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!

I have been a long time customer (over 10+ years) of Jessica's. Her talent shows in everything she…read moredoes. She handles a wide range of shoots from Family sessions, couples sessions, engagement sessions to portraits and more, including my most recent one - Santa Minis! She has a studio with revolving sets so no two shoots are the same. And though I've done many family-type sessions with her, it's her themed intimate, dudeoir and boudoir sessions that truly show her skill. I've scouted several other photographers in the area and as someone who is self-conscious, for something so intimate, you need to have utilize someone with skill. I've done no less than 3 boudoir sessions with Jess - and all of them were fabulous. She does various themes (from burlesque boudoir, pinup, Hollywood glam to pool sessions) or standard boudoir. They're all fabulous! I highly recommend her for all your photo needs. In Jacksonville or she'll travel with you to your desired location!

We hired Jess to be our wedding photographer - best decision ever. She is not only professional,…read morebut a lot of fun. She made us feel comfortable and relaxed and was able to get amazing photographs of us and of everyone who attended our wedding. She is always quick to respond to emails and answer any questions we have. We highly recommend using Jess as your photographer.

My (now) husband and I absolutely loved working with Lena. She was flexible, SO fun and creative…read more Our engagement photos were an absolute treat! We were so comfortable and she even got my very shy husband to loosen up and get super flirty. We loved Lena's creative take on camera angles and her editing style is beautiful. The photos were a dream and I will certainly cherish them! We hope to take more photos in the future with Lena! If you want an amazing experience, we highly recommend and suggest Lena!

I actually didn't get to use Bold Soul because they had a scheduling conflict, but I absolutely had…read moreto leave a review about how incredible Lena was in helping me find another photographer. I had reached out to her because I love her style and inclusiveness, and told her about a very small and simple family event we had hoped to have photographed. When she saw she wasn't available she went above and beyond to connect me with talented colleagues of hers - and even checked to see if they were available first. Her responses were so kind and speedy. I was moved and truly impressed. You can see for yourself what her beautiful photography looks like, but I wanted to weigh in about what a thoughtful and responsive person she is. I hope to be able to use her in the future!

Absolutely loved our experience with Beata Chipman photography! Beata goes out of her way to ensure…read morethat we are comfortable, but most importantly our newborn was very comfortable. The room was heated, she had the "shusher" and all of the right humming noises and soft, delicate handling of our 10 day old newborn. She has everything setup perfect in her in-home studio with tons of options for hats, and props. The photographs turned out amazing, and the editing makes the photos look super natural, and beautiful! Excellent quality, and gorgeous memories captured.

We had the most wonderful experience. Beata really went out of her way to make us feel comfortable…read more She answered any questions and concerns we had for our shoot. Not only is her work breath taking she is a wonderful person. Beata gave us all the information we needed and when we were hesitant with our wardrobe she helped give us ideas on what to wear. She also offered rentable couture dresses for the Littles.She provided so many props and different fun items to enhance whatever theme of shoot you are going for. My daughter had a great time playing with the flowers and it lead to some fabulous photos. She really worked hard to give us exactly what we wanted. She was laying in the sand and getting washed by waves just to get that perfect shot. We are truly happy with the final product. I recommend her to anyone and everyone that wants portraits done!

Neely did a amazing job with our wedding pictures. Friendly and fun to work with. I'm only getting…read moremarried one time but will definitely use her again for other functions.

Neely took the photos for our elopement in St Augustine. We had not met her previously, she was our…read morephotographer as part of an elopement package at a bed and breakfast. However, she was great! Neely was friendly and helpful, knew great photo taking spots near our ceremony, and she gave good advice for posing and arranging our pictures. I was so pleased to see our final pictures- they were wonderful, professional and really captured the spirit of my husband and I. Highly recommend Neely for your photography needs.

Kristel is unprofessional, has no follow up, and does not complete projects. She gets easily…read moredistracted and works on what she feels is important to her without any consideration to people that have already paid her in full. Beware of using her for any special events. She is full of constant excuses (mostly untrue) and once the clock is running, she will just ghost you and abandon your contract.

Our family had the wonderful opportunity to be photographed by the very talented Kristel Sagy…read morePhotography. I can not say enough amazing things about our experience. Let me begin by saying that her patience was that of a saint. We had a family of seven with two of them being two years old & 5 months. She never once rushed a moment and she was able to capture such special candid moments even when we weren't expecting a photo to be taken. She has that amazing ability to capture those natural moments like my grandson's little smirk and my granddaughter's belly laugh smile and turn them into a priceless memory. Her creative expression shines through in each photo. She truly has the ability and talent to catch such priceless moments with such ease and expertise. Her fee for services was more than fair and she allowed us to pick the site for the photo shoot making it more personal and special for our family. My daughter has already expressed that she wants to have the children's pictures taken by her every time she visits Saint Augustine. She spoke of previous experiences with having important moments of her family's life captured on film and said that this experience was by far the best because of Kristel's ability to consistently capture the perfect moments and I couldn't agree more. The entire family was also overjoyed with the quality of the photos she has shared with us. We honestly couldn't be happier with our experience and we look forward to having our family's memories captured by this lovely lady in the future.

Had the best experience during our photo session with Barbara. She is a talented professional with…read morethe ability to capture the best moments in a very natural yet unique way. We have a newborn so our home wasn't necessarily tidy up, but she quickly found the best spots with just the right visual elements and lighting and the result was so great! Our family couldn't be happier with her service. We felt very comfortable and so did our baby, because she was delicate in handling her and fully respected her routine. We can't wait to do another session! I highly recommend Barbara!