Many of you have secretly interacted with Katharine. If you have scheduled an appointment, taken the engagement questionnaire or done a whole host of other things, Katharine is the master behind it all. Katharine is taking on more and more duties as Studio Manager here at the office. So you’ll probably be interactive with her on email a whole lot more! So it’s finally time she made an appearance on the blog since she’s here 4 days a week


I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and am probably Buffalo’s most loyal and enthusiastic defender in Southern Connecticut. I moved to New Haven to attend Yale, where I completed my undergraduate degree in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. While my classroom activities all mostly related to the sciences, I devoted my time outside of the classroom to music, filling my schedule with as many rehearsals and performances as possible. A singer and an instrumentalist, I have been involved in various musical pursuits throughout my life, starting at a very young age with piano and then beginning viola at age 7. My most recent musical endeavor has been to pick up the viola da gamba, a six-stringed Renaissance instrument played similarly to a modern cello, which I play with the Yale Temperament. I am a soprano in the professional choir at Christ Church in New Haven, where I have sung for the past 4 years, and have also been a part of various vocal projects and ensembles in New Haven and at Yale, including the Yale Glee Club.

I really like food. I like to plan my next meal while I’m eating my current meal. I have developed a recent obsession with cooking Indian food, and am slowly working my way through Raghavan Iyer’s 660 Curries (and becoming very friendly with my local Indian bazaar). I believe that baking, however, is where food’s real magic lies. My most ambitious baking project to date will be making my friend’s wedding cake for 70 people in October. I have a number of other food-related projects up my sleeve, including developing “dinner party kits” — detailed recipes, timelines, shopping lists, and how-to instructions that maximize a host’s efficiency by consolidating the planning stage — and I am still working on perfecting the best curry-flavored baked good. This summer, I am delving into ice cream-making.

I love early music, champagne mangos, and Harry Potter. I also love Martha Stewart.

At Kelly Prizel Photography, I do a lot of behind-the-scenes work — scheduling, emailing, and designing standard operating procedures so that Kelly and I can work more efficiently and serve her clients better. I also do my very best to crystallize Kelly’s brilliant ideas into clear, actionable items, and help her make decisions. I like supporting artists in their work and helping passionate people like Kelly do what they love more efficiently and with less hassle.

Brigid and Ximena got married on Saturday at Christ Church in New Haven. Even though I live here in New Haven, I rarely get a chance to shoot weddings in actual New Haven. So I was blown away by Christ Church. The windows, the architecture, and the choir. It was just the perfect setting for these two for their wedding. So you’ll have to wait for the full post, but for now, enjoy!

Brookside Gardens is a local Maryland park with a very diverse backdrop. You can enjoy the butterfly garden. Or walk over a bridge to watch the geese honk in the pond. Or you can stumble upon the ceremony location, with a walkway full of foliage and flowers. I’m a huge fan of plants with bright, colorful foliage instead of flowers. It adds punch to the aisle year round.

Emily and Dre had endured freezing temperatures and actually snow at their cherry blossom shoot last year, so thankfully, all we got was bright sun. Emily waited for Dre for the first look and even though Dre had to find his way through the maze of chairs scattered around the room, he finally got to Emily. I love love love first looks and that day provided me so much excitement because it went from excitement, to tears, to hugs to eventually a practice first dance. Emily’s dress was so greek goddess-like and swished around as Dre spun her.

Waiting for the guests were sky blue kippot- the exact shade Natalie and I used at our wedding! Which matched the ties from Etsy for the groomsmen. And the guys sneakers. And on and on. They even got a friend of theirs to design a motif for the glasses they gave as favors. Plus the save-the-dates even showcased the artwork. My second shooter, Amber Wilkie, was always keeping tabs on everything and helping me every step of the day. Thank you. Really. A lot.

After both of them smashed the glass and a million Mazel Tovs, they grabbed each others hands and were bombarded with bubbles. Which then brought out the kid in everyone, trying to pop a few. But after all the excitement, we got to relax among the plants and quiet at Brookside Gardens. For a little bit. Before the night began.

Venue Brookside Gardens // Planner LoveBusDC // Caterer Corcoran Caterers // DJMel Whitehead

I was going to put up a shoot I had recently done. But today Natalie freakin’ shined and made me realize how lucky I am to be part of a Wife + Wife wedding photography team. A lot of people ask how it works. Who does what? How do you set boundaries? What does Natalie do besides photography? And I want to answer those questions in other posts. But today it’s all about a typical morning that resulted in a genius idea from Natalie.

I woke up to pouring rain and promptly announced, “Today is a perfect editing day!”. Because it is. Gray skies. Nowhere to go. Just dive into my trance like state I get whenever I edit photos. The kind where Natalie has to remind me to eat. Then shove food in front of my face so I eat. So we jumped out of bed and went to the gym together. Which is a biggie since I haven’t been going to the gym very much in the last year since my health crisis. Then we went to Starbucks in downtown New Haven for my soy frap fix (I’m lactose intolerant and gluten free now, oh the fun) plus brainstorming.

I needed serious help. In this team, I tend to be the one with a million billion ideas. I come up with them left and right. Then Natalie or my awesome Studio Manager, Katharine, sit down and force me to make a decision. They draaag it out while I kick and scream. So Starbucks was the moment for Natalie to kick me into making a decision about our ad on A Practical Wedding. It’s our only ad and expensive so we wanted to make it look great. And instead of making a decision and designing it- I had 40 ad ideas to present to Natalie. Ha! So while picking apart why we liked this ad or this ad, Natalie asked why I had included the words “Wife + Wife Team” in some of the ads. I explained I was so proud and felt so lucky about how much my businesses had changed since just this fall and wanted to honor that it just isn’t me anymore. I am part of a team.

And then she burst out with “Pretty. Witty. And Gay.” At first, I thought she was just singing her usual songtunes/movies/anything she likes to belt out. Randomly. Pretty much all the time. But she gave me that look. Woah. She was actually suggesting a…slogan? Mantra? Pun? And that was it. The more I say it, the more I want to plaster a giant poster with it in the studio. I’m starting to love it. And feel it’s just perfect in that weird sorta way.

And not my idea at all. It was Natalie. And that’s team work. And then we did our really weird high five (I need to take a movie of it for our kids to laugh at in 20 years)