{Giveaway} Win 2 Free Tickets to "I Still Do" Marriage Conference by FamilyLife

Brandy and I are about to celebrate our 5 year anniversary this July and we are just so excited to be celebrating this milestone!  If you have known us long or have worked with us before, you already know that we don't just love weddings; we love weddings, but we love marriage even more!  We care about the marriages that we have been able to influence even the slightest bit by our example or by our photos.  We have learned over the years that great marriages don't just happen -- they take lots of continual maintenance.  Yes, you read that right, marriage takes WORK!  We have always had this dream that in 20 or even 50 years when we are retired on some tropical beach somewhere (I did say it was a dream) that we could look back at our career as wedding photographers and know that every single marriage we photographed is still going strong.  Even if we can play a small part in that, whether it be the little gifts we give our brides before the wedding (we've been getting RAVE reviews about how we upped our game this year!), the constant reminder of their beautiful wedding from the gorgeous photos on their walls, or doing giveaways like this, we love to help anyway we can.

Last year Brandy and I had a chance to go to a weekend long marriage conference called "A Weekend to Remember" and we walked away feeling so refreshed and connected.  The speakers were amazing and completely honest and candid about the path their own marriages were on.  They opened up about their own struggles and triumphs on a relatable level that later opened up a lot of communication between Brandy and I.  Don't ever think of this kinds of conferences as being only for failing marriages or for couples who do nothing but argue.  Every single marriage can get something out of this, so we wanted to share this experience with one of our couples!  We will be attending this conference as well, and wanted to allow another couple to go and we're picking up the tickets for you!  Enter below!  :-)

FamilyLife announces "I Still DO", a powerful, practical, one-day marriage event where couples can invest in and strengthen their marriage.  Couples will join thousands of others to affirm the fundamental importance of strong, healthy, committed marriages in every culture.  By exploring God's design for marriage, couples will have a chance to reaffirm that their marriage matters -- to their children and to the rest of society.

The "I Still Do" event is October 4, 2014 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC so there is still plenty of time to plan to attend.  This contest is open to any married couple, not just our past clients, so please be sure to share this blog post and this contest with any and all your married friends who want to spend a day strengthening their marriage!  Entering the contest is easy, just follow the directions below, follow our social media pages, and be sure to leave us a comment down below this blog post to let us know you're entered, excited for the event, and excited for your marriage!  Hope to see you there!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Fourth Anniversary to Gronde Photography!

First of all, we wanted to say Thank You all from the bottom of our hearts for even reading this blog post whether you subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter,Google+, Instagram, or any of the other 500 social media sites we seem to be a part of.  (It’s really a full time job just keeping up with all of them)

If you would have asked us 10 years ago (or even 5 years ago) if we thought we could build a photography business that would be this successful, we wouldn't have believed you.  It really has been an amazing four years growing this business to what it is today and we feel like during the next few months and the 2014 wedding season, it will grow more than it has in the past four years combined.  We found some amazing photographers to mentor us into taking what we already have and make it thrive even more and we have learned SO much about the business side of photography.  We've changed so much of what we do and offer already.  We have loved the response we have received via reviews from our recent brides and clients!  We don't want to just offer you amazing photos on your wedding day; we want your entire day to be better because we are there.  For our family clients, we want to provide you with timeless art for your home that fits the style of your family, personality, and story of your lives.

We are so very excited to start our 5th year at Gronde Photography and see where this road takes us.  With Brandy leaving active military service with the US Navy soon, there are multiple options open for us and where we can go or what we do from here.  Brandy may have the opportunity to go back to school and earn another degree, find an awesome day job being the incredible administrative assistant that she is, or possibly be full time with Gronde Photography and operate out of the studio we may set up in our home.  This would let her take family and newborn clients during the week and allow us to include more of those during our busy wedding season.

We are putting a large push this year to ensure our clients have their photos on their walls; however, unlike a large majority of other photographers, we will otherwise be offering in person consultations/ordering sessions to show you the difference in the quality of prints and products we offer from our new vendor this year and show you samples of how great they will look on your wall.  So many clients get their DVD and never take the time to have them printed and hung on their walls.  Even we have fallen into the trap now and again with our OWN family photos!  We feel this is simply because we were not offered prints by the photographer and just never got around to doing it ourselves.  Our new prints are printed on 3mm styrene so that they are more durable and don't bend as easy, they also have a protective UV coating that makes them smudge resistant, fingerprint resistant, fade resistant, and even water resistant! (dare we say child resistant?)  This also, means, for your most important images you can frame without needing UV protected glass or glass at all! (a large portion of the cost of framing)  Our new prints are more durable, last longer, look better, and are more affordable to frame than what you can get by taking your images to CVS or ordering from Shutterfly.  One of the other changes, that will start very soon, is that we will no longer be providing DVD's with our packages.  Instead, we will turn to USB drives.  Technology has gotten to the point where many computers no longer have optical drives in them and that limits where you can view or upload your images and the last thing we want is for your images to stay on the DVD and not be shared with everyone (word of mouth is our #1 marketing tool!).  Even some tablets have USB ports now.  We know this is a great move for us and a great service to provide to you, who have often requested this change!

We've taken a long time to research what USB drives to offer so take comfort in knowing we are only offering the best!  In addition, we will be offering 2 types of files: 1. Print quality - These will be the files that you can use to print IF you decide not to order our fabulous prints.  2. Online quality - These will be watermarked images that are specifically formatted to display on social media but are NOT large enough to print.  What files you receive will depend on what package you purchase, but rest assured all photos will still be up to the standard you have grown accustomed to from Gronde Photography.

Thanks for reading!

Chris & Brandy Gronde

{April Fools} Gronde Photography, LLC has Been Acquired by Facebook

     It is with heavy hearts that we must inform everyone that Gronde Photography, LLC has been acquired by Facebook for $1.2M.  Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook recognize the quality of our work and the impact we are making on Washington, DC and the country as a whole.  It is definitely exciting to think about the future of what Facebook has in store for our company and for you, our client base and fans!

     On the heels of acquiring other companies like What's App and Oculus, Facebook has decided that wedding photography was an industry that they wanted to add to their portfolio and saw that opportunity in us, Gronde Photography.  "We want to make wedding photography social again," commented Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "and Gronde PHotography had the same vision for wedding photography that we originally did for social media.  They are about the experience and so are we.  $1.2M was a steal!"

     Some experts in the industry are already beginning to speculate on what this merger will mean for both sides of the deal and what this power house could bring to the wedding industry.  Facebook just purchased Oculus, which develops completely immersive virtual reality headsets.  They could easily use this technology to allow those who can not make it to the wedding, or want to relive it, to see the photos in full 3D as if they were standing right there at the ceremony.  "This is a breakthrough for the wedding industry!  It's like you can reach out and touch a bridesmaid," said Tom Spradley of Wired Magazine.  Others considered integrating instant uploads of photos from Chris and Brandy Gronde's cameras directly to the bride and groom's facebook feeds so that their friends and family could instantly have their newsfeeds filled with over 2000 wedding images continuously throughout the evening until the point where they actually long to have a Candy Crush game request or melodramatic breakup post from a friend.

     Chris and Brandy Gronde said, "We are super excited for what Facebook is going to do with our company and being on their team will also allow us to expand our business further into Destination Weddings as we set up our new home and studio location in Cabo San Lucas!...Oh yeah, and Happy April Fool's Day!" ;-)

The Gronde Photography Wedding and Portrait Bucket List!

We see these all the time on other photographers' blogs and decided it was high time for us to have one of our own.  Everyone has, or should have, some kind of "Bucket List".  Most people have one for themselves but we, as a business, have one for us!  This list is made up of all the things you absolutely have to do before you "kick the bucket".  So, this list for us is comprised of all the things we want to shoot or accomplish as photographers before we put down our cameras for the last time (hopefully a VERY long time from now).  If you are reading this and you can help us accomplish one of these things (even if we've already crossed it off, we assure you that you will not regret it!  Do you have something you think we should add to our list?  Be sure to tell us :-)

Wedding on a Baseball Field

Military Wedding with Sword Detail
Wedding in Vegas (must include neon graveyard)
Comic Book Themed Wedding
Wedding with snow
Wedding at the Plaza Hotel in NYC
"Celebrity" wedding
Destination Wedding somewhere tropical overseas
Barn Wedding (with animals hopefully)
Disney Themed Wedding
An Elopement

Photoshoot at a Disney Park

pinup session involving real WWII planes
1940's inspired engagement session
1920's inspired engagement session

Trash the Dress shoot in a waterfall

Trash the Dress using colored chalk or paint

Shoot in Paris

Photoshoot involving horses
Photoshoot of a couple painting the inside of their first home together

50+ Anniversary

a Proposal as it happens

Have a photo on the cover of a magazine

Master of Photography Degree from PPA



Gronde Photography: 2012 Year in Review

Happy Belated 2013!

We wanted to start off by saying how humbled we are at the amount of fans we have that appreciate the art that we create for you to enjoy!  Gronde Photography has grown so much over this past year and it is all because of people who appreciate good photography and supporting small business in America as much as you all do.  2012 had some of our absolute favorite weddings we have had the pleasure of photographing, the introduction of our Senior Model Program, and SO many newborns!!  We received our 10th publication and our 1st Magazine Publication!  2012 included:

Feature in Baby Lifestyles Magazine!

Feature on Charm City Wed

Feature on Storyboard Wedding

Feature on The Wedding Atlas

Feature on Savvy Deets Bridal

Feature on Capitol Romance (one of our favorite local wedding blogs) :D

We were also featured on Living Social where we sold 138 one hour photo sessions (which will continue through June 2013).  This has turned out to be quite the double edged sword for our business, but I (Chris) plan on devoting an entire blog post on the ups and downs of this experience as soon as it is all wrapped up.  If you own a small business or have ever bought anything from living social you're going to want to read it. 

2012 included a new website, new marketing materials, and all out rebranding of ourselves so that we, as a business, are more recognizable.

2012 also included reaching over 200 Followers on Twitter and over 1,000 fans on Facebook!

I (Chris) also finished my degree in Photography and began my journey towards a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Washington.  (This is another thing I plan to blog about).

What does 2013 mean for Gronde Photography?  I'd like to not give the cliché, "It's gonna be our biggest year yet" speech, but we do have big things planned.  I plan to blog WAY more than I did last year!  I would like to set a resolution goal of blogging at least twice a month.  With the way Facebook has changed, only allowing about a third of our fans to see our actual posts, we are going to bring back our monthly newsletter that went on hiatus for a little bit there. (Sign up here if you haven't yet) This way you know you will get all the latest Gronde Photography news, contests, and deals straight to your inbox, just don’t keep them a secret.  Feel free to forward them to friends who might also be interested!

So, what do you guys want to see from us in 2013?  More weddings?  More contests?  Another Boudoir Marathon?  Is there something we don’t offer that you wish we did?  What can we do, to serve you guys better?  Let us know down below!  Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts for taking us to where we are!  And here’s to an awesome new year!

Oh yeah!  The summer of 2013 will also bring about another tiny photo assistant for Gronde Photography!  We thought Aiden needed some help! :D