That is a sentence I have said out loud exactly once, to someone who asked the right question at the right moment.Â
I am saying it now because it is the truest thing I can tell you about who we are and how we got here.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let me start at the beginning.
Weddings were in my veins before I ever picked up a camera.
My mom was a florist. My dad was a musician who played receptions. I grew up classically trained – Seattle Girls Choir, a travelling choir after that, state solo awards, four years as a wedding singer, a stint singing the National Anthem at every single sporting event my high school had, and then a year doing the same for a local baseball team. I worked as a karaoke jockey in Montana the way my dad did in Oregon. I have been offered record deals in bars. I have never once paid for a drink on karaoke night. I also had a brief stint in opera that my classically trained voice teachers were significantly more excited about than I was (but it’s a fun party trick).Â
And I also spent a fair amount of time behind a sound board and hiring DJ (that karaoke jockey stint)
Weddings were everywhere I looked. And yet when it came time to photograph them, I wanted nothing to do with it.
Film photography in the late 90s - the absolute necessity of choosing which specific moments get to live on that precious roll - did not vibe with me at all. I went to school for coordination instead.
I worked in events. Became a marketing VP. Eventually landed at a small boutique portrait studio that closed without warning, leaving me jobless. I am also epileptic, as is my daughter Braelyn, which meant we could not be more than five minutes from EMT response at any given time. I had to do something that worked around that. I decided I would photograph seniors and families.
Josh wanted to do weddings. I still had film PTSD.
Absolutely not.
So Josh made a plan behind my back.
He and a friend of mine from Nebraska coordinated without telling me. She flew out to photograph a wedding in Oregon and needed a second photographer. I had been volunteered as tribute. I went begrudgingly. I was not happy about it.
Five minutes in, I knew.
This was my calling. This lit my whole soul on fire in a way nothing else ever had. Something switched on in my soul and it has not switched off since. We were somewhere with no cell service and I could not even call Josh to tell him. I found out what I was supposed to do with my life and I could not reach the one person I needed to tell.
I also got hit in the face with my friend’s lens hard enough to give me a black eye. The story ended up in PPA magazine. I did not even care.
I went home and revamped our entire online presence. Shot every styled shoot I could book. Second shot for every photographer who would have me. The following year we had 29 weddings of our own. The year after that, 60. The rest is history.
One more thing you should probably know about us before we get any further.
Josh and I met because my brother was married to his sister. They threw a Halloween party. My whole family came. Fast forward a few months and a friend request and a LOT of Skype calls that were just us typing and staring at each other …Josh and I caught fire.
Our siblings did not make it. We did. We got married at his dad’s house – the same place we met – and we have four nephews who are related to us on both sides, which sounds complicated until you realize it just means we love them twice as much. And no, before you ask, it is not weird like THAT. We are not related. We just both ended up related to the same four boys through completely different family lines, which is either a beautiful coincidence or the universe being extremely efficient.
Josh knew before I did. He has been doing that ever since.
MEET KATE
Hi. I’m Kate.
I have been behind a camera since 1997. I am also a certified wedding coordinator, a former marketing VP, a classically trained singer, a karaoke enthusiast who has never once paid for a drink on karaoke night, a true crime podcast consumer, a Deathly Hallows tattoo-having human – it is a reminder that the stories we love can outlast our feelings about the people who wrote them – a four-dog-owning, perpetually-30-minutes-early, coffee-dependent person with ADHD that turns out to be my entire operating system.
Side note on the singing: opera trained, Seattle Girls Choir, state solo awards, wedding singer for four years, National Anthem at every high school sporting event and then a local baseball team for a full season, karaoke jockey in Montana following in my dad’s footsteps. I have been offered record deals in bars. I bring this up not to brag but because it explains why I can hold a room, read an audience, and project calm into a space of 200 emotionally activated people without breaking a sweat. The skills transfer.
I am also autistic, though nobody used that word for girls like me when I was growing up. My daughter Braelyn is autistic too and she considers it a superpower. So do I. It is the reason I can walk into a getting-ready room and understand every person in it within five minutes. It is the reason I can adjust the energy of a space without announcing I am doing it. It is the reason couples tell me afterward that they do not know how I always knew what they needed before they did.
I tell couples: you have no need to be stressed if I am not stressed. And I do not show stress. That is not a brag. It is a promise. I have been keeping it for 15 years and 640 weddings and I have not broken it once.
When we go a few weeks without a wedding, I miss it desperately. It is like I am compelled to do this. Even on the days I second-guess whether I am any good at it – I show up, and something switches on in my soul. And I am in the moment doing what I love most. Which is a weird way of saying it since I am not religious at all. But it is true.
On a wedding day I wear a full tactical photographer rig – chest camera harness, waist belt with multiple pouches, lens bags, water bottle on a carabiner. I look like a combat photographer who also has excellent taste in shoes. I kind of am. I will make sure you eat. I will make sure you drink water. I will fix your bustle, carry your lip gloss, bring your food to the table so you can hug your guests without worrying about your dress, and remind you to grab your fun sunglasses before the reception starts. My tactical bags operate exactly like Hermione’s – bigger on the inside than they have any right to be. I carry everything.
I also care deeply and somewhat aggressively that your photos look like you. Your skin looks like your actual skin. Your flowers look like your actual flowers. Color Integrity is not a brand phrase. It is a personal conviction. I will not make you look like a filter.
I have been doing this for 15 years. I have photographed 640 weddings. I remember almost all of them – show me one photo from any of them and the whole day comes back. The grandpa who slipped a note under a door. The chore bowl dance. The bride wearing her grandmother’s earrings. I am keeping the thread – the one that connects your day to every day that came before it and every day that will come after it. I take that seriously.
FAVORITE HEROES – KATE Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Winter Soldier, Loki, Yelena, Kate Bishop, Venom. The ones who were underestimated and did not care. |
MEET JOSH
And then there’s Josh.
Josh is more perfect for me than I could have ever designed on my own. He is strong everywhere I am weak. He makes me better. He pushes me harder. He is the great equalizer when I get too corporate – when the game face appears and I start running the day like a military operation, he finds this absolutely hilarious and makes me laugh until it goes away. He reminds me we are here to make one day magical for one couple and that everything is going to work out.
He is right every time.
He is not just a second photographer. He is a necessary perspective all day long.
Josh is the king of candids. The tear at the exact right second. The belly laugh so real you can feel it through the screen. The moment nobody else knew was happening. I find out how good they are three weeks later when I am editing his card. It is the best surprise every single time.
He also, since our very first wedding together, has hidden something nerdy in his photos for me to find during editing. Something he knows I will love. I never know what it is until I am culling his card – and I look forward to it every time. 640 weddings later, he is still doing it. That is not a fun fact. That is a complete description of who he is.
Before all of this, Josh was a star soccer player. Not just at school – he played select and travelled the US competing at a level that could have taken him semi-pro if he had made different choices after high school. People still yell Gansneder at him when we go shopping in his hometown. He is completely unbothered by this. If you ever ask him to sign anything, he will automatically include #17 underneath his name. He has been number 17 since high school. Some things are just permanent. It tracks for someone who has always been, in every room he walks into, exactly that guy.
Outside of weddings: his blood type is Mt Dew. He grows 70 pumpkins a year on purpose and donates them to local farms. He maintains approximately 12 fish tanks and also goes fishing, because he loves fish so much that one ecosystem is not enough. He and our nephew Andy – who lives with us and is as much our son as anything – co-run the AJ Aquarium together, a breeding operation with live stream feeds and a level of dedication that can only be described as a calling. He puts on a 30 minute choreographed fireworks show every 4th of July for 30 to 60 people – friends, family, neighbors, and past clients who come back every year – and the lawn catches fire approximately 15 minutes after the show ends, every single time, despite the water truck we keep on standby and the pre-soaking of the grass. He is currently looking into becoming a licensed pyrotechnician because he does not believe in doing things small.
His nicknames at home are Thor and Hulk. He has broken forks eating dinner. He once shattered my windshield trying to help reattach my rearview mirror. He pulled a vehicle off a person after witnessing an accident on the road. He has zero concept of his own strength. He also, every single spring without being asked, landscapes my faerie tree to perfection – tiny door, windows, lit mushrooms – because I love it. That is the whole reason. No other reason.
I married him on purpose. I would do it again. He is who is standing next to me at your wedding and you are going to love him.
FAVORITE HEROES – JOSH Black Widow, Spiderman, Thor, Hulk, Black Panther, Wolverine. The ones who act first and explain later. |
You read the origin story. Here is the actual build
Character Sheet — GSquared Weddings
Chaos Coordinator · Empath · Visionary · Podcast connoisseur
Character Sheet — GSquared Weddings
Force of Nature · Candid Kingmaker · Builder · Aquatic Empire Operator
THE FAMILY
We are not a business with a family behind it.
We are a family that built a business that reflects exactly who we are.
Our daughter Braelyn is autistic and considers it a superpower – which she inherited from me, because I am also autistic, and we are both extremely right about this. Braelyn assists behind the scenes at our coordination weddings and works our wedding shows. She knows what I expect before I ask. She is extraordinary at what she does and we are lucky to have her. She’s incredibly creative and a former gymnast – so her work ethic is just like Josh’s.Â
Our daughter Wynter is a stylist at Elle Marie Salon in Smokey Point, where she is thriving and doing exactly what she is supposed to be doing. We are proud of her. We also highly recommend booking services with her. She’s the only reason our hair ever looks good.Â
Our nephew Andy lives with us and is as much our son as anything. He and Josh run the AJ Aquarium together – a fish breeding operation with approximately 12 tanks and live stream feeds. Andy has graduated and is working full time now, which means the tanks are slightly more supervised by Josh alone, but the love for the fish remains constant on both sides.
We have a bunch of other kids too – Cian and their spouse, Audrey & her fiance, and Kierdan & his fiancee all no longer live at home. Two of them are in other states and thriving, and we are so proud of all of them. JJ is heading into her last year of high school and we can’t wait to see where her future takes her.
We also have four dogs – Breezy, Oakley Mae (grandpup), Indigo Grey, and Bear – who serve as Kate’s morning warmup for the professional chaos ahead. Two cats. Nine acres in Snohomish that Josh tends with the kind of obsessive attention he brings to everything he loves. There is a veggie garden, a flower garden, a faerie tree, 70 pumpkins, a rope swing in the front yard, a fire pit with a view of Mt Pilchuck, and a standing invitation.
Our past couples know where we live. They come to our 4th of July party. They roast marshmallows at the fire pit. They watch the sunset on Mt Pilchuck. Their kids run in the grass. Some of them drive six hours to be here. Some of them fly in from other states. The door is open.
HOW A WEDDING DAY ACTUALLY WORKS
We arrive like we’re going into battle.
Tactical bags, camera harnesses, multiple lenses, a huge rolling bag for the lighting setup, a styling bag for flat lay detail photos, and two emergency kits with legitimately everything in them. People comment that we look like we are going to war. They are not wrong about the preparation part.
We greet the couple, grab the details for flat lay photos, and work on those together – I am too short to hang a wedding gown, so that one is on Josh – and then we separate. We head into the getting-ready rooms, build rapport, learn the inside jokes we will use later during formals, and start photographing the little moments happening everywhere. We direct the day’s energy. We absorb the stress. Like T’Challa would have if he had taken the snap of the Infinity Gauntlet instead of Tony. But I digress.
We wear headsets so we can communicate in real time – coordinating coverage, calling out moments, game planning portraits on the fly. At dinner break we run a halftime huddle: vibe check on the couple, the family, the energy of the day. What we wish we had gotten to. Where we want to be for sunset. What is coming next. Then we go back in.
We become the brain so you no longer have to think. We tell people where to be. We make decisions. We crack jokes with your grandparents. We carry your food to the table. We fix your bustle – and then fix it again the second and third time it breaks. We change your shoes when the heels become unbearable. We make sure you do not forget your fun sunglasses for the reception. We direct your sparkler exit so nothing and no one catches on fire.
The goal is that your wedding day does not feel like a photo session. It feels like a party where you took a few photos.
That is the whole plan. We will handle everything else.
THE WEDDING ISN’T THE END
It’s just how we meet.
We do around 200 family sessions a year. Roughly half are past wedding couples or their families. The other half are repeat clients we have been serving for at least six years. We get only a handful of new clients annually – because the ones we have keep coming back.
Past couples fly in from Texas, Arizona, Hawaii, Oregon, and Florida for family sessions with us. A family who booked our Christmas minis six years ago lives in Spokane – six hours away – and has come back every single year since. At our 4th of July party every year, there are past couples mixed in with the neighbors and the family, watching Josh’s fireworks show and staying until the lawn catches fire.
We do not have a retention strategy. We do not have a loyalty program. We just show up completely, give everything we have, go home wondering if they felt the same way we did – and then find out the answer when they book us for their first Christmas card photos.
Somewhere between the wedding day and the first family session, they stopped being clients. We do not have a word for what they became. Family is the closest one.
We want you to know, before you book us, before you have even decided if we are the right fit – that if we are your people, the wedding is not the end of it. The door is always open. The fire pit is there. The rope swing is in the front yard. The faerie tree is lit.
We would love to still be your people five years from now.
THE CREDENTIALS
15 years. 640 weddings. 380+ five-star reviews.
11x WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Award. The Knot Best of Weddings. Best of 425. Wedding Photography Guild member since 2014. 100+ venues photographed across the Pacific Northwest. Investment ranging from $4,500 to $10,000.
Kate is a certified wedding coordinator with 20 years of marketing and business management experience. Josh is a machine shop lead who builds things better than you asked for, faster than you expected, and always at the last possible minute because the ADHD and the deadline are his activation sequence.
Between the two of them: everything you need for your wedding day and probably a few things you did not know you needed until they were already taken care of.
If this sounds like what you are looking for –
We would genuinely love to hear from you. We book a limited number of weddings each year intentionally, because the kind of presence we bring to a wedding day requires us to not be doing it every single day of every weekend of every single month.
Tell us about your day. Tell us about your people. Tell us the inside jokes and the family dynamics and the things you are most nervous about and the moments you most want to exist in photographs forever.
We will show up like it is an honor.
Because it is.
We’re in your corner way before the wedding day – helping you every step of the way & caring as much as you do.Â
we believe our job is to protect your wedding day experience – not just in dong whatever needs done on your wedding day, but long before. Whether that’s building a timeline, calming nerves, helping you find vendors, or just being that person you text to share your excitement, we’ve got you.
we take the time to not only get to know you, but your family, friends & loved ones as well. we strive for those authentic, real moments on your wedding day and the only way those happen is if your people feel comfortable around us (and kinda feel like our people too)
not only do we edit with deference to the skin tones involved in your wedding, but also to make sure we preserve the beautiful colors you’ve chosen for your day. That way, it always feels the way you remember it and never feels outdated.
SNOHOMISH COUNTY WASHINGTON
OVER 380 5-STAR REVIEWS
640+ WEDDINGS PHOTOGRAPHED
OPEN TO TRAVEL WITHIN THE UNITED STATES
© 2026 All Rights Reserved GSquared Weddings Photography.
All love. All bodies. All stories. Always welcome here.