Draper Moon Wedding Portraits
Your people have never looked this good.
Your grandmother, your college roommate, the friend who flew in. For one night they're all in the same room and all dressed up for you, and most of them will end up as a blur somewhere behind you in the photographs. This gives every one of them a portrait of their own to carry home, and leaves you with a picture of every person who made the day what it was.
Who it's for
This is for you if:
- You want the people you love photographed with the same care as the two of you.
- You want cocktail hour to become part of the day instead of a gap in it.
- You want to give your guests something real to take home instead of a jar of almonds.
- You want the fun of a photo booth without a photo booth sitting in your reception.
- You want one part of the night that people are still talking about a year later.
The idea
This is not a photo booth.
Think of it as portrait hour. Your photographer has the two of you covered all day, which is exactly right. This opens the studio to everybody else in the room: on their own, in pairs, in families, in whatever group they can be talked into. You two included.
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.
None of this is new, either. A hundred years ago every fair had a portrait tent and a painted backdrop. You paid a nickel, you sat down, and people kept the picture for fifty years.
Two backdrops. Clean white, or the moon. Same lighting, same price.
How it works
Four things happen while you're getting married.
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One
They sit
They come on their own, in pairs, as families, and in whatever groups they put together, and the two of you belong in the chair as much as anybody. Everyone gets three minutes under real lighting, with me directing the whole way. Your uncle is looked after exactly as carefully as you would be.
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Two
It prints
Their portrait goes to the printer while the next guest is sitting down. They go back to the party, and it joins the others when it's ready.
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Three
They go on display
The prints come out beside the backdrop as the night runs, laid out on a table or strung up on a line. By the end of the night the whole room is up there together.
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Four
They take it home
At the end of the night they collect their own portrait and carry it out with them. It's the only favour you'll give that ends up on a fridge instead of in a bin.
What it asks of you
You enjoy your wedding. I'll run the corner.
Everything arrives in pieces and goes up before your first guest does: the backdrop, the lighting, the printer and the display. I run every sitting myself and take the whole thing down after you've gone home. There's nothing here for you to schedule, staff or keep an eye on.
All I need from you is a corner of the room, somewhere to plug in, and cover if it might rain.
62 sittings. One night. One moon.
Who you're hiring
I'm Aaron, and I've photographed weddings since 2018. That's a lot of evenings spent learning how a room moves. Most of this job is knowing when somebody wants their picture taken, and when to leave them be.
I've wanted to do this for years. A portrait nobody expected, printed and handed over the same night, is an incredible thing to give a room full of people who came for you.
There's an honest second half to it. A wedding day puts a photographer through the wringer, and this lets me stay in one place all night and actually meet people instead of moving past them. After years of the other thing, pointing my hours here just makes sense.
So everyone gets the same lighting, the same three minutes and the same direction. Your uncle is looked after as carefully as you would be, and that's the whole reason to do this with a person instead of a machine.
Most people have never owned a good picture of themselves. Tonight they do.
Included
What you get, in full.
- Coverage
- Four hours, cocktail hour through the dancing. Setup and teardown sit outside the clock.
- Sittings
- Around sixty in four hours, which is what one night ran. Singles, couples, families, whole groups.
- Studio
- Professional portrait lighting, and me running every sitting.
- Backdrop
- The moon or clean white. Same price either way.
- Prints
- One for every guest, printed on the night and out on display beside the backdrop.
- Gallery
- Every portrait edited and online within 48 hours. Guests download their own, free, forever.
- Travel
- Ninety minutes of Shepherdstown included. Farther goes in the quote.
- Optional
- A book of the whole night mounted by hand, a fifth hour, both backdrops. Send me your date and every price comes back in the same reply.
Married this fall?
Not too late at all. The moon needs a corner, an outlet, and a date, and 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 you all day, which is exactly where they should be. I work one corner of the room, doing the thing they can't do while they're shooting your first dance. I've been the photographer in that room, so I know where not to stand.
How is this different from a photo booth?
A booth gets people making faces at a machine. This is a real studio, with real lighting and a photographer running every sitting. Your uncle gets the same three minutes a paying client would.
Will it pull our guests away from the wedding?
The opposite, really. It runs through cocktail hour and into the dancing, which is when people are dressed and looking for something to do. Nobody gets pulled away from dinner, and setup and teardown happen off the clock.
When do our guests get their prints?
That same night. Each portrait prints while the next guest is sitting down, then goes out on display beside the backdrop, on a table or strung up on a line. It waits there until the end of the night, when everyone takes theirs home.
Is this also our wedding favour?
It's the best one you'll ever give. Most favours get left on the table at the end of the night. A photograph of somebody looking their best, taken a few hours earlier at your wedding, goes on their fridge and stays there.
Do we get the photos too?
All of them. Every portrait is edited and your whole gallery is online within 48 hours, and your guests download their own free, forever.
Which backdrop should we pick?
Whichever one suits your room. Clean white is the plainer and more formal of the two. The moon is the one in every photograph on this page. Same photographer, same lighting, same price either way.
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 simply find it there.
Where do you travel, and is it included?
Anything within about ninety minutes of Shepherdstown, West Virginia is included, which covers DC, Northern Virginia, Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley. Farther afield is usually fine, and I put the travel in the quote so it's never a surprise. It goes to events that aren't weddings too.
What does it cost?
Send me your date, your venue, and roughly how many people you're expecting, and the full rates come back within the hour. No call, no pitch. Every price is fixed, and you get all of them in writing before you sign anything.
What counts as booked, and what if something goes wrong?
A signed contract and a paid retainer. Not an inquiry, and 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.
They booked flights. They bought outfits. Somebody should photograph them properly.
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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
One reply, with two things in it: whether your date is open, and what it costs. No call, no pitch.
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Three
A contract and retainer lock it
Sign it, pay the retainer, and the date is yours. The rest is due the week of the wedding.
25% off Draper Moon guest portraits 2026 weddings, limited time
Wedding guest portraits in West Virginia, Maryland, Northern Virginia and Washington DC.
Check your date
Tell me when it is.
Your date and your venue is all I need to start. I'll write back within the hour with the full rates and whether the date is open.