Candid Wedding Photography
Once we had a venue, we started looking for our vendors almost immediately—with a huge assist from our venue coordinator, Kendall, in the form of a pretty comprehensive recommended vendors list.
Once we had a list of photographers, and a set budget, we were able to narrow it down to about 10 people. And then we had to figure out what WE wanted. Here’s the list we came up with.
1. Budget friendly. We settled on about $2,600 for a total photography budget…which was totally do-able since we knew we weren’t having a DJ. Luckily, there were lots of options in Chicago in the $1,800–2,500 range—and our photographer fell into the lower end, leaving wiggle room in our budget.
2. Local. Chicago’s got AMAZING indoor and outdoor photo locations. I know of quite a few, but I wanted to make sure that whoever we were working with knew the city too…especially beautiful secret indoor spaces, just in case of rain!
I mean, COME ON. This skyline. | Mike Staff Productions via Facebook

3. Versatile. Like I said, Chicago’s a stunner, so we wanted someone who could capture shots with all that architectural beauty. But due to the unpredictability of Chicago weather in April, we’re having our wedding indoors—so we needed someone who could capture great low-light shots without tons of flash.

Our knockout low-light venue shot by Rebecca Marie Photography
4. Observant. We totally want some classic posed phot...