Chicago Wedding and Elopement Photographer

2014: Year in review

February 23, 2015

2014…. where do I even begin?! It should tell you something that it’s almost the end of Feb 2015 and I’m just now getting to writing this post. That’s how amazingly busy 2014 was! I just caught up on editing last week for the first time in almost year!! I look like I’m 95 now when I edit as I’ve had to start wearing wrist supports to survive haha.

But I can’t complain because 2014 has been the most amazing year my business has ever had 🙂 I’m smiling like a fool as I type this just thinking about all the amazing couples and families I got to work with. I always like to sit down at the end of the year and look back through my images and blogs to remind myself how truly blessed I am to do what I do and how lucky I am to be surrounded by such beauty all the time!

A couple of HUGE things happened in 2014. The first being the launch of my second business – Elope to Chicago. I started the site (www.elopetochicago.com) in April and as I’m writing this blog I’ve shot 21 elopements and weekday weddings and I haven’t even hit the year mark yet! I absolutely love elopements. They are so intimate and special – nothing compares! We’ve had couples come to Chicago from all over the US to elope or have a small ceremony with a few guests. I’ve gotten to play tour guide quite a bit and show our couples some of my favorite places in the city which has been so fun for me well!

I know 2015 is only going to be an even more amazing year for Elope as we are already getting floods of emails coming in daily. I have to thank my amazing team – Christine (Florist) , Kate (Hair & Makeup) , Marian (Officiant) and Eva (Officiant) for believing in this idea and dream and helping me make it a reality! I’ve already got new and exciting ideas brewing for 2015!

Here are some favorite elopement shots from 2014!

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Don’t worry I still LOVE a big wedding as well! I’m just geting the best of both worlds now! Here’s a few random favorites from this year!

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The second bit of giant news that came in 2014 was the addition of a shared studio space!!! This is something I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember! No more meetings at Starbucks next to a crying baby haha. I share the space with two wonderfully talented ladies : Christine Janda (who is also my florist for Elope) and Lindsay Brown (no we aren’t related, but we sometimes tell people we are!). Christine is a florist and planner (her website) and Lindsay designs custom invitations and paper goods (her website) . Basically I’ve just surrounded myself with talented people who create beautiful things! It’s a tough job I have!

Here are some shots of the studio and the grand opening party.

Me, Christine and Lindsay!

Me and my two wonderful assistants Sami and Robyn.

Me and my boyfriend Chris 🙂

Now it’s time to thank the people who I really would not be here with out and that is my family. Mom & Dad you are best in the world and I can’t thank you enough for your support over the years. My brother Dan and my sister Sarah – I love you both and thank you for your love and support as well. Thank you to all my family for listening to my stories and for putting up with me editing during Thanksgiving and Christmas and helping me haul all my gear around all the time. Thank you to my amazing boyfriend Chris who continually has to listen to me talk about weddings and all things wedding related…. I’m sure he loves it 😉

Thank you to my amazing assistants that I worked with in 2014. I had the chance to work with a couple new second shooters this year as I shot in different area and they were all amazing. Robyn, Sami, Allie, Jen, Regina, Renata and Naomi thank you all!! I don’t know what I would do without my second shooters. They keep me sane, make sure I stay on time, are incredibly talented photographer as well and overal just wonderful people that I’m lucky to have. Please don’t ever leave me 🙂

Here are some behind the scenes shots – it’s seems some of my assistants escaped my camera as I don’t have shots of them all!

Thank you to all the wonderful wedding vendors we got to work with this year! There are so many talented people in this city and we were lucky enough to work with many of them in 2014. From hair & makeup artists to florists to wedding planners, videographers, officiants, bands, dj’s and more our jobs are so much more fun when we get to spend them with fun and talented people. A big thank you to all the vendors we worked with in 2014!

Thank you to everyone who has liked a photo on facebook, told a friend about my business or been in front of my camera. And last but not least thank you to all the couples who trusted me to capture their wedding days!!Whether it was 2 people or 200 I treasured them all and without you I would be doing what I do!!

Cheers to 2014!!! I can’t wait to see what 2015 holds and if you know anyone looking for a wedding photographer I might know someone 😉

Love,

Becky

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The next chapter….

April 18, 2014

So technically my 6 year business anniversary is tomorrow, but since it’s Easter weekend and I’ll be driving home I’m going to go ahead and post this today.

Last year at this time I wrote an insanely long post recapping the first five years of business (you can see that HERE) so I promise to keep it shorter this time. I went back and looked through all the weddings from this year and all the facebook posts etc. and got a little emotional, but since I already did my whole series of Favorites from 2013 I won’t go back through all that. This post is really to announce my the launch of my new site!

Over the last couple of years I’ve been forming this idea in my head of starting a second site that is just dedicated to elopements and smaller weekday weddings. After shooting a few of these weddings I was hooked. Don’t get me wrong I still love a big blowout wedding, but there is something so simple and intimate about a wedding of 20 people on a Thursday.

So after much labor, planning, frustrations, joys and tax forms and phone calls to government agencies I’m happy to announce that:

a) I’m now an LLC – Becky Brown Enterprises LLC to be exact and

b) the idea has become a reality and www.elopetochicago.com is born!

It is still a work in progress and I’m teaming up with amazing local vendors to create simple packages to make the planning process even easier. If you’re a vendor or venue that is interested in catering to weekday couples contact me!

Right now I will only be offering these services for Monday- Friday weddings of 50 people or less. My Saturdays are still reserved for larger weddings 🙂

And now for my thank you’s…..

My Family – Mom, Dad, Dan & Sarah : Thank you for your constant love and support. For helping me pick out logos, listening to my wedding stories, helping me load and upload gear a million times over the years, packing me sandwiches for weddings (Mom), giving me marketing advice (Sarah) and much much more.

My Friends – Thank you for letting me bounce ideas off of you about marketing etc. and supporting my business by sending referrals my way over the years. To Mia in particular – thank you for being my sidekick at my bridal shows!

My Boyfriend – Thank you Chris for listening to all my amazing stories about weddings, I know you love them all and are on the edge of your seat for all of thm (insert sarcasm). And thank you for putting up with my crazy schedule that involves me being MIA many weeekends of the year.

My Assistants – Robyn, Allie, Renata and Leslie : Thank you for all your help over the years! Thank you for being my second set of eyes and trying to calm me down when I have 10 minutes to do 50 family photos haha.

My Previous couples and their families – Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your wedding days. I wouldn’t be where I am without you…. for real. I’ve gotten to meet and work with so many amazing people over the years! Thank you for sharing your images and sending friends my way. There is nothing I love more than seeing my previous couples at new weddings I’m shooting!

Rachel Brenke – Thank you for your amazing advice and support that was the kick in the butt I needed to finally get this business up and going. For my fellow photographers if you don’t know who Rachel is you should check her out – http://www.thelawtog.com/

Joao – Thank you to my amazing graphic designer who worked his butt off perfecting the new logo’s for my site and the Elope site!

And since no post is complete without visuals here are those two amazing logos !!

Thanks again to everyone…… I can’t wait until this point next year to report in how it’s going!

Becky

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My 2013 Favorites : The Party!

February 5, 2014

Well the blog series is nearing an end…. tear. I’m going to end it with my favorite couples shots, but before that we have the most fun part – The Parties!

Wether it’s a hearfelt first dance, a shot of grandma doing the cupid shuffle, a dance off between guests or the flower girl passed out in a chair next to the dance floor (or sometimes the best man haha) the reception and party is a big part of the day and nonstop fun! Of course the other parts are important, but this is the time that the bride and groom have been looking forward to. They are married, hopefully the nerves are gone and they can just cut loose and have fun with all their friends and family.

I come from a family of big time wedding dancers so you better belive I get out on the dance floor at weddings. Half the time people don’t realize I’m still shooting, which makes for the best photos 🙂 I’m ninja like that!

Here are my favorite party photos of the year!

This guy from Emma and Michael’s wedding wins for best dance photo of the year at …. and just wins at life in general for pulling off this sweet dance move in great looking socks.

I love some of the faces in the crowd!