Blush is excited to announce that we’ve partnered with the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon to support their mission to grant wishes to children suffering from life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy.  We will donate 5% of each coordination package that we book in 2011 to the organization with a minimum donation of $1000.  Having worked as an intern with the Make-A-Wish Foundation ® of Oregon shortly after graduate school, as an active Wish Granter in the community, and most importantly a parent, this organization is very close to my heart.  I am thrilled that through our work at Blush we are able to support and give back to such a wonderful foundation as we help children share the power of a wish®  For more information on the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon please visit their website at www.orwish.org 

Cheers,

Amy & Blush Team

I smile every time I think of what a wonderful time I had working on this wedding!  From the top notch list of exceptional professionals to their unique reception layout, Fitsum & Josh’s wedding was one of a kind.  This lovely couple hired me in October of ’09 so I had the pleasure of working with them from start to finish on what turned out to be a very elegant yet lively and upbeat wedding.  The couple began their celebration on Friday night following the rehearsal with a traditional Kelekel (a traditional Ethiopian reception) at the Eliot Center downtown.  From what I understand Josh danced for 3-4 hours straight which blew my mind considering he did the same thing the following night at their reception at the Portland Art Museum.  This guy is vibrant, animated and a dancing machine!  Fitsum & Josh were joined by their loving family and friends who added so much joy and enthusiasm to both the ceremony and reception.  Fitsum’s gown was hands down my favorite of the year and their room layout was so much fun to create!  When we first met they told me they really wanted something different from what they had seen at their friend’s weddings.  They did not want the traditional round tables but they did want formal seating for a plated dinner.  At the time I was working on a networking gala involving quadrant style table arrangements, so I decided to suggest it to Fitum and Josh.  Needless to say after a simple drawing of the idea they loved it and we got right to work with Karen at Vibrant Table to work on designing a layout that the Sunken Ballroom could accommodate.  The result was so fresh and unique and even the wait staff loved it.  Many talented professionals contributed toward this lovely event.  First off, a tremendous thank you to Kate Kelly of Kate Kelly Photography for these gorgeous images.  You are truly gifted with the camera and so much fun to work with!  I am just thrilled that we’ve become friends and I am so excited to work together more in the future.  The girls’ gorgeous makeup was done by the talented Kim King of Kim King Makeup.  Nice job making all 8 ladies look so gorgeous…you were great to work with!  A huge shout out and thank you to Karen Rich and Page Winograd of Vibrant Table for another flawless wedding.  The floral was just gorgeous and as always the couple and their guests were well taken care of thanks to you and your dedicated staff.  We love working with you guys!  Ryan Chaney of Focal Point Digital Media gets credit for capturing the events on video and I can hardly wait to see their full length feature once it’s complete but from the brief trailer I can tell it will be amazing.  Ryan always does a fantastic job!   Music was 

huge for them since Josh’s family LOVE to dance.  Kevin Venables of NW Mobile DJ Service kept the dance floor hoppin’ and guests movin’ and shakin’ until early in the morning.  He’s always great to work with and makes receptions a blast!  Fitsum & Josh had barely begun their planning when we first met but one thing they were sure they wanted was the 7th Heaven cake from Jaciva’s and it looked soooo yummy.  In fact, just thinking of it makes me want to get up and bake!  The blending of these two cultures made for a memorable ceremony and quite the reception.  Thank you so much to everyone involved in creating this memorable wedding day…you were all a pleasure to work with.  A huge congrats to our lovely couple and best wishes in your new life together.  It was a pleasure getting to know you both!

Erin & Lance are such a sweet couple and so very much in love.  They are enjoying the last few weeks before their March wedding at Waverley Country Club and we are thrilled to be a part of their special day!  They have a great lineup of professionals and are fortunate to be working with the talented Craig Mitchelldyer of Craig Mitchelldyer Photography.  Last November they spent an afternoon in downtown Portland’s South Park Blocks frolicking in the beautiful leaves that are so abundant here in the fall, and they made for a very dramatic back-drop for this photogenic pair.  Here are a few shots from their engagement shoot.  A huge congrats Erin & Lance…we are so looking forward to helping with your big day!   

• How to Opt Out of Receiving the Yellow Pages – Save a gigantic tree.
• The Rise of Digital Multitasking [STATS] – 42% of Americans surf the web while watching TV.
• Where Are Social Media Marketers Seeing the Most Success? eMarketer Mobile – Article
• Six Things You Need to Know About Social Listening – AdAge – Listening is only half the battle. The value comes from being able to turn that data into insight, and steer your brand accordingly. Listen for intelligence, customer service, and eventually action. I’ve included the video from this article here. It’s a perfect illustration of how listening fits into the mix of content strategy, being a publisher, and thinking about publishing as a marketing tool.

A co-worker and I were just discussing how to upload a bunch of photos to Flickr, but only make them viewable by our client so they can start selecting favorites for an ad.

You can make any Set of photos and or any single Flickr photo private. That makes the photos in that Set only viewable by you. First step complete.

Flickr has a feature called Guest Pass. This feature generates a URL that bypasses the privacy of that item. Give this URL out to anyone you would like to see that item, even though it’s marked private.

Easy. We now upload photos to a private Flickr Set, and give a Guest Pass to our client so they can begin making selects.

We’ve been working with Evrim since we first joined the wedding world many moons ago.  All of us here at Blush have not only had the chance to work alongside him, but have also gotten to know Evrim on a personal level from networking events to chats over coffee.  He is charming, witty and truly an exceptional photographer.  It comes as no surprise that he has won numerous local and international awards for excellence in photojournalistic photography…he is nothing short of a genius behind the lens.   Evrim’s strong passion for photography shines through in his work and his energy and ability to capture fun and humorous moments is unmatched.  We worked together on a most memorable wedding at the Portland Art Museum in 2008 where the groom and groomsmen all wore cowboy hats and boots…fitting since they were from Idaho.  However the irony of the photos taken at the reception are some of my favorite to date, one of which was Keith, the groom, and his best man sporting their cowboy hats and carrying their beer, walking past a nude statue on the reception gallery level.  Another was when Evrim took Lauren, our lovely and unassuming bride, and had her pose outside the Museum with Keith’s hat.  Crazy things would happen that evening at the Mark Building and this was just the beginning!  As the night went on and the Jim Beam and Johnny Walker flowed, Lauren & Keith were invited to an event upstairs in the Kridel Grand Ballroom…none other than the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court’s annual Coronation Ball, filled with some of the states most beautiful and flamboyant drag queens.  Lucky for Keith he got to share a few intimate moments with them which are highlighted here!  It was definitely an entertaining evening for all and both Lauren & Keith enjoyed themselves immensely, as did their unexpecting guests.  Evrim did a outstanding job of capturing all of the fun and lively moments throughout the night and there was no shortage of them.  What started as a very traditional ceremony at Christ Church Episcopal Parish in Lake Oswego, ended as a very unconventional celebration…gotta love that!  Thank you Evrim, for capturing the events as they unraveled as brilliantly as you did.  As always it was a blast working with you and we’re excited for our next wedding together.  To see more of Evrim’s work please check out his website at www.evrimgallery.com and click on blog.  He has traveled extensively and is available for destination weddings around the globe.  We highly recommend that you contact Evrim to talk about working together on your own big day!