Melissa Ferrara Wedding + Elopement Photographer

Is there an option for more than five stars?! My husband and I cannot say enough wonderful things about Melissa and her assistant Floyd and are so happy with them as our choice of wedding photographers. Starting with the planning process, Melissa was very responsive and helpful in answering any questions I had. She went above and beyond when our venue fell through two months before our wedding and was so kind as to provide me a list of alternative venues as possible options for us. She was so thoughtful, and many times reached out seeing if we had found a new location. That’s the thing about Melissa and Floyd; you can tell right away that they are good, kind people that you would want to be your friends. My husband and I didn’t realize that we would spend more time with Melissa and Floyd than we did our own friends and family on our wedding day, and honestly you could not ask for two better people to shadow you for the day. Both Melissa and Floyd made us feel so comfortable helped direct us in a way that felt natural and carefree. We trusted them with their vision, and I know our photos are going to be better because of it. One look at Melissa’s portfolio and you can see her eye for capturing beauty and making it seem as if it came from a high fashion magazine. So many portfolios I looked at had photos that I dub “background photos when you buy a picture frame”. I wanted our photos to have life and not just take a picture but capture and create a moment. When I found Melissa, I could see the warmth in her photos; it almost felt like the photos were transcending the camera and freezing the moment in time. I cannot wait to see the moments that Melissa and Floyd captured of our special day, and I would encourage and recommend Melissa to anyone for their photography needs. I know our photos are going to be extraordinary thanks to Melissa’s eye!

We couldn't have asked for a better photographer than Melissa! She had a great vision and eye for what we wanted for our wedding photos. She was professional, fun and made us so comfortable. She had great communication throughout the whole process. You would have never known that she had a million wedding this summer because she had such a great devotion to our big day and vision. Make sure to follow her on instagram because she does a great job at posting her editing queue. We met a few times and I gave her shot inspiration I liked and was looking for. She was just a dream to work with honestly. We couldn't be happier.

Melissa was incredible to work with; my husband and I highly recommend her! After sending an initial email inquiry, Melissa and I connected on a phone call, and I appreciated how clear her process was and how well she communicated each step in working together. Melissa addressed all my questions and was helpful in sorting through which elements to include or avoid when putting our wedding details together. All of her communications, timelines, and processes were super clear & communicated in advance. With all the wedding chaos, I was so grateful to be in Melissa's incredibly professional hands!  On our wedding day Melissa and her assistant, Pavel, were a joy to be with! We spent most of the day with them and Melissa provided really helpful direction & was organized, ensuring we got all the shots we wanted & clearly communicated with our guests to make the photography process smooth & simple. We loved working with them on the day of the wedding, and when our photos were ready for us a few weeks later, we were even more sure we'd picked the perfect photographer for us! The images that she shared with us were incredibly thorough- not a single special moment was missed! Even more than this, the images were GORGEOUS!! I love Melissa's aesthetic style, and you can see her keen eye in the thoughtful composition of our images. She has a great sense of light that makes the images feel both magical and still very natural and true to life. Her artistic direction made the resulting photos something my husband, myself, and our families will cherish for many years to come.

Couples Beware! We had a terrible experience with Melissa and I would never wish any other couple the stress and grief she caused us. Melissa eagerly took 75% of our contract money up front during COVID and promised to follow through on our postponed wedding date (July 2020 > July 2021). After collecting the money in spring 2020, Melissa treated us so poorly, we felt compelled to fire her. (A clever way for her to collect ~$3500 without shooting a wedding.) We had genuine concerns from the start as we were unhappy with her engagement session photos. She agreed to reshoot them and told us the rate would be discounted, which seemed fair. After I looked back at receipts, I learned she charged the same price for both shoots. We were happier with the second shoot - a big relief. But I don't know many brides that would be excited to work with a photographer who gets it right half the time. Despite this, we intended to fulfill the contract and hoped to chat more with her in the months leading up to the wedding. But we didn't hear from Melissa like we did our other vendors. Three months before the 2021 wedding day with our headcount and mask mandates still up in the air, my husband reached out to ask about the contract terms and wondering how to part ways. Instead of reaching out with curiosity or concern for a COVID-impacted couple, Melissa coldly replied that there was no grounds for canceling and because we were reaching out a single day shy of the 90-day mark, she would be keeping all the money we'd paid her to date and "best wishes." Her lack of empathy and inability to provide any sort of customer service confirmed what we suspected all along: she was inexperienced and untrustworthy. COVID-impacted couples continue to deal with so many uncertainties and stress. Melissa only added to ours. In an effort not to lose all our money, we decided to *retain her services* and, shockingly, she was very unhappy about this. In her icy reply, she attacked us for having held a 2020 micro-wedding in another state (my father was dying) without informing her (why would we?) and was clearly very hostile about having to fulfill the contract. At that point, we didn't trust her at all and agreed to part with the nearly $3,500 for which we received only one engagement shoot that we hated (the second shoot was paid separately) and we asked Melissa not to contact us again. She did not honor that request. After I posted a brief, less-detailed, and honest Google review about our experience with Iron+Honey, Melissa sent me a long and emotionally-charged email disputing my experience and demanding I remove the review. It was truly unbelievable to see a vendor who was paid thousands of dollars *not* to shoot a wedding make the choice to harass the bride months later over a Google review. Naturally, her *public reply* on Google is more warm albeit passive aggressive. This is a vendor who created so much stress, took so much money and most notably: tried to intimidate me into not leaving an honest review. I wonder how many other couples she has bullied out of leaving honest reviews? Or if every 5-star review she's received is even credible? It's hard to know given how hard she is working to block mine. Every other vendor we worked with was competent, compassionate, kind, and negotiable due to the pandemic. For our 2021 event, we ended up working with a super talented, highly professional photographer who still stays in touch with us. <3