A ceremony small enough that nobody needed a microphone. We stayed back for this one and let the row of faces do the work.

Vows under an arch of flowers, with everyone they love sitting close enough to hear them.

Shirley + Nick

The moment everybody waits for, and the one you get exactly one attempt at. We shoot it from where the reaction is, not just where the couple is.

The kiss, under a bank of white blooms, with the room already halfway to its feet.

The Geraghty

A multi-day celebration, photographed the way it was lived, loud and full and moving. This is the walk back out, about a second after the first handful went up.

Petals in the air on the way back down the aisle, gold catching every bit of the light.

Vintee + Steve

Chicago gives you scale for free if you are willing to walk a block for it. Ten minutes away from the party, which is usually the ten minutes couples tell us they remember.

A few quiet minutes on the steps, dwarfed by the building and not minding at all.

The Old Post Office

We keep an eye on the sunset time all day and steal you for a few minutes when it arrives. Nothing posed here beyond pointing them in the right direction.

Held hands and the last of the sun, walked out for exactly as long as the light lasted.

Cafe Brauer

Half the good frames of a wedding day happen in the gaps between the parts that were planned. This was one of those.

Leaning on a borrowed car on a downtown street, waiting for the driver to say when.

The Peninsula

Black and white when the light is doing something better than the colour is. A long covered walkway and no instructions beyond take your time.

Two gowns, one colonnade, and a walk taken slowly because there was no reason to rush.

The Dalcy

Photographing in public means working quickly and not making a scene of it. Two minutes in the hall, then back in the car before anyone noticed.

A fur stole, a grand hall, and a kiss that ignored every commuter walking past.

Jordan + Bakari

Nobody asked her to do this. We were setting up for something else entirely and this happened in front of us, so we photographed that instead.

She turned to see how far the skirt would go. He stayed on the stairs and watched.

Laura + Sam

Ask any couple afterwards and the car ride comes up. It is the one stretch of the day that belongs only to the two of them.

The back seat, the door shut, and the first moment all day with nobody else in it.

The Getaway

We photograph the first dance from inside the circle, not from the edge of the room. It is the difference between a record of the song and a record of the feeling.

Everyone pressed in around the floor, and the two of them not noticing a single one.

First Dance

Late reception coverage is where the guard drops completely. We stay on the floor for it rather than shooting it from a safe distance.

Sequins, a cream jacket, and the part of the night where the shoes come off.

After Hours

Your friends at their least self-conscious, which is exactly how you will want to remember them in twenty years.

Back to back on a full floor, somewhere past the point of caring how it looked.

Dipika + Jimmy

Dinner in low candlelight is one of the harder things to photograph well, and one of the easiest to skip. We do not skip it.

Candles down the length of it, chandeliers above, and dinner about to run late.

The Long Table

Somebody spent a year on this room and gets about four minutes to see it empty. We photograph it properly for them, and for the team who built it.

The room as the planner left it, five minutes before two hundred people walked in.

Skye + Chad

The morning is quieter than the rest of the day and it is where a lot of the real feeling sits. We are in the room early and we stay out of the way.

Getting ready, and a first look that had nothing at all to do with the groom.

Angela + Oliver

Family formals do not have to be stiff. We run them quickly, by name, off a list agreed with you beforehand, and then let them fall apart on purpose.

Family by the window, halfway through a joke nobody bothered to explain to us.

Nearest And Dearest

An engagement session is mostly a rehearsal. You find out how we work, we find out how you two actually are together, and the wedding day goes easier for it.

Two glasses, one new ring, and a laugh that arrived before the toast did.

Just Engaged

About twenty minutes in, most couples forget we are there. Everything worth keeping comes after that point, so we never rush the first twenty.

Leaning in under the trees, close enough that the camera stopped mattering.

Sarah + Nathan

The lakefront in the last hour of light, which is the closest thing Chicago has to a guarantee.

Out on the rocks with the lake behind them and nowhere else to be that evening.

Jack + Matt

Family sessions here are a judgment free zone. Kids are allowed to be kids, and the frames we all end up loving are the ones where they were.

Lifted up between them, mid-laugh, which is the only way she would stay still.

The Three Of Us

Newborn sessions happen at home, in your own light, with everybody in their own clothes. No props, no basket, no posing a baby into a shape it would not choose.

A book, two big siblings, and a new one small enough to sleep through the whole story.

Elliot

We work quietly and slowly in the first weeks, around feeds and naps and whatever else the day decides. There is no schedule to keep to.

Seen from the next room, because some of the best of it happens when nobody is looking.

First Days

This is the version of it you will want later, not the tidy one. Documenting your family legacy starts with photographing it honestly.

Everyone on the bed at once, which is what the first week actually looks like.