WEDDINGS, ENGAGEMENTS, PLANNING RESOURCES, AND MORE.
- BRYSON B PHOTO BLOG -
Wedding Days
Real weddings from St. Louis and beyond!
Don’t be fooled. Though they look like it, they’re not professional models.
The historic Jewel Box boasts gorgeous class ceilings and lush greenery - perfect for a wedding. Check out some of my faves from Kelsey + Megan's big day!
Molly and Chris’ wedding at Timber Creek Event Center in St. Joseph, Missouri was totally unique and absolutely stunning. Check out some of my favorites from the day, and also see some llamas!
A collection of my favorite images from the Bryson B Photo year 2022 wedding photography season.
Dive into Courtney and Nick’s lovely fall wedding at Main Street Abbey in Columbia, IL. These two made this amazing day even more spectacular!
Check out this gorgeous, modern fall wedding at The Standard on State in Rockford, Illinois. McKenna and Grant threw an absolutely killer wedding day!
Check out this lovely, rainy summer wedding at the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. Margarett and Jeff made the best of a rainy wedding day!
Checkout this beautiful spring wedding at Piazza Messina in Cottleville, Missouri! Jenny and Ali had just the perfect day. It was an honor to capture it!
Lauren and Jesse had an awesome central Illinois wedding with a reception at Trailside Event Center on the chilliest day in March!
Wedding photography at Destihl Brewery's Barrel Room in Normal, Illinois. The perfect place for Macy and Mike’s wedding! Check out some of my favorites!
A collection of my favorite images from the Bryson B Photo year 2021 wedding photography season.
Becky and Michael’s beautiful Lafayette Square Park micro wedding in St. Louis, MO was perfect for them and their awesome families!
Maddie and Bill's intimate Kentucky Lake wedding was beautiful, stunning, and tons of fun! Check out some of our favorites from this backyard celebration.
Amanda and Alex’s fall wedding at Tower Grove Park in St. Louis, MO. The ceremony was at the Tower Grove Bandstand Pavilion with the reception at Hendri’s.
Chelsea and Mitchell wanted to keep their wedding intimate, and Kabekona Hills Retreat Center just outside of Rolla, Missouri was the absolute perfect choice!
Paige and Tim’s wedding at GC Cuisine and Crystal Garden Events in Edwardsville, Illinois was just stunning! From my first conversation with Paige, I know that this wedding was going to be full of personality - just like they are.
Brianne and Loren are the heroes of today’s story, and they deserve every bit of that title (though they’d never admit it). They are some of the kindest, most laid-back people that I’ve ever had a chance to photograph. After their engagement session earlier this year, I knew this wedding was going to be a good one. Spoiler alert… It was. Do your finger stretches, cuz this one’s jam-packed with images!
It was a true joy to be back shooting a wedding at the lovely Silver Oaks Chateau, with the dream team - Akia and Darren. From start to finish, this day was full of so many amazing little moments! For this wedding my team and I were covering both photo and video, and we were never at a loss for beautiful things to capture!
I’m so honored that I got to shoot Kaitlyn and Trey’s lovely Peoria, Illinois wedding. We started at the Mark Twain hotel, a Peoria staple, where Kaitlyn and her party got ready. We then visited Trey’s grandma’s home for the ceremony, and moved on to the gorgeous Waterhouse event space in the downtown MAXAM building for the reception.
This beautiful, joy-filled wedding day took place up in Kankakee, Illinois at the Kankakee Valley Boat Club. The entire wedding day was centered around the gorgeous Kankakee River. The homes of friends and family where they got ready were set just on the river, and the venue for the ceremony and reception offered a wonderful view as well.
I will never be sad if there is rain on a wedding day, especially at such a gorgeous place as Allerton Park and Retreat Center in Monticello, Illinois.
There isn’t much better than an early summer wedding at The Cannery in Eureka, Illinois. This wedding was supposed to be a rainy one, but after getting pelted with heavy rainfall on my drive up there, we were blessed with a dry wedding day at a gorgeous venue with some stunning folks!
This story begins on Facebook marketplace, happened at Loveland Estates, and continues with Angie and Chuck! Read more to see what the heck I mean by that.
Make sure to do your finger stretches, because this one’s a scroller! A huge congrats to Josie and Cole, your wedding day was beautiful!
After their engagement session back in July, there was no way I couldn’t be stoked for this wedding. They are such a fun couple, and they’re family to a few of my past couples as well, so the wedding was chock full of familiar faces.
It was so much fun shooting wedding photography for Chelsea and Mason’s Peoria, Illinois wedding! Well, we also did some stuff in Pekin, too. Chelsea and Mason are highly special people and, as evidenced by their engagement session, hanging out with them is always an adventure.
As summer’s last hurrah, it gave us Megan and Matt’s gorgeous October wedding with warm sunshine, clear skies, and juuuust the right amount of heat! Megan and Matt are some of the nicest folks around. They were totally down for anything, smiled through every moment of the day, and were just so much fun to hang out with and take photos of! I couldn’t ask for a better duo to have in front of my lens.
I can’t say enough good things about Kyle, Brooke, and their wedding at Hidden Lake Winery in Aviston, Illinois! Throughout this entire year, at every step of the planning process, they’ve been totally stoked and excited about their wedding! Click through to see some faves from this party of a day.
It feels like just yesterday that Alysa contacted me to shoot her wedding! Well, it wasn’t yesterday, but it WAS just two months before the wedding. Dang, 2020 is weird, right? Anyways, here’s a beautiful wedding at Stone House of St. Charles that I had the privilege of photographing. Check it out!
I had the honor of photographing Meg and Mark’s beautiful southern Illinois wedding. The whole event, from ceremony to reception, all took place on their gorgeous property in Greenville, Illinois, which made it extra special!
I’m so excited to share some of my favorites from Kristen and Andrew’s wedding day! From their engagement session back in February, I knew they were going to be such fun to photograph. The ceremony was at this really gorgeous private property, and the beautiful reception took place at Andre’s West. They surrounded themselves with such good friends throughout the day, and it shows.
Engagement Sessions
Engagement sessions are so special to our couples. Check them, and maybe their dogs, out!
Kylie and Carson’s little family is so supremely sweet, and I’m beyond stoked to have the privilege of covering photo and video for their wedding in 2022. Their morning engagement session was a last-minute addition that I’m so happy we were able to fit in!
What a lovely St. Louis engagement session with a lovely couple! Becky, Michael, and I ran around City Garden and the Mural Mile in St. Louis for a while and made some straight-up magic.
I’m obsessed with these beautiful people! Their Pere Marquette engagement session was all I wanted out of my Saturday evening. After a rainy weekend, the sun came out to play for Macie and Blaine’s photos.
Brianne and Loren are such sweet folks with, obviously, the cutest pups! I’m a sucker for a good hunting dog… We spent some time on their family’s farm land, and hopped around to another couple of cool spots around Gillespie for some late-evening photos. It was a blast!
Thanks for the hangs, Eric and Megan! Thanks for letting me pet you, Rex. Check out some of my favorites from this Carondelet Park couple’s shoot!
This was, by far the coldest engagement session that I’ve ever done, but of some of the warmest souls that I’ve ever photographed! While their wedding is at another venue entirely, I have to give a shoutout to the kind folks at Boo Cat Club for giving us an indoor venue in which to take some beautiful photos and keep out of the frigid temps for a little while!
This St. Louis engagement session was an insane amount of fun! Amanda and Alex are fantastic people. Check out this blog if you want to see some cool photos of a great couple and get some tips on how to plan a zoo engagement session!
Stephanie and Zach’s late-fall engagement session in Highland, Illinois at Silver Lake Park was gorgeous! We did this session during a week where I had about 6 other shoots and, let me tell you what, every single one had this amazing, warm light.
I’m so excited to share a bit of Moses and Emily’s engagement session with you! I think we were met with probably the best light I’ve ever seen in my whole dang life. That, paired with these two awesome humans made for a session for the books! I shot, like, DOUBLE the amount that I normally shoot for a session like this. They were that good.
Check out Kaitlyn and Trey’s chilly Peoria, IL engagement session at Laura Bradley Park! Also, read within for a secret, bonus blog post about how to survive these wintry engagement sessions…
I’m elated that I get to photograph such an amazing couple like Josie and Cole! They’re a blast to photograph, and take my weird and wonky instructions like TOTAL champs. We spent the evening taking their engagement photos in Alton, IL: both in downtown Alton and at Gordon Moore Park.
Kristen and Andrew’s St. Louis engagement session in Downtown and Lafayette park!
Lauri and Matt’s Peoria, Illinois engagement session! Check out some of my favorites!
A gorgeous sunrise joined Chelsea and Mason during their engagement session in Peoria, Illiniois.
I love the pictures I made with Michalah and Zach. Checkout out some highlights from their Peoria, IL engagement session.
Heather and Coleman’s Springfield, Illinois Engagement Session. EPIC.
Elizabeth and Scott’s Forest Park engagement session!
Max and Abigail’s Peoria, Illinois engagement session!
Emma and Kurt’s Hillsboro, Illinois engagement session!
Beautiful people and a gorgeous city in bloom make Austin and Mary’s engagement session one for the books. Click to see more!
Katie+Kyle+Puppy = a great time. It's just simple math, guys.
See more of Kailey and Joe's lovely Old St. Charles engagement session!
Check out Ellie and Austin's St. Louis engagement session!
Venue Reviews
I’ve photographed some cool places. See why they’re awesome.
Southern Illinois is a hidden gem for couples getting married in the Midwest. While it’s tough to narrow it down, I’ve done my best to gather 10 of my favorite Southern Illinois wedding venues from which to choose!
Nestled in the heart of Highland, Illinois, The Olde Wicks Factory stands as a quintessential destination for those dreaming of a stunning, timeless wedding day with every amenity you’d expect from a top-notch venue.
Are you planning a micro or intimate wedding in St. Louis, Missouri? If so, you’re in the right place! Today I’m sharing my favorite small wedding venues in St. Louis from the perspective of a wedding photographer.
Located in Pocahontas, Illinois, Loveland Estates is a modern, cozy waterfront wedding venue that offers tons of amenities and is a gorgeous, turnkey solution for your wedding day.
Nestled in the heart of St. Louis’ Central West End, The McPherson offers a truly unique experience for couples seeking a warm, elegant, full-featured wedding venue. Formerly the McPherson Chapel, after two years of improvements and renovations it’s now one of the most stunning venues in the city!
Stone House of St. Charles is a charming, historic St. Louis wedding venue that boasts all the amenities for an amazing wedding! The venue is easily accessible, has a wide range of scenes and settings for different parts of your day, and can easily accommodate up to 400 guests.
Verde is such a unique space and, as a photographer, one of my favorite spots in the city to capture weddings. From the unassuming entrance to the modern greenhouse, Verde on Cherokee has a ton to offer couples looking for the perfect small wedding venue.
Silver Oaks Chateau is a totally stunning wedding venue just outside of St. Louis, Missouri, specifically located in Pacific, Missouri! In my experience, Silver Oaks Chateau is one of the best wedding venues in St. Louis. Not only is the venue totally unique, but it’s also large enough to host a wedding of just under 300 guests.
The Inn at 835 is a timeless, elegant, and fully capable venue to host your entire Springfield, Illinois wedding day. As one of the best wedding venues in Springfield, it features handicap-accessible spaces, a beautiful lobby bar, multiple options for preparation and bridal getting-ready areas, and plenty of tables, chairs, china, and more.
Your Boutique Hotel is a fantastically unique wedding venue in downtown Alton, Illinois, just outside of St. Louis. It’s an alternative to its sister space, the larger WOW Furnishings and Events center, which makes Your Boutique Hotel the perfect solution for small to mid-sized weddings. If you’re looking for an all-in-one venue in downtown Alton, Your Boutique Hotel may just suit your needs!
This is a venue review of Haue Valley in Pacific, Missouri from the perspective of a wedding photographer. With lush landscapes, rustic design, and plenty of space, Haue Valley Weddings and Events may just be the wedding venue for you!
Planning Resources
Struggling to map out your session or wedding day? I can help!
Planning a wedding during the colder months also comes with its own set of unique challenges. How do you pull off your own unforgettable day in a less traditional time of year? After photographing dozens of winter weddings, I’ve rustled up some tips to help make your winter wedding a success.
Welcome to this photographer’s guide to including your dog in your engagement photos! Let’s look at some steps you can take to prep your dog, and yourselves, so that your engagement session goes without a hitch!
Oftentimes, couples haven't had real, organic-feeling photos taken of them. It's hard to get out of the "look-at-the-camera-and-smile" mindset that we've been conditioned to do every time we see someone point a camera at us! So, let's briefly review some of the basic rules of getting "unposed" pictures during your session or wedding.
Night photography is an often looked-over portion of a wedding day, but so many beautiful wedding photos can come from it! Here’s why you should see if your photographer can take some photos of you at night!
Is your wedding looking like it will be affected by COVID-19 (Coronavirus)? If so, here’s a wedding photographer’s perspective on some ways to plan your big day around this global phenomenon.
Are you wondering whether you should or shouldn’t add a first-look to your wedding day? Here’s why it may be a really bad decision.
Choosing to add a first look to your wedding photography itinerary is a choice many couples have trouble coming to a decision on. Here’s why you should totally do a first look.
Being in front of the camera doesn’t have to feel foreign! Here are a photographer’s 5 best pieces of advice for those planning an engagement session.
Easy, memorable, and affordable, these wedding send offs are a great way to end your big day without breaking the bank!
Other Stuff
Sometimes I hop in my car and take photos without people in them.
A blog of the photos I took in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. There were mountains, lakes, bears, elk, deer, wolves, and more!
Landscape Photography trip to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, as well as Dead Horse Point State Park
A collection of my favorite images from the Bryson B Photo year 2023 wedding photography season.