Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sammy Mckenzie. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sammy, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry.

The Wedding Industry is constantly evolving and changing overtime as the latest trends enter and exit the scene. I have been loving the current 2022 wedding trends and have decided to highlight a few of my favorites and why you should be implementing them into your own upcoming wedding!

The first trend up for discussion is the asymmetrical, circular, or overly floral aisles. Personally, I am a huge fan of this one and would love to see at more weddings that I get to shoot myself. Whoever created the idea that the aisles had to be a perfectly straight line was not keeping the guest in mind at the time. Having a circular or asymmetrical aisle creates visual interest as well as better sight lines for your guest who will be watching the ceremony. The addition of the overly dramatic florals helps shape the walking path and frame the aisle, which is favorable for photos, for the aesthetic, and the wedding party since it creates a clear walkway.

Next, more on the fashion side of the wedding trends, I would like to encourage all 2022 brides to consider allowing your bridesmaids to pick their own bridesmaid dresses and have mis-matching dresses. This trend has been on the rise and makes so much sense to me when you really think about your bridesmaids’ needs. Every one of your bridesmaids will have a different body type, personality, and color palette that compliments them best. It seems dated and unflattering to require all your best friends to order an expensive dress that is all the same color and that they will NEVER wear again (speaking from experience).

I would urge you to give your bridesmaids some freedom and let them choose a gown that they feel comfortable and confident in! If you want to keep the overall look of your bridal party similar, then send your bridesmaids a color pallet or some inspiration for them to follow along with when they are out shopping. Another note for this trend is to not be afraid of color! Having multiple colors for bridesmaids dresses help express each of their own individual personalities better, as well as appeals to the eye more in photographs.

I think this trend should stick around and become more common. I personally hope one day it will take over the tradition of pattern-less and monochrome bridesmaids dresses and completely replace it.

The last wedding trend that I have chosen to write about is having community or line tables at your reception for your guests to sit and eat together at. This trend is not only easier for setting up a reception space, but also more intimate and helps connect all the people you love the most that have attended your wedding.

Typical wedding receptions have isolated tables where seating is assigned by groups. All the groom’s family and friends on one side and the brides will be placed on the other. In my opinion this goes against the idea of a wedding! Weddings are supposed to be a merging of family and friends as you and your partner merge your lives together as one. Having community dinner tables allows you to seat your guest with their friends and family but also nearby other guests they might not have met or connected with at all if they were not sat beside one another. This allows for all the bride and groom’s most important people in their lives to build relationships with each other over a delicious meal and casual dinner conversations.

From a photographer’s standpoint, this also provides excellent candid pictures as well. I have also seen this trend applied to the wedding party table as well. Rather than sitting alone by themselves in front of everyone at a sweetheart table, the bride and groom get to sit at a long community table with their best friends where the can engage more with their wedding party. This reception setup seems more intimate to me and a wonderful way to connect with all your guests who have come to your wedding to support your new marriage!

Overall, I have been loving these new emerging trends and hope to see them adopted more in the future! At the end of the day, weddings are very personal events and when planned depends on the bride and groom’s perspective. So maybe you will love these trends, or maybe you will hate them and want to stay traditional.

Regardless, it is your wedding day and should reflect your own desires and ideas. I am just here to report the most noteworthy up and coming wedding trends and hope that it inspires you in some way or another. I will be attaching images below depicting the trends I have discussed in this blog post in hope it will help you visualize it better! These images were all found off of Pinterest, which is a great platform to use to keep up with current trends, find inspiration photos, as well as create mood boards for your own weddings!

Sammy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Wedding photographer offering services all across Tennessee and anywhere else my work takes me! I started off shooting senior sessions as my main line of work but as my business has grown so has my love and passion for weddings. I began my career in wedding photography in 2020 and things have really bloomed on their own since then. In my first year of marketing for weddings, I shot 27 weddings in 2022 and have already booked 23 weddings for 2023, in addition I have 2 already on the books for 2024! While wedding photography has taken over my main source of income for my business, I will always continue to offer senior, family, couples, events, maternity, and good ole regular portrait photography as part of my business. I want to be known as a one-stop shop for my clients, whatever you need to be captured, I’m there and I’ve done it all! I would say I really specialize in fine art and creative photography. I love to title my work and brand my photography as storytelling imagery. Every session and wedding I shoot I am constantly looking for a way to tell a story creatively through the environment and people surrounding me. This type of photography is where I got my tagline, “making moments into memories.” I am extremely skilled in Lightroom, an editing software, as well as my Canon camera. I have been shooting with canon and editing in Lightroom well over 7 years now so I know the ins and outs of both. Through my years of shooting, I have been exposed to a thousand different lighting situations and had to push through and shoot around it all. Come rain or shine, on a wedding day I am prepared! I would say that my experience with my camera as well as my ability to capture details and tell a story with my photography is the main factor that sets me apart from others.

Photography is definitely a very saturated field of work, but the best part about it is that every photographer has their own “style” that appeals to different clients. I truly believe that with each client I book with I am destined to work with. On my website, I state that I am a photographer for the “Bold and Romantic” because those truly are the people I want to work with! I also provide a very clean and timeless editing style that I feel attracts my clients as well. When I edit a wedding gallery I strive to keep all of the colors natural and close to how it looks in person on that day. I edit this way because in 20 years when you show your kids your wedding album I want them to be able to feel like they were there because the images are edited to look exactly as it was and true to color. I love saturated greens, bright blues, and warm skin tones. Regarding how I like to approach shooting weddings, I prefer to shoot in a documentary style. Documentary style photography is more real, candid, and raw. Will I still pose my clients for some of the more formal photos? YES! Of course! If you feel awkward in front of a camera, no worries, it’s my job to make my clients look and feel their best in front of a camera and that includes posing my subjects for some portion of the images. But a majority of the time I prefer to capture moments that are happening around me in an honest and unprompted way so that when I deliver your gallery back it isn’t all posed images, but more of a storyboard of the day where you can follow along and relive every moment.

I have recently begun diving into the art of analog photography, specifically 35mm film. There has been a recent trend and demand for photographers and I want to be able to provide my clients with both digital and film to capture their wedding day so starting this year I now have film options available in my wedding packages. I am absolutely in love with the nostalgic feel of 35mm film and am so excited to be incorporating that more into my work this year. It will always be a goal of mine to continue to expand and better my business so that I can provide the best experience and satisfy the needs of all my clients.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As a wedding photographer, my mission is to serve people by telling their story through photography. I am incredibly passionate about making sure these special days are documented with realism and authenticity, so that couples can look back on this moment in time for years to come. Every time I photograph a wedding day, I feel so grateful for the opportunity to be invited into intimate moments shared between loved ones and the ability to preserve them faithfully through imagery as reminders of their love to hold on to forever. Without a doubt, it is an absolute privilege to be able to share such special memories with others. The feeling I get from shooting each wedding sticks with me forever and serves as a motivator for my creativity and love for my job.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Photography is a rewarding and fulfilling endeavor, but it can also be difficult to learn without the right resources. Most resources I used through my photography journey were all free platforms such as youtube, instagram, and google. I relied on these and my experiences shooting to teach myself and get me to where I am today. Looking back, a resource that I wish I had used more were mentorships. A great way to get started or take your photography skills to the next level is through mentorships with experienced professionals. Mentors can provide guidance and personalized advice that will help you understand photography fundamentals, hone your creative vision, and develop technical skill sets. With their support, you’ll be able to maximize your potential as a photographer and grow in confidence while capturing stunning images.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sammymckenzie.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/picturesbysammy/
• Other: TikTok: @Tiktoksbysammy

Image Credits
Sammy Mckenzie Photography