the blog

A few weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity to photograph Nicole & John’s Engagement Session at Camden Yards Oriole Park in Downtown Baltimore! These two sweethearts are getting married in November and we are so excited to be photographing their wedding day the knot next month and I’m so excited to capture their special day at Eagle’s Nest Country Club!

The other day I was kinda freaked out… I got an email to be the photographer for a shoot for a magazine feature. It’s not normally the kind of stuff we do, so I did some research. First off, it’s a car magazine. I LOVE cars! (well… I love my Toyotas). Anyway, I got to go hang out with a bunch of guys who all own Car Repair Shops and they all serve on CAR… the Council of Automotive Repair. Ratchet & Wrench Magazine is writing a feature on the group and I got to photograph the guys!

You’ll never believe what brought these two together… Volleyball.

Lara and Brent are Stevenson Universities all-star NCAA championship volleyball team coaches. But we met them/know them because Patrick and Lara went to prom when they were cute little high schoolers.

When Lara and Brent asked us to be their wedding photographers, we were elated!

Lara and Brent had one of Aprils most beautiful Piney Branch Country club weddings!  The weather was incredible and the sunshine was perfect!

There are some beautiful and sentimental accents that were incorporated into this day. Lara’s brother passed away years ago but he was remembered on that day by a blue butterfly pin that was pin under the hem of her dress.  Lara wore her moms veil, the same veil that her mom wore 48 years ago on her wedding day. Lastly, the dessert bar had a large assortment of dessert, many of which had the homemade recipe cards alongside them. The recipes were from Aunts, Moms, Grandmoms and more. I even grabbed some myself at the end of the night… some of those desserts were just SO good.

I’m pretty sure to date, this has been our largest and most energetic bridal party we’ve ever had. We had 10 groomsmen, 10 bridesmaids, and 3 beautiful flower girls.

Jenna and Seyi said I Do at Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium, and rocked the dance floor, literally, at Martin’s East in Middle River.

Talk about a beautiful blend of color and culture! From the tribal attire of the wedding guests, to the bright accents of orange throughout the reception space, the contrast of colors of the bridal party’s dresses and suits, this wedding just beamed. Radiant and Bright colors all over. Jenna and Seyi’s multi-cultural wedding was just incredible.

They blended American and Nigerian traditions, clothing and food.
One of my favorite things that separated this wedding from other weddings we’ve done was the diversity of food. There was a full spread of Nigerian delicacies and a full spread of American elegance. And totally, of course, we tried it all.

Having been to Africa myself (Zambia & Zimbabwe), I was so excited for this wedding. Seyi had family that flew in from Nigeria, and with them came two Kings… yes, i said it, KINGS. Like legit Kings from their town where Seyi’s family is from.

Congrats Jenna & Seyi! We loved being part of our amazing wedding day, and the process leading up to it. Africa Time is real folks, but worth every moment.

It’s pretty special when a mother of one of your brides reaches out and asks you to be “surprise guests” for your bride’s Surprise Bridal Shower. I was so excited when Lynn asked Patrick and I to come be guests, but also document Olivia’s shower. So many incredible women all in the same room together. It was so special that not only were we invited as her photographers, but as friends to come be part of a special day. Olivia… we can’t wait until your wedding day. I’m sure you and Alex are counting down the days! It’s gonna be incredible!

An Architectural Love story. Building things that last take time, understanding, patience, and a vision.

It’s not everyday that you meet a couple at a bridal show and say, gosh i love them. Most the time couples arrive at bridal shows already feeling closed off, guarded, so when you talk to them you be patient and lovingly disarm them. When I met Miriam and Michael this was not the case. From the beginning I could see how much they loved each other, they were curious and spent time wanting more info.

We’ll never forget when we did their engagement session. They created little Lego versions of themselves mounted a horse. We ventured throughout Cylburn Arboretum and found beautiful places for their portrait time. Click here to see their Cylburn Arboretum engagement session. Later in the day, they texted us Lego versions of us as photographers. It made our day. Thoughtful and sweet, just like them.  

It’s pretty often that we meet exceptional people at weddings who end up hiring us because we just click with them. At a wedding last year, we met a woman who did the invitation suite for our bride and groom and she was just so sweet. I wasn’t even thinking that she would send us such an amazing couple our way. Meet Sara & Eric.

Sara and Eric met at work in 2012 on a lunch break, when Eric delivered a lunch that had been taken to the wrong suite. They talked via chat for a few weeks just as friends and in January of the following year, they went on their first date. These two have so much in common. They love to snowboard (just like us!), love movies, being social with friends, and being outdoors. Later that year in July, Eric knew he wanted to propose. He had a plan but he hadn’t planned proposing on Sara’s 29th birthday. Totally unintentionally, he proposed to Sara in her house right before dinner. I would like to think that he couldn’t his excitement and his desire to spend life with Sara. There’s an amazing thing about love and when you know, you know.

We are so stinkin’ excited to share this post. It was our first Courthouse Wedding right in our back yard. I met Neelima over a year ago, when she hired Patrick and I to photograph her sisters wedding and we just have been friends since. When she and Praveen got engaged, we just were so thrilled. We unfortunately couldn’t go to India with them for their traditional Hindi wedding, nor could we photograph their stateside reception due to another wedding we had booked. BUT we finally made it workout to where we could do their engagement pictures AND their courthouse stateside wedding.

We book clients every show we do, regardless of how big or small it is.

When Patrick and I went full-time in June 2014, we decided we would try out some bridal shows. Now here’s a disclaimer… there’s a lot of them out there. And some are what we call “meat markets” where these poor unsuspecting brides goand they have no idea they are going to get moved along like cattle, talked to, sold to, have things shoved into their hands, lots of liquor galore to keep them sane, and way too much to absorb. In my head they are the shows that are SO massive that it’s a frenzy and there’s not enough time to meet people let alone say “hello”. That poor bride ends up with a bag for recycling by the end of the show and the vendors are just hoping that maybe “that” bride will hire them. We try to avoid those unless we know we have a chance of getting through to these already overwhelmed brides. But in all seriousness, some shows just aren’t us, so we are picky about the shows that we choose to do.

In our experience in the last 12-48 months of being full-time wedding photographers, we’ve decided on 5 things, and these 5 things have changed the way we do bridal shows and even business. Here’s 5 ways to dominate bridal shows and attract your ideal brides:

We FINALLY got to some personal blog posts up post-wedding season 2015! In October of 2015, we had the honor of photographing a beautiful Sacramento California wedding! Check out Sarah and Bruce’s stunning wedding here!

Since it was my first time going to the west coast, Patrick and I decided to spend some R&R together traveling throughout the Bay Area and see California in all its glory. We pretty much rented a mini-van that was our hotel throughout the trip so there was no hotel we had to get back to. We slept cliff side, by the beach, in driveways of friends, etc. It was such an adventure! Yes, we are modern day hippies (but we showered!).