We produce high quality image art for all of our clients. If you're interested in working with us we are available for sessions on location throughout Chicagoland. We also offer Marmalade Location sessions in our home area in the SW Suburbs of Chicago.
We are often booked several weeks in advance especially during our peak seasons (spring, summer and fall). Session fees start at $195 for weekday sessions @ our Marmalade Locations or $295 for weekday sessions on location in Metro Chicagoland. Weekend sessions are available for an add'l $60.
Prints are a separate purchase and start at $45. Collection pricing starts at $795. Please call us: 815.603.8450 with any questions. We look forward to hearing from you!
About Marianne
Since 2005 I have been in the business of creating tangible memories but the truth is that I have been a photographer "forever". I was about 6 when I first held my brother Matt's (heavy) Canon AE-1's viewfinder up to my face, I the heft of the camera heavy in my hands & the strap scratching the back of my neck. I remember seeing the world through that viewfinder rectangle for the very first time.
For a number of years I worked as an RN in the critical care setting and at some point I had a realization that while I loved the connection nursing allowed me to have with others, I wanted more to contribute beauty and love to their existence. Some of my favorite patient families would bring photos in for their loved ones - visual reminders that the patient lying in bed is a human being, struggling at the moment but in reality this person is a loving parent, a doting grandparent, a wonderful wife or husband, someone's best friend. Those photos personalized my experience with my patients. It is because of these experiences that I continue to grasp to UNDERSTAND the meaning of this life. My belief is that the meaning lies in the connection between us all, relationships, after all, are the only thing we leave on this earth with any real meaning.
In 2005 when I finally took the leap and started Marmalade Photography it was based upon a single vision: fun, beautiful and quality photos for Chicago area families and children that speak to who they are as a character in the plot of their lives and who they are in the connectedness of this life.
My ten years photographing people of varying ages is of benefit to you: I offer a full service photography experience and have the expertise to create art you will love for your home. I love to help clients design wall galleries, provide custom created beautiful albums and art pieces. I have even been commissioned to create images as large as 10 feet in length. High touch, high quality, there is no other way to do it.
While I do live, breathe & eat photography obviously I am not just Marmalade Photography. I am also a wife…a mom to Maddie & Lauren who inspire me every day in so many ways…I am a historian and a friend…a gardener (who can't keep indoor plants but I have a green thumb if it grows outside)…funny…fun loving…serious…in fact you & I may have a lot in common…I would love to get to know you through that rectangle & tell your families' story for you.
Session date is April 12 from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Unique Bowtique is in Naperville on Washington Street right downtown
Sign up starts this afternoon after 2:00 p.m. 🙂
Details: $75 qualifying purchase at Unique Bowtique will guarantee an opportunity to sign up for a limited edition session. Session fee is $25 the day of session, payable to Marianne Drenthe. This $25 fee will be fully credited IF you opt to purchase a collection (not applicable towards a la carte only purchases).
Sessions will be for ONE child for 10 minute spans. One outfit only. Sessions take place on the quarter hour.
This is our first foray into the boutique arena and we are very proud to partner up with Unique Bowtique for this awesome opportunity for their customers and our own clients.
Several images from PRIOR urban studio Ltd Edition Sessions:
Please check us out and sign up for our much anticipated Unique Bowtique Session.
xoxo, Mare
p.s. For all that are inquiring, oh my gosh, Vegas was an absolute blast. Had SO much fun. It was *almost* sinful! LOL How appropos!
Going to the great big convention in Sin City, soak up some warm weather, gamble a bit, learn a lot, hang out with like minded peeps and hopefully come away a bit better for it.
To anyone needing to reach me in the next few days, I will be out of of the office until Thursday, March 21. I will be checking voicemail from time to time however I cannot guarantee that I’ll be able to be reached.
Happy Belated Birthday to my Maddie and a belated bday to Maddycake, a client of mine who celebrated her first birthday on Sunday as well. Life moves on too quickly. I bet Maddycakes’ p’s are feeling much the same way about their past year with their little cutie as I am about the past EIGHT years with my little cutie.
Well…like the big dork that I am I took my daughter’s brand new Daisy Pocket Scooter (bday gift) out for a spin this morning. It was for research, you know… 🙂
(anyone who knows me or has had a session with me knows the real secret that I’m just a kid at heart so this revelation about riding the 8 year old’s newest & bestest shouldn’t be surprising)
Well the entire point of getting her this scooter was for her 8th birthday (which we celebrated on Friday night with a slumber party. Yeah. Um…remind me that it took 2 days to recover from the slumber party hangover next time I get the bright idea to host one, k?). We bought the scooter at Toys R Us around Christmas time and it sat in the basement of the studio waiting for its’ unveil. Maddie had an inkling that we were getting it for her but we threw her off track, pretty successfully if I do say so myself, and thought she was getting something else entirely.
So back to train of thought rambles…
Riding around on the 16 mph (yes I am a bit worried about my crazy chick cracking her head open on the pavement so before she even sets her little tush on the seat she will be donning a helmet), the wind blowing through my hair I had this awesome visual about driving along on a little Vespa on the streets of Rome. Ahhh, the beauty of daydreaming. Nevermind the 30 degree chill exacerbated further by the wind rushing as I drove on the sidewalks of my newish subdivision in the exurbs of Chicago….I was momentarily transformed into a younger version of me. A younger version, more exuberant and liberated of all adult commitments. Daydreaming…
It was then (with the wind chilling me to the bone) I realized then that the gift we are giving my daughter is not just transport down the street or to the park but the gift of freedom. Thinking about the small gift of freedom that this little pink machine allows her brings tears to my eye. My baby, whom I brought home 8 years and 1 day ago (and had a loss on what to do NOW…LOL) is growing up. Despite my inner longing to hold onto the little girl who loved princesses and My Little Pony® 😉 it is all changing. Life is dynamic, ever changing. Just as soon as you get used to the NOW the now changes and becomes something else.
To my little 8 year old…please, don’t forget to hold onto your childhood a bit as your rush onward through life. Remember the days you were able to ride your scooter to your friends’ homes and remember the freedom and fun of being eight.
xoxo, Mare
p.s. BLD peeps: your orders have come in and are going out today. Be on the look out!
p.s.p. ALMOST forgot to mention that I am forgoing the March planned Limited Edition Mini Sessions plan because I have recently partnered up with a boutique in downtown Naperville (Unique Bowtique) for a Marmalade Limited Edition Sessions event on Saturday April 12th (definitely the 12th, not the 5th as I had originally highlighted, typo…bad bad Mare). Details to follow. In the meantime feel free to stop in at Unique Bowtique starting later this week. I will have a few images up on display for anyone interested in going and checking out my work in person!
For kicks since you finally made it to the end of my rambles….
I am overrun (in a good way) with one year old clients. I very much love it! One year olds are such fun, they *get* that someone is paying attention to them and sometimes they even ham it up for the camera, their little personalities are so obvious, their world is such a great place of discovery, what is not to love? Yesterday I had a session with a favorite of mine, Little Max, who just turned one! It was nice to see him again and it feels just like yesterday when he was this small:
…somehow he has grown in the past year, can you believe it? 🙂 Yesterday he was almost walking and on the cusp of mobility. It’s been very awesome to have the privilege of watching little Max grow. I honestly believe that it’s a an honor to be asked to come back time and time again to watch the progression of little teeny little to walker stage and so on. I really do feel like the luckiest gal ever. Enough rhetoric tho, where’s the pics of the one year old?
A big thank you to K & J for allowing me to be a part of your lives in the course of the past year. I so very much enjoyed seeing you guys yesterday, there could not have been a more beautiful day in Lakeview for picture day. It was a lucky day all way round.
xoxo, Mare
p.s. Thank you to Anna for forwarding me this info, taken from the Chicagoist
We’ve read (and cried through) her diary and now we get a glimpse into her family photo album. “Anne Frank: A Photo Album” is on display at Ela Area Public Library in Lake Zurich. Funded from a state grant and brought in from the Anne Frank Center in New York, the exhibit features over 70 black and white photos taken by Anne’s father, Otto Frank, who was a talented amateur photographer. The exhibit chronicles Frank family life from when Anne was a baby all the way up until the family’s last summer together at home.
Forced into hiding in 1942 to escape Nazi bad guys, the Franks hid in an attic for two years before they were sent to concentration camps. Otto Frank was the only surviving member of the Frank family and reportedly gave his camera away and never took another picture again. The opening reception is this Sunday from 1-3pm, featuring guided tours, Jewish food, and performances by the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. Yes, we know Lake Zurich is a bazillion miles away and there’s, like, basketball and stuff on TV but we think the trip out there is worth it for this exhibit. (And the latkes.) Ela Area Public Library is located at 275 Mohawk Trail in Lake Zurich[TRIB]
E, I totally wish I could crash the Anne Frank exhibit and check it out. Life is throwing me busy curve balls this next month or so. 🙁 No time for fun. 🙂
These are great… glad you had fun in Vegas