Here for your Friday night entertainment is a list of the top ten ways to have a killer engagement session. As June ends and July quickly approaches there will be a ton of sessions taking place and hitting the blog soon. In order to make the most of your session, we have listed the top ten ways to get the most out of your engagement session. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Great make up will always make you shine:

This in from the department of obvious truths: Our brides are gorgeous!

2. Ladies, a killer pair of shoes always make the pictures look amazing:

Brought to you by Erica’s shoes that made all the blog stalkers swoon.

3. Your clothes should be cute but comfortable.

Golden light + fabulous couple + cute clothes = Amazing

4. Sometimes you just have to dance:

5. Always laugh at your photographers jokes:

We will pretty much say anything to make you laugh!

6. Trust that sometimes the trek to the location makes it worth it:

Hiking up a mountain was so worth it…

7. Remember to relax and have fun:

What could be more fun than an arcade?

8. When all else fails, hug it out:

Yeah, they are just a little bit cute!

9. There is always time for a little romance so gentlemen bring your A-game:

10. In exchange we promise you pictures you will love and some that might make your mom cry:

One word: Swoonworthy

Not many men wear any jewelry, especially rings, and that’s why I love wedding rings. I love to see a man’s wedding ring. It’s a small piece of jewelry on the third finger of the left hand that means so much. I love to reach for your hand in the dark and feel its weight against my fingers as you interlace your fingers in mine. I love the way that you twist it around your finger when it you are nervous. The way it quietly declares to the world that you are mine and speaks to the vows we have made and the promises we are and will always be keeping. I love the quiet way it speaks to our past, our present and our future. Be mine for now and be mine for always. This ring declares to the world that I am your wife and your beloved for all of our days. With this ring I thee wed.  - Lisa

OK, yeah, so I’m copying and pasting the press release. Before I do that though, I just want to send out some love to all the couples who gave us our 5 star reviews on Wedding Wire. Your amazing comments really gave us so much joy to read, and we were so happy to be able to make your wedding day amazing! We always want our couples to have the perfect, 5 star experience, and we’re so glad they did!

Albany, NY – January 26, 2011 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, is thrilled to announce that Scott Kretschmann Photography has been selected to receive the prestigious annual WeddingWire Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 for wedding photography! Recognition for the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011 is determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 750,000 WeddingWire newlyweds. Our past clients are among those that shared their experiences on WeddingWire, the largest wedding review site in the nation. Scott Kretschmann Photography stands among the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire community, representing quality and service excellence within the wedding industry. Awards were given to the top wedding professionals across 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, and were based on the overall professional achievements throughout the past year. “WeddingWire is honored to celebrate the success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire community,” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “With the annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program, WeddingWire has the unique opportunity to recognize the best wedding professionals across the US and Canada. We applaud Scott Kretschmann Photography for their professionalism and dedication to enhancing the wedding planning experience last year.” We are happy to announce that Scott Kretschmann Photography is among the very best wedding photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding planning sites WeddingWire, Martha Stewart Weddings, Project Wedding and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for nominating us to receive the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011.

For more information on the Bride’s Choice Awards™ 2011, please visit www.WeddingWire.com. About WeddingWire, Inc. WeddingWire.com, the nation’s leading technology company serving the $70 billion wedding industry, is the only online wedding planning resource designed to empower both engaged couples and wedding professionals. For engaged couples, WeddingWire offers the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 local wedding vendors, from wedding venues to wedding photographers to wedding cakes. WeddingWire also offers an online community and a suite of cutting-edge planning tools for weddings, including wedding websites and wedding checklists, all at no charge. For wedding professionals, WeddingWire provides free online management tools creating the only market opportunity that gives local businesses control over their clients, reviews, leads and performance. Businesses that join the WeddingWire Network appear on WeddingWire.com and other leading sites, including MarthaStewartWeddings.com (NYSE: MSO), ProjectWedding.com and Weddingbee.com (both part of eHarmony), and Celebrations.com (part of the 1-800-Flowers family of brands, NASDAQ: FLWS).

In case you didn’t notice (ok, so it’s kind of hard not too) I am unveiling my new branding today! I now have a new logo, new colors, and a more refined brand, thanks to my AMAZING designer Emina of Six26 Studio. She is a branding specialist with an amazing eye and some really great ideas. She is so easy to work with, I highly recommend her to anyone looking for rebranding. In case you didn’t see it above, here is our brand spanking new logo:

It all starts with my brand new Splash page when you first visit my main site.  From there you can come here to the blog, be directed to my proofing site, which has also been redesigned and rebranded.

The pièce de résistance is my brand new website from ShowIt, which I have been working on for a few days and am now ready to share with all of you. It has full screen galleries to view large images (which I will be adding more to later) and lots of other good info to look at. Go check it out! With that note, I’m off to bed, we have a totally awesome vow renewal we are shooting tomorrow. So excited!!!!

If you haven’t yet, look us up on facebook! Become our fan to interact with us, see all of our latest updates, photos, and learn a little more about us. We post a lot of updates on there that aren;t long enough or detailed enough to make the blog, but are still definitely worth following. We definitely want to connect with all of you, so please become a fan at http://www.facebook.com/scottkretschmannphotography

We got an e-mail today from Wedding Wire, which is a website where clients can leave reviews for their vendors. This e-mail informed us that we had won a Bride’s Choice Award, which is awarded to the top 5% of wedding vendors nationwide. We were both excited and humbled by this award. Does this mean we can now call ourselves “award winning photographers”??? OK, maybe not so much, but what it does mean is that we have the greatest clients on earth. Wedding Wire asked for your input on my services, and you were so kind in your reviews, we are eternally grateful. Are we really happy about this award? You bet. Mostly though, we are so happy that we have brought a little joy to our clients by giving them both great wedding images and a great photography experience. Making you guys happy makes our job worthwhile. We are truly lucky to have you all as clients, and more importantly, friends. Thank you all so much again, and we look forward to giving the same experience to every new client this year!!!!

This work is definitely NOT my own, but something Lisa stumbled upon on youtube, and I HAVE to share it with you. As photographers, we try to do creative things for save the date announcements, but our skills are not up to creating something like this. We love that they even have the voice right. Make sure you have your volume turned up, and enjoy:

I hope everyone by now is stuffed on turkey and drifting off on the couch surrounded by all their family and friends. Thanksgiving here was great, with my wife and mother in law, and a great turkey dinner. I for one am thankful to be home this thanksgiving, as I have spent the past two thanksgivings overseas in some not too pleasant places. I am very happy to finally get to spend it with my family. I hope you all have some equally great things to be thankful for.

I am also thankful for all my wonderful clients who have put their trust in me to capture the images, memories, and emotions of the happiest day of their lives. Thank you so much for letting me into your lives and sharing your joy with me.

On a separate note, I am now done with shooting for the year! I start again with my next wedding in February, but I am welcoming a few weekends off to spend with my wife. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones as well. I also know that some of you may be getting engaged this time of year, so it’s not too soon to book your wedding photographer! My schedule is filling up fast for next year, so please contact me soon to talk about shooting your wedding!