Wedding Photographer in Baltimore Maryland – My Wedding Story

As a wedding photographer in Baltimore Maryland I often think my clients would be surprised to hear how simple and non-detailed my wedding was, especially considering how detail oriented and creative I am when photographing their Baltimore weddings. My wedding story is only exciting in it’s absolute lackluster details and personalization, haha! Of course, 14 years ago when I got married, I wasn’t a wedding photographer. At that time I had downgraded in the world’s eyes, and in my paycheck’s eyes, by going back to my job working at Panera Bread and leaving behind the seemingly great job working for a law firm processing case intakes for evictions and foreclosures (doesn’t that sound fun?) The stress of the toxic work environment and questionably unethical employee treatment actually almost kept me from meeting my husband, believe it or not. I was supposed to attend an event that would’ve had us meet face to face but was threatened with loss of my job if I didn’t stay to work overtime until all the work my team was given was completed. Thankfully, as fate would have it, my sister attended that event and met my husband and quickly ran to tell me how kind and adorable he was, convincing me to reach out to him on social media.

Needless to say, owning my own business as a professional wedding photographer in Baltimore MD is by far the best job I have ever had, especially compared to the sketchy law firm (yiiikes), but it isn’t a job I had under my belt at the time of my wedding as a wee 20 year old bride. One of the many things I thoroughly enjoy about being a wedding photographer in Baltimore MD is seeing all the accents, coordinating details and love poured into the weddings I am honored enough to photograph. These incredible weddings have details everywhere that all fit together to create a cohesive world that each guest gets to walk into, spotting new details here and there like Mickey heads in Disney World (if you don’t know about the hidden Mickeys in WDW, check it out here, it’s so neat!) My own wedding had very few details, which part of me regrets, although I know the details and decorating choices I would have made at twenty are very different to what I love now in my mid thirties, so my regret is short lived whenever this thought tugs at my heart. We were 19 and 20 years old (I know!) when we got married and we paid for the wedding ourselves, so budgets were tight. We were gifted some money by a few family members that helped a bit, but the vast majority of the cost was all on our shoulders, so every dollar was examined before being spent. We skipped in a lot of BIG areas for a wedding that, now looking back I think, holy moly, what was I thinking? Oh yeah, we were working with a tiny budget. But still..

For one, we didn’t hire a professional photographer, which to me, now, as a professional photographer, is just the craziest thing to think about. A close family friend who did photography offered to do the photography for us as a gift, which was such an enormous blessing to us! If I could go back in time and do it again, I would still have our dear friend do the photography for us again. When I think about where we could’ve gotten the money for a “stranger” professional wedding photographer in Baltimore MD, I can’t think of anywhere we could’ve squeezed that money from, because we skipped in almost every area possible, which leads me to the next detail that, though necessary at the time, still appauls me. 

I got my hair styled at HAIR CUTTERY. HAIR. CUTT.ER.Y. And oh my gosh.. it was just, not good. I wasn’t really thrilled with it the day of, but my god, looking back on it I wonder how anyone looked me in the eye and told me how beautiful I looked. I was growing my hair out from a pixie cut and it was relatively short, hitting about half way down my neck. I wanted to wear my hair down but my family told me it would look better up, so as an impressionable, people pleasing 20 year old without strong opinions on my own wedding, I went for an up-do that would make any Great Aunt Louise jealous. I did a trial run, reluctantly told her I felt like I looked like a Grandma, my Mom said she disagreed but the hair stylist tried to make it less elderly for me on the wedding day. It was certainly less old ladyish but not by much. Oh poor naive Rachel. Just so excited to get married, I didn’t even pay attention to the way I looked, which is why I did my own make up even though I didn’t really wear make up and had no business doing my own make up. But alas, my D-I-Y bridal make up really matched the rest of my look and the wedding so I guess it wasn’t too much of a stand out faux pas. 

D-I-Y was the name of the game with this wedding because D-I-Y is cheap, and cheap is how it needed to be, which is why your girl didn’t hire a professional florist. You heard that right. I did my own floral bouquet, my bridesmaids bouquets and we didn’t really have flowers anywhere else for decoration. I THINK we did hire a local florist to make the corsages and boutonnieres which was a relief because who knows how those would’ve turned out. I do still really love my bouquet which was made from silk and real feel flowers in rich, jewel fall colors. I still have my bridal bouquet tucked away, protected in a cedar chest in my bedroom. Occasionally when I am looking for something in the chest, I pull it out and remember how excited I was when I was staying up late making my bridal bouquet, knowing I would hold it while I walked down the aisle to marry my best friend. That is the one aspect of my D-I-Y wedding that I am grateful for. Faux flowers that will never die to hold and remember that special day. 

We were lucky enough to get a great all inclusive package with Willow Valley Resort in Lancaster PA before they were purchased by Doubletree Resort by Hilton (link here). This is where all our D-I-Y scrimping and saving really came to fruition! There was a beautiful, old chapel with stained glass and a steeple on the property that was a dream to have our ceremony in. It was the quintessential chapel I always wanted to get married in, located on the same property just a walk across the parking lot to the indoor reception area. The reception area was gorgeous with enormous live palm trees growing out of the terracotta tile floors, wrapped in twinkling lights to create a twilight outdoor vibe for our indoor winter wedding. The reception area was a courtyard area with the small balconies and windows of some of the rooms wrapping around the indoor courtyard to further give the feeling of celebrating outdoors in a quaint little city while we danced under a ceiling that was stories above us. 

One thing I wish I could go back and change would be doing a first look at the wedding. We spent so much of our day apart, waiting to see each other then spending the rest of the day whirling around completing the different tasks on the wedding day list. Family photos, couple’s photos, first dance, dinner, polska apron dance, speeches, dinner, cake cutting, on and on and on.. So little of our day was actually spent together. We did do the first look at our vow renewal which I mention below, though, which was a really neat thing to be able to experience both. This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about the first look experience for my wedding clients. It REALLY is an amazing gift to give yourself on your wedding day, and the photographs can’t be replicated in your final gallery.

There are so many more details, or often a lack there of, that I haven’t mentioned, but the truth is, despite how non-aesthetic and fashionable the wedding was, it was still one of the best days of my life that I remember so fondly. Barely a single guest stayed in their seat during the reception as we all danced, laughed and celebrated. Our honeymoon was a meager one night stay in one of the rooms at Willow Valley Resort that was included in the wedding package (It’s been 14 years and I’m still waiting for my honeymoon but these three kids keep cramping our style). Around 10 years of being together, we decided to do a private vow renewal, just me, my husband and a professional photographer who at the time was a friend and a mentor. Those pictures really embody our relationship, styles and adult faces (ha!) more than the wedding photos from when we were teenagers and gave us a chance to do some things we didn’t get a chance to do before, like read really personal vows and spend the whole event together. 

My advice to every couple wedding planning is to go all out if it makes you happy and don’t sweat the small stuff. The real prize is your marriage, and no amount of Hair Cuttery Grandma hair and fake flowers can touch that. 

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