10/10 would recommend Emily and James for your wedding photographers! Not only are they amazing at what they do, they are also a blast to work with! I appreciated the initial phone call to determine if our personalities matched, I learned that was a huge importance with wedding photography. Our experience with James and Emily at Shenandoah National Park for engagement photos exceeded expectations, even with the cold and windy rain, they made the experience enjoyable and it felt like we were working with close friends. Our wedding at Wintergreen Resort had unexpected rain, we were luckily able to get all of our photos beforehand (can't recommend a first look enough). I was impressed with Emily and James' ability to deal with change and hiccups throughout the wedding day, they even were soaked from the rain and were still working with a smile. I had multiple friends and family come up to us after the wedding raving how much they loved these two. The photos from the wedding and engagement turned out AMAZING and we had the images back quickly, I will cherish the photos forever. I couldn't imagine our wedding day without them, they helped make it such a magical day! Hire Hancock Photography, you won't regret it!

When you hire Emily and James, you get so much more than a couple great photographers. After an engagement shoot with a different photographer, we realized we needed a team that prioritized getting to know and communicating with their clients. Fortunately we had seen Emily and James in action at our friend’s wedding and remembered being impressed by both their work flow, how quickly and easily they shared pictures with guests, and the final product that our friends shared with us. Emily offers a wealth of knowledge when it comes to planning your wedding, organization and well timed planning goals to keep everything and everyone on track. We didn’t have to worry if vendors would be on the same page because Emily made sure that they were. It was okay that we didn’t know how to express our vision because Emily knew which questions to ask and when. She put her all into our wedding, leaving nothing unaddressed. We chose Emily and James because we wanted authentic pictures, and with them we could be ourselves. Our favorite parts of the planning process were the detailed yet casual video calls, questionnaires, and their willingness to travel for our engagement shoot. These were the perfect ways to get to know each other and confirm that we would vibe well on wedding day. Our wedding day was everything we wanted, and Emily and James played an essential role to this. They captured everyone and every moment beautifully and offered a calming presence in a day that can be wonderful and chaotic all at once. Emily literally removed stress from our wedding day by both being so exceptionally organized and thorough leading up to the wedding and handling complications like a true professional so that we didn’t feel overwhelmed or burdened on our big day. We can honestly not imagine planning or celebrating our wedding without Emily and James. Because of this, we plan on keeping in touch for future photoshoots!

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.