Draper Moon Wedding Portraits
Your people have never looked this good.
Your photographer has the two of you covered. Nobody has the other hundred people. I bring a portrait studio to your reception, a crescent moon or a clean white backdrop, and shoot every one of them in black and white.
$1,200. Four hours.
Every guest photographed, every portrait edited, the whole gallery online by the next morning. What they hold in their hands is your call, and it's on the rate sheet.
The idea
This is not a photo booth.
A hundred years ago every fair had a plywood moon. You paid a nickel and climbed on. People kept the picture for fifty years.
You've got a photographer. A band. A bar. A dance floor. What you don't have is one good picture of the people standing in front of it.
A photo booth gets people making faces. A portrait gets the person.
Not a moon wedding? Take clean white instead. Same night, same lighting, same price
How it works
Up before dinner. Gone before the lights.
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The moon goes up
It's up before anyone arrives. Crescent, cloth, lights. It looks like it wandered in from 1923 and nobody questions it.
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Your people sit
One at a time, in pairs, in piles, the two of you included. Three minutes each. Your uncle gets the good lighting and real direction, the same as anyone who pays for a portrait.
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Your gallery, that night
Every portrait edited and online by the next morning. Guests download their own, free.
62 sittings. One night. One moon.
Who's in the corner
I'm Aaron. I've photographed weddings since 2018 and I've spent all of them in the room while somebody else's reception happened around me. I know where to stand, when to stop, and how long you've got before the band starts.
This setup runs 62 sittings in one night, and every one of them is on this page. You're seeing the whole night, not the six best frames out of it.
Most people have never owned a good picture of themselves. Tonight they do.
The price
Four hours is $1,200 What they take home is up to you
Travel within ninety minutes of Shepherdstown included
Cocktail hour on
Four hours of sittings
Me running every one of them, on real portrait lighting. Around sixty sittings, which is what one night ran.
By morning
The whole gallery
Every portrait edited and online. Your guests download their own, free, forever. That is the $1,200, complete.
If you want it
Something they can hold
Prints and a book are the other half of this, and they are the part worth thinking about. Every one has a fixed price on the rate sheet.
What moves the number
Prints for your guests, a book of the whole night, a fifth hour, a second backdrop. Every one of them is optional and every one of them has a fixed price. Send me your date and your guest count and the full rate sheet comes back in the same reply, before you commit to anything.
Included
Everything the $1,200 covers.
The night
- Four hours of sittings, cocktail hour through the dancing
- Setup and teardown on my time, not yours
- Your backdrop: the moon or clean white, same price
- Travel within ninety minutes of Shepherdstown
The sittings
- Me, running every one of them
- Professional portrait lighting
- Around sixty sittings in four hours, which is what one night ran
After
- Every portrait edited
- Your whole gallery online by the next morning
- Guests download their own, free, forever
Married this fall?
Not too late at all. The moon needs a corner, an outlet, and a date. It has never needed six months of notice.
Check availability
Straight off my calendar. Tap your date and I'll confirm it.
Open Taken
A dark moon means I'm booked. If that's your date, ask anyway.
Every date here gets confirmed by hand before anything is booked.
The live calendar is not loading. Send me your date and I'll check it by hand within the hour.
Questions
Asked and answered.
We already have a photographer.
Good. Keep them. They're with the two of you all day, which is where they should be. I'm in one corner doing what they can't while they're shooting your first dance. I've been the photographer in that room, so I know where not to stand.
Will it interrupt anything?
No. It goes up before your guests arrive and comes down after, and neither counts against your four hours. Sittings run through cocktail hour and into the dancing, when people are dressed and looking for something to do. Nobody gets pulled out of dinner.
What if a plywood moon is not our wedding?
Take the white backdrop instead. Same photographer, same lighting, same price. Some weddings want the moon in every frame. Some want their people against clean white. Both are the job.
Do our guests get prints?
If you add printing, and most people do. Everyone who sits gets their portrait in the gallery either way, and that's in the base. Paper and ink cost real money, so printing is priced on its own instead of buried in the number. It's a flat price for the whole four hours, not per print, so a busy night costs you the same as a quiet one.
Is \$1,200 really it?
For four hours and the full edited gallery, yes. Prints, a book, a fifth hour and a second backdrop each have a fixed price, and you get every one of them in writing before you sign. Nothing gets added to the number afterward.
What does the setup need from the venue?
A corner about ten feet square, an outlet, and cover if it might rain. The moon travels in pieces and goes up before anyone arrives, so your guests just find it there.
Where will the moon travel, and is travel included?
Anywhere within about ninety minutes of Shepherdstown, West Virginia is included. That covers DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley. Farther is usually fine and I'll put the travel in the quote so it's never a surprise. It goes to events that aren't weddings too.
What counts as booked, and what if something goes wrong?
A signed contract and a paid retainer. Not an inquiry, not a hold. The contract covers the retainer, what happens if your date moves, and what I owe you if I can't make it. I won't tell you a date is gone when it isn't.
So you want to book
Three steps. That is the whole thing.
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One
Send me your date
The form takes a minute. Your date and your venue is genuinely all I need to start.
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Two
I write back within the hour
You get confirmation the date is open and the full rates, in the same reply. No call required.
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Three
A contract and retainer lock it
Sign, pay the retainer, and the date is yours. The balance is due the week of the wedding.
They booked flights. They bought outfits. Somebody should photograph them properly.
One night with a hundred people in it and one good picture of every one of them
Wedding guest portraits in West Virginia, Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington DC.