About Us

We feel so fortunate to be chosen to document one of the most special days in someone's life. We hope to hear your love story and capture your big day.

About Us:

Chris Schmitt Photography is a boutique wedding photography studio nestled in Westlake Village, California. Founded in 2001 by Chris and his wife Andrea in Hollywood, this studio has made a notable impact in the wedding photography industry. Their stunning images have been featured in various prestigious media outlets, including:

The Today Show
OWN Network
Good Morning America
Los Angeles Magazine
InStyle Magazine
Destination Wedding Magazine
The Knot
Brides Magazine
Ceremony Magazine
J-Date
SELF Magazine
Grace Ormonde
California Wedding Day Magazine

Additionally, Chris has appeared on the TLC Wedding Reality TV Show, For Better or for Worse.

Milestone Achievement:
Last year, the studio proudly celebrated capturing their 1,000th wedding!

Chris's Journey

Before establishing their wedding and portrait studio, Chris gained invaluable experience working alongside legendary celebrity and fashion photographers such as:

Annie Leibowitz
David LaChapelle
Herb Ritts
Bruce Weber
Matthew Rolston
Peggy Sirota

These experiences inspired him to infuse a sense of style, elegance, and fun into his wedding portraits.

Our Style

If you appreciate a photographic style that embodies Modern Elegance, Authentic Candids, and Cinematic Storytelling, then we are the perfect match! Our editing style features a vibrant blend of true colors with warm undertones. We adopt a modern editorial and photojournalistic approach, incorporating both candids and lifestyle imagery throughout the day. When necessary, we step in to direct posing, ensuring that our couples and family portraits look their absolute best.

Lighting Expertise: Our photos are striking, and we skillfully utilize lighting—come rain or shine—to make everyone look fantastic.
Candid and Directed Moments: On any wedding day, we witness a spectrum of emotions, from laughter to tears, joy, and romance. We strive to blend seamlessly into the scene as photojournalists to capture candid moments while also stepping in to direct important times, such as family portraits.
Unique Couple Portraits: We love crafting unique portraits of our couples and are always ready to provide tips and guidance to ensure they look amazing.

Our Passion

Our enthusiasm for capturing weddings has taken us around the world, documenting one of the most significant days in a couple's life. We feel truly honored to be chosen for this role, and we genuinely love what we do!

When Chris and Andrea aren’t behind the camera, they enjoy spending time with their two children, Sawyer and Siena. They share a passion for travel, mountain biking, snowboarding, and wakeboarding. “We are big kids ourselves and believe in a good balance of working hard and playing hard.”

This year, we celebrate our 23rd wedding anniversary and are thrilled to have won the 2025 Couple's Choice Award for the 13th consecutive year, placing us in the top 5% of wedding photography studios nationwide!

Q &A

WHY should we hire you? I love this question. Straight and to the point! LOL! We understand there is a ton of talent to choose from especially here in LA, so I'm going to keep it real. Here is a list of my top 5 reasons 1. Experience Matters. We have plenty of it. 20+ years of capturing weddings and we have a Perfect 5-Star Rating which were very proud of. 2. Personality. We have a great balance of being flies on the wall capturing those amazing candids but also tapping in to direct you, help with posing, making you feel comfortable in front of the camera and especially organizing family portraits when needed. Having a laid back , stress free, fun personality is one of the secrets to our success! 3. We are Full Service and we have your back! We help you every step of the way. From developing the perfect PHOTO timeline to putting on the buttoners to making sure family is looking their best. We roll with the flow and adapt when necessary on your wedding day to make sure we are getting the shots we need but never taking you away from the moment of enjoying your day. 4. We are a husband and wife team! How great is that? You get two perspectives Male and Female for your wedding. Did I mention we are somewhat competitive? We like to see who can get the best shot(s) at every wedding, but also work amazingly well as team. Andrea (Dre) loves to capture the guys getting ready, jokes around with them and always manages to capture real authentic candids of the guys hanging out. I love capturing Bridal details,creating some artistic shots of bridal prep and bridal portraits before the first look. It's a a great balance. 5. We are so confident that you will love your photos that we stand behind out work, our Products and Services with a 100% no risk guarantee! No other studio that we have heard of offers this. This one reason alone is reason enough.
How many photographers come to the wedding? We offer both 1 and 2 photographer packages to help fit any budget.
Do we get to keep the Digital Files? Yes we do not believe in holding your pictures hostage and want you to be able to download them, share them and love them! Each and every photo will be delivered to you already color corrected, enhanced and proceeded to look it's very best. You will be given a web optimized size to share on all social media and a high res size for any print orders. Both are included!
Do we have to Order Prints with you? No. We don't make you spend any money with us after your wedding. You have the choice in ordering professional prints from us or on your own. If you decide to order prints from us, we include additional retouching requests for free and best of all, every order placed with us comes with a 100% lifetime guarantee.
Do you offer Large Prints or Canvas? Yes we offer Fine Art Museum Quality Canvas, Metal Prints, Acrylic Prints and traditional Prints in every size made for framing. All of these options can easily be ordered on the website we deliver to you and also come with a lifetime guarantee!
Do you offer Videography? Yes though it's first come first serve. Our Video crew offers cinematic story telling wedding videography which compliments our technique for capturing. your wedding. Sometimes our video crew will be booked already on another job, so please check our availability. You can check here for sample video.
Do you travel for weddings? Yes! In fact Destination Weddings are our speciality and we have had the thrill and pleasure of photographing over 50 destination weddings all over the world! From Australia to Hawaii to Mexico to Italy to St. Lucia. We often offer Destination Wedding Specials so be sure to ask!
How many hours do you recommend for Photography? Our most common day is 8 hrs and we have a great wedding day PHOTO timeline we've posted to help you plan your day from our recommendation. Click Here.
How long does it take to get our photos? We offer one of the fastest turn around times around. Our goal is to get you all of your photos edited,looking amazing and delivered to you within 3 weeks after your wedding day!
How long have you been a wedding photographer? We started our wedding photography business in 2001!
How would you describe your photography style? Glamorous,Creative,Timeless. Our editing style is warm, vibrant and colorful (kind of like our clients). In today's wedding photography we have to be really great at several styles in order to tell the full story of the wedding day. We specialize in capturing real moments and fun candids of your friends and family throughout the entire day. We are also known for our stunning portraits that look like they belong in a wedding magazine. In fact, they often end up in one!

If you'd like to schedule a chat, Zoom, or swing by our studio, please call us at the number below. If you'd like to learn more and hear about our current specials, please fill out the contact form and tell us a little about your big day!