This is a review for our experience with hiring Life Gallery Studio for our wedding which took place on May 31st, 2013. We chose Life Gallery based on their excellent reviews on weddings specialist sites such as Wedding Wire, which we have since learned are policed by the vendors themselves, so only extremely positive reviews are posted and the negative reviews are "disputed" which means they are suspended from the site, often indefinitely. We had a nice initial consolation with the owner Scott, who emphasized their speciality in taking candid shots during weddings, which was something we were really interested in. They offer nice albums and a decent range of packages ranging from 4 hours on up. "Seems reasonable," we said. Contract signed. Day of the wedding, our photographer, Ronda, showed up on time. She was a bit idiosyncratic and rough around the edges, but we figured, "hey, she's an artist, let her do her thing." It was extremely hot that day and she marched us around the vineyard where our wedding took place, often shouting at us, "Don't move! I'll tell you when to move!" when she found the lighting to be favorable. She struggled mightily to remember my wife's name throughout the ceremony despite repeated reminders. Seemed like a fairly basic ask for such an important day, but we were more concerned about the photographic results. At the reception, Ronda seemed bored and listless. We added a few hours to her workload at $150/hour, included dinner and let her know to feel free to help herself to a drink. Which she did. She then seemed to forget she was working and spent the back end of the reception, mostly seated and not taking photos. Guests asked her, "Ronda, why aren't you taking photos?" "It would be awkward while you're eating," she said in reply. Um, maybe awkward for Ronda, but the guests would have welcomed it...that's. why. we. hired. a. photographer. Life Gallery knew beforehand that the entire reception was a dinner and that was the task, so Ronda should not have been disappointed by the lack of a Bollywood style reception with tigers jumping through rings of fire. They never voiced any concerns before the event took place. "Let's see what photos she got," I said, "before we complain, maybe we'll be surprised." Well, the results were less than spectacular. The role of photos ranged from a few very nice shots, to many mediocre, and even more amateurish. Each table had flowers on it, which she captured wonderfully, but often at the expense of our guests' faces. Another highlight includes the back of the groom's head as he hugs his father, whose face is obscured by the back of the groom's head. That's the type of "candids" she got. We expressed our disappointment to Scott afterwards, who made no attempt at apologies or even understanding, and didn't even acknowledge the root of our dissatisfaction. "Most people only care about 20 shots to make an album," he said. Somehow we feel shortchanged by that after paying over a grand. It's entirely possible our experience was an outlier. As Scott said, they are very well reviewed online. Perhaps, that's because they spend so much time disputing any less than stellar ones on review sites. Here's hoping my review survives on Yelp, so other couples might be spared a less than positive experience on their wedding day, and cloudy, obscured, memories afterwards, marked by frustration. Luckily, we have the photos our friends and relatives took, which on the whole, represent a superior collection of work than what we got from Life Gallery Studio. Send me a message for samples of their work. read more

They say there is always something that goes wrong on your wedding day, and choosing Life Gallery was ours. I am writing this review as we just celebrated our 1 year anniversary. Throughout this year, I kept telling myself that I needed to write this. It's tough to sit down and bring up negative feelings towards your wedding day, and then to channel those into words. But I also couldn't let it go. Throughout this past year, we never printed a single photo. We never publicly shared our wedding photos. Only a few people saw our photos, and even they were disappointed. Our photographer Mike and owner Scott completely failed us. We got married on Halloween 2020. Prior to the wedding, we are asked to create a list of the things that were our must-have photos (which we also reviewed with Mike day of). One of our biggest photo "wants" was lots of pictures of our senior golden retriever Bubba. We didn't know how much time we have left with him so we wanted pictures of him with everyone. We spent a lot of time and money decorating our wedding venue, so naturally our decorations were on there. I even asked Mike how his camera was at night time (since our reception was after dark) and he assured me it was great. I also spent a lot of time carving approximately 30 foams pumpkins for a haunted house I put together, which was also on my list. My husband even built me a large custom cooler shaped like a coffin! We bought glow sticks to light it up at night. We were disappointed in the lack of Bubba pictures. He was only photographed in a few different settings despite being there all night. There is not a SINGLE photo of our decorations at night, nor are there any of the pumpkins lit up, or any of the coffin cooler once it was put together for the reception. Looking at the photos, Mike went around the venue before the ceremony and took pictures of our decorations prior to being setup/lit up. Guess he figured he could check them off the list then? I have one photo of my custom coffin cooler, and it's still closed with a box of glow sticks sitting next to it. We had discussed Mike staying an hour past his time at the start of the day. He said we could see how everything was going. He came to find me promptly at the original leaving time to say he got everything and goodbye. Had I known how much he missed, I would've had him stay that extra hour. Mike never utilized any of the decorations in the photos. He had us taking some of our family photos in front of the bridal suite instead of using the graveyard right next to us. I had to tell him to move because it wasn't a good spot. Scott's excuse was that Mike did it for the lighting. It's a Halloween wedding! Who cares about how lit up the bridal suite is, I wanted dark and spooky. When I brought up these issues with Scott, he said he wasn't going to BS us, but that's all he did. He tried to tell me that you can't photograph jack-o-lanterns! I've been carving pumpkins for 20+ years and always take photos of them. He never did anything to try and make it better for us, so be warned if you have an issue with them. He said he "found" more photos, but they were actually the photos they considered rejects and discarded. Now we have to take the time to dress up, decorate, and shoot our pictures all over again with a different company. We would never recommend Life Gallery!!! read more

I know i already wrote a review, but we received our photos a little while ago (i wrote the first review prior to receiving them), and just had to write another glowing review for Rhonda! Our photos are amazing! Better than i could have imagined, she got all 100 things i requested somehow, even when i told her i would be happy if she maybe got half of them. She came up with many shots for us, either based on a concept I had seen on pinterest or just out of the blue, and all of them are so amazing! She really capture our guests enjoying themselvesL dancing, using props from photo booth, us greeting ppl, etc. And she had amazing formal. I just had to add another note just about how amazing our pictures came out. read more

I didn't actually get services through Life Gallery, but I saw their work through my cousin's wedding. I wish I had used them for my wedding. read more

I cannot sing Scott and Rhonda's praises enough. Their style completely matched ours as we didn't want all of our pictures to be posed shots. We wanted to capture the fun, love, and excitement of the day, and Scott and Rhonda did just that. Our pictures are absolutely beautiful! With over 1400 to choose from, we are having SUCH A HARD TIME finding any that aren't top quality. We HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend Life Gallery Studio!! read more

My husband and I both feel we got lucky to have come across Life Gallery Studio -- and that we chose this company as our wedding photographer. Everything went so perfect!! I can't even begin to describe how amazing our photos turned out. We spent a few weeks looking for the right wedding photographer. We found that Life Gallery was perfect in every way for us; style, customer service and most of all PRICE. Their photography concept was exactly what we were looking for - a bit photojournalistic, a little candid, not stiff or fake. They intuitively understood what we wanted and really fit right into our concept. We appreciated how Mike was so flexible and willing to go with the flow. He listened to our wants and need but also had really helpful suggestions making everything fit together even better than we could have wanted. Mike never seemed to take a break making make sure he captured every little and big moment throughout the night. The entire staff has been attentive throughout. I would recommend them to anyone looking for great wedding photos at a good price. Florance and Tim read more

Life Gallery Studio photographed my friend's wedding 2 years ago, my wedding last month, and next year I'll be seeing them at another friend's wedding that I'm attending. We are very non-traditional, and wanted someone who could capture the night in a photojournalistic manner. Our photographer Heather was amazing and very accommodating. She captured moments that I don't even remember. I've been looking over the images of my wedding and can't believe how great they look. As for the wedding day itself, Heather started by taking pictures of me and my bridesmaids while we were getting dressed and of the men on the grounds of the church prior to the ceremony. From the moment Heather arrived until the end of the wedding, she was extremely professional and courteous. Most of all, she artistically capture every element of our wedding day. From the day of the shoot, to the day that the photos were complete, I was completely satisfied. Scott (Studio Manager) was extremely prompt with email replies, and accommodated our long-distance needs by setting up phone meetings to learn about our relationship, our families and our wedding. He helped with the planning, photo shot list, suggestions on locations etc... Throughout the whole process, Life Gallery was professional, they made us feel comfortable, the turn around time was fast and we could not be happier with the end product. Not to mention their reasonable prices! If you are looking for someone to really capture your day and not take a ton of posed pictures, Life Gallery is the studio for you! read more

I used Life Gallery Studio for my wedding 8/10/2013. I took time...(obviously) to write this review after cooling down. As another writer has specified, the initial consultation with Scott, the "owner" was amazing. He made us feel very welcomed and confident in the ability of the photographer to do an outstanding job. However, the day of the wedding came and went and we were very dissatisfied. The photographer seemed to be elsewhere the day of the wedding, did not take many shots despite the several pages of questions you are required to complete that outlines which shots you want taken that day. One of the photographs I listed as wanting to be taken included my now deceased grandmother......my wedding was the last time she was mobile and having that picture meant everything to me......I will never get that opportunity back!!!! The photographer was just standing around during the reception, to the point that I personally went over and asked him if he wanted to eat something since it appeared he was not doing very much. Trying to stay positive on my big day, I thought, lets just wait to get the finished product. It came......HUGE disappointment. Not only were there several of the photos missing that were listed on the 5+ page paper we filled out, but the ones that were captured were amateur at best, and had some funny discoloration that caused each one to look a weird shade of blue and not true bright sky in the yacht yard were our wedding and reception were held. We contacted the owner who became defensive and did not apologize at all as Justin L. states on 6/29/13. I guess we are not the only couple that experienced this........ Do yourself a favor and hire another photographer! read more

This is a review of Life Gallery Studio (LGS). It is based on our experience having LGS photograph our wedding and reception in June of 2013. Conclusion up front: Life Gallery Studio was great and delivered great value at a great price. I'd recommend them to a friend. Thanks! What we expected: We contracted to have a professional photographer spend six hours with us on the day of our wedding, including three different photo venues. We wanted to receive a variety of wedding photos including candid (i.e. photojournalistic), and traditional staged photos. We hoped to get a basic set of professional photographs showing family members in various arrangements, and some nice shots for memory's sake. We were NOT looking for slick, glamour-magazine, over-the-top, "look it's a girl in a wedding dress riding a giraffe through Union Station on the way to her wedding" type shots. We also did not contract for extensive post-processing. We wanted the photos delivered to us on a CD/DVD, and we wanted all rights for reproduction. What we got: The owner of LGS met with us in advance to discuss his services, approach to a shoot, and what sort of products we might purchase after the wedding. It was a sales pitch, but a nice, relaxed, and friendly one. I wouldn't have asked for anything else. It was easy to understand the contract and how to move forward -- a comfortable business deal. As for cost, we judged LGS to be more affordable than many photographers, but still professional and way better than the rock-bottom photographers out there or leaving it all up to "Uncle Bob." Overall, we concluded that LGS was offering good value for the price. Our photographer was great. She showed up early and spent the full six hours working with only a short break for lunch (which she took at an appropriate lull in our schedule.) She was professional, attentive, and enthusiastic. She gave us lots of ideas about what might make an interesting photo, but didn't get pushy or demanding. We submitted to her in advance a list of photo ideas that we wanted to make sure were captured, and she had the list with her on our wedding day, ready to make sure she got what we needed -- very nice. As far as I could tell, she was using a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and came equipped with speedlights and various other stuff. Delivery of our photos took about two weeks. They were posted to a web page and later delivered to us on a DVD as .jpg files at a resolution of 240 dpi. Color and composition were all good enough. My wife and I did some minor cropping and straightening using our own software to prepare them for framing. White balance and color were mostly fine, although there were a few shots where we could tell the photog had been struggling to balance flash with ambient lighting. I can't speak to the quality of hard-copy products as we chose not to purchase any of those from LGS. They do offer a wide variety of that stuff though, so if you really, really think your new husband needs a matching key chain, coffee mug, and t-shirt with your wedding picture on them, LGS can probably make that happen. Our particular contract also included a $150 printing credit. We haven't yet used that, so I can't speak to the quality of the prints (I'm sure it will be fine), but we appreciate its presence and expect to use it for a nice large print and some for my wife's family. In conclusion, LGS gave us great value for our money, the were a pleasure to work with and made our very busy day EASIER and not HARDER (yes, I'm looking over at you, Johnson's Flowers on Van Ness in DC), and I'd recommend them to a friend. Thanks LGS! read more

We were so grateful to have Scott DuJardin photograph our wedding, as we wanted a photographer with a photojournalistic style, who played with colors and angles, and whose work had something extra special to it. We interviewed about 6 photographers in the DC area. We had yet to find a wedding photographer that really "wow-ed" us. We wanted someone who looked at wedding photography with a less traditional eye (aka boring wedding photography). My husband and I both work in the entertainment industry in NYC, and we actually know many photographers. Then we found Scott! Scott's work had a certain feel and style to it, that we couldn't find elsewhere. He was so amazing to work with for both the engagement photos in Georgetown, DC and the wedding photos Bethesda, MD. He was so creative and artistic. We loved our photos, and even turned one of them into a thank you postcard, which everyone has complimented us on. He definitely has a very unique style, and super nice personality. Finally, one of my favorite things: how much he was really enjoying his time photographing our wedding. Seriously, so many people noticed his energy, and how much he enjoyed creating our beautiful wedding images. Thanks again Scott, read more

I wrote a well thought out review on wedding wire that covered both the negatives and the positives of hiring Life Gallery Studio for our wedding. Life Gallery Studio disputed my review, claiming a duplicate review and asked us to take one down. I'm skeptical, but decided to take this review from a one star to a 3 star because they did try to fix our initial disappointment. Scott was really awesome to meet with and talk to and we liked picking out photos that were our style to find a good fit with a specific photographer. The prices of packages were very reasonable and almost all the reviews we read online were superb. However, we were less than pleased with the end products we received and our photographer, Rhonda, the day of. We thought that she tried to upsell us, which we really did not appreciate and was quite abrasive. After I sent an email to Scott and spoke with him on the phone, we found out that this was not the case, which I was happy to hear. She was very abrasive while we figured out our day-of timeline. One thing in particular that I was displeased with was I remember specifically asking Scott when we met if the photographers went to scout out photo locations at the venue before the day of the wedding and the answer was yes, of course. I asked Rhonda during our conversation on the phone if she was planning on checking out the Great Room and the surrounding area the day before and she said that she would google it. I let her know that I myself have googled previous weddings at that location and not too much is out there on the internet, so I was quite displeased that she would not be going beforehand. I also let her know that the area could be very confusing and that it would be best to go and check out the area beforehand or to at least look at the online map of the mill so she doesn't get lost. I've been to Savage Mill many times and still get lost! She was supposed to get there half an hour before our first look to scout out locations, but she got lost. As I was on my way to the Great Room the day of our wedding, Rhonda called me, panicked, because she was lost and no one could give her good directions. I really did not appreciate a panicked phone call 20 minutes before doing our first look - I did advise her to look at a map beforehand. One other instance that was particularly frustrating was right before our first look. My husband was late to our first look due to traffic and was supposed to call my phone before he got to where I was so I could hide. He was probably about 10 minutes late, so we did bridal portraits in that time. My phone didn't pick up his call and he saw me from the road, but it wasn't a big deal. Rhonda, however, panicked again and called him a "ding-dong" and didn't believe that my phone doesn't always pick up calls. I really did not appreciate a professional, hired vendor calling my husband names. Despite this, we figured that as long as the photos turned out well, all would be fine. Unfortunately, we were very displeased with the photos, especially the group pictures. The family pictures were taken in the Great Room, but no thought went into the composition and backdrop. Instead of having them taken in front of the beautiful windows, there's a buffet in the background! I wish I had thought to say something, but as we hired a professional photographer, I had figured that she would take backdrop into account. Objects are sticking out of people's heads (such as poles and light fixtures) and it appears that she clicked the shutter button during the off moments, just as everyone was starting to drop their smiles. After I spoke to Scott, he said that Rhonda had said that there were fixtures by the windows that would have caused the same problems. I understood that, but do wish that we had moved over a few more feet so the buffet (and servers getting the buffet ready) were not in the pictures. One of the most frustrating aspects of the photographs (especially in our portraits and ceremony pictures) is that in almost all of her photos, she has a slight upward angle which gives most people a double chin, a view up their nostrils, or is very unflattering to their figures. My mother in particular was very upset about how unflattering the pictures were. I'm not really sure why she choose this angle as her primary angle, as it tends to be universally unflattering. Many of the candid shots include the backs of peoples' heads or silhouettes that don't quite have enough of one person's face in it. We did get some good photos that we are happy with, but many are, quite frankly, amateurish. I know that Life Gallery Studio has fantastic photographers (based on reviews about other photographers and other wedding photos), but Rhonda was not a good fit for us. For future brides and grooms, I would suggest meeting with your photographer before hand to make sure that you mesh well. I would also suggest asking to see a complete album that your photographer has donr read more