Greetings, beautiful people! Welcome to the Winsome Photos blog! We’re glad you’re here!

Before we dive into posting some awesome content about the amazing adventures that we get to experience and some helpful tips, we thought we’d take a minute and introduce ourselves. It’s so important to know the faces behind the camera because connection is something we are so passionate about!

That’s Right… Your Favorite Minneapolis Wedding Photographers Have A Blog

We’re Aaron and KC Keen: the faces behind Winsome Photos! *cue applause*

When we work with you, we aim to capture your story through your photos. Here’s a chance to hear a little bit of our story…

Aaron and I grew up very differently. I, KC, came from a big, happy family that fulfilled all the desires of the typical “American Dream” family. Growing up on a farm, I was super involved in my community through 4H and plenty of other activities. On the other hand, Aaron came from a broken home and, like many others, struggled to find his place in the world. Although we grew up in the same area, our paths never crossed until later in life.

Before I met Aaron, I had already given birth to our beautiful son, Eli. Our paths finally crossed in 2011 when we were both working at Walmart. From the moment we met, an outstanding friendship blossomed. We were not only lucky to find a partner in each other, but a forever friend. Our personalities just clicked and we understood each other on such a level that is rare to find. Aaron eagerly took on the role of a father to Eli and I fell madly in love with him.

Growing up, the arts were always a great inspiration for us. I was intrigued by architecture and design. Aaron loved music and even played in a metal band in high school (imagine that?). But photography was always something that we appreciated. We liked taking pictures but never could have imagined that it would one day consume our lives.

In 2013, we were pregnant with our daughter Ivy when we won a session with a local photographer for a family shoot. When we got those photos back, we were absolutely in love! Aaron had always dreamed of building a family and in that moment, it had become his reality. The emotions seemed to radiate from these photos and we were truly inspired. It was absolutely remarkable how the camera could capture such a sensory experience. Shortly after, we knew we were in desperate need of a camera of our own. That Christmas, my mom gifted us a professional camera and our relationship with photography officially began.

We began taking pictures of almost anything: our kids, our friends and family, nature. The world was our oyster and we had set out to capture it. It wasn’t until we started receiving requests from friends and family so often that we had no other choice than to make this a business. We struggled to fathom the idea that people wanted to trust us with the responsibility of taking their photos. After many periods of back and forth, we finally said, “To hell with it!” and officially started the business around 2014.

In the early years of the business, both of us held day jobs while photography took the back burner. In 2020, Aaron quit his corporate job of ten years to pursue the business full-time. As we invested more time and energy, the business began to bloom in front of us. By the latter end of 2021, I had quit my day job and was working alongside my best friend. Owning the business completely changed the world of photography for us both and our passion for it grows stronger and stronger everyday.

Today, we are happy devote all of our time to Winsome Photos. It’s one hell of a job and it’s not easy but we wouldn’t have it any other way. When you get to work with your best friend day in and day out, it’s hard not to complain! (But believe me, there are days where we want to rip each other’s heads off!)

On top of running the business, we have three beautiful kids and a lovely dog, Veda. If being business owners wasn’t enough, we’ve had to try to master the business of parenting! We’ll let you know if/when we ever get that one down! Our house can usually be found in a state of chaos with all of us running around. But at the end of the day, we like to take some time to decompress and reflect. Our lives are crazy but we own it.

Our lives are far from perfect. We are not the kind of people who are going to sit here and spew on and on about how our lives are the most amazing thing ever. There are many times where we have woken up and thought to ourselves, “There’s no way we can do this.” We’ve had days where it’s felt like the universe is just waiting for us to crumble under the pressure. But we value the real, honest shit because we wouldn’t be where we are today without it. For too long we have been told that it’s only acceptable to present the best version of yourself. Enough is enough! Embrace the good AND the bad, right along with the ugly!

Engagements, Weddings, Elopements… Oh My!

We are so very blessed to be able to do what we do! Not a day goes by where we do not take a minute to express our gratitude for the chance to be a part of so many amazing people’s lives. As we thought more about it, we kept asking ourselves, “Why not let other people in on that opportunity?” Our answer was the blog!

With all of the cool adventures and people we get to meet and experience life with, we thought it was about time we started writing about those experiences. This blog will serve as a document to the amazing engagements, destination weddings, and elopements that we have the liberty of shooting. In each post, we will share a little about our experience and any tips/tricks we catch on to that are specific to a certain location/setting. Oh! And of course we will be sharing some awesome photos as well!

On top of that, this blog will also serve as a resource for all things engagement, wedding, and elopement related! We will be sharing some informational pieces about certain useful information that we’ve picked up on over the years. We want your session/day/experience to be the best it can be and we are willing to help in any way that’s possible!

We have so much content that we literally cannot wait to share with everyone! Keep an eye out for new blog posts and make sure to keep up with our daily adventures on our social media linked at the bottom of the page! Feel free to comment or reach out with any questions you may have about our story or anything you need!

Stay rad, beautiful people! 🙂 *mic drop*