Andrew Niesen

Ok, we're ready to move to Orange County. Just look at this view! We shot this last night from The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel and just had to share it with everyone (Ignore the hurried sandwiching of images for the pano). It's absolutely gorgeous out here. We'll post more soon. Right now, we have to hurry off to photograph a wedding.

::CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO::

It has been one of "those" days, in an amazing kind of way!
We got a call this afternoon about a wedding in Laguna Beach, CA. Immediately, we were thrilled! Then, came the punch line...the wedding is taking place this Friday! So, the LaCour crew went into hyperdrive to prep and pack for the assignment.

As Mark and Erin prepared for a Thursday departure, the bad news came. The National Weather Service expected a huge ice storm to cripple Atlanta overnight. Delta Airlines preemptively cancelled over 200 flights, and it became clear that the only way we could ensure Mark and Erin arrived in LA for Friday's wedding was to get a flight before the ice storm hit!

So, about 6 hours later, Mark and Erin hopped on a flight to LA!

As I write, they are on Delta's last LAX - bound flight. ::CLICK HERE:: to watch a video clip of them at the airport with eight bags of luggage.

:: CLICK HERE :: to watch the hilarity ensue as Georgians prepare for the scary winter weather.

With the new version of Blogger, I found that it was difficult to insert a custom header image. I searched around on the internet, but didn't find a satisfactory explanation. So I managed to figure out how to do it and thought I would share these easy steps for those of you who might be curious how to do this yourselves.

Step 1) Create a custom header image for your blog. Use Photoshop to create an image that is 650 pixels wide by 79 pixels high and upload it to your webserver. Below is the one I made for LaCour:


Step 2) Log in to Blogger.com and click the "Manage: Layout" button


Step 3) Then click on the "Edit HTML" button


Step 4) Scroll through the HTML and find the section that looks like the following (which is about 1/4 of the way down):

#header {
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
}

Now add in the following url, width and height tags so that it looks like this:

#header {
margin: 5px;
border: 1px solid $bordercolor;
text-align: center;
color:$pagetitlecolor;
background-image: url('http://nimbus-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/blog_images/13095451836365607621/49b16e2e-eb9d-4c88-9843-5716c0657e72');
width:650px;
height:79px;
}

Be sure to add the appropriate url for your banner image and make sure that your width and height numbers are correct for your image. *Note: If you want to remove the border, simply change the border to 0 in the "#header-wrapper" section just above this section.

Step 5) Scroll through the HTML and find the section that looks like the following (which is about 1/2 of the way down):

<h1 class='title'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<data:title/>
<b:else/>
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>
</b:if>
</h1>

Now make it look like this:

<h1 class='title'>
<!-- <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<data:title/>
<b:else/>
<a expr:href='data:blog.homepageUrl'><data:title/></a>
</b:if> -->
</h1>

Step 6) Click the 'Save Template Button' and your blog should now have a custom header.

This weekend was one of the best wedding-related experiences I've ever had. Yet I wasn't actually photographing a wedding! Instead, I had the wonderful privilege of being the big brother of the bride.

My sister Katie is getting married, so we traveled to Chicago this weekend to search for her gown.

Our friend, Amanda, owns Belle Vie Bridal Couture in the Windy City. We met Amanda this Fall in Southampton, NY and were immediately impressed by her creativity and entrepreneurial energy.

Belle Vie's gracious staff attentively guided Katie through her search for the perfect gown. And she found it! It was the third gown she modeled, and it is absolutely stunning. It's a Christos gown, but I can't reveal any more details...the groom could be eavesdropping! (Hi, Michael!)

Katie is beautiful, inside and out, and I can't wait to watch her walk down the aisle with my father on October 20. Rachel and I are so proud of Katie and Mike!

Here are photos and videos from our weekend in Chicago:
The Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park.

Watch this video of Rachel exploring the The Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park.

Watch this video of us calling my other sister, Sudie, in Ireland, to tell her that we found Katie's gown.

To celebrate, we toasted over crabcakes and cocktails at Shaw's. Rachel ordered an entire lobster, so our server brought her a BIB! Ha!
Our family self-portrait in Cloud Gate in Chicago's Millennium Park.

We return to Chicago in February to photograph an exclusive event at The Peninsula Hotel. Stay tuned for photos.

We're thrilled to announce that the wedding Mark and Erin photographed of Cameron and Matt has just been published in Arizona Bride. Their wedding was such a unique celebration. Cameron pulled out all the stops for her art deco themed wedding. Even all their guests dressed in '30s and '40s attire!

Cameron is a talented wedding photographer based in Flagstaff, AZ who will be attending our Business of Storytelling workshop in February.