​Highly Recommended! Professional, fast, and talented. Booking was easy, the pre-session reminders…read morewere helpful, and Angela found a stunning outdoor spot. We were amazed to get our digital gallery just 48 hours later! A fantastic experience all around.

Steffani is an incredibly talented photographer! She has extraordinary ability with capturing…read morenatural lighting in magical ways in addition to optimal background location placement. She has an absolutely beautiful, unique look and tone to her work, that is consistent. A delightful and beautiful person with whom to work. I recommend Lens and Laughter Photography as highly as possible.

My family had such a great time working with Steffani! She was easy going & professional. We…read moreabsolutely loved our photos. Steffani let us be creative and incorporated all of our ideas for our holiday photos. She was patient & very responsive with photo edits & scheduling. I would highly recommend her services.

When I think about my experience with J. Layne Photography the following words come to mind:…read more professionalism, creativity, reliability and talent. I am going to break this review down in a list format because it's going to be quite detailed. I am anal retentive and I know as a bride, you are looking for DETAILS when you give someone large sums of money for wedding services. Chelsi and Ian (a husband and wife team) brought nothing but joy to my wedding day and the weeks following when I got my finished pictures. 1. Communication: JLP was great with promptly returning emails/calls. 2. Timeliness: JLP came at our scheduled time, ready to go, no issues. They were very patient with our schedule running behind a little. We got our pictures back as scheduled in a timely manner. Note: You will wait a little while for your pictures with any quality photographer, because it takes time to give each photo the attention it deserves. 3. Professionalism: JLP was completely professional throughout the entire process. 4. Attitude/Demeanor: JLP was very polite and positive on our day, regardless of the hectic nature of everything. 5. Value: JLP gave us a military discount which we appreciated a LOT. Not a lot of businesses will do this so it was a nice gesture. The pictures we received we would have paid double for. 6. Quality: WE WERE EXPECTING AROUND 100 EDITED PICTURES. WE ENDED UP WITH 155 OR SO BEAUTIFULLY EDITED PHOTOS. *** My brother is a Sergeant in the Army and was originally supposed to miss my wedding for Army Ranger School. His wife and he planned to surprise me on my day, and told no one. JLP had NO idea this surprise was going to happen and still managed to get various quality pictures of the surprise, before they were even scheduled to be taking pictures yet. I was so happy with the pictures that I posted them on an online social community called Reddit and it blew up with around 400,000 views. We ended up getting contacted by Fox News (among various other news sources) and did an interview about it. I can never repay JLP for capturing this moment and the fun and cool memories that happened as a result. The story (including some of the photos) can be seen here: http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/08/24/soldier-brother-ryan-douglas-surprises-sister-jessie-smith-her-wedding-day JLP was very responsive and helpful through the entire experience and I would recommend them to any bride. You cannot go back to recapture your wedding moments so hire a quality set of photographers. You will not regret your decision to go with Chelsi and Ian. They are truly artists with what they do.

I loved my wedding. It was beautiful and full of love, family, and friends. I wouldn't change a…read morething except my photographer. I guess the rule is that every wedding has something that goes wrong and for me it was J. Layne Photography. I hired J. Layne Photography to take photos at my wedding for 6 hours with two professional photographers. Chelsi was lovely before the wedding and I LOVED the pictures that I saw on her website. On the day of my wedding, Chelsi called to tell me that she was "sick" but that she would send two professional photographers and an assistant in her place. I was fine with this and understood that these things happen. When they arrived at 2 pm, there was only one professional photographer and an assistant. I was less pleased at this point. I called Chelsi, while putting on my dress, and she said that when she looked at the wedding she realized that only one professional photographer was necessary. After receiving my wedding photos, I know that wasn't true. My maid of honor was smart and told the assistant to take pictures while we were waiting for the cars or I would have had even fewer photos. The assistant took bridal portraits on a staircase and didn't realize that from her angle my undergarment was clearly visible. A real photographer would have noticed that in the majority of my bridal portraits my bra was showing or would have at least had the decency to edit it out. J. Layne photography did neither, but would have taken it out if I paid them another 50 dollars per photo (also not stated in my contract). I asked for one of them (either the professional or assistant) to ride with the wedding party to take pictures in the large vehicle and they said that they needed to take their car because of their equipment. It's not like they were using special lighting. It was literally two cameras and one shoulder bag. I received 12 photos of my ceremony. I received 2 photos of people dancing (eventually she sent me 2 additional images - including the generations dance, but only because I begged her). I received a photo of the hired violinist, but not one of my sister singing a 4 minute aria. No photographs of bridesmaids, grandparents, etc walking down the aisle. No photos of a groomsmen doing a reading. Almost no photos of the groomsmen at all. I only received a posed photo of my entire wedding party at the park because I asked after she sent me my disc. I have that photo hanging in my bedroom, but wouldn't have had it at all if I hadn't spent hours begging her for more of the photos that I paid J. Layne Photography to take. Only two photos of me walking with my parents. I asked Chelsi why I didn't receive more photos, but she said that they prefer quality over quantity. That wasn't true either. Neither of the photographers bothered to take them. There weren't any photos of those events to send me. Many of the photos were taken from a low and unfaltering angle. I ask to see all of my wedding photos, but she refused to let me she any "raw" photos. If she sent me the best photos, I probably don't want to see what was left, but then again I received extra photos that I requested that I love. It hurts to think that she gets to see all of the photos from my wedding, but that I don't. I don't trust her judgment in anything at this point. She emailed me a clause about raw photos saying that it was in my contract, but it wasn't. It may be in her new contract, but it wasn't in the one that I was sent. I received my photos months after I was suppose to and she said she would compensate me with a coffee album valued at 250 bucks. I received a cheesy album that was made at a snapfish type website. I can't even get into it all because it hurts too much to talk about. I do have a handful of really beautiful pictures that I will cherish, but there is so much that I am missing and the quality and artistic choice of the majority of my 187 pictures that I received (for 6 hours of coverage) is truly pathetic. Brides, please consider other options before booking J. Layne Photography. I was fooled by the beautiful, vintage photos featured on their website. The potential for a unique eye and beautiful photos is definitely there, but what you get in reality is very different. Unprofessional and novice is what you should expect. They don't put the care into the real weddings that they clearly did for a photo shoot. May be they just don't have to skill to produce such stunning results in the less planned and faster paced environments of a real wedding. They spent so much time do things other than taking pictures. I wonder what was more important than taking a picture of my sister singing a 4 minute aria?

We were in visiting from NJ and she fit us in her schedule and did a great job. Jen was fun & easy…read moreto work with. Our pics are wonderful. Some funny. Some romantic. All wonderful. I will treasure them forever. We got the photos back much faster than I expected. Highly recommend her!

Jen is so easy to work with! We have four children and scheduling proved to be an issue for our…read morefamily session. She was flexible and never gave up trying to make it happen! We also switched up the location on her and she never complained or asked for any compensation. She truly loves what she does and it shows. I only wish that I had been able to see a few more of the pictures that she took (maybe on scene?) to better select the look I was going for. For instance, all of our pictures have that natural, caught-off-guard feel to them and I was really hoping for one posed, perfect picture to canvas and hang. Other than that, my experience was perfect and we'll definitely use her again!

Chris is a true professional at his craft and has such a gift for finding that perfect shot. He's…read morereliable, easy to work with, & clearly loves what he does. I would not hesitate recommending Chris to anyone. He's fantastic!

I would say I am not photogenic, but Chris really makes you comfortable and at ease to get…read morefantastic photos. ( I was able to get multiple photos that i was satisfied with) He is professional but also sincere and truly a wonderful person to work with. I would definitely recommend him!

The most unbelievable moment of my wedding Saturday occurred after walking out of the Casa Monica…read morehotel bar minutes before seeing my bride for the first time. The top button of my brand new suit completely fell off as I hurriedly walked to get into position for my first look wedding photo shoot with Monarch Studios. There I am, standing outside in an open public square of St. Augustine, my back turned to my new wife-to-be, wearing a half-open, unflattering suit for the ensuing future hours of many photos not yet taken. Anyone who really knows me well knows that I would've fixated on this in my head...in ALL of the bad ways. It would've muted my enjoyment of the rest of the day, as I would've self-consciously positioned myself in awkward angles with a clenched fist to hide this for the rest of the night. In short, it would've mentally taken me to some significant degree out of the most amazing night of my life. I had no groomsmen to exchange jackets with, I couldn't turn around from my fixed standing position (or risk ruining the planned photo op) and no means to fix this horribly pesky rogue button. I can't recall how long I was frozen there in place, standing across the public square wondering what was going on...but suddenly a relative of mine that had no business being in that square at that time at all had the means and the wherewithal to procure some needle and thread. My aunt admitted that she wasn't that great at sewing. I also certainly didn't know how to work a needle, and as nerve-wracked as I was in the moment, I probably would've accidentally stuck myself a few dozen times in the process. But...to an even greater amazement to yours truly...the fantastically badass wedding photographer Zach Thomas grabs that needle and thread and gets to work on my jacket button. It took a few tries, but like any great dramatic scene out of a million thrillers, he nailed it (or um...sewed it) on the third and final attempt. Button on. Jacket snazzy. Mind of groom at ease. Joyful rest of day! I could go on and on about how Zach was super easy to work with, super accommodating to our out-of-towner schedule, and super skilled at making every subject he shot laugh, but truly...he has my eternal gratitude for bringing an unexpected extra skillset along for the 6 hours he spent with us! Mad props, good sir!! Also, props to my wedding DJ for finding the White Stripes' "The Hardest Button to Button" on such short notice. Hand all of your wedding budget money over to this studio ASAP! (Well, maybe save some back for a nicer suit.)

Couldn't have asked for a more. Zach our photographer was everything we wanted and way more. Not…read morejust a photographer, but a true artist. From the moment he arrived he put the bride and the bridesmaids at ease. We also hired the videographer and so glad we did. This group is truly the best at what they do and we are so lucky to have hired them!!

It's incredibly unfortunate that I have to write this review but I feel that other brides should be…read morewarned. We hired Ashley to photograph our wedding in St. Augustine, FL which was set for November of 2020. We met with Ashley and her husband for a half hour in February of 2020 to get to know each other. We signed the contract to hire her in February 2020. One month later, March 2020, Covid hit and we had to put our wedding on hold. In July 2020, we notified ALL of our vendors that due to Covid, we had to reschedule our wedding and we didn't know exactly when it would be rescheduled for. Everyone was so understanding and on hold because of the pandemic. There is an email with this information being delivered to Ashley. She claimed that she didn't know the November wedding wasn't happening until one week before the November date, which is again, crazy because she responded to our email later in July. I tried to rehire her for our new date, June 2021, and Ashley was already booked. She then said she was going to keep our deposit of thousands of dollars, and that we were responsible for the remaining balance. I went back and forth with Ashley in emails showing her that she knew that the November date wasn't happening, but she was not budging and threatened to take "legal action" on me. What? Why? YOU kept my money for doing NO work. We gave her a handful of times to do the right thing and send our money back, and she denied our request over and over again. I ended up having to bring Ashley Steeby to court, ONE MONTH before my wedding to handle this. And then our second hearing was 14 DAYS before our wedding. Obviously, the judge ruled in our favor and ordered that she has to pay back the money we gave her once he saw all of the evidence. The anxiety I went through from this is indescribable. Planning a wedding is already a lot, then during Covid adds more stress, then this lawsuit? I wasn't sleeping, wasn't eating and was completely broken out in hives just 2 weeks before our wedding because of this woman. Ashley has now blocked me on all social media so I cannot reach her, it's been over a month month since the court ordered her to pay us back and we still haven't received anything. She has commented under this post for the FIRST time since we went to court and has been far more sweet than she has been to us in the last 6 months. Yet, she is still not apologizing or giving our money back. She didn't even reach out ONCE to apologize for how she handled the situation. I gave this woman probably a dozen chances to fix how she handled this and to clear her name, but she keeps digging a deeper hole for herself by not responding, and not returning our money. I'm a business owner and entrepreneur myself, and i can say that the way she conducted her business made me NEVER want to do business like she did. Save yourself the lawsuit, the headache, the hives and the money and find someone who will actually care about your special day, not just about the money they will make.

Highly recommend! My husband and I got lucky when we were…read morereferred to Ashley. She was professional, on time, funny and the pictures turned out perfect! If your looking for a photographer in St. Augustine, we would highly recommend Ashley!

Not only did Nicole fit us in last minute, she worked well with our stubborn, photo ham of a baby…read moregirl who refused to sleep on our first visit. Nicole had us laughing and enjoying our session and upon our second trip, took some gorgeous photos that captured all of our baby's personality. Professional, friendly, and worth every penny! We highly recommend Simply Newborn Photography!

Nicole was wonderful for our maternity photoshoot! She was extremely easy to work with and very…read moreaccommodating to whatever I wanted to do. We decided to involve our 2-year-old dog in the photos and she let us bring him along and worked with him perfectly! My original idea was to use the sunflower fields for the location but with the hurricane taking those down, Nicole had the idea of using some field locations she had tracked down. She certainly has an eye for a good location because it was exactly what I was thinking! The photos all turned out fantastic and the lighting she was able to get was just magical. I would definitely recommend her!