Hi, we are Michele and Andy, a husband and wife team from Chicago. Our company is named after our beautiful daughter, Misha. We are full time wedding photographers but this wasn’t always the plan…
We come from the medical field, Michele is a Pharmacist and I (Andy) is a Doctor. We met in college at UIC and proudly finished our respective degrees and got married shortly after with big plans and big dreams for our careers.
A year later, Michele was pregnant with our child, Misha. Soon after Misha was born we found out she was missing the part of her brain that connects the left and right sides of the brain, also know as dysgenesis of the corpus callosum. She had global delays in all parts of her development, we were told she would not walk nor talk and she would be a “vegetable.” They even sent us a sit and stand device where we were told she would need to use for the rest of her life. We were devastated.
We looked into all options for her care but couldn’t find the right fit. We turned to each other and thought there is no one better than us, her medically trained parents that would love and care for her as much as we would. We gave the sit and stander to our physical therapist and decided they were not going to define Misha’s destiny.
We love photography and Michele always loved the arts and she had always expressed her artistic flair through drawings and paintings. We decided to quit our jobs and take a leap of faith and make wedding photography our full time jobs so that we could work at home and give Misha the love and attention that she deserves… it was the best decision we ever made.
It wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns, we knew we had a tough road ahead, but we were ready. We did all her physical therapies, occupational therapies and speech therapies. We strapped on her ankle braces and took her for walks on her tiny little walker up and down the driveway every day. At the age of 4 she was showing little progress and we started to doubt ourselves, “Did we make the right decision???” We were feeling defeated…
Then it happened, about a month after turning 4… Out of the blue, as if she could sense and understand our feeling of defeat, Misha stood up in the middle of our living room and started walking around ON.HER.OWN!!!
She acted as if she had been doing this all along, navigating through her toys… you know, just out for a stroll :)
It was one of the happiest days of our lives and I would like to share it with you (please excuse the mess! lol)
So why do we tell you all of this? Because we know LOVE, we love each other and we’ve seen what love can do. We know the synergistic power of love 1 + 1= 3!!
Because we are full time and we work from home, we work 100x harder editing your photos so we can continue to be there for our daughter.
We know how to tell your story as the day unfolds, to recognize and capture the little details, the little moments that are special with you, your family, and friends.
You will be hard pressed to find another photographer that cares about your day as much as we do :)
Now that you know us, we’d love to get to know you
BUTTON: Let’s chat about your dream wedding
Think BIG, Dream BIG, Believe BIG
We are big believers of taking a leap of faith and dreaming big!
When Misha gets older we want her to work in a place where she can be inclusive in society and have responsibilities and goals of her own.
We dream of one day opening up “MISHA’S CAFE”! A cafe that’ll serve amazing coffee, has a play area that is sensory friendly where parents can come and relax, and will be inclusive for all, and provide a workplace that will have opportunities for her and other special needs friends. All will be welcome!
We have this on our dream board, letting the universe know that this WILL happen one day. We want you to know that a portion of every wedding booked will contribute to the building of “MISHA’S CAFE.”
Believe us, it will happen, if WE don’t make it happen, SHE will…
She giggles and smiles every time we mention it :)
Thank you for being a part of our journey with us…