Tag Archives: chicago photographer

There’s nothing more special than waking up at the crack of dawn and heading downtown to watch a beautiful couple share their love. And if that’s not special enough on it’s own, doing it at sunrise makes it even sweeter!

We started off Lauren and Steve’s sunrise engagement session at one of my all-time favorite engagement photo locations in Chicago — North Avenue Beach. With the shoreline, the concrete breakwalls, and the incredible Chicago skyline view, this spot is pretty hard to beat.

Loving the mugs with Lauren (to be) and Steve’s last name! Cheers to Mr. and Mrs. Koveck!!

They don’t call it the windy city for nothing. 🙂

That VIEW though…. 😯

One small detail that we failed to realize until the night before, was that we had unintentionally scheduled our shoot on the same day as the Chicago Marathon. If this were something we were aware of ahead of time, we likely would have tried to avoid this date at all costs, as road closures and traffic congestion can be a real hassle surrounding the race. But with winter closing in, and everyone’s crazy work schedules, we decided it would be best to push through, see what craziness we run into, and make it work!

Thankfully, we lucked out big time with North Avenue Beach, as there wasn’t but one or two other cars in the parking lot, and not a soul in sight on the beach. Wrapping up at North Avenue Beach, our next destination was set for Lincoln Park Zoo. Steve queued up the Uber, and off we went.

This is where things got interesting.

To make a long story short, what should have started with a simple 15 minute walk from North Avenue Beach over to Lincoln Park Zoo, turned into a 60+ minute Uber tour around the city. It seemed like every conceivable route was blocked by the Chicago Marathon, and there was no end in sight. Eventually, we made the executive decision to head right back where we started, hopped out of the Uber, and walked our happy booties to over to the Zoo.

All in all, we shared a good laugh, and we all held in good spirits. We made it to Lincoln Park Zoo and the show went on!

Are Lauren and Steve seriously not the cutest couple ever? That’s right, Steve…I just called you cute.

Another huge shout-out to Lauren and Steve — Thank you two so much for putting up with all the shenanigans we ran into on your shoot! You guys were amazing, and I can’t wait for your big day!!

Interested in booking YOUR engagement shoot? Drop me a line. I’d love to chat!!

By Matt Bigelow

Brittany and Arthur’s Chicago engagement photos started off on the beautiful Chicago River, directly outside of the Trump Tower. This is a beautiful spot for couples to relax and enjoy the views while warming up to the camera.

Brittany and Arthur were brave enough to hop up on top of one of the bridges for a little stroll, so I wasn’t about to stop them!

To make the most out of their engagement photos, Brittany and Arthur decided to book a few hours of extra time and do a huge tour of Chicago, hitting a ton of iconic engagement photo locations downtown. Brittany and Arthur’s actual wedding will be taking place in China, so they wanted to have plenty of great photos to take with them and display at the wedding!

After finishing up at the Chicago bridges, we made our way south towards the Financial District, hitting a few stops along the way.

A Chicago engagement photo tour wouldn’t be complete without a few photos under the Chicago Metra lines!

At last, we made our way to the Financial District for a few photos with the Board of Trade building. Our time of day wasn’t quite ideal, as we had some pretty heavy rush-hour traffic. None the less, we blocked some traffic, had some laughs and stilled managed to come away with some fun ones!

After a quick fuel-up with some delicious Starbucks, we queued up an Uber and continued our photo tour! Our next stop was the University of Chicago, which was exactly where Brittany and Arthur first met. While Arthur proudly recalled the events leading up to their engagement, he said “I saw Brittany across the room in one of my classes, and told myself that I needed to have her.” Brittany immediately fell for his charms and the rest is history!

I absolutely adore this couple. This, right here, is what it’s all about. 🙂

Onward to Milton Olive Park — one of my absolute favorite spots for Chicago skyline engagement photos.

This modeling stuff’s hard work! Time for a nap. 😛

I always encourage incorporating as much personality into engagement photos as possible. Holding hands in pretty locations is great, but working your personal interests and hobbies into the mix can bring so much more substance to your engagement photos. One of Brittany’s biggest hobbies on her day-to-day routine is yoga, so it was only fitting to work a few of these into their session! And with such beautiful views of the Chicago skyline from the Planetarium, I’m pretty sure ANYONE could get into some yoga here!

Brittany showed us her yoga moves, so it was time for Arthur to step into the limelight. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with his skills! Looks like Brittany was, too!! 😛

Interested in booking YOUR Chicago engagement photos? Head over to my CONTACT for and drop me a line! I’d love to chat more!

By Matt Bigelow

There’s nothing I love more than a themed engagement session. They’re a blast to shoot, they’re completely unique to every couple, and they capture couples at their absolute best. With the sessions being tailored to the couple’s interests, the final product has so much more value to the couple as compared to a traditional engagement session. Our themed sessions will tell about who the couple is, as opposed to a traditional engagement session simply showing where a couple is. Kristen and Bobby’s Mario Cart engagement session is the perfect example.

For the first half of Kristen and Bobby’s engagement session, we started at the old Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana. When I first got started in photography, some 11 or 12 years ago, I used to shoot out in Gary a few times weekly. There’s so much to explore, and it seemed as though every time I’d visit, I’d find something new and exciting around the next corner. The Methodist Church is particularly fun, as it’s a huge building with multiple floors and seemingly endless rooms. Unfortunately, the church has seen an increasing amount of traffic in the past few and with that, sadly, comes quite a bit of vandalism. What once was a mostly untouched, beautiful architectural ruin, is now largely littered with graffiti and garbage. None the less, if you try hard enough, there are still a few hidden gems to be found amongst the rubble that makes for some pretty wicked backdrops.

During our planning process for Kristen and Bobby’s engagement session, they had the great idea of incorporating some smoke bombs into their photos. This is one of the primary reasons we chose the abandoned church in the first place, as we knew this would make a strikingly dramatic backdrop with the smoke.

Absolutely LOVED the combination of the black and red smoke!

After wrapping up at the Gary Methodist Church for the first portion of their engagement photos, we hopped in the car and and made our way over to Zao Island of Valparaiso for the meat and potatoes of this shoot — the Mario Cart engagement photos!

Upon arrival at Zao Island, we were cheerfully greeted by one of their managers on duty, who we contacted a few weeks prior to approve and confirm our crazy idea for this shoot. Everyone at Zao Island was wonderfully enthusiastic about the shoot, and were more than accommodating to help with anything we needed. We made out way down to the go kart race track, waited for a clearing in the line, and let the fun begin!

It was incredible to see how well Kristen and Bobby got into character! After hearing Bobby’s impersonations, you’d swear he was the voice-over used for Mario in the games — “YA! WHAA! WHOO-HOOO!”

TIME TO BATTLE!!!

Mario got flagged and was put into timeout… 🙂

Round 2 — BATTLE!

And just enough time for one more final victory lap for Kristen and Bobby’s Mario Cart engagement session.

It’s not every day you run into Mario and Princess Peach! SELFIE TIME!!

Princess Peach and Mario…I mean….Kristen and Bobby, you two are amazing! Can’t wait to celebrate with you on your big day!

Looking to plan YOUR crazy engagement photos? Head over to the CONTACT page and drop me a line! I’d love to chat!!

By Matt Bigelow

Destination Wedding – Ocho Rios, Jamaica – Brandi and Mike

So thrilled to share some of the highlights from Brandi and Mike’s destination at Beaches Resort, Ocho Rios, Jamaica! Such a beautiful couple, inside and out. It was an incredible honor to share their big day with them!

Brandi and her daugther, Charisma (aka Izzy) sharing a moment before the ceremony.

Mike’s best man making sure he’s lookin’ fly for his big moment. 😉

Destination weddings often have quite a bit different schedule than your standard wedding here in the states. Being that there were only a handful of guests at Brandi and Mike’s destination wedding, they chose to do a less traditional type of reception. Immediately after the ceremony, we all met in a banquet room. Here, they shared their first dances, cake cutting, and speeches. Dinner was then to be held later that evening at one of the restaurants on the resort.