I get asked all the time “How did you get into wedding photography?”

It’s a fair question. I am not married myself, so I can’t say that I was inspired by the process when I went through it. Fine arts was not something I studied in college, so it’s not like I know the artistry of photography officially.  And aside from senior photos, I was only ever photographed professionally on School Picture Day (and the guy who was there every year was the same one who took my senior photos…).

So how does someone who is so removed from photography decide to shoot the biggest day of someone’s life? Easy. 

They love details, people, and telling a great story.

It can really all be traced back to eighth grade. There were two things going on at same time. The first of those was the fact that I was starting to fall in love with handcrafting—specifically at the holiday time when I could make unique teacher gifts—so I spent much of my days reading and learning from The Queen (Martha Stewart). If I wasn’t trying to soak in every last drop of her knowledge from the large, oversized glossy pages of Martha Stewart Weddings, I was dreaming of my dream job: Journalist. I was going to cover the greatest stories yet to come, and it was going to be awesome. All I wanted to do was talk to people and help them tell their tales to shed light onto their situations or let their achievements be a bright spot for someone who has found themselves in darkness. Yes, that was the plan.

And then the plan switched and I changed majors and careers and found myself on a very different road than I expected.

But who I was and what I wanted inside never went away: I still loved all things wedding and storytelling. I thought for a while that maybe being an Etsy seller and creating upcycled gifts and wedding accessories would fill that creative void—and it did, for a bit. But it wasn’t enough.

And it wasn’t until I started my masters program when I found out wedding photography would scratch all the itches. It all started with one class, Multimedia Authoring, which had me to purchase the Adobe Creative Cloud suite and required that I create all the things: Record podcasts, make movies, and take pictures.

It was a blast—and it would change my life back to what I thought it would always be: Taking names and telling stories.

From this class came free sessions, then a few paid sessions. These all lead straight to weddings. Why weddings? Because it is all about the relationship—not only yours with one another, but ours as well. I didn’t like the commodity that other photography felt like; I wasn’t OK with the “Here’s your money”/“Here’s your photos” vibe.

The journalist and communicator in me knows there is more to us than face value, and true authentic photography needs more than just a shallow hello. It needs an invitation in, a chance to chat, and time to peel away the leaves to get to the heart of the matter to find the moments and memories worthy of preservation.

So that’s why I am Kayla Lee, a Minnesota-based wedding and elopement photographer. I provide services to elegant, authentic, sentimental couples who not only choose their own adventures, but also live them to the fullest! If that’s you, I’d love to chat! Feel free to contact me anytime!