Hello, I am Valerie! I have been happily married for almost 14 years and my husband and I have 2 awesome kids. I am based in the central Illinois area. I have loved photography for most of my life!
Once I started wanting to make my images better, I enrolled in photography classes, attended seminars and read every photography book I could find! I am also a member of the Association of Professional Photographer of Illinois (APP of Illinois) which has lots of programs to help photographers keep learning. Please see my pricing page or contact me for more information about weddings, family portraits, senior portraits and more.

More about weddings:
The first time I was asked to photography a wedding, I was absolutely terrified!! It's such a huge responsibility! Now, 3 1/2 years later, I am hopelessly obsessed with them!! I LOVE the rings, gowns, decorations, cakes, flowers....oh the flowers....LOVE THEM!!!! I love how creative so many of my brides are with their decorations and wedding favors!!

Weddings to me are: Scary, Great Fun, Hectic, Exciting, Nerve Racking, and Amazing ~ All at the same time!!

I look forward to each wedding day with both excitement and nervousness, just ask my family, I drive them crazy with all of my wedding talk! By the end of the wedding day, I am utterly exhausted, but CAN'T WAIT to get home to check out the images!!!! Where else can you get such a wide range of subjects in one day ?
Emotions like tears and laughter (even at the same time!!!)
People from the oldest Grandmother to the newborn baby! It makes me feel humbled to have been a part of something so life altering and to get the chance to preserve it!!

A big part of documenting the special day is simply being in the right place at the right time. It's difficult to do this and also stay out of the way, but I do my best! I am always happy to take suggestions and I do ask for a list of the "Must Have" shots (especially for the formals) so there is a less of a chance of forgetting an important portrait.

My wedding prices are set as an all inclusive deal. The bride and groom will receive all edited images on discs. This way I am not the type of photographer who is hounding people to do particular pictures in hopes of selling more prints. It's the bride and groom's big day, so it's important to me to not cause them any more stress. They run the show!! By the end of the day, I usually feel like I have made a bunch of new friends!

I do work on my own, without an assistant, but I do my best to document the whole day. All images in my galleries were taken by me alone. Also, please be assured that even though I do work by myself, I have backups of all of my equipment. I either carry it with me, or have close by at all times in case I need it. Please click
here to see my wedding prices.