5 out of 5 stars and 48 reviews
5
(48)Best of Weddings (4x).BOOK NOW! STL, St Charles, Hannibal, Springfield, Quincy
About this vendor
Complimentary Engagement Session with any booking!
We at McDonald Video & Photography are a premier Midwest Wedding Photography Studio based in Hannibal, MO. We cater to St. Louis and St. Charles, MO, as well as Springfield and Quincy, IL, and have over a decade's worth of experience in the craft.
Travel is available for any destination wedding! McDonald Video & Photography uniquely captures beautiful, detailed moments of your dream wedding day. We provide our clients with professional guidance, quality service, and an experience that can be cherished for years and years to come!
McDonald Video & Photography offer comprehensive packages for engagement sessions as well as wedding day photography and videography coverage. Couples can expect extensive timeline coverage, an online gallery, prints, albums, and a beautiful keepsake box full of long-lasting memories. Wedding films include over eight hours worth of footage condensed into a 5-7 minute highlight film, as well as separate coverage of the full ceremony, dances, and speeches. Just read our reviews below! Please get in touch with us so we can get to know you better, show you our portfolio, and make you an MVP Bride today!
Details
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Engagement
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Printed Enlargements
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Lifestyle
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- Wedding
Awards and Affiliations
Pricing
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Reviews
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5
out of 5.048 reviews
Review Summary
This AI-generated summary is a snapshot of this vendor's ratings and feedback.
Laken from McDonald Video and Photography consistently receives glowing reviews for her exceptional work capturing weddings. Reviewers praise her professionalism, friendliness, and ability to create timeless and stunning photos and videos. Her calm demeanor, clear communication, and attention to detail make her highly recommended for capturing the essence and emotions of a wedding day, with many clients expressing gratitude for the beautiful memories she preserves. Her work at different venues has consistently impressed clients with her talent, versatility, and ability to create treasured moments through her photography and videography services.Review photos
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Laken was AMAZING to work with. She photographed both our engagement and wedding, along with videoing our wedding day. Laken was willing to answer any of our questions. Laken and her team are friendly, professional, and timely. Her photos are timeless, while still being modern. We love them all! Highly recommend.
We are so happy we decided to go with McDonald Video and Photography for our wedding! Laken was so great to work with! She made us feel so comfortable on our wedding day, and the photos and videos are just stunning. We are so grateful for the beautiful moments she captured that will let us relive our wedding day for years to come. I'd highly recommend MVP for both photography and videography - it was great having one team that worked really well together to capture our photos and videos. Thank you Laken!
Laken McDonald is AMAZING! She and her associate, Amber, captured the essence of my daughter's wedding day in a way that words can’t even describe. The photos are breathtaking and truly reflect all the emotions of the day. The team was unobtrusive but always in the right place at the right time to capture candid, heartfelt moments. They were incredibly patient taking hundreds of photos we requested, along with all the traditional photos. We’re so grateful for Laken's incredible work, which will allow all of us to relive this wedding for years to come.
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Laken was AMAZING to work with! She made us feel very comfortable while capturing our photos and her results are unbelievable. We are so BEYOND thrilled with our wedding photos and would definitely recommend using Laken! A photographer is such an important decision for your big wedding day, and we have no regrets booking Laken!
I can’t say enough wonderful things about Laken!!! From start to finish, she was an absolute delight to work with. Her communication was flawless—always prompt, clear, and wonderfully open to every one of our ideas. She guided us through every step of the process with such ease, directing us on where to look, what to do, and where to go, making everything feel completely effortless.
Though we’re still eagerly awaiting our wedding photos, I have no doubt they will be perfect!! I’m confident that her edits will be as fantastic as the stunning work she did for our engagement shoot and throughout our wedding day. Each moment she captured was handled with such care and creativity.
What truly stood out was Laken’s genuine kindness and how delightful she was to be around. She has an incredible knack for making my husband, who typically avoids the camera, actually enjoy the photo process. Her attention to detail was impeccable and she ensured nothing was missed.
Laken masterfully balanced classic posed shots with those creative, spontaneous moments that made our day so unique. If you’re looking for a photographer who is not only exceptionally skilled but also sweet, patient, and talented, look no further. She made our wedding day even more memorable with her warmth and professionalism. We’re looking forward to working with her again for future photoshoots and portraits. Don’t hesitate to book her for your wedding or any event—you won’t be disappointed!
We LOVED Laken. She is so sweet, professional, speedy, and talented. I seriously CANNOT say enough good things about her and her business. 10/10 would always recommend!
Laken was a dream to have as our photographer! She was clearly an expert in all her ideas. She made it easy for us to enjoy our day while she made sure she got all of the shots from our list. She was so sweet and clearly cared a lot about our family. Her photos are beautiful. We can't wait to hang up in our home!
We've had the pleasure of having the McDonald Video & Photography team here at Emerson Fields wedding venue multiple times and EVERY SINGLE TIME they impress us with the images they capture! The attention to detail and the purposeful intent to photograph the emotion of the wedding day are so apparent when we see the photo gallery of a couple's wedding. We were just given a wedding day gallery from a couple of weeks ago and every. single. image. was perfection!! You will not be disappointed by hiring Laken and her team to photograph your day, instead, you will be elated and you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing their professionalism and experience have it all under control! Book them today!!
Laken was amazing! Her very calm demeanor made everyone feel so comfortable and relaxed while taking pictures. She kept great communication throughout the whole wedding planning and was very helpful keeping the wedding party on track with scheduled photo times throughout the day. The photos we received were amazing, we are very happy with them. Book her already, you won't be disappointed :)
Laken was highly recommended by our venue and we were not disappointed! She was flexible in meeting us where we wanted to do engagement pictures and delivered the pictures very timely (within a couple weeks). Laken made us feel very comfortable in front of the camera by giving us natural poses.
Laken is a gifted and talented photographer! Not only are her photos gorgeous, but she is wonderful at putting everyone at ease, creating beautiful moments, capturing split-second glances, coaxing smiles from the little ones, and doing it all with such grace and sweetness. Your event and treasured moments are in masterful hands with McDonald Video & Photography.
Laken was an absolute DREAM to work with. HER PICTURES ARE INCREDIBLE. She made us feel beyond comfortable throughout the whole experience. She was so kind and calm and really got to know us as a couple. She was very timely and knowledgeable. She made sure we got any and every picture that we wanted. Her photography is STUNNING. I have received so many compliments. She was very timely in getting us pictures and stayed in contact throughout the process.
We hired Laken as the videographer for our wedding and let me just say BOOK HER!!! Laken not only is super talented at what she does, but she also has such a kind and compassionate heart. Being a bride on a wedding day can be super stressful, but Laken was able to take this stress off of me and help me relax. She will not only deliver amazing videos to you, but she will also help you fix your hair in pictures, help you take breathers, etc. This speaks to how Laken goes above and beyond. Thank you SO SO much for everything, Laken!
Laken was AMAZING to work with! She communicated well before the wedding and was so sweet and had such a calming presence on the wedding day. Her pictures turned out so great - would definitely recommend her to any future brides out there!
Laken did a wonderful job capturing our outdoor wedding ceremony and indoor reception. Her edits are gorgeous. The pictures and videos are bright, crisp, and top quality. She is also a sweet person and was very professional throughout the process. Our only complaint was receiving our wedding photos six months after the wedding (contract said 3-4 months) and not being able to use them for our Christmas cards. Overall we highly recommend her to other couples.
Laken is lovely to work with! The pictures turned out great and I can’t wait to have her shoot out wedding!
Laken was soooo wonderful throughout the entire process. I live in Texas and was getting married in Illinois and knew I was going to have to pick a photographer without doing any engagement shoots or anything beforehand, but Laken did not disappoint! We get so many compliments on our pictures! 10/10 recommend!!
Laken did a beautiful job on our wedding photos! The colors are absolutely stunning and what I was hoping for. She confidently directed our wedding party to get them in place and looking natural. I loved that she was able to capture all of the elements of our wedding without being intrusive.
Laken was amazing! Her attention to detail and photography skills are superb! Book her now for your event, you won't regret it!
If you are looking for a comfortable and flawless experience with a very friendly and professional photographer, look no further! Laken was perfect for us and was so accommodating to whatever was thrown her way. She communicated with our other vendors to ensure wedding day smoothness and has been easy to communicate with through the wedding planning process. Do not hesitate to contact her for your special day!!!
Laken was absolutely amazing to work with!! Her kind and patient personality immediately put my daughter at ease. Laken was always there to answer questions or concerns we had. Flexibility was key with the last minute changes we had involving COVID. Didn't even phase, her. Laken's professionalism kept us calm. All the special touches Laken takes time with the day of the wedding show how much she loves what she does. She wants to make sure each couple she photographs feels like they are the only one she has ever photographed. If you are looking for a wedding photographer, look no further. Choose Laken McDonald!! The smile on my daughter's face is proof that Laken is a blessing to wedding couples. Thank you, Laken, for all the wonderful memories you have captured for us.
We highly recommend working with Laken! She has been a pleasure to work with! She traveled to Chicago for our engagement photos which helped us out a ton! We even got the photos back within 4 days! We highly recommend McDonald Video & Photography and can’t wait to continue working with them!
Laken was amazing to work with on my wedding day. From group shots to small details, she captured my wedding perfectly. I have gotten so many compliments on how beautiful my photos turned out! If you want to work with an awesome photographer and get amazing photos, McDonald Video & Photography is the way to go!
We booked Laken for our wedding next fall, October 2021! She has been amazing to work with thus far. She has been very responsive with all communication, very organized and has been a pleasure to work with. We live in Chicago and she offered to come to the city for our engagement photos which was SOOO helpful. They are also beautiful! We can't wait to continue working with Laken! We HIGHLY recommend McDonald Video & Photography!!
Stop looking for a wedding photographer. Seriously! I POURED over this decision and went back and forth and was SO WORRIED about the photos being perfect. Laken literally BLEW us away with how gorgeous the photos were and I have literally nothing but good things to say! She is incredibly sweet and fun to be around (important cause the photographer is literally with you every second of your big day!) and she takes the most stunning photos! I can not recommend her enough if you like the bright, romantic wedding photo look!
Laken did my engagement and wedding photos and she is absolutely amazing! We planned a wedding and had to change everything last minute due to COVID and Laken didn't skip a beat. She found the best spots for beautiful pictures at a location she had never photographed before and she was so kind about all of the changes that were made less than a month before our wedding took place. Couldn't have asked for a better photographer.
Laken was hands down my FAVORITE vendor. She was kind, organized, and communicative. My husband and I are introverts and not typically comfortable in front of the camera, but Laken put us at ease immediately. She has an uncanny ability to capture the small details of the day along with the big moments beautifully. She has given us the gift of stunning, precious images from our day and I would HIGHLY recommend her. :)
Laken was so great and easy to work with! I knew a couple shots I wanted, but I pretty much let her do her thing the whole day and I’m very happy with the turnout. The quality is really good- it’s clear, bright, and has a lot of color. Even my husband was impressed with her and he liked the way she did things. She also helped keep me calm when an oops happened, so just having her smile and gentle personality was great. Highly recommend!
Laken and her team did such a great job with our wedding photos. We will treasure them forever! They look so natural and she really captured the love we had. She was so easy to work with and flexible. I think it was such a great value for having our special moments captured so beautifully forever.
I highly highly recommend McDonald Video!! Laken did an amazing job capturing our wedding day in a style that matched our wedding. It was awesome after the wedding to see shots of our day that we might have missed since the day flew by! She and her assistant were all over our venue, from getting ready, to the ceremony, to the reception, capturing everything beautifully. Our highlight film was perfect to post on facebook afterwards, especially to share with our family/friends that weren't able to make it to our big day!
Our wedding DVDs were beautiful! Customized front & back images from our day. I can't wait to go back and watch our video on anniversaries and to show our kids one day. Our wedding day was such an amazing, beautiful day and I'm thrilled with how beautifully Laken captured it!
Laken was absolutely amazing. She has the perfect personality - down to earth, easy-going, calm, leader, professional. She was easy to communicate with both before the wedding and throughout the day. Her prices were completely reasonable, and she was willing to travel all the way to Minnesota to be at our wedding. I would give her the highest recommendation to anyone looking to book her as their photographer.
Laken is the best of the best. I'm speechless! She is so kind, genuine, and patient yet punctual and keeps everybody on track throughout the day. She has wonderful ideas and puts a lot of thought and effort into creating the most beautiful pictures for her clients. She gets to know the couples that she works with on a personal level despite meeting countless new people every day. Not only is she an amazing photographer, but she is an incredible person as well.
Laken originally shot our engagement photos in the fall of 2017 and recently she spent the day photographing our wedding. The pictures are absolutely flawless and stunning, despite running into some tricky weather. I will truly cherish our wedding photos and engagement photos for the rest of my life. My husband and I are so thankful we chose Laken to be part of our big day. We will highly recommend her to everyone we know! I have nothing but positive things to say about her. THANK YOU Laken!
Laken was amazing!! I always think taking photos is awkward but Laken made it seem perfectly normal. She made sure that we got all the different photos we wanted with family and the wedding party. Her candid photos during the reception really captured the evening! We loved working with her and would definitely recommend to anyone wanting engagement photos or wedding photos!!!
Laken was an absolute dream to work with! She did a wonderful job on our engagement pictures and wedding pictures. The colors in her photos are uncomparable to any other photographers in our area, and our picture literally look like they could be out of a magazine! As far as the day of the wedding, Laken was exactly where she needed to be any time there was a picture to be taken. She came in ready to go to work, and her hard work definitely paid off. We ended up with a gorgeous wedding portfolio and may even use her services again down the road! 10/10 would recommend!
Laken did such a great job on our engagements pictures and wedding day! She arrived right on time and was so organized. She had a timeline for the pictures she wanted to take, which helped keep the day moving along nicely. Laken knows what she is doing, and doesn't hesitate to let you know what poses would look good. She has a great eye and captured the day perfectly. Super professional and extremely kind! I can't recommend her enough!
I can't say enough on how awesome Laken did on our daughter and son-in-law's wedding. Courtney & Levi couldn't have chosen a better photographer to capture the perfect wedding they had. Laken did both their engagement and wedding pictures. Her experience and professionalism shows with the time she spent and the stunning, gorgeous pictures she has shared. Laken loves what she does and it shows. She did an amazing job. If you need a photographer for your wedding contact McDonald Video & Photography. Laken will capture memories to cherish forever!!!
Laken is such an amazing photographer with a great personality! Her photography is gorgeous, her smile is sweet and can set anyone at ease in front of the camera. I'm excited to see where her photography takes her in the next year!
We just had our engagement shoot with Laken and we had such a fun time. It was very important to us that we include our dog, and she was all for it! The photos turned out amazing. I never thought I'd want to have an engagement photo shoot, but now I'm so glad we did. We can't wait for our wedding - the photos are sure to be amazing!
Laken did a wonderful job on all of our wedding pictures! She was very patient & very creative and was open to anything we wanted to do.
We were amazed that she already had a lot posted and able to view just days after our wedding.
If your in search of a wedding photographer, she is for sure the one! ♥️
Laken McDonald is incredible to work with! She has not only a creative eye, she is responsive, professional, & always willing to go above and beyond. I know I’m going to see ten star work when working with Laken!
Laken is such an calm, kind, comfortable person, which really helped us, as camera-shy people, stay relaxed and comfortable. She was very professional and everyone at our wedding commented on how nice and talented she was. She was very perceptive and knowledgeable about how to get that perfect shot! We received photos very quickly and they are BEAUTIFUL. This was the one part of the wedding I was picky with and I have 0 regrets with my choice in Laken. We are beyond pleased with our experience with her! I cannot recommend her enough!
At first my husband & I were leery about having a videographer at our wedding.. we are both pretty shy people & we thought we were going to have a big camera following us around day, which made us nervous. Our big day came & it was not what we thought it was going to be like, it was way better. She uses a regular camera so you can hardly tell that she is recording us. Laken is down to earth, creative and knew how to work with our photographer! Our wedding video is perfect, I’m glad we ended up going with her!!
Laken was our videographer for our wedding. She was very helpful throughout the entire day. Not only is she amazing but she captured every important and sentimental moment. She is amazing to work with and she’ll make sure that she captures every detail. We will cherish this video for the rest of our lives. I loved every second of our video. I highly recommend her!!!
Laken is a must have for your wedding day. Need proof? Look at her prior work!
She has an eye for colors, lighting and angles. She takes the time to learn about the bride and groom so she can capture their personality in their photos. I have countless people complement me on Laken's incredible work.
I would HIGHLY recommend McDonald Video & Photography!!! The way she conducted our wedding day was SO organized while being respectful of what we wanted! She came and took pictures while I was getting ready and when we were almost done she went to the church to take pictures of my dress, shoes, rings, flowers, etc. She also did amazing at kindly directing our crazy families during pictures so we would keep on our time frame. Her communication before, during, and after our wedding was top notch and I would 100%, without a doubt, book her again in a heartbeat!! Thank you Laken for our amazingly beautiful pictures!!
Working with Laken was one of the best decisions we made when it came to our wedding. She has incredible vision and talent; our photos are stunning. Her professionalism and calm demeanor are a dream during the chaotic wedding day. We will recommend Laken McDonald every time.
Laken was an absolute dream to work with! She had a great vision and plan for all of her shots and the pictures turned out even more beautiful than I could have hoped for. I was so impressed with her eye for detail and the way she worked with all her subjects - she was patient and so helpful with posing everyone. She truly went above and beyond to make sure everything went smoothly on the wedding day and afterwards the pictures were AMAZING. I truly cannot say enough good things about her.
Laken has been a long time friend. I was honored that she was able to travel back to her hometown to photograph my celebration of marriage. She was amazing. Laken is friendly, accommodating and makes you feel relaxed. I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Contact
Saint Louis, MO | BOOK NOW! STL, St Charles, Hannibal, Springfield, Quincy
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Meet the team
Laken McDonald
Owner
I am Laken, the face behind MVP! I'm often asked about my name, and no it has not been passed down from a great grandmother or has a special meaning....it's from a soap opera. Thanks mom! However, I can assure you that your time with us will become a family heirloom. After shooting my very first wedding, I knew that's where I belonged. And 10+ years and almost 100 couples later, nothing is better than capturing the most important & happiest day of their lives. I'd love to give you peace of mind, from the engagement session, planning a wedding timeline, to the moment you say I do! Best, Laken M
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Starting Range: $3,000 - $4,999
Laken McDonald
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