Sheila and her assistant Wande were amazing. We had actually asked a professional photographer friend to shoot our wedding and she had a conflict. So she put a query out to a Facebook photographers group and over 70 photographers sent us emails/websites. My wife looked at every single site and managed to whittle it down to her. She made the right choice.
We were worried because we 1.) are a gay couple; one of us is gender non conforming 2.) we don't like cheesy wedding photos 3.) we aren't millionaires.
Working with Sheila was easy. We had 2 Facetime calls before the wedding to discuss our preferences and logistics. She also sent a lengthy questionnaire to make sure she had all relevant info. She was very reasonable about price compared to other people we looked at and worked with us on hours (we had 3 wedding locations, I know it sounds convoluted, but try getting married for cheap in nyc) to make sure we would have coverage for all the segments of our (9 hour) event.
The day: Sheila and Wande were super calm and not at all intrusive. They meshed into the day and we never noticed them, yet they were always there when we needed them. They also carried themselves very well. From dealing with drunk or rude people (random people, not wedding guests!) as we walked from venue to venue in the West Village on a Saturday night, to dealing comfortably with my wife and me at very personal and important moments. She found great places along our route to take our staged couple portraits, which were not cliche. She chose the perfect time during the day to take them too, and my wife looked beautiful in the light.
The photos: The images she created really knocked us out. Sheila sent us preview photos 3 weeks after the wedding and they were awesome. They included shots from each part of the day and were edited with a stylized post-production look I really liked and worked well with the bold venue colors (Tibetan shrine etc). However, she checked in while editing and before sending the full set offering us stylized or natural that my wife preferred.
She sent us the full set 9 weeks after the wedding with a helpful email that instructed us how to download and share. Both of our families were bowled over. My sister, who had her own wedding, said they were the best wedding photos she's ever seen. Both our moms were happy, which is not a small accomplishment.
Looking back through the photos I was thrilled to see she captured the day in a way where I could not only relive it, but I was able to learn more about it. Particularly the ceremony, when of course the crowd was a blur and I was looking at my wife. Sheila took many great reaction shots of our 125+ crowd, which allowed us to see things we'd have otherwise missed.
They also did a fantastic job both at the dinner location and the dancing location (where we had invited another 60 or so new guests just to that segment) of getting portraits and candids of people who were important to us, and grouped together people in ways that both made sense and was creative.
Couldn't be happier. Would recommend her to anyone. Especially gay and gender non conforming couples. It's sad to have to make this distinction in 2017, but I do. She's super respectful and interested in the specificity of you as individuals and as a couple--presumably whoever you are--but she's also not weirdly excited to shoot a "gay" wedding or oddly patronizing as some can be. read more
