As couples are beginning to plan their weddings, choosing vendors can be tough.  Especially when everyone can snap photos on their phone, it can be especially hard to choose a quality photographer.

Some couples are really DIY - making their own bouquets and enlisting the help of family to make cupcakes, gathering bridesmaids in their living room to assemble centerpieces and favors for guests.  Others are looking for a more hands-off approach and wanting a professional to take it and run with it and create an elegant affair.

Either end of that spectrum is a place for a professional photographer. You can DIY you to heart’s content, but taking your own photos isn’t going to work out so well. Investing in a Certified Professional Photographer will help you know that your photographer has experience and technical excellence, and is maintaining that over time.

Although I have been photographing for many years, and photographing weddings since 2005, I completed the hard work to become a Certified Professional Photographer in 2012. This process requires passing a challenging exam on technical photography, passing a portfolio review including client work, and also a review of professional standards, websites, and a commitment to maintaining professional standards over time.  To maintain this certification, I attend conferences, workshops, and classes each year to keep learning and keep my standards high. I also serve as a CPP Liaison who assists incoming candidates in completing their certification process.

When considering your photographer, and other vendors, consider their qualifications in helping you celebrate your special day. You can use Professional Photographers of America’s database to help find a professional or Certified Professional Photographer.

Choosing the name for my first child was as easy as sipping a cool glass of lemonade. Choosing a name for this business was about as hard as squeezing the lemons to make the lemonade I so desperately needed once I finally chose it. As I look back on the process it took to find that perfect purple lemon, I see that although I tried to have a method to my madness, the madness came first with the method rolling down the hill after it. I was on the phone with my entire family trying some ideas out on them, when in pops my husband from the other room, “Purple Lemon Photography!” Then he went back to watching a movie starring Jack Lemmon with some friends. When he was still talking about it later, he quickly convinced me it was “the one.” The longer we sat with this name mulling in our brains the more and more we became convinced this is perfection in a purple lemon.

I am eager to share just a hand full of the reasons we love Purple Lemon Photography!

Lydia was a successful business woman in the Bible (Acts 16). She sold purple cloth and used the success of her business to support the functioning of the church and its international mission. I want to be like her.

Lemons are a symbol of fidelity in love.

Jack Lemmon is a funny guy.

No one flat out told me they did not like it. Every other option received handfuls of rejects. Maybe they were just …lemons.

In elementary school a friend and I gave each other secret nicknames that used the letters in our names. Mine was Lemon! (Tip: take the initials of my maiden name, put them backwards, insert vowels, and voila!)

I love lemons. Lemonheads, lemon drops, lemonade pie, lemon bars, lemon sorbet, lemons on the side of my glass (Those are supposed to be appetizers right?)

The day it came into being, I was wearing purple pants, purple undies, and was drinking from my favorite squiggly purple cup.

One of my favorite photo assignments from college was my final project that I did on fruit. In my series is a picture of a lemon on a purple napkin.

When I lived in The Netherlands, I brought out the hibernating sketchpad and rekindled my love for drawing in the relaxed pace of life I experienced there. Out of that time of unpressured creativity, I produced a little sketch of a lemon on a purple background.

I got a lemon out of the gumball machine at dinner right in that time frame- and I even took a picture!

One of my favorite parts of photography is the visual appeal of contrast. Yellow and purple are contrasting colors. Who knows, maybe purple and yellow will be the new black and white!

Conceptually, a purple lemon represents so much of what I want my business to be- fresh, modern, unique, and something seasonal.