Help for Haiti

By now, you’re all aware of the tragedy in Haiti. KISS has been donating $5.00 for every order placed to the Samaritan’s Purse Haitian fund. Joy, our album designer, has agreed to donate 100% of her design fee for orders between January and February as well. So, hats off to her for that! Last month, we donated over $1600! You can find out more about the effort here: http://kissweddingbooks.com/blog/2010/01/help-for-haiti/

NEW: KISSup!

Major (major) update!

Tuesday Feb 09, we will be unveiling our new KISSup! service, which will automatically check your files (dimension, color, and resolution), show you the order of the spreads (and allow you to rearrange them), show you the way your album will look after we trim it, name your files for you, name your folder for you, and upload them to our server! It’s so simple! KISSup! is a joint venture between KISS and AlbumExposure, and we hope you will love it.

No more worries about proper file names, or if something will be cut off after the trim–It’s all automated, baby!

However, this also means that we will no longer be checking your files for you. Rachel, our Helpful Hottie, has seen her job become nearly entirely file-checking. That means she has no time to answer emails, phone calls, and IMs. We want to provide the best customer service, so using the up-loader, it will free her to focus entirely on YOU. If you need questions answered, she’ll be there! Nearly 90% of our problems in file verification have been due to people not understanding the trim issue. With the KISSup! service, you’ll be able to see and approve the way your album will trim. Also, as soon as you approve your layouts, they go straight to print! This means you’ll know your ship date right after you order (it will be auto-generated and emailed to you).

When finally implemented, after you complete your order, you will be given the option to upload right away. If you’re not ready, you can log back into your account and upload it at any time.

Be prepared!

Some things to note about the new service:

• We will only accept 20×10, 300dpi, sRGB JPEGs (no more PDFs)
• It is important that you review the order of your spreads carefully. If they are out of order in the preview, that is how they will print. On the first page of the upload process, you will be able to re-order your spreads by dragging and dropping. Make sure it’s the way you want it!
• If you have templates built for a different dimension, you’ll need to resize them to 10×10.
• If you need help exporting from older versions of InDesign (like cs2, or cs3, which can’t do high-res JPEGs), email support@kissweddingbooks.com and we can tell you how to use Acrobat to open a PDF and save JPEGs out of it.

Renamed Products

KISS loves a good pun as much as anyone, but we found that people were confused by the terms “Soft KISS” and “Hard KISS,” so, the leather-covered KISSes are now (strangely) called, “Leather KISS,” and the linen(like)-covered KISSes are now (oddly) called, “Linen KISS.” We hope that helps keep things straight!

New Material for Linen KISSes (and replacement swatches)

We’ve heard your complaints about the Linen material getting dirty easily and being impossible to clean. We are going to upgrade the material to one that has the same linen-like pattern, but will be more durable and cleanable. It will have a slight shine to it, compared to the existing material, because the paper has been saturated with some silicon to help make it more stain-resistant. If you’ve ordered a swatch ring, we will be shipping you a new one with the new material. If your swatch hasn’t shipped yet, it will in about 3 weeks, when we’ve got all the colors of the new material in. The construction of the books will not change.

If you want your orders to have the new material, we should be fully stocked in about 3 weeks. Until then, we will continue with the existing material until the new rolls come in.

Check out Sara Gray’s blog post about the new books she’s offering her 2010 clients!

A KISS album, that is. Trust me when I tell you that you want one. I’m offering these albums in all of my wedding packages this year because I feel it’s important to have something real to hold and touch and remember with.

Thanks for KISSing!
Rachel : The Helpful Hottie

Katrina Wheeler organized this awesome series of portrait shoots for families who lost everything in a flood in Atlanta. Her post on her blog is great, with lots and lots of photos and details—so go check that out!. We wanted to share with you the ‘big reveal’ when one of the families was surprised on Christmas eve with some Little KISSes that we donated to the cause.

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2010-02-01: Update: January’s Donation: $1691–Way to go KISSers!

As of Jan 14th, 2010, KISS will donate $5.00 for every order to Samaritan’s Purse’s Haiti Fund. We will announce if this policy changes. Until then, our prayers are with the millions of people affected by this tragedy.

UPDATE: Joy, our album designer, has offered that 100% of her fee for album designs ordered in January and February will be donated to the Haiti fund! Thanks, JOY!

You can find out more about the organization here:

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/articles/responding_to_haiti_earthquake/

I know that lately you have been finding yourself sitting at home thinking, “Gosh, I would love a Jess Graham Photography album… I wonder what kind she makes…?”  Well, I don’t want you to be confused any longer.  Welcome the new KISS wedding books!  Here are a few little facts about these great lookin books:

- 3 sizes: 8″ 10″ and 12″

-7 colors: black, brown, blue, green, red, white, and pink

-2mm thick pages provide sturdy protection

-Beautiful RA-4 printing

-Fuji Crystal Archival Paper

-15-day turnaround

-100% full-grain leather

-Lays flat, no cut. All spreads are built with a micro-fold, not a cut- so each spread can be seen in its entirety.

-All albums are delivered in cloth bags.

-Photos by Matt Ramos

Thanks for KISSing!
Rachel : The Helpful Hottie

Check out the blog and killer images from Stacee Lianna’s first KISS!

OHEMGEE. I have a gazillion things going on this weekend and am going to have a gazillion things to post on my blog coming up soon, including an ever so fabulous session from yesterday!! But I had to stop right now and post this blog really quick, in between the photobooth with a Junior High class and running off to pick up lenses for the weekend and then off to see “the” Christmas Lights with some of my favorite people [and THEN a sleepover!!] Because when I walked in the door right now I was greeted by a HUGE package from KISS Wedding Books. I almost cried I was so excited!

Having my first package waiting for me from KISS makes me feel like a real live legit, dare I say professional photographer. Nothing I have done thus far has made me feel this way. So, I had to blog this moment… so it will forever be documented in my photo business history. ;]

I am in love with these albums! There are 2 “Little Kisses” and 1 10×10 album. I want to hold them all the time and never let them go. [Too bad I have to actually deliver them to my amazing clients LOL] I want to get packages in the mail like this everyday! So everyone I’ve taken pictures of, you should ask me about ordering an album, like I’m not even kidding! They’re kinda the greatest thing EVER! ;]

Thanks for KISSing!
Rachel : The Helpful Hottie

2008 was a killah cluster of clients. 2009 will be even better! RSVP here!

Fun announcements!

First… A dance-off. That’s right. Shake it for ShootQ and you could win six months of ShootQ’s amazing studio management for free . We’re planning on talking our hosts, the Boudoir Divas, into judging this intense competition.

Second… Get motivated with Pictage’s Passion martini! Pictage has recently reignited their company’s fire and they’re passing it on! Some great Pictage staff are coming down to mingle, so be sure to say thanks for all the new things they’re up to!

The Divas are giving away a seat at their workshop in Vegas.
Pictage is giving stuff away. KISS is giving stuff away. It’s going to be lots of stuff and people and drinks and dancing and stuff.

Hope you can make it! RSVP here!

CLICK HERE for some video from last year by the Fabulous Bui Brothers! They’re on it again this year!

So, most of you probably have no idea that KISS switched from a completely custom blog to a WordPress blog. That’s because we had the guys at Flosites build us a template to lay over WordPress that looked just like our custom blog!

The advantages are great. We get the industry’s best blogging software, complete with all the updates, the security, the plugins, and all the goodies that come from a killah blog platform. And, with Flosites, we were able to dictate -exactly- how we wanted that blog to look.

Flosites is doing a KISS special: $2000 for a custom blog template, slideshow integration, and a full website for your company. It’s pretty sweet! We’ve been running on the WordPress blog now for about a month and couldn’t be happier… You can get a discount by using the code KISSEDBYFLOSITES

Heck, you can even get a iPhone/iTouch optimized version when you browse it from those devices. All with a simple plugin.

KISS hearts Flosites!

To our NOLA friends and to everyone who wishes they were at Partnercon

Kevin, Shaun and I had such an awesome time at Partnercon in New Orleans! We thank everyone who stopped by the KISS table to check out our *new* soft KISSes as well as our hard KISSes. Shaun and Kevin spoke on branding and album sales, which totally rocked! If you have yet to hear them speak, get on it! The Get Simple Seminar featuring Kevin Swan, Shaun Austin, Nathan Holritz and Mike Larson is a must!

If you didn’t make it out to NOLA we hope to see you in Vegas at WPPI. We have a few surprises up our sleeve that everyone must be a part of! (and pictures on our blog won’t do justice). See you at WPPI (can’t come soon enough!) and Partnercon 2010 in NOLA.

Thanks for KISSing!
Rachel : The Helpful Hottie

It’s done! Months of work, new equipment, custom programming; it’s all ready for you!

1: New Soft KISSes! http://www.KissWeddingBooks.com/books
2: New Simpler Ordering! http://www.KissWeddingBooks.com/ordering
3: New Design options! http://www.KissWeddingBooks.com/design
4: Much cheaper shipping!