A Viewpoint that Makes the Difference: Style and Services

Your wedding is your vision of your lives together as a couple, so doesn't it make sense that the wedding album reflect that vision? Wedding photography has different styles: studio-on-location (with lots of lights), photojournalistic, romantic fantasy, and fashion. The best photographers blend all of these into a style that is uniquely their own — and repeat it with every wedding. While hiring a designer photographer might be as important as the designer dress to some people, the photographer may not be flexible enough to capture your style. Let me tell you about some of the couples I've worked with to create a lasting record of their vision.

Meet Jill and Henry
Jill, who worked at the Chicago Institute of Art, sent me some magazine photos to illustrate the style she had in mind. The clipping she liked most was of a man showing off his wedding band with clenched fist at eye level, and she wanted a shot just like that of her new husband for her desk. But the pose to me seemed to carry the wrong message. Jill and Henry were equal, not to mention playful partners and it made more sense to include both of them in the shot. (You can see more of their photos in Gallery One: Their Way.) Secondly, it was important to her to purchase a la carte photos (no album), as well as purchase all of the images on CD so that she could make up individual albums for her family. Incidentally, I began posing all couples this way but stopped when my husband started calling it, "power rings." I didn't want it to become too cliché or cookie cutter-ish. (But if this is your style, let me know.)

Meet Jenn and Dan
Dan and Jenn, from Texas, had an elegant black-and-white destination wedding in Albuquerque. A limo whisked the three of us to the lush university duck pond for about an hour between the ceremony and reception. Jenn's idea, this gave them a chance to absorb the moment, and me the chance to focus on some romantic and fun images. Knowing in advance that they wanted a panoramic artbook, which displays a double-page image, I was able to shoot so that faces wouldn't end up in the center crease. What I didn't know until the day the wedding unfolded, was that Jenn and Dan's relationship was a private world of special codes and games and they embedded these nuances in their wedding vows. I used their vows to tie together the photostory for their wedding book, which would have otherwise been an odd mix of Southwestern adobe tones and the greens and blues of the cloudy-day pond. To see this panoramic artbook Flash movie, go here.

Margo and Marvin's wedding was shabby chic meets adobe hacienda, complete with multicolored cut flowers in white teapots and lacy farolitos lining the walkways. A photographer in her own rite, Margo chose me because of the "magical things you do with ambient light." In their forties, they mixed tradition with casualness; they had no attendants and it was Marv who escorted Margo down the aisle after first proposing to her on one knee. They opted for the storybook with navy blue linen cover to match Marv's dress uniform. They loved how the magazine-style layout leant to capturing some of the more emotional moments of their wedding. The storybook is economical, so they were able to send duplicate storybooks to relatives. By the way, we entitled the book, "Have I told you today?" — something Marv says to Margo everyday, and which Margo had engraved in his ring. To see this storybook, go here.

Most studios expect clients to fit their weddings into set packages with glamorous names. Some will even lure you in with a low-priced package with few pictures, and then jack up prices on reprints. But weddings are not one-size-fits-all. My unique pricing allows you to choose the number of hours you wish me to photograph your wedding, and the size and number of pages your budget allows for a storybook or panorama artbook. All collections include a generous mix of first edition 5x7 prints and enlargements. You can order a complete duplicate set of the 5x7 prints in the package for a nominal fee at time of processing. Each package includes a CD slideshow, but you may also want to purchase a CD of all your images, which will be sized for printing at your photo lab or personal printer.