Two years ago when I first began my journey in to photography as a business and not just a hobby I set out to execute a Styled Shoot. My good friend Elena from Belle Imagery Portraits was in the midst of hosting her very first one and invited me to tag along. I was amazed! Watching her behind the scenes inspired me to begin planning my own. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do and after months and months of thinking I finally knew decided on the concept.

As a bride to be myself, I know that featuring a woman of color was the highest priority for this styled shoot. Diversity and inclusion in the wedding industry is ever growing and I wanted to highlight more of the couples that are underrepresented in various forms (size, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation to name a few). From there I decided that I wanted to play off the richness of the color Emerald as green is my favorite color and BOOM! there was my plan.

As the brilliant Issa Rae stated, we need to work with our colleagues who are in lateral positions to us; not the ones above- so I called on some vendors who are slightly seasoned in the industry to be bring the full vision to life.

I am so in love with this first shoot and I am so thankful for those who believed and supported this dream of mine. We were so fortunate to even have a mini feature on Souther Noir Weddings Blog.

Huge thank you to all the vendors

Bridal gown: K & B Bridals http://www.kandbbridals.com

Cake: Cakes by Kakes https://www.instagram.com/cakesbykakes/

Venue location : The Liriodendron Mansion http://www.liriodendron.com

Flowers: Roni’s Roses http://www.ronisroses.com

Make Up: Lashing Out Glam by Shayla Reeves https://www.instagram.com/lashingoutglam/

Stationery : Cygnus Studio Designs/AshleyRae Swann https://www.instagram.com/calligraphydame/

Veil/Accessories/Jewelry: Faye Daniel Design http://www.fayedanieldesigns.com

Rentals: Party Plus Tents and Rentals https://tenting.com

Linen: Nuage http://nuagedesigns.com

Model: Charlyn Nater https://www.instagram.com/iamcharlynnater/

Here are some of my favorite images below!

Hi Friends!

As I chronicle my personal process down the aisle I wanted to share something that you'd be able to benefit from- planning and preparing for your engagement session.

After you've searched and searched and searched again, you've found the photographer that speaks to your style and the way you envision your big day to be documented. You look over their website, Instagram, Facebook page, Google page, and Pinterest, and decide this is it! They have to be a part of my love story. You complete the necessary documentation and then move onto step 1: The engagement session.

For me and my Fiancé, we are a modern chic couple that loves to have fun but are also very focused and driven. So we looked for a photographer with similar qualities to us: produces great images, down to earth/personable vibe and overall just fun to be around. We want people around us who are going to add joy to our big day and moments leading up to it as well as make out day seamless. We want vendors who understand our needs, our vision and our love.

After deciding on our wedding photographer, we started to correspond with them frequently to share the vision of our engagement session: look, location, day/time, overall vibe. One way we really communicated what we were looking for was by creating a look book or vision board using Pinterest. We created a pinning board, found images we loved, and invited our photographer.

Then it came down to the actual visuals. As I am a planner, I broke down everything I need: Hairsyle, Makeup, Outfit. Below you can see what I used to create the vision I wanted for myself.

Radiant Jewel tone Wedding at The Liriodendron Mansion | Maryland Wedding Photographer

Huge thank you to all the vendors

Planning for an engagement session | Maryland wedding photographer

Your story awaits.