Ok, let’s just get this out of the way first.
Yes, I put us at the top. It’s my blog. Ya’ll knew that when you clicked. π
But here’s the thing… I’ve been photographing weddings in St. Louis full time for 17 years, and I literally love this community. The photographers on this list are people whose work I respect, some are people I would call colleague, some whose names I hear from couples and planners all the time, and who have put in YEARS showing up for St. Louis families. Every single one of them would take amazing care of you.
Sooooo if you’re planning a 2027 wedding and trying to figure out who to trust with your day, this list is for you. Whether you’re a bride and groom, two brides, two grooms, or two partners who just want somebody who gets it… let’s find your person.
How I Put This List Together
I didn’t pull names out of a hat. Every photographer here has:
- Real experience. Most of these studios have been photographing weddings for 10 to 20+ years.
- A clear, consistent style. You can look at their work and know what you’re getting.
- Deep St. Louis roots (or a long history of serving St. Louis couples).
- A reputation for taking care of people, not just taking pictures.
What this list is NOT is a ranking of who’s “better.” Every photographer here is great. The real question is which one is great for you. Style, personality, and what you want to be looking at in 30 years matter way more than a number on a list.
Ok. Let’s go.
1. Pinxit Photo
Best for: couples who want bold, colorful, relationship-centered photos, photo AND the opportunity to add video under one roof, and heirloom albums their grandkids will actually flip through.
Hi. That’s me. ππΎ
I’m Raquita, and I run Pinxit Photo. I’ve been photographing St. Louis weddings full time for 17 years, and we only take about 15 weddings a year so every couple gets our full attention.
Our style is warm, colorful, and all about your people. I care a LOT about the moments between moments… your grandma’s face at the first look, your best friend losing it on the dance floor, the ring bearer sprinting down the aisle straight to his dad’s leg. I want you to feel like yourselves, not like you’re performing for a camera.
A few things that make us different:
- My 18 years of experience makes me truly trained to handle your day in ways you will never be able to imagine… trust me you don’t want to know all that I have seen.
- In-house video team. Photo and video from one team means one timeline, one plan, and nobody fighting for the same spot in the aisle. And video catches the one thing photos can’t… voices.
- Heirloom albums. I’m a print nerd. I teach other photographers about printing at workshops in my studio, and I design albums for photographers all over. Your photos deserve to live somewhere other than a hard drive.
- Custom coverage, not cookie-cutter packages. We build coverage around YOUR day. Sometimes that means a third photographer for the details or a videographer collecting guest greetings during the reception. (Ya’ll. It was AWESOME.)
- Everybody belongs here. We’re unapologetically pro-Black, pro-LGBTQ+, and we want your people in every frame. That’s not just a nice line. It’s our Ally Pledge.
Investment: custom coverage starts at $4,800, and hourly coverage is $750. Adding our video team typically adds $3,800 to $5,800. We usually book a year out.
See the Pinxit wedding experience | Book a consultation
2. L Photographie
Best for: couples who want a seasoned team with a photojournalism background and a true-moments approach
L Photographie has been part of the St. Louis photography scene since 2003, which is a seriously impressive run. Founder Liz Sloan started her career in photojournalism, and you can feel it in the work: real emotion, real moments, and a lot of love for the family traditions and religious rituals that make every wedding different. (Fun fact: the “L” stands for love. I mean… come on. That’s adorable.)
It’s a boutique team, so you’re getting multiple experienced photographers who’ve been working together for years. Their wedding photographer Kate Hayes (I ADORE HER WORK) has been with the studio since 2009 and is known for climbing on chairs, crouching in bushes, and dancing into the crowd to get the shot. She’s absolutely my kind of people.
They also photograph families, seniors, and mitzvahs, so if you love them for your wedding, you can keep them for the next chapter too.
Kate and Liz are amazing people and I’ve learned so much from them over the years we’ve been colleagues and over many taco lunch dates Kate and I have become friends.
3. Jessica Lauren Photography
Best for: couples who love warm, sun-soaked, vibrant images and want a photographer who doubles as a hype girl
Jessica has been photographing St. Louis weddings for about ten years, and her work is pure warmth. Think golden light, joyful moments, and images that feel timeless instead of trendy. She’s very intentional about that, too. She wants your photos to still look good decades from now, not just this season.
What her couples rave about most is how she makes them feel. Over and over, you’ll hear that she makes even the most camera-shy partner relax, and that she shows up like a trusted friend. One couple shared that she was in a back hallway with a Tide pen cleaning a red wine spill off a wedding dress during the reception. THAT’S care.
Her portfolio includes gorgeous weddings at spots like the Ritz-Carlton St. Louis and downtown, plus a whole lot of happy couples of every kind.
Visit Jessica Lauren Photography
4. Rae Marcel Photography
Best for: couples who want joyful, fun, champagne-energy coverage (with a little BeyoncΓ© flavor)
Rae is a St. Louis wedding photographer who also serves couples throughout Illinois and Indiana, and her whole vibe is fun, support, and zero stress. She’s known for amazing communication, the kind where she’ll text you or your planner when she’s on her way so you never have to wonder. And she shows up with her camera, a little music speaker, and champagne. I mean… sign me up.
Her work has been featured in Essence, Equally Wed, and MunaLuchi Bride, and I love seeing a Black woman photographer celebrating love stories that so often get overlooked in wedding media. Her posing is top tier. And the skin tones in her work are to die for. Her couples talk about her like she’s family, part photographer, part planning helper, part therapist. π
She loves mixing styles, romantic settings with the simple beauty of nature or the city, and her joy really comes through in the work, making her one of the best wedding photographers in St. Louis in 2027.
She’s the most amazingly creative and smart artist I know. Its an honor to call her my friend not just my colleague
5. Love Tree Studios
Best for: couples who want classic, clean, luminous fine-art images (and a photographer who loves film)
Aubrey Rowden is the heart of Love Tree Studios, and she’s been honing her craft for about two decades. Her style is classic, clean, and above all luminous. Everything glows. If your Pinterest board is full of soft, romantic, timeless images, you’re gonna want to look at her work.
Aubrey is a film enthusiast (she’s out here hunting thrift shops for vintage film cameras, which I love), and she’s big on collaboration, working hand in hand with your whole vendor team to make the day run smoothly. Her couples consistently mention how organized and clear she is from start to finish.
Love Tree is based in Missouri, serves St. Louis, Columbia, and Kansas City, and travels for destination weddings across the U.S. and Europe.
6. Ray Prop Photography
Best for: couples who want documentary storytelling with creative portraits, especially South Asian and multicultural weddings
The only gentleman on my list, Ray Prop is a documentary wedding photographer right here in St. Louis, and his whole thing is telling your story start to finish. Real emotion, candid moments, and the stuff that happens when nobody’s posing, mixed with creative portraits that still feel like you.
If you’re planning an Indian, Pakistani, or Persian wedding, put Ray on your list. His portfolio is full of gorgeous South Asian celebrations, and he clearly knows how to move through multi-event, tradition-packed days without missing the moments that matter to your family. That kind of experience is SO important, ya’ll.
Ray takes time to get to know couples before the big day (engagement sessions are one of his favorite ways to do it), and his couples say he goes above and beyond to learn what matters most to them. He also offers wedding films. And yes, one of his weddings got a surprise Katy Perry cameo. I mean… come on.
Ray is the calmest photographer I ever met, hes gentle and smart and I love watching him think. And he’s such a fun artist to watch. No matter what your culture he would do amazing things in documenting it.
7. White Klump Photography
Best for: couples who want documentary-style coverage from a family-owned team with digital, film, AND video
White Klump is a family-owned, mother-daughter team (Sarah, Marsha, and Michelle) photographing weddings since 2005. Between them, they’ve documented over 500 weddings a piece. WHEW. They have seen it all, and I promise that calm shows up on your wedding day.
Their style is documentary, so they capture your day as it really unfolds, the real moments with the people you love. And they offer a little bit of everything: digital photography, film for that heritage feel in your album, videography, and wedding-day content creation so you’ve got candid shots ready to share right away.
They’re based in St. Louis and photograph weddings across the Midwest, down to Key West, and as far as the Amalfi Coast.
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8. Michelle Jahns Photography
Best for: couples who want bold, colorful, story-driven photos and a built-in hype woman with a camera
Michelle Jahns is a St. Louis photographer who is literally obsessed with color (we currently have matching pink-purple hair π). Her work is unique, bold, and super vibrant, with a modern feel and a real eye for dramatic light and big skies. If your Pinterest board is full of color and personality, you need to look at her stuff.
She’s been full time since 2022 and has already photographed 150+ weddings. She shot a cover and editorial feature for St. Louis Bride Magazine’s January 2026 issue, and she’s picked up FlashMasters Silver Awards too. I love that for her.
Michelle calls herself a “Wedding Wing Woman,” and she means it: help with planning decisions, picking locations, and building your timeline, plus guiding you through posing so you never have to wonder what to do with your hands. Her couples say she feels like a friend from the very first hello. (And she’s got three dog babies, Piper, Remy, and Giselle, as a fellow dog people I love this about her.)
Michelle is the kind of person I am glad I get to call colleague and grow with. She’s an amazing human and such a light in the industry
Visit Michelle Jahns Photography
9. Kelly Park Photography
Best for: couples who want a warm, organized, timeline-savvy photographer who’ll be with your family for years
Kelly Park has been photographing weddings and families since 2003 and has called St. Louis home since 2005. She’s shot cover and editorial work for St. Louis Bride Magazine, and her couples have been featured in The Knot, St. Louis Magazine, and Ladue News.
Kelly’s couples rave about two things: how stress-free she makes the day and how good she is with a timeline. She knows when the sun is setting, how to keep portraits moving without anybody feeling rushed, and how to make camera-shy couples feel completely at ease. Her motto is basically “I love love,” and it shows.
My favorite part? So many of her wedding couples come back years later for family photos with their kiddos. That’s the kind of relationship that speaks for itself.
I respect Kelly as a artist and a human, I am lucky to know her and you could not make a bad choice in choosing her.
How to Choose the Right St. Louis Wedding Photographer for YOU
Every photographer on this list is talented. So how do you pick?
Look at full galleries, not just highlights. Anybody’s best 20 shots look amazing. Ask to see two or three complete weddings so you know what your whole day will look like.
Fall in love with the style first. Here’s something most couples don’t know: how an image can be edited starts with how it was captured. Light, exposure, where the photographer stood… all of that is decided in camera. You can’t turn bright and airy into dark and moody (or the other way around) after the fact and have it look right. So choose the style you already love.
Pay attention to how they make you feel. You’ll spend more time with your photographer on your wedding day than almost anybody else. If you feel relaxed and seen on a consultation call, that’s a really good sign.
Ask about what happens after the wedding. Albums, prints, video, delivery timelines. Your photos are the thing you’ll keep long after the cake is gone.
Book early. A lot of experienced St. Louis photographers book 12 to 18 months out, especially for spring and fall Saturdays. If you’re planning for 2027, now is the time.
Not sure what your style even is? Grab my free Pinterest Board Decoder worksheet. It helps you and your partner figure out the feeling behind your inspiration, which makes choosing a photographer SO much easier. [Grab it here.] (link to freebie landing page)
And if you’re trying to figure out budget, I broke down what a wedding photographer really costs in St. Louis right here. Real numbers, no runaround.
Let’s Talk About Your Day
If you scrolled all the way back up to #1 and thought “ooh, that sounds like us”… I’d love to meet you.
Bring your timeline, your guest count, your Pinterest board (and the WHY behind it), and let’s build coverage that fits your day, your people, and your budget.
Ready to talk? Book your consultation or drop us a note through our contact form.
And if one of my friends on this list turns out to be your perfect fit? I’ll be cheering for you. For real.
That’s it. That’s the post.
