Chicago Wedding and Elopement Photographer

My 2013 Favorites: The Wedding Parties

January 29, 2014

Although the wedding day is about the bride and groom they surround themselves with the people that mean the most to them aka the wedding party.

Whether it’s one person or 10 of your closest friends the wedding party really make the day! I’ve had the pleasure of working with some amazing groups of people this year who have made me laugh, helped me carry gear and even mooned me (yep that happened!).

Here are my favorite wedding party photos of the year (again not my favorite wedding parties, but my favorite photos). These are more of the posed images, the real party photos will be in a later post!

This group is getting two, because I accidentally forgot it on my locations post! One of my favorite reception venues – Pinstripes!

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My 2013 Favorites : The Locations

January 27, 2014

Next up on my blog series of favorites are The Locations! I think I traveled more for weddings and shoots this year than ever before. I shot in 6 different states and had backdrops from downtown Manhattan to the beaches of Hawaii and everything in between! I’m still looking for new state to add for 2014 so if you know someone getting married in a state I haven’t shot in have them contact me for my destination package! California? Maine? Hit me up!

Here is a look at some of the great venues and locations I worked at in 2013!

I’m still not sure how I managed to book 3 weddings at The Odyssey Club in Tinley Park, but by the 3rd one I was giving people directions haha.

The view of the golf course out back in April at Rachel and Brian’s wedding. I was also here in June and November!

I have always wanted to shoot at the Basilica at Notre Dame. I’ve seen photos of numerous weddings there and it’s just gorgeous! Although getting a wedding date at this church is like an Olympic Sport you can see why it’s worth it! This is from Elizabeth and Andy’s wedding in May.

In June I had the pleasure of traveling to Colorado to shoot my friend Emily’s engagement photos. It was the first time I’ve really spent any time there outside of the airport and man is it beautiful! We spent the weekend in Breckinridge for their shoot and I did not want to leave…

But of course not much beats sweet home Chicago:)Despite the fact that it’s -25 outside right now I still love it! There are so many amazing views of the skyline from various locations I don’t think I’ll ever get tried of shooting it.

This was the view from a reception at the Holiday Inn Merchandise Mart in August.

The view from Buckinham Fountain where we were shooting for Melissa and Matt’s esession. The Blackhawks had just won the Stanley Cup so you see the messages on the buildings downtown.

Also in August I shot an awesome backyard engagement party in the suburbs. I loved everything about this party and the lighting really set the tone.

In September I was off to NYC to shoot a wedding in Manhattan. This is the gorgeous view from the reception.

And a couple weeks later I was in Bloomington, IN which always feels like home having lived their for 6 years.

This is a shot of Lake Monroe which was the backdrop for Carrie and Ben’s wedding.

And then in October I headed off to Hawaii for some of the most gorgeous views I’ve ever seen…..

After returning from Hawaii I headed off to Kentucky for Morgan and Mike’s wedding at Richwood Plantation along the Ohio River.

This is the view from the front.

And the view from the back 🙂

The view down the canal in Indianapolis where I shot for Barb and Ali’s wedding in August and a couple of engagement sessions in October as well. It’s not quite the Chicago skyline, but it was home for a couple of years so it’s always nice to be back.

It was back to Richwood Plantation to end the year with Rebecca and Nathan!

And one final shot of the Chicago skyline just because I love it 🙂

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My 2013 Favorites: The Engagements

January 23, 2014

So if you’ve been following along with my 2013 favorites blog they have all been wedding related up until now. But, the engagements have to come first! I LOVE engagement session……. for real. And this year I got to shoot all over the place. From downtown Chicago to the mountains of Colorado and everywhere in between!

I encourage all my couples to shoot engagement sessions for a number of reasons. First of all it gives us a chance to get to know each other before the wedding because I’m going to be with you the majority of the wedding day. Secondly, it’s a chance to get comfortable in front of the camera pre wedding. I’ll go through some of my posing and tips and tricks so that on the wedding day you already know what I’m talking about when I said “awkward walk”. Plus it gives you great photos of you two not in your wedding attire to use for save the dates etc. Often my couples have tight timelines or are getting married in the suburbs but live in the city. Engagement session are also a chance to visit some of the places you love, but won’t be able to make it to on the wedding day.

Ok ok…. enough talking…. let’s bring on the photos!!

This image at Buckingham Fountain got a ton of action on Facebook this year! It’s probably my favorite engagement image of the year 🙂 I’ve really been trying to work more on my night images now that I live in a city with a great skyline (sorry Indianapolis). Thanks to Melissa and Matt for waiting out the sun with me as I tried to time it just right to get the Chicago sklyine lit up, but still have a blue sky. I have actually semi recreated this shot about 3 times after this one because people loved it so much. See the full session by clicking HERE.

Remember me mentioning the “awkward walk” before? Well this is it… except they aren’t awkward at all! I love this shot of Barb and Ali in downtown Chicago.