5 out of 5 stars and 17 reviews
5
(17)We are based in Minnesota and will travel!
About this vendor
Mahonen Photography is a husband-and-wife photography team based in Golden Valley, MN. This team specializes in capturing the extraordinary from the every day, crafting spectacular photos of all the moments of your celebration, no matter how big or small. This team believes that great photography is more than just a picture, it is a snapshot of a precious moment in time for you to enjoy for generations.
Mel and Ari, the duo behind Mahonen Photography, are partners both in love and in their work. Their close connection gives them a unique perspective on your event, working together to capture your celebration from the best possible angle. Their style is all about the sincere, capturing you at your most natural and beautiful, creating timeless snapshots of your wedding day.
Couples working with Mahonen Photography can work with Mel and Ari to find the best possible package for them. No matter what, they always provide two photographers, providing you with twice as many snapshots of your special celebration. This duo also offers engagement photography, allowing them to document all your excitement for your upcoming wedding day.
Details
Business Attributes
- Woman-owned Business
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Day After Session
- Engagement
- Trash The Dress
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
- Wedding Albums
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Documentary
- Lifestyle
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
2020 'Best of Weddings'
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.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.017 reviews
Mel and Ari are just amazing!! The pictures were over the top fantastic. They have a great process that really helps you feel good that there is not going to be the "wish we had X ...
picture" afterwards. It is easy to see that the two of them enjoy their work and are in perfect sync with what needs to be done. They are the complete package of Professional, Detailed and tons of Fun!
We had a fabulous experience using Mahonen Photography for our wedding. Melanie was fun and creative in our engagement and wedding shoots and made it easy for us to be comfortable ...
in front of the camera. She is able to find unique and beautiful shots in any setting, showing skills of a great photographer! Turn around time was great in receiving our pictures, even with the holidays being soon after our wedding day. We highly recommend using them for your events with great confidence that you will receive a wonderful experience with even better photos.
Mel and Ari were so great to work with, they were on board with my unconventional idea of a brunch wedding. They really captured the best moments of our day and we couldn't be happ...
ier with the photos. Our book is awesome too and I can't wait to share it with friends and family!
I walked past Mahonen Photography booth at the Weeding Fair and loved what I saw. I was excited that I had found a photographer that was in my price range and I loved their work! ...
Melanie was so easy to work with and captured our day beautifully. I am not someone who loves my picture being taken and I tend to like myself in photos even less. Somehow, Melanie managed to take photos of me that I truly love and I’m proud to hang on my wall. I loved my wedding and engagement photos so much!
Mel photographed my whole family last minute, and was AMAZING! She was able to capture great photos of our large group (including three dogs and a newborn!) with ease. We never fel...
t posed or unnatural, and all of us love the final shots. Highly recommend!
Mel & Ari were our photographers for both engagement and wedding photos, and we couldn’t be happier! Their work is absolutely beautiful. They took time to listen to our concerns & ...
capture the photos that were most important to us. They’re an excellent team, for a wedding it was great to have 2 photographers as they captured both formal and candid photos. Mel & Ari are also very responsive and easy to communicate with. Again, beautiful work, thank you Mahonen Photography!
We enjoyed our times with Mel and Ari. They did both our engagement and wedding for us. They were willing to travel to Duluth for both as well as doing multiple locations for both...
. Having two photographers was a great bonus and they did a great job not only with the posed photos but also at catching the “behind-the-scenes” fun moments. They were understanding and made sure we got all the extra shots we wanted. Extremely happy with the way all the photos turned out, the pricing was great, and Mel and Ari are a one of a kind amazing pair of photographers. Would highly recommend for any photo event you have coming up!!
We had SO much fun doing our engagement photos with Mel! She waited patiently at the beginning of our session while Adam decided on a quick wardrobe change, worked professionally w...
ith our pup (quacking a toy duck while taking photos takes some real skill!), and made all of my ideas for the shoot come to life by contributing her professional expertise. Going in, I wondered if the shoot would feel awkward, but instead we were comfortable the whole time and really enjoyed the experience. And the photos we got are absolutely beautiful!!! The tough part is choosing our favorites. Overall, we were so happy with both the experience and the photos!
We thoroughly enjoyed working with Mel and Ari.
We appreciated their approach of truly getting to know us and what was important to us starting from the first meeting. Having this...
connection and ease with each other made our "day of" experience even easier and genuine.
Our engagement session was wonderful and a great time to get to know each other. Our wedding day involved a few different venues for pictures and Mel and Ari took it in stride and had a plan to make it all work. The weather was so-so for portions of the day but we still managed to get great inside and outside shots.
Having 2 photographers was great especially when those 2 photographers work as well together as Mel and Ari do. During the planning and preparation phase, I also appreciated how responsive and prompt Mel was with her communication. She was also open to our ideas, suggestions and dreams about the big day and bringing those to life in the most successful way.
One of my favorite things we did together was pulling our entire group of guests onto the dance floor for one big group photo at the reception - it is still one of my favorite photos from the day. Thank you for making it happen Mel and Ari!
My husband and I recently got married and met Mel and Ari at the Wedding Vendor Fair. We were getting married on Madeline Island and it was really important for us to have a photo...
grapher that we could build a relationship with and have them photograph us over the years to come. I cannot say enough good things about Mel and Ari. Our engagement session pictures were wonderful and our wedding pics are PHENOMENAL!!! My husband and I are obsessed with them. I couldn't have asked for a better duo to help us capture our big day and highly recommend them!! They did a great job of keeping everyone on track and keeping the group together for photos and then when it was time for pictures with just my husband and I they made sure we were having fun and enjoying our day! Also having TWO photographers was great because we got so many more pictures and so many cool angles for pictures. I highly recommend Mel and Ari to capture your big day! You won't be disappointed!
Mel and Ari were truly amazing photographers. They captured our day beautifully. Mel encouraged us to try shots outside of our comfort zone, promising they would be worth the final...
image and they were! Mel and Ari were open to our suggestions for places within our venue that we wanted to have photographs, or thought might be a nice idea, but also came with plenty ideas of their own. We felt comfortable working with them and that comfort is visible in the final photos, they were able to capture our personalities well, having only met with us once before which was really special.
From wrangling our large family, to handling absurd requests like a group shot of all attendees, Mel and Ari were supportive and positive throughout the entire experience. We can't thank them enough for making our day so special!
Mel and Ari are fantastic! They are both very personable and easy to work with. They were on time to both our engagement photo session and the big day. We initially went with them...
because we loved that the pictures they took told a story. We were not disappointed. They do a great job of capturing the spontaneous moments without you feeling like they are in your face. Another plus is that they are very reasonably priced.
I love working with Mel & Ari, they are so sweet and they pay attention to all the details to capture different moments throughout the day. The photos my couples receive from them...
are beautiful, which makes it so easy for me to continually recommend them to future couples of mine. Highly recommend!
J'aime Events
I would highly recommend Mahonen Photography. Both Mel and Ari couldn’t have been nicer and both are great at what they do. We had our wedding in April and they beautifully capture...
d everything. The end results were traditional pictures, more artistic shots, and everything in between. They also have reasonable rates and are quick when giving you the finished product. If you are having a wedding or any other special event, Mahonen Photography is the place to go.
Mel and Ari were wonderful to work with for our wedding! We got all the pictures that we had requested and they had great ideas for shots that we didn’t think of. It’s was easy to ...
communicate back and forth about planning ahead of time which was nice. It snowed on our wedding day and they stayed after to get some good pictures of us in the snow, they are some of the best shots that we have and I can’t say enough nice things about working with them. Highly recommend them for anything you need!
Mel and Ari are absolutely amazing! They are so fun and captured the most amazing images for us!
We would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a photographer!
Mel and Ari are great to work with. They’ve done two wedding in our family and we’ve loved both sets of photos! Thy are easy going and catch great candid shots!
Contact
We are based in Minnesota and will travel!
Mahonen Photography's photos