About this vendor
Kate Kaplan specializes in wedding, engagement, and lifestyle portrait photography. She is currently working in the greater Chicagoland area but is happy to travel for weddings!
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Engagement
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Photo
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
- Wedding Albums
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Documentary
- Lifestyle
- Modern
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- Wedding
Awards and Affiliations
5-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2026.2025.2024.+2 more.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
Hall of Fame
Earned by winning 'Best of Weddings' four or more times.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.042 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 9
TL;DR: Kate Kaplan Photography made both our engagement session and wedding photos genuinely enjoyable—even though neither of us particularly likes being photographed. She was calm...
, empathetic, professional, and felt more like a family member than a vendor. Our only regret from the wedding was not getting a photo with Kate herself, which says everything about how special she became to us.
My wife and I got married in Chicago in July 2026. Early in the planning process, my wife found Kate Kaplan Photography on Instagram and immediately connected with her style, so we scheduled an introductory call.
From that first conversation, Kate’s professionalism, warmth, and calm presence were immediately apparent. We booked her for both our engagement session and wedding, and it ended up being one of the best decisions we made.
Neither of us considers ourselves particularly photogenic, and we are both uncomfortable posing for photos. Kate somehow made the entire experience feel relaxed and natural. She gave us enough direction to feel confident without making anything feel staged or forced.
She was equally impressive on the wedding day. We had planned to take our first-look and family photos at Garfield Park Conservatory, but the main entrance was unexpectedly closed. Within approximately five minutes, Kate had explored the area and identified several beautiful alternative locations that also kept everyone out of the 90-degree heat. She even brought portable fans for us to use!
Throughout the reception, Kate was constantly moving around the venue, making sure we captured every photo on our list while also documenting the candid moments happening around us. Several family members later commented on how thorough she was and how many great moments they saw her capturing throughout the evening.
The preview gallery was spectacular. Looking through the photos made us feel as though we were experiencing the day all over again. Every image was beautiful, and we are incredibly excited to see the complete gallery.
Our only regret from the wedding was that we never took a photo with Kate herself. By the end of the day, she no longer felt like someone we had hired—she felt like a family member celebrating alongside us.
For anyone looking for a wedding or engagement photographer in the Chicago area, we could not recommend Kate Kaplan Photography more highly.
Kate helped create a flawless wedding day!
It’s hard to find the right words to describe just how amazing Kate is! We hired her for our wedding in August and from the moment we started talking with her and planning things o...
ut, we knew we made the right choice. She completely understood our vision for the day and exceeded all of our expectations. We were able to do an engagement shoot with her the summer before our wedding and the photos were unreal. She made us feel so comfortable throughout our entire photoshoot and did an incredible job of directing us. Each photo was better than the last and we’re so grateful to have those memories from our engagement.
In the weeks leading up to our wedding day and on the day itself, she was amazing and helped to keep us all on track to make sure we got all of the photos that we wanted. She coordinated with our wedding planner and just made everything so seamless throughout the day. Both Kate and her second shooter, Devin, captured the magic of the day so well and we’re obsessed with all of the sneak peek photos that we’ve gotten already! We’re so grateful that we decided to have her capture our day and we would absolutely recommend her to anyone!!
We would recommend working with Kate a million times over! In getting to know her over our engagement session and as our wedding photographer, Kate became both our sage counsel and...
talented artist behind the lens. She has truly given us the opportunity to see our wedding day as it unfolded, capturing moments of joy, laughter, and tenderness, and taking appreciative notice of intentional details from our planning process. Her work beautifully reflects the emotions of our day and honors the thoughtful touches that made it unique, making each photo a living, breathing artifact. In planning our wedding from out-of-state, Kate made us feel at ease from our very first conversation. She is collaborative and open, thoughtfully incorporating ideas and allowing us to highlight so many of our favorite places in Chicago. We are so grateful for her warmth, steady support, professionalism, and seemingly effortless skill in story-telling, and we are quick to recommend her to anyone seeking artful authenticity in their photographer!
When planning our wedding, photography was of top importance to us. Of course the quality of the photos was the main priority. We were in search of a photographer whose photos made...
us say “wow.” However, the personality of the photographer was of equal importance to us. We wanted someone whose demeanor blended seamlessly into our day and brought the calm, light-hearted, and yet still professional vibes we desired. When we found Kate, our search was over.
We had almost committed to another photographer when we stumbled upon Kate’s work. Seeing her photos stopped us in our tracks and immediately made us reconsider the other photographer. After speaking with Kate on a video call to inquire about her services, we felt confident that she was the one for us. Her attentive and reassuring nature, partnered with her genuine want to get to know us as a couple made us feel seen and comfortable.
During our engagement shoot, Kate laughed along with us like we were old friends and she consistently made sure our hair and outfits looked on point before each shot (something a girl very much appreciates!!!) Upon receiving the engagement photos, we were blown away and received so many compliments.
Leading up to the wedding, Kate was extremely communicative and responsive. We met again before the wedding to make sure all details were ironed out regarding locations and timing.
On the day of our wedding, Kate, again, felt like a friend to us. She remained calm and happy as she ensured all of our family and wedding party photos were taken care of. Her keen attention to detail (posture, angles, props, etc) made us feel reassured that our photos would turn out beautiful. Kate would often give us prompts to talk about while shooting to evoke genuine reactions and natural-looking poses/expressions. Our family and friends would consistently remark days after the wedding how great Kate was.
During the ceremony and reception, Kate continued to add our special day, even pulling us aside at the end of the night to get some shots by the bar. In typical Kate fashion, this is something we wouldn’t have thought of, but something we were so grateful to have!
When we received some highlights shortly after our wedding, all of the feelings came flooding back to us from the day and we continued to remark “Thank God we went with Kate.”
Kate’s photography is exceptional. Her photos tell stories and have brought us so much joy throughout this process. Kate herself is also exceptional. She truly puts the couples she works with first and brings the exact energy you want on your wedding day. We will continue to recommend her to all of our friends getting married for years to come.
Thank you Kate for making our photo dreams come true!
My husband and I highly recommend Kate Kaplan! Kate photographed our engagement and we loved her results so we booked her for our wedding as well. We added almost everything Kate o...
ffers including travel outside of Chicagoland, rehearsal coverage, additional time, and a second shooter - and she handled it all flawlessly. Kate's joyful personality adds to the fun of the day, and the photos we got back are wonderful. We would book Kate again in the future and would recommend her to all of our friends and family.
There’s a reason my family calls her Kate the Great!!! Kate photographed both of my cousins weddings and mine this past May. We recommend her to EVERYONE we know because she is the...
absolute best. Kate has this magical way of making every picture look effortless and brings an air of comfort to what could be a whirlwind of a day. She seamlessly goes from one picture to the next, making the entire process flow so nicely and genuinely brings out the best smiles in everyone. There isn’t anyone else we would have wanted to capture our wedding!! Every picture is full of love and we cannot thank Kate enough for the magic she brings ♥️ - Morgan and Joe
Kate was a calming and professional presence on our wedding day. She made me, my husband, friends, and family feel extremely comfortable and was amazing at creating candid moments....
When we were stiff or needed a change-up, Kate asked us a question or gave us a game to play instead of just telling us what to do. The moments captured will be so much more genuine than if we were just being placed somewhere and told what direction to look. Spending the day with Kate (and Devin, the second photographer), was a lot of fun! It was important to us to have a second photographer to capture additional content, especially since we didn't hire a videographer. Devin was also so nice and helpful! Both Kate and Devin were great about getting the photos, but not making us take photos just to take them. Our time was utilized wisely and we were able to capture amazing moments while also enjoying our day. We would select Kate over and over and over again! She is truly wonderful.
Kate was absolutely amazing to work with during our wedding! She is so knowledgeable and was super helpful in the planning process! Kate captured beautiful photographs and made sur...
e we all felt comfortable throughout the entire day. While we have only see our preview photos, we can already tell that the rest of the gallery will be just as perfect. Kate has great attention to detail and flawless editing skills. I highly recommend Kate, and we will definitely book again!
We absolutely recommend booking Kate as your wedding photographer! We hired Kate for our engagement session and wedding photos and are so pleased with how everything turned out. Ka...
te does an incredible job capturing the little moments and helped us feel at ease in front of the camera. She is so kind and thoughtful and her calming presence helped us stay in the moment throughout the busy day.
Kate was absolutely fantastic to work with, and highly recommend her for any occasion. We used Kate for our Oct 2024 wedding and engagement shoot and are thrilled with the turnout ...
of the pictures.
From our first introduction call, she was so kind, warm and truly cared about making us feel special and ensure our day was perfect (which she did both!). She was our biggest supporter of what we wanted and made us always the priority.
She is so easy to work with, was so deliberate in her shots and ways of working with our group (which was about 30). She has a great eye and always calm to ensure we were on time and hit our next spots.
She told us if we need anything please let her know, and she truly meant it. She was Johnny-on-the-spot and always there to lend a hand (or get us a drink!). We can't say enough about her personality and work, and would work with her again for family occasions.
Kate rocks.
10/10.
Kate was one of our favorite vendors and a pretty important one as our wedding day photographer! We had a great experience with her at both our engagement photo shoot and on our we...
dding day. I also met with her a few times for consulting/advice on our timeline before the big day, which was SO helpful. Kate makes you feel comfortable and natural while she is behind the camera making the magic happen! She is so kind and has such a calming presence, yet keeps everything moving and on schedule. Kate makes sure to get all of your preferred photos, from detail shots to group shots and the moments in between. We absolutely love our sneak peek shots and are so excited to get our full gallery and physical photos! I highly recommend Kate for your wedding, she gets it done beautifully and you won't be disappointed. Best decision we made :)
Kate was truly the biggest blessing on our wedding day. Her calming presence and overall dedication to making sure things turned out the way we envisioned was beyond what I expecte...
d. On top of her being an INCREDIBLE photographer, she was so much more than that. She helped me with my timeline, she made sure that things at the reception were in order, she altered my wedding dress on the spot (literally pinned the neckline in a matter of minutes to turn it into my dream dress, I’ll never be able to express enough gratitude for that), I could go on and on. I received so many compliments from our wedding party as well about her ability to control (our sometimes quite loud) group and make everyone feel comfortable and confident. She also did a fantastic job communicating throughout the entire process. I would HIGHLY highly recommend hiring Kate.
We loved working with Kate from the beginning! She was so professional but so kind and made us feel comfortable during our engagement and wedding pictures. Kate captured so many am...
azing moments and we have only seen the preview! I can’t wait to see the rest. She was probably the best investment for our wedding. I can’t recommend her enough!
Hire Kate as your wedding photographer!! Kate was one of our absolute favorite vendors from our wedding and the day truly wouldn't have been the same or gone they way it did withou...
t her. From the initial meeting, to the check-ins, and the day-of, Kate was so kind and so professional. We had Kate photograph our welcome event the day before our wedding and it was a great way to get us and our guests comfortable before our big day. On the day of the wedding, we got so many compliments about Kate from the wedding party and our families. She made sure everyone knew where they needed to be, how to pose, and was so efficient with family photos before our ceremony.
After the wedding, we received SO many sneak peeks within a week of the wedding and it was so fun getting to relive the day through her beautiful photography. If you're wondering if Kate is the right choice, just do it, you won't be disappointed! Thank you Kate for capturing our day and making everything so special.
We used Kate for both our engagement and and wedding photos and she is AMAZING! We got our engagement pictures back within a super timely fashion and we got a HUGE album of wedding...
sneak peek within a week. She is professional, kind, and super organized. People are raving about our photos and we haven't even gotten our full wedding album back yet. She is also incredibly competitive in terms of pricing. Hire her! We will be using her for any future photography needs.
Kate was amazing! We cannot recommend her enough! The entire process--from our engagement photos, wedding planning, to the wedding day--was easy to plan and set up with Kate. She w...
as well organized, great at communicating, and her blog had a lot of helpful tips and planning tools, including recommended vendors. On the wedding day, she helped us all remain calm and stay on schedule, while not taking away from our experience of the day at all. She also went above and beyond her role as a photographer--helping me fix and arrange my dress, being ready with hand sanitizer, etc, and having her car available just in case, for anything that might have come up.
On top of all of that (if that's not enough to make you book with her already!), her photos are beautiful and gorgeous. They're something we will cherish forever. She was really able to capture both our personalities and the vibe of the day perfectly! We wanted to have our photos be candid, natural, and help us be in the moment, and they were just that. From the sneak peek photos alone, we can tell she captured key moments with important people throughout the day.
From our engagement session to our wedding day, Kate was an incredible photographer to work with. She made us feel so comfortable in front of the camera and had such a calming pres...
ence the day of our wedding. She has an absolute talent for capturing photos that feel natural, candid, and a perfect blend between posed photos and smaller moments. She captured all the joy and fun we had throughout our wedding day! We have large families and had many family portraits to get through but she remained calm, happy, and did a great job organizing everyone even in 90+ degree heat! She was also super organized and communicative leading up to the wedding. Kate was such an amazing part of our day and we could not have chosen a better photographer!! I know we’ll be looking back on these photos often!
We can't say enough good things about Kate! She is kind, communicative, and so good at what she does. It was such a smooth process working with her from start to finish. She went o...
ut of her way to do little things to make us feel great both before and during our wedding day. She made us and our entire wedding party and families feel comfortable, was well-prepared, and gave good direction to ensure we could get all the shots we wanted. Not only is she a great photographer but just lovely to be around as well, and we were so happy she was a part of our day!
My wife and I had an amazing experience working with Kate! From early on in the process Kate took the time to learn what we were looking for in our wedding photos. She provided h...
elpful guidance on how to approach the staged family and other group photos, which made preparing for the wedding so much easier.
Kate photographed both our rehearsal dinner and wedding ceremony/reception. She checked in with us throughout both events to make sure we were getting the photos we wanted, and was incredibly flexible at both events.
Kate got a great mix of staged group shots, fun candids, and ceremony photos that really highlighted the architecture of our ceremony venue. We highly recommend Kate!
I knew my husband and I needed to at least talk to Kate when I saw a post of hers on Instagram from our reception venue. And then I read the caption on the photo, which was all abo...
ut the organic moments and crafting a story based on what the couple values and wants to include. My husband and I knew that the first half of our wedding day would be chaotic, spread out across multiple locations and fleeting. Not every photo on the "photo checklist" was possible for us -- and we were OKAY with that. Kate heard us and went along for the ride with us in more ways than one.
When we were out of a vehicle the day before our engagement session, Kate offered as much availability as she could. During our ceremony and reception, she captured sweet, posed moments and ones I didn't think had been captured. Her photojournalistic style that enhances natural colors and avoids filters was exactly what we were looking for, and we got it.
The only thing I wish I had asked more directly about was the amount of time "posed" family photos would take. We knew we wanted certain photos together AND to enjoy our cocktail hour, and I wish we had budgeted our time accordingly.
I cannot recommend Kate enough! From the start she did an amazing job with our engagement photos. The photos were absolutely beautiful and even better than I could have imagined....
She was able to help us pose without it feeling forced and helped us look natural.
Leading up to the wedding she was a huge help. I had many questions and she was always there to help problem solve.
On the wedding we had a goal of getting all of our photos done before the ceremony. Kate did a fantastic job of prioritizing the shots we wanted to ensure we made it to cocktail hour which was the one thing I wanted. Not only did we make it to cocktail hour, but we were able to get everything done all thanks to Kate! Our photos were absolutely beautiful and we will cherish them forever! She did a fabulous job capturing the joy from our day.
I will be recommending Kate to everyone I know!
Kate is fantastic! She is very organized, communicates throughout the process of any engagement photos or wedding photos, has great ideas for what to photograph, and integrated our...
ideas and special parts of our day too! She has a lot of skill in helping us feel comfortable during the shoot and look great in our photos!
Kate is our favorite vendor BY FAR. She is SO organized and so easy to work with. She sent us an email checking in on how wedding planning was going, we told her that we had 2 cate...
rers cancel on us and we were struggling to find another. She took it upon herself to look into caterers that are within our budget for us. With Kate, you are not only getting a photographer, you are getting a wedding team mate to help you along the way.
Kate was part of our wedding ceremony and the pictures turned out absolutely amazing! Kate super organized, punctual and professional. She's also very thoughtful and caring! She...
met us a weekend prior at our venue to pick out the best spots for pictures. She was also very flexible and stayed late as the ceremony took a little longer. She's going to be our photographer for all our future events!!!!
They were amazing! Made sure you were comfortable, helped make sure little details were perfect, and made sure you enjoyed your wedding. They definitely were looking out for my bes...
t interest! Definitely would recommend!
We had Kate as our wedding photographer and she was the absolute best! She has the most kind and calming presence which is exactly what you need on your big day! She was very commu...
nicative from the beginning and even helped us with wedding planning. All her photos are beautiful and they really feel like us!! If you’re looking for a photographer who feels like a friend you’ve known forever, Kate is your girl! We can’t wait to get more pictures done in the future!
Kate was amazing ! She stayed in touch with us throughout the process, gave us an outline, and made sure we got the photos we really wanted. We got so many compliments on how beaut...
iful our pictures were.
My husband and I could not speak higher of Kate. We love her so much we’d refer to her as Kate the Great throughout wedding planning. She was always quick to respond to emails and ...
even helped us with the timeline of our day. Day of the wedding, we never felt rushed by her or awkward taking photos because she’d give us prompts to make it feel natural (and hype us up too as she was snapping)! She sent us a beautiful sneak peek gallery just a few days after our wedding and the photos couldn’t have turned out more clear and crisp. The pure joy on our faces was perfectly captured by her and we could not be more grateful!
Kate is exceptional. Not only do her pictures come out beautifully, but she is the energy and support that you want on your wedding day. Kate ensured that my husband and I were a p...
riority during all other craziness the day of our wedding. We received "sneak peak" photos within 4-days of our wedding and were able to share our photos with family and friends immediately. To say we are happy with our portraits is an understatement! I would highly recommend booking Kate for your wedding!
Kate was great to work with both during the planning process and on our wedding day. She was very communicative during the planning process, checking in to ask how wedding planning...
was going in general, providing recommendations on photo locations, and sharing sample timelines with us based on photo locations we looked at. In addition, we loved the included engagement photo package she offered as it gave us the opportunity to work with her prior to our big day and know what to expect on our wedding day which helped to relieve any stress. And of course, the photos turned out amazing! We would recommend Kate for any couple looking for a photographer to capture their big day!
Kate was so wonderful to work with! She was clear, timely, and accommodating throughout the entire planning process. Her kindness, flexibility, and wonderful attitude relieved so ...
much stress before and during the wedding day. Plus, her photos a timeless and beautiful. We loved working with her!
My husband and I cannot say enough good things about Kate and her photography skills. She did an amazing job with our engagement photos and she was wonderful to work with at our we...
dding. I am already in love with our sneak peek wedding photos and cannot wait to see the rest of them. I have already gotten so many compliments on how good all of our pictures look. Kate is way more than just a photographer she was a great source of information and guidance throughout the entire wedding planning process and provided very useful resources. She is very easygoing and just makes you feel super comfortable and relaxed throughout the whole process. She always responds right away to any questions I may have had and even answered questions I didn't know I needed to ask. I definitely recommend Kate for any of your photography needs as you will not be disappointed. Thank you, Kate!
Kate was absolutely impeccable for our wedding! She also did our engagement photos earlier in September. She was absolutely phenomenal and I cannot rave about her enough. During my...
initial consultation we spent over an hour on the phone in which she explained everything in extreme detail, even provided answers to questions I had not thought of. She also sent links through her website that was a great resource for information to help during my wedding planning. One thing that I've learned through this all is you don't necessarily know what you don't know, and Kate definitely took the lead on providing us with all the details needed. I am absolutely obsessed with our engagement photos and the sneak preview we got of our wedding photos. Counting down a few short weeks until I get to see all of the final work but have loved every image so far! Words can't describe how comforting she made us feel during the process, how helpful the resources she provided was, and how much I'm grateful for everything she has done. I would highly recommend Kate for any photography, her work is stunning. Thank you Kate for everything you did for us and I can't wait to work with you again!
We had such a great experience with Kate as our engagement and wedding photographer. Kate is so kind and friendly and put everyone at ease. She is also very organized, which is sup...
er helpful on your wedding day since it flies by. She helped me create a timeline and kept us on schedule including ensuring that we would be able to be able to enjoy our cocktail hour with our guests. Our day, like many, was affected by COVID. Because of this, we changed our plans for the day many times and Kate was always able to accommodate them even when we had to postpone the date by over 6 months. We chose Kate after a friend recommended her to us. Any time we had questions, Kate was happy to hop on a call or return our emails with a quick turnaround time. We love that she provides a mixture of pictures to include posed family photos to candid photos that allow you to relive that day. We cannot recommend Kate enough!
Oh my goodness what can we even say except we LOVE Kate!! We decided to use Kate for our June 2021 wedding and instantly fell in love with her. We currently don’t live in the Chica...
go area and trying to plan our wedding from another state was stressful but Kate made everything a breeze! She was organized, reassuring, patient, helpful, a great communicator and incredibly creative! We met for the first time when we took our engagement photos and it felt like we had known her forever. We fell in love with her photos and our sneak peeks we got the day after our wedding had us in tears. We truly could not have been any happier and have talked so many times about how happy we are that we decided to go with Kate. Thank you Kate!!
Wow. Where to start? Kate Kaplan was the absolute all-star of our wedding.
We were referred to Kate by our florist when we were having trouble getting wedding photographers to res...
pond to our inquiries and honestly it started to feel like our plans were beneath them and their effort, but Kate was the exact opposite. Kate returned our message within a few hours and we set up a time to chat with her on the phone. Right away, Kate was friendly, attentive, and excited to work with us on our small backyard wedding. She was full of humor and warmth from our initial conversation, to an engagement session we worked with her on, and all the way through our wedding.
One of our good friends approached us halfway through the wedding and asked if Kate was a family friend we knew who happened to be a wedding photographer because she fit in so perfectly with our group. And you know what? It honestly felt like she was one of our guests at the wedding. She put both of us at ease during the day, and worked with us to get the best photographs imaginable. She was able to take charge of the group when needed to get pictures, and was friendly and kind to everyone she talked with. She sent us a large set of photos the day after the wedding, and even more two weeks after the wedding, and they are absolutely gorgeous.
I cannot stress this enough, if you are looking for a wedding photographer who will work with you to create the perfect day that you want, Kate Kaplan is the one for you. You should probably reach out to her right now.
Kate was our wedding photographer. She did a FANTASTIC job. and is very easy to get along with. She kept fixing my necklace to make sure it looked perfect in every shot. I jok...
ingly expressed that she should have been in the bridal party with all of the extra work she was doing. The pictures captured the day better than I could have hoped. It was great working with her.
Kate did our engagement photos and wedding photos and she made it all run so smooth without stress. Her pictures are beautiful and she captured our day perfectly in photos. Highly ...
recommend her! We also had a LARGE amount of people that needed to be photographed at the church and she seamlessly organized the groups and got great shots of our family without chaos ensuing. Thanks Kate!
Kate did our engagement session and I cant thank her enough for what she did. We have never had professional pictures taken before just the two of us and she did an amazing job of...
making us feel comfortable. We couldn’t stop laughing the entire time. Looking forward to Kate capturing our wedding day.
Kate photographed our St. Louis wedding and WOW she was amazing!!!!! Her prices were great, she took STUNNING pictures throughout our entire day, and she is just so wonderful to wo...
rk with. Our wedding was 110 degrees (record breaking in July) but Kate had a plan to keep us cool and quick when outside! She worked with me before the wedding to come up with a weather plan since we knew it was going to be hot. Her prep process was impressive. Our pictures turned out perfect. She is so creative and talented! Our photos captured our love and our beautiful wedding. She also did our engagement photos. Those were also beautiful, and we used them for our save-the-dates. My husband and I highly recommend Kate Kaplan Photography for you on your special day.
Kate was amazing! She is so talented. She made us feel so comfortable, everyone was raving about our photographer after the wedding. She listened to what we wanted, and only captur...
ed photos we were comfortable with. I would highly recommend her!
Contact
Chicago & surrounding suburbs
Kate Kaplan Photography