Corey Ann Photography | Northeast Ohio Photographer

Amber and I have known each other for years online through an online journal. She’s been with me really since the beginning and was one of the people that urged me to make a living with my photography and get away from the medical field that I loathed. She was one of the first to book me and I was honestly terrified since I knew her expectations were high. However at the end of the day I knew I had some great images and Amber was thrilled! Her ceremony was in SUCH a gorgeous location – a butterfly garden – that it was hard to NOT get a beautiful shot. Here is their original blog.

Thanks again to Amber for having such faith in me!!!

Amber Talks

I met Corey through a blog years ago when we both discovered we lived in Ohio. When I got engaged and seen some photographs of the very first wedding she ever did, I knew that she was the photographer that I just had to have! Every time she would post pictures from a wedding or some trip she took, I was just in awe of how beautiful they were. Corey was amazing and very easy to work with during the planning process. Andrew and I had been planning an outdoor wedding for months and what would you know, it decided that it was going to rain on our special day. I wasn’t going to let a little rain ruin my wedding day! Corey arrived early to catch all of the wonderful shots of the bridal party getting ready before the ceremony. She helped with little details that needed finished and was assertive enough to help gather the wedding party when they weren’t following instructions. She was there when I tried not to have a melt down when I first saw my groom and realized the tux’s weren’t right and one of the groomsman’s tux was different than everyone elses. When it was time to start taking pictures before the wedding, the sun had came out allowing use to have the most beautiful wedding we could have asked for. Everything was perfect. Corey was very receptive to shots that were requested. During the ceremony we never saw her catching what would turn out to be the best photographs that would eventually make me cry, they were that good. Everytime I look at the pictures that now hang on our living room wall, I am reminded of what a wonderful wedding we were blessed to have; all the fun moments we had with our friends, how cute our flower girls were, and how lucky we are to have amazing friends and family.

Corey is by far one of the best photographers in the area. Her photographs are priceless. She is a photographer that we will always go to when we need those special moments caught on film. Not only is she a great photographer, she is a great friend that I have gained. She is truly the best and I recommend her to anyone looking for a photographer.

– Amber

On the final day of the Mike Colon Workshop we didn’t do any shooting, just some learning and the end of the day was tied in a bow with a party! We originally were going to do some shots of each other but a massive Kona Storm rolled in and it was a downpour all day so we didn’t get to do that. At the end of the night I played my first poker game and did fairly well considering I had NO clue what I was doing. I think Mike was probably going batty playing with all us beginners but in the end Carla, whom had also never played before, won!!!! Scarlett also put up a pretty good fight, amazing us all by being down to her last chip and then winning it all! She made third place which was pretty darn impressive especially after all her near losses!

I have to mention here two things. First is that the personal chef, Phil, was amazing!!! Although there was some stuff I don’t eat (being from Ohio you don’t really get GOOD seafood here so after a couple bad experiences as a kid I swore it off) it all LOOKED incredible and what I would eat was awesome. My favorite was his amazing salads. He made a dressing that was to die for and the recipe is simple!!! It was Italian dressing, feta cheese and roasted garlic thrown into a blender and mixed. SO GOOD!!! He fed us so well all week and ended the week with a phenominal spread for the party. Second is David Hessemer, whom came and spoke to us about his project, Through Their Eyes, which is essentially about introducing photography to people that have never worked with or seen a camera before and showing them the power of being able to document their lives for future generations to look back on. He came and spoke to us about his project and showed some amazing images that the children took. He also stayed with us for the party and I got to speak with him a lot more. A wonderful person whom has had some amazing adventures!

Due to the storm, I didn’t get many pics this day but I did take a couple videos at the hotel so I’ll share those along with the pics I did take.

Sunrise view from our amazing balcony at the Hyatt Regency Resort on Maui. Have I gone on about how much I LOVED this resort? It was amazing.

View of the ocean as the storm came rolling in from our balcony. Again, the views were just astounding!

The storm rolling in, seen from our room.

The chandelier in the Hyatt – about 100 or so feet from the courtyard – showing how strong the winds are!

What a whirlwind the weekend of 08.08.08 was!  Whew!  I started off that friday at a wedding in Navarre, went down to Jordan + Cody’s wedding in Columbus on Saturday (with a quick stop for lunch with my wonderful sister and brother in law) and rounded out the weekend with a stop at Mohican State Park on my way home for an engagement session with James and Emily whom had just booked with me that week! 

I picked Mohican because every time I am on my way home I always want to stop there but never seem to have the time or the motivation to do so (I seem to do most of my traveling to Columbus and back in one day).  I have a love for covered bridges and forests so I was really excited when they agreed.  Turns out that Emily (whom is originally from Millersburg but now resides near Chicago) hiked here a lot as a child so it has added sentimental value! 

We started off at the covered bridge (which is not rustic and is a newly built one but still pretty!) and then went over for a few shots at the gorge overlook.  It was a super sunny day with not a cloud in the sky so we’re going to go back for some yummy light shooting in the fall when they come back to the area again.  I have my sights set on the fire tower and luckily they are down with that idea as well.  They will be getting married on May 30th of next year so you’ll see them another time before they get married!!

Today marks the 1 year anniversary for me and my amazing hubby Chris.    Since this is my blog, I am blogging about my OWN wedding for once! 

We got married on the oceanfront on Whalehead Beach in Corolla, NC.  Although we are both from Ohio, this was where both of us wanted to be married.  Me moreso than my hubby but the Outer Banks are special to us both.  My father and I spent many summers as I was growing up here and even more time once my family died (my mom and brother died when I was young).  The house that we ended up getting married at, my father and I finally ’settled’ on years ago and it became our favorite place on the beach.  Sadly, my father died from cancer a year before our wedding.  He asked that his ashes be spread behind the house we loved so much so a month after his death I went with his best friend and we let my Dad have his final resting place somewhere he loved to be.  Call me morbid but to me, there was nothing better than getting married in a place that my father would still be able to be with us beyond just in spirit.

When I tell you brides that I know how much work weddings are – I KNOW!  I planned the entire wedding – AND the trip and not just for me but for my husband and his family and our friends as well.  No one besides us had ever been to the area before so everyone was clueless on how things went.  Not only did I design, print and put together programs and menus but welcome baskets full of pages and pages of information for the guests on their rental homes, the locations and where to eat.  Beyond that I designed the entire wedding and even though I may not have put together everything I picked out everything and let my vendors run with it.  My vendors then hit it out of the ballpark. 

Although ALL of my vendors were phenominal and so awesome to work with, there was one that was the best thing ever since sliced bread (and BETTER) and that was my photographer Brooke Mayo.  I fell in LOVE with her work online and her personality literally leapt off of the pages.  Without even talking to her on the phone, I knew I had to have her and she and I would get along great.  I booked her instantly and never looked back once.  During the days leading up to the wedding she was so amazingly helpful with suggestions for vendors and what to avoid but she would top herself when we went down for our engagement session. 

Chris and I were stoked to be going down for our wedding planning weekend.  Brooke has the awesomest packages of any photographer and I’m not kidding here.   In some of her packages you get a weekend at her beach cottage with your engagement session for a wedding planning weekend.    It is super secluded and the CUTEST little house I have ever seen.  She has a knack for decorating, it’s adorable!  We were greeted with some bottles of wine from her hubby’s winery (Sactuary Vineyars, if you are down on the Outer Banks you MUST get some, yummmmm) and were just so relaxed at her home.  It’s so inviting.  Sadly though not long after we arrived we found out that my future father in law had passed unexpectedly and we needed to get back to Ohio ASAP.  Brooke went above and beyond what most people would do and was just amazing.  She not only was super understanding on why we had to leave but was so accomodating and helpful that it made everything so much easier to deal with.  I cannot imagine anyone else being more perfect for us at that moment than Brooke.  She’s just that awesome of a human being. 

So as you can imagine, we were already quite attached to the super Brooke before our wedding day and already loved her without her taking a single snap yet!  However on the day of the wedding she won us over again.  She’s just so cheerful and has an infectious personality, you can’t help but love her.  THEN you see the images and you are floored.  She catches every single moment and turns it into something even more amazing.  The posing is so easy with her and nothing feels forced or faked.  Of course I surprised her a time or two by doing things she wasn’t expecting (like running off into the ocean) but she was on her toes and kept right up with me.  At the end of the night she even donned some goggles and went underwater to capture some seriously breathtaking shots of our first dance in the pool.  Yes, you read that right.  Our first dance was in the POOL.

I am not going to post any of her pics here because that would seem to be some sort of code of ethics rule breaking for me, but I am going to link you to her blog post about our wedding with the slideshow.  I hope you enjoy the pics a quarter of the amount as I do… and I hope that a year from now you still love your images from me as much as I adore the images that Brooke took for us.  Thank you Brooke  

PS:  This doesn’t mean that I don’t love my other vendors (Nannette from The Proper Setting, Renee from Blooms by Design, Nealy whom did my amazing invitations, Kimberly from The Delectable Dish, Dr. Dave whom is the best guy to marry you on the beach and so forth)!!!  EVERYONE was amazing!

Here’s some pics that I took the day of the wedding.  What?  You mean I’m not supposed to be taking pics of my OWN wedding?  Ha ha, as if!

I went down to the beach first thing in the morning/afternoon.  All week I had been wanting to go to the beach but hadn’t been able to do so because I had things to do.  So I said that I wasn’t doing ANYTHING that morning until I HAD to get ready and I went to the beach.  The beach calms me and photography centers me so this was a perfect pairing.