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MY STORY

Hi! I’m Emilee, and I’m so happy you’re here right now – and maaaay or may not be jumping through the screen to give you a big bear hug right now!

I’ve been at photography ever since my senior year in high school and, after giving corporate life a shot, decided to transition back to my roots – those creative, entrepreneurial, “carpe diem” dreams of mine. Though it wasn’t until I married to my red-headed honey, Jon, that I truly uncovered my deep-rooted passion for photography.

 
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 “Marriage is the Mac truck driving through our lives, revealing our flaws and humbling our reactions. And that is a good thing.”

– Timothy Keller

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Romantic Upstate New York Wedding Photographer Emilee Carpenter
 
Upstate New York Photographer Emilee Carpenter Romantic Rainy Wedding at Taughannock Falls State Park
 

The reality is that in my first year of marriage, I slowly began to realize that I had actually entered the hardest, messiest, most challenging commitment of my life.

I had vowed to stay by someone’s side in spite of their flaws, struggles, and shortcomings… and want to know something? That’s freaking hard to do. In that first year, I experienced more growing pains, arguments, lost tempers, and short fuses than I had ever known before – but more surprising than that? It was coincidentally the most beautiful, life-changing, soul-filling year I had ever known.

It was growth, beauty, acceptance, joy... and it taught me that choosing someone in spite of their weaknesses is the fundamental beauty of life, and it gave me renewed purpose with photography. It ignited a fire within my soul.

FUN FACTS

FUN FACTS

 
 

Behind the Brand

To me, photography is so much more than just a photoshoot.

It extends beyond our session, beyond your outfits, and beyond even the laughs and memories of the day. Rather, photography is the art of storytelling - the embodiment of a beautiful love story that will be preserved and treasured for decades to come - and the result is imagery that will stir your heart and soul, now and forever. That is why it was particularly important to me to create a brand that reflected those values – one that revealed my passion, perspective, and heart towards photography and marriage.

I hand-picked each element in my logo, both for their beauty and their symbolism,
and each of them now represent a pillar in my business:

 

Magnolia to honor my love of nature and it’s remarkable ability to inspire and revive my soul

Bluebells, Lavender, and Sweet Pea to reflect the humility, kindness, devotion, and pleasure required and promised within marriage

Wheat to recall Who it’s all for – the glory of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

 

All photographs on this page captured by the talented Kendal Anne Photography, Brittany Boote Photography and Rachel Liz Photography.

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MY PHILOSOPHY

I believe that marriage is a picture of the gospel and demonstrates the redemptive love of Jesus Christ, who willingly gave Himself up for us by going to the cross, paying the debt for our sins, and paving a way for us to be united with Him. He died to His own interests, looking to our own needs, and painted a picture of sacrificial love in action.

 
 

The experience of marriage will unveil the beauty and depths of the gospel; it shows that, though we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, we at the very same time are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ more than we ever dared hope. The gospel can fill our hearts with God’s love so that we can handle it when our spouse fails to love us as he or she should, and it frees us to see our spouse’s sins and flaws to the bottom – and yet still love and accept our spouse fully.

I believe that the essence of marriage is that it’s a covenant, a commitment, a promise of future love.

And though passion may lead you to make a wedding promise, I believe it’s the promise itself that makes your passion wiser, richer, and deeper over the years

 
Upstate New York Wedding Photographer Emilee Carpenter at Tughannock Falls State Park
Earthy Upstate New York Elopement Photographer Emilee Carpenter Married at Taughannock State Park
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 “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

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MY VISION

As a self-identified creative, my ultimate goal in life is to glorify the one true Creator – God. The One who paints His glories in the contours of the Grand Canyon, announces His mystery in the brilliance of the universe, and etches His majesty in the vastness of the night sky. “It’s as if the stars and the skies are saying simply by their being, ‘Don’t stay too long staring at us: look at Him. We are but creatures, He is the Creator. We are but lights, He is the Light. We are beautiful, but He is Beauty.’” (Melvin Tinker)

 
 
Upstate New York Wedding and Elopement Photographer Emilee Carpenter
 
Upstate New York Wedding Photographer Emilee Carpenter with Husband in Styled Shoot
 

God is self-existent. Infinite. Eternal. And the evidence of Him is all around us – the regularity of nature, the vastness of the cosmos, the miracle of human life – they’re all traces of His divine fingerprints.

Put by John Piper, “The created universe is all about glory. The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God. The universe was made to show it, and we were made to see it and savour it.”

 That is what I seek to do with my photography – savour God’s glory, point to it, and put it on display for all to see.

My ultimate aim is that the stories I capture and messages I create will be to the praise of His Glorious Name.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

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I’m so with you!
Let’s do this!

 
 
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