Blog
Love stories and more
Look for my favorite wedding planning tips and tricks, behind the scenes tidbits about my life, and, of course, features of many of the beautiful couples who spend time in front of my camera.
I promise it’s worth your while.
Late Night Wedding Photography
One of the challenging things about choosing a wedding photographer is deciding which wedding package makes the most sense for you. Every photographer offers something a little bit different, so it’s no surprise that it can be a confusing journey to figure out exactly what you’re looking for, especially if you aren’t sure how long you want them to stay into your dance for late night photos.
How to Plan the Perfect Sunset Photos
Have you ever noticed how golden, glowy sunset lighting is often used to set the scene in movies when those two characters that you just KNOW are supposed to be together finally realize it for themselves? They might be sitting in front of a window in a Paris cafe when it suddenly hits them, or perhaps they’ve realized they can’t bear to be apart any longer and are running to each other on the beach, but lighting in the film is an intentional choice to enhance the warm glow in your heart that they’ve finally realized they’re meant to be.
Does it Matter if Your Wedding Photographer Hasn’t Worked at Your Venue Before?
I’m going to share a controversial opinion:
It doesn’t matter if a wedding photographer has worked at your venue before or not.
It’s a question I see on many checklists of things you should ask when you’re hiring your wedding photographer, but it’s one that I don’t think is actually all that important. While there are certainly benefits to your wedding vendors having experience at the venue you’ve selected, there are also benefits to a photographer coming in with fresh eyes for the first time.
How to Look Good in Wedding Photos
By investing in quality wedding photography, you’re ensuring that the moments and memories from one of your most important days are documented and will stand the test of time. But it’s fair to say that if you want to display your favorite images on your walls and get out your wedding album when your grandkids ask you to tell them about the day you got married, you want to feel like you looked your absolute best in those pictures!
How can you make sure that happens? Well, I’m going to let you in on the secret.
The First 4 Wedding Planning Decisions to Make
Wedding planning checklists can get craaazy long, so it’s no surprise that many of my couples tell me they feel overwhelmed even as they’re just starting the planning process!
It can be hard to know where to begin, so here are four of the big ones that I have found to be key to making my wedding clients feel like they’ve got a handle on things.
3 Wedding Traditions to Skip
We’re living in an incredible time. We’re finallllly seeing this incredible shift in the wedding industry that allows couples to THRIVE and create a wedding experience that truly reflects the day that they want to share…not one that was born out of the pressure to do everything in a certain way or to please the people around them. This is honestly the best time for you to be planning, because we’re all rooting for you and are ready to jump on board and support the uniqueness of your relationship - and therefore the uniqueness of your wedding!
What is Golden Hour?
Wedding planning often involves hours of research, countless decisions, and more than one moment which makes you go, “Wait. Am I supposed to know something about that?!”
As a wedding photographer, it can be all-too-easy to talk to my clients about their photography experience and forget that, while I am capturing special moments all year long, you’re not being photographed every weekend. It’s important for me to to remember that things I’m excited to share with you might not make much sense without a bit of extra context!
How to Use Lanterns in Your Photos
There are two things to keep in mind if you want to use lanterns during your engagement session or on your wedding day:
Selecting Lanterns
Using Lanterns
Let’s dig in a little deeper…
What Your Wedding Photographer Needs to Know
As a wedding photographer, it’s my job to capture the moments - big and small - that make up your wedding day. No two weddings are the same and, while I do love the variety, there are a few things you can tell me ahead of time that will help me be prepared to make sure your wedding is documented exactly how you hope it will be.
Uneven Wedding Parties
Here’s a wedding trend that I hope sticks around for a good long time: couples doing whatever the heck they want!
One example of this is? Uneven wedding parties. When you want the most important people to stand next to you on your wedding day, it may not always include the same number on both sides - and that’s okay!
Marlana + Matthew
I drove back to central Wisconsin for Matthew and Marlana’s maternity session and discovered fresh snow on the ground, temps in the upper twenties, and stunning scenery on his family’s land…this, my friends, is what maternity session dreams are made of!