Technology Ties The Knot

Soothing, luxurious, and entertaining aren’t words usually used to describe online experiences. The fact is that most websites are written and created by designers with a left-brain way of thinking. That is why so many web sites available on the World Wide Web that actually do have content end up looking about as scattered and cluttered as a 16 year olds bedroom with lots of stuff, but good luck navigating it. Dawn of a new age is beginning to unfold as the information age reaches its peak before unraveling into the connected age. At the peak of this incredible time in society HD video, the Internet, art, and science are all coming together to create communication that is both entertaining, education, and connective. Together In Style, an online experience for newly engaged couples is at the forefront of this excited time in history. The site is about as cutting edge as a website can be. At first glance you know immediately you’re in a place of luxury. The photography and visuals are incredibly classy and you feel more like you are in a boutique than surfing the web. You know immediately how to navigate the site. There is no clutter, and the ease of navigation is simple. This site was obviously designed by an artist and not a just a coder. Part website, part magazine, part television show, you will be amazed at the depth of the multiple experiences the technological site provides. As you dive a little deeper, the visuals continue, and you find that there are hours on end of 5-15 minutes television shows with people you have seen on TV on a variety of networks. And, they are all sharing information from the heart based on their personal life experiences, and their expertise about how to make smarter decisions when planning a fantastic wedding. The TV shows have zero lag time and start playing immediately, yet the clarity is stunning. And due to the use of Adobe’s latest media server technology, and Actionscript 3.0, you can even watch the shows in full screen if you wish. After watching an hour of interesting shows, you dive even deeper to see endless photographs of wedding gowns from the world’s top designers. But this isn’t like your standard thumbnail photos where you can’t see the detail. Each designer gets their own organized section where brides can flip through pages of luxury gowns quickly. The detail of the photographs is unparalleled, and there is no wait time for new html pages to download. Another step forward and you are reading a blog with tips and information from the host of the site, Jennifer Maring. You can even interact with the host online by posting comments, asking questions, and spend countless hours reading her column. Jennifer, and her husband Charles are known for photographing many of the weddings that make the headlines. But if you ask them what they do for a living you might hear “Jennifer and I are both photographers, producers, web designers, graphic artists, writers….” The list goes on. Take another side step and you can even interact to create your own personal wedding website to inform guests about all the details like where to park at the reception, the menu, dress code, and even post photographs of you and your adventures. Surprisingly enough, it is extremely easy, and you can even utilize many of Maring’s photographs as accents and themes in your own site available exclusively for you so that your site looks just as breath taking. If it sounds like a lot to do, it is but this is just tipping the iceberg of the options available. Young, at the age of 36, Charles and 31 Jennifer, they are part of a new generation of visionaries that feel the Internet is about as boring and unsophisticated as it could be. As artists, they set out to create something more than a website. They wanted to create an oasis for couples. A place where they could sit back, relax, get educated, be entertained, and feel like they were part of a heightened luxury experience. Blending art and science together, the Maring’s built TogetherInStyle.com using a blend of in depth HTML and Actionscript 3.0, which is Adobe Flash’s latest native language. They capture all of the photographs that give the site artistic integrity with Canon’s top of the line digital SLR, and work the images through Adobe Photoshop. They had to learn to produce HD video and television segments with Canon’s latest line of HD cameras. They even had to learn Apple Final Cut Pro, Motion, Sound Track, and many other technologies to bring this to life. “Tomorrows technology will have to mix the medias to be successful”, says Charles. “We learned all of these angles so that we could understand the entire process and the challenges each division would face as the companies grew.” So, why would two totally successful photographers take on a challenge when they could have left well enough alone photographing celebrity weddings all over the world? Simply put, they did it for their clients and brides to be. They felt that there wasn’t information being shared that had depth, or could really help couples understand the challenges faced by event professionals. “In our 15-20 year career, we see the same mistakes over and over at weddings that could easily be avoided if couples just knew what questions to ask.”, says Charles. Now that the site is up and running and getting hits from all over the world, Maring has even bigger plans for Together In Style that he doesn’t want to share in detail just yet that will go way beyond just weddings and into lifestyle and togetherness. For now, whether you are just into technology or are actually engaged to be married, check out www.togetherinstyle.com, and see one of the how blending multimedia together online is offering engaged couples a visual oasis that educates and entertains.

About the Author

Connecticut Photographer, writer, and video producer Derrick Watson photographs weddings throughout the United States. He makes it a point to stay on the leading edge of technology and co-creates with Together In Style, an online wedding talk show, to bring quality information to the forefront of the wedding industry and beyond.