Jillian Bowes Photography

Words can not express how much I love our wedding photos. Jillian of course took all of the typical family portraits (which are beautiful), but it is truly her skill in capturing raw emotion that makes our photos so priceless. The day after our wedding, my husband and I were talking about how the day was completely perfect, but how we wish we had hired a videographer so that we would 've been able to capture the pure joy that we felt. And then we got Jillian's photos. Every one of which perfectly represents the overwhelming happiness and love we felt, and that we were sure was impossible to record in still images. In looking through our photos, we can relive not just the events of our wedding day, but also FEEL each and every moment over again. In addition to her expertise in perfectly capturing emotion, the photos themselves are simply stunning. The colors are rich, dramatic, and perfectly balanced. Jillian was also a dream to work with, and I honestly can not recommend her enthusiastically enough.

I wanted to leave Jillian a review for our engagement photo session (as that is a service many brides choose to utilize and might debate about). Hiring Jillian was a no-brainer from the start. A friend of mine hired Jillian for her wedding, and I have looked through her photos dozens of times admiring her work and the emotions captured. Jillian is professional, responsive to email, and one of my most organized vendors I have used for the wedding. The engagement shoot was a special memory for us. Jillian was thoughtful in her locations (we picked the overall spot, but JIllian arrived early to scope out attractive areas). The engagement session not only created a memory of an experience (rather than a staged "picture perfect" driven session) and gave us a chance to get to know Jillian. It provided the opportunity for us to feel more comfortable in front of a camera. We now know some of our better angles, and some things we can do to maximize out wedding day shots. Having said that, Jillian's thoughtful work cannot really capture a poor angle because of the joy and emotion captured. Opening our gallery was like Christmas morning, so I can only imagine what it will feel like to get our wedding photos. We are so pleased we captured this special time in our lives, and we would encourage other couples to do the same if possible.

I found Jillian Bowes after pinning a lovely photo of a wedding dress on Pinterest. As I examined the photo closer, I realized that I loved the photo for more reasons than just the dress—the image wasn't posed, the bride was captured in her natural smile (mid laugh), and the photo looked like it was shot with film rather than a digital camera. Jillian was definitely the top of our budget, but I knew I needed to book her. Her style and preference of capturing natural moments, rather than overly-posed glossy images, stood out to me. This was a huge investment for us, but it doesn't matter—it's 100% worth it, and I probably should have taken a deeper dive and booked a larger package. Our wedding was on Saturday, Oct. 22, and by the following Monday, she already had around 15 preview images to us. I was on our honeymoon, and starting crying at how beautiful they were. None of the photos were posed—me twirling in my dress, my husband and I captured mid-laughter, moments of me messing with my hair. I cherish this little "slice of life" moments more than anything. My husband and I feel like we freeze up in posed photos. We didn't have that problem here. (But no worries, she DOES do the typical posed shots with family members. Those are still nice to have). Before Jillian left, she let us know the photos would take 8 weeks (our contract said 10, so SCORE). I received the entire library of NEARLY 800 PHOTOS last night—about a half a week ahead of schedule, and they are jaw dropping. Aside from the photos and her aesthetic, Jillian is just a lovely person to work with. Super professional, on time, helped recommend how I should schedule the day to best incorporate photos, started fun conversations during the shoot to get the best candid and spontaneous reactions, etc. etc. Jillian is based in Michigan, and our wedding was in southern Indiana. I had no problem paying for her travel and accommodations. She has expressed that she's available for travel. I think it's worth the investment to get her to your wedding. Now it's time for me to somehow narrow down 800 photos so I don't flood facebook too terribly, but she's made it extremely difficult to choose favorites, as they are ALL amazing. Thank you Jillian!

I started looking for a photographer by following as many Michigan wedding vendor accounts on Instagram as I could find. I was looking for photos that captured the real moments of weddings. I wanted photos that didn't look posed and corny, for many reasons, but mostly because my husband looks GREAT in photos when he's relaxed and unposed... and he looks NOTHING like himself in "1...2...3.. say cheese" pictures. I also chose to have Bridesmen alongside my two Bridesmaids, so I wanted our pictures to look more natural and to capture our friendships rather than try to do the typical Bridesmaids' sipping champagne and shedding delicate tears (though in the end, plenty of tears were shed). The first photo I saw of Jillian's made me cry-- as with all of her photos, you may not know the people in them, but you feel like you know them after you've scrolled through a few pictures. We contacted Jillian to find out if she was available for our wedding date, and after video chatting for a few minutes, it was clear to us that aside from being extremely talented with a camera, she has the most awesome personality, an attribute that I really feel is at the root of her beautiful photos. In doing our engagement session, and then of course, our wedding with Jillian, my husband and I couldn't help but pat ourselves on the back for choosing a photographer that made us feel so comfortable and calm. It's worth mentioning that it rained all day, and at times Jillian stood under an umbrella in a complete downpour to get photos-- and even brought a bunch of extra umbrellas for the bridal party. We got so many comments from our bridal party and guests that they thought Jillian was so awesome and fun. After getting our gallery of hundreds of photos, there is not a single one that we don't like-- Jillian captured our day brilliantly. We couldn't be happier with our photos.

So there I was, newly engaged, so happy, and absolutely terrified of the wedding planning process. I knew I was aiming for an intimate wedding, and then I came across the most gorgeous backyard wedding, that seemed as if the bride and groom's friend shot it. I felt like I really knew this couple after viewing their photos. I immediately went to the photographer's website and read her about section -- it made me cry. (And, for the record, I'm NOT the crying type.) I contacted Jillian and never looked back, I just knew she was right. Our photos turned out so beautifully, but even if the quality is spectacular, if working with the person is a pain, it's not worth it, you know? She exceeded my expectations by being incredibly professional, responsive, articulate, compassionate, and the kind of person you want to be friends with. I'd highly recommend booking engagement photos, too. I thought it would be a waste of time seeing as my groom and I had been together for 10 years, but it really gave us a chance to get comfortable with Jillian and with being photographed. She does such an incredible job of making it effortless. She gives subtle cues and really lets organic photos come out of her work. Our wedding photos were, of course, amazing and she did a great job of being part of the party and letting things flow while catching the sort of shots you love to look back on. I am so grateful for her talent and hard work that left me with photos I will treasure for a lifetime.

My wife and I were absolutely delighted with Jillian Bowes, and we can't recommend her highly enough! She was a complete pleasure to work with -- professional, warm, and straight-forward. We are delighted with our photos; the candids in particular are really special. She has an amazing eye, and did a wonderful job capturing the energy and spirit of the day. Jillian's photography was worth every dollar, and we are so grateful to have worked with her!

I can't rave enough about how awesome Jillian is. Her photos are stunning and she knows how to capture beautiful, spontaneous, and heartfelt moments on your wedding day. Before the wedding day, Jillian was very approachable, and straightforward--something stressed brides will definitely appreciate. On the day of, she stayed behind the scenes to capture genuine moments, giving us prompts only during our planned photo sessions. This was important to me because I wanted our photos to reflect the details, emotions, and the actual atmosphere of our wedding. Jillian did this an exceeded our expectations. We love our photos!

Jillian is amazing. From day one, through her professionalism and experience my wife and I were both assured we made the right choice in our photographer. She was a gracious guide throughout the entire process, from preparation to the wedding day. Her personality was consistently warm, unassuming, and professional. My wife and I could not recommend her more.

Jillian was an amazing photographer! She was so sweet and made our wedding day extra special! The pictures turned out amazing and we loved her style!

Photography was very important to us, and Jillian nailed it! She is an incredibly talented photographer and was so much fun to work with. She did an amazing job telling the story of our day through her stunning images, and we couldn’t be happier! I HIGHLY recommend her, I can't stop looking at our photos. Love, love, love her.

Words cannot explain how great our experience will Jillian Bowes Photography has been. She is THE BOMB. Not only do our photos reflect us and our day perfectly - but her timeliness and efficiency throughout the day was amazing! It's like we didn't even know she was there - but she captured EVERYTHING. She was very willing to work with our schedule so that photos just flowed seamlessly with our day - which was so important to us. highly highly highly recommend.

Jillian and Tina were with us for our big day and they did not miss one detail. They were amazing!

Jillian is a friend of mine and did our wedding and engagement pictures as a packaged deal. She has an incredible amount of talent and creativity. She also knew of a lot of places for us to take pictures which was really helpful! Our wedding pictures turned out amazing!