May 2021(Part 2) with Precious Pics | Annual Wedding & Engagement Report | Photography & Videography
Memorial Day weekend is the first rush of the year. Every photographer in the country is out. Every venue is booked. Every caterer has been working 60-hour weeks since Tuesday.
We ran nine weddings in 48 hours across five states. Two Seattle weddings on May 29. Two Virginia weddings on May 29–30. One in Baltimore, one in Pasadena MD, one in Austin, one in the DC metro, one in a Loudoun winery.
1. Vanya & Tony — Baltimore, MD
Collection Package at Haven Street Ballroom — Fetewell's Baltimore warehouse-conversion space. Classic with photojournalistic and art-key accents. Warm and natural. Warehouse receptions photograph best with layered lighting; string lights plus uplighting plus the dance-floor spot is the formula.
2. Quinn & Tony — Seattle, WA
Value Collection at Green Gates at Flowing Lake. Classic with photojournalistic. Bright and warm with high contrast. Flowing Lake gives you waterfront ceremony and outdoor reception space on the same property — one of the easier PNW summer-wedding venues to plan around.
3. Beth & Michael — Pasadena, MD
Classic Photography at Kurtz's Beach — Chesapeake Bay waterfront. Classic with photojournalistic. Natural edit. Bay-front ceremonies at Kurtz's can face either direction; the afternoon sun hits the water from the west, which is the easier of the two for portraits.
4. Lilya & Mark — Seattle, WA
Value Collection at Edlynn Farm — the restored farmhouse venue in the Snoqualmie Valley. Classic and art-key. Vivid and warm with low contrast. Farm venues in the Seattle shoulder season need a rain-plan B; we had tarps ready, didn't use them.
5. Kristen & Jamal — Haymarket, VA
Collection Package at Piedmont Club. Classic with photojournalistic. Natural with high contrast. Piedmont Club is the northern-Virginia country-club pick — golf course backdrop, formal ballroom, reliably good ceremony sites depending on weather.
6. Amy & Greg — Middleburg, VA
Classic Photography at Goodstone Inn. Photojournalistic and traditional fusion. Warm and natural with low contrast. Goodstone is one of the quieter Virginia-hunt-country estate weddings — lower guest counts, longer meals, quieter receptions.
7. Olivia & Jonah — Washington, DC
Collection Package at Hyatt Regency Bethesda. Classic with candid. Natural edit. DC hotel-ballroom weddings photograph fine but rely heavily on the photographer's ability to find angles — hotel ballrooms without windows are the hardest ceremony environment to shoot.
8. Pauli & Sean — Austin, TX
A second day of coverage for Pauli & Sean's Austin wedding weekend — home setting. Photography & Videography Collection. Classic with photojournalistic and art-key. Light and airy.
9. Sarah & Karter — Lovettsville, VA
Collection Package at Creek's Edge Winery. Classic with art-key and photojournalistic accents. Light and airy. Creek's Edge is one of the higher-elevation Virginia wineries — the elevation gives you cooler summer ceremonies and better long-lens backgrounds.
That was the last weekend of May.
Five states. Nine weddings. Memorial Day weekend is always the season's first compression point — the weekend where every team we have is on the road, every photographer is editing a wedding from the night before while shooting another the same day.
If you're planning your own Memorial Day weekend wedding for next year, the math: book 12–14 months out, not 6. All the best venues, photographers, and caterers are gone by February for the following May. Start a conversation here.
Sincerely yours, Precious Pics
