Three Tips Thursday, Vol. 8: Kristelle Boulos Photography
Owning the venue, I am on social media a lot more than I’d like to admit. An important part of running this business (and many businesses, really) is exposure, awareness, and presentation, so Instagram, especially, has become a beneficial resource for us.
One of the things I appreciate about social media is it gives us the ability to more easily connect with people that we likely would not have otherwise met. And then it can be a very rewarding experience to finally meet those people in real life, whether it’s a month down the line or years.
Someone I’d started following in the early days of initiating our venue’s Instagram page is a wedding photographer named Kristelle Boulos. Sofia of Micro Miami, one of our wedding planner friends and a previous interviewee for #ThreeTipsThursday, has worked closely with Kristelle, so I knew she would be an exceptional photographer to know.
I wasn’t wrong!
Kristelle and I finally met when she came to the venue’s grand opening in June. Not only did she make the hour+ trek to The Gardens of Weber Manor for the special celebration, but she also surprised us by taking and sending to us some stunning photos of the venue during the event!
Since then, I was honored to be a guest on Kristelle’s podcast, Capturing Connections (you can also listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform), and she shared her three tips with us below on considerations for booking a venue from a photography standpoint.
Three Tips for Hosting an Event
Kristelle is an avid traveler and an aficionado for learning about cultures and languages. Her photography – truly works of art – reflects those passions. The stories of her subjects are masterfully woven into the snapshots she captures. Her aesthetic is modern yet classic, elegant yet clean, like looking at a still frame from an Audrey Hepburn film.
After having photographed couples all over the world, I was excited that Kristelle would be sharing tips for our readers. She didn’t, however, focus on what to look for in a photographer, but rather on how to choose a location or venue for your wedding or special occasion from the perspective of a photographer. Afterall, the photos that capture your day are arguably almost as important as the day itself since they will shape your memories for decades to come.
Photo Credit: Gardens of Weber Manor.
Below are Kristelle’s three tips for considering a venue from a photography standpoint:
1. Ask for a photo gallery from the venue.
“I think that something to consider for a venue is first of all, it needs to be a place that is beautiful. Rain or shine…whether they have an outdoor space or indoor space, or, you know, a fence that can be rented. It just has to be understood from the very beginning, like, what are the backup plans, and the couple has to be, like, 100% happy with any option, so that if on the day of their wedding, it ends up raining or whatever, they’re not disappointed and it’s, like, it’s as nice to, you know, to use the tent or to use the indoor space as it is to be outdoors. [Make] sure that the lighting is good inside, outside, or under the tent or whatever.
“Something that can help is to ask for a full wedding Gallery from the venue. Perhaps they have a few galleries that they can send out as samples. And it’s not really about choosing a photographer at this point, but more about looking at what the venue looks like on a wedding day under different lighting of the day, like in the morning, midday, and at night.
“What’s the feeling? How do those pictures look? What do the backdrops look like? Is there a variety? So, I think that that’s helpful.”
2. Make sure the venue has plenty of photo opportunities.
“Make sure the venue has a lot of opportunities for varied backgrounds, and not just one spot for portraits, but you know, multiple spots that one photographer can use throughout the day. [However, it also should] not be too big that it requires a lot of walking, because you don’t want to walk too much, you know, on your wedding day. So, you want a space that is efficient, but also has a lot of variety.
“Additionally, make sure that the venue is well maintained and pays attention to detail. And they do their best with hiding elements that are not part of the decor, like, you know, fans or electrical wires…they have thought of ways to dissimulate things because those can be visual obstacles for photographs, especially for candid photos, you know, when we’re trying to take photos of guests, and then there’s like, an ugly thing hanging that isn’t supposed to be there.”
3. Consider getting ready at the venue.
“I’m all about getting married and doing everything in one place. And that’s because you want to be efficient with your time, with the vendors’ time. You want to minimize complications, you know, there could be accidents, traffic…all these things, they can delay a timeline and really ruin someone’s day, you know, if something out of your control happens versus having everything in one space and getting ready there.
“I would highly recommend couples to get ready in the venue because the same thing, like, timewise but also in terms of photographers. Sometimes people decide to get ready in two different hotels or two different, you know, a house and an Airbnb or whatever. And if you want to just have one photographer – especially for small intimate weddings – to photograph the bride and the groom getting ready, it’s hard because the photographer cannot be in the same spot at the same time, so then you would have to pay for a second shooter, which is not super necessary if you can do all of that in one place where I can just swing by you know the getting ready space.”
To connect with Kristelle, follow her on Instagram or connect with her via her website.
Thanks for tuning in!
-Emily, Co-Founder, The Gardens of Weber Manor
“You will find that most times you have a vision of what it is that you want to accomplish and that’s most important. It allows you to work backwards and make cuts and changes that will still reflect the overall outcome you wish to achieve. What good is splurging on one particular item if it doesn’t result in the overall outcome you were trying to create?
-Emily, Co-Founder, The Gardens of Weber Manor
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