Katelyn R. says, "In case you don't want to read my lengthy review, here's a quick summary.
Good:
Lisa did a PHENOMENAL job capturing our ceremony, getting every detail!
Lisa was easy to talk to and made us feel comfortable getting our pictures taken.
Lisa was great getting our first look pictures and pictures with our bridal party.
The groomsmen struggled to get their boutonnieres on and Lisa helped them with pinning the boutonnieres.
Bad:
I had to prompt Lisa to take pictures during our cocktail hour because I kept catching her sitting in a rocking chair or sitting at a table instead of taking candids as I asked for a few days earlier on the phone. She also didn't get pictures of our Dessert table or S'more/Sparkler table so it was frustrating seeing her sitting around and finding out later that we didn't have pictures of some of the things we wanted.
I asked Lisa to be at our wedding from 12:15 to 8:15 (we got the eight-hour package). She showed up at noon but then left right at 8:00, missing the "anniversary" dance and the bouquet toss that I asked the DJ to do starting at 8:00 thinking Lisa would be there.
Lisa will guide you in different poses, but I felt that in our engagement shoot she only walked us through five or six different poses. Personally, I wanted more variety than that, so I took it upon myself to study various poses on Pinterest to guarantee we had a wider variety for our wedding. Maybe my efforts were in vain, and she would have guided us through more poses anyway, but I didn't want to bank on that.
Overall, Lisa was about half the price of most photographers I got quotes from, so I would definitely still recommend her, but just for her five-hour package.
Lisa was great to work with for the first five hours of our wedding (first look, bridal party pictures and ceremony - which she did a phenomenal job capturing). The reason I specify the first five hours is because after the ceremony was done, Lisa barely got any pictures (she got 500 pictures from noon to 4:30 when our ceremony ended, but just 130 pictures from 4:30 to 8:00 - that included cocktail hour, first dances, cake cutting, some regular dancing, and sunset photos). I talked with her on the phone a few days before the wedding and mentioned that I wanted candids while the guests were getting seated for the ceremony (which she got none of) as well as during cocktail hour, but when the wedding came I saw her sitting around a lot during cocktail hour (and there are pictures with her in the background sitting at a table or in one of the rocking chairs that the venue had instead of getting pictures). I also mentioned on the phone that I DIDN'T care for pictures of my dress hanging up or invitation, but I DID want pictures of some of the tables at the venue (desserts - I worked really hard making my entire dessert table, Memory Table, Sparkler/S'more table that had some cute handmade signs at it). She got just two pictures of the dessert table which were super close-up shots of some cupcakes, nothing showing the full table with the 100+ cupcakes and 600+ cookies. There weren't any pictures of the favors that I handmade. There was just one picture of the Memory Table and no pictures of the S'more/Sparkler table. This is why I emphasize that Lisa was great for her five-hour package (enough to cover the first look, bridal party pictures and ceremony), but I don't think it was worth the extra few hundred dollars for the eight-hour package.
Another small annoyance was I asked her on the phone to be there at 12:15 so she could stay until 8:15 (eight hours). She mentioned on the phone that she'll probably get there at noon anyway - which I thought was nice, she was giving us an extra fifteen minutes. In reality, as soon as 8:00 rolled around, she said goodbye. I was a little annoyed because the reason I specified such an unusual time (12:15 - 8:15) is because I mapped out for the DJ to play an anniversary dance song at 8:00 and do the bouquet toss right after and I wanted pictures of those things - but Lisa left right before that.
Another very minor annoyance is that Lisa mentioned after we booked that she would give us a free small photo album because between the time she provided us the contract to review and when we actually booked a few months later the price increased $200. This is very minor since the album was going to be a gift to us and a couple months had gone by since she shared the contract, so she didn't have to offer us anything at all. We were hesitant to book since our venue had a three-year wait and we wanted to get married sooner, the venue told us they get cancellations every once in a while, so we wanted to wait a bit to see if any cancellations came up before we booked our photographer in case the new date wouldn't work for the photographer. It was really nice of Lisa to offer this to us, but in the end, she never pulled through. Again, not a big deal, she didn't have to offer a gift, but it was a bit awkward that she did offer it and didn't go through with it.
Overall, Lisa's prices are great compared to other photographers, so I definitely recommend her to cover your first look and ceremony (five hours). Although I got annoyed seeing her sitting around not taking pictures during cocktail hour or while guests were getting seated for the ceremony (not to mention dinner is included in the eight hours of time, so naturally no pictures then), we got a handful of stunning photos that we can get canvas prints of to hang on the wall as well as a bunch of great photos to make an album. At the end of the day, that's all you really need from your photographer.
Lisa is also very easy to talk to and makes you feel comfortable with getting your picture taken (which can be quite awkward since it's not something you do every day).
I attached a couple of my favorite photos, as well as a couple that are nice, but not my favorite. Lisa loves capturing the sky which looks really cool in some photos (like the one of us in the field), but in some other photos I thought there was way too much sky versus people, and I ended out cropping some photos later. Not a big deal, but figured I'd mention that."See more
