ABOUT OUR LAVISH GUESTS
Your wedding may be one of the rare occasions when everyone you love is gathered under one roof. We believe it's an opportunity worth remembering, not only through photographs of the celebration, but through portraits of the people who shared it with you.
Our Lavish Guests creates professional wedding guest portraits and photographer-led experiences that celebrate the personalities of your family and friends. Inspired by editorial and fashion photography, our approach combines thoughtful direction, genuine connection and beautifully finished photographs.
While your wedding photography team documents the day, we focus on creating a dedicated experience for your guests. From individual portrait sessions to printed keepsakes, our work is designed to give everyone something personal to take home while creating a cohesive collection of portraits for you to enjoy.
Based in Calgary, Alberta, we provide guest portrait experiences for weddings and special events throughout
Kananaskis, Canmore, Banff and Lake Louise.
We are also available for select celebrations elsewhere in Canada.
Photo by: Freitag Photography
Andrew & Erin
We met in 2008, in the golden age of flip phones and point-and-shoot cameras. Social media was only beginning to find its place in everyday life, and people still met the old-fashioned way: in real life.
Photography brought us together.
Andrew had taken a few photography classes, and I wanted to learn everything I could about the craft. Our first few evenings together looked more like informal photography lessons than typical dates. Somewhere between conversations about cameras, light and composition, a friendship grew.
Eighteen years later, we've built a marriage, a business and a life together, with photography at the centre of much of it.
We photographed our first wedding in 2011 and were immediately drawn to the relationships and emotions that unfold throughout a wedding day. We loved meeting our couples, documenting the beginning of their marriages and, in many cases, being invited back to photograph the families and lives they built together.
In the spring of 2018, we launched Our Lavish Guests, bringing our experience as wedding photographers to a different kind of portrait service.
When we retired from traditional wedding photography, it was a bittersweet departure from a craft we had grown to love. But Our Lavish Guests gave us an opportunity to approach photography from a new perspective, one focused entirely on the people gathered to celebrate.
Since then, we've photographed thousands of individuals from around the world and found ourselves falling in love with portraiture all over again.
What continues to inspire us is the art of making people feel seen.
We've learned that a meaningful portrait has less to do with the camera in our hands and more to do with the space we create for the person in front of it. When someone feels comfortable enough to be themselves, something remarkable happens. Their personality, expression and connection come through in a way that no amount of technical precision can manufacture.
For us, portraiture is about recognizing that individuality and creating an honest reflection of the person we're photographing. It's truly a privilege to do this work.
We look forward to hearing your story and photographing the people you've invited to share in it.