I'm writing mainly from the embarrassment of having recommended Lauren. We had her do our wedding in May 2010 and there's no question she takes beautiful shots. It did take a long time to receive our photos. Meaning 6 months plus. When one of friends asked about her I confirmed that she did have lovely work, but that her final delivery took a while and you had to follow up with her regularly. Whenever people ask about photographers I would mention her with this caveat.

I'm embarrassed to say that my friend did hire her for her wedding 2 years ago and is still waiting to receive an album designed by Lauren. (This is an add on to her just taking the photography, retouching, and then sending photos through). The fact that our friends felt the need to mention this at drinks and ask if we'd share our experience on a review is pretty telling. And I'm only on here because I'd like to make up for the poor recommendation and make sure that others know to avoid this experience.

The first review has it right that you need timelines in the contract and I would go as far as to make sure she doesn't receive the bulk of payment until after receipt of the goods, just to protect yourself. Seems like Lauren could greatly benefit from a business manager or some sort of support so that she can do what she's good at (the shots) and they can make sure that the clients are taken care of.

Expect 6 months for photos and at least a year for your albums.

Hi there, It is been a year now :) we are happily married choosing this service was a small bump in the road that we wanted to share with you so you will be careful and choose your way wisely. If I could turn time back….I really regret choosing this service, I strongly recommend choosing other professional photographers, drama free and mainly for peace of mind on your big day until you get your photos.
Don’t be fooled by the first impression focus on the contract and your interests.
The contract mainly covers the interest of photographer, once you signed the contract and made the payment you will be informed that you have to refer to the contract in which your interests are not covered in it :(. Make sure to add timelines to the contracts in which you will know when you get your engagement's photographs and the wedding's photographs as electronic delivery, when the actual photos will be delivered otherwise you will need to wait 7 to 12 months (yes... write it down if it is not written in the contract it was never agreed upon)
Expect auto replies via emails, if you are lucky you will get a reply in an email within a week in which you will be notified that she will get back to you soon and you find yourself in a back and forth loop.
Try to get answers over the phone?! You will get voicemails and no callbacks.
Wedding day and the months after during the honeymoon are magical, as much as you see it special don’t expect to be treated as such if you choose this service.
If you expect smooth ride on this one forget about it, you won’t know until you have experienced it and once you have experience it there is no lesson learned, you just stuck with bad service and bad experience that you wish you knew before you got into it.

Congratulations!!!

Up to the day of the wedding Lauren was FANTASTIC. Responded to emails/questions never giving us a doubt that she was anything less than professional. It took longer than expected for the first draft of pictures, but we didn't mind because the photos looked amazing!
However, BE PREPARED TO WAIT & go in knowing the dates in the signed contract don't mean a thing. Ours stated that "Six months from the date of the shoot, client will receive printing rights & files allowing print", actually it took over 13 months for us to receive the disks of our photos so that we could print. The contract also stated "your album is contingent on the time of year, though is likely to be completed in 4-8 weeks." Well, we were married Oct 2014 & picked out photos for the album in March 2015 and are still waiting.
The most frustrating part is we email over & over with little response. Every once in a blue moon I get a answer back that will give just the smallest glimmer of hope which is immediately crushed by another month or more of silence. Then when she finally will respond it is yet another excuse. The worst part is she flips it around to try and make me feel bad that she's busy or had some emergency that took precedent. I even got an email where she tries to blame me for the delay saying "there are a lot of details in this album plus y’all added a lot of additional images (I think the limit is around 100?)". However that's an absolute lie, and I have the email verification showing I selected 91 photos, plus that's all I was told I could select! She stated in email with the link to the online gallery (which you choose the photos from) "Your next step is to choose your favorite 90 photos for your 10x8” Couture album! That amount of photos is the maximum amount for that size album, that way it won’t be over-crowded. ". So which is it, 100 or 90?
I had planned on waiting to receive everything I paid for before writing a review, but at this point I have honestly just given up hope.