Amy K. Graves

Teton Group

Amy K. Graves is an Heirloom Wedding Photographer based in Carson City, Nevada. She her combined her two loves of photography and genealogy, giving her a unique perspective as a curator of weddings. She believes in capturing a couple’s wedding day timelessly so that their love story can be passed down through generations. She believes that portraits are powerful artifacts that can be rediscovered again and again by children, grandchildren and beyond. Photographs tell the story of where we came from and where we began. They are part of our foundation, reminders of who we were. When she was a girl, she used to visit her grandparents in Washington. Their lovely home was a sprawling 5,000 square feet that they and their three sons had built themselves in the woods near a lake. But the most beautiful thing about it was the family pictures that hung on every wall. Years and years of memories that had been preserved for her cousins and her to see. It was there that she found her love for family history. Her grandpa would talk late into the night about his younger days in Central Oregon, and she ate up every word even more eagerly than she ate her grandmother’s delicious cooking. It wasn’t long before she started collecting all the old photographs of her ancestors that she could find and drawing family trees in her notebooks, where she quickly ran out of space and ended up switching to keeping an online tree which today holds documentation of over 2,000 relatives with bits and pieces of their stories.
On her very first anniversary with her husband, he gave her a card which read “Happy 50th Anniversary” across the front. At first, she was confused, but then she opened the card and read his familiar script “Beginning with the end in mind.” In a straightforward phrase, he had summed up everything they wanted their marriage to be. A marriage where they would continually love each other, serve each other, forgive each other, support each other. A marriage filled with enough of the sweetness of laughter, romance, devotion, hard work and commitment to last for 50 years. A marriage that would stand the test of time. They were working hard to build a marriage that would see them through everything that life would throw at us because they knew that a lifelong marriage was the only kind of marriage they wanted. And she believes the same philosophy should apply to documenting your wedding day. It’s not just about the celebration, it’s about planning for the future and what you want your story to be. Her journey in photography began with four semesters of black and white film photography. She immersed herself in the world of the darkroom, where the dim red lights glowed just enough to let her see her photographs appear as the developing chemicals washed over them. From there she transitioned into digital photography, bringing all of the old school knowledge of the darkroom with her. She started taking photographs of family and friends, and friends of friends. And then she began photographing weddings in 2010. She knew immediately she had found something special. Weddings are where her heart is. She enjoys the ebb and flow of the day, from the exhilaration of one moment to the calming lulls of another. The rush of getting to the church on time to the joyful tears running down the mother’s cheek during the “I do’s.” She loves the small in-between moments, the times she gets to come alongside the bride and help her breathe through the day, and the times she is able to pull the bride and groom out of the chaos for a bit to have a quiet moment together during sunset photos. Weddings are so immersive, and she loves getting to see the first day of the rest of a couple’s life. When she takes photographs of a wedding day, she is not just taking those photos for the bride and groom; she’s taking them for the generations that will follow them. Your wedding album is your first family heirloom. This is what speaks to her heart.

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