info@cytexweddings.com
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING US FOR YOUR SPECIAL DAY! Weddings come in all shapes and sizes. As your wedding photographer, we’ve tugged back and forth on packages that have minimums and worked to figure out every last detail possible on our end, only for that to not fit the next couple’s wedding needs. Ouch! We offer high-quality wedding photography and cinematography to everyone! Again, the packages that worked for large weddings wouldn’t work for smaller weddings. After wrestling this beast for years, we came across a different way of doing business. It’s like the first time someone used a flash with film.Things were never the same. Working with us is like ordering from a menu - Everything you want, at a price you can afford.We call it “Structure based” pricing. Is your wedding going to be a small and quick elopement? No reception? Or is it part of an hourlong Catholic Mass that you want every quirk and moment of your interaction with your priest that you’ve known since you were little? How about multiple locations, full-day coverage from arriving at the venue, the bridal prep, large family portraits, your long music-filled reception and every detail possible? Normally, that leaves you stuck on set packages that don’t fit your needs. Well, we’ve figured out how to give everyone the best possible wedding coverage available. With us, you get to pick what fits your needs.
H OW TO C O N TAC T US EMAIL: info@cytexweddings.com TEXT: 832-492-9942 ONLINE: www.cytexweddings.com MAIL: Cypress Content Creation LLC, 9212 Fry Road, Suite 402, Cypress, TX 77433
G ET TO K N OW C R E I G H TO N You may have already gotten a hint of this already... but I LOVE what I do! Documenting your wedding day is such an honor!! Since we’ll be spending a lot of time together on the big day, I want to make sure you really feel like you know me and understand why I’m in love with my job! Keep reading to learn more about which parts of your wedding day are going to be extra close to my heart!
W E D D I N G D AY FAV O R I T E S You may not realize this but every photographer has parts of the wedding day that they favor! My favorite moments of the day stem from my own experience as a groom and also the experience I have been photographing weddings across Texas, starting over a decade ago. But I stay on the cutting edge of technology. I look forward to these specific parts of the day every time I’m shooting!
BRIDAL DETAILS I love starting off the day with beautiful details! I consider this my “warm up” time. These details allow me to be creative from the moment I begin shooting on your wedding day! I love having this time to prepare for the rest of your day!
BRIDE & GROOM PORTRAITS
AFTER THE CEREMONY
Portrait time with the bride and groom is hands down my favorite part of the day! This is when I produce my best work and when my couples really get to enjoy being together on their wedding day. I especially love the moment when the groom sees his bride for the first time! If I could photograph first looks all day long, I would!
The first few moments after the ceremony are so special as well! This is when the couple gets to hug, laugh and cry with those that they are closest to. These portraits with family members are more important now than ever before! It’s emotional and it’s so very special! Emotions are high and it’s a part of the day when everyone seems equally excited and relieved that the pressure is off and they are looking forward to the party!
~~ Rates and pricing are available through March 31, 2022. ~~
T H E U N P LU G G E D C E R E M O N Y Imagine this with me.... you’re in my shoes.... the most important moment of the day is about to happen.You’ve checked your camera settings, you’ve taken test shots and you’re ready to capture the bride coming down the aisle to her groom. You want to capture reactions, variety of angles and every moment of joy and emotion in those few seconds. However, just as everyone stands and the music plays, not one, but three different family members and friends get so excited that they take just one step out into the aisle with their iPhones in hand trying to capture the moment. I’m scrambling. My couple is trusting me not to miss this!!! But now I’m dodging guests who are trying desperately to have a good Insta-story to share and they have no idea that the back of their heads, their arms and their phones are blocking me from capturing the bride and her dad walking down the aisle. It’s honestly one of the most terrifying things that can happen to a photographer during a ceremony .... and the hard part is, it can always be avoided. This issue is a growing one. Every wedding season we experience more and more of these issues. However, there is a solution! We highly recommend having an “Unplugged Ceremony”. This is just another way of saying that you want only your photographers to be capturing photos and you would like everyone else to enjoy the ceremony instead of trying to capture it themselves.
Options for notifying guests that your ceremony is
U N P LU G G ED : 1. Signage : Have a simple sign that guests see as they are entering the ceremony 2.Spoken : Have your officiant politely mention that you prefer no cell phones 3. Program : Include your Unplugged Ceremony request in your program design
PHOTOGRAPHY INVESTMENT
Hours
Per Photographer
2 3 4 5 6
$750 $1,000 $1,250 $1,500 $1,750 add $250 / hour
Each additional hour * Book now to reserve these rates before they go up! These rates are available for events booked by March 31, 2022.
W H AT G O E S I N T O Y O U R P H O T O S ? You may be asking yourself about the real value of your photography package. We provide a solution capturing images that allows you to focus on living in the moment of your special day. Every wedding is unique, so please forgive us for over-generalizing here, as your specific case is unique and we can’t quote you an exact numbers of the images to be delivered for the same reason. • We pride ourselves with coming from a photojournalist background on having photo cameras ready to go quickly. However, we still need to do a lot of preparation work that will eat up the first hour of your event coverage. Location scouting, setting in-camera color correction, securing our equipment cache to be used throughout the day, assisting your cinematography team (if part of our services for your wedding), linking up with your DJ for reception schedule, etc. •We prefer to deliver your images via USB flash drive.We can deliver your images digitally for an additional fee, but they will be available online for a brief time. • The industry standard is 3-4 months for your images to be ready for delivery.This is especially true as we get into the wedding season in our region. Like all professionals, we aim to be faster, but ask for your understanding as we endeavor to provide all our clients with excellent service and great photographs! • For a six-hour wedding, we generally aim to provide roughly 200 enhanced images – this number can vary widely! If you have an elopement wedding without a lot of details or have a small number of guests, that number can be smaller. However, if you have a large party with a lot of details, that number can be much larger. • We define enhanced imagery as having been adjusted in post-production software to reproduce a faithful rendition of colors and lighting, with our team’s artistic impressions added. You will find examples of our work throughout this brochure. •Your delivered images will be in .JPG format.This format is the one that works with virtually every computer, smart phone, tablet, etc., made in modern times. • If your DJ offers “up lighting” it adds dimensionality to your photos.We suggest that upgrade with their services. • In addition to your enhanced images, we offer glamour imagery at a per-image rate, in which we use desktop-class A.I. editing software to refine your facial features. Please contact us for a quote for this service. •We require to be notified with sufficient warning of key events (e.g. toasts, first dances, bouquet toss, cake cutting, speeches, etc.).
W H AT G O E S I N T O Y O U R C I N E M AT O G R A P H Y ? You may be asking yourself about the real value of your cinematography package. We provide a solution with video and audio capture that allows you to focus on living in the moment of your special day. Every wedding is unique, so please forgive us for over-generalizing here, as your specific case is unique and we can’t quote you an exact length of B-Roll to be delivered for the same reason. • Video equipment takes extra time to set up and break down.The first hour of your event coverage will be eaten up by this.This may include setting up multiple cameras, mic’ing up participants, balancing gimbal(s), setting in-camera color balances, balancing audio recording devices, gaffing, location scouting, linking up with your DJ for reception schedule, etc. •We prefer to deliver your videos via USB flash drive.We can deliver your images digitally for an additional fee, but they will be available online for a brief time. • Video hosting services can mute, block, and ban your video due to copyrighted music being played at any point in the background.We have no control over this, but can only acquire licenses for the audio to help mitigate this. • If using copyrighted music is something you want, we can attempt to acquire a license, but the fees for those licenses vary by song and artist. • We don’t control how online services (e.g.YouTube) act and behave. •The industry standard is 3-4 months for your videos to be ready for delivery.This is especially true as we get into the wedding season in our region. Like all professionals, we aim to be faster, but ask for your understanding as we endeavor to provide all our clients with excellent service and great videos! •Your delivered videos will be in a modern video format such as QuickTime (.mov), .m4v, etc.These formats may vary, but generally work with virtually every computer, smart phone, tablet, etc., made in modern times. • If your DJ offers “up lighting” it adds dimensionality to your reception videos.We suggest that upgrade with their services. • If you request DVDs (pricing varies as the technology disappears, please contact us for a quote), those DVDs will be encoded for playback on a DVD player. • We ask that you inform toast speakers that we will need to mic them up prior to delivering their speeches. •We require to be notified with sufficient warning of key events (e.g. toasts, first dances, bouquet toss, cake cutting, speeches, etc.).
CINEMATOGRAPHY INVESTMENT
Hours
Per Cinematographer
2 3 4 5 6
$1,350 $1,500 $1,700 $1,850 $2,000
Each additional hour * Book now to reserve these rates before they go up! These rates are available for events booked by March 31, 2022.
add $250 / hour
SAMPLE TIMELINE
After the details have been photographed, it’s time for the bride to get into her dress!This is a big mo- ment! I usually ask the mother of the bride and all of the bridesmaids to be dressed by the time the bride is ready to get into her dress.This ensures that everyone will look nice inthoseimages.After the bride is in hergown, shecanputonherjewelry, veil, shoes,
Bridal Details
2:30-3:15 Every bride loves having those beautiful shots of her bridal details. It’s an important part of the story and I love
etc. and I will shoot some additional
First Look
bridal portraits!
4:00 3:15-3:45
Bridal Prep
This is totally up to you and your fiance! But if you wish to do this, you need to be ready to go all in.
having some time to shoot the dress,
This needs to be private - just you two
shoes, jewelry, invitations, etc. These
and your photography and cinematog-
shots allow me to get warmed up for
raphy team!
the rest of the big day. I nor- mally like to allow at least 45 min- utes for this part of the day.While I’m shooting details, I’m also captur- ing some shots of the bride and her girls getting ready! If the groom is getting ready nearby, Michael will begin photographing the boys close to 40 minutes before the first look since it always takes them less time to get dressed!
Here’s the page that can be somewhat intimidating!TheTIMELINE! I know this isn’t the most exciting aspect of the wedding day, but this is the one thing that can make or break your photography!These next two pages will outline an ideal wedding day working off of a 6pm ceremony time frame.This ideal timeline is also based off of a wedding day that includes a first look. 90% of my couples choose to do a first look, and you can read more about that option a few pages over! Remember that all wedding days are different, and your timeline may differ due to travel times and unique situations.
..... great shots of the guys and girls both separately AND together! After bridal party portraits are complete, the bride will go into hid- ing so that
Portraits
4:15-4:45
Bridal Party Portraits
early guests don’t sneak a peek and the ushers will begin their duties.
4:50-5:20
After the bride and groom take their
5:30-6:00
time with the First Look, I will be- gin
Bride in Hiding
taking a few romantic portraits of the two of them while the initial excitement is still present! I will find the locations for these shots as well! Remember, the LIGHT determines where we shoot and so I can’t decide on portrait locations until the day- of. As we shoot these portraits, the bridal party can start making their way to us for Bridal Party portraits!
T HE T IMELINE CON T INUED... Family Portraits
6:40-7:10 Family formals normally take place immediately following the ceremony. It’s best to save all of the family formals until after the ceremony because ALL family members will be
Reception Details
5:30-5:50 If the reception is in the same location as the ceremony, I will use this time to shoot the reception decor UNTOUCHED. If the ceremony and reception are in different locations, I recommend having a cocktail hour outside of the main reception area if possible so that I can grab some great shots of your reception before the night begins and guests start laying down purses and coats on their seats!
It’s time to get married!! Most cere-
present at that time.
monies are 30 minutes long. If your
We’ll need about 30 minutes for fam-
ceremony is longer than 30 mins,
ily formals and I will send a question-
we’ll make adjustments to the time-
naire before the wedding where you
line! Cherish these moments! Your
can list out the shots that you want.
ceremony will pass by so quickly!
Ceremony
6:00-6:30
I include 8 hours of coverage so that I can be present for the main events of the reception and about an hour of dancing! If you’re interested in having your exit photographed, there are several options for this!You can either add additional cover- age or plan a faux exit with just your bridal party! We have had GREAT success with this
“Just Married” Portraits
Reception Begins!
about this if you’re interested in
7:15-7:30
7:30
learning more!
7:00pm is the BEST time of day for portraits in the late spring, summer and early fall! This is when the sun is glowy and golden. I love having a few extra minutes with the bride and groom to take a few “Just Married” portraits right after family formals!
and the party never stops! Email me
This is when the bridal party lines up for introductions and the party begins!! By this part of the day, my timeline isn’t as strict. I work off of the natural light and so after the sun is set, my portrait time is over and I begin focusing on the reception events!
A P P ROX I M AT E T I M E S : DETAILS & PREP : 1.5 HOURS FIRST LOOK & PORTRAITS : 30-40 MINS BRIDAL PARTY : 30-40 MINS FAMILY FORMALS : 20-30 MINS EXTRA PORTRAIT TIME : As much time as you’ll give me!
The Exit
10:30
When the cake is gone and the dress doesn’t fit, the venue is empty, and the DJ is back home, the only thing you will have to hold onto beside each other, are these pictures and videos. Your kids, when they get older and they want to see what mom and dad were like, what grandma was like, what was going on the dance floor, the only thing they will have are these pictures and videos. Do you really want to cut costs on this? Do you really want to go the cheap way with the most important service you are hiring for your wedding?