We participated in the Como Park Conservatory Wedding Fair on Sunday March 21. Those attending are primarily couples who are getting married at the Marjorie Mc Neely Conservatory.  I’ve shot over 100 Weddings in the Conservatory and we bring couples there for Wedding Day Photos as well. In  a state where it’s Winter for six months you really appreciated a place like the Como Park Conservatory.

I’ve always called it “The Best Cheap Date In the Twin Cities” There’s no admission and you get to go to the Zoo and Conservatory and the mini-Amusement park. There is even a small resturant and coffee shop in the Conservatory…many times I’ve done engagement portraits in the Conservatory and then sat down in the coffee shop to show the pix on my laptop and do some planning for the Day-Of the Wedding.

Here’s a video (pardon the quality) we took you can hear a String Quartet in the background.

como park conservatory

 Truthfully this is just a test message of sorts…in light of my last post..the fact that Facebook has now surpassed Google as the number one site on the internet…I am “testing’ the auto-updating feature that goes from THIS BLOG to FACEBOOK to TWITTER.

SO…I should see this post on TWITTER automatically in a few hours.  You can find me at my website…This Blog…Facebook..and Twitter.

I’ll report back.  Eddie

This is big news. In April of 2009 Facebook had 200 million users and in February of 2010 doubled that number to 400 million.

Last week Google had 7.03 percent of all web visits and Facebook had 7.07 percent. This post will automatically linked to my Facebook Fan page. http://www.facebook.com/eddie.mulkeen.photography?ref=name 

There is a lot of money at stake here Facbook grossed $1.5 Billion last year and Google made $23 Billion.

There is another element that concerns photographers…more people publish their photos on Facebook than make prints of them.

And with 400 million users uploading 3 billion photos a month, Facebook has become the largest photo-sharing site on the Web by far.

A whopping 65 percent of people sharing pictures online are doing so using Facebook. Over the past year, Facebook’s photo-sharing feature has more than doubled its audience, while competitors like Flickr and Photobucket are struggling to keep up. This is a dramatic takeover of first place; up until mid-2007, Photobucket was more popular than Facebook photo-sharing. Photobucket’s market penetration has since shrunk to 20 percent, and uploads to the site dropped 7 percent this year.

People want to put their pictures in a place where family and friends can see them, so Facebook is a natural choice. But while the site is great for sharing photos, it’s becoming a default place for storing them, too.

I think by the end of 2010 that Facebook will be even bigger….I’d like to see Facebook offer a more formal gallery option for special images like those from Weddings.

We must be doing something right…because in 2009 the average spent on Photography was $2444 and that is exactly half-way between our Deluxe Package and our Diamond Package. Click for Link to our prices.

You will see typical budgets from many sources but this is interesting in that it surveys lots of brides (over 20,000) and it is fresh information from last year.

Another intersting observation is that even though we are in the middle of a real recession…budgets are only 5% down from 2008.
Here are the highlights, I’ve posted the entire survey on my website at this link

2009 WEDDING BUDGET SURVEY RESULTS

In 2009, $28,385 was the average wedding budget in the US (not including the honeymoon) reflecting less than a 5% decrease from 2008.

“As the economy continues to affect consumer spending, brides remain committed to planning a memorable event and are thoughtfully cutting back,” said Carley Roney, editor in chief of The Knot Inc. “Approximately one third of brides who had a wedding in 2009 said that the economy had impacted their overall wedding plans.”

Category * Average Spend 2009
Reception Venue $12,838
Reception Band $3,288
Reception DJ $892
Photographer $2,444
Videographer $1,481
Wedding/Event Planner $1,728
Wedding Gown $1,134
Florist/Decor $2,093
Invitations $509
Wedding Cake $559
Ceremony Musicians $451
Catering (cost per head) $63
Wedding Day Transportation $692
Favors $292
Rehearsal Dinner $1,163
Engagement Ring $5,847

I’ve just learned that they are offering a Valentine’s Day Dinner IN the Conservatory over Valentine’s Weekend. They have sold out… the Feb 14 dinners but have added one on Saturday February 13 At 6:30. Click the the Youtube link to see a video. This is a great idea.

Cepacol – I Do from Vinit Borrison on Vimeo.

They started out as a small lab in a space about the size of a double garage on a back street in St. Paul. WHCC is now one of the top three labs in the US…one reason is that they were one of the first labs to go “All Digital”…and they’ve been a lap ahead of everyone else since then. They now occupy several acres of land in Eagan, MN. and have just doubled the size of their plant.

They’re doing a rare thing in business they are maximizing all three aspects of a business, namely:

A) QUALITY

B) PRICE

C) SERVICE

Even though it’s one of the biggest labs in the country doing a hugh volume of work, every time I need customer service, they always have a friendly, accurate solution for whatever problem I have or whatever I know…I like giving these people my money…I get a lot of value in return.

Eddie

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1166762810592