Marital bliss. You’ve found the Bonnie to your Clyde, the Jack to your Ripper - wait. Those are gruesome pairings that don’t jive with that peaceful feeling. How about, you find the flap to your jack… Because pancakes are delicious and hopefully your marriage will be. Wait, what is happening? Where is my mind?

My primary focus is not weddings. I’ve shot them for friends and friends of friends. If you’re looking for an all weddings, all the time photographer, look no further than Absolutely Loved. Mother-daughter team Stefanie and Anna Riedel take gorgeous romantic photos and specialize in weddings. 

The best part about shooting weddings is giving the couple visual memories of their day. Also, providing them with the parts of the day they may have missed is an added bonus. The icing on the cake, if you will. On the flip side, the room for error is minimal. Ahhh, I missed the kiss, can you redo it, really feel it this time? There’s potential for that punch-in-the-face-missed-the-moment feeling that is almost as terrifying as finding out you moved in next to Jack the Ripper. Almost.

Tips I’ve picked up along the way from shooting weddings are being able to walk the area beforehand–scout your setting, enjoy weddings that have an aisle, and try to eliminate cell phones. That scouting is a warm-up before I even pick-up my camera, familiarizing me with possible angles. My pet peeve is when the pastor tells the group to gather round and remove the aisle. The down the aisle shots let me shoot at head high level. Being forced to drop down to a low angle so I’m not blocked by family and friends is frustrating. The last three weddings I’ve shot have had the, ‘everyone gather round’ line said. I cry silent tears and work around the different angles. Finally, trust the photographer. Having 800 cell phones up in the crowd, the couple hired a professional to shoot, shoving a cell phone in their shot doesn’t do the bride and groom any favors. 

I enjoy photographing weddings.  The pace of the work, opportunities for creativity, and capturing moments the couple will revisit all contribute to my growth as a photographer. Plus, sometimes I get cake….  

All you need is Funk, Funk, Funk is all you need!

Dear Reader, that catchy closing line is under construction as it is a copyright infringement catastrophe or it may endure the test of time, stay tuned, dun dun dun!