First of all, I am so picky when it comes to photography and for me it was going to be one of the…read moremost important parts of our wedding to preserve the memories. Kieffer with Greenkey Photography had done some engagement photos for friends of ours and I was so impressed that when we started looking for a photographer he was the first person I thought of. I called and spoke with him on the phone and was met with a super positive, easy going yet focused and helpful voice and made an appointment to meet with him. Before the meeting I had looked online at other other photographers, but after looking at Greenkey Photography's diverse portfolio on their website I really felt like he was going to be the one for us. The way he sees things and composes photos really spoke to me. We wanted unique with some stylized photos and some regular action photos and group shots. Even before we met I had confidence that he would be able to give that to us. We hit it off right away and I felt like we had known each other for years. If you're spending such an important day which may possibly be hectic and stressful, you need to be able to be comfortable and to hand the reins over to someone you trust. Actually we never even ended up looking at anyone else because I was so impressed with Kieffer all the way around - vision, personality, ideas, organization - just everything. I never do that, I always look at at 3-5 companies for anything I do even if I'm sure I love the first one. My friends and family were stunned because they know how I am with photography and could not believe I was so confident and not worried at all of how things were going to go. That is how much trust I had. This alone helped us enjoy the day so much more. I knew that we were not going to have to worry about anything and I was right! Kieffer was invaluable in basically planning the entire day. He was responsive to all our questions and the day of he was the consummate professional. He took his time to get the shots yet kept moving things along to stay on schedule so we could enjoy spending some time together before the ceremony and reception. My husband had not met Kieffer before the day of our wedding and kept commenting how great he was doing paying attention to every detail. We had fun with him which is important to us too. He let us know he was going to have an assistant with him the day of and Carrie was lovely too. Kieffer and Carrie were up for anything - we even took photos with our dog who is our baby and they turned out to be amazing as well! To get into my dress, we decided I should actually climb into it from the couch because the skirt was so big and I didn't want to mess up my hair. Me being a little crazy I decided I would jump in and he was all for it and got the photos. They also captured key moments of emotion with our family during and after the ceremony that really reminds me of the love and feelings of the day. He said at the beginning that he wanted to create a story of the day. I was not sure if I wanted to do getting ready photos and a few other things, but I'm so glad Kieffer really stressed that because there are some beautiful moments and they would have been lost as we were rushing around if it had not been for him. Also one of the best things I can say is that things do not always go as planned, so you need someone who is flexible and can think on their feet. We were running late because the make-up artist was an hour late so we had to tweak the schedule. I was freaked out about missing photos at the locations we had picked because we had less time, but Kieffer really had it under control. He said let's see we may be able to fit it in. He assured me that I could relax and he would watch the clock and tell me when we would have to decide to cut a location or not. That really made me relaxed and I think the photos turned out better because of it. We did end up cutting a location, but he came up with an alternate location immediately that was right near where we were and some of those photos are our favorites. Well actually all of the photos are our favorites!!! lol! We still have not been able to complete our wedding album as I cannot seem to cut even one out, so it's going to have to be huge :) Also because we started late, I had asked them to stay extra time and they did so which really meant a lot to me and made me want to strangle the make-up artist much less ;) After he sent all the photos I actually requested some extra parameters and he happily obliged. Everybody loved him and I have been told by so many people that they are just blown away by the photos, as were we! He exceeded our expectations and we were very grateful to have him and Carrie with us on our special day! We are both so ecstatic with our entire experience with Greenkey and we will be doing any and all future photo sessions with them!

I can't say enough good things about Greenkey Photography. It's been almost a year since our…read morewedding and I have *not once* thought, "I wish we had done that with the photographs" or "I wish my photos would have such-and-such". I would not change one thing. We worked with Kieffer and he was professional, calming, and inspiring every single time we met. We were on the fence about an engagement photo session. He recommended it so that we would get used to having someone in our faces with a camera. At first, never having worked with a professional photographer, that maybe it was just a nudge to an upsell. But it was included in the package we selected and it really worked!! My camera-shy wife was so much more comfortable on our wedding day because of it. Green Key came up with the theme for our engagement photos and they turned out so well! We still go back and look at the album. Kieffer also suggested making a photo book of our engagement photos with white space and using it as our guest book. It was such a great idea and everyone loved it! The wedding day was unbelievable. He took care of everything imaginable. There were fun pictures that I didn't even notice him taking, and he captured some moments that I will remember forever. Looking back at our photos helped me recapture some things too, because the day does go by so fast! I wanted some funny face pictures with my young nephews (because we always do them at every holiday) and he was totally up for it! Nothing threw him, he got all the pictures of my...difficult...family members, and made it all work. And of course, price. The value was amazing. We compared him with other photographers and the price compared to what we got was substantially different than other photographers. Sometimes you worry about it when you get a good deal but not here. He was genuinely well priced for an amazing talent. I could go on and on about Kieffer from Greenkey Photography. I'd hire him again in a heartbeat.

We hired Andrew to photograph our wedding and are incredibly pleased with his services and grateful…read morefor his professionalism and flexibility. First the basics - we looked at a few other photographers and we did not find anyone that compares on cost. It wasn't even close. So it was affordable to work with Andrew, but also very smooth. He met with us in person three times and I am sure would have more had we asked. He was very responsive to emails and never set a limit of the number of contacts, which is something we have heard other vendors do. Andrew is personable, intelligent and very easy to work with. My wife and I also relied heavily on our vendors for advice on how to structure the wedding evening - they are the pros after all - and Andrew was always game for giving us advice on what works best. When we returned from our honeymoon Andrew had setup a Flickr account for us to see all of our photos. The quality is outstanding. The quantity is huge. And he gave us full rights to the photos. We could not have asked for a better experience with Andrew.

We used Andrew for our June 2010 wedding in Chicago. I cannot recommend him enough - he is…read moreextremely professional and reliable, takes gorgeous pictures and is a fantastic alternative to all the "Big Box" wedding photography options out there, and all at an incredibly price. We received all our photos within four weeks of our wedding, had full digital rights, and were able to share them with our family and friends while the memories were still fresh. The photos were so great that we opted not to use any of the retouching he had included in our package. Andrew is also extremely pleasant to work with because he has a friendly, low-key personality. We felt like he really understood what we wanted and did not try to "sell" us on anything.

Adam was very accommodating with our wedding photo shoot. Due to the current climate and…read morerestrictions it wasn't a conventional wedding and reception. He not only accommodated but also added ideas and helped us get the photo memories we wanted. He has many examples to show, and also has a very good imagination/idea on what may or may not work and was happy to try different things in different locations to see what worked best for us. He was able to deliver the photos sooner than the date agreed and was very responsive throughout the process. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend his services.

One of the best decisions my husband and I made for our wedding! Peter was responsive, easy to to…read moretalk to, understood cultural traditions (we had an Indian & Polish wedding), and timely to boot. We trusted him with our wedding day and he delivered. I absolutely love all my pictures and would hire him again!

I have always been nervous about photographers capturing the moment so you can remember it exactly…read moreas is, but this was definitely not an issue with Peter. He was very professional, showed up even before we did to our engagement, and helped my fiance relax and act natural for the camera. The result: some of the most stunning pictures I have ever seen! Even throughout our party, he captured moments I would have never known about which I am so grateful for. I wish he was available for my wedding day, but unfortunately he is not. I highly recommend him. His photographs are amazing, his prices very reasonable and fair, and I love that he makes a slideshow on his website as well as hands over all the digital files on a disk to you instead of charging you an arm and a leg for prints.

We hired SY Photography for a bridal shower & he was one of ther easiest & most professional people…read moreto work with. He was on time & delivered very high quality photos that we all loved. I highly recommend his services!!

After viewing what seemed like an endless number of wedding photographer websites, Avant-garde…read morestood out for the artistry and beauty in Lukasz's work. He has an incredible eye for design and composition which I truly appreciated as an architect. Lukasz nailed the vibe that I was looking to capture on film even though I chose a technically challenging venue. He took the time to fully understand the objective, the look and schedule beforehand then provided valuable advice to ensure that everything flowed smoothly. What impressed me the most though is that Lukasz went above and beyond to ensure that I ended up with what I wanted. I was on a budget, but he agreed to stay a bit longer to capture the dancing and even took extra time to touch up my favorite photo. It's rare to find an individual so committed to this level of excellence. Lukasz takes great pride in his craft and is a very talented artist. He has a gift for capturing the best version of you in a natural and beautiful way. Looking at my wedding photos makes me so happy because I get to re-live that magical night and experience all of the joy again. My photos turned out beautifully and I promise that you will love working with Avant-garde!

Lukasz did an amazing job at our wedding. He kept everyone's attention during family photos at the…read morechurch and they got done pretty quickly! He had a good eye for details and grabbed a ton of great getting ready shots. The most fun was the photo session at a nearby forest preserve - Waterfall Glenn - he took all of us to the waterfall and got a bunch of fun and beautiful photos of the whole bridal party. One of the great parts about working with him was that it was clear he was having fun taking the photos too. Great at getting people's attention and coming up with poses. I didn't even have to send a shot list, we just told him where to be and when and he knew what to do. Very easy going and trustworthy photographer - you will not be disappointed with your experience or your photos!

I hired Timothy Whaley and Assoc. for my wedding photographers and with the package we received an…read morein-studio engagement session. It was horrible. I've talked to TWA about it but none-the-less I was beyond dissapointed. So, I decided to call Seth for some shots in front of my most beloved city skyline. He met us at Buckingham Fountain and took about 50 or so shots that all turned out great. I had my edited and unedited negatives online in about a week. Seth's a great photographer and is so easy and fun to work with. I highly recommend him as a photographer. He's very talented....

Our photographer was an associate of Alex. Multiple times throughout the reception, he was…read moremissing/gone somewhere. We had to seek him out to be sure we got shots of some of the more important events that I wanted recorded. He sat and talked with one of my guests for at least an hour and we ended up with basically no reception shots not centered on the bridal party (which we did specifically ask for--it was a small party and it was low key, so it's not like it would have been that hard to shoot my friends and family members for an hour--especially if all he was doing was chatting and sitting around in our one-room reception hall). He also brought his son as an assistant who was not appropriately dressed and wore dark sunglasses during the indoor event. Getting in touch with Alex/the company afterwards is usually pretty hard. They take forever to get back to you either by phone or by email with helpful answers to your questions. It took a long time to get our proofs before we could even order our album, which then took quite a few months to be finished. Whether it's right or wrong, I felt like because I wasn't spending tons of money, my concerns were not as important and that they were gonna get to me when they got to me. The price is pretty typical for wedding photographers-- high. We expected that going in but were still stupidly surprised by all the costs. Also, Alex told us at an expo that he usually just throws in the disc after the event, but I guess we didn't buy enough of the really expensive individual prints for that to happen. To be fair, though, we did get the proofs in some really nice binders and a nice bag so we DO have the memories in some fashion--even if we can't reproduce them. All in all, a bit of a headache and a little irritating. But the album we received and the pics that WERE taken were beautifully done.

I waited several years before I wrote this review because I wanted to make sure that I had an…read moreopportunity to work with other photographers for the purpose of comparison. I hired Alex to take my wedding pictures in winter of 2008. He arrived with only one assistant, a teenage boy. The wedding was inside the Ida B Noyes Hall of the University of Chicago in the middle of winter, ample opportunity to capture the majesty of the architecture. This, however, wasn't the case. The pictures were simply awful; stiff, banal, and utterly lacking in creativity. It looked like we were posing for formal prom pictures, rather than wedding photos. In many of the bridal pictures Alex had me stand in front of a wall sconce...consequently, there is a glaring light bulb in the background. The number of photos was limited, probably because the assistant was a teenager, and the very best photograph (the one blown up and framed on our wall), was taken by a girlfriend. When it came time to order the prints, Alex would not relinquish the digital images. Are you kidding?!? I have had the opportunity to work with many photographers who take delicate, natural pictures and who always ALWAYS provided me with the digital files. All in all, barely passable. Barely.