From a camera-shy bride who almost always dislikes looking at photos of herself and especially having to pose for photos... I would give Stephanie more stars if I could!!!

***Before the wedding - Seeking out a wedding photographer and anticipating the wedding photography gave me the MOST anxiety out of all the vendors / wedding planning. Especially after attending a few weddings and seeing up-close how much energy is demanded of the bride in terms of taking photos... then seeing her disappear for much of the rest of the event...

But I was drawn to Stephanie's portfolio when I was searching for a west coast photographer (online, from the east coast) because of her phenomenal candids. Yet even after meeting Stephanie before the wedding (who is exceptionally sweet, by the way, a great listener, with a very poetic way of looking at the world that makes your wedding feel even more special... She took a trip to Santa Barbara to check out my outdoor venue with me before the big day, which was so nice of her, and also studied the video I sent her of us rehearsing our choreographed first dance, she's very professional!), I was anxious about wedding photos.

***Day of - After literally helping me into my wedding dress, Stephanie breezed through so many shots - some stagey, others less so - of the bridal party, then at the venue whizzed straight through the family portraits at my urging when we were behind schedule so that, as I had wanted, all the staged portraits were done when cocktail hour kicked off our wedding at 3. And after that, besides some quick shoots with my husband that were actually quite fun to do (Stephanie can direct efficiently, she can also "go with the flow" with improvising), it barely felt like she and Tom were even there!

***THE PHOTOS - So stunning. Ridiculously so. The "posed" photos that we rushed through far surpassed my ("realistic") expectations, and I love so many of them, they're beautiful. But the candids, just wow. She caught SO MANY moments - different guests just "vibing" with their friends, the two moms crying, a cool shot of the "selfie" friend doing a huge bridal party selfie before the ceremony, a spontaneous family huddle with my parents and siblings during dinner, lots of emotional hugs, LOTS of laughing and joyous dancing... I got to re-live so many special little moments of the day all over again, going through the candid footage. Our families love the pictures too (hubby's grandfather, who's seen so many family weddings, even made several comments about how much he liked the "style" of our photos!)

And the wedding details - the flowers, cake, rings, uncle's custom wine and cute wine label, etc. - that I / my family put so much effort into planning - now I get to have Pinterest-worthy visuals of them forever. All of this at an outdoor venue with tricky lighting where Stephanie had never done an event before!

Oh, and her editing style was perfect. The footage wasn't over-softened or over-styled, as I see in so many wedding photos these days, so that our gorgeous outdoor park venue with its dappled lighting, and the color palette that my mom and I selected so carefully for dresses and flowers etc., really shone.

Tl;dr - If you want flattering but also magical, vibrant, organic (or staged / directed) wedding photos, with an authentic but professional photography experience - go with Stephanie!!!

My husband and I loved working with Stephanie and are so happy with how our wedding pictures turned out. Stephanie put us at ease through the planning process and brought such kindness and lightness to the chaos of wedding planning. She is a great listener and has a background in photo-journalism, which is evident when you see how her pictures help to tell the story of your special day. I loved how well she captured all of the beauty and emotion of our wedding day. Looking through our pictures got me all misty-eyed. We are definitely planning to order one of her wedding albums so that we can look back on her beautiful pictures for many years to come.

Stephanie was a pleasure to work with, excellent at communicating and super respectful during our church ceremony. She was quick but professional during the posed pictures and really helped us with posing and picture composition. We had plenty of time to mingle and talk with our guests while still getting all the pictures we wanted. She captured all our happy moments and we were incredibly lucky to have her and would 100% recommend her to any couple!