Kelly & Brian’s charming and intimate Baltimore wedding

Teresa here, finally sitting down to write our first blog post for Susan and Teresa Photography! Susan and I have talked about doing this for a while, but with Susan being a full-time mom of three and me working essentially two other businesses part-time besides this one, it’s taken a little while to get around to it. Building this business has taken time and the farther along we’ve gotten, the more we’ve realized how much is required behind the scenes.  We’ve been so grateful to watch our business grow and to have quite a few people give us insight and tips along the way. We started our photography business because we love capturing special moments and creating the final product that we deliver to all of our wonderful clients, but if you’re a business owner, you understand there’s so much more that goes on behind the scenes.  All of that to say, here we are starting our blog as we go into our 4th year of the photography business! Susan is on vacation and I have a little more free time on my hands while I farm-sit for someone and sit by their pool 😉 

I wanted to start this off with a recent wedding in Baltimore and talk a little bit about wedding day timelines because this wedding was such a good example of the importance of planning your timeline with us! Kelly and Brian’s wedding was such a sweet and intimate occasion that took place at Artifact Coffee downtown in a more historical part of the city. Baltimore has some beautiful spots and this is definitely one of them! 

Originally, the plan for this day was to only be there for a handful of hours, but the night before, that all changed! All I can say is, it’s a good thing we always set aside the entire day of each wedding date for our couples… because sometimes things like this happen 🙂 So we ended being there for a full day, which we were honestly so grateful for! From a photographer’s perspective, though we can always work within a smaller time frame, more time is a gift, especially prior to the ceremony. It allows us to give our clients the photos they’re dreaming of. So many of the beautiful portraits we captured on this wedding day were because we had more time. If you’re reading this and planning your wedding day timeline, this is your sign to leave more room than you think you’ll need for photos! This was such a good choice for Kelly and Brian – they got so many more beautiful images as a result!

Let me give you a specific example from their day. Prior to the change in schedule, with the timeframe we were working with, there was no plan to have the first look and portrait time at Rawlings Conservatory, which is just down the road from the venue. Look at these dreamy photos— the lighting was incredible, their skin is looking so creamy and we were able to capture a good portion of their portraits in this spot because of the extra time we had. SO worth it. And I guarantee, it’s something Kelly and Brian did not regret! 

In the early afternoon, we arrived at the Hyatt Place not far from the Inner Harbor. This was a special reunion for Susan as her and Kelly were great friends in college and it was really neat that we were there to capture her wedding day! After taking some getting ready photos with Kelly and her sister, we headed over to Rawlings Conservatory. Kelly’s dad was there to get into position for his first look of Kelly in her wedding dress, which was very touching. 

From there, we went inside the conservatory where we got Brian in place and brought Kelly in for their first look together! Lots of happy tears and smiles ensued.

We stayed in the conservatory for the majority of their portraits (many, many portraits!) and we had absolutely no regrets about that! Following that, we headed over to Clipper Mill, near Woodberry kitchen, for some beautiful shots in the streets and the picturesque architecture in the area.

Kelly chose a beautiful, soft green for her bridesmaid dress color and navy for the guys, which made for such an elegant combination.

The ceremony was held in the courtyard behind Artifact. With the back drop of stone, string lights overhead, and florals scattered about, it gave it all a very classic, romantic feel. While the guests waited for the ceremony to start, they enjoyed some refreshing beverages topped off with mint.

When we walked into the reception to see one long table covered in candles and florals and elegant table settings, we were in love with it. This family style table has definitely been more trendy in the last couple years and it can be done so beautifully and add such a nice touch, especially for an intimate wedding like this, it was so fitting!  

There was a lot of fun dancing! And we topped the night off with ice cream, which is one of the best ways to do it in our opinion! Beyond the fact that this ice cream bar was delicious, it was also probably the most cute and rustic ice cream bar we’ve seen. *chefs kiss* Perfect.