jo.mahaney

Jo grew up rummaging through the boxes of photographs scattered throughout her grandmother’s home. Despite being a single mother of three boys, her grandmother spent her twenties and thirties photographing weddings, traveling around the world, and advocating for those in her community. She passed her passion for truly seeing people and preserving their memories through visual storytelling on to Jo.
Now, Jo uses this passion to document love stories as authentically as possible. Her own experience as a bride showed that the unplanned experiences are often the most precious. With eleven years of experience photographing weddings throughout Virginia and beyond, she’s learned how to document genuine emotion without interrupting it, honoring the beauty of the memory while preserving it. Her photography focuses on true-to-life color, authentic feelings, and candid images that bring you right back to the moment.

Our style prioritizes true color–no trendy editing fads or crazy color manipulation. Just classic images that look just like your wedding day. We want the photos to feel like memories, so they look like your wedding felt. We balance creating some beautiful artwork with you, with making sure you spend MOST of your wedding day with each other and your guests creating REAL memories, so you don’t feel like your wedding is a 9 hour photoshoot.

We serve people first and take photos second.

As the Photography by Jo team has expanded, so has our heart for the people we serve. Every member of the team has extensive experience not just taking pictures, but working alongside couples to create a safe environment and effortless experience. Our approach is rooted in human connection, comfort, and care.

No matter who’s behind the lens, the comfort-first experience stays the same: intentional, kind, and quietly observant. Everything about our wedding photography experience is designed to help you feel comfortable. We want you to be so immersed in the joy of your wedding that you forget we’re here. With over eleven years of experience, a heart for making people feel at home, and a skill for documenting the delightfully unexpected, we will preserve your wedding day memories in a way that feels genuine and authentic.

We’ll work with you to prepare a request list, solid timeline, and have conversations around what matters most to you so that our team knows exactly what you need before we show up on wedding day.

It’s hard to say just one! I really am looking for the most meaningful moments of the day, and they usually sneak up on you and aren’t planned or expected. It’s usually some interactions with parents, grandparents, best friends, etc that really hit you in the heart.