About this vendor
Joel Zar Photography is a New Jersey–based wedding photography company dedicated to capturing genuine moments, real emotion, and the unique story behind every couple. Joel brings a calm, friendly, and easy-going presence to your wedding day—because when you’re comfortable, the best moments happen naturally. You’ll be spending a lot of time together, so having a photographer who feels more like a trusted friend makes all the difference.
With a documentary, story-driven approach, Joel focuses on the moments you feel just as much as the ones you see. From quiet glances to joyful celebrations, no detail goes unnoticed. Every wedding is photographed with intention, creativity, and an eye for authentic connection, resulting in timeless images you’ll want to relive for years to come.
Joel Zar Photography believes every couple is different, which is why each experience is fully personalized. From an initial one-on-one consultation to custom collections, your vision, priorities, and personality are always front and center. To ensure the highest level of care and attention, only one wedding is booked per day.
Serving New Jersey and beyond, Joel Zar Photography offers full-day coverage, custom packages, and beautifully edited digital images, with options for albums and keepsakes. Take a look through the portfolio, and if it feels like the right fit, reach out—Joel would love to hear your story and be part of your wedding day.
Details
Destination Weddings
- Destination Wedding Packages
Photo Shoot Types
- Bridal Portraits
- Day After Session
- Engagement
- Trash The Dress
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Drone
- Photo
- Printed Enlargements
- Second Shooter Available
- Wedding Albums
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Documentary
- Dramatic
- Lifestyle
- Modern
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
2-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2023.2022.
Best of Weddings
The Knot independently assesses vendors for this award—it’s never self-reported. We base it on firsthand experiences from real couples and guests, and they must have a 4.5-star average across 7+ reviews in the qualifying year.
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Reviews
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5
out of 5.014 reviews
Joel is truly an expert at his craft. I can’t say enough good things about him and his team. They made us feel completely comfortable during both our wedding and engagement shoot. ...
The pictures exceeded all of our expectations. I would 10000% recommend him for any wedding or event!
My husband and I were looking for someone with a creative eye for our wedding and Joel definitely has it! When we came across his profile, we could easily see that there was someth...
ing special about his photos. The way he is able to capture lighting and see the bigger picture amongst the chaos of a wedding day.. it's truly amazing and we are grateful! We absolutely love how all our photos came out! We were also able to do an engagement photo shoot with him - Joel was flexible and had a list of beautiful locations for us to work with. Joel was also extremely professional and patient throughout. He takes his work seriously but is also able to build a comfortable environment for his clients. He is confident in his talent and extremely easy to work with. I highly recommend and will definitely be looking to him for any future professional photo needs! Thank you so much for everything Joel!
Joel was great to work with! Great attitude throughout the whole day. I was very satisfied with my pictures and would definitely recommend him to other couples!
Joel was a videographer at my wedding last year. He did such a great job! He was professional and his talent could be seen when he directed us on what to do. Joel was also very fri...
endly throughout it all, which allowed us to feel super comfortable and as if he was just a friend taking videos of us throughout our wedding. Would 100% hire him again for another event and recommend him completely !!
I don't even know where to begin with Joel. He was so professional from the beginning of my wedding day all the way till the end. He came early to my hotel and took the lead on ins...
tructing me and my bridesmaids on what to do. He was so kind and cheerful the entire time and made me feel so comfortable and at ease. He was smiling the entire day which would make anyone immediately smile. I'm so happy I got to work with Joel on my wedding day. Not only was he a pleasure to have, his work truly speaks for itself. He has talent and you won't be disappointed at all! aHe truly is the best!!!
I highly recommend Joel Zar Photography not only does he have amazing vision and capture every moment of your special day. But he also gives you a sense of comfort right off the ba...
t. I promise you won’t be disappointed with him!
TL;DR: Work with Joel
Joel was truly incredible with the groom and all 8 of the groomsmen. Even though the first meeting was the wedding day, it felt like he was with us from day...
1. Made an incredibly comfortable environment, photos turned out amazing. We highly recommend working with Joel and could not have asked for more! - Jackie & Rayan
The Joel Zar team were very pleasant to work with for the ENTIRE DAY, which can be difficult with a party of fifteen, and were professional throughout. During the groom/bride prep...
pictures and videos, they communicated concisely which made those moments easier allowing for more time to enjoy the moment. The team also took many candids, which we love, and other photos we didn't think of. Overall, we were more than pleased with their services and would enjoy working with them again for another event.
Joel did not disappoint! I cannot express enough how much my husband and I enjoyed having Joel capture our wedding day. From his arrival, he brought a contagious positive energy th...
at lasted all night. My husband and I are not used to being photographed but with his funny banter and encouraging feedback, Joel made us feel like we were doing great—and it definitely translated into the final product. Not only did he capture our wedding day better than we could have imagined, but we (including the entire bridal party) also enjoyed his fun company the whole day. I highly, highly recommend Joel.
We were so happy to work with Joel on our wedding day. He made us feel comfortable from the moment he stepped into our very hectic day! He caught the best shots in a fast paced env...
ironment and made memories to last us a lifetime. Looking at the shots- we almost didn’t even recognize that it was us! Made it look so natural but also so classic!
Joel is amazing to work with! Very personable, yet professional which made my husband and I comfortable when working with him. It's like we had known him for years! He's extremely ...
creative and takes pride in his work and you can definitely tell by the end results! I couldn't be happier with the photos we received back from him and would recommend him in a heartbeat!
Joel is great! He is so creative and so passionate! There was not a a second we were bored as he made photoshoot so fun and exciting! He's a pro and you wont regret it!!
Joel is a fantastic photographer! He goes above and beyond and is truly passionate about his job. He has great ideas that result in amazing photos.
Why did we choose for Joel Zar to capture our wedding day? I think his work speaks for itself. We had a distinct vision for how we wanted our modern, classy and chic Manhattan wedd...
ing to be captured; we wanted it to be intimate, to be quasi-editorial focused and to be unique. Joel Zar came through in spades. He has an incredible vision, which we realized on our first call with him. We'd mention Bethesda Fountain in Central Park and he'd already have fifteen ideas for where and how our photo could be taken. This only became more realized in our walk through with Joel and even then he had more exciting and fun ideas on our wedding day!
Joel plays with light, with perspective, with backgrounds and place in such a talented and unique way. We had parsed the internet through hundreds of photographers, but didn't see anyone who quite had the "it" factor like Joel. He also knows Central Park extremely well. We loved working with Joel and would highly recommend him. We have a ton of photos to go through and are already having trouble picking our favorites since they're all so good!
Contact
Tri-State Area
Joel Zar Photography's photos