About this vendor
Hey, I’m Ryan! I left the corporate life 10 years ago, traveled around the world with a camera, and realized that couples who are crazy in love are my favorite thing to photograph. I got into weddings because of the quick and candid moments that are such a blast to capture. Hearing a bride say “Wow, we didn’t even see that happen!” or “This is the best picture of my Grandpa I’ve ever seen!” makes me happier than anything. But making creative, unique, and powerful portraits is right up there. Regardless of what I’m shooting on your wedding day, I really like to incorporate strong compositional elements, beautiful light, and fun interaction to hopefully leave everyone with artwork they would be thrilled to hang on their wall today or flip through in an album 30 years from now. Maybe we’ll be able to make the photos into holograms by then! So let’s have fun. Let’s get weird. Let’s do something that feels like you!
Beyond taking photos, I do everything I can to make your wedding day as enjoyable as possible. I’ll take deep breaths with you if you need it. I’ll get it right the first time (i.e. no moment “redos”). I’ll keep us on time…I promise! I’ll probably embarrass myself behind the camera way before you’d have an opportunity to do so in front of it, so don’t stress if you’re camera shy. My goal is for you to barely notice me most of the time, but when it’s time for portraits, I want you to feel comfortable and confident in our relationship and the images we make together.
I like to get to know my couples beyond just their wedding plans and photography preferences. What song makes you feel happier than any other? Oh you randomly cry on airplanes? Same! What’s one unexpected thing on your wedding day you really hope will happen? The more I know your quirks, your love, your fears, your excitement…the better I can capture those moments that mean the most to you. And while I’m doing so, I like to try new things with my photography and go for unique images that stand out in your everyday newsfeed. Don’t worry, I get plenty of safe “Mom and Dad” shots, but I find that a lot of couples want something that feels more authentic as well. I encourage everyone to be as weird or wild or creative as they want to be on their wedding day.
The more “you” it is, the better. So I love a backyard bbq or a forest preserve or an artsy loft space. You want to sing your vows instead of saying them? You’re doing a unity volcano (baking soda and vinegar, folks) in lieu of a unity candle? You want your first dance to include all your best friends? Sounds perfect! I love telling these stories because so much of you is ingrained in them. I can’t wait to tell yours!
Details
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Day After Session
- Engagement
Photo & Video
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
- Wedding Albums
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Documentary
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- Wedding
Awards and Affiliations
2021 '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.
Popular with couples like you
Check out our featured vendors.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.025 reviews
Review photos
Showing slide number 1 out of 7
Ryan is a dream come true photographer! He has a terrific eye and very interested in making sure the shots get got. We hired him for our whole wedding experience: engagement photos...
and celebration. Our engagement shots were taken at two iconic Chicago locations: Chicago Athletic Association with it’s academic, dramatic, and historic architecture & Chicago’s best cocktail bar Best Intentions with it’s low key, high vibes swanky interior. Ryan captured so many special and sweet photos and all the details of the locations during our engagement shoot, as well as how cute we are. A really lovely way to start documenting our journey. For our wedding day, we had Ryan and a second photographer. Ryan and the second shooter both took wonderful photos of our wedding! We got our Preview Album back a week or so after the wedding, Ryan selected the Best of the Best Day ever. The Big Everything from our Wedding Day came back to us, as scheduled by Ryan, with every moment there for us to relish in! All of our photos from Ryan capture the joy, the love, the fun, and the happiness of our wedding day.
If I could leave more than 5-stars, I would. Ryan was THE only choice for our wedding and I can't recommend him enough. Not only is he super talented, he's also just a great person...
to have around on a super stressful day. He is incredibly nice, and funny, and just blended so well with our group, that sometimes you forget he's not just one of your friends. The pics that we got back are just the icing on the cake - they are absolutely stunning and perfectly captured the day. 14/10, will always recommend.
We couldn't have been happier choosing Ryan as our photographer for our wedding. Neither of us are big photo people, but looking at them after, we couldn't help but smile at all th...
e moments he and his second shooter Ella captured. They're a great documentation of the evening and capture our guests as we know them. In addition, he was organized and on top of it, discussed with us ahead of time what we wanted to get pictures of and made sure we were a good fit both in his more documentary style and disposition. Working with him was comfortable and easy. We love our photos and we're so happy we can share them with all our friends and family.
Ryan's journalistic style of photography captures every minute of one of the best days of your life perfectly. You'll get pictures that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you c...
all up your family and friends to ask them what was actually happening in the photo. Our wedding day was one of the best of our lives and we can relive it daily thanks to Ryan.
Ryan and his assistant Andrew were absolutely fantastic at our wedding on Saturday. They were professional and creative and I just can’t wait to see our pictures! I know they’re go...
ing to be amazing. Thanks Ryan!
Hiring Ryan as our wedding photographer was one of the best decisions we've ever made. Ryan and his assistant were incredibly professional and made the whole experience fun for us ...
and our wedding party...which was tough to do on a hot Chicago summer day. More than his demeanor (which is awesome), Ryan's photography skills are unmatched. His photos - both posed and candid - are so full of color and life. Hire Ryan, you won't regret it.
Ryan and Ela did absolutely amazing work! We felt so comfortable and natural from the very beginning! He captures those moments you could just feel all the emotions in each photo. ...
He is professional, easy going and incredibly talented. By far one of the best choices we made when wedding planning!! I cannot stop recommending him to family and friends (who have already booked with him for their weddings)!
Ryan photographed both our Engagement and Wedding. We were so impressed with his professionalism and talent, that we asked him to travel from Chicago for both of these shoots. He ...
provided us with memories that we will cherish for a lifetime; from Red Rocks Theatre to the docks on Cancun he exceeded all of our high expectations. Thanks Ryan!!
Ryan and his assistant was clear and got all the shots I imagined in my head. I loved working with him and love my final products even more!
From our initial meeting with Ryan, my husband and I knew he was the right choice for us! He is very relaxed and chill and he understood our vibe, which made him the best for captu...
ring our special day... which he did! He was so professional, friendly and talented and we truly enjoyed having him share it with us :) Our pictures and album are phenomenal!
My husband and I found Ryan Moore Photography, and after meeting him in person, we immediately knew he was our photographer. Ryan was everything we needed and so much ... Moore (so...
rry I couldn't resist!). Neither of us are very photogenic or used to being in the spotlight, but Ryan put us at ease throughout the whole day. He is professional, personal, charming, and when we got the photos back we were speechless. Totally blown away by the talent and range of looks. Our staged photos looked anything but staged, the wide shots were stunning, our guests looked fabulous (and almost all of them made appearances in our photos), the details were all captured with incredible care - Ryan missed nothing. We literally could not speak any higher of Ryan Moore Photography.
I knew I wanted to hire Ryan Moore even before I was engaged. I was the venue manager for a hotel downtown Chicago that had Ryan Moore Photography on their preferred vendor list, s...
talked his website and instragram and knew he was the photographer I wanted - as an added bonus he is a wonderful person as well! My husband was super nervous about being photographed for an entire day, but after the first 10 minutes of our engagement session (which was really like hanging out with an old friend that just happens to have a camera in front of their face while talking to you) he was convinced as well. My husband and I were super comfortable with Ryan and confident that we would not only have stunning pictures of our wedding day, but that he wouldn't get in the way of us enjoying the day and being in the moment. As a wedding planner myself, I can't wait to work with Ryan Moore again! HIRE HIM! You won't be disappointed.
Ryan is talented, easy to work with, and made our NYE wedding extra memorable! He made sure to get to know us as a couple before our date and captured all the shots that we request...
ed, while also looking for unique and interesting moments throughout the day. We were extremely happy with our experience working with Ryan and will cherish our photos forever!
We hired Ryan for our engagement and wedding photos. I think his work speaks for itself - I especially appreciate the very skilled and subtle touch to his photo editing style, noth...
ing too over-the-top. Beyond that, this was the smoothest out of all of our wedding vendor interactions. He's very professional, down-to-earth, and easygoing. Ryan does his best to be flexible and accommodating even when his schedule is packed.
At the event itself, Ryan and his colleague were very discreet while still doing a great job wheedling some fun shots out of our otherwise rather reserved guests. He had plenty of creative suggestions for shooting locations and poses beyond just the typical Chicago cityscape standards. Overall, a pleasure to work with!
Ryan photographed our wedding ceremony at Little Goat and reception at Thalia Hall. He and his team were awesome and exactly what we wanted -- chill and easy-going while being arti...
stic and focused. We also appreciated Ryan's communication leading up to and after the wedding. 5 out of 5 stars and would recommend to anyone!
We loved working with Ryan for our 12/18 wedding. He is easy going but also professional. He brought great ideas to the table but also accepted ours. Our wedding planner enjoyed wo...
rking with him as well. He is reliable, fun, talented, and personable. And the photos are just stunning!
As a same-sex couple, we weren't sure how different vendors would feel about working on our wedding. From the first interaction, Ryan was welcoming and inclusive - how amazing!
We...
had an intricate wedding day with high church, a theater performance, and the traditional dinner/dancing/toasts. Ryan rolled with all the details, capturing each one. Even better? He and his assistant faded into the background ... our guests commented that they never even noticed a photographer being there, never felt blocked or intruded upon. When we got the results, our hundreds-of-photos were chock full of "how did they get THAT shot?" kinds of reactions. Amazing.
Ryan's pictures are so amazing, we would consider getting married a second time, just so we could hire him again.
Working with Ryan was easily one of the best decisions we could have made for our wedding! He was phenomenal at every step of the process. He was so organized and gave helpful insi...
ght whenever we had questions. He had great ideas and really made our vision for our pictures come to life (for both our engagement and wedding sessions). He has a wonderful demeanor that makes you feel relaxed and have fun! We genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. Those in the wedding party also raved about how great he was. If you hire Ryan, your photos are sure to be beautiful!
Thank you Ryan for making our day so special!!
Amazing!!! We booked Ryan for our May wedding and could not have been happier with our decision. From the first email, Ryan was always responsive and accommodating to our requests....
We booked an engagement session with our package and it was a great way to "practice" for the big day. He gave awesome direction when needed but also let us do our own thing while clicking away. Our photos look absolutely amazing and we are so so happy with the outcome. We knew how important photography was for our wedding vision and Ryan knocked it out of the park. Can't recommend him enough!
Ryan is an amazing photographer! I saw his work after he dis my friends wedding and honestly could not find anyone better! He made my fiance feel super comfortable taking pictures ...
and that in itself was huge! He was so easy to work with and made recommendations along the way. I cant think of anyone better who could have captured the special moments on the happiest day of our life! I will forever be grateful & hope to use him again as we start a family!
Ryan's work speaks for itself - take a look at his website and you should be sold already. What I can tell you in this review that you won't necessarily find on his site is how fan...
tastic Ryan is to work with. He's a genuinely awesome and laid back dude that is the type of person that my wife and I mesh with best. He's incredibly personable and had excellent tips/banter to ensure that our photos turned out as incredibly as they did - and he owns his own lederhosen.
We interviewed a number of photographers after choosing a few that had styles that worked for us, and Ryan had us sold as soon as we met in person. Thanks for everything Ryan, and for those in the market you seriously cannot do better.
100 years ago Ryan would have been burned at the stake for being a witch. You can call him a photographer, a documentarian, a story-teller, but Ryan is really a magician. Look at h...
is photos. Seriously, look at them. Image after image of brides and grooms that look like kings and queens. I would trust no one more than Ryan Moore -- book him before his dates disappear.
Ryan and his team are amazing. From the first time my husband and I met with Ryan, we knew he’d be a great fit for us – he impressed us as seeming like both a friend who understoo...
d and cared about us, and at the same time, a complete professional, who would make the quality of our wedding photos his number one priority.
Our engagement session with Ryan was a highlight of our wedding planning process. In addition to providing us with stunning pictures of the two of us in some of Chicago’s most beautiful locations, the engagement session was a great opportunity for Ryan to get to know us and for us to get comfortable posing for these sort of photos.
On the day of the wedding, Ryan and his second shooter, Gillian, were a calming and reassuring presence during the preparation portion of the day, and from Gillian tearing up as she snapped photos of my parents and me waiting to walk down the aisle to Ryan capturing silly late night shots of us on the dance floor, they seemed to delight in the key moments of our event right alongside us.
Just from the tiny sneak peeks Ryan and Gillian gave us during the night, we’re certain our pictures will be spectacular, and we cannot wait to see the finished product! Thank you, Ryan and Gillian!!
Ryan has the professional eye you don't see every day. He took fabulous engagement and wedding photos. The way he captures moments and gets the lightening is unmatchable. He is ex...
tremely personable and someone you actually like having around all day. He not only took fantastic photos, but he was very discrete in his picture taking as well. Can't say enough good things about him!
Ryan was truly wonderful - he made us both feel very comfortable, during the engagement session and wedding itself (having a camera in your face is not always fun!) and had plenty ...
of creative ideas on different ways to shoot. He co-photographer that was there the entire time was just as amazing too - we couldn't have been happier with our choice!
Contact
1944 N Wood, Chicago, IL
Ryan Moore Photography