Aura Elizabeth Photography *Best of The Knot Recipient*

ril & on Fri Jan 3, we emailed to ask when we should expect to start working our timeline with her (HMU were starting to plan their schedules & asking about timelines). After we didn’t get a response for 2 weeks (the fires broke out shortly after), we messaged on Honeybook on Tue Jan 14 & texted on Fri Jan 17; read within 30min, no reply. Texted on Wed Jan 22; said she would send us a questionnaire(which was sent on Wed Jan 28) & Calendly link(didn't get). Followed up via text on Wed Feb 19; she said she had a draft timeline & sent a Calendly link to review. We met Fri Feb 21 to review the timeline & make live updates. We also gave her our shot list (family combos) & some inspo pics (playful, fun, movement, less posed, etc). After our video chat, she sent an updated timeline based on what we discussed, & we replied (email) with an update that we’d missed. That email never got acknowledged & we ended up scrapping it. FF to our wedding: our shot-list of family combos specifically listed B&G in ALL family photos (eg we didn't want photos of B&parents w/o G, & vice versa; we find this very strange & we didn't want this for OUR day). But sure enough, one of us was asked to exit the photo. We chalked it up to wedding-day haze, but we felt like what WE wanted was ignored & overshadowed by Aura’s "standard." Perhaps we should have emphasized this in our timeline review; we didn't verbally bring attention to it beforehand, because we assumed it would be reviewed/carried with her on the day. Our Couples/B&G Portraits (first look, pre-ceremony, sunset, & night-flash) felt stiff & posed, not playful like Aura said was “exactly her style.” & unfortunately, you find yourself just doing what the pros tell you to do; usually waiting for a prompt from your photog. By the time you’re at sunset portraits, you’ve had enough of photos & just want it to be over. We got our preview album 5d after our wedding, with a note that the full album would be ready in another 6-8wks=7-9wks post-wedding. By Thu wk 9, we texted (since emails go ignored) to ask when we can expect our full album: read within 1hr. Texted again Mon & again Wed wk 10. She explained that May was busier than usual (that she couldn't reply to a text mid-way into Jun?) but said that our gallery would be sent over before the end of the next week (wk 11). Wk 11: no photos nor word on further delays. Texted Wed wk 12: no response. Texted the next day: read within 15min, nothing. We emailed later that day; she replied & apologized for the lack of communication (appreciated) & promised to have our album to us by Sat. We received our album ~9am on Sat wk 12. We know that life happens, but we do expect proactive communication & (at minimum) to be acknowledged when we reach out. For someone who boasts “over a decade of experience and 250+ weddings captured,” she seems to have very poor basic mgmt skills. Overall, we are very happy with our photos. Even if they aren’t as playful as we wanted them to be, they are beautiful & we will cherish them forever. We were, however, very disappointed to realize that we never got our siblings photo (with both sets of siblings) from our shot list, as this was one photo that was very important to us. On her website, Aura promises “an experience that feels effortless and enjoyable,” but we had the exact opposite. It hurts us to say this: despite loving our end product, we would not recommend Aura as a wedding vendor.

er team brought. I particularly loved that many folks were captured in the photos. Thank you Aura Elizabeth and team! 🥰

- timeless, joyful, and romantic. Plus, Aura is THE sweetest person we've ever met. She is so kind, patient, and professional! We had so many of our guests come up to us saying how professional and patient Aura was while taking their photos throughout the night. Throughout our engagement photoshoot and our wedding day, Aura made us feel comfortable especially since we don't generally take that many photos together. Not to mention, it even rained during our engagement shoot and the photos turned out even MORE beautiful than we could have imagined. She truly captured the raw candid moments and we couldn't have imagined a better photographer for our wedding day. Thank you so much, Aura!

eel like we're experiencing our wedding all over again and also seeing parts of the wedding that we missed! Aura is so incredibly professional. She clearly is experienced and is able to guide the bride and groom in a way so the perfect shot is captured and so that nothing feels unnatural. She is flexible, incredibly generous, and just a genuinely kind and caring person. She thinks on her toes and was a joy to be around! It was such an honor to work with her and her second shooter Mar! There is no doubt that my husband, family, friends, and I will cherish these photos for the rest of our lives. They look like they’re straight out of a magazine! How could we not love them? We could not speak more highly of Aura and would recommend her time and time again!