Suggestions Salon in Orem is having a 25-year anniversary celebration on Thursday, February 23 and we suggest you attend! Suggestions is a familiar name and face in our annual Best of UV feature. This year they received the No. 1 spot in our “Favorite Spa” and “Favorite Salon” categories. Salon owner Darcy Moody also was named the No. 2 “Favorite Business Owner” in the county. You can learn more about Darcy in the Winter 2011 issue of sister pub Utah Valley BusinessQ. She was named one of our 10 Coolest Entrepreneurs.

The anniversary celebration will include the following fabulous services and discounts.

• FREE Chemistry Shot and Style
• FREE Make Up Application
• FREE Skin Analysis
• $10 Glitter Toes
• $10 Eyebrow Wax
• 20% off All Retail

The party is getting started at 6 pm and will continue on until 8 pm that evening. Call the salon at (801) 226-6993 to reserve an appointment for the big night! We hope to see you there.

Kylee Norton

We have a new staff member here at Utah Valley Magazine, and we couldn’t be more delighted to have her! Kylee Norton is our newest associate editor. Before joining us at the magazine, Kylee worked as a writer, an English teacher at Utah State University (yes, she is a True Aggie) and an editorial assistant in L.A. She has a master’s degree in English Literature and Writing.

In 2007, she married her husband, Eddie, who is “an accountant with personality” and a serious baseball fan. Kylee loves Mexican good, ice cream, reading and traveling. Kylee is easily the most well-traveled person on our staff, and she has warned us that there is a big difference between Court County and Court City in Ireland.

Welcome, welcome Kylee!

Dawn Bloxham is the winner of our Chocolate Snowball Cookbook giveaway. Congratulations Dawn! A delicious collection of 125 dessert recipes is headed your way.

Alice Demske Hansen also entered to win and we will be giving her a cookbook as well. Jams and Jellies in Less Than 30 Minutes is perfect for jam lovers without a minute to spare. The book was featured in the the Made in UV section of our January/February 2012 issue and was written by Provo resident Pamela Bennett.

Happy cookbooking ladies!

Here are few tricks of the trade we have employed from cover to cover.

1. Using reflectors to bounce more natural light on the subject’s face.

2. Selecting the right camera lens. Certain lenses give a softer image while others give us a crisp and clean look.

3. Using a clamp to pull back a dress or shirt that is too big.

Can you spot those pretty orange clamps?

4. For our Jan/Feb 2012 cover shoot, we stuck Kneaders’ scrumptious syrup in the fridge. The cold consistency of the syrup left it hanging (literally) on the edge of the french toast.

See those beautiful drips of syrup?

5. Changing the color of  shoes, socks, nail polish and anything in between. The cute blue heels in the photo below are actually olive green.

6. Removing a logo from a shirt with Photoshop.

7. See this office cubicle wall? Art director Dave Blackhurst spotted it for its true purpose – a photography background with the perfect blend of texture and color. This wall appears in our cake photoshoot, below, and one other Bride shoot. Any ideas which one?

8. These ordinary drawers served as a set-up for a product shoot.

Taa-da! Sometimes you just have to think outside the box (no pun intended).

What are some tricks of your trade?

It’s time for a giveaway! Here at the Utah Valley Magazine office, we are often sent products from local businesses to review. Many of these items end up in our Made in UV section of the magazine. We want to spread the love and share some of these goodies with you via blog giveaway. First up is a cookbook from the bakery at Deer Valley Resort. Chocolate Snowball is a collection of 125 delicious pasty recipes from the Deer Valley’s expert pastry chef Letty Halloran Flatt.

And what is a chocolate snowball exactly? You’ll have to win the book to find out!

To enter to win:

1. “Like” Utah Valley Magazine on Facebook. You can find our Facebook page here.

2. Share a link to this blog post on your own Facebook wall.

3. Leave a comment on this blog post telling us about a locally-made product we should know about.

We will review all entries on Thursday January 26 at 5 pm and we will announce the winner on Friday January 27.

Its 156 glorious glossy pages are overflowing with local love, pictures galore, local vendors and ideas that will make your heart spin. Visit the website, view the mag online and subscribe to the blog to get your wedding fix.

If you’re wondering how we put it all together, here’s a little look at how we made the big book!

Our office, filled with cakes from our oh-so-lovely cake vendors. Recognize any? These beauties were photographed for our cake section on page 70.

It was a day filled with lace, pearls and lots of hairspray! At our dress photoshoot (see page 52) with the talented Kenneth Linge at InStudio.

Hand-crafted origami flowers set the stage for the ring section (see page 103), while office manager Whitney Behling models her favorite ring.

Boxes and boxes of our hot-off-the press Bride 2012 magazine. Phew!

In the upcoming issue of Utah Valley Magazine, we will be including stories of several locals who have climbed mountains, both literally and figuratively. Today, Provo resident Michael R. Kelsey stopped by our office for an interview about his illustrious career as a hiking guidebook author. Michael has published 16 guidebooks and each one is filled to the brim with history, trail maps and more.

UV Mag’s Art Director and Photographer Dave Blackhurst — who is quite the mountain man himself — had fun photographing Michael while the pair exchanged hiking stories. Dave has penned a few outdoor features for the magazine over the years, including this guide to American Fork Canyon.

Whether you prefer driving through canyons or scaling them, you will love this feature! Look for it in the March/April issue.

And in the meantime, check out this trailer for a documentary featuring Mr. Kelsey.

• 20 percent off dance wear purchase at Center Stage in Orem. View offer here.
• 50 percent of a Botanical Hair and Scalp Treatment with the purchase of a haircut and color at Azalea Day Spa in American Fork. View offer here.
• $50 off in-office teeth bleaching or $50 of bleaching trays at Dr. Greg Pitt’s office in American Fork. View offer here.
• $5 off tickets to the Hale Center Theater in Orem. View offer here.
• 1 free appetizer with the purchase of 2 entrees at Thanksgiving Point’s Harvest Restaurant. View offer here.

Happy Shopping!

Last year, our Fab 50 feature profiled amazing Utah Valley-ites with big dreams, big goals, big challenges and big impacts. And this fab group has done some fantastic things in the past year. Here is an update on some of the movers and shakers of 2011′s Fab 50.

Alex Boye

He made us laugh at the Fab 50 photo shoot last year, now he is making us sigh (in admiration, of course). Just last week he released an African-style cover of Coldplay’s “Paradise” with John Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson. The video has gone viral and has everyone asking, ‘How did they get that piano up there?’ With a helicopter — very carefully.

Christina Lowe

The former Miss Utah became a Mrs. this year. In the Fab 50 issue, she told us about her love for international studies and her upcoming trip to Uganda. She took a trip down the aisle as well and some of her wedding photos showed up in the latest issue of Utah Valley Bride Magazine. Congrats Christina!

Christian Vuissa

Christian made an appearance in the Fab 50 last year for his contributions to the community as the creator of the LDS Film Festival. This year, Christian has an original film appearing in the festival called The Letter Writer. Read up on the film and upcoming festival here.