People are better than things when it comes to weddings. I’ll die on this hill.
I just had a phone call with a Bride for 2025 that reminded me about a conversation I had with a bride many years ago. She wanted me to photograph her wedding but was worried that her wedding wasn’t “fancy enough” to have me photograph it because she sees everyone else’s wedding photos and they look like their weddings were so extravagant and hers wasn’t going to be.
For those of you new here, let me tell you a little bit about myself: I grew up in a trailer. Poor. With teenage parents. When I first starting shooting weddings and got to visit the “magazine worthy” venues, I felt SOOO out of place and it intimidated me. I went to weddings in my Payless shoes while everyone else had red bottoms. I thought someone would “find me out” and realize I didn’t belong to “the club” so to speak.
Social media is such a trap. Always seeing the new trends on Tik Tok or Pinterest makes you feel like you have to keep up. I promise you in 5 years all those trends will look so dated anyways. What it will boil down to is the people. THE PEOPLE. Don’t believe me? Ask anyone who has recently lost someone since their wedding. What do they want to see? The person’s face, not the centerpiece or the way the table cloth matched the napkins. Honestly, most of those trends are just marketing efforts to have you buy “the things”.
Sure, I’ll photograph the details. I’ll document all “the things”, but when I show up with my camera, I focus on the THE PEOPLE. If we’re strapped for time, and it’s between doing a fancy layflat with all the details or photographing Grandma tearing up in the corner or Mom admiring you as you apply your lipstick in the mirror….you bet your sweet ass I’m photographing THAT.
So if your wedding is “fancy”-GREAT! But you’re not going to impress me. I’m there to photograph the people…probably still in my cheap shoes! Besides, if you hire a good photographer they’ll make everything look expensive anyway! 
