These Photographers GET Your Outside-the-Box Wedding Plans

This is a paid post from an APW sponsor. For more about APW and how we make money, please click here.

When I was planning my wedding, telling people that it was a very small and laid-back pizza truck wedding on a nature preserve was met with a gamut of reactions, all the way from genuine excitement to amused confusion to straight up derision (hello friend’s mom who said having a pizza truck would result in people “taking money out of the envelopes,” aka now you know why I hung out on APW).

Most of our vendors fell into the middle category. They were up for doing something different, but I think they kept expecting a catering hall manager with a binder full of regulations and spreadsheets to suddenly appear one day. Way back in 2011, I figured that working with people who didn’t actively hate what we were doing was a win, but man, I would have loved to work with people that were just as excited as we were about our unconventional plans, vendors for whom this wasn’t their first outside-the-box rodeo, or photographers who were like “No shot list? No problem.” Fast-forward to 2017 and Shaw Photography Co., and you can have what I only dreamed of.

Shaw Photography Co. is a New York-based-but-travel-everywhere photography duo. (Do not miss the total steal they are offering below!) They specialize in outside of the box weddings, but they’re also AH-mazing photographers:

Shaw Photography Co. is the husband-and-wife team of Brian and Christina (who work together and separately because they are both unbelievable photographers in their own right), and working with them is basically like working with a pair of super-creative, super-supportive friends. They take the time to get to know you, where you’re coming from, what matters to you, what your style is, and how you can come together to make magical images:

We take on a limited amount of weddings each year (a max of twenty), so that we can develop relationships with each client and be there to answer all of their questions. We spend time creating timelines, understanding the clients’ needs, and are readily available throughout the whole process from booking to after the wedding to help where needed. We’re not a “wedding machine,” and above all else, we value authentic connections and working alongside kindhearted, adventurous spirits who aren’t afraid to bring themselves into their day. But we also recognize that their wedding day is just a celebration in their bigger adventure of life together.
APW readers especially understand that, and they know the importance is on the moments of their day and not all the extra “things.” You know what’s important to you and you do things your way, not compromising any bit of your celebration for preconceived ideas of what should be. Our couples make their own rules, and we love them every bit more for it.
We’re heartfelt moment chasers. We photograph from the heart, not from shot lists, and an appreciation of photography and honest storytelling is something all our clients have in common. At the core of all we do is the belief that we are brought together, with you, to create magic. Our couples tell us how comfortable we make them feel during portraits and how we fit right in with their guests as if they’d known us forever. They comment on our professionalism, our timeliness, and how were able to keep with the ebb and flow of a wedding day without adding any stress. We also receive a lot of compliments on how we’re able to capture the essence and feel of a wedding day and the moments they didn’t even realize where happening.

I mean, these guys just get it, amirite? Part of the reason we made the choices we did about our wedding was my… overdeveloped sense of place. What I mean is that I’m deeply affected by my surroundings and all of my memories are sorted by where they happened (ask my husband about how I’m like, “We definitely talked about this while standing in the laundry aisle of Target”), so it mattered a lot to me that the location of wedding was the star of the show, that it looked and felt special—and that our photographer would capture both the look and feel of the place. (Along with, you know, making us un-photogenic, camera-shy people look okay, too.)

At the time, I didn’t exactly work all that out consciously (the APW books with their mission statement–writing and priority-setting hadn’t come out yet!)—and in hindsight it seems like a pretty big ask for a photographer. But back in January a commenter said this on a post about Shaw Photography Co. and perfectly articulated why the Shaws are photographers for people, like me, for whom the “where” is—almost!—as important as the who:

I absolutely love the “realness” of these photos. Everything is there, so I feel like I am, too.
A lot of photography sacrifices the background for the subject (or vice versa). The bike, ocean, and “plaid-in-a-meadow” shots really highlight the photographers’ skill in catching and honoring both the people and the place!

The Shaws offer flexible packages, with one or two photographer options tailor-made for smaller weddings (they exclusively shoot weddings with fewer than 145 guests!). Their 2018 elopement coverage rates begin at $2,450, and wedding coverage starts at $4,500 for 7 hours of coverage with two photographers, and $6,250 will get you all the works with two photographers, album, and engagement session. There is a flat-rate $500 travel fee to anywhere in the continental U.S. that is outside of a 6 hour drive from their home base of Buffalo, New York.

But now for the really good part: the Shaws have a handful of dates left on their calendar and hope it’s your weddings that’ll be filling them, so they are offering two very amazing APW-reader-only collections for weddings between October 20, 2017 and May 5, 2018:

$3,450 for 7 hours of coverage with one photographer
Or
$2,400 for 4 hours with one photographer

Both options including all travel costs, and a second photographer can be added on for an additional $650.

Be sure to mention this post when you inquire.

Psst: Not getting married but love to ogle the Shaws photos? They also shoot storytelling sessions, and since becoming a parent a few months ago Christina is photographing birth stories (and recently completed postpartum doula training!) and storytelling sessions of the first few days after coming home with a newborn. And guys, these are amazing. Don’t miss some powerful words and images on new parenthood on their blog. And adorable babies like this one:

So if you’re looking for a photographer who will support and celebrate your unconventional wedding choices, and then you know, turn it into pure adulterated photographic glory, head over here and meet the Shaws. Find out more about Brian and Christina, check out all of the totally badass wedding celebrations they’ve captured, and then contact them ASAP—Hellooo, October to May weddings, I’m looking at you.