Birds of Broad Street

Weddings and Lifestyle Photography

4.4

Praised by couples for:

Photographer

Pristine quality

Capturing memories

Clayton is a phenomenal photographer. He captured the truest emotions of people. Not only do I have lovely photos of me and my husband, but he got every single shot that we wanted to see that we couldn’t have before. Too sweet tears and too the OMG moments. He gave us something that we can cherish forever . Before the big day we talked multiple times on the phone about making sure the timeline worked and getting the photos I desired most. We even met up to visualize everything correctly. Which helped a lot and calm my nerves since wedding planning is a lot. After the Wedding day I instantly received sneak peek photos which were beautiful. After a few months I received the whole collection and fell more in love with his work. We truly enjoyed working with Clayton and now we can decorate our home with memories of such a wonderful day.

Corey W.

5.0

Clayton was great to work with and did an amazing job with both our engagement and wedding photos! He is very laid back and go with the flow which was a great energy to have during what can be a crazy day! Clayton also had a lot of unique shot ideas which he captured beautifully on camera! There is some room for improvement regarding communication, as sometimes he could be hard to reach. Overall, we loved working with Clayton and would definitely recommend him!

Paige W.

5.0

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Clayton Wirtala

OWNER

Birds of Broad Street (based in Bettendorf, Iowa) is a wedding photography service. For this photographer, images are the best way to capture milestone moments. Owner Clayton Wirtala prefers to take an unobtrusive approach to his work so as not to interrupt the natural flow of the day. Clayton sets out to capture authentic, emotional images of life's greatest moments. He works hard to help his clients feel comfortable so he can better capture them at their most genuine. He has always been passionate about photography and is excited to share his skills with to-be-weds on their big day. Birds of Broad Street offers various services to help capture the magic of your wedding day. Clayton is happy to work additional hours and in multiple settings to ensure no moment goes unnoticed. He wants you to be able to enjoy the day as it happens, and not be focused on his work. He can be accompanied by an assistant photographer to better capture every detail. As well as wedding day photography, Clayton offers engagement photoshoots. His images are available in keepsake wedding albums.

10+ years in business

Speaks English

Just me

Details

Destination Weddings

Destination Wedding Packages

Photo Shoot Types

Bridal Portraits

Engagement

Photo & Video

Second Shooter Available

Social Media Sharing

Wedding Albums

Photo & Video Styles

Artistic

Dramatic

Lifestyle

Modern

Wedding Activities

Getting Engaged

Rehearsals & Parties

After Party

Wedding

After Party

Any questions?

Meet the team

Clayton Wirtala

Photographer

My name is Clayton Wirtala. I'm a destination wedding photographer based out of Bettendorf, IA. My goal is simple. To capture real, hearfelt moments on your big day. It's my job to make sure the people I work with live in the moment!C

4.4

out of 5.0

14 reviews

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Review Summary

This AI-generated summary is a snapshot of this vendor's ratings and feedback.

The photographer captured authentic emotions and delivered stunning engagement and wedding photos, including unique shot ideas and all requested poses. He met beforehand to plan timelines, sent quick sneak-peek images, and later provided the full gallery. He’s laid-back and highly recommended, though communication can be inconsistent at times.

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Corey W

Clayton is a phenomenal photographer. He captured the truest emotions of people. Not only do I have lovely photos of me and my husband, but he got every single shot that we wanted ...

to see that we couldn’t have before. Too sweet tears and too the OMG moments. He gave us something that we can cherish forever . Before the big day we talked multiple times on the phone about making sure the timeline worked and getting the photos I desired most. We even met up to visualize everything correctly. Which helped a lot and calm my nerves since wedding planning is a lot. After the Wedding day I instantly received sneak peek photos which were beautiful. After a few months I received the whole collection and fell more in love with his work. We truly enjoyed working with Clayton and now we can decorate our home with memories of such a wonderful day.

Renée P

Photography is not chosen lightly in wedding planning. That is why we are heartbroken by the way Clayton Wirtala at Birds of Broad Street handled our wedding photography. Initially...

, Clayton told us he took over 6000 photos at our wedding. It ended up being 1000 fewer, because he lost our Ceremony, Marriage Certificate Signing, Cocktail Hour and Dinner photos. Unfortunately, it took him 6 months to admit this to us, during which his replies were sporadic, infrequent and vague. Although Clayton was great on the day of our wedding, this shows that he crumbles in the face of conflict. Clayton did refund us our requested amount. We are grateful that we have the photos Clayton did take, but we are deeply disappointed in how he handled this unfortunate situation.

Any questions?

Ashley H

While Clayton takes great photos, don’t expect any communication regarding his progress or photos in the promised timeline. I should have seen the red flags when he took forever to...

get engagement photos back but I tried to be understanding because he works a full time job. However, he took 6 weeks to get us a single photo back after the wedding, despite telling me the night of the wedding that I would see a few photos in a couple days. And only after I sent him multiple text messages asking about them. Then told me that photos would be 10 weeks, not the 8 I was told the day of the wedding. So I wait and wait and it’s now been 12 weeks and I’ve texted and emailed a few times with no response. So I decide to message on every platform I can, website and Facebook, and he finally responds on his website and claims he already uploaded them and doesn’t know why I can see them. So a week goes by and I finally get most of the photos, getting the rest after another week. But no photos of the reception after the first dances. And since I only get his edited photos, I’m left wondering what good photos I’m missing that he didn’t bother to edit. I only got 1 of most photos, like only 1 of my husband and our kids where my son was making a weird face, so I don’t know if a better photo was taken that I just didn’t get. He also took a bunch of photos from a crouch which wasn’t flattering for anyone but is the only photo I have with some people.

Paige W

Clayton was great to work with and did an amazing job with both our engagement and wedding photos! He is very laid back and go with the flow which was a great energy to have during...

what can be a crazy day! Clayton also had a lot of unique shot ideas which he captured beautifully on camera! There is some room for improvement regarding communication, as sometimes he could be hard to reach. Overall, we loved working with Clayton and would definitely recommend him!

Ella M

We are so grateful to have had Clayton shoot our wedding! He followed our shot list very closely and made sure we had all the photos we wanted. He was able to capture such real mom...

ents from our special day, and I couldn’t be more obsessed with the results. Highly recommend.

Christian G

Clayton was our photographer for our engagement photos and our wedding and he did an amazing job. He was open to doing pictures that he’s never done before. Regardless how unconven...

tional it was. He was prompt, professional, had fun with us, took direction for what we wanted, and even gave plenty of suggestions. He captured our personalities, our fun, and even the typical wedding pictures. The pictures turned out beautiful and now we get to remember the best night of our life. Thank you for capturing who we are and not just the boring pictures.

Indya L

Amazing photos and even worked last minute with us!

Megan W

We absolutely love our photos and Clayton was wonderful to work with!!

Emily C

We found Clayton online & trusted that we’d have a comparable experience to other reviews. It’s been ~6 months since our wedding day & he still hasn’t fulfilled his contract (he ac...

tually didn’t even shoot our wedding - informing us shortly before he’d be using his sub who ended up having camera difficulty throughout the evening resulting in lots of blurry photos) I’ve heard the expression “education is expensive” & what we’ve learned from this experience is that it’s best to find a photographer that you have a personal contact with, so they don’t cash your $2,000 check over a year ago & not follow through.

Emily T

This team is amazing! I had them do both our engagement and wedding photos and they really listened to and helped us achieve our vision from the colors, to the different locations ...

we wanted, to the times of day, and more. I am so awkward in front of a camera normally and yet they were able to put me at ease and direct me with posing which resulted in pictures I will cherish for the rest of my life. Clayton has an uncanny ability to capture a beautiful mixture of posed and candid images that really captured how magical our wedding day was. 1000% recommend them.

Sarah T

Clayton was so fun to work with! He listened to all of our top priorities and made sure to capture everything we wanted in our day. He is very easy to talk to and flexible! Our pho...

tos turned out AMAZING. He truly knows how to find the beauty in every moment.

Emmalee G

Clay was great and easy to work with! His packages were all inclusive at a reasonable price; you'll find most other studios won't give you all inclusive and still cost a pretty pen...

ny. Loved his artist style and angles he found to capture the big day.

Carley S

Clayton was amazing to work with! Punctual, great personality, and a great photographer! You will not regret having him shoot your wedding day!

Jenni T

Clayton and his amazing “assistant” who also happens to be his wife, we’re more than we expected. We didn’t actually meet them until our wedding day and they make you feel as if yo...

u’ve been friends with them for years. My pictures turned out better than I hoped and I plan on always using them with any future family pics. I honestly am so thankfully I found him and would recommend him to anyone that asks.

Contact

(563) 210-8156

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Birds of Broad Street

About this vendor

Review Summary

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