I would encourage you to book any vendor, including your photographer, AS SOON AS YOU DECIDE THEY ARE YOUR RIGHT FIT.  For reference, there are 52 Saturdays in a year and most every couple wants to host their wedding on the same 25 of them.  Vendors book up quickly!  The sooner you make your choices and the further ahead you are in your planning, the more of your top choices you will be able to secure.  As a general guide, couples who book MORE THAN A YEAR IN ADVANCE will likely be able to secure all of their top vendor choices.  If you are less than a year out from your date, it may be more difficult.  If you reach out to a vendor who's work you are interested in with less than a year of advance time and they happen to still be available, be prepared to move forward quickly.  On average I would say that I have to turn down 70% of the inquiries that I receive annually because I am already booked for their requested dates.  Start early and move quickly. 

Your date and venue are certainly a starting point, but I would encourage you to book your most important vendor elements together rather than sequentially.  For example, if photography is really important to you, it is better to determine who you want to work with BEFORE you lock your date and venue so that you can determine their availability.  Then, once you have alignment on available dates between the venue and photographer you can book them both at the same time.  This would hold true for an event coordinator, floral designer, DJ, etc.  I receive many, many inquiries from couples who have locked their date and are disappointed to find that I am not available.

Pretty simple. To hold a date I ask for a signed agreement and a 25% deposit with the balance due 30 days prior to your event date. Payments can be made by check, Zelle, bank transfer or credit card.

This depends on a variety of factors and while I do not guarantee a specific number of images, I have found over time that the finished galleries that I deliver often contain roughly 100 images per hour of shooting.  These 'best of the best' would of course be narrowed down from thousands more.

I appreciate timeless things and in the world of photography, timeless tends to not follow the trends. I prefer light, bright, optimistic and relatively true-to-life-feeling-images that have somewhat of an authentic look and feel. This is not to say that I don’t manipulate them and give them my spin, but when I do I do so sparingly. If it’s a super cold day I am not going to push the files to a ‘tropical’ look and feel, but I am going to make skin tones pleasant to the eye. I am open to having discussions around any image coloring preferences you may have, but often find that the location, season, styling and lighting will lead us down a path that will be the best fit for the final edit. I will generally provide to you a mix of both color and black and white images.

Digitally, I shoot on cameras with multiple card slots and so every image is 'backed up' instantly upon creation.  Following your wedding, I will make at minimum three more copies and store them in separate locations and I take this backing up process very seriously.  I will then spend 12-16 hours culling down your edit and custom coloring each individual file.  The final deliverable is an edited collection of high resolution (for print) & web resolution image files that will be shared with you via a password protected online gallery (I share several samples with every inquiry reply so you will see examples in advance).  You can share this link with friends and family and they can download the files as well.

Offseason engagement shoots are generally turned around pretty quickly (2-3 weeks, though often sooner), while the summer peak season does tend to get busier and thus slows delivery. I will always strive to send you a few sneak peeks within a couple of days of your event (I will be as excited to see them as you are) and then for weddings the full gallery will be delivered within 8 weeks (though again, often sooner.)

I do not do a lot of retouching.  I think the goosebumps on your arm and the wind blowing through your hair are important parts of the story of your celebration and someday they will help you remember how nervous and excited you were. We are not striving for perfection, rather we want to celebrate reality because reality is already pretty amazing on its own. That said, sure, if there are things that really bother you, like some wine spilled on your dress or a noticeable bruise that you need for me to adjust, we can absolutely discuss the options and potential time involved.

A variety of factors can affect not only your images, but also your experience on your day and these are the pivotal ones in my experience:

1.  Invest in building a relationship with your photographer (and all of your vendors really).  We have a lot of passion for this and for making something great for you.  The more we get to know you prior to your date, the more we will have a sense for what you want and so be equipped to help you get there.  Schedule an engagement session, share images via Instagram, plan a Zoom meeting, etc. and keep the communication flowing through your date and beyond.  We really appreciate it!  

2.  Really dig in on planning the day that you want to have.  While there are no perfect wedding days, the planning phase is the time where you can really exert some control of how you want you day to not only look, but also FEEL. If you want it to feel calm and unhurried, filled with gratitude, to have time with your most special people, to be able to connect with your partner, etc. etc. you need to plan these things in.  The Wedding Day Planning Guide I have created is something that I share with every couple to help them on this path.

3.  And lastly, simply BE PRESENT.  There comes a point where you have to let all of the small things go, all of the months of planning, the intention, etc. and just be present for it.  Be present for yourself, your partner, your family and your friends.  They are there to celebrate you and your love and so be present for that.  Be present to experience all of the emotion of your day because that is what this is all about!

There is a lot of beautiful wedding photography to choose from and while I believe that I make some of it, the finished work is only part of the process of choosing a photographer.  I have been shooting professionally for a long time (over 20 years) and that has perhaps given me a different perspective than most.  I see the beauty in people and I am patient enough to allow that beauty to come out without forcing it or forcing myself upon it.  A lot of photographers shooting couples and weddings feel that it is their role to help people become beautiful by posing them in trendy or popular ways and this is a major divergence from my approach.  I think that an excessive use of posing masks who they really are, how they really look at one another and what their love looks like.  To me, it is always worth the wait to capture the real you because that is what is worth remembering.  This point of view and approach is ultimately what makes me the photographer that I am and gives my work the look that it has.  I am not the right fit for every couple, but if this is what you are looking for, then we may be a great fit.