Weddingbee Blog

Mr. Kettle has only had a couple of jobs to do for this wedding. He was in charge of securing our musicians, which he took care of basically in under 24 hours. Go Mr. Kettle! He was also responsible for picking out the clothes for the guys, which he also took care of. The other big job he had was to find us a photographer.

Neither of us really wanted to do this job, but he saw how much it was stressing me out when my cell phone was being stalked by photographers trying to follow up.

Image via Gawker

Mr. Kettle doesn’t like me stressed, so he amazingly stepped in to help. Mema Kettle and FSIL Grand offered a suggestion for a photographer of a wedding they loved the pictures from. He’s set up a phone meeting with them for Sunday, and I’m excited to hear about what they have to offer.

Wanting to look at more than one photographer, trying to explore my options (Momma Kettle and Mr. Kettle must be rubbing off on me), we looked for others. We basically ignored all the ones I’d previously emailed. Perhaps it was their stalking that made us not want to work with them? We are people who need our space. Isn’t it weird that when someone doesn’t act like they want my business, I will walk away, but I’ll also walk away when they seem like they’re trying too hard? Wedding planning teaches you interesting things about yourself.

Wedding Planning Tip #7: Pay attention to your consistent responses. You’ll learn a lot about yourself while planning your wedding if you pay attention.

So just how did we find this other photographer? Well, my best internet friend Google, this time in the form of Gmail, came to the rescue. Because Google collect user-search data, they direct which ads you see while browsing their websites. I was checking my Gmail, and at the top of the screen was an advertisement for Jolie Images. I took a look at their website because their amazing prices drew me in.

I liked what I saw, so Mr. Kettle set up a meeting. We went to meet with them last week, and they told us all about their wonderful packages. We really liked the personalities of everyone there (it’s a family-run business), and we really liked the eye they have for pictures.

I was, in true-to-me fashion, ready to put down a deposit right then and there. But we will be meeting with the photographers suggested by our family and seeing what they have to offer. So now, some photographer wedding photos to give you an idea of why I liked them so much!

All images provided by Jolie Images

I can already see our version of this picture!

How dreamy…

Gotta love this crazy shot

I would kill Mr. Kettle!

This one feels like us. Reminds me of our engagement photos.

OMG!! A rebel shot! I can only hope and pray we could do something like this somewhere on our wedding property.

I don’t know what’s better about this photographer: the personalities, the prices, the photos, all are fighting for the top spot. Did I mention they also work with a videographer who also charges surprisingly low prices (at least for Chicago)? The piece de resistance: because our wedding is in February, we’ll get our photos back in less than eight weeks. This includes the rights to all photos, access to the website, a CD and DVD with all the pics and video footage, the wedding video, and the picture album! Ah-mazing!

I can’t wait to see what the other photographers have to offer so we can make our choice and check another big wedding decision off the list!