Planning Guides · Weddings & Elopements
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Getting married as an LGBTQI couple in West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia or DC
The licence rules in all four, side by side, because they are not the same and one of them will cost you two days. Plus the venues around here I have actually worked.
Wedding photo booth alternatives, and why the best one has a photographer in it
What a wedding portrait studio actually is, how it differs from a photo booth, what each one costs, and the century of photography behind it.
What wedding photography actually costs, and why
A straight answer with a number in it: what a wedding runs around DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, and how to read a cheaper quote.
Why winter is the best time to get married on the Texas Gulf coast
Hurricane season is over, the rain has stopped, the heat has gone and the beaches are empty. Everyone still books spring and autumn, and pays more to share the sand. Here is the argument for February.
Getting married in Rockport and Fulton, Texas
A beach ceremony with fewer than ten people costs nothing here beyond the parking fee. That makes Rockport the cheapest legitimate beach wedding on the Texas coast, and it has pavilions for when the weather turns.
How long do wedding photos take? A real timeline
Portraits of the two of you need about fifteen minutes, not an hour. The bigger variable is light, and it moves more than three hours across the season.
Getting married in Port Aransas and on Mustang Island
Port Aransas charges $50 for a beach permit covering up to 300 people. Corpus, twenty minutes away, charges $100 and reserves nothing. That gap is the whole reason to look here first.
Two venues, one wedding day: what the drive really costs
Ceremony in one place, reception in another. The drive is not the expensive part. Here is what a second venue really takes out of your day.
How to get married in Texas
Texas makes you wait 72 hours between the licence and the ceremony, which wrecks more travelling couples than anything else. There are four ways around it, and one of them also takes $60 off the fee.
Beach wedding permits on the Texas Coastal Bend
Six different authorities inside forty miles, and every one of them charges differently. Corpus is $100 and does not reserve the beach. Port Aransas is $50 for up to 300. Rockport is free under ten people. Here is the whole map.
What an engagement session is actually for
The photographs are the smaller half of it. An engagement session is the hour where you find out what being photographed together feels like, before it matters. What to wear, where to go, and when to book it.
Wedding venues in Northern Virginia and Loudoun wine country
Fourteen venues from Old Town Alexandria out to the Loudoun vineyards, split into the ones I have photographed and the ones worth knowing about. Wine country, historic townhouses, and the barns in between.
Wedding venues in and around Frederick, Maryland
Eleven venues across Frederick County, split into the four I have actually photographed and the rest worth knowing about. Barns, a brick room downtown, and the bridge everybody wants portraits on.
How to elope in Shenandoah National Park
Fifteen people or fewer with nothing set up needs no permit and costs nothing. But your photographer counts toward the fifteen, and live flowers are banned outright at outdoor ceremonies. The rules, from the park rather than from other photographers.
How to elope in West Virginia
The licence is $56, or $36 if you take a four-hour class, and there is no waiting period. Where to actually stand across the state, from the Eastern Panhandle to the New River Gorge, and when to come.
How to elope in Austin, Texas
There is a free wedding chapel on a cliff edge outside Austin that hosts over a thousand ceremonies a year, and most guides never mention the catch. Where to stand, when to come, and how the free booking actually works.
How to elope in Corpus Christi, Texas
Six beaches, a botanical garden and a set of free bayfront gazebos, plus the season nobody down here argues for and should. Where to actually stand when you elope in Corpus Christi.
Wedding venues near Shepherdstown, West Virginia
Twelve venues within about an hour of Shepherdstown, split honestly into the ones I have actually photographed and the ones I have not. Barns, inns, churches, and one sleek room in downtown Martinsburg.
How to elope in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
The national park allows wedding ceremonies at exactly one location, and it is not the overlook everyone photographs. Permits, the marriage license, where to actually stand, and how to keep an audience out of your vows.
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Ask me. I will answer whether or not you ever book me, and if enough people ask the same thing it becomes the next guide. If you are ready to talk dates, the pricing page has the numbers.