Scott C Review:
I was so confident about IQphoto that I was going to write the review before we got the photos. Based solely on the experience with Alex on the day, and a sneak preview slideshow we got given as a nice surprise and teaser, we knew the photos were going to be amazing, and they are. In summary, we couldn't have been happier with the photos. We have a great mix of formal/family, candid, and some stunning beach shots. The beach photos are completely unique and are the kind of thing you see in a magazine. You imagine these shots would take hours and hours to do, with 5 people and 3 tonnes of equipment behind the camera, but somehow, Alex managed to make even us look like movie stars with just a single camera and no other props at all.
We had a very small intimate wedding with around 40 guests. With this small number, any other people who are there are kind of obvious and tend to stand out. I was concerned that there would be a divide between the guests and the photographers, who would just stand at one side and ask people to pose. How wrong I was. Alex was there from quite early on in the day to capture us faffing around and getting ready, and by the time the guests arrived, he was as much a part of the wedding party as anyone else. Alex mingled with the guests before the ceremony and I think this allowed him to work out who was who and who was with who. This is obvious when you see the reception shots where there are pictures of each couple. This was not easy or obvious but somehow Alex worked all this out so we have great couple shots to give to our friends who were there.
I am not in general a very smiley person, so I was surprised when I got the photos back to see I was smiling, and even laughing in some of them :-) I realize now the reason for all the smiles is that I was bantering back and forth with Alex while he was taking the photos. Everything just felt very easy and relaxed. Even during the formal photographs Alex had everyone in stitches laughing and that shows through in the photos "No touching, stop touching !!" was his cry. It was hilarious :-)
Our wedding day went by far too fast and I was amazed at some of the things we missed. (My wife never got to see any of the food before the ceremony, I never got to see the flowers on the ceremony chairs) but everything is there in the photos. It was also nice to have 2 photographers (Thank you also to the other Alex) because we both got to see the other sides getting ready photos.
Some other points that are worth mentioning :
We ran over our allotted time but Alex was very flexible in making sure we got all the shots we wanted. It would have been very easy to just send me a bill for more time after the event, but Alex made sure I was aware of where we were with regards to time and in the end we got everything done almost to time.
We also had a video crew from a different company, and I think this was the first time these 2 companies had worked together. They both played extremely well and professionally with each other so there was absolutely no "Get your video camera out of my shot" type of nonsense going on. What was apparent to me after watching them working together is that there is a completely different skill set required to do video v's photo and it definitely takes two separate crews.
We had met Alex and Joseph before the wedding and I think this is a must. It just makes it a whole lot easier on the day because we felt that we already knew Alex when he got there.
I was constantly complaining on the day about the weather because it wasn't as sunny as I had hoped, but Alex calmed me down by telling me how the photos were going to be so much better with this light. Boy, was he right.
To summarize..... when you think about it, there's very little remaining of your wedding day one month on. The flowers have gone, the guests have flown home, you are back at work :-( About the only thing that remains is the photos, so I think it is a great investment to get the absolute best, and for that I would recommend IQphoto every time.