A couple months ago, my then-fiancé Dominic and I decided it was time to tie the knot. It was…read morereally difficult to find a great photographer with a reasonable cost. We even thought to ask amateur photographer friends, but realized it is our wedding and our day only happens once. What if our moments weren't captured? With so many what ifs, we didn't want to take the risk. After all, this was an investment to capture beautiful moments of our special day.
My bestie Bev and I looked at different styles of wedding photography. I loved bright, vibrant photos and really didn't like typical dreamy look wedding pictures has these days. With that in mind, my bestie found Mike "Pupfish" Burton on The Knot. After looking over a few more photographers, Dominic and I later went through all our options and pulled the trigger with an inquiry sent to Pupfish.
Mike's replies are so quick and detailed. He likes to get to know the couple to see if we're a good fit by setting up a FaceTime or Skype appointment. The stress of wedding planning, crazy work hours and lack of sleep took the best of me. I had a moment an hour before our scheduled appointment, I contacted Mike to reschedule. He was sweet, understanding and flexible and worked with me to find a new time. An hour went by and I felt a lot better, so we kept our original FaceTime appointment. I'm so glad I did.
Meeting Mike Burton at Pupfish Wedding Photography through FaceTime was incredible. He spent two hours with Dominic and I chatting, exchanging stories, answering questions. It was honestly like chatting with an old friend. He served in our military as a part of surveillance team which was ironic because both Dominic & I's fathers served in both branches Mike served. We learned so much about each other and he even honored a military discount. After we hung up, Dominic and I knew Mike was "The One". We contacted him within minutes and a contract was signed. We invested in an awesome wedding photographer!!! We also received a free engagement shoot with our wedding photography package. Score!
Just like the FaceTime conversation, Mike is sooo easy going and flexible in all our exchanges. He is not pretentious and very professional! We had so much fun at our engagement shoot and our pictures were so beautiful! He knows how to give direction without making us feel awkward and knows how to capture each of us to shine in the moment. By the way, we received our engagement photos in TWO days! Typical turnaround time for photography is a week plus. We were blown away by the speed and quality. The way our photos turned out proves his natural talent. It was of great relief to know our wedding day was in good hands!
Our wedding was at the beach at sunset. Mike warned us on the difficulties of capturing beach photos because of the hard, unfiltered light. Our day began with a thick, marine layer fog. I admit I was a bit bummed, but then remembered what Mike said and was happy we would still have beautiful pictures. Half an hour before start time, the wind blew all the fog away and the sun was absolutely radiant. Mike was still able to produce the most beautiful pictures even with the hard sun conditions!
We originally didn't schedule Mike to shoot our dinner reception (separate location), but Mike came along and took shots of our guests and our big entrance as Mr & Mrs. He engaged with our friends and family and left quite an impression with everyone he met. He worked so hard and made sure we had shots we wanted and we were soooo appreciative! Dominic's sister's father in law, a videographer, loved Mike so much, he will be sending him his business. Again, this speaks volumes of who Mike is. Our wedding day was one of the best days of my life. I'm so happy Mike was there to celebrate Dominic and I. Once again, he turned our wedding pictures around in less time than promised and the quality speaks for themselves. We have so many favorites, the toughest part is to pick which pics to enlarge. :)
I obviously cannot say enough about Mike "Pupfish" Burton. Just send him an inquiry and see for yourself just how of an amazing, talented human being this man is. You won't regret the time or money you've invested.