Emotion, Authenticity, and Love
If you had any question about hiring Bows & Lavender after seeing Jessy's wedding photography on her website, let this review be the piece that seals the deal.
My wife, Cara and I happened across Jessy's work when we were looking at wedding photos of our venue on google. Our venue was obviously beautiful, or we wouldn't have picked it, but the way that Jessy was able to capture the ambiance made her photography stand out from literally all the other talented wedding photographers who had shot that venue. Her unmistakeable style was borne out in the rest of what we saw on her website and we reached out to her.
Jessy's style has some key priorities. First, she aims to capture the real emotion of the day. She does this using dramatic lighting and colours that form the tonal undercurrent of the majority of her work, and lend it endless authenticity. The other way she does this is by capturing the small moments and candid interactions that fill out the photographic memory of the day. This priority, of course, doesn't subtract from her capturing all of the 'necessary' photos. Her style and approach is objectively outstanding, and your wedding deserves it.
Aside from her style, her other attribute that makes her a top tier wedding photographer is her personality. From our very first interaction, we knew that we were going to hire her. Her enthusiasm for working with us was obvious in our first email exchanges, and was proven to be wholly authentic in our first meetings.
Then there's the Brandon factor. This guy is awesome. He's Jessy's second shooter (and husband), and must have a master's degree in capturing candids and alternative angles. Their creative chemistry was tangible and filled in the day with even more laughs and awesome ideas (from different shots, to constructive criticism, to crowd control).
Not only is Jessy clearly passionate about her artistic work, but she really loves getting to know her couples and deliver a stellar product. By the day of the wedding, she and her husband (Brandon) felt more like old friends and guests than vendors. This goes extremely far in creating a comfortable shooting environment that generates the best photos. Not just for us either, they took the time to learn the names of everyone in our bridal party (all 8 of them!). Their commitment to us as a couple went far beyond professional, which was borne out by the tears they too shed when I was sobbing during the ceremony. I hope they know how much this meant to us.
The last thing I want to say is that Jessy is relentless. We had a huge selection of sneak peeks within a week of the event, and full delivery of the entire gallery by 6 weeks. Having had a handful of close friends get married recently, 6 weeks is insanely fast (and the quality of her edits did not suffer for it). Why so fast? Because this lady literally works round the clock (which you'd know if you followed her on Insta... do it).
Finally (I know I said the last thing was last, but there's so much), Jessy sent us a thank you package including a leather wrap of selected matte art prints, a vanilla candle, a bath bomb, and a framed pressing of a fallen leaf that she and Brandon collected on the day of our wedding. This was a totally unnecessary, but beautifully tangible collection of memories that transported us back to the day all over again. Just one more reason why Bows & Lavender should be your first choice for wedding photography.