Anna Zajac Weddings

le to book her but got SO lucky there was a cancellation and she happened to be available. She is so kind, calm, professional and ridiculously talented. She is very responsive via email, has a very thoughtful and *inclusive* wedding photo info sheet she has couples fill out and she even went above and beyond bringing on a second local photographer to ensure that our whole day was captured beautifully. Every one of my bridesmaids commented on how kind, sweet, and calm she was which radiated throughout the room as we got ready. She graciously accommodated us including our dog in the ceremony (dogs aren't the easiest to capture!) and she even included some INCREDIBLE family photos of the three of us in our preview which we already received only a couple weeks after the wedding. It made us SO excited to see the full gallery later on. She was also so sweet and understanding when my husband asked to cut our bridal party portrait time short before we even took couples photos because I was FREEZING (and starving from all the adrenaline/nerves before the ceremony). She immediately pivoted, found a great spot for us to "hide" to enjoy some treats, drinks (which she and her other photographer BROUGHT to us!) and a little alone time. This made our couple portraits WAY better than they would have been if we had "pushed through" after our bridal party photos because we had a chance to laugh, eat, and enjoy some peace and quiet away from the chaos which recharged us perfectly for our couples session. This speaks to Anna's professionalism and talent because she knows when and how to capture your day perfectly. I told her I cared very little about a shot list and wanted her to focus on the candid moments which are my favorite and I can already tell she did this perfectly (as I knew she would since you can tell from her previous work). And a note on budget/pricing: Anna's prices are absolutely spot on due to the value, volume, and also zero hidden costs associated. You own the photos out right when you receive them. It also INCLUDES her travel which is huge! Photos are not an area I would recommend cutting costs; you absolutely get what you pay for with Anna and then some! She is simply the best in the biz! I also have to mention the local photographer she brought on as a second shooter, Cody Mann, was a fantastic addition and shows how thorough she is in vetting the folks she works with. Thank you so much for capturing our day perfectly, Anna! We can't wait to see our gallery in due time!

ng my husband and I feel like we were part of her team. I can not recommend her enough! Her style it’s so organic and natural. We LOVED the way our photos turned out, especially the intimate and candid shots she got of our guests and venue details.

ime to make sure that she understands exactly who her clients are, what their love story is, and what their needs may be before diving into her services. We could tell that she truly cares about each of the weddings and couples that she shoots. While Anna’s technical photography skills are obviously outstanding when you view her portfolio, she very much shines with the softer skills a photographer would need to draw out the best from her subjects. We hired her because we thought she would get our friends, family, and I to laugh, be ourselves, and bring out the best from us and she did not disappoint. Shooting with her could not be more natural or less fun. Highly recommend choosing Anna for your wedding!

ng through Humboldt Park. Anna fully executed on our vision as if she'd read our minds. Anna was quick with her communication, affordable, gave us plenty of direction without making anything look overly posed, and sent us our photos well before the expected date. What more could you ask for? We've received numerous compliments on our photos so do yourself a favor and go with Anna!

re such a reflection of us in a beautiful and artistic way. She is incredibly kind, thoughtful, responsible and professional. She went above and beyond to make us feel special and cared for. She took the time to get to know us and our story. We even had drinks after our session :) We love our photo so much and can’t wait to work with her again soon. 100000% would recommend you hire Anna for your special day or occasion. You are the best, Anna Zajac!

nnot afford, and continue to offend them after we requested for her standard rates; she legit wouldn’t give them to us. We moved on gladly, and her loss, as we had a stellar vendor team that were all paid and tipped very well. Tip to Anna - don’t assume people cannot afford you, you never know when they actually have the budget. Which we did, but you rudely didn’t allow us to relay that to you - you are exhibit A of the ugly wedding grind and machine in Chicago.

nd Matt made it fun, informal, and natural. She was the perfect photographer for our big day!

process she was collaborative, energetic and SO fun to work with. When she’s behind the camera she has a way of making you feel comfortable, at ease and in the moment. This definitely showed up in our photos as everyone was clearly having a blast! She also did a great job of encouraging my wife and I to take some time to ourselves during the cocktail hour to catch our breath and take it all in. The photos of those ‘time out’ moments are some of my favorites from the entire day. Beyond doing an amazing job of perfectly capturing our day, she was also incredibly patient during the portions of the day that could have been stressful. Coordinating and capturing our family photos before the ceremony went off without a hitch and that is no easy task. We can’t recommend Anna enough, just book her already! :)

of personality, she is a true joy to be around. She has a calming presence that really reels people in, even if they haven’t met her before. For me (the groom), it was incredibly important to know that the person taking photos of my soon-to-be wife as she was getting ready that morning was someone she would feel nothing but comfort around, and I knew that would be the case as soon as we met with Anna. She is fun, charismatic, outgoing, adventurous, and unbelievably joyful- exactly the kind of person you want both in the small intimate moments, as well as when the party is getting started. In terms of talent, we were drawn to her work immediately. The big thing we were looking for in a photographer was someone who would be able to capture the small moments that we would potentially miss or graze over the mix of everything going on; the real moments between people, especially the subtle ones, where a tangible emotion is felt. We could tell through looking through Anna’s catalog that this was her specialty, and she really delivered for us. She captured everything we wanted, and more. Looking back at the photos, we are convinced she hired a second or third shooter without telling us- she was able to get so many angles and different peoples’ expressions at seemingly the exact same moment. The photos are stunning-elegant, simple, artistic, and real. We could go on and on about how happy we are with our choice, and how lucky we feel that we will get to live with Anna’s work forever.

to document it! Family keepsakes!), and Anna was our first choice just on her visual style. Once we met her for our Engagement photos we also realized that she gets the best out of extremely awkward subjects, and catches small intimate flashes that you don’t always get to see in professional photography. We consider ourselves lucky to have booked her and are so happy with all of the photos (Engagement, Rehearsal, and Wedding Day). We didn’t notice her at the ceremony, except when she was expertly corralling the massive families, but apparently she was everywhere. We’re thrilled with the photos of us and our loved ones, and look forward to looking back at them in 50 years. Thank you, Anna, we hope you’re available for Anniversaries!

creative, and pull you in. When making my decision, these were all qualities I was looking for. I wanted my pictures to be creative, and memorable. The first time I looked at Anna’s Website, I said to myself, there is something different about her. She was a contender at first glance! As I continued to explore her website and portfolio, I was drawn to her style and how real her pictures were. They were very raw and really told a story. Each and every picture on her website really captured the essence of the people in them. This was EXACTLY what I wanted in my pictures, and Anna did just that! Now, after seeing my pictures, I won’t use any photographer for personal pictures but her. Not only is she an artistic and photographic genius, but she is so easy to talk to. Pictures can be intimidating, not knowing what to do, where to stand, where to look, where to put your hands? The list goes on and on… but Anna talked us through everything. She showed us how to walk, where to place our hands and we had so much fun with it! I had my hair cut and colored the day before our Forever Session and my makeup trial the morning of our Forever Session, (very bad idea folks.. very bad). I called Anna about an hour before our session and ended up breaking down. She was so positive and uplifting, and honestly talked me off the ledge that day! I can’t thank her enough for the story she told of our special day. Our pictures are everything I wanted and more! THANK YOU!

eks ago. Anna did a wonderful job letting our personalities—and that of our guests—shine through; both the candid and the posed shots came out really well. My wife was worried about the immediate family photos because her parents are divorced, but Anna handled the situation calmly and didn’t act like anything was wrong or unusual, which kept things from feeling too tense. As my wife put it, "may all estranged and divorced families have Anna as their photographer." We were also hugely impressed at how she handled the language barrier with those in our family who don't speak English. There were a lot of people to wrangle but she expertly directed the traffic and was so efficient that we had time to go mingle during the cocktail hour. All our relatives thought that she was extremely friendly and easy to work with, and she’s so genuinely happy to be part of your day it's contagious. She was definitely one of the vendors that we felt was part of our "team." Considering the quality of the photos and her level of service (many emails exchanged, and several phone sessions, too, over the course of 10 months), she was one of the best vendor decisions we made. BONUS TIP: We’d definitely recommend getting your engagement shoot with Anna, too, so you can get a sense of what it's like working together when it's just the three of you. At first we felt a bit awkward about having a professional shoot, but she's very thoughtful about how you can most feel comfortable. She advised that we go to a park instead of our original idea (a busy neighborhood square) because we’d get a lot of people looking on. Smart! (She was also flexible and patient when it threatened to rain for most of our wedding day and we agonized over whether to go ahead and try for our outdoor photo location!)

for her & the role she played in our wedding day.

photography and it makes for a great experience. Thanks Anna! I highly recommend her!