Rachel LaCour Niesen

Chief Marketing Officer

Rachel LaCour Niesen is a Yankee by birth but a Southern storyteller at heart. When a much-loved uncle serendipitously gifted her with her first SLR camera, a Nikon F3, Rachel found her calling in photography. In pursuit of her passion, she packed up and headed to the University of Missouri, where she studied Photojournalism and Art History. While at Mizzou, Rachel met her future husband and partner in entrepreneurial adventures, Andrew Niesen. As an undergraduate, Rachel remained true to her nature of the overachieving first-born and was named one of the Scripps-Howard Foundation's Top Ten Young Journalists.

After graduation, Rachel pursued projects focusing on rural communities in Latin America and the Southeastern United States, amassing accolades as a passionate documentary photographer with a keen eye for the human condition. Her work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2002, Rachel's captivating photographs of migrant farmworkers were chosen for a book entitled The Human Cost of Food; Farmworker's Lives, Labor and Advocacy, published by the University of Texas Press.

LaCour photographer Rachel LaCour Niesen shot this photograph of a wedding party celebrating in a trolley on the way to the reception in Atlanta, Ga.

Rachel's love for storytelling photography took an intimate turn when she stumbled upon wedding photography by trading her photographic skills in exchange for a custom-designed wedding gown. Quickly trading her front row seat to world history for a front row seat to family history, Rachel started a wedding photography company, LaCour, with husband Andrew Niesen and friend Mark Adams. In a few short years, LaCour became one of the premiere wedding photography studios in the U.S. and soon families the world over caught on to LaCour's signature style of authentic storytelling through photographs. In 2008, American Photo magazine recognized LaCour's contributions to the industry by naming them among the "Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the World."

When she's not knowingly catching Andrew's eye over a client's wedding vows, Rachel can usually be found traveling, reading books about art or entrepreneurship and sampling her favorite wines - Barolo and Barbaresco.