If I had to summarize the one-of-a-kind Amanda Summerlin and her work in emojis, it would go a little something like ?????.
Longtime sponsor and APW favorite, Amanda is the photographer who will make you laugh so hard you cry, who will be a steadying presence when you actually do cry, who will deliver photos that give you heart eyes for days, and who will earn your eternal gratitude for being exactly what you needed in a photographer: a source of mood-lifting jokes, a shoulder to lean on, and most importantly, a keen eye that will capture all the moments you want to remember forever.
And, oh yeah, Atlanta-based Amanda travels across the US for free with package rates starting at just $2,550. ???
In addition to being hilarious (seriously, go read her FAQs and FUQs even if you aren’t planning a wedding), humble, and kind (and then go read the love letter she once wrote to APW readers), Amanda is nothing if not wise, y’all. When caught up in all the details and stress of wedding planning, even the best of us occasionally lose sight of what’s important to us. Enter Amanda with some #truth to get your priorities straight:
In all of my marketing, I’ve always focused on showing off the prettiest photos, or the ones that looked the most fun, or artistic, or epic. But I haven’t truly shown off the most important photos that I make. Those epic sunset photos are neat, but they aren’t the most important photos I’ll make at a wedding. On your wedding day, the most important photos I make all day will be of the people you love being in a moment, being together. The most important photo I make will be of your parents, who have been happily married for thirty-seven years, with their arms around each other, looking at the camera with content and relaxed smiles on their faces. The most important photo I make will be of you and your mom crying together after she just put your veil on you. The most important photo I make will be of you chatting quietly in the corner with your dad while no one notices. The most important photo I make will be of your dog, or your grandmother toasting you, or you laughing with your wedding party in the light of the setting sun, or you kissing your new wife on the shoulder in a quiet moment between moments. And I’m not going to demand that you have an unplugged wedding because I know that your cousin might be using his cell phone to stream video of the ceremony to your grandpa in the hospital, because I know your mom might be a photo enthusiast and making a few photos of you on your special day brings her true joy, and because I want you to encourage your people to just be themselves. Because they are glorious and you love them. And I also want to encourage you to have the kind of wedding that will make you happy and that you will look back on and feel satisfaction and joy knowing that you had the best wedding you could have had.
APW readers are always the most generous and kind people I work with all year. They are people people. I mean, they make beautiful weddings and they’re very often introverts, but they always tell me the most important photo is of their grandma or their mom or dad or best friend. APW people always have their heads screwed on right. They never seem to get caught up in the competition of who has the trendiest wedding. They never seem to lose sight of the fact that they are having a wedding so that they can have a marriage.
As a client and APW reader confirms, Amanda will take photos you love of the people you can’t live without:
Our wedding photos from Amanda far surpassed any expectations I had. She definitely captured my husband the way I see him (he’s the cutest EVER) and got great candid photos of so many of our loved ones. Our parents, in particular. My parents dancing, his parents SMILING! (This does not happen. Not that they’re unhappy people, but for whatever reason, they don’t smile for pictures.) When you tell your photographer, ‘And I’ll need a photo shoot of my maid of honor and me bed-skiing at some point’ and she not only doesn’t ask questions, but is excited about it, that’s the wedding photographer you want.
In a nutshell, Amanda Summerlin will capture your most beautiful and authentic selves. Here’s how she does it:
The thing I do most well is make photojournalistic photos of the many kinds of moments thoughout the day: the quiet moments, the hilarious moments, the emotional moments, the playful moments, the tender moments, and the little things that get looked over in the chaos of the day.
The other thing I do really well is stay calm. Most of my clients (and several planners) have pointed out at some point during the wedding day how calming my presence is. Nothing rattles me. And when they get stressed out, I’m able to step in and redirect their attention and bring them back into the beauty of the moment. Someone asked me recently how I can be so calm, and after thinking about it a bit, I realized that I’m calm because I know everything is going to be okay. I’ve already been to 150 weddings, and in the end, everybody got married and lived happily ever after. So there’s no need to panic if the dress hook won’t connect the first try. Someone will solve the problem. It just might take a little longer than you meant. But in the end, you’re still getting married to the person you chose to be your partner in life.
Another thing that I get frequent compliments about is my mad ninja skills. I disappear into the surroundings, and yet I’m everywhere. I don’t shoot with a second shooter because I book more intimate weddings and being invisible is an asset. People forget that I’m there and they’re less guarded.
And why she does it:
The best thing about my job is that I get to spend my time around people when they are at their very best and happiest. I love being able to make people happy for a living. Life is very complicated in so many ways, and many of us experience doubt and insecurity about ourselves. My job, whether I’m at a wedding or a family photo session, is showing people the most amazing things about them. With my camera and a watchful eye, I am able to show my clients how the people who love them actually see them. I show them how their eyes light up when they smile, how beautiful and gentle the way they look at their partner is, and how their partner looks at them with the eyes full of love and tenderness even when they’re not looking. I show them that together they’re amazing, and sexy, and fun, and that they make a great team. That’s something that we rarely get to experience. We look at ourselves with such judgment and criticism every day, never seeing in ourselves what others see in us. But the people who love us see our real beauty, and that’s what I try to capture when I pick up my cameras.
Amanda Summerlin’s package rates start at $2,550, which includes:
- Up to 6 hours of Amanda’s calm presence, quirky sense of humor, expert eye, and grace under pressure on your wedding day. There are no limits on the number of photos taken.
- Professional processing of your wedding photos. Full-resolution images saved on a custom flash drive.
- Personal-use copyright release for all processed digital images.
- All travel expenses included.
A breakdown of exactly what services and products are offered and exactly how much they cost can be found here, along with a formula to build an a la carte package (with a 10–20% price break) that is exactly right for you. As Amanda says, “Our rates don’t fluctuate based on time of year or location or how pretty your wedding sounds like it’s going to be. Everything is right there. No tricks or shenanigans.”
There are no charges for travel within the continental United States, and the only charge for international travel is the actual cost of airfare. All other travel fees (other than work permits) are on Amanda. More details on that travel policy can be found here.
So if you’re looking for a photographer who will capture images of your loved ones so true to life you’ll crack up laughing, and so tender you’ll have a “It’s just really dusty in here” moment every time you look at them, then Amanda Summerlin is your woman. And if you’re looking for a reminder of why we come together to celebrate weddings, and why we bother documenting all of life’s events, I’ll leave you with these words from Amanda:
Today I want to encourage you to live hard, love hard, play hard. Make memories with the people you love. Make photos with the people you love. Make selfies. Make silly faces. Make a few dozen photos of your dog. Fill your phone with photos, dump them onto a hard drive, and fill it again. Share the photos with the people you love so they can laugh and remember your trip to the farmers’ market and the look on your face the first time you tried boiled peanuts. Because photos are magical time machines. They will forever let you travel back in time to relive a moment that you might have otherwise forgotten. And it doesn’t matter if the photo is a fuzzy snapshot or a polished professional photograph, the value of the memory is priceless.
Amanda Summerlin OFFERS free travel throughout the CONTINENTAL US WITH package rates starting at just $2,550. CHecK here for all package options and rate details, and HERE for AVAILABILITY, OR contact AMANDA today!
