Tamara brings the best energy to your wedding day. She is fun and makes you feel comfortable in front of the camera, but also a professional and knows what needs to get done to keep things moving! We were so happy with all of our photos from our engagement session and wedding. Thank you so much Tamara!

Tamara and Taylor were great from start to finish. When my wife and I first met Tamara for our engagement shoot, we knew we were in good hands. Our photos turned out perfect, the wedding day was a huge success despite the rain, and Tamara and Taylor both did an excellent job of making my wife and I, our family, friends, and guests feel comfortable and look candid. We recommend NikoBella Photography to anyone for any occasion, especially weddings. Thank you again!

We never wanted a big fancy wedding with all the works and instead chose to have an intimate courthouse ceremony with close family and friends. Booking a photographer was never in our initial plan, until I saw how beautiful the Howard County Courthouse (Maryland) was.

Booking Experience:
I proceeded to find potential photographers in MD, all via Google while I was in another state. My (now) husband is from MD (which is why we were getting married there) but we both work and live in CA. Tamara from NikoBella Photography was one of the photographers who responded to my inquiry. We scheduled a video call with her and afterwards knew that we wanted to book her right away. She was nice, friendly, and professional. She scouted the venue (courthouse) ahead of time and even scouted a second nearby location for more portraits (including making arrangements ahead of time to make sure we had access to the location). This was really helpful since we would not be able to see the location or meet with her until the day of. Tamara was very thorough in her preparations, including a back-up plan for if the weather was not agreeing with us that day since there was a chance of rain in the forecast as well as a back-up photographer in the event she was unavailable due to circumstances out of her control. She sent us a very detailed wedding questionnaire a few weeks before our big day and this helped coordinate a lot of inquiries and efforts ahead of time.

Wedding Day:
Since it was our first experience with professional photography, we did not know what to expect. I was even slightly stressed from the anticipation and uncertainty, but that went away when we met Tamara in person. She arrived early (even earlier than we did...oops!) and was there to meet us in front of the courthouse. She took photos of our ceremony outside, portraits with family and friends, and couple portraits. We spent some time taking photos at the courthouse before moving to the Patapsco Female Institute, which she had scouted in advance. Her professional eye and initiative made the whole experience easy for us! She knew the spots to shoot at, had a great vision for what she wanted to capture, and gave concise directions on how to pose, smile, look, etc. They were really easy to follow and also very fun to do! It was an enjoyable experience, and almost like a stress-relief after the ceremony. Even my photo-awkward hubby enjoyed the experience!

Post-Wedding:
As promised, Tamara shared some 'sneak peaks' on her Instagram shortly after the photo session on that same day itself. She shared a few more over the next few weeks which built-up our level of excitement and anticipation for our photos! We also needed a few family portraits for some formal paperwork which Tamara quickly sent to me (Thank you! Very much appreciated). About 3.5 weeks later, we got the full gallery from her with a shareable link and private download code. We got a TON of photos from the 2-hour shoot and it was clear the sheer amount of effort she had put into compiling the final gallery.

TLDR: Highly recommend and would work with her again!
If there is one word to describe the experience it would be “easy”, which is what you would hope for on what is likely to be one of the more stressful days in your life. I honestly think working with Tamara made our special day that much more memorable and enjoyable. It ended up being my favorite part of the day (besides getting married of course!). Even though all arrangements were made long-distance via email and phone, the whole process was seamless. Not only do we have this experience to remember as part of our big day, but we now have beautiful photos that we get to share and enjoy forever. Thank you, Tamara, for making our special day EXTRA special!