Caribbean cruise up for grabs starting March 1st

Now through November 14, 2008, couples can register to win a Princess Cruise Lines voyage to the Southern Carribean. There is no purchase required; you only need to schedule a free in-person consultation at my studio in Brunswick.

The cruise is the grand prize in the "Escape to Paradise" sweepstakes.  The grand prize, valued at $5,000,  also includes airfare to and from a major airport nearest the winner's home and ground transportation to and from the destination airport and the port of departure.  

The sweepstakes is made possible by Professional Photographers Association of America. PPA is "the world’s largest association for imaging professionals'' with a membership of more than 19,000 worldwide.

For the second year in a row, PPA is sponsoring the sweepstakes, which allows member photographers (like me) to pool our resources to fund a contest for our clients. By contributing $100, I can enter all my wedding clients into the contest. 

Additional prizes up for grabs include a 50" plasma screen TV, digital camera, a GPS navigation system, PDAs and a $500 American Express gift card.

It's fun knowing that for a relatively small fee I can qualify my wedding couples to win some great prizes. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The Fabulous Nell Bryden

I am so excited to be able to feature the music of indie singer songwriter Nell Bryden on my web site.

Nell is a New York City native who is making waves on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in Brooklyn to an impressionist painter dad and a classical singer mom, Nell began her formal music training early with piano lessons at age four. After thinking she might try classical music or opera, she finally found her voice in a bluesy-folksy genre influenced by the likes of Patsy Cline, Janis Joplin and New Orleans Jazz.



I was lucky enough to cross paths with Nell at a wedding at the Asticou Inn in Northeast Harbor, Maine. A good friend of bride and groom Phoebe and Craig, Nell had agreed to sing The Beatles' "In My Life" for their ceremony. With a simple guitar accompaniment  she sent chills up my spine with the best rendition of that song outside of The Beatles!

Later, during the reception, when the band took a break, Nell took the stage and wowed the crowd with her original composition "Tonight."

One incredible benefit of my job is meeting so many wonderful couples and their friends, many of who are just getting started in their careers. I expect that I'll hear their names again as they go on to be leaders in industry, the arts, public service, academia and other fields. I fully expect that one day Nell Bryden will be a household name, and when I hear her on the radio I'll smile and think back to Phoebe and Craig's wedding in Northeast Harbor.

Please take a minute to visit Nell's web site at NellBryden.com or her My Space site. You can also find at least four of her albums and over two dozen singles on iTunes. If you live in the New York City area, catch a live performance if you can. At You Tube you can catch a particularly stirring rendition of Tonight for a radio station in Holland.