5 out of 5 stars and 36 reviews
5
(36)Best of Weddings (2x).Harrisburg, Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Philly, Maryland, etc
About this vendor
Hello! My name is Joel and I’m a wedding and portrait photographer in Central Pennsylvania. Although I’m based out of Harrisburg, I love to travel to Pittsburgh, Philly, Baltimore, DC, New York and beyond! Whether you're having a small intimate wedding or a lavish gargantuan party, I would love to hear all about your plans and see if we are a good fit! I love all things wedding and can't wait to hear all about your love story with your fiancé and hopefully document one of the greatest chapters of it! Please reach out to me at www.joeltphotography.com
Details
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Engagement
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Printed Enlargements
- Second Shooter Available
- Social Media Sharing
Photo & Video Styles
- Modern
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
Reviews
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5
out of 5.036 reviews
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Joel is the absolute BEST photographer. He was recommended to us from a friend and it was the best decision we made. He was hands down one of the most fun vendors we hired for our wedding day. From our engagement shoot to the day of, he made us feel relaxed and natural in front of the camera. Beyond that, his work is phenomenal. He captured every moment beautifully. Our wedding party and close family could not stop commenting on how amazing he was through out the night.
We were introduced to Joel Thomas Photography through a college friend, and we were very impressed with him and his team! His bubbly personality and professionalism gave my husband and I ease throughout our planning phase. Joel made the trip to have our engagement photo shoot in Annapolis, which was a special and meaningful location to us as a couple; we appreciated that he prioritized our connection to the shoot location. And, of course, our families still talk about the gorgeous photos from both the engagement shoot and wedding and recpetion. Even with the inclement weather on our wedding day, Joel took advantage of the venue's variety of covered spaces and the moments of calm weather to get photos in all our desired locations, even the place our ceremony was intended to take place (weather-permitting). His team was very thorough, going through our family and friends shot list during cocktail hour and the reception in a detailed fashion! They made sure to take many fun, candid shots with our guests; this is what made the night so memorable and what will forever be remembered thanks to these incredible photos. My husband and I are so thrilled with our photos, we definitely would recommend Joel Thomas Photography for any couples!
We had the best experience with Joel! It is important on your wedding day to surround yourself with people you trust and who know what they are doing; Joel is just that! He is organized, calm, and he made the day so fun! We felt that Joel and Kristen were our friends just hanging out with us on our wedding day.
Of course, the photos came out incredible and Joel snapped all the combos we asked for! We will recommend Joel to anyone who will listen!!
Joel was a pleasure to work with and my favorite vendor at my wedding! He did our engagement photos and wedding photos and we loved both sets of pictures. He is a very natural photographer who knows what he is doing. He works hard to make everyone around him feel comfortable with his infectious personality. Also the day of the wedding can be crazy by Joel is very calm and worked well with the venue and other vendors to make sure everything ran smoothly. He was always very upfront about his processes and cost and was very affordable! My favorite part was all his packages gave you 8 hours of wedding photography minimum. Not all photographers do this. He really knows how to capture the love and fun between you and your partner. I highly recommend to use Joel Photography for your wedding day! I am so glad we did and hope to us Joel in our future family photos.
When I was looking for a photographer for our wedding, I didn’t just want anyone off the street. I had looked at several people’s work and talked to many photographers, but there was always something missing from their work that I had been searching for. When visiting a wedding expo, I came to his booth and knew immediately that this was the photographer I wanted to shoot my wedding! He doesn’t just take a photograph; he captures a moment in time! His photos evoke emotion more than just happiness. I could feel the joy and warmth of his subjects come to life. His use of color and composition set the stage for the perfect image to hang on your wall. Right off the bat, Joel was funny, extremely personable & amazing to work with! He made it fun to be photographed (especially if you don’t do well in front of the camera but love the end result). Joel really made the whole process very easy and enjoyable by explaining everything and answering all of our nitty gritty questions. And believe me, we had A LOT of questions! With every request, he did not disappoint! He mastered the skill of capturing our love and our personalities in every photo he took! Through his creativity that shows in our engagement & wedding photo album… I can’t help but smile, laugh and get a little teary eyed. It was such a great experience. If you are looking for a photographer for your wedding, I would highly recommend Joel Thomas!! I will definitely be using him again in the future for our family photos!!!
From our first interaction, I could tell Joel T. and team was the right choice. Prompt, professional, courteous, and thorough, Joel put my bride-to-be and myself at ease during our stressful pre-wedding planning phase. Complicating matters was that my wife is not a fan of having her picture taken, so I knew I needed a special photographer that could just help her to forget focusing on that, and just relax and enjoy our wedding day. Joel delivered that in spades. It has been over a year since our wedding, and we still look through our gallery and smile at the many various memories from that day. You can not go wrong with Joel.
Joel and Kristin were awesome photographers to have on the wedding day. They both have so much fun energy and it is very easy to be yourself around them. They will make sure they keep to your timeline so you don't run behind. During our engagement shoot with Joel I will not forget him running around the site to find the perfect spot for the sunset pictures. Let me tell you those pictures did not disappoint. They are truly great professionals in the industry and the quality of the work is outstanding
Joel and Kristin were absolutely amazing to work with! Pricing is reasonable and images are truly beautiful. Joel had a great balance of leading us out of his expertise, but also letting us incorporate a lot of personal touches and things we wanted for our pictures. He was very accommodating and skilled in what he does. I am so glad we picked Joel to capture all the sweet moments and memories of our wedding day!
Joel was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding day! He was absolutely amazing to work with. From start to finish Joel made us feel comfortable. When selecting wedding vendors it isn’t an easy task (so many options) but one thing my husband and I constantly went back to was who we thought was a good vibe / fit for us, after all you spend the whole day with them on one of the most important days of your life. His goofy, honest, down to earth personality was one of the many reasons we booked him. Our engagement shoot was so much fun! Joel had us laughing the whole time, he showed us all the tricks to be prepared for posing on our wedding day, and made us feel comfortable. Leading up to our wedding day, Joel was very responsive and great with communication, willing to answer any questions we might have. He was very organized and knew all the tricks to help make our day run smoothly. The day of our wedding him and his wife(kristin) were an absolute joy to work with. They made us all feel so comfortable. Our guest are still raving about how awesome they were! Now on to his TALENT! He truly is so talented, his photos are incredible! Our engagement and wedding photos are absolutely beautiful and memories we will treasure forever. We have received so many complements and we can’t thank him enough for capturing the special moments. You can feel like emotion through ever candid photo and we love them. We can not say enough great things about him and would recommend him to anyone looking for an incredible wedding photographer!
My husband and I are so grateful to Joel for capturing our wedding perfectly! We couldn’t be happier with how the photos turned out and would recommend him to anyone looking to book a wedding photographer! His attention to detail and contagious energy made the day that much more amazing!
Joel and his team were great to work with! our photos came out beautiful! I kid you not, just about EVERYTHING went wrong on my wedding EXCEPT 3 things: 1. My make up artists 2. My cake and 3. Joel! I am so thankful to have worked with him! I had a lot of questions up front about back-ups and he was super prepared for every situation! Thank you Joel for being so amazing to work with and very professional! I swear to God, he and my make up artist saved the day for me! Definitely definitely recommend him! My only recommendation would be to write down ahead of time if there any specific types of photos you want taken so you don't forget (this just general advice for brides because my brain was fried the day of the wedding since I was so stressed!)
Working with Joel was great! My husband and I do not normally like taking pictures, but Joel made it a comfortable and fun experience for the both of us. We both really liked his photography style, and we will look at these pictures for years to come.
Joel is great fun and great value! We loved our engagement photos and wedding photos! He integrates well with big family weddings- my family loved being photographed by him at our wedding.
Working with Joel (and his wife) was a dream! They were so much more than the photographers - they were organizers, cheerleaders, pep-talkers, crowd-wranglers, and, in some ways, shadows on the wall (during private moments like first looks, the ceremony, getting ready, etc.). Joel helped us feel completely comfortable and prepared during our engagement shoot (which we LOVED!!), and it was so natural to be with him again on our wedding day! Not to mention, his photos are AMAZING and our whole home is about to be plastered with them. Time and time again, we would choose Joel Thomas Photography. During our honeymoon, we kept saying, "We are SO glad we invested in great photos! We can't wait to see them because the whole day was such a blur!" You won't regret hiring him!!
My husband and I don’t have enough words to explain how great Joel was as our photographer! He was so personable and answered every question we had. We felt super comfortable getting our engagement photos taken - he told dad jokes that made us laugh hysterically. It was never awkward which we both were worried about. We felt like we were just friends of his which was relaxing and how it should be. He also talked to us the week of the wedding which was great so we knew what to expect the day of. He went above and beyond on our wedding day and his assistant was also the best. They were able to steal us away for pictures without it taking up the whole reception. I would 20/10 recommend him!!!
I cannot say enough about Joel! Trusting someone to capture your wedding day could be so scary. But, I can honestly say I had no fears in trusting Joel. His photography is natural, beautiful and high quality. Yes, he might crack a dad joke here and there, but he truly makes your wedding day all about you. He makes sure to capture every special detail that you will want to look back on for years and years. He is professional while still remaining fun and easy going. However, if someone gets in his shot, he'll make sure to save the day! Joel's work is worth the investment. His style is timeless and his quality is remarkable. Needless to say, you will be so happy with your choice if you choose to book Joel!
We met Joel and Kristin at a Wedding Show in York, Pa. We hadn't even set a wedding date yet but we knew right away that we wanted them to shoot our wedding. From the moment we met them we were immediately comfortable around them, it was almost like hanging out with a long lost friend. There was never any awkwardness, which made the experience so smooth and easy. Not only are they both incredible people but they did such a breathtaking job capturing our special day. They were so fun to work with and I am so grateful that we chose them to shoot our wedding. Their attention to detail is incredible and over all they are two amazing humans. 10 out of 10 highly recommend! We couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out!!
I knew I wanted to hire Joel Thomas Photography before I was even engaged. Joel had been the wedding photographer for a few of my husband and I’s friends and after seeing those photos, my decision was made. Beautiful, detail-oriented photos that would capture our special day forever. At our engagement session, he seemed to understand us perfectly and was able to get us to have FUN amidst the stressful planning process. Joel was organized right from the beginning – creating a timeline for our wedding day, communicating thoroughly, and leaving no stone unturned. Then, as Covid-19 kept throwing us curveballs, he kept everything easy and flexible. We moved forward with our wedding and although there were many obstacles, we never had to worry about photography. He made our guests and our wedding party feel comfortable & safe, while still capturing all the special moments of the day. Choosing Joel Thomas Photography was one of the easiest decisions we ever made for our wedding. Highly recommended!
Joel did a fantastic job capturing the special moments during our wedding day!! From the engagement session through our wedding, he brought great energy and made us feel so comfortable. We loved working with Joel so much that we booked him for our maternity shoot!! We can’t wait to continue to have Joel capture our special moments!!!
Joel and his wife Kristin were everything that we could have asked for! From the very beginning he was extremely responsive, helpful, and answered any question I had. I was extremely self conscious and nervous about photos and he made me super comfortable from the very beginning. We went to multiple locations for our engagement session and he was quick with getting our photos to us after. All of our pictures were beautiful! Everything was perfectly planned for the day of the wedding and I had nothing to worry about. He sent me schedules before hand and was really flexible if I wanted to tweak something that fit better with our schedule. During the reception he took time to get pictures of everyone and was so polite and considerate. I can honestly say I loved every single picture. He captured everything I wanted and more. We had so many compliments on our pictures and I couldnt have asked for a better photographer :)
Working with Joel has been a great experience so far! Our engagement photos came out so much better than we could have ever hoped for (they are a part of all his wedding packages), and the shoot was a lot more fun and way less awkward than we were expecting. Our original wedding date was in the beginning of May (we were so close!) but due to the coronavirus outbreak we had to postpone to October & Joel has been 100% awesome and accommodating throughout the whole process. Thank goodness we have vendors like him who have made this difficult time so much easier to handle!
We had an absolute blast working with Joel! He is so fun and easy to work with, especially for us because my now husband and I are super awkward in front of cameras. But he kept the whole experience light and fun and professional! And our pictures turned out better than we could have ever imagined. He was able to capture our silly selves in our engagement session and our wedding photos and made the whole experience such a joy from start to finish. We have the best memories in these photos and we can’t recommend him highly enough!!
Joel was absolutely amazing to work with from start to finish! From our first phone call he gave me a great run down of what to expect if I booked with him. During our engagement session he made two camera shy people feel very comfortable, and by the end we were having so much fun. Same for our wedding day! Joel captured all the best moments, including a lucky rainbow. Looking through the photos lets me relive every picture perfect moment of our wedding day and the fun of the dance floor. You won't regret booking with Joel!
Joel and his wife, Kristin, were so much fun to work with! He was extremely professional, organized, and put everyone at ease when taking the pictures.
We took our engagement photos with Joel in October. We cannot recommend him enough! He is very responsive to emails, which I appreciate. We love his photography style- very natural and genuine. It was our first time taking professional pictures and Joel made it so easy and fun. Joel also gave us great suggestions of locations when we told him the kind of settings we wanted and made sure we took pictures of exactly what we wanted. We love our pictures so much! We got so many back and it is so hard to choose a favorite :) We hope to work with him again!
We met Joel & Kristen at a bridal show and were immediately in love with their work! Joel took our ideas for both our engagement and wedding pictures and turned them into our favorite memories. We couldn't be happier with our pictures and experience working with Joel!
Joel HANDS DOWN made me and my now husband comfortable from day one. After looking at his photos, I knew I wanted him on our vendor team. He always makes you laugh, guides you into a pose to make the photo PERFECT, and simply knows what he is doing. Don't think twice about picking him for your wedding.
Joel was an amazing and fun photographer! He made sure we felt comfortable during every stage, from our engagement session to the big day, and delivered beautiful photos that captured our special day perfectly! Our guests loved him too, and he interacted with everyone in the bridal party with professionalism and excitement :) I would highly recommend Joel Thomas Photography!
We would totally recommend Joel!! So many people have complemented us for how beautiful our wedding/engagement photos look! He was super chill to work with, and the whole process was smooth and comfortable. We were really impressed with how well he captured our personalities in the midst of all of it. You will NOT be disappointed if you have Joel shoot your wedding!
We met Joel Thomas and his wife, Kristin, at a bridal showcase in Lancaster, PA and we knew just after speaking to them for a few minutes and seeing Joel’s beautiful work, that we NEEDED him to photograph our wedding! Joel was very responsive through e-mail and text and was great with answering all of our questions. We met up with him again for our engagement pictures, which was my husband and I’s first time being professionally photographed. We were super nervous, but Joel made us feel extremely comfortable (especially my husband who originally did not want to kiss me in front of the camera ). Prior to the wedding day, Joel sent us a schedule of events, so that we knew exactly what to expect. On the day of our wedding, Joel and Kristin arrived on time and began doing their thing right away! They were super flexible with getting some specific shots for us while both parties were getting ready. We had a very rowdy bridal party and both Joel and Kristin were so great at keeping us all in line and positioning us to get the perfect shot. During the ceremony and the reception, Joel and Kristin were great at capturing everything for our special day, without hindering any of our guests’ experiences, which we were super thankful for! They joined in on the party and we even took some signature selfies with them before the night was over, which was awesome! Joel was super prompt at getting our wedding pictures and album back to us and everything was beautiful and exactly what we wanted! We are so thankful for Joel and Kristin and the amazing job that they did in capturing every moment of our engagement and wedding day! I would highly recommend looking into Joel Thomas Photography for any future events! Thanks again, Joel and Kristin!
We met Joel & his wife at a Bridal Show. Have you ever gotten that feeling when you first met someone that they are just amazing people? This was Joel & his wife. We knew that Joel were going to give us the best photos, and he surely didn't disappoint us, so we booked him almost right away. It is so important for your photography and videography team to be close (since they work hand in hand.) Joel and our videogrpaher, Matt, had never met. You could not tell at all. They acted like they had known each other for years, and our guests thought they worked together from the same company. Joel did everything possible to capture the pictures we wanted, and they came out better then I ever could have imagined. He was so much fun to work with. I could not have chosen a better person to celebrate our wedding with!
Joel is such a wonderful photographer. His pictures captured our day spectacularly. He was easy to work with and very flexible, from the time we first contacted him through the wedding day. He answered all of our questions and took the time to get to know us so we were completely comfortable with him. It made our engagement session so much fun and the photographs are so natural because of it! We couldn't be happier with how all pictures turned out. I can't stop looking at our wedding pictures! The prints we ordered from him are also flawless. We have a metal print on our wall that we are in love with. We plan to order more pictures from him! Again, we couldn't be happier with Joel as our photographer and would recommend him to anyone!
Joel and Kristin were an absolute delight to work with at our 11/11/17 wedding. Their ability to maintain professionalism while putting everyone at ease is unparalleled. The engagement shots were an excellent experience and helped us to prepare for the wedding day poses. They are able to capture beautiful, organic moments while never making their presence overly noticeable or distracting. I would recommend them to anyone searching for kind-hearted and talented photographers!
Joel is a great photographer! He made us feel very comfortable in front of the camera. He also was a hit at our wedding.. all of our guests said how much fun he was having and genuinely into getting the best shot! We highly recommend Joel!
We booked Joel for an engagement session in addition to our wedding. We were both very nervous prior to our engagement shoot but he put us both at ease with his professionalism and ability to effectively communicate and keep things light. He made it fun and made us realize that the photography at the wedding was nothing to be apprehensive about.
The day of the wedding, Joel and Kristin were excellent. They went the extra mile to accommodate our hectic schedules as we prepared for the wedding and seemed to have an uncanny knack to be in the right place at the right time to get every shot we wanted without being obtrusive.
The photos from the engagement shoot and wedding both turned out perfectly and are something that we will treasure for the rest of our lives!
Joel is amazing. Almost every photo he took in our engagement shoot was perfect! It was so hard to decide on one for our save-the- date! He is easy to work with and a great person to have around!
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