We shoot Lovely Indeed’s images on a Canon EOS 5D Mark III, mostly using this 50 mm lens. For indoor shoots and DIY tutorials, we shoot in a room that’s almost entirely white, with the windows open for as much natural light to come in as possible. We don’t really use a flash, which means that we have to wait for the perfect hours during the day for optimal sunlight, and that some days are just useless for shooting if it’s not bright enough outside. One simple trick we use is to bounce light around with bounce boards or white foam core boards to eliminate shadows.

Also, when I say “we,” it’s because my husband Ryan is my right hand man. I’ll set up a shot, get the camera settings right, and hand him the camera so he can shoot things with me (or my hands) in the frame. Sometimes we’ll use a tripod, but mostly it’s just us.

Here’s a great post that I wrote about this! 

Read that and try it out. See how you feel about it and if after a month or two you think it’s something you’d like to invest in, get your domain name and the name of your blog on all your social media accounts. Contact an amazing web design company like my guys at Roundhouse and get a logo and design that you love. Keep building content on your blog — it’s nice to come out of the gate with a backlog of content for people to scroll through, rather than announcing to the world that you’re a blogger and only having one post for them to see. And finally, focus on quality. If you can only put up one amazing post per week, it’s better than three posts that are a big mess.

If you’re curious about how Lovely Indeed became what it is today, check out this in-depth post!

When I started Lovely Indeed, Ryan and I lived in NYC. We met there, got married, and stayed there happily for about 5 years. Then we moved to LA to be closer to family, and spent 2 years there. Now, we still live in California but are in the Central Valley, which is nestled in between San Francisco, Sacramento, and the Sierra Nevada mountains. We run around on adventures quite often, though, and you can follow our travels right here.

We have two kids, Henry + Maggie, and you can read the story of our family right here.

Sure did, and I still am, although it’s more for a hobby than for a living. I met Ryan when we were both on a tour based out of NYC — he’s an actor too. We both worked for Nickelodeon and Dreamworks quite a bit, and did national and international tours of their live-action stage musicals (along with lots of other jobs sprinkled in between). The type of acting we mostly do is musical theatre, so we sing and dance as well. We’re always accidentally breaking into song or a little tap dance. It’s probably going to be really embarrassing for Henry and Maggie.

After years in NYC making our living as actors, we decided that we wanted more from life (read: a home, kids, jobs that didn’t end every few months, etc.) and put all of our energy into running our own businesses. We still have the flexibility to do shows and work at the same time, which is the best of both worlds for us.

Here’s a more in-depth post all about my history as a teacher and actor!

Thanks for wanting to share! Please feel free to share a single photo and link back to the original post for the full tutorial. Please do not use images without credit; similarly, please do not share images on Instagram unless we specifically grant permission. If we grant Instagram usage permission, please use @lovelyindeed for credit within the first two lines of the original caption.

First of all, congrats on your upcoming wedding! It’s one of the most exciting and overwhelming times ever, isn’t it?

Secondly, I hate to bum you out but the book is currently only offered in its original state. We have so many customization requests that it would be impossible to keep up with them all. And I don’t send out the template to protect my work (we’ve had lots of issues with the book being stolen and sold on Etsy, etc.). But! We’re in the works to add book templates for two brides, two grooms, and a couple of additional customizations, so keep your eyes peeled.