Oh, I can totally make you look thinner, but it’s not how you think. And you have to tell me about this well before I take your pictures, because here’s the thing. I am not going to Photoshop you to look a different way, because I don’t do that. But also, how insulting is that to think that I know how you would prefer to look, how you look in your head, in what ways you have decided that you don’t meet the beauty ideal. I’m not going to make those decisions for you. I actually have a question on my questionnaire that you answer six or eight weeks before the wedding that says, what are you insecure about? And it says, you don’t have to tell me. You don’t have to type it here. You can tell me in person, but we all have these things. For me, personally, it is my belly. I gain all my weight there. And I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve been asked if I’m pregnant when I have not been in many, many years. But I need to know. There are ways that I can pose you. There are places I can hold the camera. There are ways I can compose the photos. There are actions I can have you do that will emphasize or deemphasize various things. But I am not for 1 second going to assume that you believe that there’s anything wrong with your body because of how it deviates from whatever we’re currently seeing on Instagram.

Your wedding photos should look and feel like you. My name is Kelsey. I am the owner and lead photographer of Capture by Kelsey, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If a couple were to ask me if I could make them look thinner in all of their photos, I would tell them that I will do my best to to help you with strategic posing throughout the day. But when push comes to shove, I am very much a believer in capturing the day the way that it was. When you look back at your photos, years and years and years from your wedding day, even with your kids or your grandkids, I want you to look at those photos and just be transported back into that place and that time, that memory. I don’t believe in photoshopping. Every single image in your gallery. If my couples were to have maybe a handful of their top favorite portraits and they wanted a little bit of advanced editing done, I’m willing to do that for a fee. But it’s not something that I’m going to do to every image in your gallery, and it’s just not something that I believe in.