The Great Photographer Search (Part 2)

I've addressed our search for a wonderful photographer many times. Our wedding photos are probably one of the absolute most important parts of the wedding to me - they're really the only permanent, tangible thing to come out of the whole wedding (besides the actual marriage obviously). We had narrowed it down to two great photographers and were on the brink of finalizing that decision when I was given an offer that I couldn't say no to. A very good family friend that has worked with my family's business for years has a huge photography business out of Chicago (with studios also in Little Rock and Baton Rouge!), Ocken Photography. Chris, one of the 3 photographers that are a part of the business (Chris, his wife Jen and brother Bob), approached my mom about doing my and Joe's wedding pictures one day. After a little discussion and joking around he said that he would seriously love to do them and would give us a VERY good, reasonable, price compared to their normal rate and that he would do anything and everything I wanted. I really couldn't refuse.

I've been a little nervous. I have ideas of what I want and a style that I love, not to mention that the two photographers that we had narrowed it down to are known for doing amazing things with weddings. Some of the photography that the Ocken's does isn't necessarily what I like, but is very beautiful. But after looking around the website, their Facebook page and blog, I realized just how versatile their photography really is. They can adjust the way they shoot, edit, etc... to exactly what each couple wants - something many photographers can't or don't do. They were even voted as The Knot Best of Weddings 2013, so I'm pretty confident that we are going to have some great photographs. 

                      

It feels good to have another huge part of our wedding in place. In just 2 weeks we will be getting our engagement pictures taken, which I am beyond excited for! My mind is busy trying to decide on a location/locations, what to wear, and all of that other fun stuff. I can't wait to get a first glance at what we can expect to see with our wedding pictures, and to start working with Chris, and Ocken Photography!

All photos can be found here.

The Great Photographer Search

As we near the one year mark before the big day, I'm realizing that there are already a lot of decisions I need to start making right off the bat. Among those is choosing a photographer. I want to choose one fairly soon, as Joe and I would like to avoid doing our engagement pictures in the sweltering heat of summer. As with many things during this whole process I am discovering that there are many more options out there than I ever knew about. I am finding that the wedding photography (and just photography in general) industry is exploding these days! With this comes the need to do some real looking around at photographer websites, blogs and online portfolios. It seems that with the never-ending choices in photographers, there are a lot that are simply people with nice cameras that think they can take pictures and make a business out of it. That isn't to knock these people, but our photos are definitely one of the things I'm not willing to settle on. That said, it is also not within our budget to completely go all out crazy with an expensive photographer, even if I may have been obsessively checking out certain photographers blogs for years (I'm looking at you Bobbi + Mike).

However, I have found some great photographers that I really love and hope to be able to have one of them shoot our engagement photos and our wedding! I'm really impressed with the amount of talented people there are in the Fort Wayne area. We definitely have no shortage of options. These are a few of my favorites:

Morgan Ruth Photography

               
I've actually known Morgan since we were in high school. She was a couple of years ahead of me, and I remember even back then how talented she was. I've kept an eye on her work through high school and college, and when she started her photography business I knew that whenever I were to get engaged she would be one to put on my list. She actually messaged me just a few days after Joe and I got engaged to congratulate me and offer her pricing guide. I really like her style and she is pretty affordable. She is also someone that I think I would be more comfortable with since I do know her.

Della Tera Photo

I think Amy introduced me to Della Terra Photo. I really love the softness of her photographs, not to mention the website is ridiculously whimsy. While I do not know the photographer, Tarah personally, she seems so nice and fun from what I've seen through Della Terra Facebook posts and her website. A really cool thing that she does is donate 10% of each wedding package booked to a charity of the bride and groom's choice in their name.

Colagrossi Studio

Colagrassi Studio is another photography studio Amy shared with me. It is comprised of the soon-to-be husband and wife team of Mitch and Destany. I emailed a little with Destany a few months ago when I initially began narrowing down my list of potential photographers to get their pricing and was happily surprised with how nice and helpful she was as I was not even a client or booking with them yet. I feel like their photography captures all of the emotions the couple is feeling and has a nice mix of journalistic, natural shots, and beautiful posed ones. In conjunction with Della Terra Photo, they also have a combined photography and videography studio called Sparrow Studios.

Catie's Captures

I first heard of Catie's Captures at the very first bridal show I went to back in November. I was really drawn in by her booth setup and her packaging. Her photos are really natural and bring out the real side of the couples she photographs. I like how she doesn't stay to one specific style of pictures and experiments with different lighting. She is also super reasonable, and I am drawn to her kindness and desire to give the couples she is shooting her absolute best for their big day.

Stevenson Photography

Stevenson Photography is made up of husband and wife team Jennifer and Kyle. Like Catie's Captures I came across them at a bridal show last year. I was really impressed with their different packages and the products they offer with their packages. They even have a Crazy Booth, which is basically like a photo booth without the awkwardly small booth to stuff into and tons of quirky props! I'm in love with that idea! I really like that they use a variety of locations to shoot both engagement sessions and wedding portraits.

There are a couple of other photographers that I may contact, but thus far these top my list. Now I just need to find a way to narrow it down to the one for us! Anyone who knows me knows that I am THE WORST at making decisions, so narrowing down a photographer, along with many of the other definitive decisions I will be making soon, will be extremely interesting.