Susan is literally the best in the business!
Susan and her team are simply the best in the business.
We first met Susan when she perfectly captured our engagement mid-pandemic in August 2020. My husband and I live in London and Susan was happy to make all of the plans with him from an ocean away. She was available to discuss logistics over Zoom and FaceTime with my husband at times that were convenient for him at early morning and late evening hours. His original Spring Lake beach proposal plans went off the tracks when a major rain storm rolled through just an hour beforehand. Susan seamlessly worked with my husband and my best friend over text message (unbeknownst to me!) to replan the entire proposal in 30 minutes in order to avoid the rain. She provided several suggestions and changed her physical location multiple times just to ensure we had the perfect proposal that she could capture. Susan could have just waited for my husband to cancel or declined his request to change everything at the last minute but instead she went above and beyond her role as our photographer in order to make our proposal unforgettable. Even with dark skies and a rainy backdrop, Susan was able to capture our proposal as if it were in perfect conditions, as you can see in the photos here.
After this experience we knew we would be crazy not to use Susan and her team on our wedding day. As all newly engaged couples know, we were very unsure of exactly what we needed / wanted from our photo vendor on our wedding day. Still living in London, Susan was again happy to work around our schedules in order to discuss our vision and talk us through our package options. We ended up deciding on 10 hours of coverage with two photographers and an assistant. The package included color + black and white versions of all of our photos along with one wedding album. Susan worked with us to ensure we stayed within our budget and even gave us a bit of a discount as returning customers of hers. The loyalty is real! :)
In the weeks leading up to our May 2022 wedding, Susan laid out an extensive timeline for us ensuring that she and her team could capture every moment of our big day. Without her guidance we would have been lost in deciding how to plan out when to get ready on the morning of, when to arrive at the church, how much time to allow for photos before the reception, when to pop outside for sunset photos, when to cut the cake, etc.
A week before our wedding we had a change of heart and decided to add an extra hour of photo coverage. Susan was right on top of it and within hours had a re-drafted contract over to us to review and sign.
On the day of the wedding, Susan and her team were exceptional in capturing every moment. Susan and her assistant, Lindsay, joined the bridesmaids and I at my house in the morning while her second photographer, Jane, joined my husband and the groomsmen at the hotel to capture us getting ready. Both arrived early giving us extra photo time that we had not even paid for. They kept everything at both locations on time and orderly and budgeted plenty of time to capture candid shots of both parties, detail shots, and bride/groom portraits. It is never easy being in front of the camera for so long but they both made it fun and effortless for us (while teaching us the proper ways to pose for photos!).
Just prior to the church ceremony Susan went out of her way to give us both calming words of advice as we got set to tie the knot. Her and her team seemed essentially invisible during the ceremony while getting the most incredible photos of us, the church, and our guests.
Our wedding day continued the extreme weather pattern of our engagement by being a sunny 95 degrees in mid May. When it was time for family and bridal party photos outside after the ceremony Susan took the weather into account, altered plans a bit on the fly, and planned the sessions to allow the groups not imminently involved in photos to wait on the air conditioned trolley until it was their turn. On a cloudless day with the sun shining very brightly Susan had suggestions on modified angles and locations in order to get the best lighting for all of our photos. One of our planned photo locations (at a bridge on the lake) meant a lot to us but was not an ideal spot for a photographer at that time of day due to the sun. Even though Susan suggested we move elsewhere she listened to our desire to use this location, got creative, and made our vision a reality. The photos came out absolutely amazing and we couldn’t have been happier with her guidance and direction.
Susan kept all 24 (!) of us in the bridal party on schedule and got us to our cocktail hour 20 minutes before it started as originally planned. This allowed her to get some great shots of our venue spaces before prepping her and her team for the reception. When the formalities of the reception were finished Susan made sure to grab us ahead of schedule for sunset photos as she noticed the sun was soon going to dip under a nearby bridge near our venue. She was on top of every single small detail that we never would have noticed with her. She was an amazing team player and worked great with our videographer (who she had never worked with before) to ensure they could simultaneously get the footage and photos needed without using up too much of our precious time.
From start to finish, everything Susan and her team did on that day significantly exceeded our expectations. Their professionalism was unmatched while also making the entire day fun and stress free. Our bridesmaids and groomsmen raved about her and how effortless she made it all seem for us and herself. Within 18 hours of leaving our reception Susan had provided us with 60 fully edited shots from our big day so that we could share with friends and family and on social media. A couple of weeks later we had our entire series of edited wedding photos (thousands) sent to us via her easy to use website link and organized into folders for each part of the day. Downloading the photos to laptops and phones was super easy and allowed us to share her amazing work instantly.
Susan also happens to have a great social media presence and put together numerous jaw dropping and emotional Instagram Reels of our wedding day which further displayed her commitment and passion for each and every wedding she captures. A couple of those reels ended up going somewhat viral with hundreds of thousands of views which was an awesome cherry on top to an already exceptional experience. She truly makes it feel as if your wedding is the most important wedding of her life, even though she’s doing several weddings per week in peak season.
The actual photos speak for themselves but needless to say we were absolutely thrilled with the end product. Susan’s unique editing style makes every photo feel bright and lively without losing the vibrance of the wedding environment. We could not be happier with how each and every photo came out.
The only difficult part of the entire process was when it came time for the wedding album design a couple of months after our wedding day. We simply had too many exceptional photos to choose from! However, Susan’s design team guided us through the process seamlessly and created samples for us to pick and choose from while easily allowing us to swap photos in and out during our zoom session. The album is a perfect representation of our wedding day and all of the great work that Susan and her team did.
We could not recommend using Susan as your wedding photographer more adamantly. Choosing her to cover your wedding will not only be a great decision to ensure you have fantastic photos when all is said and done but will also put you at ease by having one less major component of your wedding to worry about. Susan has everything under control on her side and you will not need to manage her like you will with other vendors. In fact, she will go above and beyond by helping you manage your vendors with her best advice and tips, manage your wedding day timelines end to end, and craft your wedding experience as a whole in line with your vision.
Thank you so much to Susan, Jane, and Lindsay for the exceptional service on the greatest day of our lives. Our wedding day truly would not have been the same without you. We are so grateful to have these amazing photos to look back on to remember our special day.
Cheers,
Bridget and Mark