Grad sessions are so much fun, but here are some tips to help your photo session go more smoothly!

1. Before your session, make sure to iron your gown! Wrinkled gowns are pretty noticeable in photos, so make sure to spend 10 minutes ironing it beforehand. Your photographer will not photoshop out any wrinkles.

2. Pick up two bottles of champagne per person in your group! This allows one bottle for a group spray at Beaumont Tower, and then another bottle to do solo shots at another location.

3. Wear a comfy pair of shoes and pack your dress shoes to change into. Campus is big! You can swap shoes back and forth and you trek around campus.

4. Bring a bag or a wagon to haul everything in. You’ve got shoes, your gown and accessories, champagne….it’s a lot to carry! If you have a large group, a wagon will be so helpful and easy the day of your shoot.

5. Carefully consider what outfit you’ll wear under your gown. Are you going to do photos with the gown open? Do you want a professional headshot? If so, make sure your clothes are ironed, bra straps are hidden, and nothing is too low cut. Or, bring an extra top to change into. Pack a collared button up you can throw right over your dress. Also, consider colors- you don’t want your outfit to clash with your gown. You also don’t want it to clash with your friends’ outfits!

6. The last tip is an important one- if taking photos the last few weeks leading up until graduation, make sure to arrive one hour before your appointment time to wait in line if starting at Beaumont or Sparty. The lines here can be anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour graduation week! Nice days will be very long as well. Pack your patience!

It's almost that time again and I can't wait! There's nothing like the smell of freshly sprayed champagne wafting through campus, cheers and shrieks as the champagne sprays (or doesn't spray!), and hearing all the excitement about young grads' plans for post-graduation. If you're an MSU grad, I would love to capture photos of this amazing accomplishment for you so get in touch! And here are some favorite's from Emma's grad session, Class of 2025! Congrats, Emma!

These three are graduating in December, so instead of waiting until the snow fell and the bitter cold set in they decided to have their session in fall. We had a ridiculously warm fall day so there was no shivering in little white dresses happening. Bonus of doing a grad session in fall? NO LINES! We could easily walk up to Beaumont and Sparty and grab photos without waiting in the typical one hour plus lines that are typical in spring. So, congratulations to these three grads! Here are my favorites from their session.

When I graduated, graduation photos weren’t a thing, and I so wish they had been! It’s such an amazing life milestone to graduate from college, and it should be celebrated and captured! I would have loved to have photos like these to look back on as an adult far removed from college. What a fun way to celebrate!

I loved getting to know Mikayla and Macken! These two are headed to Belfast for graduate school in the fall, and I’m so jealous! They will get to hop around Europe in their free time! What an incredible next step. We were lucky all of the spring blooms came early this year and we were able to walk around the campus of MSU snapping photos with them in the background. I love how the photos turned out! Congrats again, you two!

When Julian’s babysitter asked if I could take graduation photos of her and her friends at Michigan State University, of course I said yes! Even though over the weekend it had been 82 degrees, just two days later we were dealt 32 degrees, high winds and even snow! It was seriously crazy. We started at the College of Engineering and then headed over to Beaumont Tower and the bridge for the Spartan sign. We ended by grabbing some individual shots in front of the gorgeous spring blooms that are all over campus. These 6 crazy smart soon-to-be engineers powered through our chilly two hour session in cute dresses and gowns. Here are a few of my favorites!