“Wow. Just wow. We already knew that Mark did top quality work because we had hired him to do our engagement photo shoot in October 2022, but he totally blew us away with our wedding photo shoot (November 2023). For the engagement shoot at Estes Park, he knew the area well so he was able to find special spots and capture a lot of really great shots with beautiful lighting with the fall colors. Although we (and Mark) are based in Fort Collins, Colorado, we flew Mark out for our destination wedding near Tulum, Mexico. We could have hired other local Mexican photographers out there but we trusted Mark to capture our special day and we were so glad that we did.
Mark was a trooper and got to work right away in shooting our excursion to a cenote (underground sink hole) and Mayan ruins, rehearsal dinner, and welcome party, all before the big wedding day. He took the time to get to know our guests and scouted out interesting locations around the resort, cenote, and private beach site where we had our ceremony/reception for some gorgeous artistic shots. Despite the jet lag and time difference, he was very professional and enthusiastic about getting great photos. For example, our welcome party was only supposed to go from 8-10pm but it lasted until almost midnight. He patiently waited until the party was over to take some fantastic shots around the resort so that my partner and I wouldn’t be pulled away from our guests. He certainly didn’t have to do that, but that’s just one example of how Mark really went above and beyond for us.
We also appreciated that he saw himself as more of an observer of the wedding and would document things, but that he balanced this with giving us subtle instructions when we were taking portrait photos, because sometimes my partner and I weren’t sure what to do with our hands or where we should look.
We had a long wedding day that started with “getting ready” pictures a little after 2:00pm and the reception didn’t end until 1:30am. Mark’s energy and excitement was contagious and really helped to keep the momentum going. Then, just two days after we returned from the wedding trip, Mark informed us that he had already prepared some sneak peeks for us! We’ll get the photos later next month but we are already so nostalgic about reliving those moments. We were completely blown away by how stunning and gorgeous the photos came out. He really has a talent for bringing out the beauty of these moments with perspective, lighting, and contrasts. For example, we had a live band playing one of our songs and I ran out to get my partner to dance with me and tripped on my wedding dress and fell on the dance floor. Mark was there to capture that hilarious moment! We feel like we really made the perfect decision in hiring Mark to join us for our wedding weekend, and we hope this review will also help others who are deciding who to hire.”
