The morning is my favourite part of a wedding day. Nothing is rushed yet, the light is soft, and I can work quietly around the room while everyone gets ready.Wedding coverage starts at six hours and includes a sneak peek within 48 hours, so you have something to share before the thank-you cards go out.

A bride fastening an earring at the lighted mirror, veil already pinned, in the quiet half hour before anyone else arrives.

Getting Ready

This is what I am always waiting for. Not the pose, the second after it, when you forget I am standing there at all.If you know a field, a farm or a back road that means something to you, tell me. We will build half an hour into the timeline and go.

A kiss on the cheek in a field of sunflowers, caught with her eyes shut and her veil lifting behind her.

Sunflowers

Private vows are worth the twenty minutes they take. You get to say the things that are only yours, without a room listening, and I stay far enough back that you can.I help build the timeline for every wedding, so moments like this one have somewhere to sit instead of being squeezed in.

Reading private vows to one another in the tall sunflowers, her train laid out behind her across the grass.

Private Vows

The details are half the story. The rings, the lace, the pocket square someone straightened four times that morning.Every gallery comes back as high resolution digital images with no watermark, so these can be printed as large as you like.

Her hand resting on his lapel just after the ceremony, both bands on, photographed close and in black and white.

The Rings

Plenty of weddings have small people in them. I photograph them the way they actually are on the day, which is to say briefly still and then not still at all.Family groupings are worked out with you beforehand so nobody is standing around after the ceremony wondering who is next.

The whole family under the flower arch, the youngest on her hip and their son standing square in front.

All Of Us

Most couples tell me they are bad at having their picture taken. Nobody has been yet. I give you something to do rather than a pose to hold, and the rest sorts itself out.An engagement session is included with the two larger wedding collections, and can be booked on its own for anniversaries or for no reason at all.

Foreheads together on the riverbank in late summer, her hand on his cheek and the water going quiet behind them.

Riverside

I will lie in the grass to get the frame. It is usually the one people keep.Sessions run about an hour and you are welcome to bring a change of clothes, a dog, or a blanket to sit on when you have had enough of standing.

Lying back in the long grass, photographed from directly above, a kiss on the cheek and both of them laughing.

In The Grass

Newly engaged and not sure what to do next. Start here, while it still feels new.These sessions double as a rehearsal for the wedding day. By the time I photograph your ceremony we already know how to work together.

Two hands reaching for one another over the wildflowers, the new ring catching what was left of the light.

She Said Yes

The weeks before you meet them are their own chapter, and they go quickly. I would rather photograph you now than have you wish you had.There is a collection of dresses you are welcome to borrow for your session at no extra charge, so you do not have to buy something you will wear once.

Both hands under the bump in a meadow of tall grass and yellow flowers, about an hour before the sun went.

Almost Here

Maternity sessions are not only about the bump. They are the last pictures of the two of you before you are three.We will talk through locations and outfits before the day so you turn up knowing exactly what is happening.

Sitting together in the long grass above the water, waiting on their first, in the last of the evening sun.

The Two Of You

We will get the one where everybody looks at the camera. Then we will get this one, which is the one you will hang.Family sessions work well once a year. Children change fast, and so does everyone else, quietly.

A family of five walking a footbridge hand in hand, every one of them looking at each other rather than at me.

Five Across

Children do not perform for me and I do not ask them to. We walk, they climb something, and I photograph what happens.If your child needs a minute, they can have a minute. There is no version of this where we rush them.

Perched on the pink quartzite in October, boots on, grinning through a gap where a tooth used to be.

Quartzite

Senior sessions are the most fun I have all year. You pick the outfits, we pick the places, and we go and make something that looks like you.There is room for more than one location and as many changes of clothes as you can carry.

A senior session on the sand at sunset, her skirt caught between her fingers, the whole lake lit up behind her.

Golden Hour

If you have somewhere in mind, bring it to me. If you have no idea, I have a list of places around Sioux Falls that photograph beautifully at the right hour.Message me and we will work out where to start.

Standing among the roses in a floral dress, photographed with the low sun coming through the trees behind.

The Garden

How small their feet are. How they grip one of your fingers and will not let go. It is worth having a record of it, because it does not last.Newborn, milestone and cake smash sessions all run at your pace, with as many breaks as the baby decides we are having.

Propped up in a basket with a lamb held in both hands, blue eyes wide, caught right in the middle of a sound.

Julia Pics — wedding and portrait photography in Sioux Falls, South Dakota