Ashley Strong Smith

While Ashley and I attended the same high school, I originally reconnected with her after I saw that she photographer another high school friend’s wedding. I started following her photography on Instagram well before I met my now husband. When my husband and I began dating and I knew I would marry him one day, I knew I had to have Ashley be our photographer. Not even a few weeks after being engaged I reached out to Ashley to connect and discuss hiring her as our wedding photographer. And honestly, it was the best decision we made for our wedding other than marrying each other. Both my husband and I are very camera shy and hate having our photos taken, but Ashley made us so comfortable it was like we were hanging out and catching up with a close friend rather than having someone take pictures of us. Her bright and natural photography style is exactly what we were looking for in a society where highly edited and photoshopped styles are popular. From our engagement shoot in the San Bernardino Mountains to our wedding at Lake San Marcos, Ashley embraced us and the natural scenes around us which is exactly what we wanted with an outdoor wedding in November. She worked diligently with us on our timeline to make sure we wouldn’t miss the sunset with our winter wedding and on the day of the wedding she made sure we were happy and as relaxed as we could be, that we had a drink in our hands post ceremony and even brought me an extra slice of cake after our cake cutting. Not even a week after the wedding she had sneak peak of photos ready for us to look at. There is not a picture she took and presented to us that we don’t love. I would love for her to photograph every major moment in our married life together and highly recommend her.

here is no better was to say it other than Ashley is simply the best! Her vibrant colors and naturally lit pictures first caught our eye but after the first phone conversation we knew our search for the perfect person to capture these special moments was finally over. Ashley’s passion for what she does is easily felt right when you meet her and it is even more apparent in the way she captures her clients. From the beginning she was very helpful in planning our engagement session. Her recommendations for locations were spot on, her advice on choosing outfits was amazing, and she even helped coordinate our dog into our session. My fiance isn’t super comfortable in front of the camera but she quickly made our session feel fun and relaxed with her lighthearted but still professional spirit. We were climbing on trees. She was climbing on rocks. We really just had the best time celebrating our love for each other while Ashley worked her magic in gently coaching us and capturing it all. Our photographs turned out to be absolutely gorgeous!!! We were so anxious to see them and Ashley was great in getting us some quick sneak peeks followed by our incredible gallery. Everything about them is perfectly us and just looking at them gives us the feelings of that day all over again. We feel incredibly lucky to have connected with Ashley and cannot wait to have her there to capture our wedding day!!!!

The moment we had our first phone conversation with Ashley, we were immediately drawn to her positive, vibrant personality, and we knew that we had found our wedding photographer.
Ashley really makes you think about your wedding vision, something we hadn’t really put too much thought into until she came into the picture (pun intended).
She truly wants to know her couples, their story, which makes for a more personal experience. She quickly becomes your friend, not just your wedding photographer.
Our favorite aspect of working with Ashley is her skill of making us feel super comfortable in front of the camera, all nervousness and shyness gone (we must admit we had some wine before our engagement session that also helped😉, but that was not needed anymore the wedding day). Ashley made us feel like we were alone in front of the camera, made us focus on each other and in the moment, without worrying about what was happening around us.
Needless to say, all her pictures are absolutely GORGEOUS. She made an amazing job capturing all the important moments of the day, from the first look pictures to the ceremony, reception, and all the details in between. Her pictures make us relive the wedding day over and over.