Wedding Tips

As a Chicago wedding photographer - I get this question a lot.  Should we do a first look? YES - you should. There is an inherent benefit to your wedding day timeline when you do a first look. After the first look, we can do bridal party photos and then we ...

Any Chicago wedding photographer will tell you that Chicago is an amazing city. It has so much to offer in terms of food, entertainment and culture. However, Chicago does not have these grand and epic mountains you might see in some wedding and engagement photos. So it can ...

Firstly, photography is the art of painting by light. The most important word in that sentence is light. If you ask me, what is the most important part of a photograph? The answer is always, good light. I live for beautiful light. Be that a soft window light, a romantic ...

The question I recently received an email from a bride whose wedding was coming up. I want to share this email because it approached (what most consider) a sensitive subject incredibly well. Do I tip my wedding photographer and how much? The email Hi Peter- Had a quick sensitive question for you. I ...

One of my favorite things about weddings is meeting and getting to know awesome people. I dig people who are excited about their weddings and about having unique photos. So it's uber discouraging when I come across a groom who treats his wedding like a burden. A few weeks ago I ...

Being a wedding photographer from Chicago, I get to meet with brides from all over the world. Obviously, we chat about everything wedding related, as well as some personal things – which helps me to get to know my couples. Throughout the course of our relationship, I’ll share some of ...

Recently I photographed a gorgeous wedding out of state. Everything went off without any problems, which is odd, usually things go wrong or are forgotten at weddings due to the hustle and bustle of the day. We breezed through the ceremony and family formals at the alter. ...

I love being a photographer in Chicago. Chicago may not have huge mountains or old forests but we have THE best skyline, EVER. Yes, even better than New York City. Maybe I'm a little biased, but I don’t care. It’s a shame the Chicago Spire never finished ...

I thought this was worth sharing... As a wedding photographer - I know the costs associated with weddings. One of the hardest things can be stretching a budget to get exactly what you're looking for. Every year theKnot publishes '25 most expensive places to get married' based off of ...

Once in a while I'll get a client who says "do I need engagement photos?"  I’ll be honest – an engagement session is the single greatest investment you can make prior to your wedding.  A lot of couples have never been professionally photographed – the engagement session is a valuable ...