Brooke Alaina

by her organization and attention to detail. It was super clear from the beginning that she was incredibly invested in us as clients and people and that showed as we worked with her over the coming months. About a year prior to the wedding we first worked with Brooke for engagement photos and they were amazing! Brooke was incredibly flexible on timing and location - willing to work with us to capture moments how we imagined it (traveling to multiple locations and providing tons of options and opinions). Fast forward to the actual wedding and Brooke was incredible to work with. Her process really tries to help you understand what YOU want out of your wedding day and she tailors her approach to that. She worked with us every step of the way and the end result was amazing. It's been almost 6 months and we are still looking at the photos she took in awe. From wrangling large groups of people and keeping us perfectly on schedule, to capturing intimate, candid moments, we love all of the photos and will be looking at them for years to come. Brooke had such an innate ability to simply be there when needed - there were so many times I turned around and wanted a picture and Brooke was already there documenting it. We would absolutely recommend her for a wedding or anything else you might need!!

was complimenting how great she is with direction. Would recommend her to everyone!

ldn't have been more impressed with her work and with her as a person. Thankfully, Brooke was also available for my wedding in June 2023, and once again hit it out of the park! Brooke's photography skills and ability to capture precious moments is unmatched, but one of the most special things about Brooke is that she is so kind, personable, and thoughtful. These are valuable qualities to possess all the time, but especially when working with people on what may be the biggest days of their lives. Before the wedding, Brooke did an impeccable job working with me to plan out what the wedding day would look like and communicating with my other vendors. I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of Brooke's most impressive traits which is remembering the names of my bridal party and extended family members while taking the large family photos . She was kindly telling people where to stand and calling them BY NAME even though she had just met most of them a minute ago. I mention this because it perfectly illustrates just how kind and thoughtful of a person Brooke is and the amazing attention to detail she expresses in everything she does. I would give Brooke a million star review if I could, and cannot recommend her enough! I will treasure the amazing photos she took of my wedding day for the rest of my life! 💕

om the start. She is so friendly and made us (and our family and friends) feel comfortable the whole entire day while she took incredible pictures of our wedding! They even commented on how much they loved her! She made the day go smoothly and helped us organize our plan for pictures/timeline. Her pictures are beautiful and truly capture all of the special moments. If we were allowed to give more than 5 stars, we would! We can't recommend Brooke enough! She's the BEST!

my life, but for our photographer to be able to capture the natural moment and emotion behind our big day. Brooke went above and beyond with this. She captured everything and was flexible and extremely detail oriented before, during, and after our wedding. Additionally, though Brooke was working during our wedding, her attitude, kindness, and friendliness showed that she was actually genuinely enjoying being at our wedding. This little extra touch helped my husband and I to relax as we took photos and interacted with our guests. A relaxed, calm, and flexible vendor were attributes that I did not realize was important until the day of. In reviewing my guests' videos and pictures, I saw Brooke smiling and laughing throughout the day. Her positivity was contagious and so essential to the overall mood of the wedding. I will forever be grateful for the time, focus, and effort that Brooke put into our day and memories. We will definitely be booking Brooke for future life events and I recommend her completely to anyone and everyone. Thank you, Brooke!

ook did a great job making me everyone feel comfortable and relaxed. She knew how to direct large groups, making family/friend photos efficient and well organized! I got photos of everything I hoped for and more. I could not recommend her enough!

st natural state and that is what I love about her. She knew my husband and I were very camera shy and never forced us out of our own comfort zones. Our photography session was FULL of laughter and Brooke rolled with all of the punches. It felt like she was a part of our friends and family from start to finish. I highly recommend working with her for all of your future events!

y as we were 100% committed to having her be our wedding photographer (even before we were engaged!). I had met Brooke from a previous wedding and fell in love with her photography style and personality. The MAGIC she captures through her lens and energy she brings to each couple (and their friends) is everything one could ask for. Brooke was a dream to work with as she becomes a friend in the process, can answer any question honestly, gives you her smart opinion, plans out timelines and details in advance, and you begin to rely on her in so many ways because you inherently trust that she wants what's best for you. And she DOES. As a pandemic couple, we had rescheduled our wedding three times, and Brooke was not only kind, empathetic and patient, but planned out the next five steps, knowing her couples would be paralyzed with indecision on how to move forward. We moved our wedding date the third time to fit Brooke's schedule - that's how important she became to us, and how much we wanted her to capture our day with our loved ones. Brooke's style of photography captures the magic of the moments of the day you look back on and remember fondly. The "getting ready" moments that are so much more than hair and makeup, the "first look" where Brooke's energy make you feel like you and your partner are the only ones in the world, the laughs you forget about at cocktail hour but later remember because Brooke was there to capture those candid moments. Brooke is worth everything and these words don't even begin to capture our gratitude and love we have for her. Save yourself the trouble of looking any further and book her now.

ur pictures by her. I don't have our photos yet, but I just know they are going to be spectacular when we get them. We hired her pre-pandemic, and she was able to stick with us even when we rescheduled our wedding. She is so incredibly knowledgeable, professional, kind and personable. She's got an incredible eye for artistic lighting and beautiful moments, and she is very good at directing people who are not used to being photographed & setting up the picture to show the subject in their best light. She takes a combination of both posed and candid pictures, and can adjust to your personal style and needs throughout the planning process and the wedding day. I would highly recommend Brooke over and over again!

d I knew I could trust her from day one. She's also the absolute sweetest human being as well, which is so nice to have on your wedding day! If you want a photographer who will be there for you and capture your day, Brooke is for you! 110% recommend!

and still look at our wedding photos ALL THE TIME. I’m pretty much obsessed with how they turned out, and it’s all because of the amazing job Brooke did. She’s THAT good. Not only does she deliver incredible photos that you’ll cherish for years to come, she’s an absolute JOY to be around. To the point where multiple people after my wedding, were like, “can we be friends with Brooke?! We love her!” And so will you! I was told when wedding planning that the most important vendor you choose is your photographer because they are the only person (besides your significant other!) that is going to be with you all day. For every special moment, they’re there. And I found that advice to be so, so true. So I knew that I wanted our photographer to not just take good photos for us, but someone with a great personality, someone that I truly wanted to be around all day. Brooke was that person for us. She was so happy and easy going all day (while still being SO PROFESSIONAL) that I absolutely loved having her there. Not to mention she truly goes above and beyond for her clients. Like how she helped me put together a timeline for our entire day, scouted our photo locations ahead of time to ensure good lighting, helped put my veil in and take it out (totally not her job!), and she even helped to coordinate our sparkler exit at the end of the night with all of our guests! She’s truly a wedding photographer extraordinaire. And I was so impressed with how she there were times in our day when she would just blend into the background and document the moments, and other times when I needed her to really speak up to round up a big group for photos and she did both flawlessly. She’s truly the best of both worlds. When I say this, I truly mean it - our wedding day would not have been the same (or gone as smoothly) without Brooke. She gave us the most beautiful wedding photos I could have ever imagined and was a total sweetheart and pro the whole day. We couldn’t ask for anything else! For any other photos we ever need, we always know Brooke’s our girl.

ged because I knew that Brooke was going to make the process and our wedding day so very special. Brooke was always there to answer my emails, discuss the style of photos we wanted captured, and work with us to have a timeline for our wedding day! On our wedding day, she made transitions flawless and made everyone feel so comfortable with taking photos. Brooke is so well organized and has this great ability to gather everyone’s attention and focus in the kindest way! She is great with kids and was able to get all my nieces and nephews motivated to take pictures. Besides the wonderful work she does on the wedding day, the sneak peeks on Instagram and her blog are written so beautifully. She makes such a great connection with everyone she works with! I love our wedding photos and can’t recommend Brooke enough for your wedding day!

I had not thought of, and let me enjoy the entire engagement and wedding. I also appreciate her promptness, timeline, and that she can give out firm direction to make sure we stay on time! Throughout the entire process she was prompt with communication and her detailed outlines made my life as a bride a breeze! Brooke was there to take every picture that I had requested and found the intimate details of our wedding and captured them, through the torturous Florida heat and through our bone chilling engagement session in Chicago. She climbed rocks, ladders, and basically moved mountains for us. We had a bit of an unexpected hiccup in our wedding day (who doesn't?!) and Brooke's comfort and go with the flow personality made it so easy to bounce right back. She has been so kind to us, flexible (as our original wedding date was bumped due to my brother's deployment) and genuinely has a heart of gold. She fit in just like family and I wouldn't recommend anyone else for those precious wedding day photos. We got married in October of this year and I asked her the dreaded question of "when will the photos be ready by" as most of our Christmas gifts this year were based on the photos. She quickly turned the photos around and all of our Christmas photo gifts were submitted, printed, and given on time! Last minute I decided I wanted a videographer and I went straight to Brooke for help. She gave me about 5 different options of people she would recommend, all ranging in price, style, and location. Based on our conversation and her recommendations, I found one that matched my vision, which was above and beyond her duties. There is honestly nothing Brooke can't do and I couldn't recommend her enough.

ing through all her pictures from the wedding brought back all the same feelings I had that day which was an indescribable feeing. Aside from her gorgeous pictures, she is just so much fun to work with. We felt so comfortable to just be ourselves around her. She coached us on how to pose which was suuuper helpful because neither of us feel comfortable in front of a camera, but she made everything so easy! You can really feel the love in all the pictures. They turned out amazing, and I can’t thank her enough for capturing these memories for us to have forever. Our wedding experience would’ve been totally different without her. I can honestly say picking Brooke was the best and easiest decision I made the entire wedding process. I am seriously so thankful for her. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

ills. She hands down was one of the best things we decided about our wedding! From the moment we began chatting with her all the way to receiving our wedding photos she has been unbelievably professional, accommodating, and a pleasure to have a long for such a crazy ride. I found Brooke through Instagram and immediately fell in love with her style and creativity. Since we live out of state we set up a Skype meeting with her. She was the first photographer we "met" with and if it was only up to me we would've stopped there because I loved everything about her kind spirit. We searched a few others, but I told my husband she was the one I wanted to capture the greatest day of our lives. If you're searching for an amazing, talented, fun, and there for you go getter then Brooke is definitely your girl! She will help ease your nerves, make you laugh, and make you her priority. She makes you feel as if she is photographing one of her very own friends weddings. Living out of state and planning a wedding had its challenges, but having Brooke to work with made everything so easy. She went and scoped out our church, venue, and photo spots in order to capture the vision I wanted. She was responsive and communicated every detail to help make our day go as smoothly as possible. She truly goes above and beyond for her clients! The whole day she had a smile on her face and made us feel so comfortable in front of the camera - half the time I didn't even feel like there was a camera around! She really is the BEST decision you will make for your wedding day. I promise you will not regret it. WE LOVE BROOKE!! Mary and Patrick

conversations we had, to the big day, she was nothing but amazing and professional. She has a wonderful personality and we felt like we connected with her immediately, which was great and exactly what you would want in a photographer who was going to be capturing all the special moments. She was so organized with the plan and very knowledgeable and helpful. We chose to have a second photographer as an add on, which was awesome as well. He was wonderful too! :) I am so excited to see the pictures, which will come soon. Brooke is very responsive and very informative, which was great in case you come up with any questions. I highly recommend!!!!!!!!!!!!

urther and book her right now. This review won’t even begin to scratch the surface of how grateful we are to Brooke. From our initial planning calls, to our engagement session, to the wedding day – she truly made us feel so comfortable and always listened to what we wanted. I can honestly say that our wedding day would not have been the same without her. She was an integral part of setting the tone by making sure that we were getting the shots we wanted while not rushing us or stealing us away from any part of the day. I can’t even count the endless compliments that we received from our friends and family, still weeks after the wedding! We had rain/overcast skies for both our engagement session & wedding, which made for some of the most beautiful photos. Brooke truly captured all of the love and emotion from our wedding day (I tear up just looking at the candid shots!) and we will cherish our photos for the rest of our lives.

ndors I reached out to, which turned out to be one of my best decisions in wedding planning -- short of who I was marrying, she was the best choice I made for that day; seriously she is that good! From the minute we first met with Brooke, we were put at ease that she was on our team and wanted to execute our vision for our day as much as we did -- she even suggested we did Bride and Groom solo photos during the second half of our dinner so we could actually enjoy our cocktail hour. The day of, I felt like I was waiting for an old friend to join us in the bridal suite and couldn't wait for her to arrive. Every single person I have talked to that attended, my family, our friends, other vendors, have all specifically called out Brooke and her professional and friendly demeanor. Beyond the fact that she is an amazing person that will do anything to make your day special, her photos are AMAZING. She captured the feeling of our day, and evry photo you can actually see the love that was in the air pouring out. She took candids of moments I will cherish forever. Her photos are truly a snapshot of the most important moments of the day, thoughtfully arranged in a photo- journalistic manner. My biggest problem now is figuring out which ones are my true favorites because every photo I see quickly jumps to the top spot. Brooke we really can't thank you enough!

me with our photography timeline and set me at complete ease because you could tell that even with her friendly and caring demeanor, she was a consummate professional. Our photos turned out better than I ever could have imagined and we get so many compliments. Her style is different from "stuffy" photographers so her pictures reflect the day as you lived it-- not as your posed for it. Worth every penny.

planning a wedding, you want to make sure you have amazing pictures to look back at! I also knew I didn't want the "cookie cutter" wedding shots; I wanted a documentary style of photography that captured the real and raw moments of the day. I also didn't want to be meeting my photographer for the first time on my wedding day (people actually do this!!). Brooke was actually the third photographer my husband and I met with. The first two were good, they had the sort of style I was looking for, but I just wasn't clicking with them on a personal level. I wanted someone who was just as excited as I was about my day, someone who just intuitively understood my vision, and someone who I trusted to take charge and get their job done. We met with Brooke at a cute little bar near our apartment, had a few drinks, and talked excitedly for over an hour about our day, what we envisioned, and whether or not we should hire the Big Star food truck to cater our wedding (we did, it was amazing, and Brooke definitely nudged in the right direction!). We hired Brooke that night. We had our engagement photos done a few months after, which was so much fun. Brooke made us feel so comfortable, and hanging out and having a beer with her afterword was awesome. In the weeks leading up to our wedding, she was so helpful as we narrowed down our timeline, and she researched the best places and times to do photos so things would run as smoothly as possible. Having Brooke with us on our wedding day was one of the best decisions we made. She was energetic, organized, friendly, and calm the entire day. When my husband and I would get a little stressed about things, she was quick to reassure us and do whatever she could to help. All of our guests loved her, especially our bridal party! Brooke fit right in with all of us and it really just felt like we were all just hanging out with a friend who happened to be a photographer. Our photos are exactly what we wanted, and I'm so so grateful that we found Brooke!

a year in advance. We were finding that several of the people we had in mind (classmates, referrals) were already booked. I would later be thankful for this! I was on Facebook one day and I came across some friends who had family pictures done by Brooke and I remembered she does weddings as well. I went to her website, looked through her galleries, and immediately reached out to her. It helped knowing that my husband and I both had mutual friends with her, so we knew she was good people. Brooke and I e-mailed back and forth a few times discussing her style, experience and packages and without meeting her in person I was comfortable booking with her. I had planned a trip back home a few months before the wedding to meet with I met with Brooke for the first time in person (and was welcomed with a hug) and we sat down for a little over an hour and Brooke created our wedding day timeline right there. She gave her recommendations and provided different scenarios, so we could work together to determine what would be best for our day. We discussed the scenery we were looking for and Brooke said she would research areas and I was comfortable leaving the exact location for pictures up to her. Our wedding day came and we could not be happier with Brooke's professionalism and work. She was with us from around 9:30am to 8:30pm or 9pm (I was having too much fun, so not exactly sure on the time but we have pictures of dancing at the reception) and gave 100% the entire time. Our wedding party couldn't stop talking about how awesome she was as well. She was calm, but demanding, which was needed to keep us on track while still having fun. We also had little flower girls that she was great with and got them to laugh and smile when they just weren't really feeling it. I can honestly say that I don't think I would have been as calm as I was on my wedding day without Brooke. All of our pictures turned out AMAZING and it is going to be difficult picking out our favorites. I would recommend Brooke to anyone! She is professional, hard working, affordable, responsive and I feel I can now call her a friend.

e a review after seeing the photos from our September 2nd Wedding! Stunning!

. I was right. When we met Brooke for the first time at our engagement session, we knew we picked the right photographer because she was just as excited about our bottle of champagne as we were. The best part about Brooke is her warm, welcoming and instantly comfortable in her presence vibe. Our bridal party and family kept talking about how wonderful and professional Brooke was all day and the weeks that followed. My husband and I have talked about how we wish she was our real life friend - multiple times. Both of our photo galleries turned out perfect and we have them framed all over our home. We will treasure them forever. Needless to say, Brooke was the best vendor decision we made and I recommend her to everyone that will listen. She won't let you down. We love you Brooke!

band and I were in the market, so we checked her out. After an old fashioned and a wonderful meeting, I didn't just want her to be our photographer, but a friend too! She's a professional that has an eye for ALL OF THE THINGS. She doesn't just snap her "regular textbook photos" but really gets to know the couple and sees specific photos that complement them. Our engagement shoot was a bit out of the norm - think bourbon shots and PBRs - but she captured it all with a smile on her face from ear to ear with laughter you can't forget. Our wedding day was no different. I'm SO glad she was there. Brooke is a pleasure to work with, wants to make sure she's with you for the long haul and to capture every moment necessary. I LOVE YOU BROOKE!

best decisions we made for our wedding. Throughout the entire year of working together, Brooke was extremely responsive and organized. On our wedding day Brooke was professional, focused on capturing the best moments, and SO easy and fun to work with. She made sure that we had every photo that we had envisioned, and she used her creativity to really capture the emotions of the day. Brooke is upbeat, energetic, and the kind of person that you want to work with on your big day - our families and bridal party made many comments throughout the day about how awesome Brooke is. Our wedding pictures far exceeded our expectations - I was blown away by the details and emotions that Brooke was able to capture through her camera.

t and easiest decisions we made was to have her as our photographer!

hotos, which locations would work with our timeline and time of day, and she even went to the hotel where we would be getting ready to scout out possible areas for our first look. Brooke made family photos so easy, and made sure everything was running smoothly day of and getting people to where they needed to be. Plus the photos are AMAZING. Brooke's photography style absolutely captures the feeling of the day, and we are so thankful we could have her as our wedding photographer. Hire her and you will not regret it!

ng from traipsing all over downtown Chicago for our engagement session to braving our cold and rainy wedding day to get the perfect outdoor shots - Brooke's passion for people and beautiful things makes her the perfect person to be behind the lens capturing your special day.