Living your best life is about breaking free from the typical screenplay; pursuing your dreams, living in each moment, and being unafraid to be uninhibited and unapologetically, YOU. Weddings can be beautiful for so many reasons; a dashing love story, gorgeous couple, stunning venue, or; every once in a while; a group of people who are so unabashedly REAL that they ignite the day and set it afire with unbridled fun, hilarity, AND romance. Photographers who are able to recognize this type of celebratory energy and align themselves with it are capable of capturing images from the stage of a wedding day that tear off all the restraints of social norms and transcend to become something, well, epic…

Caitlin & David met each other way, way back. I mean like back in the day, as in grammar school days; second grade to be exact. A childhood connection that blossomed throughout the years from “going out”, to boyfriend & girlfriend, to fiancé & fiancée, to bride & groom, and at long lost a walk down the aisle to become husband & wife. For certain their love story has all the glittery sparkles that float through our imaginations when daydreaming of a fairytale romance (their engagement even met with local news coverage!), so it’s reasonable to expect that their wedding day would be nothing but a Prince & Princess’s ball. Well, drop the mic on that wedding-ball-in-a-box fantasy because what transpired on that special day between these two in their starring roles and their crew of supporting cast was nothing short of marital magic.

Lauren Ashley stepped onto the set of Caitlin & David’s wedding at Aurora, IL’s Paramount Theater confident, and ready to take the helm of the day in her role as Creative Director. Her excitement builds as she encounters the highly attractive and ecstatically anxious married couple-to-be. When one of her most talented photographers and very close friend Melissa Diep arrives, the creative chemistry begins and ideas begin exploding from their minds like a laboratory experiment gone awry! As a tenured wedding photographer, educator, and owner of Lauren Ashley Studios, Lauren brings all the creative energy and expertise necessary to document a wedding day in exquisite detail. What she can’t predict is whether her clients and their wedding parties will trust her enough to let loose as she places them in locations, and asks them to do things that on appearance make no sense at all. Like Aladdin to his Princess Jasmine, Lauren’s keynote phrase to her clients is always (with a glimmer in her eye), “Do you trust me?!?”

 Caitlin, David, and their entire wedding party went well beyond the boundaries of trust to capture the personalities, places, and energy of the day. They allowed themselves to be completely free, to be themselves, to be pure, to be an artistic expression of undiluted humanity. With the lenses of 2 of the most highly talented ladies in the industry aimed at them this wedding party unleashed a blended flurry of hilarity, beauty, comedy, and splendor. The unbridled images captured in these precious moments spread like wildfire when the Studio shared them across the internet, and for good reason. They are a depiction of real life. Nothing scripted, nothing staged, nothing filtered or censored; just a couple in love along with their closest friends and family sharing in the celebration of the day they commit to one another for the rest of their lives.

Too often weddings become something stressful for all involved. The pressures of perfection weigh heavily on a bride and groom, and in seeking that perfection they forget to stop relax and enjoy their day, they so painstakingly select for their wedding days. To our Lauren Ashley Studios clients, and to anyone planning to get married we say this, “be present, be vulnerable, and above all enjoy your moment.” Select a wedding photographer who you know can take the chair as Creative Director at your wedding, then trust them in fulfillment of that duty. Be yourselves and shake loose of expectations or anything that might cause you to hold back. Allow yourselves to truly experience the day for what it is; a celebration of forever love. As Caitlin and David can attest, when you do this something happens in photos that defies any explanation, something that causes jaws to drop to the floor and tears to fall.

Because you’re no longer just looking at pictures, you’re transcending time and space to experience that exact moment and it’s emotions as if you are a part of it.