Working with Matt Schmachtenberg has been a joy from our very first meeting. This review was…read morewritten 3 days after our wedding, before even receiving our preview pictures or full wedding photo set, because we have high trust that we will love anything he sends our way.
First call: We hired Matt to photograph our wedding over a year before it took place, and even the first call inspired confidence that he understood what we valued: The people who we loved being featured front and center, and an eye for candid, human moments. We wanted to minimize the amount of posing that we did on the day. We deeply appreciated how up-front and transparent his pricing was, and after interviewing the other (lovely) photographers on our list, it was clear that he was exactly who we were looking for.
Engagement shoot: Our engagement shoot was a wonderful experience. We did an in-home shoot, and Matt was so good at keeping things playful and creative. We came with some ideas (cooking, playing board games), and as opportunities arose, so did he. We danced around the living room, we laid down on the floor while he got on a chair, and we talked and got to know each other. He was warm, calming, and professional. For the engagement shoot, he was on time, he returned the preview shots super quickly, and the full album was stunning. We used his pictures all over our wedding website.
Wedding: On our wedding day, he was super grounded and friendly, and was willing to roll with multiple sites (our ceremony and reception were different places, and our getting-ready shots too. Sorry, Matt!) We received compliment after compliment about our guests' interactions with him. We got some (totally not expected) phone pictures from the day, and we're already in love with them.
We did not have a super specific vision for what we wanted our wedding or engagement pictures to look like. I know that is not the case for everyone, so I can't speak to what that would be like with Matt. I'd say that we went in able to articulate the things that we valued (which Matt also asked about in a survey he sent out before the wedding), and really let Matt take the lead. It was easy to do that given how much he inspires trust. Everything we have seen from him has been a work of art, and working with him has consistently been one of the highlights of the process of hosting a wedding. We would recommend him without hesitation to anyone who asked.