Barn doors open, string lights on, everybody dancing.

Outside a barn the light is open and strong, which is right for a ceremony in the shade of the building and portraits in the field after. Inside, it's string lights and chandeliers and not much else. We shoot the outdoors as it is and bring two or three small, discreet lights for the reception, so your first dance looks like a first dance and not a cave.

We never put a light panel in a ceremony and we never put a spotlight on the dance floor. The pictures should look like the night felt.

Barn venues are usually out in the country, so we build the timeline around the sun. Ceremony when the shade reaches the chairs, portraits in the last twenty minutes of golden light, sparkler exit when it's actually dark. We go look at the property beforehand to find the good spots and the quiet ones.

Clara photographs and Nathaniel films, together, so there's one crew moving through the barn instead of two. Real microphones go on the vows and toasts, which matters even more in a big room with an echo.

Photography starts at $2,400, film at $2,800, and both of us for ten hours at $4,800. Barns within 60 miles of Lexington come with no travel charge. The rest of the state carries a small charge at cost.