There is nothing worse than opening up your emails to see a message titled “Please Help!”. It was November 17th when I received an email from Sarah, and the contents of this email broke my heart to read. This was the first sentence alone, -“Katelynn, I am extremely regretting not going with you as the photographer for our wedding day.” Sarah had reached out to us not too long ago that she wanted to use our services for her wedding day. We did end up being a little over their budget so she went another route to find a photographer within their budget. They had their wedding in October, and a month later, their wedding photographer broke the bad news to them. Sarah continued to explain to me that her wedding photographer had lost their images due to a “corrupted SD card” & they only had images from their reception. This is obviously every photographer’s WORSE nightmare. We try our best to make sure this doesn’t happen, take all the necessary precautions, but hey, technology can fail. I did mention to Sarah that this can happen to any professional photographer, but it saddened me that it wasn’t handled in a more professional manner to resolve the issue in other ways. So, this is where I knew I had to step in, clean up the mess, and make the best lemonade out of the sourest of lemons!! 😉
Now, before I go into all the detail about this amazing day, I have to take a moment to really touch base on how this sadly goes to show that, finding the “right” wedding photographer is an essential part of your wedding day, if not the most important! Your wedding images are the only thing that gains value from years to come after your big day. Unless you have videography; without good quality wedding photos, you won’t have anything to look back on. These photos are memories otherwise forgotten if not captured. These aren’t ” just pictures”, these are images of people you love, moments you might not even knew happened, and time stopped for a second for you to gaze upon it in a different way than you may have at that time. I can’t strain this enough to my couples, but as a professional wedding photographer, it’s OUR job to really explain to you what it’s all about! So, make sure you do your research, compare wedding photographers reviews, work, pricing, what they have to offer, what you will get in return, and every little detail. Spend the time in making sure you BOTH absolutely LOVE everything about them, from their brand, photography style, and of course, their personality! You didn’t rush finding your husband or wife, and hey, I’ll look for my future wedding photographer that seriously, so you should too! This person will work with you from anywhere to 1-2 years, and if they’re great, you’ll probably be in each-others lives for a very long time! Don’t you want someone worth every penny?! This story breaks my heart, and I wouldn’t wish this upon anyone, but I hope others can learn from this! =)
SO, where were we?! After emailing back & forth, Sarah was under the impression she was booking us for a “Bridal Shoot”. Little did she know, we were working behind-the-scenes to pull together a mini “Ceremony re-do” for she & her husband. We reached out to Sarah’s wonderful sister, Kaitlin (yes, all Kaitlin’s ROCK!), to help us pull off the surprise & get her family involved as well. We also contacted 4 extremely talented vendors, Flowers of the Forest to do the flowers, Your Hunny’s Bakery to bake the cake, Jessica Jenkins to second shoot with us, Northern Rustic for the table, and also reached out to the wedding venue where it initially all took place, Addison Oaks-Buel Estate! Needless to say, the story touched all of these kind souls & they donated their services, time, and talent to help bless this couple with a wedding re-do!
On December 22, 2016, we all came together to pull off something pretty special for Sarah & Joe Manni! Jessica & I arrived early to Addison Oaks to start putting together the table, decor & other elements for the day. Soon after we arrived, so did Flowers of the Forest & Your Hunny’s Bakery. God truly brought an incredible team together to pull this off & it went off without a hitch! Sarah’s wonderful father & sister also surprised US, that day, with Channel 4 News to come & cover Sarah & Joe’s wedding re-do story! Their was such an overwhelming amount of love that day, I can personally say that it was definitely one of my favorite days in my life, by far! We are truly so grateful that God brought Sarah & Joe back to us, even though these circumstances were not ideal, things didn’t work out how they were initially planned, but in the end, everything went better than we could have imagined & we helped them capture some amazing memories! Thank you SO much to everyone involved, we couldn’t have pulled it off without you all! I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking as well as the video at the end of this post! Enjoy!!
HUGE THANKS to Jessica Jenkins – K.Polidan Photography’s right hand gal/second shooter, Katherine & Arielle from Flowers of the Forest, Anna from Your Hunny’s Bakery, Boyan from Northern Rustic, Dan & all the staff at Addison Oaks, Paula Tutman & the Channel 4 News Crew, and all of Sarah & Joe’s family who helped make this all happen! We cannot thank you enough!
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- nicole G.
I cannot imagine our special day without her. From the moment I inquired back in August of 2020, to our wedding day October 2021, Kate was with us every step of the way. She was amazing at communicating, answering my (many) questions, and making us feel so comfortable in front of the camera! Throughout this process, she\ became a great friend as well. On our wedding day, she made sure we stayed on track with timing, and made it a priority to ensure my husband and I were taken care of. Her positive energy, flexibility, and expertise made the day so much fun and so memorable. Kate perfectly captured our love--her photographs are of the highest quality and have unique touches that represent each of her clients. We are so very thankful that we had Kate be apart of our wedding day. She went above and beyond to make our day everything and more!
" The best decision I made was having Kate as our wedding photographer!"
- Ryan C.
We were so lucky to have Katelynn as our photographer! She was truly amazing to work with! We found Katelynn through a friend who had previously booked her for her wedding. Wedding photos were really important to me and I wanted memories that we could cherish for the rest of our lives. After seeing her work, we knew that we wanted her to capture our wedding day! She made coordinating locations and poses stress free. We had a large bridal party and were a little worried about pictures being chaotic, but Katelynn was so patient with everyone and made it look like a breeze! Her kindness radiated all day and our families could not say enough good things about her. She was so great at making us feel comfortable and at ease in front of the camera! She also made my sunset and veil photo dreams come true with her amazing photography skills! We are so in love with every picture that she took! She captured the best memories for us and we can’t recommend her enough!
"We were so lucky to have Katelynn as our photographer!"
- Helen F.
I truly don't have enough words to express all the amazing things Katelynn has done for us during our wedding journey. If you are thinking about booking - do it now because it is so worth the investment! Katelynn gets booked up fast for a reason. :)
Not only was Katelynn super informative about making crucial wedding decisions, but she did everything she could to make us truly feel special. She was flexible, patient, honest, and most of all kind. My husband and I love our engagements pictures and all of the incredible pictures she captured at our wedding. She thinks about every little detail in each shot. We now have these amazing memories that will last with us for the rest of our lives. She has a passion for what she does and will help make your wedding journey so memorable and special.
"If you are thinking about booking - do it now because it is so worth the investment! Katelynn gets booked up fast for a reason. "