Wedding Photographers

In the wedding business I see lots of amazing wedding and engagement photos and a lot of them I want to frame and keep. My favorite photos are not the posed formal shots with everyone standing in a line wearing their pretty smiles ... yawn. The photos I love are the ones in between those shots, when everyone is laughing, not thinking about the camera, not even looking at the camera. The ones where you see the love AND the laughter in their eyes. Happy people make ME happy.

The thing that sold me on MY wedding photographer was that he was someone I could picture throwing back a beer with, hanging out with the families, laughing and having fun with when there wasn't a camera involved (all of which, by the way, we have done together over the years). I fell in love with him so much that he has taken almost every family photo of us. Ever. (My husband was ready to hire him as soon as he saw the picture on his office wall of groomsmen lined up in the four point stance at Husky stadium, using a champange bottle as the ball, complete with a man in motion in the background and the bride as the quarterback - I still want a copy of that one *ahem*).

What I hope for those of you heading to the altar, or even those of you looking for some fun family pictures, is to make sure you have the same happy feeling. This is someone who will play a significant role in your wedding, so hopefully you click, you get each other AND you can laugh and relax together. Test them out for an engagement session, and make sure you have some FUN! Make sure you laugh. And make sure you are all on the same page. Please, for gawds sake, skip the posing and just laugh.

Check out some of these engagement session pics, by my rockstar photogapher Craig Larsen. Don't they look like they are having a good time? Don't you just want to hang with him? Don't you just want to see that afore mentioned Husky stadium photo (*hint*).

And, on a similar note, how freaking cute are these couples? Thanks, Craig, for letting me borrow the pictures!