty):

“Because we genuinely admire the high quality of your photography I’m writing to invite you to join our Little Black Book of Very Important Vendors. A truly unique virtual resource, The Little Black Book shows off the most innovative and chic wedding professionals on the planet.

Our process for extending each invitation is rather extensive… Although my email-box averages 400 emails per day, many from vendors who are required to submit an application to be considered we prefer to handpick outstanding companies such as your own who represent the crème de la crème of the wedding industry.”

And, far better than that little block of black 9-point text:  Abby wrote a fantastically sweet write up in my destination wedding featurette.  You can take a peak at my pretty-little Las Vegas listing here