Alana + David - Old Courthouse Wedding

Torrential downpours, sunshine, snow, wind, and clouds. We pretty much saw the full weather spectrum.

No one really wanted to spend much time outside, so the bridal party decided it was time for shots. Alana convinced Butcher and the Brewer to open their doors just for us. You can get away with a lot when you're in a wedding dress.

We walked to our hotel at the end of the night with signs blowing off buildings and our bodies at a 45° angle.

Alana was gorgeous, and their love was tangible, but If we could make a day like this pretty, we can make anything pretty. Bring it on.

What a way to start the season.

Joe + Ali - The Covenant Sessions - Saint Louis

Returning to St. Louis is always an interesting experience for me. I was part of a suburban middle class family, and we basically went from home to school to church to Target and back. We seemed to avoid going to the city center other than for hockey or baseball games. On occasion we would head down to see the Arch, pack ourselves into a tiny pod and slowly make our way to the top. From the top of the arch you can see for miles in all directions, but the history, culture, and beauty of the city were essentially lost on me. St. Louis has a few serious, very real issues, but the city is thriving, especially now, more than I ever realized.

Joe + Ali have been dear, dear friends of ours for about as long as we can remember. The three of us were part of the same church youth group, and from the moment Mindy and I met, she and Ali started forming a bond that has grown stronger over the years. One of our favorite things about visiting Joe + Ali is that we know, not matter what, they're going to lead us to an amazing restaurant. Usually these restaurants are in parts of the city that I never saw growing up, like Rooster in South Grand, or Dressel's Public House in the Central West End. The Shaved Duck in Tower Grove, or Baily's Range downtown. Seriously, if you're a foodie, St. Louis should be on your list.

Coincidentally, today marks their nine year anniversary. In those nine years, they've been through a lot, and it's been amazing to watch their relationship flourish despite some financial hardships, losing jobs, a number of miscarriages and car accidents, and starting a business. They have never lost sight of their love for each other, and even after having four beautiful children, I've seen first hand the way they look at each other. That look may be a little more tired, and a whole lot wiser, but it's not entirely different from the way they looked at each other in high school. They have always remained faithful to one another and to Jesus. Ali has served on the staff of their church, and Joe is a brilliant worship leader. Their marriage has been an encouragement and a blessing to us for years, and we're so excited to share these images.

Here's to you, Joe + Ali, on your anniversary! We pray that God will continue to strengthen your relationship and instill an even more intense desire to follow Him.

Introducing The Covenant Sessions

Love grows.  Love changes.  Love is easy.  Love is hard.  Love is worth it.

A little over nine years ago, Mindy and I made a promise. This promise was made between the two of us, but also between us and God. Even more than a promise, it was a covenant; a sacred bond that cannot be broken. It goes far deeper than the feelings we have for each other, which ebb and flow with the daily current of life. We made a commitment to stay with, support, and love each other through thick and thin, every day from here on out.

We take this commitment seriously, and believe this covenant is meant to be celebrated. Not just ours, but every marriage covenant. Committing yourself to one other person for the rest of your life is hard, but oh man, is it good. Celebrate your marriage. Show it off to the world. Cling to your spouse, make your relationship your priority. If you have kids, teach them how to love by showing them how you love. Give the world a reason to be hopeful.

We're excited to announce The Covenant Sessions, new series we're launching this year, to coincide with our TEN year anniversary. We'll be offering sessions on select dates, in select cities around the country throughout the year. This is where we'll be, and when:

The Covenant Sessions are our way of celebrating the marriage relationship that we value so much. We believe the stories of couples who are in it for the long haul are beautiful, and that they're worth sharing. Couples have photos taken to celebrate their engagement, and everyone has photos taken to remember their wedding, but too often people forget to give their relationship the credit deserves after the honeymoon is over and the real work begins. We love highlighting these milestones, and we think life after the wedding deserves it's own place in the spotlight.

Shoot us an email for more information about booking a session on one of these dates. Availability is extremely limited.

Keri + Joseph - Top of the Market Wedding - Dayton Ohio

Church: Emmanuel Catholic Church
Reception Venue: Top of the Market
Wedding Coordinator: Cincy Event Planning
Videographer: Allen Arts Media
Stationary: Belle Pivoine on Etsy
Florist: Floral V Designs
Makeup + Hair: Pinned Up
Wedding Dress Designer: Ines Di Santo
Dress Shop: Bella Bianca (Chicago, IL)
Men's Tuxes: Men's Warehouse signature collection
Watch: Shinola (Detroit)
Bridesmaids dresses: Anastasia Chatzka (custom dresses Chicago, IL)
Cake + Desserts: Ashley’s Pastry Shop (Oakwood, OH)
Cake Topper: Better Off Wed on Etsy
Caterer: Top of the Market
Band: The Sly Band

2015 - Year In Review

Every year we grow. Every year we learn something new. Every year we make so many new friends, and form bonds with couples that transcend their wedding days. Every year we're more proud of the work we've created, and this year is no exception. Twenty fifteen had it's fair share of challenges, but it was also an incredible year of growth, both as artists and as partners. Mindy and I have been so encouraged and blessed this year, and we have so many people to thank for making all of this possible. This thing we call our job is truly, sincerely, so much more than that.

Our DIY Kitchen Remodel

We’ve lived in our house for almost eight years, and over that time we’ve put our own touch on just about every room in the house. The house is approaching 100 years old now, so it’s full of interesting character that we really love. We’ve painted, repainted, repaired and reconstructed, landscaped, and decorated, but we never touched the kitchen. Now, this is partially due to the fact that the kitchen was the nicest room in the house when we moved in, and partially due to a lack of time and money, but those are no excuses for not even painting! We had grown increasing tired of the country styling, and we knew that it was time for a radical change.

The problem with radical changes is that they usually require a radical budget. We knew we’d have to get creative, which happens to be something we’re good at, and it’s really what makes projects like this fun!

We have a whopping two old pictures of our kitchen from before (even though we’re photographers, when we work on projects, we tend to put our nose to the grindstone and get after it, so we didn’t take “before” photos). These photos are actually from when we were looking at the house, so all of the stuff is from the previous owners.

As you can see, for an old house, it’s a fine kitchen, but despite the fact that it was mostly cream colored, it felt dark, cramped, and cluttered. We kept it a little more streamlined than this, but it was always a small kitchen.

We have a breakfast nook attached to the kitchen (where we were standing when we took the above photos), and it’s gone largely unused during our time in the house. We knew straight away that we could increase our space by simply moving the refrigerator to the other side of the wall separating the kitchen from the nook.

Of course, this meant we were left with a hole where the fridge used to be. It dawned on us that there was a cabinet in the basement that looked like it might match. Miraculously, the previous owner removed a cabinet to install the dishwasher, and kept it! It would fill this space nicely, and meant we wouldn’t need to buy a new one and hope we could find something similar enough to blend in.

We now had a floating cabinet with no countertop, which led us to our next step, which was choosing new counters and a new sink. We’d known for quite some time that we wanted a farmhouse style sink, and so we started shopping. IKEA’s Domsjö sink was big, beautiful, and within budget, and on top of that, it sits on top of the countertop, and doesn’t require a special shaped hole, which is perfect for a DIYer. We chose butcher block counters, also from IKEA, and we were able to cut the necessary pieces using just three pre-made units and only straight cuts!

The design of the kitchen as a whole was very important to us, so we took to Pinterest and started putting together ideas for colors, tones, and decor. Our whole house is very clean and minimal, so we wanted to keep things cohesive with the rest of the house, but we also wanted to break from our white walls and choose something bold. We found some awesome brushed gold hardware that we used to build the design around, and the gold accents led us to the design choice that we were most nervous about, but had the potentially to make the biggest impact: black walls. We decided to keep the cabinets very white and clean (in fact they’re the same color as our living room and dining room, Sherwin William’s Westhighland White), which makes the black wall really pop and gives us the bold look we wanted!

We’re SUPER excited about how everything turned out!

Our one splurge item for the kitchen was this amazing modern brushed gold faucet from Delta. It’s really the key piece to the entire design, and we wavered on the decision but we really think the kitchen design wouldn’t work without it.

Moving the fridge also opened up a ton of wall space, which meant we could now install the open shelves that we wanted! This required some careful consideration of scale and materials as well, to keep the design cohesive and utilize the space without making things feel too cluttered. Cameron built the shelves using basic 2x12 wood from Lowes and some shelf brackets that we found in the AS-IS section of IKEA. We spray painted the brackets gold, and the totally cost of materials for the shelves was just $22 including the paint!

We mentioned at the beginning that this was an opportunity to be creative, both with our design and with our wallet. Here's the final breakdown:

IKEA Domsjö Sink - $299 (price has gone up since we bought it)

IKEA Karlby Counters - $99 x 3 = $297

Delta Trinsic Faucet - $365

Gold Cabinet Pulls - $3.77 x 27 = $102

Shelf Wood (2"x10"x10') - $10

Spray Paint - $14

Wall Paint - $34 x 3 gallons + $10 rebate/gal = $72

Floor trim - $4 x 2 = $8

Calk - $4 x 2 = $8

New Outlets, Switches + Covers - $70

Plumbing Drain Pipes + PVC Cement - $15

Total cost: $1260

Not bad for a total kitchen makeover. I'd say we earned more than that in home equity.