Blog - Page 15 of 24 - Rachel Kaye Photography

Frauenthal Wedding Muskegon Michigan Photographer | Lauren + Adam

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Lauren and Adam got hitched in March this year, having their wedding at the Fraunethal in Muskegon Michigan. I can’t get enough of these two. One of the reasons I REQUIRE an engagement session for all of my couples is to help build a relationship before your wedding day. I was lucky enough to get to know Lauren and Adam BEFORE they even hit me up for their wedding as Lauren and I met doing RENT with Central Park Players a few years ago.

Their day was chalk full of things that are uniquely them. They got married on stage (Lauren is an AVID theater person and while she has since moved, she still is very active in theatre!) and incorporated lots of ‘geek + theatre’ things into their day, including their own playbill and a HUGE game table at their reception for their guests to enjoy! Their ceremony included swords and a binding ceremony and all of their friends/guests indulged in their fun relaxed reception at Fricano’s Place in Muskegon (I am currently craving that pizza just thinking about it…) between the ceremony and reception we ventured out for a bunch of photos around Muskegon. We even stopped into the Brewhouse for a coffee where a little girl thought Lauren was a princess and jumped up and down for joy to meet her (and goodness…she did look like a fairytale princess!).

I am so glad they asked me to be a part of their wedding. It was a treat to get to meet all of their family and friends and spend this amazing day they planned with them. This was my first wedding at the Frauenthal and I would gladly go back anytime! This venue is a dream and the staff is wonderful. So take a peruse at all these images and the excess of animated GIFs from this day.

I couldn’t have done this day without the amazing Sarah Galle! Thanks so much to her for her help, some of these images are hers!

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Hair/Makeup: Aphair Salon

Brides Dress: Carol’s Bridal

Florist: Chalet Floral

Cupcakes: C Major Cupcakes

DJ: Dan Medema

Thank you for viewing this Frauenthal Wedding Muskegon Photography gallery! Rachel Kaye Photography is a Chicago / West Michigan based wedding and portrait photographer who loves a great destination wedding. Rachel Kaye specializes in off-beat natural light wedding photography. Rachel Kaye Photography provides the best wedding photography services for the coolest kind of couples. Those who want to tell their love story in a natural, documentary style with amazing service. Rachel Kaye Photography tells unique stories through gorgeous natural looking photographs and fun, quirky, animated GIF’s.

For more information on how to tell your wedding day story or engagement/love story please contact Rachel Kaye

Love and Light, Rachel Kaye

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Grand Rapids Engagement Photographer | Haley + Trevor

Grand Rapids Engagement Photographer

Let’s start things off with a little story about how this e-session went down.

Me: “Ok guys this is going to seem really weird but trust me it looks super cute…. just rest your foreheads together and close your eyes”

Haley: “Actually that’s not weird, we do it all the time”

Me(in my head): “WHAT????????????????? No one actually does this pose in real life! All photographers do this pose…but everyone thinks it is weird actually doing it but they do this in real life? THIS IS EPICALLY CUTE AND TOO PERFECT NOW”

I couldn’t believe it! These two actually rest foreheads together in real life. It is a pose we all do as photographers because it is relaxed and intimate, it is in all of our arsenals. But generally I find most people think it is awkward (still…I get the cutest images while directing from this pose), I also like resting foreheads with my partner but I always thought that was just me. This was just, TOO.ADORABLE.

I felt an INSTANT connection with this two when we first met up for coffee last fall, I couldn’t wait to photograph their wedding this summer at Fredrick Meijer Gardens (my first time there primary shooting!) and didn’t realize how much fun I would have with them at their engagements!

We met in one of the busiest parts of Grand Rapids for their engagement photos and just wandered around. I tend to pick a starting spot and then just randomly search for fun light to play around in. I don’t location scout except for starting locations or pretty fields. I wanted these two to have a more downtown vibe going on since their wedding was going to be so lush and flowery!

We then headed to Lookout park (ok, I got a little lost…but ya know, I took a weird way ok…) at also one of the busiest times ever. It was worth it, the light was oh so magical and I even asked a stranger to turn his headlights back on (he thought he was being nice turning them off! nope! like I said, I search for weird/fun/complicated light to play in) and bribed a child to do a cartwheel in front of them (ok, I didn’t bribe the kid..she was totally up for it!).

Needless to say (and you will see!) These two are all smiles and foreheads touching. It was a blast making them laugh and watching them just have fun together!

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Thank you for viewing this Grand Rapids Engagement Photographer Michigan gallery! Rachel Kaye Photography is a Chicago / West Michigan based wedding and portrait photographer who loves a great destination wedding. Rachel Kaye specializes in off-beat natural light wedding photography. Rachel Kaye Photography provides the best wedding photography services for the coolest kind of couples. Those who want to tell their love story in a natural, documentary style with amazing service. Rachel Kaye Photography tells unique stories through gorgeous natural looking photographs and fun, quirky, animated GIF’s.

For more information on how to tell your wedding day story or engagement/love story please contact Rachel Kaye

Love and Light, Rachel Kaye

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Ferrysburg Engagement Photographer Michigan | Sydney + Jesse

Ferrysburg Engagement Photographer

OMG, Sydney + Jesse. What can I even say.

When my good friend and fellow (AMAZING) photographer Sydney told me she was engaged… I pretty much flipped out. Like in the most excited way ever. Then she asked me to do their engagement photos and a top-secret photo mission later this fall….. and I GOT EVEN MORE EXCITED (plus i also got Cidre….everyone loves Cidre).

She wanted to do something fun and spring like, before it was even spring. So I figured heading to my favorite spot in Ferrysburg on the dunes would be a good plan. No matter the season, somehow the dunes still always have a bit of color! This session happened right before I left for England and I AM SO GLAD WE DID IT THEN. Everything is so lush and gorgeous, and we were gifted with the most beautiful sunset that just let their skin glow in the light!

These two are so dynamic together, and a couple of goof balls. I love couples who can play around and have fun and not be so serious all the time! They were the perfect combination of PDA + goofy.

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Thank you for viewing this Ferrysburg Engagement Photographer Michigan gallery! Rachel Kaye Photography is a Chicago / West Michigan based wedding and portrait photographer who loves a great destination wedding. Rachel Kaye specializes in off-beat natural light wedding photography. Rachel Kaye Photography provides the best wedding photography services for the coolest kind of couples. Those who want to tell their love story in a natural, documentary style with amazing service. Rachel Kaye Photography tells unique stories through gorgeous natural looking photographs and fun, quirky, animated GIF’s.

For more information on how to tell your wedding day story or engagement/love story please contact Rachel Kaye

Love and Light, Rachel Kaye

Tags: ferrysburg engagement photographer, grand rapids wedding photographer, michigan wedding photographer

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London Engagement Photographer | Tiana + Graham

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Staying alone in foreign countries can be daunting. You have a few options. You can stay in a hotel, stay in a hostel or now because the internet is cool you can Air BNB and stay with two really rad people who are literally the greatest.

After talking to Graham (my host) for a bit I learned he was recently engaged and planning their wedding and I knew I had to get photos of them in their favorite spots. So we spent the Sunday after my HP tour (and right before SNAP photography festival) romping all through East London in their favorite places and making fun engagement photos.

I do this thing where I just let people be themselves, and do some light directing to get some cool poses that you see on my site. But mostly I want you to be yourselves. For Tiana + Graham that meant looking at lots of food in windows (some of their favorite shops!), thrifting and play fighting. They are so cute and funny and their stories made me laugh all day. And of course, London decided to be sunny for once so that made for a fun little challenge for me! I love shooting at Golden Hour, but it gets repetitive. So it was nice to have the challenge of full-sun for these shots. Looking through these has me wishing back to sunny London days and missing these two something fierce!

We started and finished our photo tour at their flat. Which is one of their favorite places. I am really nostalgic for that English tea right now (Tiana made a GREAT cup of tea!) and for Graham’s breakfast we had before it all. Man that was good. Gosh I miss you both!

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Thank you for viewing this London Engagement Photography gallery! Rachel Kaye Photography is a Chicago / West Michigan based wedding and portrait photographer who loves a great destination wedding. Rachel Kaye specializes in off-beat natural light wedding photography. Rachel Kaye Photography provides the best wedding photography services for the coolest kind of couples. Those who want to tell their love story in a natural, documentary style with amazing service. Rachel Kaye Photography tells unique stories through gorgeous natural looking photographs and fun, quirky, animated GIF’s.

For more information on how to tell your wedding day story or engagement/love story please contact Rachel Kaye

Love and Light, Rachel Kaye

Tags: london, london engagement photographer, london wedding photography

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The Making of Harry Potter – An American in England

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WARNING: if you do not care at all about Harry Potter or what I was up to when across the pond. This blog post will be boring. Feel free to carry on as you were as I delve into the Making of Harry Potter in London. And the story of the day surrounding this trip.

On this day, I woke up, had a delicious English breakfast and headed out to do some really touristy sight-seeing. THE WHOLE TRIP so far I had one goal in mind, to go see the Making of Harry Potter. SADLY, tickets were completely sold out on the days I could go. The night before I had noticed something, I was checking tickets and about 2 hours before the last ‘tour’, tickets magically appeared to go on sale. So I figured I would try again tomorrow and see what would happen.

So I am on the bus at about 3pm to head to Westminster Abbey from seeing St. Pauls Cathedral and I decide to check my phone to see if there are any tickets. SURE ENOUGH there are tickets for the last tour (6pm). I SCRAMBLE to purchase my tickets on the bus, while having no idea where said bus is going or where I should be going (note: this is BEFORE i threw my phone into a toilet…so I still had a smart phone to tell me where to go!)

TICKETS WERE PURCHASED!

THE LOCATION: a 1 hour train ride away….. + a bus to train station, + bus from train to HP Tour….EEK!

I quickly jumped off the double decker bus and realized I had to get on a bus at the same station to get me to the train station. I waited….

I waited for what seemed like 2 hours, but what was likely 5 minutes. And I couldn’t wait any longer! So I took the one and only taxi ride I took my entire stay in London to get to the station. I quickly ran inside, scanned my Oyster card and realized I had no idea what train I was supposed to take.

At that exact moment a woman comes running up to the man at the station asking what train she has to get on to get to the Making of Harry Potter. He points at a train, she starts running, so I start running.

We both get on the train about the same time, she says ‘IS THIS THE TRAIN TO HARRY POTTER’? and I respond ‘GOSH I HOPE SO’. I learn her name is Barbara, she is from Brazil and she is awesome. We sit on the train together, take the bus from the train to the tour and take the tour together. She was so much fun to explore and enjoy this tour with, she is also a HUGE harry potter fan. We both got butter-beer and it was nice to have someone to take photos of me for once!

I spent the next 3 hours just being like a giddy school girl running around loving all the harry potter stuff and taking way too many photos of inanimate objects, like I do on EVERY trip, just this time, I AM SHARING!

EVERYTHING was magical. Seriously my mind was blown. I should have done the audio tour (but it gives me a reason to go back again!). When I finally got back to my air bnb that night I was so satisfied and exhausted. The ONE touristy thing I really wanted to do, I HAD ACCOMPLISHED. And it was so so much fun~!`

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since i have this mirror tattooed on my body…. it seemed right to take a selfie in it. <3 mirror of Erised

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Of course the tour had to end with a wall of wands like Olivanders, and this amazing quote by J.K. Rowling, which always brings me to tears. Not to mention that when I stepped foot into the room with Hogwarts and Hedwigs Lament was playing…and I just started bawling. They did everything right. So right. And I was beyond happy with this trip.

If you are heading to England and love Harry potter do check out getting tickets AHEAD of time…. I was lucky, but most people are not!

Warner Bro’s Studio Tour: Making of Harry Potter

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The Cheney Place Wedding Grand Rapids Michigan |Angie + Justin

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Winter weddings are more fun at The Cheney Place in Grand Rapids, MI, and they are even more fun when you spend it with the greatest couple ever surrounded by an amazing group of friends and family. Angie and Justin asked me to be a part of their day and I couldn’t have been more excited, these two are not only so in love but are also the best of friends and it shows. When I first met with them at Founders brewery to chat about their day I was enamored with them (and also with the amazing beer choices they were making… um hello mixed beers? what have I been doing with my life) and their love story. On top of that they were having their dog in the wedding (and had him in their save the date photos!).. I mean come on he was so cute RUNNING down the aisle towards Justin! I am a sucker for dogs and Chance was the most fun furry brides mate dude to have around.

This day was just lovely, from arriving while they were still setting up and getting ready, and getting to know all of the family and friends well, to riding around with the bridal party in a party bus just to drink, to dancing the night away to the sweet jams of my favorite DJ this day was just the bees knees. And a FANTASTIC way to start of 2016 season right!

And huge thanks to my girl Katie for second shooting this with me! She was so amazing and some of these images are hers!

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Angie’s Dress: BIANKA Bridal

Flower Crown: Alyssa McElheny

DJ: Jeffery Schildroth DJ

Thank you for viewing this The Cheney Place Wedding! Rachel Kaye Photography is a Chicago / West Michigan based wedding and portrait photographer who loves a great destination wedding. Rachel Kaye specializes in off-beat natural light wedding photography. Rachel Kaye Photography provides the best wedding photography services for the coolest kind of couples. Those who want to tell their love story in a natural, documentary style with amazing service. Rachel Kaye Photography tells unique stories through gorgeous natural looking photographs and fun, quirky, animated GIF’s.

For more information on how to tell your wedding day story or engagement/love story please contact Rachel Kaye

Love and Light, Rachel Kaye

Tags: grand rapids wedding photographer, the cheney place

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Frauenthal Wedding Muskegon Michigan Photographer | Lauren + Adam

Grand Rapids Engagement Photographer | Haley + Trevor

Ferrysburg Engagement Photographer Michigan | Sydney + Jesse

London Engagement Photographer | Tiana + Graham

The Making of Harry Potter – An American in England

The Cheney Place Wedding Grand Rapids Michigan |Angie + Justin

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