It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Now that I've shared with you where Neill and I will be exchanging vows and then partying away the night, I'm so relieved to finally be able to share our amazingly wonderful photographer with you. Meet Alix Klingenberg. Cue swooning.

Believe me, this was a hard thing to keep from you. But I really really really wanted to tell you about Volo first and so I had to keep my lips sealed. You know how hard that is for me. But now I can squeal to my hearts delight! Through this post I'm going to dazzle you with her delightful and beautiful photographs so you can see for yourself how great of a find she is!


Now, from the top!

I knew from the beginning that our wedding photography was one of the most important things to me. I was willing to compromise on my dress, but I was NOT willing to go with a photographer that I didn't feel 100% confident in. So with this in mind, Neill and I gave each other a homework assignment. Mission? Go our separate ways and do as much online research on photographers as we could stand and then present our findings to each other at a designated time. This worked for us for two big reasons. It gave us time to each develop our own opinion and it was very helpful to have a scheduled meeting time to talk wedding. Our final compiled list had 15 people on it!


After looking at so many pictures we decided that we wanted a photographer with a photojournalistic style. Someone who could capture what was going on and not just rely on posed moments was definitely important to us. But, we also knew that very few people look good in true candid shots. So, we wanted a photographer who could help people look their best while also letting their natural smiles and personalities shine through.


As much as we wanted pictures of the ceremony and our guests having fun at the ceremony, it was equally important to us to have a photographer who took beautiful couple shots. Again, we wanted to look like a naturally beautiful version of ourselves.


Another quality that was important to us was the post-processing style. After doing so much research, it became evident that the perfect shot was only half of stunning wedding photographer. The other half? Post processing. With each photographer having a somewhat different style, we wanted to make sure to pay attention to what styles we liked. Some photographers over-saturated all of their colors to really makes things look edgy and pop, other photographers made all of their photographs looks old and vintage, and others went for a more natural look. I tended to like a mix between the natural looking and more whimsical or vintage pictures and so that is something we kept an eye out for.


Of course, we could not ignore price. Some of the photographers on our list would have cost us almost 6,000 dollars for everything we wanted! Umm . . . no thank you! And while these photographers had slick websites, we didn't feel heir pictures were noticeably different than the less expensive options. So we set out looking for a photographer who offered a package of 10 hours of photography, a second shooter, all images on a DVD for us to use as we please, an engagement session, a big flush mounted photo-album. We also asked about what the rates would be to make a photo-album for our parents as well.



Even considering how important all of these factors are, perhaps the deciding personality was personality. Both Neill and I really liked Alix upon first meeting her. She came prepared to the meeting and was professional, but also at the same time completely down to earth and friendly. We just *clicked* and I felt like I could be myself around her. I definitely picked up some hippy crunchy vibes from her and you know how much I lover the hippies. She is fabulous and I might have a friend crush on her.

So there you have it friends! I can't wait for our engagement shoot!