And the big announcement is...

I'm very excited to announce that Le Magnifique will be launching it's very first digital magazine this summer (aka "The Mag for Le Mag")! Launching a digital magazine has been on my mind since the blog made it's appearance on the web, but I wasn't expecting to even start thinking about it mid-2012. After discussing this idea with a few friends of mine, it was decided that I should start now. And honestly, what better time than now to start? :) 

The Mag for Le Mag is going to have tons of wedding inspiration with very minimal ads. In it, you'll find the best weddings, advice for brides, lots of pretty pictures, and so much more! My team and I are going to make sure that this will be the best e-mag/digital mag you've ever laid your eyes on. Starting now, we are accepting images for the categories listed below. Over the next couple of months, we will be posting requests for certain types of images or content. So if you're a photographer or wedding vendor/specialist, you won't want to miss this. 

(not the actual cover photo) Photo by Damaris Mia

REAL WEDDINGS

We are looking for the best of the best in the world to feature in our first ever digital magazine. We're looking for unique and beautiful weddings that are full of inspiration. Please send a link to blog post, gallery, OR 10-15 images (low res files, please) to themag@lemagnifiqueblog.com for review. Please put "REAL WEDDINGS" in subject. We will not accept weddings that have been featured in another wedding blog.Weddings must have taken place in 2011. Please do not send more than ONE wedding at a time for review. If accepted, you can only have ONE wedding featured in The Mag. Choose wisely! DEADLINE for submission: April 30, 2012.

STYLED/INSPIRATIONAL SHOOTS
If you have a creative shoot you'd like to share with us, please send a link to blog post, gallery, OR 5-10 images (low res files, please) to themag@lemagnifiqueblog.com for review. Please put "STYLED SHOOT" in subject. Shoot must have taken place in 2011. Please do not send more than ONE shoot at a time for review. If accepted, you can only have ONE shoot featured in The Mag. Choose wisely! We will not accept styled shoots that have been featured in another wedding blog. DEADLINE for submission: April 30, 2012. If you would like to create a shoot specifically for Le Magnifique, you are more than welcome to do that. We're always looking for creative and inspiring shoots for our readers. 

IMAGE REQUESTS

(we do accept images that have been previously featured on another wedding blog). Please send low res files for review. Thanks!

BOUQUETS

We are accepting images for our bouquet gallery that are similar to this style of photograph (view here).

You can submit up to 5 images with your best bouquets to themag@lemagnifiqueblog.com with "BOUQUETS" in the subject. 

MORE REQUESTS TO COME SOON!


*We are also looking for advertisers for The Mag. Please email us at themag@lemagnifiqueblog.com for current rates.

DEADLINE FOR ALL SUBMISSIONS: April 30, 2012

Have questions? Email us at themag@lemagnifiqueblog.com. Thank you for wanting to be a part of The Mag! Looking forward to seeing all the pretty images! Are you jumping out of your seat with excitement? Leave us a comment below so we can share your joy! Oh, and we'd love it if you spread the word! xoxo


If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks, you are welcome to submit your work to another publication. 
*** We only accept submissions from photographers. Vendors and brides, if you have something amazing you'd like to send to us, contact your photographer and ask that they submit to us! Thanks!***

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2011: A wonderful end of the year report.

At the beginning of 2011, Le Magnifique was just a passing thought. At that time, that thought was not given a name yet. Fast forward to September, that thought came back and quickly turned into and idea which blossomed into Le Magnifique: the blog. I launched Le Magnifique on October 1, 2011 and have been blown away by everything that has happened since then. We want to share with you some amazing statistics from this year because I want to document this incredible time so that when I look back one year from now, I will see how far I've come.

In just 3 months we accumulated 65 posts! Of those 65 posts...

... 22 are featured weddings

... 9 are engagement sessions

... 6 are inspirational/styled shoots

In addition to that, we've:

... passed 55,000 blog views.

... received 1,080 likes on Facebook.

... been viewed in 97 countries countries.

Our 10 most viewed posts were:

... A Washington wedding by Michelle Newell Photography

... A Los Angeles wedding by Closer to Love Photography & Design

... A North Carolina wedding by Blue Frame Photography
... A New York wedding by Erin Oveis Brant Photography
... A Miami Beach wedding by Diana Lupu Photography
... A bridal shoot from Croatia by Barbara Tursan Misic Photography
... A Louisiana wedding by Ashleigh Jayne Photography
... A Newport Beach wedding by Closer to Love Photography & Design
... Johnny Appleseed Inspirational Shoot by Lukas VanDyke Photography
... Khara & Shane: Engaged | Amber Wood Photography

I've been so blessed by all that has happened thus far. I've gotten to know some wonderful photographers and vendors. One of my Facebook fans left a comment on the page telling me that she had gotten engaged and wanted to share that joy with me. That made me so happy. When I get messages or emails from people telling me that they really love my blog, it truly makes me happy. The support from my friends and people I've never even met has just been so wonderful. I didn't know what was going to become of this blog when I launched it less than three months ago and I don't know what will become of it in the upcoming new year. But you know what? I'm excited for all that is to come. I know it's going to be amazing. 2012 is going to be a great year.

Moi. December 2011

I'll be taking a week off from blogging on Le Magnifique starting Christmas Day. However, I'll be blogging on my personal blog. I'm going to use the next week to rest and plan for 2012. This blog will be undergoing some neat changes. I'm currently working with someone uber talented who is creating a logo for Le Magnifique. I'm looking into a new color pallet that I think will represent the Le Magnifique brand better. There is going to be a ton of great changes in the next couple of months. One last thing...

In the next few weeks, I will be announcing something HUGE. 

That's all I can say right now :)

xoxo, damaris

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A Romania Wedding by Cristian Ana Photography [Part I]

Sergiu & Alexandra's beautiful vintage wedding and love story is sure to capture your heart. I feel somewhat connected to this sweet wedding, which was photographed by Cristian Ana Photography, because I, just like Sergiu & Alexandra, am Romanian (okay, I was born here and that would make me Romanian-American). There is so much to love about this wedding; the dress, the suit, the hair piece, the bride & groom portraits - everything. I'm so excited to finally share this wedding with you! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 

P.S. There is a second part to this wedding (the "after-wedding" shoot) which will be featured in January.. so stay tuned!

     

From the bride: 13th of August, the most special day, the day we have always dreamed about…

Our story began on a summer day when I met Sergiu, an unusually special man. We have had a relationship for about 2 years, during which we had our ups and downs, but in which we grew up together, and on the 25th of December I was proposed to and I said YES.

The preparations for the wedding began about a month before. We worked together for the ballroom decorations and we met obstacles that didn’t let us have the wedding of our dreams. But we didn’t give up and, in the end, everything turned out the way we wanted to. Because we don’t come from families with big incomes, we tried to organize the wedding with the little money we had. The wedding dress was custom made. It wasn’t a fashion designer that created my dress, but a friend, who understood my wish and created a dress just like I wanted. The shoes I wore had been bought from a shopping complex. Being from Romania, I didn’t have many choices, I wanted a certain kind of shoes, unusual for a bride, but in the end I found what I wanted. Surprisingly, no trade mark fashion store had what I wanted, but I found what I needed in a small shop named Jack&Jones, Vero Moda. My wreath and bouquet were also custom made at the Sunflower flower shop. We found the groom tuxedo a week before the wedding; being an unusual tuxedo it was difficult for us to find it. All the components for the tuxedo were bought from Zara Man and H&M.

Although we struggled to have a special, out-of-the-ordinary wedding, we couldn’t have done it all without our photographers from Cristian Ana Photography.

With much effort and struggle we managed to have the wedding we dreamed about, an out-of-the-ordinary wedding. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that our wedding was classified as Wedding of the Year in 2011. All in all it was worth the effort. To us it was a very special day in which we had an extraordinary time together with our friends and family. We hope you have enjoyed it as well.

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Featured Couple: Leah & Nathan | A Washington engagement session by Toni Lynn Photography

I'm not a snow-type of girl and it's mainly because I can't handle the cold. No joke. Ironically, I was proposed in the snow- go figure. But it was the sweetest proposal ever. Despite the fact that I'm not a fan of the snow, I love shoots that take place in the snow! I live in Southern California and we don't get snow here so it's nice to see a change of scenery in some of the sessions we receive. Toni Lynn Photography did an amazing job on Leah and Nathan's winter engagement session. One of the sweetest sessions I've seen. Grab a warm cup of hot chocolate and sit down and enjoy!

From Leah: Nathan and I were both born and raised in Lynden, WA. I currently work as a nursing assistant and I am going to school for Medical Assisting and Nathan builds custom homes for deBoer Construction. We both LOVE the outdoors! Our vacations usually fall between fishing season or any hunting season to spend our time off of work in the 30 degree weather in a tent. (: Nathan loves snowboarding and it has always been a major hobby of his, and he insists that I will one day too take up the sport. Maybe I will get over the fear of tumbling down the mountain one day, but for now I stick the the bunny hill.

Everyone has really cute stories of how they met, but honestly Nathan and I don't. He was a friend of a friend and somewhere down the line we ended up meeting each other. The only thing I think was cute about the whole thing was the night I met him, I looked at my friend and told her that one day I would date him. Turns out it was true because now I get to spend the rest of my life with him.

The night Nathan proposed to me I had gotten off of work and came to his house to be surprised with my favorite meal ever, which happens to be breakfast! But when I walked in the door he had candles lit and a movie ready to watch. He kept on getting up through the movie and walking from the other room and back and finally came up to the couch and got down on not one knee, but two and asked me to marry him. And it was the best way a man could propose simple yet sweet.

You can stay up to date with Toni Lynn's work by following her on Facebook.

Toni Lynn's website & blog.

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An enchanting Maui wedding by Jenna Strubhar Photography

Bride - I was extactic! So many emotions raced through me but the most over-whelming emotion was happiness, pure happiness. So much goes into the "big day" so its such a sureal moment when it finally arrives. 

Groom - Happiness and excitement and I couldn't get over how beautiful she looked.

We did a unique "handfasting ceremony". This involved our officiant tying our hands with ribbons while our vows were made. Each ribbon signified a specific promise made to one another. Once tied together, the "ring" of cords were removed and we exchanged wedding bands to remind us of our promises to one another. It was beautiful.

My wedding location was my highest priority. I fell in LOVE with the Haiku Mill and couldn't imagine our wedding at any other place. It is such a magical location and it truly made our day unforgettable. Because of this, the photographer was also extremely important!! We needed the location to be photographed in a way that showed off the true beauty and uniqueness. The coordinator at the Mill gave a list of selected vendors for us to choose from. Through countless hours of interenet research, I chose all the vendors that were best suited to our style. Planning a destination wedding is difficult so it's important to do your homework...

Vendors:

Photography - Jenna Strubhar

Venue - Haiku Mill

Florist - Teresa Sena Designs

Cake - Banyan Tree Bakery

Wedding Dress - Mori Lee

Wedding Shoes - Sam Edelman

Comments make us happy. Thanks for leaving one!

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