PHOTOGRAPHY
... and Here's a little glimpse into our story!
Are you ready? It's a good one!
While you'd think we've known each other since we were kids, it wasn't until our late 20s that we officially met and fell in love! Who knew moving abroad, on the EXACT SAME DAY, to the EXACT SAME COUNTRY, would ultimately bring us together for this incredible ride of a life we've created!
Jill was born and raised in Orange County, California, and Aaron is a Black Mountain, North Carolina native, but we met while teaching English in South Korea back in 2009! Yep, we met IN ASIA!! Pretty awesome, right?! We both left the United States ON THE SAME EXACT DAY (February 13th 2009) to move 7,000 miles away to teach, photograph, and travel the world! Did the stars not completely align for us or what?!
We were both teaching English at schools in Busan, South Korea (1 mile or so from each other) and met one night at a "screen golf" studio. And there was no turning back from the moment our eyes locked! We've spent almost every day together since, and most of our first dates consisted of us photographing the Korean markets, coastal landscapes and mountaintop temples together, with our matching Nikon cameras in hand. We're telling you - we were SO MEANT to find each other! Our fairytale relationship continued when Aaron proposed on a deserted beach, 3 years later, on a tiny tropical island in the Philippines! We planned our American wedding while we were still living in South Korea (So if you don't live in Charleston and you're planning a wedding here, WE GET IT!!) and said our vows on July 28th, 2012 in Aaron's hometown in North Carolina! Since meeting back in 2009, we've photographed over 400 weddings together, traveled to 19 different countries together, opened a business, raised two of the sweetest yellow Labradors (Parker & Boone!), bought and completely renovated a 1930's home (#HomeOnHickory), and did it again with our dream home (#TheOsteenOasis), all while remaining each other's best friend and biggest fan! Now we can't wait to hear your love story!
Aaron and Jillian
The osteens - established 7.28.2012
THANK YOU so much to our friends at Hart to Heart Media for surprising us with this behind the scenes highlight film from a recent wedding that we did together!!!
"when we met aaron and jillian, we were blown away!! they're the warmest people and immediately made us feel so comfortable! if you're able to book them for your wedding day, don't hesitate. they're the absolute best!"
- mary tyler + Zach
We photograph for you,
your family
and your family yet to come...
Curious what it would be like
to work with us?!
Well here are 10 things we've been told set us apart!!
We've been shooting weddings, side by side, for over 10 years and recently photographed our 400th wedding together!! Talk about experience, right?! And we're BOTH professional photographers, which means we're BOTH equipped to photograph weddings on our own, but we choose to shoot every single wedding together! So you're getting TWO professional wedding photographers when you book us!
We love candids, but we also love a beautifully posed portrait and we can actually show you and your fiance how to pose by modeling the pose for you! Being able to show couples how to pose is something we're consistently told is super helpful at engagement sessions and on wedding days! None of our clients have been professional models, so being able to have them mirror what we're doing is a sweet perk!
We BOTH work as full time photographers and BOTH have a part in editing every single image we deliver to you! Aaron color corrects every image and then Jill removes blemishes and distractions from backgrounds in order to deliver the absolute best images possible! So you have two photographers AND two editors!
We'll ALWAYS respond to emails in a timely matter!! Jill's email is her to-do list, so if she sees an email from you, it'll likely be responded to in minutes (if it's during business hours, of course.)!
On wedding days, we not only smile and laugh with your guests, we dress as if we're wedding guests ourselves!! You won't ever spot us in casual wear on wedding days! If your wedding is black tie, we'll be dressed in just that! Being approachable and looking & being professional is super important to us and it's part of what helps us get the gorgeous photos we do!
Walking away from your wedding day feeling like you want to take us on your honeymoon is our biggest goal when it comes to serving and loving our couples! Giving you guys a GREAT wedding day photo experience is something we promise to do, and when you run over to give us the last hugs of the night, you'll know exactly what we're talking about!
Y'all, in 350+ weddings, you can just imagine how much we've seen! We've experienced nearly every obstacle a wedding day can present, which is GREAT NEWS for you because it means that we'll be walking into your wedding day confident and ready for whatever's thrown our way! Over the past 9 years we've experienced tropical storms, tents blowing over, venues losing power, shuttles not showing up, officiants not arriving, GIGANTIC bridal parties, venue spaces being flipped because of rain and even a dreaded hurricane! Good news for you though is not many things phase us anymore! We stay cool as cucumbers and promise to give you the gorgeous photos you've always dreamed of!
On wedding days, we always do our best to choose the cleanest and prettiest backdrops for your photos, but if we notice in post production that there was something in the background that's distracting from the image, we try our best to remove it in Photoshop! We've been told by wedding planners that we're one of the only photographers in town who do this.
Every image matters to us and we'll take the time to make sure every one of your wedding photos is as beautiful as possible! Our favorite comment in reviews is "Every single photo they delivered was magazine worthy!"
We BOTH know how to keep things moving, and on time, on wedding days! We were teachers in a non-English speaking country, after all! You can basically leave the logistics of family photos and large wedding party pics to us! We'd like to think we're experts at gently, but efficiently, moving your day along, while also getting all of those gorgeous shots! We've got you!
We won't make you wait months and months to see your wedding photos! Our turnaround time for weddings is 4-6 weeks, but we typically deliver galleries in the 3-4 week period! We're quick like that!
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Want to know what else makes us special?! Jump on over to our "Client Reviews" page and see what some of our past couples have said!
"They have this infectious joy and lightheartedness that radiates throughout a room! simply put, hiring aaron and jill was the best decision we made for our wedding!"
- claire + chase