You may or may not have seen me talking about this brand new aspect of the Michele Houston Photography Wedding Experience, but this blog will give you the full breakdown of what it is and why you want it.

In a recent blog post, I shared the vulnerable backstory about how I had began feeling dread around certain parts of my business until I talked to God about what changes needed to be made. Now the spark is back! The mission feels different now. (You can read or listen to that post here).

During this time of prayer and digging into changes that I wanted to make, I realized a huge part of my heart for my business is deeply knowing my people. I don’t believe couples come to me by accident — I believe I’m meant to play an important role in their engagement and wedding day which means I need to know them and their stories.

And that brings us to…

THE BRAND NEW STORY CALL!

The Story Call is an hour long guided video chat between myself, the bride and the groom in which I’ll present you with a series of questions designed to get to the core of who you are. During this call, we’ll talk about specifics with your family, friends, interest and love story in order to dig deeply into who you are as individuals as well as a couple.

IT ACTUALLY WORKS

I knew it would be beneficial, but it wasn’t until I had the first one that I saw the true effects. One of my sweet couples for 2026 did the very first call a few days before their engagement session and I felt like it made a HUGE difference for their session! (You can view their engagement session here).

One of the main things I noticed was that I felt more comfortable posing the groom than I maybe ever have and here’s why I think that is…

Typically before the session, I have to look up the groom’s name because I’ve never spoken to him or heard much about him at that point. But grooms are not just a prop for the photos and I want to make sure they never feel that way. If you know me, you know I’m a boy mom (times 3) and the thought of my boys getting engaged and not really being highlighted in their photos would make me really sad. I don’t want that for anybody.

In this scenario, I felt like I understood the bride and groom’s personalities better and had more confidence posing them to their specific personalities.

CUSTOMIZED POSING PLANS

Another unique piece to this puzzle is that after their Story Call, I spend sometime writing down a few words that describe them that I want to showcase through their images. I also look through my massive list of potential poses and prompts and create a custom plan for them based on their personalities. It made a HUGE difference and I’m seriously obsessed!!!

Future MH couples — this is for you, too!!! Weddings aren’t meant to feel transactional, let’s get to know each other better.

Inquire for your wedding day here.