Early on in wedding planning, a coworker advised that Ryan and I sit down and separately -- without discussing our lists out loud -- write down the top three priorities we had for the wedding. What was most important to us? What could we not give up? What were we willing to splurge on?
Although our reception was a key part of both our lists (food and merriment in particular), we also cared about our photographer...a lot. These are the photos that will become our only tangible memories of one of the most important days of our relationship.
So choosing a photographer was hard. Even finding a photographer was hard, and we live in one of the most populous cities in the country. We didn't trust a lot of the larger registries of photographers, because we didn't want the photos to feel mass-produced or to lack personality. We also didn't want to find a boutique-style photographer who charged $10,000 for 8 hours of photos in a single day. (We quickly found out that you can spot these photographers just from their websites. If their prices page is called "Investment," it'll cost you a barely-used Subaru.)
We finally limited possible photographers based on two criteria: cost (because we're grad students) and "feel." We just sat together on the couch and went through portfolio after portfolio until we found the ones that spoke to the atmosphere we wanted for our own wedding. If you know us, you know we love everything to do with Arizona -- so cacti were a must. Natural, beautiful sunlight was a top priority. Embracing places in our local area that we knew and loved was hugely important.
And that led us straight to Marisa Belle Photography, who was our top choice. Like Ryan, she's a native Arizonan, and her love for the desert clearly shows. She recommended that we meet for coffee to make sure our personalities synced -- something neither of us would have even considered, but that ended up being so important. She knew how to put us at ease in front of the camera, which led to natural smiles, laughter, and movement in our photos. And most importantly, she was up for snapping photos anywhere we wanted, so we chose three locations that have been important in our relationship: Hole-in-the-Rock, the Desert Botanical Gardens, and Papago Park.
