Authentic Collective was the second vendor we booked for our elopement (our original venue was the first). We found Authentic Collective by using the hashtag #AdventureWeddingPhotographers because we wanted to get married in a way that represen...ted us: fun, adventurous, and outgoing with a drop dead gorgeous view that spoke to the soul.
Choosing them was the easiest part of planning one of the biggest days of our lives! The biggest help in planning was 100%, the timeline. Due to COVID, we had to change our plans over five times and when we finally landed on our ideal venue (3 weeks before our date), we could only be there for 5 hours (making it a microwedding) so it was definitely crunch time. Their guide let us see how we could maximize our time for everything we wanted to do.
Savannah & Greg surprised us when they arrived early to scout out the area to get our detailed shoots done. As we got ready, we hardly noticed them taking photos but they were there for all of our special little moments. Sav & Greg knew how dishearten we were that our plans changed from Big Sur to Malibu that they found the most amazing spot for us to have our first look!
Also, Greg was extremely helpful in assisting me in getting down to the the area to do my first look.
Again, planning a wedding is stressful and while I was stressed, the favorite part of my wedding day (other than marrying my best friend) was taking photos because that was the time we got to spend together and that's basically the most important part of the day, to celebrate our new union and that's exactly what we were able to do while taking photos. Once we got to our venue site, we were able to take additional photos before guests arrived. Savannah and Greg were so great in showing us how to pose while being ourselves. They coached us through the poses they were looking for from hand/arm placement, how to hold the flowers, looking at each other to getting genuine laughs.
Let’s talk about the shot list! It’s so important to do the shot list because Savannah and Greg follow it to the T! AC provided us with a shot list to make sure we took photos with people we wanted and that’s super important because the day-of everything is so crazy and goes by so fast that I would’ve forgot. Savannah and Greg were so amazing at calling people in and out of the shots that we were able to get everything we wanted. Not to mention, it didn’t take long, Greg was able to get people in and out (in a polite way), they both helped pose the groups and Savannah took about one of two shots… done! With our wedding party… omg they told us to walk slowly to them and we thought “umm okay” and we were told to look at each other and laugh and those shots came out so amazing, it looked like it was straight out of a wedding magazine!
While we didn't have enough time to go around the ranch like we originally hoped, Savannah and Greg were able to get security to drive us to the giraffe and we were able to get our newlywed shots there along with an amazing Golden Hour in the grapevines. We weren’t sure if we wanted footage from our toasts until after it happened and they had that footage covered even though we hadn’t planned for it, they were steps ahead of us and ready to deliver.
Authentic Collective taps into your heart and captures it the way you always envisioned. They’re not only a blast and a joy to spend the day with, but they’re extremely professional!