Wednesday, January 15, 2025
www.thepapersonline.com
Serving Kosciusko County and parts of Elkhart, Marshall & Noble Counties
Know Your Neighbor . . . . . 2➤ Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Vol. 54, No. 30
Milford (574) 658-4111 • Warsaw (574) 269-2932 • Syracuse (574) 457-3666
Local photographers share wisdom for capturing wedding moments
PORTRAIT POSE — Delaney Royal has been shooting weddings for the past four years and recently became married herself. Photo provided by Delaney Royal.
114 W. Market, Warsaw, Indiana 46580
CAPTURE THE MOMENT — Renee Mellott, seen with her husband, Jeff, emphasizes the importance of capturing the emotions of the wedding day. Photo provided by Renee Mellott. By NATHAN PACE Staff Writer January is the month where wedding plans get made and two local photographers have had a front-row seat to how the industry has changed in the area . Delaney Royal has been shooting weddings in Kosciusko County for the last four wedding seasons . “This last year and going into 2025, I’ve seen smaller weddings and people doing them at a family farm,” Royal said . “Not really a backyard style but it is more simple I would say . I think it’s from weddings costing so much and it’s a lot to plan . A lot of the times you can make it just as pretty, if you can have it on some property .” Renee Mellott has been shooting weddings for a decade . She and her husband, Jeff, help run their photography company together . They have lived in Warsaw since 2007 . The couple met when attending Triton High School . “I would say one of the biggest things that I’ve notice is that more couples want a second shooter,” Mellott said . “You don’t really find one that just wants one shooter .” One wedding trick Mellott encourages her clients is to have pictures taken before the ceremony in what she refers to as a ‘first look .’ “All in all, they will have the pictures done before the ceremony . So, all the guests don’t have to wait after the ceremony for the pictures to be taken . We don’t need to pull the bride and groom out any more, and they can go thank people . It saves on time,” Mellott said . Mellott also believes the first look allows photographers to capture raw emotions, which might go unseen during the ceremony . “She wants (the groom) to be crying . That usually doesn’t happen when the bride is walking down the aisle,” Mellott said . “The biggest benefit of it is they are able to capture more emotion, more pictures of them together, and the guests don’t have to wait before
they start the reception .” Royal married her husband, Brooks, in 2023 and sees characteristics from her wedding photos continuing . “I would say things are going toward more a story-telling type of photography . More like the candid moments . Kind of focus more of the guests and the emotions throughout the day . Capturing little moments here and there . It was probably more like posed pictures before and now it is a mixture of posed and candid pictures,” Royal said . For those looking for a wedding date, Mellott said September and October have replaced May and June as the trendy months to get married . The days of getting married in a church have also switched to more specialized venues . “We don’t really have many weddings inside churches anymore . The ones we do are typically Catholic weddings,” Mellott said . “Barns are really popular, wineries, too . Over the past 10 years, they’ve gotten more options for venues to have the ceremony .” Another difference Mellott sees are wedding photographers creating a timeline for the day for the couple . “This is really, really important . A good wedding photographer will set up a timeline with the bride and groom . That timeline will be their Bible for the day,” Mellott said . “The timeline; you gotta have one . You can’t just have a photographer that’s going to wing it .” Royal is a Whitko alumna and adds the personal connection between a photographer and the client can make the wedding day better . “I would say before they book with someone, I would ask to see a full wedding gallery,” Royal said . “To see what it is like . You book a photographer based on their work, but make sure it is someone you have a compatible personality with and someone you can enjoy being with all day long .”