5 out of 5 stars and 45 reviews
5
(45)Best of Weddings (4x).Detroit MI and beyond! Will travel anywhere.
About this vendor
Based in Detroit, MI, Kari Paine Photography captures those essential wedding moments unique to any couple . A talented visual storyteller, owner Kari is ready to preserve every moment of your once-in-a-lifetime celebration. She understands how important your special day is and is committed to providing above-and-beyond service to bring your wedding photography vision to life.
Kari has spent the last decade developing her photography skills to craft imagery full of wonder and life. Knowing that each couple is unique, she strives to capture the authentic ways that make every romantic bond stand out. She adores having the opportunity to be a part of every special day and makes it her mission to preserve the details worth remembering.
Kari is available for celebrations throughout Detroit and the surrounding areas. From your engagement to your reception dance floor, she is available to document every stage of your new chapter together. She will help you craft the perfect package to fit your needs, desires, and budget. As a queer photographer, Kari prioritizes serving the needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. For couples that identify with this, she offers special packages and options to make their day perfect and nontraditional in all the ways they want.
Details
Business Attributes
- LGBTQ+-owned Business
- Woman-owned Business
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Day After Session
- Engagement
- Trash The Dress
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Film Photography
- Photo
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
- Wedding Albums
Photo & Video Styles
- Classic
- Documentary
- Lifestyle
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
Reviews
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5
out of 5.045 reviews
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They say "when you know, you know" and that was definitely true for our wedding. Both for us about marrying each other, and about hiring Kari as our photographer. She was obviously the right choice. She did our brother/brother-in-law's wedding, and did a really fantastic job. She brings such a warm, playful, and energetic vibe into everything, and she really feels like another guest to celebrate with. The pictures from their wedding were so good, and we keep them on our dresser as treasured moments. Hiring her to do our own wedding was a clear winner, no hesitation.
For our wedding, and even in the practice shoot, Kari was a really fantastic person to work with. It's really easy not to know what to do with your face in a moment, and posing can be difficult, but she always managed to make everything feel so much less forced and more natural. She did a brilliant job with candid photos, both of us and of our wedding party, family, and guests. She brought out so much personality and captured so much magic in these little moments. She was great at asserting herself when necessary, but never felt overbearing or controlling at all, and offered helpful suggestions that really won the day.
Kari was truly more than a wedding photographer. She has a website for her clients where she provides all kinds of incredibly helpful recommendations related to all aspects of wedding planning, including other queer-friendly wedding vendors. When we met with Kari after our practice photo session, she helped us fine tune our timeline and floor plans. She was very generous with her time and was so willing to give us advice about some of our crazy ideas.
Repeat business is the sincerest compliment you can pay a business, and we've been happily directing our engaged friends her way, and have hired her for a family photo shoot as well. Kari has taken such beautiful pictures of us and all of our loved ones. We are so grateful to have her help for our big day - she's everything we could want in a photographer.
Kari is such a talented photographer. We had the pleasure of working with her for our engagement photo sessions and she helped us capture our love story in all the locations in Detroit and beyond that mean the most to us. We were camera shy, but Kari was able to make us feel so comfortable and relaxed in front of the camera. We truly cannot thank her enough for our incredible set of engagement photos!
Kari is professional and got our albums back in a timely manner. It was so difficult to pick one picture so we end up using a couple on our save the dates. We received so many compliments from family and friends on the photos we ended up picking on our save the dates. We cannot thank her enough!
She also was able to give us plenty of amazing recommendations for photographers to do our wedding in July since she’ll be a guest.
We highly recommend Kari Paine Photographer for any of your photo needs! You won’t be disappointed!!
Kari's ability to capture a day's essence from every possible perspective is something spectacular. From the very beginning, Kari sought to get to know us personally, our vision for what sort of photography we wanted, and collaborated by providing her professional guidance. Throughout the whole process we felt aligned with Kari and like she was truly taking care to photograph our special weekend with care.
Kari doesn't just take "wedding photos." She was able to document the feelings that people had, moments in time that passed that we as the brides would never have been able to be a part of, but now get to relish as we look back at our album over and over and over again.
I CANNOT recommend Kari enough for any photography. She has an incredible eye for beauty, personal connection, emotion, ambiance, and together, put together an album that holistically embodies our entire wedding, family dynamic, and personalities.
Not to mention, she is a complete ninja and moves about the space with such speed and sneakiness that we were blown away at her agility.
WE LOVE YOU!
Kari is the absolute best. She is incredibly talented and has already been recognized for her distinctive style and skill. Her professionalism goes without saying, from her swift communication, flexibility with our challenging schedules, and mastery in corralling our rambunctious family and friends. Her photographs are works of art that belong in museums (I'm serious - this is feedback we have gotten from ANYONE we show our photos to). I am sure she will go very far. Most importantly, perhaps, she exudes a warmth that puts everyone at ease. It allowed us to relax in her presence and help us capture all the magic of our wedding. It is clear she had this effect on our wedding guests too. We feel very lucky that our wedding brought Kari into our lives.
Kari was organized, kind, creative, and all around excellent to work with. From our first phone call I knew I wouldn’t need to be stressed about the photography. Kari was such a great help when it came to the organization. Day of Kari was just so so kind and overall lovely. She made us feel so good looking and the photos are stunning.
Working with Kari was phenomenal and a highlight of our wedding day. Her photography is absolutely stunning, and she captures the event as it really felt. She is responsive, understanding, and kind. She understood all our requests and preferences, and she made them a reality. We cannot recommend her highly enough.
We are so happy we chose Kari as our photographer for our engagement photos and wedding! Not only is Kari an incredible photographer, she is communicative, responsive, and a joy to be around! Everyone at our wedding loved her. She makes people around her feel good. When we received our gallery for our engagement photos, we were floored at how beautiful the photos were. But what felt really special to us about Kari's photography is that the photos feel very "us". She made us feel so comfortable that she was able to capture our true smiles, personalities, and interactions. When we received our gallery for our wedding, we knew the photos were going to be beautiful of course, but we could not get over how she did not miss ONE moment of our day. And not only that, she captured every moment in a thoughtful way. This allows us to re-live our wedding every time we look at the photos. That is invaluable to us and something we will be forever grateful for!
Working with Kari was an absolute joy and one of our best decisions of the day. When searching for a photographer, finding an LGBT-friendly option was a must: as two guys getting married, having a photographer who is comfortable with us, knows how to make us look and feel our best in photos, and is comfortable around our LGBT mixed friend and family groups was critically important. We didn’t want to risk having a photographer who would cringe or stumble when working with the LGBT community, including us. Kari did a great job making everyone in the wedding feel comfortable, excited, and included. She arrived on time, remained high energy and focused throughout the day (10 hours!) and maintained a great sense of professionalism and decorum as well. She was especially adept at creating photographic moments – whether staging us and our family near a bridge, a staircase, or a restaurant, Kari knew how to prep us to create truly beautiful photos. Kari has also “thought of everything” and has back-up plans to her back-up plans in case of illness, file corruption, etc. Needless to say, her great presence and professionalism translated to the final product too: so many great photos taken that day which will keep our wedding day alive forever. Don’t hesitate with this one - Kari is a keeper and a must-have for a great wedding experience.
We are truly grateful for the part Kari played in our wedding, from planning and all the logistic help she gave us in figuring out the photography schedule and locations of the different events to the support she gave me in particular the day of to the gorgeous reminders we now have of an incredibly fun and soul-fulfilling weekend. On the day of, I felt so cared for and like every photo Kari took was a labor of love. The moments she captured are ones I'll treasure for the rest of our lives. (She's also amazingly stealthy; most of the time I had no idea she was taking photos, which is exactly what we asked for.) We also appreciated how Kari worked with multiple mediums of digital and film that gave us a wide range of aesthetic vibes. And for two people who decidedly did not want engagement photos, the "practice" photos we did with Kari are now some of my favorites because of how they capture us and how we are together so authentically. Her gallery is organized in a way that makes it easy to follow and go back and find photos we're looking for. And finally, we regularly get feedback from guests that Kari was one of their favorite people at the wedding. Honestly, I don't think we'll ever be able to fully express our gratitude, but hopefully we can start here by encouraging you to hire her for your wedding!
Of all of our wedding vendors, picking Kari as our photographer was the easiest decision we made! From our first meeting with Kari, she made us feel so comfortable and understood our vision for our wedding. We loved all of the candid shots Kari captured of our guests and seeing all of the moments that we didn't have a chance to experience on the day of the wedding. We can't recommend Kari enough!!
Kari was one of our favorite people at our wedding! Kari was a pleasure to work with from the start. They were very professional, organized and gave some great input on wedding day scheduling. Kari was also very laid back which matches our personality and made the day a lot easier. We used Kari for our engagement photos too, which turned out amazing, and helped our confidence for our wedding day. I'd hire Kari again in a heart beat and can't wait to work with them again next time we are getting photos done. Kari sent us a sneak peak of our wedding photos only a few days after the event which was a super fast turn around and the rest of the photos were provided in a timely manner. The photos they took really captured the feeling of the day, whether it was the "getting ready photos" or the ceremony, which was great to see and made everything feel and look natural and better than ever. I strongly recommend Kari Paine Photography & Design for anyone's wedding photography needs.
I can’t possibly say enough great things about Kari. Working with her was by far the best decision I made throughout my wedding planning. She is organized, communicates clearly in a timely fashion, and is such a lovely person to be around. PLUS THE PHOTOS ARE BEYOND PERFECTION!!!! She cares so much about her clients and does everything possible to make sure your gallery is the gallery of your dreams. Kari is a hard working individual who will make sure to get all the shots you want, plus all the shots you never knew you needed. A photographer is such an essential piece of your wedding and I am so beyond grateful Kari was ours.
Kari has done multiple events for us and we are incredibly satisfied. She captured moments of our wedding beautifully. She worked really well with the kids and keeping them engaged with the photos. We couldn’t be happier with our choice. We had a very tight timeline at our wedding venue and Kari navigated getting pictures with everyone in that beautifully.
Kari photographed our wedding this past May and was wonderful to work with! We had a last-minute timeline change 4 days before the wedding and Kari was so kind and accommodating about it. We loved our photos, and she even did some extra edits that we had asked for on a few photos in record time!
My husband and I had Kari photograph our wedding last month and have been beyond impressed with not only the photos that were taken but with the entire process of working with Kari. She's amazing! We loved all the details that she was able to capture that we would've never thought of. It was great to see all the little moments that happened on our wedding day that we didn't see throughout the day.
Kari seamlessly becomes a part of your family after your first meeting. Perhaps this is a unique experience between a photographer and client, but - we will forever and always be indebted to Kari for making our wedding and engagement a smash hit. As a LGBTQIA couple, Kari made us comfortable, feel important, and seen. Our wedding and engagement photos are something we will treasure for the rest of our lives.
You could NOT ask for a better photographer than Kari. She is well organized, detail oriented, a great listener, and collaborative. Our engagement as well as wedding photos were perfection. Everything from the planning sessions to shoots to getting our gallery was flawless. And the images are STUNNING. Why does this site only allow for 5 stars? I want to give Kari more!
We hired Kari as our photographer for a June 2022 wedding. We truly cannot say enough great things about our experience working with her. My partner and I are a very introverted queer couple, so we had a lot of anxiety about being in front of a camera. Kari made the whole process a breeze. The engagement shoot she includes in her wedding package was invaluable; Kari was patient and encouraging in ways that helped us get more comfortable being the center of attention before our wedding day. During the wedding, Kari did a beautiful job of capturing both posed and candid moments. With how fast our wedding day went by, we’re so happy to have such great photos to record these memories forever. We would absolutely work with Kari again and will enthusiastically recommend her to everyone we know!
Choosing to work with Kari was one of the best decisions my husband and I made when planning our wedding, aside from the wedding itself! Kari was always prompt in her responses via email and text and also to checked on us several times with us to ask how wedding planning was going and if we needed assistance with anything. Additionally, Kari is one of the most personable, kind, and friendly people we’ve ever met. The combination of her professionalism and personality really made for a great working relationship throughout the process.
My husband and I had never taken any professional photos before our engagement and wedding photos with Kari and as a result were a bit nervous. Kari’s patience and guidance with us calmed all the nerves we had and really made both shoots fun and have given us a lifetime of memories. For example, in our engagement photo shoot, she would ask us to think of things to make each other laugh or recall special moments throughout our relationship. Her promote really helped us be in the moment and think less about publicly taking photos. Kari was genuinely interested in getting to know us and our story and that meant a lot to us and I know she’ll do the same for any couple who chooses her for their milestones.
Where to begin with what we love about Kari Paine... She is an incredibly talented photographer and beautifully captured every moment of our wedding day. In addition to the planned moments, we LOVED all of the candid shots (she has a gift for capturing those) and she shot a full roll of film which produced some of our favorite photos. On top of that, Kari is extremely professional, detail-oriented, communicative, and she deeply cares. She helped us create a day-of timeline, scoped out photo locations and answered lots of questions. On the day of, she was a calming presence and quickly adapted to change. Last but not least, Kari was FUN to work with. When it came to group photos, she was super efficient (they flew by) and made everyone laugh and feel comfortable in front of the camera. Our wedding party and families RAVED about her.
We can't imagine our wedding without her, we will cherish her photos forever, and can't recommend her strongly enough!!
Kari captured our wedding beautifully and was SUPER flexible with a million last minute changes we had to make due to COVID.
Kari was the photographer at our wedding and we could not be more pleased! Her attention to detail and ability to capture genuine moments are unmatched. She’s extremely easy to work with and knows how to make anyone feel comfortable in front of the camera. Her photography is gorgeous, and we can’t recommend her highly enough!
Kari was a dream to work with! We started with our engagement pictures with her and they were so fun to take. After that we definitely knew she was the photographer for us! On our wedding day, she kept everything moving smoothly from a photography stand point. She was so fun to work with during the day and helped us capture amazing memories. We received sneak peeks within 24 hours and they were AMAZING! I cannot wait to see the rest of our gallery. We would definitely recommend Kari and hope to work with her again in the future!
I had the pleasure of working with Kari this weekend on a wedding. As a planner, I work closely with the photographer to make sure the wedding schedule works for everyone. She was very responsive during this process! On the wedding day, she made sure to get all the photos the couple wanted as well as suggested some additional poses. Thanks, Kari! I can't wait to see the photos!
Kari was hands-down the best vendor we had for our wedding. She put everyone at ease when staging the photos, and made it a fun and relaxing experience. Beyond her calming personality, she is clearly a very diligent and talented photographer. I was impressed by how she was able to use one location for photos, but find several different backdrops simply by making the group pivot in place or walk ten feet to get a new angle. I also appreciate the effort she put into ensuring we have beautiful pictures the day of: scoping out our venue for photo locations before the wedding, lugging around a bunch of lighting equipment to ensure shadows don't ruin a photo, attentively monitoring the sunset for the perfect golden hour photos, making us laugh during the photo session to capture that genuine happiness...we honestly couldn't be happier with photos or the experience of working with Kari.
Kari is an amazing photographer! She photographed our wedding for us in December 2021 and I am so pleased with all the photos. She truly captured the best sides of us and all our friends. Lots of candid photos that really showed how much fun the party was. I am not very photogenic but you wouldn't know from the photos! Kari brought out of the best in both of us and we truly appreciate all she did for us. I had so many people asking me after the party if I knew her personally or where I found her because she was so friendly and easy going. Thank you again Kari for capturing our perfect day!
We worked with Kari for both our engagement pictures (July 2021) and wedding reception (November 2021), and she was awesome! We loved her professionalism and creativity in scoping out the best spots for pictures. She's responsive and helped put us at ease in front of the camera!
Working with Kari has been amazing! She shot our wedding in September of 21 and we're in love with the photos! She was even able to squeeze in our engagement session on somewhat short notice. The sunset pictures are incredible! My husband and I are normally fairly camera shy and not sure what to do with ourselves, but she coaches so well and makes it a really fun experience. On the wedding day she was on top of everything, there every time we needed her, and catching some awesome moments, but totally blending in so that sometimes I forgot someone was taking our pictures all day! Photos were one of our top priorities in our wedding budget and Kari was worth it!
Kari was a rock star at our wedding! Neither my bride or I are big fans of being in front of the camera so we asked Kari to get a few large family shots but mostly focus on getting candids of friends and family enjoying the day. We wanted the wedding to be a party, a celebration of our families and community more than a focus on us.
Kari was the only photographer for a 140 person outdoor wedding that was spread out over a few acre venue, but somehow it seemed like she was everywhere! And also somehow, anywhere Kari was, something silly or fun was happening. Whether that was on the dance floor or the circle of college friends out in the yard reminiscing about the old days. She was seamlessly slipping in and out of each group, grabbing a few photos, maybe even egging some people on here and there. She made everyone feel comfortable with her positive and bubbly energy. Kari wasn't just capturing the scenes of the day, she was a participant in making it exactly what we wanted our wedding to be.
Getting to go through the photos in the weeks after the wedding, was like getting to relive the day. In the photos, Kari captured so many memorable moments and the reactions to them. We're so happy with how the photos came out! And despite our aversion to photos of ourselves, Kari managed to get us to step away for a few minutes to get some photos of just the two of us for which we are very grateful.
We can't recommend Kari highly enough, everything from communication before the wedding through to the online photo gallery after has been absolutely perfect. Thank you Kari!
Kari is the best decision we made while planning our wedding! She was super responsive, flexible, and incredibly easy to work with. Both me and my husband are pretty camera shy and she made the entire process fun while capturing amazing photos that we will cherish forever. We would 100% recommend Kari to anyone looking for an amazing photographer!
Kari is the best addition to your wedding day that you can choose!! The energy that she brought to our photo shoots was absolutely amazing. When I received my photos, it was clear that Kari can pick up on the small details that you don't even know she capturing (pictures with my grandfather, hugs with family members/bridal party) and it makes it so special to relive the moments again and again. She really takes the time to get to know exactly what pictures you want and the outcome is perfect. I look forward to have Kari to capture any future big moments in my life!
We are SO glad we went with Kari for our wedding photography! My husband is not a huge fan of being in photos, but right away at our engagement shoot she made us so comfortable and we ended up having a ton of fun! She is very kind, flexible, and responsive. She did an amazing job at the wedding - she has the perfect demeanor of calmness in all the craziness but is also able to command a rowdy dance floor for a picture. We got a sneak peek right away on our honeymoon, and got all of the photos within a few weeks. We are so in love with the photos - they tell the story of the best day of our life in a way we will never forget! We would definitely recommend Kari to anyone getting married or anyone looking for pictures! (P.S. she took amazing pictures of my baby niece and dog so she would be great for baby/pet photo shoots too!)
Simply put, Kari is incredible. She was great to work with, responsive to questions, and willing to try new ideas that my partner and I may have had for our wedding photos. The day of the wedding, Kari managed to be everywhere and get all the shots without ever feeling intrusive. Most importantly, the quality of the photos was second to none. Our friends and family can't stop talking about how impressed they are by how great our photography came out. Hiring Kari as our photographer was the single best decision out of all of our wedding planning.
Kari is absolutely wonderful to work with. Her ability to convey emotions, personalities and experiences through photography is unparalleled. She was flexible in all of our last minute changes, and clearly put our event at the forefront of her mind. She captured both planned moments and candid ones beautifully, communicated well and often, and we felt better knowing we had her on our team. I am honestly counting down the days until we find an excuse to work with Kari again. We couldn't be happier with the photos, or with the experience we had with Kari leading up to them.
Kari is the BEST!! I fell in love with her pictures after seeing a coworkers wedding photos and I am so blessed to have had Kari be able to capture such a special day! Throughout the summer, Kari reached out to check in with my husband and I were doing with the stress of planning during a pandemic. Which I really appreciated! With all the different changes in locations or times, Kari was always flexible. My husband and I really appreciated the care Kari put into photo ideas along with the day of schedule for pictures. My bridal party loved Kari and had a blast during the photo shoot after the ceremony! She really knows how to capture candid moments, which I think are the best! I cannot recommend her enough!! I keep telling my friends who are engaged to have her take their photos! I was blown a way with how our wedding photos turn out!
Kari was wonderful to work with for our small elopement. She was flexible, kind, and understanding as our original wedding plans changed due to covid-19, and was quick to respond and keep us updated. On the day of, she was friendly and warm with our families, making everybody comfortable to get their photos taken. Our intimate outdoor ceremony felt surreal and dreamy, and Kari managed to capture that atmosphere perfectly in our photos. As two people who aren't very comfortable in front of the camera, Kari helped my husband and I feel at ease and have fun with our shoot - and it really shows in our photos. We're having a larger wedding celebration next year, and will be returning to Kari to capture the day again. Can't recommend enough!
We cannot recommend Kari highly enough! Before, during and after our intimate wedding, Kari exceeded every expectation and the final photos are extraordinary. During our consultation, Kari shared very helpful advice for our intimate wedding especially with COVID interrupting celebration norms. On our wedding day, I was so thankful to have Kari with me. Kari’s calming and supportive energy allowed me to move confidently through the day – I wish she was around for every stressful event! Her ability to capture intimate moments and compose stunning images is remarkable. My husband and I loved our solo shoot with her after the ceremony – she made us laugh and feel at ease in front of the camera. After our wedding, multiple guests (including a not so easily impressed mother and mother-in-law) mentioned how dedicated and involved our photographer was throughout the whole day. I could go on and on - we are so grateful for the images she captured, we got every photo we hoped and more! Kari Paine Photography is well worth the investment, she will make your special day better and beautifully capture the memories that will last for a lifetime.
Kari has been absolutely amazing to work with. My husband and I hired her for our engagement photos and our wedding. She is talented, professional, and so fun to work with! Our engagement photos she captured the happiness I felt being with my husband and at my wedding she made me feel at ease and beautiful. She captured every moment of our special day and the finished pictures that we have I will cherish forever.
Kari did amazing work for us. We couldn't be happier with the photos we received and can't recommend her services enough.
She was willing to go above and beyond to take memorable photos. For example we had lawn games at our outdoor wedding, and Kari laid down on the ground to get some really fun action shots. She also did a great job coaching us on how to move and express ourselves to make sure our photos turned out great.
Several friends and family complemented us on Kari's photos. We have no doubt that if you work with her you won't regret it!
Kari is fantastic to work with!! She was so understanding of all the changes during the 2020 wedding season and was flexible, working out a plan tailored to our needs. In addition to being extremely talented and taking absolutely beautiful photos, Kari had great suggestions for logistics like photo locations, important shots, and creating a schedule, AND was fantastic interacting with our families. She makes you feel comfortable and beautiful in front of the camera and is earnestly excited to be there with you, which makes it such a joyous experience!
Kari was amazing to work with and captured our wedding perfectly! We got to know her during our engagement photo shoot, and immediately felt comfortable being ourselves around her. She was timely, easy to communicate with, and took the time to learn what we wanted in our wedding photos. We got a few sneak peak photos within a couple of days of the wedding and the rest of our photos not too long after - faster than I had anticipated! We couldn’t be happier with how they turned out!
Kari was perfect for our family. She was very intuitive. She was at the right place for great shots! She had a great eye, and the photos showed the fun we all had! 💕
She was very reasonably priced and very sweet and had an eye for the different settings and backgrounds for the picture. She did also take my engagement pictures she did amazing even when it was a cold rainy day.i totally recommend her
Kari was the absolute BEST!!!!! From the very beginning she was extremely easy to work with, professional and friendly. She had some amazing ideas for shots at our venue, and went above and beyond in her planning an execution. My family and wedding party felt so comfortable with her and the pictures turned out phenomenal! I can’t say enough about how great she truly was! I HIGHLY recommend her!
Kari Paine is a wonderful wedding photographer! Gave great posing direction. Really fun to work with. Worked great with our families and our wedding party. Was creative in finding different corners of our venue to get lots of different photos. Looking back at the photos seeing that Kari captured everything (like cake cutting and walking down the aisle) but I don't even remember her being there so she didn't detract from the moment. Looking back at the photos months later still brings so much joy. You can't go wrong in hiring Kari to capture your big day.
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Detroit MI and beyond! Will travel anywhere.
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