We are very private people, but wanted to have a wedding only for our families. We were not even going to have a photographer, but our parents paid for it. I am so grateful they did... our photographs are so special. 100s of black and whites and color pictures. Nice to have great memories in great pictures. We were worried with all the horror stories we have heard with other wedding and photographers. We were forced into even meeting our photographers by our parents before booking (but we loved to talk and coffee), Mel was pleasant, most friendly and professional during our wedding (and very helpful to keep us on track). And best of all... our eyes popped when we saw the results. We didn't even know he was taking most of the pictures. And the ones we did know about he worked with us to make us at ease. Sam and I highly recommend Absolutely Only.

Jack and I were married last month. We recieved our pictures today. The piuctures made me cry (happy tears) looking at the pictures of me and my dad especially, and then my dad with my daughter, thinking back when I was a little girl with my dad. I didn't even know Absolutely Only (Mel) was taking those pictures. I especially appreciate their artistic quality and getting those pictures I never thought were possible with our group. They worked with us, made us comfortable and we got it done. Their price was more than right, and we got way more than was offerred by other photographers. Thank you for the nice memories. TEN STARS and TEN THUMBS UP !

Jeff and I recieved our photographs, slide shows and albums today, 3 weeks after our wedding, and the results were way beyond our wildest dreams. We are stunned. We are completely satisfied and give 5+ of 5. We also want to give a 5+ for creativity too. WOW. We expected 500 pictures, but received over 800 unique pictures, and all were done additionally in black and white... making our total pictures over 1,600, and many paired images were done with special effects. 2 weeks ago we had received a link for our images on line... my family back East really liked that... they even have the photographs they want already, and only 2 weeks after the wedding. We saved almost 40% from other photographers we checked with. The best is we own all rights to our images and on-line sharing... both were free. Hats off big time to Absolutely Only. At least check these guys out... you are silly if you don't.

We had so many favorite pictures. All 700+ of them, but if I pick one favorite it has to be the photo of my groom, James, when he saw me for the 1st time in my wedding dress.
Our photographers were more than helpful. They werea joy to work with from the 1st time we met, then booked, our day and even after.. We own all rights which was #1 for us. The rest was great, but that was most important. Free online services. DVD of full size pictures, slide shows, 5 albums (3 sets of parents, ours and my sister), over 30 prints. Lots of artistic special effects. Engagement pictures included , done 7 months before where great as well. We had 2 photographers for before, during and after ceremony, then 1 for the reception.
Absolutely Only made us feel very comfortable during our wedding day. We didn't even know they were there except for the family and formal pictures. Our families thought they were nice and professional, making them comfortable too.

Terri and I were in the wedding business and decided to get married ourselves in January. We had a bit of an advantage looking for the professional WE wanted to do our wedding. We chose Absolutely Only (Mel) because we knew of his work from many years ago when he had studios, but his digital work has surpassed his work in film because of the post-production that is possible now. We also knew his packages were the best then, and they remain today. For comparison we did check 3 other photographers and there was no comparison when you looked at your bottom line. We save about 30% and actually got 50% more than with the closest other photographer package when we compared (he also gave us something as a gift we did not expect); and frankly the other photographer's work wasn't as good and they were a bit snotty, and one was down right rude and arogant. We enjoyed our entire time with Mel thru our meeting, wedding and picture selecting. Flexibility: He is a rubber man because we changed our times the day of the wedding at least 4 times, and they flexed with us. Responsive: Mel emailed us back anytime we emailed or called within a short period of time. He let us know the entire way where he was with our pictures, and was even early. Professionalism: He was not only professional, but friendly and engaging with us, family and guests. Value: We got 50% more for 30% less about (see above). Quality: We are thrilled GradeA1

Absolutely Only Wedding Photography (Mel) did our wedding photos and they were beautiful. Shane is in the Army and we recieved a militrary discount which helped. He even helped cut the cake because nobody knew how. He was fun and professioanl and did the types of photos I wanted; some traditional and some very different. He worked with us all the way. We can't give him any better recommendation that A++++ and tell all our friends. Of all the wedding professioanls we hired he was the best, gave us the most and was the best savings.

Andy and I loved our engagement and wedding pictures. Lots of free services (the best being his forever ON-LINE proofs and full size picture downloading... what a life saver for getting pictures to out of town family and guests) with our packages. We saved almost 30% and could al a carte what we wanted and NOT have to get what we didn't. Our engagement session was the most fun with Mel, the photographer, taking us to places we never knew about like Pennisula Rose Garden Park in North Portland, then to Crown Point and then to McCall park... many different styles of back drops and hundreds of photos. Our wedding pictures, odd to say maybe, were fun too especially after hearing from friends who had professional photographers do their weddings that were not flexible and were jerks. All I can say is if you want a PRO wedding photographer who is REASONABLE and FUN, and does wonderful work, you are not the brightest bulb in the pack if you don't check out Absolutely Only, or you won the lottery and don't care about wasting money. We saved over $1,000, but spent it on our honeymoon which was great ! Nice having an extra $1,000. Oh, our albums were top notch as well, plus again, hunfreads of wedding pictures with some having special effects too. Our only issue was there are too many pictures to choose from :O) PS We didn't have a DJ, but they also played our ceremony music that they even burned for us for free on this Bose unit that sounded like an orchestra.

I really don't know where to start. Rich and I loved everything thing about Absolutely Only. The price, the service, the quality of photographs, the quantity, the variety and especially their flexibility. Our only regret is that we didn't follow his recommendation and not party the night before. Eben though I had a raging headache, Mel was patient and didn't push. In fact, except for the formals, we didn't even know he was there. One photographer charged 3 times more, and most where 2 times, but all were higher (at least 9 wedding photographers were looked at). It is funny, I didn't want to go "for the price" because my pictures were too important to me. More important than anything else except maybe my dress. But it just happened that the best photographer we found, happened to be the least expensive when we compared everything and the final cost. Mel seems to actually enjoy his work and you can see it in his creative pictures, along with the formal stuff. We are proud to recommend without hestitation, Mel of Absolutely Only Wedding Photography. One last thing: Our wedding albums was very cool and my mom cried when she saw hers. Rich's parent got one too, and we have the option to get as many as we want at cost. Owning the rights to our pictures is probably the best along with the on-line downloading and viewing for our family which is free as well. Mel, "thank you" so much.

Simply the best packages I could find after checking with about 10 wedding photographers. They sat with us for 2 hrs, served us coffee (great) and cared about what we wanted. During the day Absolutely Only (Mel) was was gracious, inconspicous except during the traditional posing and seemed to be always be taking some picture or other, never skipping a beat. I wish I could say the same for our DJ and reception site (both disappointing). He had recommended some others, but we didn't listen. We wish we had. Our family back east and here are very pleased with the free downloading service and we are very happy with his photos, especially his unusual shots both candid and posed; stuff we had never thought of. Our albums are great and very modern and especially happy we can get our prints anywhere we want because we own them. Before I forget, we thought we could save a few cents getting our prints locally and was a big mistake; we then used their recommended processor and what a difference and only a couple cents more for much more. Their service before, during and after cannot be better. Thank you...

We just got our albums and prints, DVD slide shows, and DVDs with our pictures from our June wedding. We are so appreciative of having Absolutely Only do our wedding. They made it natural and comfortable plus the pictures are great. About 300 are magnificent, especially the special effects and the couple pictures, and the traditional poses are very good, but the different posing for some of those were terrific and very creative. At first we really didn't know what they would look like because the poses seemed king of weird, we are glad we did them. We also got over 600 candids (we wanted a lot) of everything going on during the day. We booked them for my mom and dad's 30th anniversary party and saying their vows again. Thank you Mel so very much. You were a bargin in so many ways. You need to charge a lot more, but not until my parents party. TEN+ stars and A+++

We were married on July 3 and recieved our pictures and albums, and slide shows today. WOW WOW WOW ! We had already seen our photos earlier because they have on-line services were they are uploaded. We also ordered pictures on our own thru his site that we didn't get for our package, but we can get as many as we want from his on line or order by ourselves with the 2 DVDs with all of our pictures. We didn't expect so many special effects along with all the originals pictures. Absoloutely's prices are also the best around. We came from Arizona and had a hard time finding a reasonably priced and PROFESSIONAL photographer, We are lucky we found Absolutely Only. Thank you. Everything is very nice and well beyond our wildest dreams.

We were a little worried about our photos because we are African-American and everybody seems to not get our color right. Too dark pictures and hard to see our faces. Well Absolutely Only was fantastic. Best pictures ever. We have nothing but wonderful things to say about their experience, the quality was terrific and we should have had them for our engagement pictures. Their prices are the best we could find. We also own all the pictures and used his recommended processer also with great prices and superb quality of the paper. My family liked him and same for their ON-LINE proof and downloadable photos. Free too. Albums were very good, slide shows used our music and others services were reasonable. 10 out of 5 in all catagories. Ladies STOP your search. Check these photographers out !

We own all the print rights to our images which saved us a lot of money. We got our DVDs with all our our images in color and black and white, slide shows from our Wedding in Cannon Beach about 2 weeks ago and now have our prints and albums. WOW. Absolutely beautiful and creative. Some posing I would have never thought of, and many candids. Wished we had engaged them for more time because the beach pictures are the best but our budget was restricted but we had to have professional pictures but did get 8 hours, unfortunately on 2 of it was on or near the beach). Some serious and some not so traditional pictures. Our family is already downloading for free what they want from on line and are also WOWing... Sure saved me alot of time and expense. Still can't believe we got so many pictures, over 1200, plus many special effects. We will recommend him to all our friends !

We were absolutely pleased with Absolutely Only. This was a unique experience for us, and a little unusual trying to find the right photographers. We had seen Absolutely Only throughout the web and we liked his rates and eclectic styles. What was unusual is that we want his platinum service and compared it with other photographer rates. When we met (twice) I couldn't believe it, after discussing what we wanted THEY SUGGESTED a lower priced package, as they put it "to have more money for our honeymoon". The recommended package was about 40% less, from $3,000 to about $1,500. They were absolutely correct and we would have over spent for what we really wanted. It kind of floored us having a photographer actually recommend something that fit our budget and needs, AND they would make less money. WHAT? Then seeing his work at his studio. That hooked us. Seeing about 6 other photographers and talking to scores of others, NOT any other photographer worked with us that way. Every other photographer was trying to convince us we needed a more expensive package because "this is your special day". Some with no real experience. Well it was our special day, but Mel worked with us. Odd too is we got as much and better quality, and future services and more than the other photographers. We appreciated his skill, personality, flexibility and customer service. The end product was magnificient: several albums, full printing of our pictures (rights), several DVDs will all our pictures. Mel, we will be forever thank full. PS Our honeymoon was great. Hugs ! BTW, advice to all the brides out there: get a professional, all the pictures by friends and family we average to bad. Absolutely Only's were wonderful. Hire a professional. Hire Mel :O) My sister made the mistake of saving in the wrong place (no pro with experience) and she ended up with 2 photos of her wedding worth printing. I ended up with over 800, plus special effects and a lot of wonderful photos and memories.

Chad and I loved Absolutely Only's photography. Our entire day was covered. They were pleasant, professional and got more photographs than I could ever hope for, and the price was right. I reviewed all the previous reviews to make sure my wedding picture and service was different. Mel gives consistant quality it appears, in both his manner and work. We loved our total experience with them: BEFORE, DURING and even AFTER. All I can really say is add us to the the other reviews of simply loving to work with Mel and Absolutely Only Wedding Photography. One last thing: they are honest to a fault, even doing more than the contract stated.

Stu and I loved our photos. The price was the best. We got 10 times more too of everything. A lot for no extra cost. On-line proofs and big downloading, slide shows, 3 albums, all the legal printing rights to our pictures and a few things we didn't expect. Stu didn't really like the pictures with him smiling, BUT I DO ! Nice to see the soft side too. He did appreciate you did some TOUGH pictures too. I just won't print them. hehe I recommend Mel, Absolutely Only Photography because you will get as good or better quality and packages than any body else, even the big names for a lot less money. Our only regret is we didn't book them for longer and a bigger package.