Mulberry & Sage

Category: Couples

Team Member Spotlight: Meet Serena

Those of you who have worked with Mulberry & Sage in the past may have heard us casually refer to our friend and coworker Serena. We thought that now would be the perfect time to fully introduce her, as her name keeps coming up both in in our reviews, and also in future couple consultations. While Courtney and Megan are the key partners in Mulberry & Sage, one of the things that we pride ourselves on is being submerged fully in our community around the Metro Detroit area of fellow photographers and business owners. After all, being involved that a photography group is originally how Courtney and I (Megan) met 3 years ago. Being a business owner in the photography realm was once described to me as “the loneliest, most social job ever.” And that completely rings true. Outside of photographing the weddings together, most of our jobs are spent in our separate homes, editing, marking, writing blogs, and parenting our children (while also simultaneously hinting to them that they are next in line to take over our gig when we’re old and crusty.) Obviously since Courtney and I tag-team the business owning title, we communicate with each other pretty much daily.

While we do our best to always photograph weddings together, sometimes we need to split up and divide and conquer. We do offer intimate wedding packages with only one photographer, rendering the other of us available on certain days. Or, it may be a birthday weekend or family vacation weekend for one of us, leaving the other one of us available for photographing weddings. All of this is my long, drawn out way of saying that, sometimes, you may not see the Courtney & Megan duo, and in those cases, we rely on our amazing network of fellow professional photographers to seamlessly step in and fill our shoes. Serena has been a professional wedding photographer for over 5 years herself, and is someone that we constantly call on to be our trusted stand-in. And that relationship goes both ways fairly often; I will always be Serena’s second photographer for weddings days that she books through her own business when I am available. We’ve photographed many (many!) weddings together, and we always showcase the exact same look and feel that you’d be used to with any other Mulberry & Sage wedding. And that’s exactly why her partnership with us is so special.

When Courtney was out on maternity leave last fall, Serena stepped in and photographed quite a few weddings with me. Heck, she even showed up one day with a 6 pack of Ginger Ale in her camera bag because she had literally gotten food poisoning the night before, and she was still there. (And you would have never known by looking at her.) We acted silly trying to get people on the dance floor. We learned line dances. We took blackmail photos of each other’s dumb photography poses/antics to entice laughter. If you can’t have fun with the people you work with….well, I don’t really know a cute answer to that, but I would imagine that it sucks. You’ll be seeing more from Courtney and Serena’s weddings this spring/early summer as well.

If you hear us talking about Serena, rest assured that you are in amazing and capable hands for your wedding day. To see some examples of weddings that she has been a part of alongside us, we’re happy to send you links to wedding blogs we’ve published from 2017 and 2018. Serena can also be found via her website at www.littleanchorphoto.com & about her personally here.

Don’t judge the Instagram selfies. @mulberryandsagephotography

Team Member Spotlight Happy Reviews:

We met Megan & Courtney at the bridal expo in Port Huron. They had the cutest setup and it immediately caught my eye. They were the only photographers we met with and immediately booked with them. They were genuinely so nice and so much fun to work with. They were also so professional and always responded to my emails promptly. We had so much fun during our engagement session! Posing for pictures can be awkward but Megan and Courtney kept us laughing the entire time! Our pictures came out perfect that we had such a hard time picking our favorites! This made me so much more excited to work with them on our wedding day! Courtney sadly couldn’t make the wedding due to her being at the end of her pregnancy but Megan made sure she booked someone else to be the second photographer( and she picked a great choice with Serena). We once again had the best time working with Megan- my bridal party and my parents were raving about her afterwards. Megan fit right in with everyone and she felt like a friend! Our wedding pictures blew us away! They came out absolutely amazing!!! I would highly recommend these ladies to everyone! I hope we can work with them again in the future :-). Thank you again!!! -Theresa, November 2018 Bride

We used these lovely ladies as our wedding photographers and they are absolutely amazing! Megan was our main photographer and Serena was the 2nd, and they were with us every step of the way. She made everything so easy and was so accommodating. We got special access to Spartan Stadium last minute and she came up with great ideas and our photos turned out amazing. Our pictures came fast and turned out stunning! We will definitely use her in the future for our major milestones! – Lauren, November 2017 Bride

January 22, 2019
Michigan Engagement Photographer | Jensen & Shaunell

About a month ago, we had the honor of meeting Jensen and Shaunell when they visited our Port Huron wedding photography studio, and booked Mulberry & Sage to be their 2020 wedding photographer, and Michigan engagement photographer. They both really love the fall and wanted to venture out during Michigan’s peak season to showcase their love and engagement with a photography session. We love booking engagement sessions, and many of our popular packages include them because they really help the two of us get to know the two of you, such as how you interact, pose together, etc. It allows you to relax and know that, on your wedding day, there won’t be any awkward moments of poses that just “don’t work” or making you do anything that feels weird or foreign.

We started the evening being their Michigan Engagement Photographer and beginning at Courtney’s property, with the big red barns and beautiful apple orchard. Their outfit choices were seriously on point, and we love those photos at the rustic vibe that their both pull off flawlessly. We love tag teaming engagement sessions and splitting them up between the two of us, because it allows both of us to get to know the couple individually, and then we’ll typically meet up at some point and photograph part of it together. Since Courtney is due to have her baby in the next month, she shot the section on her property, and Megan handled the hiking section up at our favorite overlook in Clyde Township. We hiked down to the river, and still made it to the overlook for a beautiful glowing sunset over the ravine.

Shaunell and Jensen are so sweet, and the two of them were introduced through Jensen’s mom, who worked with Shaunell. They compliment each other perfectly, and are so in love and can’t wait until their 2020 wedding (and that makes 4 of us, because we’ll be there, too!) We hope you enjoy this small preview into when we were their Michigan Engagement Photographer team. If you’re newly engaged, we would love to chat about how we can capture your life’s special moments and memories, too.

October 20, 2018
Engagement Photos in Michigan | Alison & Manuel

If you’re on the fence about using Port Huron for your Engagement Photos in Michigan, we’re here today with a preview into Alison and Manuel’s session to convince you to pull the plug. Alison approached us and was interested in doing her engagement photography session in the Port Huron area, because it holds a special place in their hearts. Manuel works in downtown Port Huron, and used to live in one of the lofts in downtown, too. They often take their boat out up here, even after they both moved to Oakland County and away from Port Huron. (Manuel just commutes in now!) Some of their most special memories of their early dating time was spent along the river in Port Huron, walking up by the Desmond area, and also down by the brides on the river-walk, so it was the perfect location to do their engagement photos in Michigan with them.

Alison and Manuel met in 2017 while they were both out with friends in downtown Detroit and eating sushi at Maru. Alison overheard Manuel’s German accent, and struck up a conversation with him immediately. Manuel moved to Michigan from Ulm Germany, and taught himself how to speak English when he moved here, and has a pretty rad story. Watching the two of them interact and spending a few hours with them last week, it was obvious to us that Manuel is head over heels for Alison, and that the feeling is absolutely mutual. They are always laughing with each other, and happily snuggled pretty much non-stop during their engagement photography session. The two of them are eagerly planning their wedding that is happening at the Burg Hohenneuffen Castle in Germany in 2019. We also told Alison that we humbly volunteer to travel alongside them to Germany to be their destination wedding photography team, as well. (We love destination weddings!)

We also wanted to highlight how diverse of a location that Port Huron is for engagement photos in Michigan. We began underneath the Blue Water Bridges (which connects Michigan to Canada) and then drove about 2 miles south to the Desmond Area, where there is a beautiful mixture of river views, industrial items, and riverside trees and foliage that can turn around the look of any session, easily. Then, I begged the two of them to join me downtown quickly after sunset to capture them underneath the new lights that Port Huron installed over the streets (that are up year round, now!) back this past winter, for a city/urban vibe. I also wanted to highlight that the sunset that night did NOT disappoint, either.

We hope you enjoy this highlight into Alison and Manuel’s engagement photos in Michigan and their session. If you’re in the market, we would love to connect with you!

September 13, 2018
Port Huron Beach Trash the Dress Photography Session | Nicolette & Randy

We met Nicolette through the magical powers of Facebook, when we excitedly replied for her inquiry for photographers who were available to do a Beach Trash the Dress Photography Session.

We started chatting with Nicolette and telling her that if she wanted an awesome beach session, Lake Huron was the place to do it, and we were the team to capture her Beach Trash the Dress Photography Session. While we are smack dab in the middle of our busy season, we were able to make a Monday evening work for the two of them to drive up and play wedding day dress up and take some beautiful portraits. Recently though, the phrase “trash the dress” can mean a variety of things, so we’d like to clarify that we didn’t exactly trash the dress. We like to think that we created artwork and memories for Nicolette and Randy to cherish for a long time to come, while still maintaining the integrity of her wedding dress. So often, your wedding day is an absolute blur of emotions and happenings. You may have had a busy timeline, and weren’t able to get every single photo that you may have wanted. We started their Beach Trash the Dress Photography Session by taking some romantic portraits on the beach and beach paths with the summer foliage, because on their actual wedding day, it was raining. Then we waded into the lake and spent some time playing in the waves, prompting them to snuggle excessively, and just relax and let the lake and waves do the magic while we captured it. Nicolette and Randy were amazing to get to know, and we hope that we made their Beach Trash the Dress Photography Session vision come to life through these images. Her dress is absolutely stunning, and the sand and water combo will be a breeze to have cleaned and preserved, so her dress can be cherished too, along with the photos.

While Mulberry & Sage is a Michigan professional photography team that specializes in documenting weddings, we seriously love love; all the chapters and the evolution that it goes through. we would love to chat. We hope that maybe this inspired you to dig out your dress from storage, throw it back on, and contact us to create some artistic memories for you. Maybe you have a big anniversary coming up? We don’t have to get in the water, or do anything crazy; we could simply take a stroll through a field and get some romantic photos of you with your forever love! Whatever you’re thinking, . We hope you enjoy this small preview into Nicolette and Randy’s Beach Trash the Dress Photography Session.

August 22, 2018
Port Huron Photography Studio Renovation & Reveal | Ladies of the Maccabees

If you haven’t seen or heard in the local news lately, we’ve been keeping a little secret, and it’s finally finished and officially out of the bag. We’ve been hard at work renovating a Port Huron photography studio space inside the Port Huron historic building, Ladies of the Maccabees. If you were able to swing by our previous studio space in downtown, you will know that while it worked perfectly for what we did, we were really wanting to find a perfect space that had tons of character, and could be utilized as an office and artwork gallery space for Mulberry & Sage, as well as a studio space for our own photography businesses. When we toured the space inside the Maccabees building, we couldn’t help but get excited, and we knew it was perfect for us. It is a large room, with massive 16′ tall ceilings and all the original charm of the time-frame of when the building was built (1904.) It has the original crown molding (coincidentally painted a sage color and white) and we love all the large, ornate doors and fixtures.

Don’t begin thinking though that it was all rainbows and unicorns. Luckily, Megan has an eye for DIY and a super-handy husband that happens to also love any excuse to bust out some power tools and yell “IT’S DEMO DAY!” like Chip Gaines. The space had very beat-up carpeting that was literally glued to the floor (we’re guessing around the 1970’s?) and some wall paper and wood paneling that was far too mid-century modern for our rustic taste. We’ll let the photos below do the talking, so you can see what we were working with before. The potential was so, so good.

The first thing that had to happen was ripping out the carpeting. When we were touring the space with the realtor (Chris Smith from DeLacy. He’s awesome.) we were able to peel back a corner of the carpeting and see that the flooring underneath was the original hardwood flooring. We pulled back a section by the original radiator, so we couldn’t really tell what condition it was in until it was completely gone, but we prepared for the worst case scenario and were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful solid birch floor in really great condition. The only caviat was that since the carpeting was glued on to the wood, we had to literally get on our hands and knees and use toxic chemicals and a razor blade and hand scrape every.single.plank. And by “we”, I mean our husbands. (We owe them huge!) Once that was done, Megan’s husband got to work with the sander we rented and sanded down the flooring, and then sealed it with a clear coat of poly. Once again, leaving the integrity and character of the space is important to us.

Another fun little tidbit, we wanted to paint over the wallpaper and give the trim and shelving a fresh coat of white paint. Megan started painting by herself, to quickly realize again that she still loathes painting. So she called in a professional painter, who just so happens to be an old friend of Megan’s from high school. She got married back in 2016 and booked Courtney to photograph her wedding, and Courtney hired the “new girl in town” Megan to be her 2nd photographer for the day. So technically, Kimber was the very first Mulberry & Sage bride. Kimber did a beautiful job painting, and it really made the rooms pop.

Megan got the bright idea to cover up the dated wood paneling with some rustic looking wooden planks that install on the wall and look like shiplap. (If you step into our space, you’ll quickly notice that we’re pretty big Magnolia fan-girls.) Both of us and the husbands spent a day installing the paneling, and it looks seriously amazing, and so unique.

And while Megan may have the eye for what “could be” in a space, Courtney happens to be the best decorator around. The final step was bringing in all the finishing pieces that really tie the rooms together. Both of us love antique shopping, so you’ll notice that modern furniture pieces are mixed in with those we salvaged from flea markets. That’s what makes a space unique, and since we’re in a historical building, it makes sense. Courtney did an amazing job putting it all together and decorating the space, and we’re so excited to begin meeting potential couples in this beautiful space, that was literally built with our own sweat (especially our husbands’) and love.

We hope you enjoy this Port Huron Photography Studio Renovation & Reveal. If you’re looking for a hometown photographer near you for wedding photography, we hope you’ll take a moment and browse our galleries and shoot us over an email. We can’t wait to show off our space and get to know you!

PS: If you’re sitting there wondering what happened to Kathryn, our third person in the trio of awesomeness, she’s been a bit busy lately and just gave birth to her 4th child, a beautiful girl named Olive. Courtney got to go to the hospital and take her newborn photos- check those out here! Congratulations to their sweet family of 6!

June 13, 2018