Southwest Wedding Under the Stars | Haley & Kevin at Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab

Haley and Kevin’s gorgeous southwest wedding under the stars was a top favorite for 2019. Summers in Southern Utah can be brutal, like 110 degrees for weeks on end. It was SO refreshing to photograph their beautiful outdoor wedding in the middle of August at Angels Landing at Best Friends Animal Society! This place is perfectly sheltered under a beautiful red cliff canopy, there is tons of shade, a natural spring, and a beautiful grassy field. We’re talking 85 degrees during the day people! Perfection. Beyond the beautiful setting though, it was such a joy to work with Haley and Kevin. These are two of the sweetest and most genuine humans. I love their belly laughs and silly moments together, and the way they adore their family and friends. There were so many beautiful and sweet moments on this day. I loved being part of it. I thought I would include a little snippet from their questionnaire because it perfectly describes them and their wedding day!

“We love animals, open space, and nature. We love this location because it takes us out of our usual grind and into our favorite place to explore, have deep conversations about our relationship, life, and enjoy the natural beauty. Best Friends is particularly special to us because they inspired us to overcome a huge obstacle and make us a stronger, more compassionate team. We adopted our dog Cassie, who quite frankly was a terrifying, aggressive, and unpredictable dog. We were told multiple times to euthanize her. We felt like failures and very alone because no one in the area would work with her due to her unusual triggers. Best Friends inspired us to persevere and work beyond our perceived limitations, which led us to fall in love and help this poor little dog heal and safely fit into society. It truly was a mutual rescue. We are so grateful to Best Friends and the animal rescue community for teaching us that we really can make the impossible possible and showing us the priceless reward of saving a life. We are over the moon to celebrate unconditional love and commitment at this overwhelmingly compassionate and selfless place. We hope to bare our emotions, dance the night away, laugh and celebrate with loved ones, eat Chef Shon's incredible vegetarian food, and soak in the sights during our big day.”

Vendor List:

Wedding Planning: Forevermore Events
Floral: Bloomers
Beauty: Tracy Sotirakis
Bridal Shop: Anomalie
Catering: Sego Restaurant
Entertainment: Festival Sounds
Paper Details: Black Julep Studio
Rentals: St. George Party Rentals
Cake: Sego Restaurant
Venue: Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

Lauren & Thomas Destination Wedding at Lowe's Hotel in Downtown Chicago

Thomas and I go way back. We worked together at the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, DC in 2008. We both started as interns and got hired after a few months— Thomas in Communications and me in Policy. During our time in DC we became great friends. His friendship and influence is something that I have always treasured. After CDF, Thomas worked for Teach for America in the Mississippi Delta for several years and then went to law school. It had been a few years since we were in touch so when Thomas emailed me to tell me he was engaged to his high school sweetheart, Lauren (who is also a badass educator and administrator herself) I was beyond excited! To top it off, they had decided to bring all of their loved ones to Chicago to celebrate their union. Thomas and Lauren had been a thing since they were like 14 so it was a much anticipated and exciting event for everyone.

One thing Joey and I loved so much about Thomas and Lauren’s wedding is how much the day was about their people just as much as it was about the two of them getting married. From the first night of the rehearsal dinner it was evident how loved this couple is and how much they loved their friends and family. It was so special to witness.

There were so many highlights from this day, but I want to share a few things that stood out to me. During the reception, Thomas gave a toast and mentioned that his 85 year old grandmother was there that night. He talked about how during her time it would have been illegal for him to marry Lauren. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room when he spoke. He talked about progress and how grateful he is for the people who came before him who fought for him and Lauren to have the right to be married.

Another favorite highlight is just a fun one. I have literally never seen such an awesome garter toss. Thomas and his groomsmen did a full on lip sync and dance for their ladies and it was hilarious! My favorite part was probably everyone on the sidelines cheering them on.

All in all, this weekend was perfect and full of so much love and celebration. I am grateful that Joey and I had the opportunity to capture this special day for Thomas and Lauren and their loved ones.

Vendor List:
Wedding Planner: Storybook Weddings and Events
Beauty: Blush and Burgundy
Cinema: Bon Photage
Entertainment: First in Flight Entertainment, DJ Akib
Floral: The Flower Firm
Rentals: BBJ Linen
Stationary: LBrown Design and Paperie
Transportation: Windy City Trolley
Venue and Catering: Loews Chicago

Kiki & Peter Intimate Destination Wedding in Zion | As Featured in Rocky Mountain Bride

Kiki and Peter met through a mutual friend after college, while both living in Wisconsin. The two hit off over a Brewers’ game and quickly became inseparable. From Madison to Milwaukee, the couple dated long distance for over a year and a half. Kiki and Peter eventually moved to Phoenix together so Kiki could start grad school. After her graduation ceremony, Peter asked Kiki to marry hm in front of their families and closest friends. Overjoyed she said “Yes!” They planned an intimate and relaxed wedding in Zion for that summer. After visiting Zion a few summers prior, Kiki and Peter fell in love with the park and the charm of Springdale, Utah so they opted for a southwestern destination wedding! It was so special for the couple the share the beauty of Zion and the culture of the Southwest with their intimate guest list.

From the bride: “Peter and I will never forget sneaking away for an intimate hike together the day before the wedding. We were truly able to slow down, soak it all in and capture epic shots with our amazing photographer before walking down the aisle. I don’t think either of us have ever felt such a strong sense of belonging.”

Vendor List
Wedding Planning: Forevermore Events
Floral: Bloomers
Beauty: Tracy Sotirakis
Bridal Shop: A & BE Bridal Shop
Catering: Padre Canyon Foods
Dress Designer: Rue de Seine
Entertainment: Festival Sounds
Invites: Minted
Menswear: Tom James
Rentals: St. George Party Rentals
Cake: Cupcakes by Julie
Venue: Zion Mountain Villa

Moab Elopement Wild with Love & Crazy for Adventure | As Featured in Style Me Pretty

“Say the most important day of your life is quickly approaching. And you’ve got two paths ahead of you. You can do what’s expected, or do something that truly represents who you are: Wild with love and crazy for adventure. To Ariel and Andrew, their path was clear: Take off and elope! To the canyon lands of Utah.”

Ariel and Andrew had the most epic adventure elopement in Moab back in 2015 before it was even a thing. When Ariel first contacted me about photographing their wedding in Moab she mentioned that her father is a backcountry pilot and that they fly together a lot, and that she was thinking about flying one of these planes to her wedding ceremony. As you can imagine I was pretty excited (and also terrified that I would have to ride in the plane, which thankfully, I did not). Joey and I photographed this wedding together and we truly loved it! Andrew and his production team/best friends were awesome to work with and the whole two days was like a big party. We started our day bright and early and followed the Jeeps into this beautiful landing strip at the base of a canyon, right near the river. The road getting there was a bit sketchy but Joey had a blast navigating it! We were on standby while the guys scouted the location to make sure it was still safe to land after the rain that week, but all looked good and clear, so we started our pilgrimage to this epic spot.

Ariel and Andrew built their wedding around their own ideas and relationship and said adieu to any traditions that didn’t felt authentic to them. I loved this. They made a pretty amazing film about it too. Andrew owns a film production company so the whole thing was incredible. Their film made its rounds on the internet when it was first featured on Style Me Pretty. I highly recommend watching it! The reason I say that they are the ones who made adventure elopements a things, is because, well they are! I can’t say I’ve a single bride after this who has flown a plane to her own wedding, or any groom who built his own chuppa the day before the wedding by foraging sticks from the desert where they would exchange vows.

The night before the wedding, we joined Ariel and Andrew and their families to photograph their lovely rehearsal dinner at Sorrell River Ranch. We met up with the couple before the dinner for a fun portrait shoot near Fisher Tower. The Moab desert is incredible. The day after the wedding we hiked Arches National Park and I got to see Delicate Arch for the first time. It was an incredible experience.

Thanks again to this wonderful couple, their production crew, and families! You can see the feature over at Style Me Pretty here.

And watch their wedding film below!

Wes & Leilan Zion Ponderosa Wedding

This wedding was packed with the most beautiful and fun moments. Joey and I absolutely adored working with these two and their awesome friends and family.

Wes and Leilan planned a destination wedding right outside Zion National Park so that they could enjoy a fun vacation with their closest loved ones and share a space in such a beautiful location with everyone. Their wedding day was such an incredible celebration, filled with tender moments and a lot of laughter and dancing. I always love the speeches at weddings, and this wedding has some really sweet moments during the toasts. I shared a lot from this day because there were just too many not to post. You can tell how much Wes and Leilan value the people in their lives.

You can see their beautiful portrait session, taken the day before the wedding, right here. It was so beautiful!

Thanks to all of the lovely vendors we got to work with on this one. It’s always a good wedding when these folks are involved!

Planning/Design: Forevermore Events
Floral: Bloomers
Venue: Zion Mountain Villa
Rentals: St. George Party Rentals
Hair: Tracys Makeup and Hair
Catering: Padre Canyon Foods
Cake: Cupcakes by Julie
Signage: Black Julep Studio
DJ: Festival Sounds

Photo Native

This year I had the honor of teaching a class and leading a shoot at Photo Native. Photo Native is a workshop for photographers and creatives, a three event with an incredibly supportive community. I taught a class on balancing your art and your business (more on this later) and my styled shoot was about “honoring the imperfect.”

First, let me tell you, it’s pretty tricky to put a styled shoot together about honoring imperfections. Styled shoots are all about photographing the perfect. The moments aren’t real. The couple is often just two models who don’t even know each other. For this shoot I wanted to offer my students a space where they could have freedom to create and experiment and photograph a real couple, capturing and cultivating real moments.

I decided to have two sets of models and several stations for my students to photograph. I’ve been a student at workshops in the past and it’s always stressful trying to climb over each other to get the same shot. This way, I had hoped that everyone would get to spread out and work with the people individually and have plenty of time to photograph the amazing details our vendors had staged for us.

We started off the shoot by gathering together to talk about my intentions for the class, and then I had my lovely students frolic on the beach first to get our playful energy and creative spirits going! It was so much fun. I will post more behind the scenes photos from the whole conference.

I finished this shoot completely full of gratitude for this opportunity and for my students who trusted me to share my story with them.

I am forever grateful to the incredible, talented team of vendors who travelled from Utah to California to put this shoot together. They trekked up and down hundreds of stairs, carrying all of this gorgeousness with them, and pulled off a beautiful shoot. I could not have done this without them.

Workshop: Photo Native @photonative
Photographer: M. Felt Photography @mfeltphotography
Design: Forevermore Events @forevermoreevents
Floral: Bloomers Flowers @bybloomers
Hair/Makeup: Sarah Boling, Lunatic Fringe Salon @sarahbolinghairmua
Models: Tigerlily Trammell @tigerxily
Ava Nania @avaguavacado
James Herb: @james_k_herb
Cake: Cupcakes by Julie @cupcakejulie
Rentals: St. George Party Rentals @stgeorgepartyrentals
Paper Details: Black Julep Studio @black.julep.studio
Dress: Wilderly Bride @wilderlybride

Organic Wedding Zion National Park

January and Brittany had a beautiful, relaxed wedding day surrounded by their closest friends and loved ones. They wanted a wedding that was focused on the beauty of the natural, organic landscape of Zion National Park. Forevermore Events designed and planned the event, and the natural wild floral arrangements were beautifully designed by Bloomers. The ceremony arch is one of the most stunning elements of this wedding- made from foraged floral and tree branches that would handle the dry desert heat.

I loved the simplicity of each bride's wedding dress and hair and makeup. January and Brittany are both pretty simple and laid back so they wanted a natural beauty look for their wedding day. I loved the wedding dresses that nicely complimented one another against the soft pink and green hues of the Zion landscape.

Zion has become such a popular destination for weddings in the past few years, in fact, most of my clients these days are destination brides eloping or planning a wedding in Zion and surrounding areas. Because of this rise in popularity, the park has become very crowded and there aren't as many places and opportunities to get married within park boundaries. Zion Mountain Villa is just outside of East Zion and is a perfect destination for Zion couples looking for a laid-back atmosphere with the option of driving 15 minutes to the park for photos on their wedding day.

Design/Planning: Forevermore Events

Floral: Bloomers

Hair/Makeup: Tracys makeup and hair

Catering: Kitchen435

Cake: Sweet Cakes By Karen

Furniture Rental: St. George Party Rental

DJ: Festival Sounds

Should You Do a First Look at Your Wedding? Advice from a Pro

Hi there! Thanks for visiting. I’m McKenzi, a seasoned wedding photographer based in Southern Utah. I’ve been in the business for over 8 years so I’ve seen my fair share of all kinds of weddings! My experience in the industry has given me a good amount of knowledge and expertise that I love to share with my clients. I hope you find this advice helpful and please feel free to reach out to me directly if you’d like more info!

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One of the most common questions I get asked by my clients is if I recommend a first look on the wedding day.

I’m sharing my thoughts on first looks from the perspective of a professional photographer who has been in the business for a lot of good years. I thought it would be helpful for you to read about the pros and cons of having a first look and then decide that if that something you would like to do for your day! I also included a section about opting for a Day After/Bridal Session if you choose not to do a first look and still want plenty of time for gorgeous portraits. 

Pros to a First Look

Time to Connect Before the Ceremony and Take a Breath. 

Let me tell you what I love about first looks. It’s one of the few times in your day that you will have a quiet moment together to soak it all in. From my perspective, I love that I get to spend time with the bride and groom separately before this moment. They’re getting ready, making the final touches before it’s time to go, feeling all of those excited and jittery vibes. If I haven’t met them before, it’s extra special because I don’t yet know how they are when they’re together. I just know them as individuals. Nerves are high, everyone is anxiously awaiting this moment. And then after what I’m sure feels like forever, it happens. They see each other and I can actually feel the emotional exhale. It’s so beautiful and sweet. It’s like these two people are finally complete and I can see how they just fit perfectly. If the day was stressful before this moment, it always seems to calm down after the first look. It’s a time to connect before the ceremony and just be together.

Now I understand that it’s obviously not just the two of you during this moment and you might be like “But I don’t want to spend this time being interrupted for photos!” This is the part where I’m awesome- ha! I know that this is your time to connect and share this special moment together, and it’s my job to quietly and unobtrusively document and give you a little space. I’m usually quite aware of what you need and I know when it’s time to start taking the posey photos. It also helps if we have a good amount of time for the first look session so we’re not rushed.

No Distractions.

As I mentioned previously, this is the first time you will see each other before you exchange your vows and it allows you plenty of alone time to soak in that moment without any distractions. This will also help you soak in the ceremony a little more because you’ll be able to focus more on that moment.

More Time Hanging with Your People After the Ceremony.

This is probably the number one reason why couples choose to do a first look. If you take the majority of your photos before the ceremony, you will have plenty of time to hang out with your friends and family after the ceremony. If you wish, you can take your couple wedding portraits, wedding party, and family portraits before the ceremony. Making it entirely possible for you to actually attend your own cocktail hour. Imagine that!

Cons to a First Look

Earlier start time to the Day.

I recommend setting aside at least an hour for a first look and wedding portraits, and another 30 minutes to an hour if you’re going to do wedding party and family photos at that time too. This means that you will need start everything earlier in the day so you can be ready in time! I also recommend setting aside about 20 minutes before the ceremony so you can chill out, freshen up, and have a quiet moment before everything starts.

Lighting Isn’t Always Ideal.

Since the first look usually happens early-to-mid-afternoon, the lighting isn’t as nice as it is before sunset. However, we always make it work! Depending on where you are getting married I’ll find a good spot to do the first look. I have a lot of couples who get married in or near Zion National Park and they usually like to set aside some time to drive into the park for the first look session. This is always beautiful! But keep in mind that most of the photos you see of a couple in Zion are taken at golden hour or right at sunset. See my next section about a Day After/Bridal Session if you want lots of killer sunset images. Even with this, I always recommend setting aside at least 15-20 minutes during your reception for sunset portraits if that is important to you.

Pressure to Have the Perfect Reaction.

This is just my opinion but I’ve noticed lately that a lot of grooms feel pressure to have the “perfect” reaction at the first look. I think especially with the rise of Instagram and the desire for those epic picture perfect moments, it feels a little bit like our desire for first looks as the purpose of making your day more seamless and relaxed has turned in to another thing you “must” have. 

I always tell my grooms to not worry about what their reaction “should” be or what it’s supposed to look like. That’s not what it’s about. You don’t need to cry and freak out if that’s not you! Just focus on the moment. Hug one another. Kiss. Jump up and down. Whatever you want! I’m not going to interrupt and make you do something that isn’t authentic to how you feel. I’ll let that moment unfold as it does and be there to document along the way.

The Tradition.

The tradition of the look on the grooms face when you walk down aisle is no joke. It’s a real thing that is super special. The energy between you radiates throughout the entire place. It can be truly amazing. So all things aside, I totally get wanting that moment. Heck, that’s what we did at our own wedding, so I can definitely relate!

On that note, if this moment is super important to you, I most definitely 100% recommend hiring a second photographer as well. Joey (my awesome husband a.k.a kick ass second shooter) is a total pro at capturing the look on your groom’s face as you walk down the aisle, which allows me to fully focus on the bride as she makes her grand entrance!

Additional Advice

I do my best to be unobtrusive during the first look, but there is a lot of coordinating to make it happen! First looks work best if you hire two photographers.

Joey and I are pros at coordinating the first look to make sure the bride and groom don’t see each other, and also capturing the reaction on both of your faces when you see each other. 

There is a lot of guidance at the beginning of the first look, but once it’s time I stay quiet and totally out of the way and let you have your moment! I always encourage my couples to stay connected to each other after the initial reveal and that I will let you know when it’s time to “look at me and smile”. My goal is capture that sweet moment between the two of you and that works best when you’re not worried about what the camera is doing .

What About a Day After/Bridal Session?

A day after session is often called “Bridals” here in Utah (yeah, Utah is weird sometimes). I have a lot of destination wedding clients that always ask about this so I thought I’d include it in this post! The portrait session can also take place before the wedding- which negates the first look at the ceremony thing- but it allows you time to get amazing portraits at an awesome location with great light.

A day after or bridal session is great for wedding couples who may want to venture out the beautiful area where they’re getting married but don’t want to ditch their wedding guests for two hours- lookin’ at you, Zion weddings.

You can opt for this session after the wedding if the walking down the aisle moment is important to you. You can also do a bridal session before the wedding. We can coordinate a first look at this time so you can still have those photos of that special moment. If gorgeous sunsets, not being rushed for time, and having lots of beautiful images are your thing, I most definitely recommend a day after/bridal session.

Thanks for reading! Interested in having wedding photos that capture the feeling and love? You can reach out to me here. I’d love to hear from you!