“Ali once again brought her magical energy to our day. Her ability to set people at ease and capture special moments is unmatched. She is the best wedding photographer I’ve worked with after being in several weddings this year. She traveled from Nashville to Boston for our wedding and was so communicative and sensitive about her travel timelines to ensure everything would be perfect. The photos, both digital and film, were beyond our wildest dreams. You want the wedding photographer who you can’t help but drag onto the dance floor during Pink Pony Club! I’d recommend her to everyone and anyone.” -Fran

Fran and Clay’s estate wedding felt like one of those slow, cinematic, soul-forward celebrations that makes people (read: me) book a flight to Europe. 

It was giving baroque. It was giving gut-punch feels. It was giving Italian destination wedding— except it happened in Boston, Massachusetts. 

I’ve been a traveling wedding photographer for four years and I can count on one hand the number of times I have looked at one of my photos and immediately thought: this is no-question, capital-A Art.

And this gallery, full of both digital and film wedding photography? This is proof of art. Proof that ordinary micro-emotions and holy-sh*t visuals not only coexist, they conspire.

Contemporary Renaissance? You tell me.

Vendors | Venue: Commander’s Mansion | Catering: Capers Catering | Rentals: Peak Event Services | Florals: Prose Florals | DJ: Lady DJ | Hair: Melinda Brandt | Makeup: Anna Breeding | Engagement Ring: Consider the Wildflowers | Wedding Bands: Springer’s Jewelers | Bride’s Dress: Alena Leena from Ceremony | Groom’s Suit: David Wood Clothiers | Veil: Etsy | Bridesmaids Dresses: Birdy Grey | Groomsmen Suits: The Black Tux

When Boston Decides to Cosplay as Tuscany

Film Wedding Photography Thrives in Historic Spaces

Who knew a tent reception and oyster shucking could feel like Tuscany in May?

Green on green outside, carved wood and Italianate lines inside, natural light doing its best chiaroscuro impression (or maybe that was just me, being dramatic). Commander’s Mansion practically screamed for film wedding photography— and at this point in my craft, I never leave home without a roll (obsessed isn’t even in the same zip code). 

There’s a certain alchemy when film meets an old soul of a space. The quirks make it sing. Changing light doesn’t just shift— it unveils. Grain is less flaw, more patina: the kind that deepens over time. Both carry story in their texture. Both demand presence.

And when you put them together you get frames that feel timeless. (Caravaggio could never.)

It’s cinematic down to the freaking marrow.

I tried a film stock I’d never touched before, and it was WORTH it. Vintage-y and gorgeously raw in a way that I’ll probably roast myself for in two years… except no, I won’t. It served Fran and Clay’s story like it was tailor-made.

And if you haven’t heard me say it yet: that’s the whole damn point.

How Emotion Turns Ordinary Into Art

How Film Wedding Photography Captures What You Can’t Script

“I took the scenic route to get to you.”

This was literally the first line of Clay’s vows to Fran, and I absolutely lost my ever-loving mind. 

I always tell people: the only two times you’ll have everyone you love in the same room are a wedding and a funeral. And one of those is far more in your control than the other. But that doesn’t mean you should control it within an inch of its life.

The art lives in what bubbles up when no one is watching—an hand tucked into the crook of an elbow, conversations caught in half-hugs, the embrace of a couple falling in love all over again. No matter how out-of-focus or messy it seems, it’s the stuff I HAVE to remember for you. There’s literally no other way.

That’s the point of film wedding photography: to hold onto what’s fleeting and make it unforgettable.

That’s why I learn the names of your people. Why I clock your dynamics. Why I hold the room steady so you can feel everything.

And Fran? She felt it all. Her words, when I asked how she felt during her wedding? “A little emotionally drunk, a little literally drunk, and fizzy like a nice, cold can of Diet Coke.”

As for Sarah’s speech? Wrecked me. They stood there, speaking about Fran being the rock for everyone they love—for them, for their mom, for all their friends—and then turned to Clay and said, “It takes a really strong person to be the soft place to land for everyone else’s rock.”

Yeah. I erupted into tears.

We tend to forget, in the everyday-ness of people we love, that those ordinary gestures are the extraordinary. But in vows, in speeches, in micro-moments—it announces itself.

It’s more than candid. More than documentary. 

It’s real. It’s human. It’s really freaking beautiful.

The Louvre Called, They Want Their Frame Back

AKA that time the room went full baroque and my camera ate

For a photo to hit “holy SHIT” level is incredibly rare. But it happened to me in the most unposed, unscripted, un-freaking-believable moment. 

A bridesmaid leaned in to place Fran’s veil, another dipped low to hold her fabric high, and my shutter turned life into fine art. 

It was communion: a friend tending to a friend. And then— light carved through the interior, caught in the veil, and turned the simplest gesture into something old world and alive.

Goosebumps are the goal but this? This was a pinch-me-and-hang-it-in-the-Louvre still I couldn’t force even if I wanted to (and I don’t. Ever). 

The kind of photo that strangers on TikTok call baroque and I just sit there like… okay, maybe I’m not totally losing my mind. 

You can’t pose this into existence. You just have to be present when it shows the f*ck up.

Same with the black‑and‑whites: porch clusters, candlelit conversations caught in grain. A village of women tending to one bridal train. Ink on skin against soft fabrics. 

Film wedding photography thrives in moments like these. Nobody was angling for “fine art.” They were too busy showing up for each other. 

That’s what I mean when I say fine art and soul-first don’t have to choose sides. You wait. You watch. You pay attention to the mundane until the extraordinary reveals itself. And when it does, you press the shutter and pray your hands don’t shake.

Where Film Wedding Photography Meets Real-World Romance

Fran and Clay’s wedding wasn’t fine art for the sake of art. It wasn’t editorial for the sake of Pinterest. 

It was vows and toasts that left everyone in tears. Filthy martinis and rain clouds that only shook loose for a few minutes. A couple looking at each other with such disarming intention you felt buzzed just standing close.

It’s the kind of gallery where the mundane becomes sacred— and the sacred sometimes looks like two bridesmaids fixing a veil in a way that would make a Baroque painter weep. 

You don’t need an Italian destination wedding for your gallery to feel fine art as f*ck.

But if you’re going, my bag’s packed, and I’ve already got the film stock in mind. So, when do we leave?