outstanding, 5 stars, life long friends
Emily & James are the most incredible human beings. They are kind, passionate, caring, down to earth, enthusiastic, sweetest, organized and phenomenal at taking pictures. I found Emily’s Instagram from countless hours of searching social media for venues/ vendors at mountainous locations in Virginia. We are from New Jersey so I deeply relied on social media for all things in the wedding planning process. I was looking for light and airy, natural, timeless photographs. I noticed Emily’s pictures, and reels from the venue’s Instagram we were originally going to get married at, Glass Hill, in Goode, VA. I will say before I sent my inquiry, I was very close to signing another contract with a different photographer, you can call it fate that I found Emily & James at the right time. The first impressions I experienced between that photographer and Emily & James were insanely different. I spoke on the phone with the other photographer briefly for 15 minutes and didn’t receive a warm, approachable personality like I did with Emily & James. On Emily’s website for inquiry it said to tell your story so I sent her a long paragraph about how my husband and I met, things we overcame as a couple, and the story of our proposal. Not long after I sent our inquiry on her website, I received a video message of Emily (and a little of James) genuine excitement about our relationship and wanting to work with us. I knew from that one video she was amazing, kind, and bubbly but when we had our initial FaceTime conversation to go over prices, packaging and just wedding stuff in general (that lasted almost 2 hours) I knew they were our photographers. Emily & James made us feel so comfortable instantly and it felt like we were longtime friends from one call.
James and Doug were the same person (calm, cool & collected), Emily and I were the same person(energetic, bubbly, witty) it was meant to be!
Doug & I booked with Emily & James the next day with no hesitation. A week after we signed our contract we received cookies and a 100 page wedding guide from Emily & James in the mail. These details really made us feel special and their efforts did not go unnoticed.
The greatest joy was meeting Emily and James in person at our engagement session. Doug & I needed to change our wedding location since we moved to Miami, Florida. We asked Emily & James if they would do a destination wedding in Miami and without hesitation they replied yes.
Emily and James knew that we wanted pictures with the mountain views so they suggested Doug and I take a trip up to Virginia for a weekend and do our engagement pictures at the venue we originally booked, Glass Hill. Well not only did we get to go there we also went to a few other mountainous locations that Emily and James recommended for fall foliage pictures that we so deeply missed being in Florida. We learned how to pose in front of the camera from Emily and James’ directions. Doug does not like his pictures taken and his words were “that was actually fun!” Emily and James showed us sneak peaks of our engagement pictures the next morning and then we received our full gallery a week later! The pictures were BEAUTIFUL!!
During wedding planning, I had a very close relationship with Emily. She was someone I texted/ facetimed with wedding questions, ideas I had, sneak peaks of hair, make up, and dress pictures. Emily always had the most reassuring, encouraging, genuine and hype me up responses to anything I sent her. She alleviated any stress I had and was my biggest cheerleader! Emily was the best bonus bridesmaid!
During our wedding week, Emily and James displayed professionalism, hardworking, organized, personable characteristics. Emily and James traveled to Miami 3 days prior to the wedding. They wanted to make sure themselves and their gear were here and ready to go with no problem. Emily and James attended our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner where they were able to take pictures of our venue, and spot potential portrait locations.
On our wedding day, Emily and James were grounded and took control of the day to make sure we followed the timeline they created to ensure we got all the pictures we wanted and the day went as smooth as possible. We took A LOT of pictures but Emily & James made the process fun. We shared a lot of genuine laughs which made the pictures look natural and effortless. Doug & I felt comfortable & confident to pose in front of the camera because of our engagement session. It also helped that Emily &. James would compliment us and tell us things like “oh my gosh, you guys look so good, I love this!” & made us feel like models.
Emily & James edited 12 sneak peek photos to show us before the reception. Not only did they show us but they showed our guests by displaying it on an iPad at the bar. Our guests were surprised & RAVING about how beautiful the pictures were! One week after our wedding, Emily & James created a blog & sent us about 150 edited pictures. The pictures that we received are absolutely stunning, and truly captured the happiness & love that Doug & I share with each other. I can’t stop looking at them. I will cherish the pictures and memories from that day forever.
I believe everything happens for a reason, and although we didn’t have our dream mountain wedding in Virginia, we were meant to meet Emily & James.
We loved working with them from beginning to end and so grateful for this wedding journey to bring us 2 new lifelong friends.