These are the questions we get asked most often. Underneath a lot of them is the same one: will I know what to do on the day? Almost nobody does, and it matters far less than you would think. We’ll tell you where to stand when it counts, and the rest of the time you get to just be at your own wedding.
How we work
What is documentary wedding photography?
It means we photograph your wedding as it happens instead of staging it. We spend the day watching for where something is about to happen, and then we’re there when it does. Some photographers call it candid. It’s the same idea.
Do you pose us, or is everything candid?
We give direction. Walk toward me, stand close, talk to each other. Then we leave you alone. Most of what a prompt is doing is giving you something to do with your hands so you stop thinking about the camera.
What if we’re awkward in front of a camera?
Almost every couple says this before we start, so often that we’d worry if you didn’t! Being uncomfortable on camera usually just means you’re not a performer, which works in your favor here. Stand near each other, talk, and let us worry about the photographs.
Will we still get portraits of just the two of us?
Yes. We photograph the two of you and close family groupings at every wedding. It usually takes twenty or thirty minutes rather than an hour and a half, and we spend most of that walking you toward decent light and then getting out of the way.
Can we get a group photo with our friends looking at the camera?
Yes, and please do ask! We love taking them. We just won’t be circulating through the reception rounding people up on our own, so if you want one, grab everybody and come find us. It takes about thirty seconds.
Will we know where you are during the day?
Probably not, and that’s on purpose. People’s faces change when they remember a camera is pointed at them, so we work quietly and often from a distance. Most guests are surprised afterward at how many photographs exist of them.
What will our gallery look like?
It runs in order, start to finish. We spend more time on sequence than on any single frame: what follows what, where to slow down, what to leave out. Most couples tell us that going through it feels like being back in the day.
Whether we’re a fit
Who is your approach best for?
Couples who trust our eye and don’t need to approve every frame. Couples who care most about how the day felt. It helps if you’re relaxed about not being camera-ready every second, and if you’d rather your guests spend the evening at a wedding than at a photo shoot.
Who is it probably not right for?
If you have a long list of must-have posed shots, we’ll frustrate each other. Those photographs are legitimate, we’re just not set up to work from a shot list. Same goes if extended family formals are the priority, or if not knowing exactly where to stand would make you anxious all day.
Our guide to wedding photography styles walks through every approach with honest pros and cons.
Planning a Wisconsin wedding
When is the best time of year to get married in Wisconsin?
September, if we’re picking. Warm days, the trees still full, and the July humidity gone. That said, we’ve had good weddings in every month of the year. Summer is the easiest to plan around, fall color runs a shorter window than people expect, mid-to-late May is mild and underbooked, and winter works if you commit to it.
See our season-by-season breakdown.
What happens if it rains on our wedding day?
We’d take rain over ninety degrees most days. Rain closes a wedding in on itself, and some of our favorite photographs have come out of it. Buy a few clear umbrellas when you book and then stop watching the forecast.
Should we worry about booking a July wedding?
July is usually the peak of Wisconsin’s heat and humidity, and it changes a day more than couples plan for. Shade becomes the thing that matters most, for the ceremony and for wherever people are standing around beforehand. We got married in July ourselves and had a beautiful day, so it’s far from a rule.
More on wedding day light and Wisconsin’s best wedding venues.
Working with us
How long have you been photographing weddings?
More than 15 years. We started in 2007 and have photographed over 275 weddings since, as a husband-and-wife team based in the Driftless Region near Viroqua. The main thing that time buys you is calm. We’ve watched enough weddings go sideways to know that most of what feels like a crisis at four o’clock is invisible in the photographs.
What are your packages and pricing?
Full wedding coverage starts at $4,800 for 2026, or around $5,200 for weddings further from southern Wisconsin, where we’re based. Intimate weddings and elopements start at $2,000. Those are starting points, and the real number depends on your location, your date, and how much of the day you want covered.
Do you travel, and what does it cost?
Yes, and it’s already built into the number above, for the engagement session as well as the wedding. There’s no separate travel line and nothing gets added on later.
Is an engagement session included?
Depends on the package. The larger ones include it, and it can be added to any of them. We’ll go through exactly what’s in yours when we talk.
How far in advance should we book?
Most weddings book six to eighteen months out. We’ve also taken weddings a few weeks out when the date happened to be open, so please ask even if yours is coming up soon!
Do you both shoot every wedding?
For full wedding coverage, yes, always both of us. Two people see different things, and with a full guest list there’s more going on than one person can be in the room for. For intimate weddings under 75 guests and elopements it’s often just Ray, since a small group doesn’t need two cameras on it.
How long until we get our gallery?
Eight weeks for the full gallery. About a week after the wedding we send a small preview, just a handful of images, so there’s something to look at and share while the rest gets edited.
How many photos will we get?
Most full weddings land between 500 and 900 photographs. It depends on how long we’re there and how much is happening, so a six-hour day and a nine-hour day come out differently. Under 500 is rare unless the day itself was short.
What should we expect before the wedding day?
About a month out we send a short questionnaire. Fill in as much of it as is useful to you; there’s no minimum. We follow the day as it happens either way, and we’ve shown up to weddings without a schedule and been fine. What the answers really do is tell us who to watch for, so we know which uncle is going to cry.
For the questions that aren’t about photography, our Wisconsin wedding planning guide covers the whole day in the order you’ll plan it.
