Nicole Colwell Photography Reviews
Reviews
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Amy D. Sent on 07/21/2022
Amazing Film Photographer!
My husband and I booked with Nicole back in February of 2020. Nicole is not only a photographer but also the owner of a stunning wedding venue, The Ivy Rose Barn, in the heart of Rocky Mount VA. She was so attentive to details with not only her photography but the venue as well (as seen in pictures). Her husband David was also kind and accommodating when showing the venue and assisting with day of coordination/photography. While Covid threw in a few curve balls, both for us and for the venue, our special day in May 2022 was well worth it. Our guests could not stop raving gorgeous every inch of the venue was and how beautiful her film photography is. -
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Anu U. Sent on 04/21/2020One of THE best fine art film wedding photographers in the industry!
Nicole is hands down one of the most talented, hardworking, experienced, and dedicated film photographers in the wedding industry. Not only is she extremely professional and responsive, she has an exquisite eye for detail that every bride dreams of. I had been following Nicole on social media for several months before hiring her and just knew I had to have her as my wedding photographer. For the level of service and quality of photos she delivers, you would expect her to charge way more than she actually does. She truly cares about her work, really attempts to understand the bride/couples’ vision, and curates the most ethereal, timeless, quality wedding photo collection for her brides. We got to know Nicole and her husband, David, throughout our wedding planning and they are truly wonderful, talented people who go above and beyond for their clients. They arrived early on the day of my wedding and Nicole spent several hours painstakingly taking the most perfect detail shots while we were getting ready, even though this was well beyond what we were paying her for. I also had two ceremonies built into my wedding (one Indian and one Jewish) and Nicole shot countless images for both despite the fact that it was essentially double the work for her without charging me double the amount! I still get compliments to this day (almost a year after my wedding) about how beautiful my engagement and wedding photos are. I plan to use Nicole for any and all of my photography needs moving forward. There’s no one else I’d rather have capturing the most important moments of my life! -
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Amy M. Sent on 04/20/2020Amazing Talent and Quality
I have worked with Nicole a few times and she is hands down my favorite photographer. Her style is timeless and her product is top notch quality! I would recommend her to anyone needing wedding photos, engagement, maternity, etc. I cannot say enough great things about her! -
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Caroline Sent on 10/30/2019Aetherial Romantic Photos
We absolutely loved working with Nicole. She truly is a master at what she does -- AND she loves what she does. My husband and I are normally not great at taking photos, but Nicole made the experience really organic. As a result, the photos turned out to be simply gorgeous. We highly recommend working with her!! -
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Emily Sent on 08/07/2019Nicole is wonderful
Nicole was so sweet and was able to work with me when it rained all day and we got married at night. She was so fun and even danced with us at the reception! -
Katherine Sent on 12/20/2017I am so happy I used Nicole as my wedding photographer! Even though I am extremely awkward in front of a camera lense, Nicole made me and my husband feel so comfortable! My pictures turned out better than I could have imagined! We were even able to use her husband as a second photographer to follow around my husband and his groomsmen on the wedding day, which immensely helped us save on time. Nicole and her husband are very laid back and flexible! I’d use them again in a heartbeat!
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Kaitlyn Sent on 11/20/2017Nicole was so awesome to work with! We had both our engagement and wedding photos done with her and couldn’t be happier with her beautiful work!
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Natalia Sent on 11/16/2017Nicole was absolutely amazing on my wedding day! She gave me and my husband wonderful direction when we were taking our portraits. Nicole also did my boudoir photos. She made me feel super comfortable and made me look and feel my best. She got the photos back to me super quickly and her photos took my breath away! I️ could not have asked for a more amazing person than Nicole! I️ will be using her for all my photo needs in the future. I️ cannot recommend her enough!
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Isabelle Sent on 11/02/2017Nicole did a wonderful job capturing our day! Our pictures were delivered quickly and all of them were beautiful! Our wedding day was a big rush because we kept having rain warnings and yet she still got a ton of beautiful pictures! She did a really good job capturing the details of our day as well. We worked hard to make our wedding unique and she really got all of our details beautifully. Fun personality too!
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Sara Sent on 06/10/2017Nicole is an INCREDIBLE photographer and an all around amazing person. She photographed my surprise proposal and the pictures were phenomenal. Her film work is out of the world! I am so beyond excited to have her be apart of my wedding this September! I've had the privilege of working along side her at some of her weddings and she has such incredible attention to detail, she's very professional, and has a super fun, loving, and bubbly personality. There's no other photographer in the world I would trust more than Nicole on my wedding day! If you're looking for a photographer for your wedding, Nicole is the best, hands down! ?? -
Katie Sent on 11/24/2017Our engagement and wedding day pictures are absolutely amazing! My favorite part of our pictures is how unique they are compared to other we have seen. I received so many compliments from other people on the style of the pictures. We are so happy with our pictures! They look amazing when they are printed as photos and on canvas. We received our pictures a month after our wedding. We could not have asked for a better photographer!
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Elizabeth Sent on 11/19/2017Working with Nicole was amazing from start to finish! She was very responsive and maintained open communication throughout the process! She engaged with the guests at our wedding, which helped to get in the moment shots! She was very flexible to make sure we got all of the shots that were important to us, rather than coming into it with her own agenda. There are definitely “cheaper” options out there, but as with anything important, you definitely get what you pay for! The service, pictures and photo quality were well worth it!
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Callie Sent on 11/20/2017Nicole was a pleasure to work with. She did my brother's wedding first and I knew I had to book her for mine. I have so many favorite photos from her of my engagement, bridal, and wedding. I couldn't be happier with them!
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Brittney Sent on 12/26/2017I read so many great reviews about Nicole and her photos looked amazing and more soft, ethereal, and artistic which is what I wanted. We were able to book her and even got a small discount because she wasn't available on our originally proposed date (we had to change our date already too).
So the photos from both engagement and wedding - I LOVE them and they were returned to us pretty quickly. I know that those are the items that last a lifetime and are more important; however, I do wish we were able to have a better relationship. I know she travels a lot and teaches, but e-mails with Nicole were the most lagging out of all my vendors and when it came time to do engagement photos I got really nervous about our vendor choice until I saw the photos. Our first phone chat went really well, but during our engagement shoot we kept asking about her and her passions and how she met her husband. Otherwise it was utter silence. We were never asked how we met or what we love about each other, what we do....all questions that would build our comfort with Nicole, but also so she could capture some candid smiles and eye glances. I love talking with people so it was a real struggle to even relax at that point. I'm shocked I managed to hide it and look happy in the photos.
At the wedding, our rapport was definitely better - granted I had a million things on my mind and wasn't alone with her doing an intimate shoot anymore. I do wish more candid shots were taken. There seemed to be more waiting to have us stage a candid looking shot rather than capturing actual small moments . Overall though, I'm definitely happy. I have beautiful photos and that's what matters. -
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Shanna Sent on 12/03/2020Disappointed
I am giving a 3 out 5 because I was disappointed with my wedding photos. Our engagement session was beautiful. The pictures were great and what I expected them to be. My wedding however, huge disappointment. We booked Nicole through Facebook. I looked at her website and her work was stunning. she had an ad running, 50% off if you booked before a certain date, on a budget, we took advantage of the deal. I’m not sure if it’s because we got a deal, which when all was said and done was still almost $900, but it felt like our wedding wasn’t important. She didn’t take any pictures of me or my bridesmaids getting ready/dressed. None of my husband getting ready/dressed. None of just my dress. She did take pictures of my jewelry and shoes on top of my dress, but none of my whole dress or just my dress. No photos of just me in my dress, or of just my husband. When it came to the ceremony and reception all of the pictures were black and white. I had to ask for the color photos. I was told it was a lighting issue, but as a professional, she should know how to edit them to look good. Granted, it was sprinkling on our big day, I feel like our pictures were subpar to what her portfolio shows. It honestly felt like she didn’t care. During the reception she sat and chatting with her husband (not sure why he came) and snapped pictures every now and then. I had people in my wedding party come to me and ask why she wasn’t taking pictures. I still have yet to print any photos from our wedding. I just hope others had a better experience than I did on my one and only big day. -
Caitie Sent on 04/20/2020
The Biggest Regret of My Wedding
I've gone back and forth on if I wanted to write this review or not. As a fellow wedding industry professional, I realize reviews for small businesses are crucial; however, I got married 6mo ago and I still haven't been able to let go of how Nicole acted throughout the process of my wedding and how she is the biggest regret I have from one of the most important days of my life.
As a wedding planner, I realize I was extremely picky going into the planning process, but I did have a vision and knew what I liked and what I wanted. I had been following Nicole on IG for a while and although I had never worked with her before, I had seen a few other planner friends that had (mind you, on styled shoots which I later found out, was my first mistake) and I trusted their judgement.
Leading into the wedding, there were a ton of red flags that went off that I should have picked up on, but I was in the midst of juggling all of my clients plus the added responsibility of planning my own personal wedding. A few to name, we never received a questionnaire to learn about who my fiance and I were and when I asked to meet (we chose not to do an engagement session) she said she would need to charge us. I realized she lived in VA and we are closer to Baltimore, but I assumed we could meet somewhere in the middle considering she was already booked and we paid her deposit as our photographer. As we got closer to the wedding day, she was unresponsive to the point that my fiance called to ask her to respond to my emails. She asked zero questions when reviewing our timeline which then became an issue on the wedding day.
On wedding day, she walked into our AirBnb with slippers on (which she later told me she had a foot injury, again fine, but just let me know), didn't say "hi" and asked, "where are your things for flat lays." I awkwardly introduced myself since this was our first time meeting and gave her a hug as it was my wedding day and wanted to feel as comfortable as possible. We had discussed that I wanted a lot of flat lay shots, but her husband (second shooter) was also on-site and didn't take any getting ready photos, not a big deal, but I was paying for 2 shooters.
When it came to our first look, I had told Nicole the only place I didn't want our first look picture was to be in front of the plant wall at Terrain. This is the only place she suggested when it came time to our first look! Terrain is a gorgeous property with endless places to take photos. We found another spot, but when we received the photos we had shopping carts and a telephone pole in the background which she did not edit out. She also had asked for our wedding rings to hold on to but then NEVER gave them to us so all of our bridal portraits, neither of us have our rings on. The rest of the bridal portraits were her asking after every picture "is this what you want?" but what I wanted was to not be a wedding planner, I wanted to be a bride.
During photos before ceremony, I noticed guests had started to arrive and I was anxious as I didn't want to be seen. I asked her what time it was and she said she had no idea. In what world is it okay for a photographer to not know what time it is on the wedding day? When I brought this to her attention later she told me it wasn't her responsibility to stay on time, that I chose not to have a planner, when in actuality it is EVERYONE'S job as a wedding vendor to stay on time during wedding day. That is why I gave her an extremely detailed timeline that I went over with her on the phone prior to our wedding.
At this point, we were off schedule (which happens sometimes!) and after ceremony, we ended up having to do all of our bridal party and family portraits. By the time we got to our family portraits, it was dark and the temple behind us being backlit made my family portraits terrible. She never suggested moving to another location to avoid this from happening. They honestly look like iPhone photos. We completely missed cocktail which was also not something we had planned to do per our timeline.
Later in the night, I ran into Nicole and she looked at me a tapped her wrist (with no watch) to let me know her time was running out and what would I like to do. At this point, I have no idea what time it is but I know we haven't done parent dances or cut our cake. I told her I would pay her whatever she needed but we obviously, wanted those photos. She claims that she asked me because it was me who signed the contract, but I would never bring this to the bride's attention on her wedding day. She should have addressed my husband, parents, MOH, anyone else. She later requested more than what we spoke about via Venmo on my honeymoon for the overrage.
All in all, I was still hopeful after the stress Nicole caused throughout the day that my photos would be stunning and that's all that matters at that point. She was able to send over some beautiful bridal portrait sneak peeks soon after we got back from our honeymoon and I was feeling better. But when she sent the entire album, I felt completely different. Her turn around time for the number of photos she sent made it obvious that she didn't take the time to edit each individual photo and it looked like she slapped the same filter on all of the pictures instead. We only have one close up shot of the two of us out of all the photos, they are all from the same exact angle, no detail shots of the two of us, and there was very little direction throughout the process. She also never culled through the album so I had thousands of photos of the exact same image. The colors of the photos were all over the place when the whole reason I hired Nicole was for her light, airy, romantic style. When I addressed this, she blamed it on the light but when I showed her a side by side comparison of the same location, me in my dress, looking completely different she then blamed it on the different cameras when it is her job to edit the photos to all look consistent. She managed to edit those few photos only (comparison attached). I also included some of our favorite photos to see where we are coming from when it comes to some being fantastic and what we expected when hiring Nicole, but then a lot being unedited and awful. There is a handful of images of my dress in front of a door instead of window because according to her my Airbnb was "dark and dingy" even though my videographer was able to get the shot. It was excuse after excuse why she didn't deliver based on everything I hired her for and even throwing in my face how long she drove to my wedding without charging me, which I didn't ask for.
With all of that said, I tried to get over the photos being not what I wanted by requesting the raw images of my photos, which she obviously declined.
I know this was an insanely long review, but I just hope that another bride doesn't go through what I had to. Nicole is a talented photographer when it comes to styled shoots when there are no time constraints or outside pressures but my wedding wasn't a styled shoot, I will never get this opportunity to be a bride again and she took away from my day by adding stress, being cold, and not preforming on the high-end level I expected from her as a fine art photographer.
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