My wife and I worked with Tony, Hugo and Tony's assistant, Samantha, on our wedding day in 2018 and there were some positives and, it pains me to say this, some negatives about our whole experience with ADA.
First off, we visited a few different wedding photographers and we have to say ADA offered the most competitive pricing for the package offered, so that is a major plus to any couple trying to keep expenses down. Second, everyone we spoke with throughout the process, prior to signing our contract, was relatively professional. The sales coordinator we signed our contract with, Joe, was easy going and explained to us all of the details of the package we were getting, which was great, but he basically reiterated what was on the paper. Honestly, just our opinion, but he didn't seem too invested in us signing with them. He didn't sell us hard on the packages and he wasn't very convincing as the pricing was ultimately what really convinced us to go with them.
For our engagement photo shoot, Tony (the owner) was our photographer. I first want to say that he was VERY nice, down to Earth and made us feel very relaxed. He joked around a lot and that loosened us up. And although he was super nice to us during the shoot, I really hate to say that this, but after we received the photos we didn't feel that the work blew us away. The photos were OK, partially because we had to have the photo shoot at a generic looking beach (in our eyes) at Wading River, Long Island. We were hoping to be able to do it closer to where we had once lived in Brooklyn. I can't knock him a whole bunch because of the "blah" location since it looked like any other beach. The big knock we did have was that we waited quite a while (many weeks) for the photos to be available for viewing on their site (after we had reached out multiple times) and we actually had access to other couple's photos too at the beach.
As for our wedding day, Tony was my wife's photographer for a majority of the morning, until after our 1st look. Throughout our wedding day, he was our main photographer and took most of the photos we needed. Once again, his great personality shined, but there were additional photos that we wished we got in there. My wife thought her photos were going to be taken outdoors with her bridesmaids, but all of her photos were taken indoors inside of our hotel and wedding venue so she didn't get any photos with her bridesmaids alone outdoors. In addition, prior to our wedding, we offered to give Tony a list of photos we wanted to take with certain family members and friends, but he recommended we trust him and keep the sheet. His exact words were "Honestly, I will probably take this list and put it in my back pocket and not look at it. I've been doing this for a long time, trust me."
We put our faith and trust in his experience and I wish we would have been more insistent with the list because many photos were missed that would have been captured if the list was followed. If there are photos you want to take, be adamant that they follow your instructions and don't take no for an answer!
As for our 2nd photographer, Hugo, he worked with my groomsmen and I for a majority of the morning. Hugo was AWESOME the entire day and, especially in the morning when he was just exclusive to the guys. My groomsmen and I held no punches in our conversations and Hugo jumped in like he was one of us. He definitely fit right into our group and it made the photo-taking process that much easier to complete. If anything, he went above and beyond as he helped the guys put on their boutonnieres and he also provided guidance to me to make sure I never ran into my wife once prior to the 1st look. My wife also loved his attitude to us too.
In retrospect, we wished ADA would have suggested for us to take photos with others that we didn't get to take official photos with - ah-hem - basically the list of photos we had initially submitted to Tony that we felt was dismissed. Honestly, it was partially our fault for missing out on some photo opportunities, but we would have hoped that whomever we hired would have the experience to whisper in our ears to make sure that we got all of the photos we wanted because it was such a chaotic day. Part of their job is to utilize their experience to help us out and make sure we get the most and best photos we can get. In addition, a majority of our engagement and wedding photos ended up being OK, meaning angles, post-production touch-ups were not as unique compared to other wedding photos we had seen from friends. They weren't awful by any means, but in the end, as I said, we wished they would have been better.
The experience as a whole didn't feel as intimate, as some of our other friends who worked with independent photographers felt, but it's a matter of preference if you want them to be more or less involved. At the end, we wished they were MORE involved and took our input.