Most people don’t feel natural in front of a camera, especially on a day that carries this much meaning.
The answer isn’t performance or perfect posing. It’s working with someone who knows when to lead, step back, and how to translate real moments into elevated imagery.
With an intentional, guided approach, I photograph people as they are while being attentive to movement, emotion, light, and color. This allows images to feel honest, composed, and deeply personal.
You can be present.
I’ll take care of the rest.
I work with couples planning weddings shaped by intention who want imagery that are composed without feeling staged. My approach is shaped by experience. My ability to read a room, anticipate moments, and move fluidly between structure and spontaneity as the day unfolds.
What gives images their weight is how closely a day is observed and understood. When moments are allowed to exist without interruption, the resulting photographs feel natural, and enduring.
This work is grounded in care, restraint, and trust.
There was an ugly semi truck in the background of my head table at my wedding and Phern somehow got it moved out. That is just one example of Phern going above and beyond at my wedding. Phern made the day fun, less stressful, organized, and about me. She truly wears like 20 different hats when doing weddings. Beyond that, I got my sneak peaks of the day and oh my wordddd. Breathtaking. Amazing. The quality and precision of these shots are spectacular. Literally looks like out of a magazine.
I found Phern on Instagram about a year before our wedding, and her feed helped me see that I could totally have a wedding that was fun and vibrant. We booked her for an engagement session and loved working with her before the wedding to get to know her! She was so attentive to detail in our poses and setting and we loved the engagement photos! For our wedding, Phern helped us put together a detailed timeline and even helped us save on a 2nd photographer we had originally booked through her because she was able to make such an efficient timeline. Phern was so accommodating on the wedding day, and even did my hair in a beautiful updo during the reception after we took photos outside and my hair fell out in the July humidity.
We first hired her to do engagement photos to test her out before committing to a wedding photographer. She set up a call with me to see if we would be a good fit, to establish a relationship, and ensure she would be the right person to tell our story. She was professional and incredibly friendly. This was our first professional shoot and Phern made sure we were comfortable and directed us into stunning poses. We then hired her for our July 8th wedding! We asked her if we could do our real engagement photos on Mackinac Island. She was more than happy to follow us around on our tandem bike, and even hung out with us for the day. We gave her a lot of creative freedom with this shoot and the results blew us away! Some of our all time favorite pictures came from this session and we even landed on the Grand Hotel Instagram page!
On the day of our wedding, it was like having a really good friend there to capture the best day of our lives. Phern kept us on schedule, worked very well with our videographer, made sure we had all of the family photos we asked for, and even helped me put deodorant on while in my dress. She also carried her step ladder the entire 8 hours she was there!