Welcome to my blog! I'm thrilled to be able to share with you my favorite images from weddings, engagements, maternity, and more! Grab a cup of coffee and get snuggly cuz this blog will give you all the feels!
I am a big fan of community over competition. I spent most of my musical theater collegiate years fighting for a spot on the stage, fighting to be heard, fighting just to feel accepted. Those years were hard, but they taught me to never give up! Plus, I’m pretty sure that’s where I get all of my dramatic flair from in photography.
When I tumbled head over heels in love with wedding photography, part of my joy was finding a community of people who wanted to help me succeed. It was incredible to go from fighting the world all by myself to having a family of like minded photographers cheering me on. I am so grateful for each and every person who poured their time, knowledge, and sometimes even money into. I am forever grateful for your investments!
All of this mushy stuff is leading to a point and that point is I’m always on the look out for amazing communities to connect and invest in. If I can help just one other photographer reach a goal, get inspired, or never give up, then it’s all worth it! One such community that I was recently invited to join is called Otterplan Connect. Their motto is “Connecting wedding creatives. Growing together” and it’s specifically designed for North Carolina Wedding Professionals.
Otterplan recently reached out and asked to interview me for their monthly member spotlight! What an extreme honor! You can read the full interview here:
March Spotlight: Mabyn Ludke Photography
Now that Daniel & I have settled in Western North Carolina, we’ve been looking for new ways to connect with professionals in the area. Otterplan is a great way to meet new people & they’re constantly revamping & implementing new connection strategies into their site! I’m looking forward to the network of amazing wedding creatives that Daniel and I will continue to connect with through this site!
XOXOXO,
Mabyn
You may recall a sweet little wedding nestled in the Appalachian mountains about 45 minutes from Asheville that Daniel & I shot last summer. Jenna & David are worship leaders and they contacted us to shoot their incredibly sweet & beautiful Burnsville, NC wedding. After most weddings, I send a few photos to the vendors who helped create such a wonderful event. We love lovin’ on our vendors and we appreciate all they do so the least we could do is share a few photos with them. Little did we know that this simple act would lead to quite the chain reaction!
Our images were shared from vendor to writer to magazine editor! We ended up getting a full page feature in Mountain Escapes Magazine! A completely unexpected and wonderful surprise! We also landed an invite to the 2017 Burnsville Bridal Expo. After all of that love, how could we say no?! So we packed up our photos in the car and headed to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite little towns, Burnsville!
Amelia Hoilman of White Falls Catering did an incredible job of setting the stage for all of the talented vendors to showcase their specialties. We had a great time introducing ourselves and getting to know the local community. I’m a HUGE fan of supporting local and this community sure knows how to do it right! On top of the beautiful setup in the Burnsville Town Center, they invited West Entertainment to get the party going, & had a hilarious cake smash where brides clawed through layers and layers of cake to find the ring hidden inside! It was quite possibly one of the nicest & most entertaining bridal shows I’ve ever attended!
As some of you may know, 2017 marks my 10th year as a wedding photographer. That means I’ve officially been shooting weddings for a DECADE! Okay, now if looking in the mirror didn’t make me feel old, this sure does! However, it’s a milestone I will gratefully celebrate! To work at something I love so much for so long, to have others support me, to be able to see hundreds of joyful brides and grooms as I scroll through my website look back at me, it’s a feeling of satisfaction and peace that I can’t aptly describe.
Most of the time when we attended a bridal show we give away an engagement session. This year however, I wanted to go big in celebration of 10 years! So we opted to give away a wedding collection! WHAT?! I know! We’re crazy! So it is with much joy & excitement that I get to announce that the winner of our Wedding Collection Giveaway is Margaret Casey & Jackie Sprinkle!!!!! Congrats!!!! We’ll be sending you an official “You won lets get our happy dance on” email and we can setup a time to discuss all the details! EEEE! YAY! This is so much fun!
Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth. We can’t wait to shoot more beautiful weddings in the WNC area and have an amazing 2017 season!
XOXOXO,
Mabyn