The first step when wedding planning is deciding where your wedding is going to be! Booking your venue secures your date, meaning you can start securing other vendors. There are so many factors that go into choosing the best venue for you, including some you might not have thought of!

As my husband, Joe, and I come up on our one year anniversary (wow time is wild), I’ve also been reflecting on all the things I learned from planning my own wedding. While there were plenty of things I knew from shooting weddings, being a bride was a completely different ballgame.

One thing I am always preaching is the importance of capturing your family at ALL ages. When people think about family photos, they often picture families with little ones. But the photos of your kids when they’re teenagers and young adults are also just as important! When my cousins were way younger and I was just getting started with photography, we decided to take some sibling photos while I was babysitting them. Now, years later (almost ten!), we decided to take some new ones as a Mother’s Day gift to my aunt. I rarely spend time with just my cousins, and it was so fun to spend some quality time and really see their personalities and sister dynamics shine through.

What’s more Seattle than a rainy day at the waterfront?

Erik was one of my sister’s buddies from kindergarten, so of course I said yes when he reached out about capturing his proposal!

The Seattle area offers such a beautiful and diverse array of backdrops that it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a location that best represents you. But here’s a guide of some locations that I love shooting in to help you make your decision!