TLDR version: Brittany was a great photographer, for an affordable price, who was low stress, high-energy, and incredibly easy to work with. We absolutely recommend her to anyone for an event.
Long version: My fiance didn't want a photographer. (She hates getting her picture taken.) As she said, "I'll be there, I'll remember it, why do I need someone to take photos?" I convinced her that we didn't want everyone on their phones the whole time, and that our parents would want it, so she agreed that we'd look into it.
We asked our wedding coordinator (Allie at Pop the Champagne, who was also great) for recommendations, and she suggested Brittany. She was local, living in the same neighborhood as us and our venue, and she was a bit cheaper than others that we had found online, so we reached out and scheduled a meeting with her.
We did an introduction at a local coffee shop, and we took the better part of an hour just getting to know one another. Brittany asked us lots of questions about how we met and what our life was like, all before we ever got into the nuts and bolts of the wedding photography. There were certain photography tropes that we didn't like (photos of rings, shoes, getting dressed, looking thoughtfully into the distance), and she listened carefully to these concerns and never tried to convince us to do anything we didn't want to do. She brought out a couple wedding books to show us her work in more detail, walking through how she'd work at the ceremony. We pretty immediately felt comfortable with her.
After our meeting, we stopped looking for photographers. We knew we had to go with Brittany. Both of us are camera shy, so we told her we didn't want to do (or pay for) an engagement shoot. But it was included in the whole package (which was still less than other photographers had quoted us), and she convinced us (but never pressured us) to give it a go -- mostly as a way to practice being photographed (which, it turns out, was needed). We discussed over email the details of the engagement session, and ended up deciding to do the shoot at our house, where we were both most comfortable. Brittany came by, took a ton of photos both inside and outside, and made us feel comfortable posing and smiling the entire time. It was both very weird and exciting. By the end of the session, we felt like old friends. The photos came back a few weeks later and looked great, solidifying our already very high opinion of Brittany.
A few weeks before the wedding, she had us put together a list of photos we wanted her to get, as well as members of the family, so she would know who was who.
On the day of the ceremony, Brittany worked closely with our wedding coordinator and venue manager to make everything very seamless. Everything went according to schedule. We did most of our photos before the ceremony. We arrived early, she was there, she took a bunch of photos around the venue. We did photos of each of us by ourselves, with our wedding parties separately, and then a first look. That was something we thought might be a little ridiculous, but it ended up being pretty fun. Brittany worked very quickly and confidently through our list of shots, getting guests to do what she wanted with ease. She was bossy in the best possible way, and our wedding party and families all loved her. We never had to ask her to reshoot things or switch people in or out. She was very high energy, but she kept it very low-stress. Throughout the ceremony, I didn't notice her at all, but she was there, snapping away. Afterwards, we did some family photos and a few more couple photos, and then she stuck around for the reception to get more photos of guests.
By the end of the night, our guests were asking to be photographed with Brittany, like they were all friends. Like I said, everyone loved her. She has such a cheerful, easy-going, friendly personality. In fact, some of our friends still ask us how she's doing.
We got our photos a few weeks after the wedding. They were delivered online and in a fancy USB stick -- good packaging there. The photos were beautiful, which is really the whole point here, and Brittany made the process of getting them delightful. read more
