We are a company unlike any other that has and continues to raise the industry standards. We strive to continually add new value, overdeliver, and tackle what's thought to be impossible. We simply offer an unmatched experience & product at a fraction of the price. Sound too good to be true? Our resume includes:

• theKnot's Best of Weddings HALL OF FAME
• 2020 Editors' Choice Awards, Two Bright Lights (1 of 12 companies selected out of 40,000+)
• WEDISSON Top 10 Wedding Photographer of the Year 2021 (Katie)
• World's Top 10 Wedding Photo Contest 2020, One Eyeland (Katie)
• World's Top 10 Women Photographers 2024 (Katie)
• WedAwards' 2nd Best Internationally Ranked & Awarded Shooter of 2020 (Katie)
• WedAwards' Internationally Ranked & Awarded Shooter of 2023 (Sam)
• WedAwards' Internationally Ranked & Awarded Shooter of 2024 (Sam)
• WedAwards' 7th Best Internationally Ranked & Awarded Shooter of 2025 (Sam)
• 14-Day Guaranteed Sam or Katie Photo & Video Delivery

If I had to sum up our success in just three principles, they would be: Shoot like your life depends on it. Relentlessly grow and refine your skillset. Be the best at adding value.

These aren't just catchy phrases — they're the core of our company's DNA. It's these very principles that have driven us to create this completely transparent FAQ page, with the hope of adding value to your search for the perfect wedding photographer or videographer.

The truth is, no single company is perfect for every couple. Over the years, we've identified a few key reasons why Windy City Production might not be the right fit for some. With determination and hard work, we've grown into an internationally ranked and awarded husband-and-wife team. While we're no longer as affordable as we were in our humble beginnings, we've never been more valuable to our clients.

Simply put, if you're solely shopping for the lowest initial price, Windy City Production might not be the best fit. Katie and I know what it's like to plan a wedding on a shoestring budget — we were broke college kids when we planned our own! We're not against budgeting, but there's a difference between shopping purely on price versus seeking value. We believe in delivering exceptional value through experience, dependability, credibility, transparency, variety, and quality.

Trust is the foundation of everything we do. If you're not able to trust your photographer to guide and capture your day — and trust us to deliver it beautifully — we're probably not the right fit. Our style is natural and comfortable; you won't be left wondering what to do with your hands. We craft moments that highlight the emotions of love, joy, and happiness. This guided artistry results in imagery and memories you'll never forget.

Please don't base your decision to hire Windy City Production on expectations of instant communication or our raw, unedited video footage. Hire us for our commitment to delivering stunning wedding photos and cinematic films. We provide clients the freedom and responsibility to review our FAQ page for guidance and expectations, and the flexibility to schedule consultations, meetings, and payments at their convenience.

Over the years, we've encountered a few rare couples who sought to take advantage of our generosity. While we're lighthearted, humble, and always striving to overdeliver, we will not tolerate disrespect, sexual harassment, or being bullied into offering free services, products, or reduced pricing. We are guided by our principles, but ultimately, we can only capture the wedding that unfolds.

The next step is to request your contract through our quick automated system. You'll choose a delivery time and answer a few simple questions about your day and your style — and you'll select your photographer by name for each service, so you know exactly who's capturing your day before you ever sign. Open dates are reserved first-come, first-served.

Why the automation? In full transparency, Sam has a long track record of occasionally wandering off on adventures — an Ironman race, an ultra run or swim, biking across America, or disappearing into the woods or ocean somewhere with a camera. We realized a simple automated system is the best way to make sure every contract request is handled quickly and nothing ever slips through the cracks.

At your scheduled time, we'll send your agreement(s) for review and e-signature — your coverage with the photographer you selected, and your editing and delivery with Windy City Production. Once signed and your retainer is secured, your date is officially reserved.

Our website, pricing, packages, phone and/or in-studio consultations, and availability are continuously changing due to our never-ending commitment to add more value. ONLY a duly signed contract locks in the date, price, and the contract's stated package terms.

We would love to connect with you to learn a bit more about your vision, style, and wedding day details. Rest assured we would not ask you to make any decisions or ask for any commitments. It is simply an opportunity for us to fully understand your specific needs! Schedule a consultation at your convenience, or if you prefer to chat now, feel free to call 708-663-0637.

With all of our photo packages you'll receive a personal online gallery that depicts your wedding day in stunning detail, and you retain the full release to download, print, post, and/or share as you see fit. We highly recommend checking out our full online galleries for quality, variety, and storytelling comparison. Our galleries allow you to download photos easily, create favorites lists, share, and securely purchase prints in a few clicks.

Our goal is to capture your wedding day in stunning detail. With our Associate photo packages we have been averaging 500 to 800 edited high-resolution images. With a Katie or Sam photo package we have been averaging 900 to 1,400 edited high-resolution images. Our goal is not to hit a number but to capture as much variety as possible while maintaining the highest quality. Ultimately, we can only capture the wedding that happens; weather, location, schedule complications, time restraints, and subjects' cooperation all factor into the quality and number of photos.

With all of our video packages you'll receive a Hollywood-worthy cinema retelling your Wedding Day Love Story. Our Associate cinemas range from 4–6 minutes and our Sam or Katie cinemas range from 8–12 minutes. In addition to your cinema you'll receive an approximately 1–2 minute teaser, plus all of the raw footage (including the full ceremony & toasts, unpolished and unedited) delivered via SSD external hard drive. Please don't base your hiring decision on our raw footage — hire us for our stunning wedding cinemas.

Given our busy editing, shooting, and meeting schedules, we cannot commit to shipping any externals. Many clients who can't personally commit to an in-studio pickup ask a trusted friend or family member to pick up the external hard drive.

Truthfully, Sam and I have personally edited every single wedding for the past five years, regardless of who captured it — including weddings captured by a photographer from our network.

Every photo and cinema is edited with care and intention to highlight the details, emotion, and atmosphere of the day. This hands-on approach ensures each Wedding Day Love Story is cohesive, refined, and aligned with the Windy City Production style we've personally developed over the past 14 years.

Authenticity first. We're deeply committed to preserving the real moments and natural beauty of your wedding day. Our editing emphasizes true-to-life color and natural skin tones, balanced light and realistic contrast, and consistency across the full gallery or film. We intentionally avoid over-retouching or "plastic" skin, altering body shapes, removing real-world details, and AI-generated backgrounds or fabricated elements.

Why we personally edit: while many companies promote outsourcing edits, Sam and I firmly believe that often leads to inconsistencies in quality and storytelling. By handling editing personally, we ensure every final image and film meets our exact artistic expectations, and we can confidently stand behind every image and frame delivered.

In short — no. We do not offer complimentary re-editing once final edits have been delivered. Every gallery and film is the result of a thoughtful, time-intensive creative process — culling, color grading, audio mixing, pacing, and storytelling — and re-editing, even small changes, often requires reopening archived projects, re-exporting large files, and revisiting creative decisions that take several hours or more.

With video in particular, what seems like a small change — removing a clip, shortening a moment, adjusting timing — can disrupt the audio-led storytelling of the entire film, which is built around real dialogue, vows, speeches, and ambient sound. Think of it like a skeleton watch: shift one gear and the whole mechanism can fall out of sync. Re-editing is therefore treated as optional custom work, quoted based on scope and time.

Creative Control & Style Consistency. When booking Windy City Production, clients agree that: the final work will reflect a similar style and caliber to what's showcased on our website and blog; your photographer maintains creative control during the wedding day, and Sam and Katie maintain creative control during editing and post-production; and final images and films are delivered as completed works, not drafts.

If you do request re-editing after final delivery, we're always happy to help when possible. Any re-editing is treated as clearly scoped, optional custom work, quoted based on scope, complexity, and time. Our goal is to remain fair, transparent, and consistent while delivering work we're proud to stand behind.

With all of our photo and/or video packages you retain the full release to download, print, post, and/or share your Wedding Day Love Story as you see fit.

Your favorite songs have never been more accessible, but we can't use them without proper licensing, which can be extremely expensive. We've invested in licensing options that keep both you and Windy City Production legally safe. We can gladly accommodate any personal selections from Soundstripe.com, Artlist.io, and/or Musicbed.com at no additional fee with our paid memberships. If you prefer a Top 40 track, Songfreedom.com offers affordable options, but we'd have to pass along their discounted licensing fee of approximately $35 per track with our paid Songfreedom membership.

Sam or Katie services are delivered within 14 days after final payment is received. Associate services are delivered on a best-effort basis and typically require an estimated 4–12 weeks; this timeframe is not a guaranteed deadline. Final edited files (including any applicable teaser) are released once editing is complete and final payment has been received. Wedding album and print delivery timelines cannot be guaranteed, as these are fulfilled by third-party professional printers. We maintain multiple backups for several months after your wedding, but we highly recommend downloading and saving your files immediately.

We refuse to watermark our clients' photos. We believe a watermark would detract from the quality of the photo.

Our style is defined by powerful, emotional images and moments full of feeling. We're committed to photographs and cinemas you'll fall in love with, and our candid, documentary storytelling approach leaves you free to enjoy your day while we preserve your memories.

We've partnered with one of the country's best professional photo labs, and every couple's online gallery integrates with the lab for easy print ordering. That said, every couple has a full release to print, post, and/or share as they see fit.

When Sam or Katie are your photographers, the answer is simple: we don't miss weddings. We've shot through just about everything — Katie behind the camera with twenty stitches in her elbows, knees, and chin; Sam shooting hours after taking a surfboard to the face; Sam finishing a wedding as his body slipped toward septic shock. We're hard-headed that way, and across 14 years we've never missed one.

In a true, once-in-a-lifetime emergency, we're fortunate to have spent years building relationships with trusted shooters we could call on to step in. If that ever happened, you'd still be covered — and because you'd be receiving associate-level coverage rather than Sam or Katie, your contract would be adjusted to associate pricing to reflect exactly what you received.

When you book a network photographer, that commitment is theirs to carry — they're responsible for arranging a qualified replacement so your day is covered. And we'd certainly hope they'd reach out to us, too: while it's ultimately their call, we're always glad to help connect them with the same trusted network of shooters we've built over the years.

Booking Sam or Katie means booking the founders by name — internationally awarded, with your wedding-day shooter locked from the moment you sign. Booking at the associate price means being matched with an independent photographer from our network: a seasoned professional, many with hundreds of weddings behind them, who you'll know by name and contract with directly.

These aren't new faces. Many have shot alongside us for years — some started with us long ago, a few as interns — and have grown into the professionals they are today. And no matter who captures your day, Sam and Katie personally edit every single wedding. That part never changes.

The honest difference comes down to experience and what experience produces — the eye on the day. The editing standard is the same; the eye behind the camera is honestly different. (For the full story, see our Photographers page.)

Most couples who choose a network photographer are… couples who love the Windy City Production brand and the Sam-and-Katie-edited standard, and who recognize that an experienced photographer with 50+ weddings behind them — hand-picked by us — is genuinely excellent at what they do. Some are working within a budget that makes the associate price the right fit. Others have room for either and choose the associate route because they want a creative collaborator with more scheduling flexibility, or because they value the dependably beautiful work our network has delivered for years. They're comfortable with a 4–12 week editing window, and they love that their wedding still comes back to our studio to be finished.

Most couples who choose Sam or Katie are… couples who want internationally-awarded eyes capturing the day, who care deeply about the variety, emotional range, and creative risk that 14 years of pressure-tested experience brings to a gallery and film, and who want their fully edited photo gallery and cinema film delivered within 14 days of the wedding, guaranteed. Booking Sam or Katie by name means booking the lead artists whose work is the reason Windy City Production exists — and the people whose track record on wedding-day reliability is the strongest one we can offer.

We believe it's not the number of shooters but the quality of shooter that makes the biggest difference. Our industry tries to scare couples into adding a second shooter. Honestly, we can count on one hand the truly value-adding second shooters we've seen over the past decade. A true value-adding second shooter shouldn't be standing directly next to the lead capturing the identical shot all day — but that's what we consistently see. If you have a genuinely value-adding second shooter, they're a blessing, but certainly not a requirement. We specialize as individual shooters and let our work speak for itself.

On some weddings, your photographer may bring an assistant — please don't confuse this with a second shooter (see our second-shooter stance above). An assistant might shadow, help carry gear, gather details, or support however the lead photographer sees fit, and whether one is present is entirely the photographer's call. Please don't base your decision on the expectation of an assistant — book us for our commitment to stunning photos and cinema.

Katie and I prefer Sony's A9 and/or A1 for photo, and Sony's FX3 and A7SIII for video — Sony's focusing is hard to beat. We've shot strictly in 4K 8-bit and 10-bit color over the past two years. The photographers in our network are seasoned professionals shooting on their own professional-grade gear.

We're huge drone fans and prefer to use them when possible. However, it's the client's responsibility to secure any required permission from venues and/or locations. Weather, location restrictions, schedule complications, time restraints, and subjects' cooperation all factor into whether drones can be used.

Sam usually passes on dinner — he's typically busy pulling off a same-day edit teaser. A meal is never required for Katie or any of our photographers, but it's always appreciated. Just let your photographer know at the final meeting so they can plan accordingly.

We assess a $3 per mile travel charge for any event exceeding our free 50-mile studio radius. We may also pass along any vendor parking fees.

We have the entire day blocked out for you and will gladly accommodate additional coverage. Any Katie or Sam additional coverage is $200 per hour per service. Associate additional coverage is $200 per hour per service.

We can't apply any Friday/Sunday discount on the following holidays — New Year's Eve, Memorial Day Weekend, 4th of July, and all of Labor Day Weekend — which are priced at the full Saturday rate. New Year's Eve and Labor Day Sunday have been two of our busiest days over the past six years.

We can't discount shortened coverage. A shortened wedding (less than 8 hours) still requires any company or shooter to commit to the entire day, since they couldn't jump to a new wedding mid-day.

After personally saying "I do" fourteen years ago, I discovered how most vendors never listed their pricing — so we made it our mission to be as transparent as possible. You can view our detailed pricing on our Pricing page.

We gladly offer a $50 referral discount or a $50 military / first-responder discount (these can't be combined). There's also a 5% cash discount and a maximum 6% pre-payment discount, which can be combined. Pre-payment discount: 0.5% per full month paid in advance, capped at 6% (12+ months early).

One honest note: these discounts apply to your Windy City Production editing and booking. Your photographer is an independent professional who sets their own rate for capturing the day, so that portion isn't part of these discounts.

A signed agreement and a non-refundable retainer reserve your date with your photographer. Windy City Production's editing carries no separate retainer — it's billed on delivery. Your final balance is due after the wedding, and your fully edited photos and/or film are released once editing is complete and final payment is received.

You're in luck — we have hundreds of reviews adding unprecedented insight into Windy City Production: Google Reviews, WeddingWire Reviews, The Knot Reviews, and Facebook Recommendations & Reviews.

We offer engagement sessions as an à la carte option.

• $250 Sam or Katie Mini Engagement Session — 30-minute session, 20 personally selected images fully edited, delivered via digital gallery. Locations limited to Aurora.
• $500 Sam or Katie Engagement Session — 60–90 minute session, all photos fully edited, delivered via digital gallery, plus a bonus Instagram engagement teaser video.

We recommend selecting a location unique to you. A few favorites: The Morton Arboretum & Cantigny (we have annual passes, so no permit fees), Downtown Chicago (Olive Park, the Wrigley Building, the River Walk, the Chicago Theatre, Lincoln Park), Downtown Aurora (permit-free), and Matthiessen State Park for the adventurous. Schedule your engagement session at your convenience, and please include a location.

We encourage you to share your general vision and style. The immediate family portrait shot-list aid is built right into our Wedding Day Questionnaire, so it lives in one easy place — and your photographer works from that same questionnaire, whether that's Sam and Katie or a network photographer using it on their end. Your photographer is an artist: capturing your day professionally, dependably, and in great detail works best when you entrust them with creative control during the event, just as you entrust Sam and Katie with the editing afterward. Detailed shot sheets beyond the family portrait list tend to limit that creativity, the ability to catch moments as they naturally unfold, and the signature style you came to us for.

Each photographer in our network carries their own liability and equipment insurance and can provide a certificate if your venue requires one. Windy City Production maintains its own coverage for our studio and editing work. If your venue needs proof of insurance, let us know which service it's for and we'll point you to the right certificate.

To be fair to everyone, a signed agreement and a non-refundable retainer with your photographer are required to hold your date.

Retainers are non-refundable — they reserve your date exclusively for you and your photographer, turning away other couples for it. Your wedding day is a one-time, one-shot moment, and you deserve a team that ensures no moment is missed. The best photographers and videographers in the Chicago area book fast and far ahead. Our low retainer, final payment after the wedding, and Sam-or-Katie 14-day delivery guarantee have us filling our remaining dates at the fastest pace in our 14-year history. Open dates are reserved first-come, first-served.

This is where most studios stay vague — we'll be specific. You're never handed an unknown. When you connect with us, we present you with the photographers' full galleries and profiles, and you choose the one whose work speaks to you. Because we show full galleries and full films — start to finish, not a hand-picked highlight or two — you see exactly what a wedding day looks like in that photographer's hands before you ever sign.

Once you've chosen and signed, your photographer is locked in — the name on your contract is who's on your day. In the rare event of a genuine emergency, your photographer is responsible for arranging a qualified replacement or making it right. And on open Friday, Sunday, off-season, or last-minute dates, Sam or Katie may be available to shoot at the associate price themselves, though the only way to guarantee one of them is to book a Sam or Katie package.

Schedule your final meeting 3–6 weeks before the wedding (your Google Calendar invite has a 4-week reminder built in), and complete the Wedding Day Questionnaire beforehand. If Sam or Katie are shooting your day, that meeting is with us — schedule a phone final meeting or an in-studio final meeting. If you've booked a network photographer, your final planning meeting is with them, since they're the one capturing your day; they'll walk you through the questionnaire and timeline. Either way, Windy City Production always handles your editing and final delivery.

We want the best possible wedding day for you, so we recommend looping your full vendor team into your wedding-day timeline. For day-of and vendor coordination, your photographer is your point of contact — they're the one on the ground capturing your day, and fellow vendors are welcome at your final planning meeting with them. For anything about your editing, delivery, or Windy City Production specifically, you can always schedule a call with us.

With a Sam or Katie booking, your fully edited photos and/or film are ready within 14 days and awaiting final payment. Your Windy City Production editing payment can be made via Chase QuickPay to Katie@windycityproduction.com, Venmo @Windycityproduction, check made out to "Windy City Production," or in person via physical cash for a 5% discount (schedule an in-studio payment at your convenience). If you've booked a network photographer, your coverage payment is made directly to them per your agreement; your Windy City Production editing payment follows the options above.

We understand the challenge for clients out of state. However, we've had multiple external hard drives lost, stolen, damaged, or delivered to the wrong address. To ensure the drive arrives in working order, we require all external hard drives to be personally picked up. If your proximity doesn't allow it, we encourage you to ask a trusted family member or friend to pick it up. We refuse to risk another client's drive to loss, theft, or damage in shipping.

We sincerely thank all of the amazing couples who entrusted us to capture their Wedding Day Love Story over the years. We're always looking for ways to add value for past clients — including our free mini sessions, free mini maternity sessions, free headshots, and free annual Christmas shoot, just to name a few. We'd love to stay connected, so keep your eyes open for future value-adding perks.