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What does it look like when a talented former competitive gymnast, about to earn her doctorate in psychology plans to tie the knot to a smart, savvy environmental law student, and they plan a wedding that is less traditional all-about-her, and more a laid-back, stylish celebration with family and friends? This gorgeous…
What happens when you combine a favorite childhood park, a summer thunderstorm, and one of my all-time favorite date night activities? As it turns out, a super-fun engagement session! Last summer, I headed up to Gaithersburg to meet Hilary and Mike for their engagement session. The skies looked a little ominous while we were at the park, but…
Home is where the heart is… no, really! My couples ask me over and over the best way to have a unique, memorable engagement session. My answer is a no-brainer, but it usually surprises people — have your session at home! No, this doesn’t have to involve cleaning your place from top to bottom and hiring an interior designer for a swoon-worthy living room… all I’m saying is, you picked where you live for a reason, so let’s stay in the neighborhood! The streets, alleyways, nooks and crannies of your neighborhood have a magic that can unlock some really personal-feeling photos. On a rainy and relatively
As someone without a particularly big or particularly close family, I always love and am fascinated when my couples have a wedding day that pulls in dozens of relatives from all over the world. To have cousins you’re close to! Who will travel to celebrate…
Happy New Year! I hope however you chose to ring in the new year last night/this morning, whether it was hygge at home in your jammies or with sparkles and a hundred of your best friends, that it was everything you wanted it to be! Congratulations to Katie + Jon on their first wedding anniversary! They threw a KILLER NYE party at Pinstripes (bowling + bocce!) in Georgetown on the C&O Canal, and oh hey, happened to get married while they were at it.
Hooooooooly wow, it’s been a big year! I’m incredibly grateful to all of the couples and clients who trusted me to capture meaningful images for them… being a wedding photographer is being trusted by complete strangers to capture a huge milestone in their lives… and hopefully somewhere along the way, for me, becoming friends. I shot the most-ever weddings this year, clocking in at 18! (I posted 17 to Instagram a few weeks ago… only to realize I had miscounted.) It’s been quite a year for growth, reflection, and figuring out exactly what I want this little business (that maybe isn’t so little anymore) to be.
I’m lucky to have some of the very, very best clients. Looking back at my whole 2018 for my year-in-review post (stay tuned early next week!), Shelly + Ryan’s lovely day at Linganore Winery in Maryland was SUCH a great wedding day for such great people! This isn’t the first time I’ve worked with Shelly…
What’s sweeter than a surprise marriage proposal? A surprise marriage proposal during a craftily-planned family trip to Washington, DC… so that your family and friends are at hand to celebrate with you after “yes”! When Brett reached out to me this spring to say he’d be taking a trip with his love, Kendra, and their family to DC, and he wanted to propose, and could I help… what is there to say but “yes”?!
Y’all, as my fall slows down enough for me to BREATHE and catch up on some blogging, holy cow do I have some great engagement sessions for you! Today’s couple, Julianne + Phil, tied the knot in August in Baltimore, but before we get to that, I’m super-excited to share their colorful and classy Annapolis waterfront and State Circle engagement session! I LOOOOVE working and living…
It used to bother me that with the seasons, the color palette of my photos changed. These days, I try to embrace the changing temperatures and the impact they have on my photos. (Plus, I have enough photos from over the years to keep my Instagram grid looking balanced!) Cooler temperatures mean more earth and jewel tones in my photos, and more hikes and campfires in my leisure time. So I was intrigued when…
Have you been to a DC Shorts show? I have, and they’re fantastic! So have Angela and Caleb — they met at a DC Shorts afterparty in 2012! Angela is a joyous, cheerful, thoughtful woman, and Caleb is a wonderful match for her — incredibly kind, and up for adventure with her…
Can we talk about the fact that it's September already? Starbucks says it's pumpkin latte season and kids are back in school, but it's still 95 degrees outside today, I'd barely gotten to the pool and a baseball game, and it rained the whole first half of the summer. I love fall, but I'm NOT ready for it this year! But, I'm bowing to popular opinion (even if I disagree!) and so I'm excited to share an early fall wedding on the blog today. Last fall, Laura + Dave (friends of Amy + Alan's family!) tied the knot with just the faintest early hint of fall color at Hillendale Country Club outside of Baltimore.
Alison is the friend of a dear, dear friend... we've known each other a bit for years, but to get to truly know and work with her was a joy! Alison is part of that crazy-wonderful tribe of DC women who are kind, generous, talented, driven, and hardworking. So basically, exactly my kind of human. Her husband, Barrett, is real life leading-man material -- exactly the kind of human who Alison so entirely deserves! Alison + Barrett's wedding day in April at Toolbox was my first of 2018, and oh buddy did they set the standard…
It's been FAR too long since my last blog post! My only excuse is that for the past two weeks, I was taking some much-needed personal vacation time (a week at home, and then a whirlwind trip to Miami), and things have been crazy-busy since I got back! But today I'm super-excited to share a gorgeous wedding. Rachel is a longtime personal friend and former coworker. She's also KILLING IT as an incredibly talented instructional designer and podcaster, so if you need help in that direction, definitely check her out.
When you find a doctor this gracious, smart, and beautiful you should put a ring on it! That's exactly what he did this past Saturday! M+J's family hosted ~180 friends and well-wishers at a gorgeous traditional Kenyan ceremony at Mt. Airy Mansion. After a quick wardrobe swap, M+J joined the most joyful wedding reception I've ever been a part of!
Can we talk about amazing humans making modern wedding traditions work for them? Shawn is a college friend of mine from Tulane, and one of the most interesting people I know... and he met his match when he found Bailey! I LOVED getting to reconnect, and document such a cool point in their lives! Before moving to Germany together, Shawn and Bailey tied the knot in front of their closest DC friends and family at one of my favorite parks in Georgetown... then, hosted a house party reception! Love these two a lot, and I wish them all of the happiness.
Our own modern-day fairy tale! A group of humans meet and become fast friends in graduate school. School ends, lives continue, and one friend moves to Arkansas to further her career. Her friends in DC miss her terribly, but make do through calls, emails, and frequent visits. Then, the BEST news: she is moving back to DC, and marrying the most amazing person!
Get out of town! Head west! That's the lesson I (re)learned from Dan and Tom at their gorgeous, sunny wedding at the Barvarian Inn in Shepherdstown, WV! A little under two hours from downtown DC, Shepherdstown is a charming college town, and Dan and Tom (and their family and friends!) had gorgeous mountain views, a charming historic downtown to stroll, and a wonderful, cozy resort-style experience at the Barvarian Inn. I didn't stay the night after the wedding, but once I saw the views and the pool, I sure wish I had!
I don't know about y'all, but with this muggy summer weather, some snow actually sounds great right about now.... and wouldn't you know, that on the literal first day of spring, that's what we got for Leah + Brent's engagement session? But these two were total good sports, and we made use of their adorable front porch (hooray, new homeowners!) when things got too wet and cold at the park! They really killed it in less-than-ideal conditions, and I cannot WAIT for their wedding tomorrow at Toolbox in Dupont Circle!
Lauren + Peter are the most lovely humans... I'm so excited to have gotten to spend a beautiful afternoon exploring all the nooks and crannies of one of our mutual favorite neighborhoods, Capitol Hill, with these two! We found beautiful alleyways, hung out outside Barnaby Books, and finished up with the most beautiful light on the columns at the Supreme Court. What a perfect DC afternoon!
What happens when you bring your family and friends from all over the world to a sunny oasis in Falls Church to celebrate? This gorgeous, cheerful, sunlit wedding day at 2941 Restaurant that was all about love between people! Kristi grew up in Maine, and Pras in England (his family is Sri Lankan), and they love to travel. After exchanging online messages for a week, these two met up at one of my favorite spots in my own DC neighborhood -- Veritas! If you ever went to Veritas when it was open, you might not be surprised that Pras 'fesses up that he couldn't really see her on that date. But never mind that, all's well that ends well, because Kristi is gorgeous, and these two avid travelers tied the knot in a low-key celebration that reflected the two of them just perfectly.
Ryan met Shelly when he hired her friend at work, and Shelly stopped by the office. Soon enough, they were on their first date at an Orioles game, and fast forward to this weekend when they're tying the knot at Linganore Winery! Ryan says Shelly is his best friend, and Shelly loves that he makes her smile all the time. We had a lot of fun wandering the halls of the National Portrait Gallery and surrounding neighborhood. Here's to their wedding day being equally wonderful!
I'm a big believer in boudoir as an incredibly powerful and empowering experience. I've both photographed boudoir for friends and clients, and gotten in front of the lens myself. Months ago, I decided to schedule a boudoir photo session. It was a deeply liberating, and empowering, and also heartbreaking experience. I am so incredibly glad to have…
Four months in, Thomas asked Andrea to marry him... so last September, years after being introduced by his roommate who was a close friend of hers growing up, it was definitely meant to be. They tied the knot in an intimate ceremony with only their closest family and friends at the historic Heurich House in Dupont Circle in September. They kept…
Who doesn't love a good fairytale love story? When Joe reached out to me from Utah a few months ago about his plans to propose to Heather, one of the first things he told me was how much she loves cherry blossoms. He'd planned a trip for the two of them to DC in the midst of what we hoped would be peak bloom, but anyone who's been in DC this spring knows the weather's been rather... shall we say... capricious, and by the time their trip rolled around, the bloom forecast had been pushed back several times, but an all-too-brief warm spell the last...
It's been a season of exciting growth for me! My 2018 datebook has been more or less filled since late January, and I have so many exciting things on the calendar for this year! More to come on many of them, but one of the cool things I've been working on is how to share my love for making people comfortable in front of the camera with other photographers. In March, I launched the first Aimee Custis Photography Styled Sweetheart Session workshop!
Get excited! There is so much to love, love, LOVE about Nicole + Joe's stunning purple wedding at the Four Seasons Baltimore Inner Harbor hotel. A gorgeous and sweet bride, the most beautiful summer day and night right on the water at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, a to-DIE-for sunset, the beautiful and meaningful traditions that accompany a Jewish wedding...
You'd barely know it from the photos, but this couple is a dream team of keeping their eye on what really matters and being even keeled on their wedding day. Kathryn + Sam have become some of my favorite clients because of this... from their fun engagement photos on Capitol Hill where they totally let me lead them into a bookstore, danced on the lawn of the Supreme Court, and did it all with grace and smiles! We were so excited for their July wedding day... it had some of my favorite fellow vendors (Suzanne! I love you!), my favorite venue (Lincoln's Cottage embodies everything I love about a venue... it's in DC, it has history and character, the staff team is super-nice, and it's so darn photogenic), and so many fun details planned!
Real talk: I hate to admit it, but not all photo sessions are created equal. The weather, or the season, or the venue, or the light, or a wardrobe malfunction, or a weird camera malfunction (this is why I carry backup gear!) or even someone just having an off day or a bad mood are all super-common things that as a professional photographer, I deal with all the time. And it's my job to handle them gracefully, and in the words of Tim Gunn, "make it work". I'm always proud of my ability to do that, and for the most part, my couples never even know that it was a thing! But a handful of times every season....
My last trip (which I still haven’t blogged! oy!) was a mini-vacation to Miami last August… and with it was wonderful, it wasn’t long enough or far enough away to really be restorative to me. I feel incredibly lucky to be able to travel as often as I do, but my last 18 months or so have been intense . Given that I hold down a demanding full-time job as deputy director of a nonprofit AND a full-time photography practice, I really needed a break! I started planning this trip, almost by accident