FOUNDED BY

Nicole Kilday

The Heart Behind The Camera

Raw-hearted

& Real

True-to-life Wedding & Family Photography

McHenry County Illinois wedding photographer Nicole Kilday working during bridal prep, photographing a bride putting on her veil before the ceremony

I started Nicole Kilday Photography as a place to celebrate the intricacies of love in all its forms; the quirky, honest, grand & mundane memories that tell the whole damn story.

Nicole Kilday's two sons playing together on a trampoline in the summer, real life moments captured at home

I wanted the unfiltered version of love stories. The chaos. The true-to-life moments. The raw-hearted reality.

Nicole Kilday and her husband during their honeymoon in Evergreen Colorado, candid couple portrait in the mountains

It’s never the same love twice – your photos shouldn’t be either.

Meet Nicole

(Answers to Nicole, Cole, or Bill)

Photographer. Creative Director. Chaos Coordinator. Wife. Mom to 2 feral boys – just the way I like them & German Shepherds that somehow keep multiplying (5 since 2014). Did I mention I thrive in chaos?

I have a bachelor's in psychology, which suited the empath in me long before I chose my passion as my profession. I tell stories like a squirrel and one usually turns into 92 — but my best game face is when I have my camera in my hand. If you like to overshare — hi, hello, pick me.

I’m the type of human who will hold your hand through every life happening – supporting, cheering, and crying ugly tears alongside you. I read rooms, people, and feelings all at once. I know when to step-in and guide, but also when to step-back and pay attention. The moment your eyes meet your loves’ on the day you begin forever, your toddler’s joy as they experience this world for the very first time, and the way sunlight dances across their wide eyes.

A deep love of connection and photographing people exactly as they are.

What you can expect from me

While I consider myself awkward on any normal day — queue the intro vlog (below) I attempted to make for ya — the camera in my hand grounds me. When I'm there, I'm not just clicking a shutter; I'm tuned in — reading the room, reading the light, reading you. I care about the energy in the room as much as the light in it.

Over the years I've learned that being a wedding & family photographer means stepping into a lot of roles nobody put in the job description — professional crier, emergency seamstress, corset buttoner, grandparents' new best friend, backup timeline wrangler — often without being asked, and honestly, it suits me perfectly. The multi-faceted roles give me the opportunity to run your day unscripted & to do so from a place of truth. You just have to show up as yourself, and I'll handle the rest.

Nicole Kilday, McHenry County Illinois wedding photographer, fixing the bride's hair before the ceremony at a wedding in Janesville Wisconsin

The calm in the chaos

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A mix of documentary-driven truth & editorial photography you can feel

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Your memories matter to me like they're mine too

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I attempted to make an intro vlog. It turned into a blooper reel. Watch it anyway — this is exactly why I hold the camera.

Meet Your Photographer ⌁

My Journey

Weddings Photographed

124+

Families Documented

180+

Happy tears cried.

The number

does not

exist

1992 – born into a family where cameras were everywhere
2007 – my grandpa gifted me my first professional grade camera 4 days before his earthly journey came to an end. I spent the next decade bringing that thing everywhere with me
2015 – took a Christmas photo that unexpectedly went ‘viral’ & launched me into my career
2016 – photographed my first wedding for a friend
2019 — went full-time & the rest is history
2020 — slowed down, learned, grew… and grew my first tiny human
2021 — photographed 42 weddings + dreamed up My Whole Heart Collective
2021–2024 — made bomb art with Ashley Bowling
2025 — reopened Nicole Kilday Photography to realign my art, life, and goals
2026 – still here chasing the dream & yours
- my dogs’ Frito feet
- babies when they find their voice
- immaturity, used responsibly
- hoodies that smell like last night’s bonfire
- laughing so hard my abs hurt
- swears as sentence enhancers
- dancing to songs that make me feel alive (yes — Levels by Avicii)
- spending too much money on fair food
- Sundays reserved for paying attention to my own life
“I’m not a mess but a deeply feeling person in a messy world. I explain that now, when someone asks me why I cry so often, I say, ‘For the same reason I laugh so often—because I’m paying attention.’ I tell them that we can choose to be perfect and admired or to be real and loved. We must decide.”
— Glennon Doyle Melton, Love Warrior
I Choose Real.