We strongly recommend hiring Thomas Graves to photograph your wedding. We believe that venue and photographer selection are two of the most important wedding planning decisions. A friend recommended Thomas to us and we were very comfortable with him from our first meeting in his kitchen. We met with a few other photographers and time and time again Thomas’ combination of style, personality, perceived ease to work with and cost made it ever clearer to us that Thomas was the best photographer for us to hire. We couldn’t be happier with the results. Thomas is extremely easy to work with. His professionalism and ability to coral our wedding party and various family members was calming on what could have been a stressful day. Most importantly, he took amazing photographs and offers some great wedding album options. It is without reservation that we recommend Thomas Graves as your wedding photographer.
Steph & James

If you can get Thomas Graves, do it.

Quickly after we met Thomas (and after looking at the photos on his website) we knew he was the right photographer for us and our wedding. He takes gorgeous, expressive photos AND made us feel comfortable both with his easy demeanor and his professionalism. Thomas struck a good balance between really listening to our thoughts about what we wanted for engagement and wedding photos, while also offering his own advice about how to maximize the shots (especially for the engagement photos where we were outside in a public park). On our wedding day, he and Edna were thorough but quick with the formal photos and everyone was amazed at how smoothly it went. The candid shots are outstanding and tell a complete story that allows us relive the day when we flip through them. Thomas also went above and beyond, staying longer than we'd asked for and offering bandaids for my husband's blisters and advil for my sore back. In all, we love our photos, and the experience of working with Thomas was a true pleasure! We'd recommend him highly to friends and family.

The one thing you will actually have in your hands, literally on the walls of your home, for years to come will be your wedding photos. The pressure to find the right photographer can be immense, but selecting Thomas was actually one of the easiest decisions of my wedding planning. He had been the photographer for my brother-in-law's wedding, so we had seen his work and knew how spectacular it was. It really depends on what you are looking for, but for me he was a perfect choice because I wanted a more of a photojournalist style, with photos that captured candid moments, the emotion of the people there that day. That is what Thomas excels at. Of course you need some posed pictures with the wedding party, but beyond that there were not many photos of the "stand together and smile" variety, which is exactly what we wanted. He is great at finding those small moments that showcase a person, emotion, event. An example is a fun photo he took of me and my now-husband, with the groom making a cute expression. When we saw this moment on the wedding video, we realized that the whole scene took place in about 2 seconds, yet Thomas captured the perfect moment for the photo. He has a great eye for light, expressions, and composition, I just couldn’t be happier with how they came out. He is also a joy to work with, very flexible and with a great sense of humor. The only problem we now face is selecting which pictures to put in an album, there are just so many great ones to choose from!

Thomas is a photographer that can capture the true beauty of a wedding by capturing the emotions of the people you love in an image. When thinking about how he was able to do this so remarkably well, I came up some of the keys to his success:

Thomas Listens - Prior to the wedding, we spoke with Thomas a few times so he could get an idea of what we were looking for him to capture at our wedding. Most photographers gave you the standard form of who the family is, who the bridal party is, and some general likes/dislikes. Thomas does this, but also hones in on what elements of the day are the most important to us - the first dance, special friends, locations that are special. His ability to take our personal feedback to guide his work is phenomenal.

Thomas is Flexible - Thomas is able to adjust at the drop of a dime. A wedding planner may be albe to scehdule your event perfectly. However, things can change. Thomas is able to adjust on the fly and make even little goofy moments that you werent't thinking about into precious moments you will remember forever. I also have to say that this man was everywhere in the wedding. Even the wedding party was suprised at how he was able to capture so many different scenes and emotions, and still get the essential pictures of the Bride and Groom.

Thomas gives you Value - When discussing what was part of the package, it was evident that Thomas understands what the bride and groom really want - the knowledge that the pictures belong to us. Most of the photographers we spoke with would say they would give us access to prints online and we could order the ones we wanted. When I heard that from other photographers, I felt that I should have the same rights of ownership to my personal pictures - Why should I pay someone else for permission to print a picture of me? Thomas hands you the disc of all your pictures and gives you the power to do withyour pictures what you will. Can he make you a photobook, YES! However, being given the flexiblity to use your pictures the way you want is priceless.

I could go on and on about other factors, but if you take a moment to see his work and talk with him personally, you will have a hard time choosing someone else. Thomas is a consumate professional and a true pleasure to work with. My wife and I said that the most important investment in our wedding was the pictures, and with Thomas, it was an investment that will last a lifetime.

I did a LOT of research on wedding photography and local photographers before I settled on Thomas. As an experienced photojournalist he has a talent for capturing moments, not just creating posed ones. He and his assistant (his lovely wife) were more like cousins at our wedding who had the best cameras (and superior talent). They were discreet yet still managed to capture all of the moments that meant so much to me. He really worked with me, with all of the crazy wedding planning, he would give me gentle prompts if needed and gave me plenty of notice if he needed something from me... which was great as I had a lot going on in my life at the time. Everyone has loved the photos and I have recommended Thomas to everyone I know. You will be glad that someone you can trust is taking care of the most important job of the big day.

Thomas is a consummate professional. He is a perfectionist and a detail-oriented organizer when it comes to the administrative aspects of his work, which makes him very easy with whom to work. His photography is top-notch, an expert at capturing the actual moments of our wedding day rather than lots of posed photos, which was exactly what we wanted.

My wife and I found Thomas' reliability invaluable. Many of our other vendors were unresponsive or simply inaccessible when we needed to talk about details; Thomas was always accessible and as our wedding day approached and we lost valuable time tracking down our other vendors, we didn't have to worry about photography.

On our wedding day Thomas captured far more great shots than I could have expected. Of course he got all the big things, but we really like the candid moments between our guests. He's a great guy and working with him was a pleasure at all times. I can't help but smile when looking through our album. We are thrilled with our wedding photos and if we had it to do again we would still choose Thomas.

Thomas Graves is an exceptional, professional and extremely talented photographer! My husband and I worked with Thomas for our wedding in May 2010 and we honestly can not say enough about Thomas and his beautiful work. He is very professional and it has been such a pleasure and joy to work with him before, during and even after our wedding. We have seen Thomas' work before from my sister-in-law's wedding and baptism of their second child. We knew then that there would be no question in our minds whether or not to ask Thomas to help us with our wedding album.
His talent is evident when you see the end result of all his hard work and dedication. From start to finish, Thomas had kept us up to date with the progress of our album and he had even sent us proofs of a possible layout for our album in a PDF file.
Thomas is not like any other photographer that I have had experiences with in the past, where they are either barking orders at you, always in your face or "there" or sometimes no where to be found when you need them. Thomas' presence while working is more like he is apart of the crowd and you honestly don't even feel like he is there...but he most certainly is, because you will find some of his photos and wonder, "When did he take that? I didn't even know he was there!"
Thomas will definitely shock you with his work. He shocks us each time we look through our photos and our album and we couldn't be happier with the end result.
Thomas continues to work with our family for any special event that comes up such as baptisms. He is and will most definitely continue to be our "family photographer" as more special events come in the future. My husband and I have already agreed to ask Thomas to help us in the future when we have children of our own and we have their baptisms.
Truth be told, we can not tell you enough about Thomas' work, talent and skill. It would truly be a mistake not to have Thomas Graves work with you, because you honestly don't know what you are missing!!

Thank you so much Thomas!! :-)

I can't say enough good things about Thomas Graves. He was the first vendor we hired for our wedding, and he was invaluable from the beginning as he expertly (and patiently!) fielded questions about venues and other vendors. He was also amazingly flexible when some of the details of our event unexpectedly changed. Thomas always responded promptly to questions, and he took care to get a clear sense of our personal style and our vision for the event. On the day of the wedding, Thomas was a pleasure. He kept a very low profile during the event yet somehow managed to be in exactly the right place to get amazing pictures. (And when my bustle broke, he appeared with a safety pin -- exactly what was needed to fix the problem.) Throughout our time working together, I felt that Thomas was genuinely interested in doing what he could to ensure that we had a wonderful experience at our wedding. And he is clearly committed to producing a great product -- our photos are truly stunning. I was also amazed at how quickly he returned the photos to us. Friends of mine have reported waiting a year or more to get their wedding photos, and we received ours in only a couple of months. I would highly recommend Thomas to anyone.

It was a wonderful experience working with Thomas. He makes you feel quite at ease while getting the pictures done. The pictures themselves are breathtaking! Everyone who has looked at them said they are the best wedding pictures they have every seen! He really knows how to capture the moment