The Happy Couple Wedding Photography

Joe and Katye were so great to work with, from start to finish. They came recommended from my maid of honor after her wedding the year before, and from the first time we met with Joe we knew we were in with a good, professional, talented team. Not only are they good, but they really love weddings! Joe was super responsive on email, easy to get a hold of throughout. They are open to doing whatever you want to do for your photos; they really put it in your hands to decide on what kind of posed shots you want. We barely noticed they were there throughout the day (in a good way - no cheesiness, just good-natured efficiency and fun), and their journalistic style produced fantastic candid pics of our ceremony and reception. Afterwards they sent us so many wonderful images to choose from, and right when we expected them per their word.

We heard about Joe and Katye from a friend, and I'm telling all future brides-to-be to book the Happy Couple too! I keep looking back at their blog, just such fun, great work.

Amazing! Choosing our photographer was one of the most difficult choices of our wedding, mostly because we were so picky. I searched through thousands of pictures from different wedding photographers, but all of them left me desiring more from the pictures. I didn't like how heavily edited most of them were and I could tell it was just the photographer's attempt to cover up the fact that he/she hadn't caught the light right when taking the pictures. Then my life changed. I stumbled upon The Happy Couple's blog and I was immediately sold. As far as I'm concerned, Joe and Katye are the ONLY choice when it comes to wedding photographers in this area. They really know how to both capture the essence of your day and tell the story of your day through pictures. You hardly even know they're around, but somehow they come back with hundreds of beautiful pictures. I highly recommend hiring both Katye & Joe because they have such different views of the world. This comes through in their pictures and leaves you with two sets of very different, yet compatible, pictures rather than just two sets of similar pictures that happen to come from a different person's camera. Joe seems to focus on making sure he captures the complete story in beautiful pictures, which gives Katye the ability to keep her eye out for extremely artistic and beautiful shots. They may disagree with me on that and they certainly never told me that was their goal or plan, but that's what came through for me in our pictures. I have already recommended them to anyone I know looking for a photographer (even if the person doesn't need or want my opinion) and I honestly can't imagine being any happier with our pictures. The Torpedo Factory was not an easy place to shoot because of the odd lighting, but they managed to figure that out and capture the light in a beautiful way. Hands down the best choice we made for our wedding.

Joe was so wonderful to work with from start to finish! He was always very prompt to respond, organized, professional, and asked all the right questions to make sure the pictures for the wedding were the shots that we wanted. He is so talented at what he does, and we can't stop looking at the photos! They captured all the emotions of our big day in such a unique and artistic way. We are so HAPPY we chose The Happy Couple to help us remember our big day!

Joe and Kayte were better than I could have ever dreamed!! They took our ideas and enhanced them for both our engagement photos and our wedding day pictures. The pictures truly captured how wonderful they are at their craft. Because they are both trained in photo-journalism, you will not get a cheesy wedding photo out of them; rather a cherished, creative candid. I can't speak more highly of them and am recommending them to whoever needs professional photos take. LOVED working with them!!

Joe and Katye of The Happy Couple are WONDERFUL!! Not only are they easy to work with, but they are two of the most talented photographers I've seen! Joe is the main photography, and Katye acts as the second photographer if the Bride and Groom wish to hire two...which we did. They each have their own styles and compliment each other perfectly. While Joe is take the posed shots, Katye is concentrating on details and candids...together they create a complete story of your day! We (and our guests) were unaware of either photographers the entire day, but the 800+ photos that we received proved that they captured every moment of our day! Our guests were blown away with the photos, as were we, and we will cherish them for years to come!! Another great feature of The Happy Couple, is that the price includes either an engagment session, or a photo booth at the wedding!!
The Happy Couple is THE BEST choice you could make for your wedding photography!!

We worked with Joe Brier from the Happy Couple and he was FABULOUS. Our wedding was in May 2012. In addition to Joe taking awesome perfect moment photos - we had a photo booth which was another fabulous way to document all the fun people had. The quality of the photos were great by both he and that booth:-). Although, the photography services are not cheap, I think you actually get more than what you pay for with Joe. And super nice too.

Joe and Katye were friendly and nice and so professional. The perfect combination of everywhere to capture every moment but never in the way. Guests didn't even realize we had 2 photographers! The pictures were so creative and so beautiful. And they took so many!!!!! All their pictures are in the journalist style and are an awesome way to capture the true feelings, moments, and events of the day.

I could not have been more satisfied with the Happy Couple Photography. Joe was a pleasure to work with from the first moment we contacted him - he was prompt, informative and easy to work with. Their photography approach was exactly what we were looking for - clean, beautiful and elegant photos...with a touch of playfulness. The flexibility of their services and packages also fit perfectly into what we wanted for our event. We booked both Joe and Katye for the big day, and were thrilled to see both of their photos and renditions of the day - they complement each other perfectly, but each have their own perspective. We continue to get amazing compliments on our photos from everyone who sees them. Overall, their work is charming and timeless, and their easy personalities made them an ideal addition to our wedding day.

My friend recommend The Happy Couple to me and I could not be more pleased. I think Joe is totally awesome and was willing to go above and beyond for myself and my husband. We did pictures around the Monument and Lincoln in 30 degree weather and Joe was a rockstar. All my guests loved the photo booth at the wedding and I got many compliments on how amazing he was. I have not yet received my pictures (this is only day 4 post wedding) - but I have no doubt that they will be any less than amazing. I cannot thank Joe enough for making me feel FANTASTIC throughout the entire process. I will recommend Joe to everyone I know!!!!

We hired Joe for eight hours to cover our wedding ceremony and reception. We recently received the photos, and we couldn't be happier. Joe was professional yet very personable, a great combination for someone so intimately involved with you and your guests on your special day. He was also very accommodating, traipsing all over Old Town Alexandria so we could take advantage of the area's cobblestone streets and water front location. We got our photos very quickly as well, about a month after the wedding day.

Lets face it, picking your photographer is one of the biggest decisions you make when planning your wedding. For many, it's also one of the hardest decisions. For those that come across The Happy Couple's website however, it should be one of the easiest decisions. In fact, after I met with Joe from The Happy Couple, I canceled the rest of my photographer appointments. On the actual wedding day, Joe did not disappoint. He came right on time and had already been to both the ceremony and reception site to set up. He was so easy to work with and you couldn't' even tell he was there. And then, just a few weeks afterward, we received our pictures... which are PHENOMENAL. I have heard so many complaints from my friends that their photographers did not get pictures to them in a timely manner or that key shots were missed... with the Happy Couple Photography, you can rest assured that will not happen. We seriously could not be happier with our pictures! Thank you again Joe and Katye!

My husband and I were very pleased with Joe Brier of Happy Couple Wedding Photography! We picked him based on his website and are pleased to report that what we liked on his website and blog are what we like in our wedding pictures. He is super flexible and very easy to work with. We meet with him over Skype since we were planning our wedding across the country. Also he was able to modify the his backdrop for the "photobooth" to incorporate our origami crane theme. On the day of the wedding he was calm and easy going, but made sure we kept to our schedule for pictures. We gave him a list of pictures that we wanted of our families and the various combination therein, which he had with him and used to do the pictures as quick as possible.

We are super happy with the pictures and thank him for documenting our wedding day so well!

Enjoy your wedding and have a wonderful marriage!

As a wedding planner, I have had the opportunity to work with a number of great photographers, but when choosing one for our own wedding, I couldn't seem to find one that fit. And then we stumbled across Joe, who had amazing pictures at a great value, a quirky sense of humor that we loved, and a mutual affection for the Chicago Bears. Joe gave us brilliant wedding photos - both creative and fun, with some artsy angles and lighting, and a few editorial shots thrown in. He managed to perfectly capture some quintessential family facial expressions, and definitely a lot of cherished moments, and we didn't even realize he was there. On top of that, he was always so professional, responsive, and fun to work with, and he went out of his way to meet us at our wedding venue well before the wedding just to "see the space." I know there are a TON of wedding photographers out there, but if you are serious about having someone capture everything seemlessly then Joe's your guy. (I didn't get to meet Katye, but I bet she's pretty great as well!)

Joe was amazing! From the moment we met him we knew we would want to work with him. He took beautiful pictures and we were very happy with all of our pictures. The only reason I didn't give him a perfect rating in Quality and Value is because we were disappointed that we didn't have any solo pictures (staged) of both the bride and the groom. He did ask us to tell him all portrait pictures we wanted, but we forgot to mention those. He's great at action/candid shots (think more magazine type), which have become our favorite pictures. Some of the family shots we wish he had looked at as we took them, because someone's eyes were always closed in a couple, and we thought he should have paid attention to that. But other then that the pictures were wonderful and they are reasonably priced and he is great to work with. You will feel at ease with him through out the whole process, which is very important!

Joe was fantastic to work with! We did an engagement session with him and knew he was the right photographer for us. We wanted to find someone who could document our day in pictures since we did not have a videographer. Joe did such a great job shooting pictures of our special day. We barely knew he was around and we had so many guests comment how they loved not having a camera up in their face. Joe was understanding about needing to get through a long list of required family photos and flexible with our desire for him to capture the little details while needing to capture the bigger moments. The DVDs we received from the engagement session and wedding came in fancy keepsake boxes and with the disc imprinted with one of the photos. We liked that extra special touch! :-) We only regret not having spent more time with Joe taking advantage of the reception site grounds as we didn't get as many photos of just the bride and groom as we would have liked.

Joe Brier is amazing! He photographed our wedding on May 14, 2011, and he did a phenomenal job!!! He met with me beforehand to check out the chapel at the University of MD where we wed, and also the reception location. He is extremely friendly and easy to work with. The bridal party LOVED him, and said he did a great job of organizing all of us (20 of us, yikes!) for our photos. The photos turned out amazing, and I am so happy! Joe is very creative and uses a photojournalistic style that I love. I would definitely recommend using The Happy Couple for your wedding photography.

Now that we look through our wedding photos, we're reminded of things we had already forgotten from our wedding day - memories we don't want to forget. This was our most important vendor, and we did not take that decision lightly. Having The Happy Couple handle the task was one of our best decisions. You can trust them. You can relax with them. Take it from a happy couple: Stop looking! Call Joe and you won't be disappointed. You'll be thrilled!

Michael & Richard

The Happy Couple were the only photographers we met with since we knew right away they were the kind of laid back but professional photographers that we were looking for. We met them about a year before our event since we were planning most of our wedding from overseas. They were always prompt to respond to emails with questions and were very easy to talk with about what we wanted/did not want for our day. I am a bride who does not like to get my picture taken but working with them it was very easy and I had a very enjoyable time. We opted for the photo booth instead of the engagement session and have some great pics of family and friends goofing it up on our big day. When looking at the cost The Happy Couple has much more competitive prices than most other wedding photographers in the area and you can get 2 photographers for the price of 1 in most cases and their work is amazing. We knew they were there for our event but did not interrupt the event and got us amazing shots to remember the day from. All of our friends and family were greatly impressed by their work and so were we. We would highly recommend them to anyone and everyone who needs a great photographer for their big day.

I had a fantastic experience with The Happy Couple. I worked with Joe. He was not only very talented but fun to work with as well. He always responded to any e-mails/phone calls promptly. My husband and I love the photographs, he was very flexible and easy to work with. Joe provided us with the cd of the photos just a few weeks after we got back from our honeymoon, and they all came out great.

We can't recommend Joe highly enough! He has an amazing eye for detail and managed to catch the most intimate and candid moments of the day without us even realizing he was there. But despite being so unobtrusive, Joe is one of the nicest people you could meet - a delight to work with and all our guests commented on how friendly and personable he was. He even posed for a picture himself in our photo booth, having been dragged in there by the kids!! Joe is incredibly creative but listened to all our ideas too, and did a fantastic job of merging the two on the day. As fast as the wedding day went by, "The Happy Couple" provided us with memories to last a lifetime - and rave reviews from everyone! If you want the most beautiful wedding photos you have ever seen, call "The Happy Couple"!

Joe was absolutely incredible. He has a special ability to fit in with the crowd and make everyone feel comfortable during both formal and candid photos. The most important thing to us was to have our photos "tell the story" of our wedding day and Joe couldn't have done a better job. Our friends' and families' personalities really came out in the pictures and we're still trying to figure out how he got some of the great shots! He was great to work with and is incredibly talented.

He had Joe ad our wedding day photographer and the entire experince was amzing. he listened to all my crazy ideas and giot ever picture on the lost of what i said was important to me. Our pictuires turned out amaizng and joe was great to work with. I cant wait to get our album!

The Happy Couple is awesome! We loved working with Joe and Katye, and are thrilled with our pictures. After scouring every photographer's website in the greater DC/Baltimore area...their website was the only one that I actually wanted to meet with - and after we met that was it! Their rates are super competitive since they are both professional photographers - whereas a lot of photographers charge their rates for one photographer - and than a surplus for an assistant.

I'm not big on posed pictures, and they were fine with doing just a few standard ones and then mostly candid shots the rest of the day - which is the feeling I got from their website as well. I loved that they blended in with the wedding and they were very sneaky at the reception - neither my husband or I really remember seeing them much, but they got everything on camera. That's just what we wanted since we've been to some weddings where the photographers were really bossy.

And a huge bonus - is that they are so fast in turning around pictures. We were still on our honeymoon when they had our online gallery set up, and our CD was there a week later. That's months faster than what other photographers deliver. It's also so nice to get a digital CD of the pictures with all pictures in color and b&w - allowing for endless options with what you do with your wedding pictures. Don't forget to check out their blog!

Thanks again!

To me, the photographer was one of the most important parts of the wedding. After all is said and done, the photos are one of the few things you take with you. From the very beginning, we knew we wanted someone that would be able to capture our personalities and the entire atmosphere of the day/night. Joe did just that. He composed some truly artistic photos and was able to capture the "only happens once" kind of moments. It's difficult enough to set up and compose a good photograph and even harder to catch those spontaneous moments and make them look good. He did both very well. The photo booth idea was a huge hit, too. I can't say it's for everyone, but if you have an even somewhat lively crowd going to your wedding, it's a MUST. I don't think I saw the photo booth not being used the whole time it was there. Everyone had a lot of fun with it. Joe himself was absolutely awesome. Quick to respond, very professional, non-intrusive, and overall down to earth. The whole process from start to finish was painless. When you're planning a wedding, you need as many painless moments as possible. We absolutely love the photos and are so happy that these are what we have to look at and show others for the rest of our lives. There are many people who can take pictures at your wedding, but you don't want pictures, you want photographs. For that, you need a photographer. Joe, is a true photographer.

We absolutely LOVE Joe & Katye! They take beautiful photographs that you really will cherish long after the date. They are extremely friendly and make you feel comfortable when they are around. I have 3 friends who have used The Happy Couple after us and they also sing their praises.

If you want quality photographs and fun and friendly photographers this should be your pick! You won't regret it :)

In the planning stages of our wedding, my husband and I decided early on that having good photography was very important to us. We were interested in a natural, photojournalistic style, which is Joe's specialty.

When we received the pictures from our wedding, we knew that we had made a fantastic choice. Joe was fantastic to work with, and he exceeded our expectations at every stage of the process. He was always responsive by phone and email, and he made time to meet us and our caterer at the venue before our wedding. During the wedding, he was responsive yet laid back, and he made us feel more relaxed. When we shared our pictures with our friends and family, we got an incredible response. We got many complements, especially from the people who are amateur photographers themselves.

We would hands down recommend Joe!

I'm so excited to be Joe and Katye's first reviewer on Wedding Wire! We were delighted to work with them and the photographs they produced are first rate.

My husband and I are in our 50's--a lot older than most of the reviewers and certainly older than most of the couples that we saw on all the photographers' websites. However, we wanted a "real" wedding with all the trimming. We were aiming for elegant, tasteful with a great party at the end.

We interviewed five different photographers. Katye and Joe both have advanced degrees in photojournalism. They met in grad school (I think) and they got married a couple of years ago. Through the interview process, we learned a lot about what we did and did not want. We started out thinking that we didn't want/need an engagement session, but evolved into believing that it would be a good idea. We did not want the photographer to produce the albums--I personally like doing that kind of thing and just wanted a CD to work with. We narrowed it down to two photographers and I wrote and told them exactly what we wanted.

It seems that a number of photographers have set packages--here is what you get and here is what it costs. The packages included items that we had no desire to have. Joe and Katye were willing to price just what we wanted. That explains their high mark for flexibility.

We arranged for an engagement photo shoot in October. My husband and I love good wine and we spent a few weekends before that scouting out vineyards in northern Virginia that had photographic appeal. We ended up using Hillsborough Vineyards in Loudoun County. Very scenic and lots of different locations to provide diversity in the photos. I'm so glad we changed our minds and did the engagement session. It helped us get to know one another, we felt much more relaxed and confident with them and we got some wonderful pictures of a very special day. Afterwards, we took them to dinner at the reception venue so they could get a sneak peak.

Joe handles most of the correspondence and he was always very responsive to my e-mails and questions. We met a week or so before the wedding and went over the timeline, the people in attendance and the photographs that were important to us.

When the big day arrived, they were at my house before I got back from my hair appointment! They were always on time or early. They took lots of pictures of the "getting ready" phase and one of them rode in the limo with us to the church. My new step granddaughters (ages 7 and 9) provided LOTS of photo ops for them!

The ceremony and reception pictures are terrific. They caught so many spontaneous moments of emotion--which is just what we wanted. Now I can't wait to get my hands on the computer files so I can get to work on creating albums!

Hire The Happy Couple for your wedding photography--they are talented and fun to be with!

Joe did an amazing job capturing our wedding day. He was so professional, and easy to work with; from the moment we met him, we knew he was the perfect fit! He was very laid back, and his personality shined through immediately.

His pictures are a true showcase of his talent and creativity! We were so impressed with the outcome of all of the pictures- there aren't enough words to describe the quality of them; Joe really captured the honesty and "heart" of the evening.


Hands down, I would recommend Joe to anybody who is looking for a photographer!! He will give you more than just pictures- precious memories caught at just the right "moment" that you will reflect on forever!

We couldn’t have asked for better photographers to capture our wedding day! From the moment we saw The Happy Couple’s website, we knew that Joe and Katye were exactly what we were looking for and our first meeting confirmed that we were right. Joe and Katye are not only great photographers, but they are some of the nicest people to work with, which is a really wonderful thing to have leading up to and on your wedding day! They answered every question that we had throughout the process (which consisted of several emails) and they always responded in a very timely manner. Not only did they listen to all of our photography requests, but they took the time to talk with the director of our venue prior to the wedding to make themselves more familiar with the space.

When it came to the actual wedding day, Joe and Katye knew exactly what to capture! We originally fell in love with their photojournalistic style and they captured awesome moments throughout the entire day…many of which we can’t believe could be captured by only two photographers! We received the proofs very quickly and the pictures exceeded our expectations!! The best part is, Joe and Katye were budget-friendly yet their pictures were priceless! Thank you both for capturing our memories!!

To say that we recommend Katye and Joe as wedding photographers would be a massive understatement. After meeting them at Molly & Steve’s wedding and seeing their work, we shouldn’t have bothered with looking for other DC-based photographers. Still, Margot has a degree in photography, so wedding photos were the second most important component of our wedding planning process (directly after picking each other!). After doing her due diligence and meeting with other area photographers, including The Happy Couple, it was a no-brainer. Not only were Joe and Katye’s photos stunning, their easygoing, flexible, and resourceful demeanors had us sold. And, we haven’t looked back since.

From a purely logistical standpoint, Joe and Katye make everything appear to just happen. Never once did we have to worry that moment wouldn’t be captured. Moreover, how exciting only wait mere days to relive the moments of our wedding? And, our friends and family loved how easy and inexpensive it was to order high quality prints on their own.

Joe and Katye’s artful eye is tremendous. They hands down captured the essence, feel, and emotion tied to our wedding day. Every time we look at the photos, we are transported back to March 6th, and we are so grateful to them for giving us a lifetime of special memories. We cannot wait to work with them as we approach our first anniversary.