I discovered Jay and his fantastic work on the internet while googling destination weddings. I…read morethought to myself, I wonder if anyone has ever been married in Antelope Canyon? I googled it and Jay's photos came up and I was immediately blown away. I thought, this is really cool BUT certainly there is no way I can afford to do something like this.
I sent Jay an email asking for prices to different locations, expecting to not here back and if he reply, that it would be way out of my price range. To my surprise, Jay resounded back within a few hours. Even more surprising, it was right on the edge of my budget! I thought, Wow...what a great surprise this will be for my fiancé, she is going to love this! I wasted no time. I locked in the dates and location with Jay by putting down the deposit and then surprised my fiancé with the plan. To put it mildly, she was blown away when I told her, but she really didn't have an idea how cool it was until I showed her Jay's pics and explained our plans to fly into Arizona and pretend to be models. She cried. For the next few months it's all we talked about. (Honestly, we took the pics in late August and it's now late February and we still talk about it. It's that cool.)
From the moment I told her, we both were extremely excited but also very nervous since neither of us are models or have any experience modeling. We are just your average couple. We wondered, will we look good? Will we look bad? All things that crossed our minds and more! Despite those concerns, we knew we wanted pictures of us in a beautiful but iconic location that would capture our special moment...our recent engagement!
Fast forward to August 27, 2018, we flew into Phoenix, Arizona, where we rented our car then drove to Page, Arizona. We rented the dresses for my fiancé from Jay/Annie as we loved their options and I just rented my tux in Austin, Texas and traveled with it to Arizona. No issues!
We stayed in a hotel next to where Jay and Annie were staying. We met up with them the next day and enjoyed talking to them about traveling and photography. Jay told us the plan for the photo shoot on the next day and after some conversation, we left to go enjoy the rest of our day and prepare for the shoot. QuickTip: Get lots of sleep! You will be shooting all day til dark. It's fun and worth it!
The morning of the shoot went great, Annie did my fiancé's hair and make up, which was very nice and helpful! This is included. Annie is wonderful.
Once ready, we hopped into their rental car and headed over to the tour agency. We joined the pre paid tour for Antelope Canyon, (you pay in advance through Jay) once we got to the location, we just followed Jay and Annie's instructions on what to do and when to do it. Pretty easy!
Jay is very experienced at the locations we shot at and is very quick and methodical, as is Annie who will work with the dress and lighting as well as touch up the hair and makeup. I was amazed how good Jay is with his cameras and his ability to get you into the right poses for great images. Just trust him!
During the shoot, we went to three locations, one of which I wasn't quite sure of...it was very windy, her hair and dress were blowing everywhere and I remember we both thought, this location is a complete bust and these photos are not going to be good. I told myself, over and over...."just trust Jay, certainly he knows what he's doing". But honestly, I was just expecting to choose all the photos from the two other locations. lol
Wrong!
When we got the first images back for the first review, I was blown away by how good the images at the 3rd location came out! Absolutely stunned!
While the first two locations obviously had the beauty of Antelope Canyon and the beauty from Horseshoe Bend, the third location didn't have any of the iconic back drops, the scenery was still beautiful but it focused more on us and our chemistry. Which at the time, I didn't get. After seeing the photos, I got it and now these photos are some of my favorite. Like I said, trust Jay.
It was awesome to have a mixture of posed images but also impromptu images that show us laughing and our personalities. Thank you Jay...you were right! You and Annie are a great team and are both great at what you do.
For those considering Pre-wedding photos, go for it! Choose Jay Studios. You won't regret it!
Make the investment in yourselves, once you are older you will have captured a great moment/time in your life that you will cherish forever.
We are so happy to have found Jay Studio and to have had this experience. Like I mentioned earlier, during the photo shoot whatever happens....just trust Jay, he is a professional and he know's what he is doing.
Good luck with your photos!
Jeff & Gwen