The best part about photographing a wedding for your family is getting to be a part of all of the behind-the-scenes, intimate details of the day that most guests would only get to see in photos. The second best part is getting to see just how important capturing all of those little moments truly is, when you’re the one who will want to relive the memories decades later (especially of your grandparents tearing it up on the dance floor!) The third is definitely creating the album so that you can see a family love story right there on the storybook pages.

I love Katie and Mario’s approach to their album: while we had over 1,000 photos to choose from they managed to narrow it all the way down to 100 (an impressive feat!) so that they could have as many large full-spread images as possible. They wanted to keep it simple, to let the emotional photos to speak for themselves, so we kept the text to a minimum as well, only including one Bible verse layered perfectly over a silhouette I made during their ceremony. I certainly keep the album in mind while photographing each wedding (in fact, I specifically shoot with the flower & layout of each album in my head) but sometimes things work out even better than I’d planned. Being able to pair the quotation “this is a profound mystery” with a silhouette is one of those moments!

It’s hard to convey the artistry of a 24x12 inch wedding photo. But this simple, monochromatic first dance shot showing Katie’s newly-paired rings as she grips her new husband’s arm during their first dance just might be one of my favorite album spreads I’ve created to date. It was a reminder to me of the importance of the littlest things, that often the emotion is in the details.

These pages certainly show of the colorful vibrancy of Katie and Mario’s day too! I love how well the matte pages show true-to-life color without any glossy reflections so that they can be enjoyed in any light.

I love creating family heirlooms for each of my couples, but it’s especially enjoyable when it’s for your own family!