Without a doubt the one question I have been asked the MOST during the wedding planning process has been ‘Who will photograph your wedding?” .In the beginning, I wasn’t sure exactly who I wanted to hire but I knew a few things I was looking for. Obviously, the photographer is possible the most important part of the process to me. A good photographer can make a low budget wedding look high end. A good photographer can coordinate the day in the absence of a wedding planner. A good photographer can catch up on the timeline when hair and makeup runs behind. Not to mention, after all of the dress has been worn, the vows have been said, the food has been eaten, the drinks have been drunk, the party has ended, the portraits are the only thing you will have left to tell your wedding story.
I follow several local photographers on IG when I like their work. One particular photographer that drew my eye was Anchor & Veil Photography based locally here in Charlotte. I liked how romantic and emotional their work is. As much as I love a good moody portrait, I prefer images that are timeless. A & V’s style is more true to color than the average moody photographer which I also really liked. Due to quarantine, I also booked Anchor & Veil without meeting them in person.
Anchor & Veil, like many local photographers, have 3 main packages which increase in time and products the more expensive you get. The main difference I saw in A & V is a team of many photographers. In the basic packages you would get one of the lead or associate photographers but not the owner Devin. I thought for a while about whether it was wroth the $2,000 difference to have Devin photograph the wedding when all images are edited the same. Ultimately, I decided that I did not want to be disappointed or wonder what the day would look like if I ended up going with a less expensive option. So, as you can guess, photography was my splurge of the wedding. The cost of photography is as much as our venue and catering combined. Mind you, we are planning an elopement with 24 total people.
Side Note: In the picture above you can see the exact location where Jonathan proposed. He asked me to marry him under the suspension bridge in Falls Park.
Engagement sessions are super important to learn how to work with each other and loosen up, every couple should have a session with their photographer before their wedding!
For our formal outfit, I picked a dress from Magnolia Boutique, my favorite online shop. They are currently sold out of the exact dress but it was the rose colored midi dress. I’m very short, with a short torso so I definitely had to alter it. I had to pull the shoulders up to make it fit correctly. We moved onto Jonathan next. For cohesiveness, and to satisfy my OCD, we decided to go with navy and pink to help match wedding colors. After spending all day at Southpark Mall, during a quarantine, when almost all dressing rooms were closed, we ended up finding success in Banana Republic. We ended up finding Jonathan’s pants, shirt and shoes at Banana. He loved the way the pants fit. The pants were tighter and stretchy with the appearance of being dress pants. They no longer carry these pants either. I wanted him to have some kind of pattern in his shirt so we went with a basic plaid that had tones of the pink in it to tie in my dress. We happened to find blue suede shoes there too, so it ended up being a one stop shop. Win, win! Then I had to find blue shoes myself to tie my outfit back into Jonathan’s. That proved to be more challenging. Devin suggested closed toed shoes because they help elongate women’s legs, which I could use for sure. After checking out about 5 shoe stores for blue shoes I ended up finding the heels at Aldo. I also found a hat from Francesca’s to polish off the look.
Back to the planning of engagement portraits though! I really did want Bentley in some pictures with us, but not all. I know, as much as I want to deny it, Bentley will pass away one day and I don’t want all of our engagement pictures to make me sad looking at them. I figured the sunflowers would be the easiest place to bring him for portraits. The sunflowers would have far less distraction and it was closer to home. Ultimately, the sunflower field and Greenville were too far apart for Devin with A & V to be able to photograph both.
My second shooter of 7 years, Shannon, offered to take engagement portraits for us as soon as we got engaged. Since I didn’t want to bring Bentley all the way to Greenville, I asked her to come to the sunflower field and grab a few pictures of us with Bentley.
As soon as we turned onto the road where the sunflowers were, the clouds parted and miraculously, everything was dry! Shannon was a rockstar and captured exactly what we needed, and then some! I will forever cherish these few pictures with Bentley. She sent me over the RAW images and I edited them a few days later. Jonathan captured a shot of me with Shannon that I also love, at the end of the session.
We had the great idea to try to put my engagement ring, which was actually my great grandmother’s, on Bentley’s nose. Wellllll, the trick he is most famous for, is putting a treat on his nose, which he flips up and eats. Let’s just say, after one attempt, we decided the ring on his snout was a BADDDD decision!
Anchor & Veil Wedding Photography - $6500
Mileage Fee - $60
Hotel in Greenville - $195
Clothing & Hair/Makeup - $800
Total Cost - $7550
No pressure, right??
Another thing I knew was that I didn’t want to hire a photographer that I knew. I know so so many great photographers, many of whom I’ve worked with for the past 11 years in the industry. However, on my wedding day I want to be treated like a bride, not like a boss or a friend. I also didn’t want any relationships to be strained in the process. I value all of my working relationships. If I don’t like the photos or am not impressed with how the day goes, I don’t want to be upset with a friend or employee. I’ve had photographers offer to photograph my wedding for free and others that I know I could pay very little and edit myself but I want the whole experience. I think as a photographer, it’s very important to be on the other side of the camera every now and then. It allows you to relate to your clients better.
We have exactly 8 months, exactly, from our engagement day to our wedding day. We knew we needed engagement pictures quickly. With it being the summer time, my first thought was the sunflower fields, since they’re a personal favorite. However, I did want to pick a venue that was personal to our relationship as well. A & V was willing to do two locations. We decided to choose Greenville, SC since that is were Jonathan proposed. Jonathan actually went to college in Greenville at Bob Jones University. When he proposed, he did record the proposal but it was midday, high sun and you couldn’t really see how beautiful the area was in the portraits. Having portraits to remember the location and share with our families was important.
Devin came to Greenville with us and we walked around the downtown area for 3 hours. He was great! We loved how chill and laid back he was since we are both introverts. However, he was also our hype man at the same time, constantly complimenting us and being excited with what he was capturing. We knew we wanted pictures at the spot that Jonathan proposed but otherwise, we were open to areas in and around the city.
Probably the most stressful part of engagement portraits is deciding what to wear. If you know Jonathan, you know that 99% of his wardrobe is from Lululemon & Burn Boot Camp, where he is a head trainer. To get him out of his clothing comfort zone is rather difficult. Devin suggested that we go with more formal looks, which I love. But, it’s the middle of the summer, in the South, and Jonathan sweats at approximately 65 degrees so we couldn’t go too formal with too many layers.
The casual outfit was much easier for me to plan. I knew I wanted us in some form of black and jean, as it’s very trendy right now. I also felt like it would stay the test of time though. I wanted to wear a jean jacket and Jonathan didn’t own any black pants so those two things were easy. Jonathan wore his ‘Luke Bryan’ jeans. He also wore a LuLulemon shirt that he already had. He was easy, nothing needed to be purchased. For me, I ended up at Off 5th Broadway and picked up a new pair of 7 jeans in black. I ordered a tank from Target for $5. I borrowed my mom’s jean jacket which is from Hollister. Topped off the look with a fresh pair of chucks.
I had huge help with the hair & makeup from Lindsey Regan Thorne with Be Pretty Charlotte. She is located on the south side of Charlotte so if you are planning a session or live down there, she is your girl or sure. I opted for soft curls and a soft smokey eye to be similar to how I normally look, just jazzed up!
Bentley, my beagle, has been a big part of our relationship. Fun story: The first time Jonathan ever came over to my house, I made him lasagna for dinner. We sat on the couch to talk about dinner and the entire night Bentley kept sneezing. He sneezed at least 20 times, which he has never done before. We were afraid that Bentley was allergic to Jonathan. Jonathan wasn’t even wearing cologne or anything. We were both a little worried. It never happened after that night, Jonathan just had to win Bentley over. Benny was trying to scare him away!
One Thursday evening, once I knew the flowers were in full bloom, we all piled in the car together, literally trying to outrun a torrential downpour to make it down to the sunflowers for just a few good portraits. I took Bentley to daycare at Camp Wagging Tails to wear him out. I went by to visit my sweet friend Megan Oliveri at her beautiful new studio in Davidson to get a fun braid thrown in my hair in hopes that the humidity and sweat wouldn’t have me looking like a frizz ball. I picked out a dress from a fun online boutique, Joyfolie, which also had to be altered in 3 places to fit like a glove. Jonathan picked up new threads at Buckle the day of. The first thing I bought after getting engaged was actually a bowtie collar for Bentley, so he wore that.
While I calculate exactly what this cost us, enjoy a few outtakes from the session with Shannon. Red clay, beagle paws and all black case for some stressed dog parents!
