Bride-to-be Blogger Kathleen: Wedding Photography!


Deb: Um, hello. Would you like to look like this?

Napoleon Dynamite: [Napoleon takes the photo and looks at it.] This is a girl.

Deb: Because for a limited time only, Glamour Shots by Deb are 75 percent off.

One of the biggest fears I had when beginning all this wedding planning stuff was that we would end up with Glamour Shot style wedding photographs. I can’t stand forced photos, let alone corny posed shots in which you feel like you need to have blue and red laser beams behind your head. Not to mention, Christian and I can never be serious about anything. We wanted someone that would capture the fun-loving people we are without any restrictions. I feel like the best photographs are the ones that are captured when you’re busy living—not when someone is telling you to “smile like you actually like each other.”

It’s not hard to find a good photographer in the Philadelphia area—there are tons of them. But, again, we are working with a rather tight budget. So, I put the wedding magazines to work. I compiled a list of all the photographers that were listed as $-$$, went online and started looking at their galleries. I saw some really great stuff, but I just didn’t see anything that screamed KJ and Christian. One day, out of frustration, I started a frantic online search (of course we still had plenty of time, but I knew the best photographers are always booked a year in advance). I have no idea what kind of word mixtures I was typing into Google, but whatever I put in brought me to Allebach Photography: “The Home of the Tattooed Bride.” I checked out the website and a wave of “coolness” came over me. I immediately sent in a request for pricing information, bookmarked the site and sent the link to Christian to obtain his thoughts. Christian loved it, so all we had to do was pray they would fit into our budget.

Becca from Allebach responded to my request with a common package pricing list (even the package names were oozing with coolness). Much to our surprise, there was a package that fit (with some minor adjustments) into our price range, and we were excited to set up time with Mike Allebach to see if our personalities meshed. A day or two later, we spoke with Mike over the phone. It felt like we were talking with a good friend of ours that we hadn’t seen in a while. He was laid back, cool, and made us feel like we could be ourselves. We had asked if we could sort of “customize” one of the packages to fit our budget and he said it wouldn’t be a problem. “Awesome!  Where do we sign?”

I can’t tell you how excited I am about team Allebach. I am obsessed with Mike’s work. Everyone in his portfolio, people just look like they are having a blast—almost as if the camera isn’t even there. That, to me, is awesome. We have scheduled our engagement session for August 20th in the city, and it can’t come soon enough! Hopefully the heat dies down by then, so I don’t look like a sweaty hippo.

How did you find your photographer, and how did you decide that they were the right people for you? Was it that their business worked well for you, and did you just click with the person?

 

 

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