Giveaway: Andrea Gunter Photography

Andrea Gunter Photography met up with my entire crazy family for a mini-session and I want to share a few of her pictures as well as some fun deals for your holiday pictures!

(You do remember you'll need pictures for your cards, right?)

The whole crew- kid 1, girlfriend in law, baby brother, hubby, me, kid 2, PWC Grandma, Coach Papa, and kid 3. You may be noticing that I'm REALLY short for my family. 

I first met Andrea in passing at a birthday party for a friend's daughter.  Andrea was there taking pictures of the party and did such a beautiful job!

This guy isn't mine- but I love this picture so much it's ridiculous.

Andrea is a portrait photographer who, unlike some of the photographers we've worked with in the past, is good about giving some direction as far as position.  Several of the lifestyle photographers we've worked with just have you do whatever you'd like and caputure moments, and Andrea definitely came with a few plans in mind and organized us into groups and provided some structure, so if you'd like a little direction but not to be overly-posed, Andrea would be a great fit for you.

 

 One thing that I think Andrea is really gifted at is single and small group shots.  Y'all, she didn't even laugh out loud or tease my brother and girlfriend-in-law when they busted out their coordinating orange and blue plaid shirts.  My husband and I, on the other hand, were merciless about calling them giant dorks.  I think our couple shots all turned out really cute.  (PS to my blondes, wearing gold is a horrible idea for pictures.  This sweater looked so cute in the store, and it totally washed me out and made me look even fatter than I really am.  Choose colors.)

We got some cute family pictures, too, but my middle son seemed to photobomb EVERY shot with a funny face, and I would have rather had a semi-normal smile than the personality factor, but that's just me- I know lots of people who would disagree.

Yeah, he's doing that on purpose. He was a goofball the whole day.

Andrea picked a gorgeous location, and was really nice to work with.  She even juggled our large group around well and came with fun props to use, too.  I think she really likes to capture fun personality and moments, too- this is, again, from her facebook:

That's hilarious. I love it.

Andrea has sessions starting at $125 with various options to meet your particluar needs. Right now she's got a free 16x20 canvas for families that have their session by November 30th.

Giveaway:
Andrea will be giving away a $50 gift certificate to use on the session or prints of your choice.  To win, head over to her fan page, like the page and leave a comment on your favorite picture with "I'm from PwcMoms and this is my favorite!".  You'll need to come back here and leave a link to the picture with your comment to be entered.  DON'T FORGET to leave the link in the comments here- you know facebook won't let me enter you just for doing something on Facebook!!

This contest will close on Friday, November 30th so that you've got plenty of time even with Thanksgiving.  Want to take advantage of the pre-November 30th deal? That's okay, you can always use the gift card AFTER your session for prints!  Good luck!!
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PwcMoms was provided with a free mini session to use in our review. 

My Daughter's Best Friend's Birthday Party's Vendors

Cause that's not a mouthful :)

My daughter's blessed to have an amazing group of little girlfriends.  I don't remember ever having great friends at her age, but she certainly does.  One of her friends has a mom who I adore because she makes me look sane by comparison.  I go all out, but she goes all out times two.  We had a blast setting up for this party together- and when it was done, it looked like a magical place where Pinterest threw up.  When you're having a birthday party in Prince William County, sometimes a little DIY can go a long way ;)

Yup.  who needs sleep when you could be helping a friend fluff crepe paper balls at 4am?  Certainly not me :) Obviously this was going to be an amazing party!  This momma had thought of everything!! From customized water bottles to a candy bar.  It was amazing.  Even better, she'd sprung for a deal-site special on a woman who was going to come and lead a tea party for the girls.  The Little Tea Spoon, which incidentally uses the same theme as my business cards on their website, offers birthday parties, tea parties, baby showers and more.  We were all excited to see what she'd come up with!  However, this ended up being a fiasco as she was supposed to show up 45 minutes before the party to set up and didn't arrive until well after the party started at which point she proceeded to set up as if she was early, which was to say slowly. I totally understand this is Northern Virginia and traffic happens, but if the terrible happens and you're over an hour and a half late, you have to compensate with speed!  The girls were definitely hungry and ready to party and had to wait for quite some time.  (I wasn't asked to do a review, I was just so unimpressed, I asked my friend if it would be okay if I did a warning) The girls had a great time with each other and didn't notice that things weren't going according to plan, of course.

The stand out from the party (besides the gorgeous decorating) was Andrea Gunter, who came and took party pictures. Honestly, this had never crossed my mind, but I thought it was completely genius!! You're always so busy during a child's party, you never get all the pictures you want!! Andrea had a great rapport with the kids and seemed to know exactly which shots to make sure to get without being intrusive.  She's didn't ask for a review, either, but I was so impressed with her work that I wanted to share.   Andrea Gunter Photography offers portrait sessions, mini sessions, birth announcements, maternity shots, family and more.  Check her out on Facebook.  I love the very clean look to her pictures.

These two are naturally gorgeous, but the pictures are awesome, too!  

Look at my cake.  I've never had a cake look as good as when Andrea photographs it :) 

So there you have it, the vendors from my daughter's best friend's birthday party.  One I'd pass on next time, and one who was fantastic!  Who've you used that made your child's party even more fantastic? Leave a comment below and share with the crowd! Have you ever hired a photographer for your party?