About this vendor
I work closely with you before and during the ceremony to ensure your vision comes to life. I aim to capture both traditional and candid moments of your day, from wedding party photos, to cutting the cake, to the unexpected glances and grins shared between you and the love of your life. I accept a limited number of clients each month so I can devote my undivided attention to you and your special day. Plus, I'm able to edit and return the photos for your review within 21 days.
Details
Photo Shoot Types
- Boudoir
- Bridal Portraits
- Day After Session
- Engagement
- Trash The Dress
Photo & Video
- Digital Files
- Online Proofing
- Photo
- Printed Enlargements
- Printed Proofs
- Second Shooter Available
Photo & Video Styles
- Artistic
- Classic
- Documentary
- Dramatic
- Lifestyle
- Modern
Wedding Activities
- Getting Engaged
- Rehearsals & Parties
- After Party
- Wedding
- After Party
Awards and Affiliations
6-Time 'Best of Weddings'
2022.2021.2020.+3 more.
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.
Hall of Fame
Earned by winning 'Best of Weddings' four or more times.
Reviews
Your trust is our goal. Our community relies on honest reviews to help
you make those big decisions with ease.
5
out of 5.069 reviews
I had such a great experience working with John Bartenhagen! He shot my wedding and my photos are fantastic!
I loved that John was so responsive each time I reached out! Not only ...
would he respond right back but many times if my questions were complicated he would ask to schedule a FaceTime so we could work out the details!
Once you connect with John, he sets up a virtual meeting to make sure that you understand all he provides and his style of photos will meet your needs. He listens and plans all the details so you know exactly what to expect.
He has an automated contract and payment service that makes both processes one-click simple.
John also includes a engagement sitting with his service so you will have great “Save the Dates.”
John will prompt you for all the details at just the right time which takes the worry off you. He will discuss all the shots you want to capture and who you want more or less ;) pictures of.
We did a walk through the week before at our wedding site and John’s creative eye identified so many great photo opportunities, I knew I was going to have some really great shots and it got me so excited.
At the “first look” I was pretty impressed when I saw John had a photo checklist tool on his phone to make sure every shot was captured.
During the wedding/reception John was there to capture every shot and he did it in such a way that you never noticed him or the lighting stands.
One of the best reasons to select John as your photographer is that within a couple of weeks (quicker than most) he delivers your print ready photos to his site and you can download them all in minutes. There are no additional charges to to download and share them with your guests or you can print them yourself!
Although I can’t say enough about John being the best choice for your wedding photographer and that he will be so easy to work with and deliver incredible photos.
I will highlight that John is one of the nicest and “good hearted”people I have worked with. He is such a kind and caring person… it was a true delight to meet John. I’m so pleased that I will have such great memories of working with him each time I look at our photos!
John was absolutely amazing to work with! He was great at getting us to relax and making suggestions on poses and locations for photos. He did our engagement photos and had them ba...
ck to us in less than two weeks! Not only that but we were so incredibly happy with his work, everything looked amazing. He also came down to our venue to see the location the month prior to our wedding and determine what spots we wanted to use for photos so we could plan the day which worked out amazing on the day of. He was also super communicative and on time to every meet up and just did such a fantastic job on every aspect of our wedding. He also had all of our photos back to us only 3 weeks after our wedding which was just icing on the cake for how fantastic he was. I'm so glad we went with him as our photographer and can't recommend him enough!
Working with John was amazing. He’s super nice, and very responsive to email. He’s also very thorough when it comes to thinking the day through. He suggested we take a walk through...
our venue almost a year exactly before our wedding to see what the light might be like and scope out spots we’d like to take pictures. It was wonderful working with him, and the pictures were beautiful!
John photographed our wedding last weekend and did an AMAZING job. We are incredibly happy with the end results. Communication was outstanding from our initial inquiry up through r...
eceiving our photos. From our first phone call with him we knew we would be in great hands. John had ideas and suggestions but let it be our day. I’ve attended weddings with photographers who try to overly manage the event and it gets stressful and awkward. We were able to enjoy ourselves and had no doubt that John would capture the day. He is an amazing professional and we highly recommend his services.
John was thorough and his photos were of excellent quality; he was always very pleasant to work with and will photograph whatever you ask him to capture. We recommend him highly!
John was amazing in every way! From the start when I first messaged him about information, climbing through rocks during the engagement session, postponing due to covid, to all the...
details and moments he captured during the wedding day. He was responsive and provided me with tons of information anytime I asked him about something. He made us feel comfortable and relaxed during all the pictures. His prices are also super reasonable for the high quality work that he does. It is so easy to tell that he has a passion for what he does, and I would recommend him over and over again!
John and his team were wonderful to work with, especially as a couple whose wedding was affected by the pandemic - he was so flexible and willing to cooperate with us on rescheduli...
ng and redefining his contract when Covid-19 forced us to change our plans. We were initially skeptical about doing an engagement shoot, but were so glad we did because it gave us a chance to be at ease with posing and being the subject of pictures - and everyone we know LOVED the vibrant, colorful engagement shots John took of us. His candids of our reception were a huge hit, you could see how delighted and happy everyone was to be there. And we were extremely satisfied with the price of his photo package, especially for our region, where prices can be exorbitant.
John was so much fun to work with. Our photos turned out gorgeous and even better than we could have imagined. He did an amazing job instructing us which is helpful for someone lik...
e myself who is a little awkward and camera shy. He went above and beyond and I am so grateful and happy we found him!
John and his assistance were amazing! They were so professional and wonderful to work with. It made things so much easier since John had worked at the venue previously, so he was a...
ble to find all the perfect spots and helped us get the best shots on our wedding.
We did engagement photos with John and he was great. We live in DC and would have used him for our wedding if we were getting married here, but we opted for a destination wedding. ...
He was so cool to work with and the photos came out great too.
We could not have asked for a better photographer! John is amazing at what he does, and the pictures turned out phenomenally! Planning a wedding during COVID times was definitely a...
very stressful experience. However, John was not only professional, but also treated us with much grace and generosity throughout the entire process. We were, thankfully, lucky enough to be able to go through with our wedding as originally planned on April 16th, 2021. The day turned out beautiful and John made sure to not only capture all the important moments, but he also worked with us to create some extra special moments as well. John is simply the best! I highly recommend using him. You can not ask for a better photographer or a better experience and he is the only photographer I would ever want to hire again.
John was absolutely amazing to work with! We got engaged at Luray Caverns and originally wanted to do out photos there and while that was a long drive John was willing to drive the...
distance. We changed our minds on that idea and ended up at a winery instead. The engagement shoot was amazing and John took so many great photos that left us so excited for the wedding. Our original date was April 2020, but thanks to COVID that did not happen. John was so helpful and stayed in contact with us until we were able to have our wedding on November 1, 2020. John and his team captured everything I had asked for and more. He did exactly what we wanted and listened to everything we said. His team was also wonderful and getting us what we needed. We got our pictures back in 2 weeks and they were AMAZING!!!! There were over 1,000 photos and it was like I was reliving the wedding. I would recommend John to anyone looking to do weddings or even family photos! We will be using him again!!!
I can't recommend John enough! We had our engagement and mini-wedding photos done by him (we downsized this year due to COVID) and have asked him to shoot the big event next year a...
s well. John and his team do an excellent job of making every photoshoot fun and laid back, with high quality photos always in mind, and the result is just gorgeous! We can't wait to work with John again next year!
John was serious about his work, and was prepared after several discussions with my daughter. He knew exactly what to do, and he did it impressively. He was not above last-second...
changes and was responsive to the emotional clamoring and suggestions from the extended family. His talent as a photographer is evident in the finished photographs he presented in his gallery. I wouldn't hesitate to hire him again.
I can’t say enough good things about John. He is so personable, flexible, and knowledgeable!! His warm personality made us feel so extremely comfortable and like we had been family...
friends for a long time. He was so patient and accommodating with our families. He was eager to help us get all the right pictures, calmly accepted changes even during the last minute, and put up with all of our families’ demands - and boy did our families have some demands!! He handled it all with such poise and charm and truly accommodated everybody! He also knew his stuff!!!!!! He positioned us perfectly and wisely to get all the right pictures, brought very fancy equipment to produce high quality images, helped us figure out exactly what we wanted, dreamed up some extremely creative shots, recreated very classic poses, and ultimately just read our minds on several occasions. He didn’t miss a single important moment! He just went so far above and beyond to make us happy, even in the middle of a pandemic. I am so so thrilled with the quality of the pictures he created too. He captured so many great and meaningful moments. My mother told me she had a great feeling about John after the first time she spoke to him. She said she loved his personality and approach. When my husband and I met with him later, we knew immediately that she was right!! John is truly passionate about his craft and genuinely and completely cares about the people he works with. He doesn’t just see us as clients, but more so as family. I can’t even begin to express how much that means to us! Overall, I am so grateful to him for being such an important part of our big day, and making it so memorable for us. I can’t wait to work with John again - maybe on our one year anniversary we can finally get those fireworks and sparklers shots!!! Thank you, John for just being so awesome! I Would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend John Bartenhagen Photography to anybody!!!!! I know we are definitely coming back for all of our special occasions!!!! We wouldn’t trust anyone else!!!!
We hired John Bartenhagen to shoot our wedding photos at the very start of our planning process. He was an integral member of our team, and was very generous with his time and expe...
rtise. He worked with us to arrange two engagement photo shoots as well as the normal portrait and event photos of the wedding and ceremony. He participated in walk throughs of the space with us and provided valuable insights into how to stage the wedding to maximize photo quality. After our big day, he turned around our photos quickly and made sure we got the shots and edits we needed to assemble a perfect collection of photographs. John is friendly, smart, fun and talented. We highly recommend him and his team!
WOW! All I have to say is wow! John did an amazing job on both our wedding photos AND our engagement photos. He was so very kind and very professional. He remembered everything I m...
entioned about getting certain pictures, and making sure he captured candid shots throughout the day.
Thank you so much, John for capturing our day forever!
Mike & Lizzy
My husband and I are completely blown away by John and thrilled with our photos! He asked to meet with us at our wedding venue a few months before our wedding date in order to plan...
out where we wanted to take photos, and to discuss what shots we wanted to capture. He gave recommendations for locations and we loved all of them. We sent John a list of poses/groups of people and locations at the venue where we wanted the pictures to be taken. On the day of the wedding, he and his assistant stuck to the list and made sure we got everything we wanted. They were flexible when hair and makeup ran late and we had less time than we wanted before the ceremony to take photos. On a very overwhelming day, John made us feel comfortable and kept us on track, reminding us when there was a specific photo we wanted to get. He knew when to take a step back and let us chat with our guests, and when to push for a photo. We are so glad we had all of these precious memories captured!
John and his assistant were moving nonstop, making sure they captured everything, while also getting unique photos. One of our guests commented that they'd never seen a photographer work so hard to get a shot. John had such creative ideas for fun photos with our flower girl, wedding party, and even a photo outside at night, with a purple backlight. He turned the photos around quickly and they are truly incredible. We couldn't be happier with our decision to go with John for our wedding!
John was the best choice for our wedding photography. He worked with our very busy schedule, and was super quick to respond to emails and phone calls whenever we had questions. Joh...
n coached us through our engagement shoot and wedding day perfectly, we were both so nervous and not a fan of having our pictures taken. With John it seemed easy! He captured so many funny, sweet and candid moments from our reception! The photos are beautiful, and I know we'll treasure them. Thanks John!!
John and his assistant Elizabeth were absolutely amazing! I first contacted John more than a year before our wedding and he was so helpful to us. His words of advice helped me a lo...
t throughout the planning process. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to weddings and I was so thankful to have him as a resource for advice. The day of, John and Elizabeth arrived early to make sure they were ready to start shooting on time. They made sure I got every picture I wanted, which was a lot, in a timely manner so things could stay on schedule. We've just received our pictures and they are absolutely beautiful. I highly recommend John for all of your photography needs!
John is one of the most amazing people we have ever met, and his work is brilliant! He made our day so easy. He was always responsive and very accommodating to our ridiculous reque...
sts. I would 100% recommend John's services.
John photographed our wedding in June 2019 and we had the BEST day. He is so talented, funny, and easy to work with and made our wedding day relaxed and enjoyable. The pictures t...
urned out beautiful and we will continue to work with him for our family shoots in the future. I highly recommend John!
John photographed our wedding in July 2019. He was super polite, professional, and helpful during the wedding, as well as the days leading up to it. My wife and I could not be happ...
ier with how the photos turned out! We highly recommend John to anyone who is looking for a high-quality wedding photographer.
We LOVED our experience with John and his assistant Elizabeth. Several months prior to our wedding we had our initial consultation with John and he provided us with many great idea...
! Leading up to the big day we were always able to reach out to John with a question and he would always get back to us quickly with an answer. We had a last minute change in location for pictures of the bridal party and John was very accommodating! He even got to the park first and was all set up and ready to go by the time we got there! We really appreciate how patient he was with our families. John is a funny guy and kept the atmosphere light, which is much needed on a day where you are stressed out and hoping for the best. We are very excited to see our silly poses!
So I officiated this wedding for a good friend of mine. And I flew in the day before so we had no time for the small details like who will cue the music, or when do the brides walk...
down the isle? Or just small details like that, and John was so helpful, he took it upon himself to go and speak to everyone to make sure they were in place, and began when it was supposed to. He took on the role of a wedding planner or day of coordinator, and he did this multiple times through out the ceremony and reception. AND I am a photographer as well and to see him take control and say things like tilt your head down, or move this way, assured me that he knew what he was doing! And then to seeing his final product! He delivers from begging to end and I didn’t even book him! John thank you for making my friends day so special! And for going the extra mile! You’re amazing! Keep up the wonderful work!
We just got married on May 31st, 2019 and John really came through for us, in more ways than just taking photos (though I'm super excited to see those soon)! I wanted to take some ...
time to point out what a great job he did to make sure things were running smoothly, well timed, and he even made sure me and my husband (!) were able to have some time to ourselves during all the events and before seeing all our guests post ceremony. He and his assistant were incredible and John was always easy to reach and responsive by phone as well. We really appreciated all our vendors who did such an exceptional job on our big day. It's a big day and you want to be able to rely and trust those taking part in it with you and I highly recommend John as a wedding photographer :)
John Bartenhagen made photos at our wedding easy and fun, and results were stunning pictures! His ideas, tempo, and easygoing nature, made everything fun while still being efficie...
nt. We were able to take all the traditional and artsy photos we wanted and more that John suggested (which we're glad he did).
Additionally, John is one of the few photographers who agreed to give us a culled portion of the raw original images (he first filters out the pictures where our eyes are closed, etc). Many many photographers will give you the hogwash line that it's against their artistic license and bad for their brand to distribute raw originals. Don't let a different photographer convince you away from something you want on your wedding day, for a service you're paying for; if you want raw originals AND masterfully edited photos, go with John!
John was the photographer for our wedding and did an absolutely incredible job. He and his assistant arrived early and gave the perfect amount of direction while taking couple sh...
ots. (Enough direction for some fun creative photos, but without ever making the experience feel stressful.) And throughout the wedding, John was there to take spontaneous group shots and - most important to us - lots of great candids.
After the wedding, John turned around the photos incredibly quickly and provided us with a TON of beautiful photos. We could not have been happier with them. John was fun, easy to work with, and very professional. Highly recommend!!
There just aren't words to describe how grateful I am to have had John as our wedding photographer. We entered the experience as strangers, I truly feel like we ended it as friends...
. His talent is undeniable, our wedding photos were incredibly beautiful and reflected our personality and the style of our wedding. We have relived that magic day through the images he captured. John is professional, proactive, pleasant, and reassuring. He's a pleasure to be around and a true talent. Book him if you can! Your photos, and wedding day, will be better for it.
John was fantastic! He put us at ease, was very professional and easy to work with. He was always very responsive to any questions. Our photos are gorgeous. We couldn't be happier!...
Thank you!
John was a wonderful photographer! I was referred to him by a friend and was absolutely WOWed. Attention to detail, humor, passion, the whole package. So glad I made the decision t...
o book with him!
John was a dream to have as my photographer. His team came to my getting ready location, church and reception site, arriving with a smile and ready to work. His attitude, directio...
n and demeanor, and was amazing! I'm so glad we decided to hire John Bartenhagen Photography for our special day!!
John was so easy to work with and was really on top of things. He was always in touch well in advance of the engagement shoot or the wedding day. He got a list of shots we wanted f...
or the wedding and managed to get all of them. He was more than on time the day of the wedding and always had a great attitude. The pictures were amazing. I couldn't be happier with them. You can tell John loves what he does and takes a lot of pride in his product. We couldn't recommend him more.
John is a brilliant photographer and the perfect person to have with you throughout your wedding day! He was wonderful with all the guests, took all requests, helped us know what t...
o do and how to pose. The photos are beautiful pieces of art, we love them! I highly recommend John to anyone who wants timeless, artistic and beautiful pictures that will tell the story of your weddin
We knew when we met John that we would chose him as our photographer. He was a perfect fit for us and our personalities and his photography speaks for itself. During our first meet...
ing he showed us full galleries of his work. His use of light and capturing all candid moments really highlighted what we were looking for. He loves what he does and was completely excited about our wedding day. We highly recommend!
If you're looking for a photographer to capture your precious wedding moments, you've found him, John is genuine, thorough, and talented professional that we loved working with. We...
received countless compliments on the photos from our engagement and wedding and are absolutely recommend him. We especially appreciated John’s attention to detail, consideration of our requests and genuine interest in our lives. , Thanks John, We loved working with you!
My fiancé and I did engagement photos with John. He was extremely fast at responding. He was great with thinking of locations for the pictures. We got our pictures back very fast a...
nd they came out amazing!
John was a great photographer for us! He was easy to work with, got all the shots we wanted, and he and his assistant were great to have around - they kept us ahead of schedule and...
relaxed the whole day. He got us the pictures less than two weeks after the wedding, and they came out great! He was also open to further edits if we wanted any.
John was fantastic! He jumped right in and helped us visualize what would be best for pictures. He had some ideas for us and allowed us to play with the ideas to suit what we wante...
d. It also snowed on our wedding day, so he stood out in that snow with no complaints! He was all over the venue the entire night taking as many pictures as he could. The quality of the pictures was beautiful!
I would recommend John 100%! He was flexible, easy to work with, and produced high-quality photos in a very short amount of turnaround time after the wedding! We loved how knowledg...
eable and helpful he was prior to the wedding when we were deciding where to take wedding party photos and were impressed that he took the time to meet us at our venue a few weeks before the wedding. We are having a hard time choosing which photos we want to hang up in our home; there are so many good pictures from which to choose, and we are busy sending many good photos to our family and friends who were candidly captured enjoying our wedding reception. Choosing John turned out to be one of the best choices we made in our wedding planning!
John is an amazing and talented photographer and we are so glad we asked him to photograph our wedding. We had not originally planned on doing an engagement photo shoot but we ende...
d up really enjoying that it was a part of the package. It allowed us to practice posing, get to know John a little more, and the photos came out great! He gave us good advice for posing. It was the first time we had gotten professional photos taken as a couple and we will treasure them! On our wedding day John captured wonderful memories for us! He got everyone to relax and have fun taking the photos and captured amazing candid photos as well. Compared to other photographers John offers everything for a reasonable price. His assistant Elizabeth did a fantastic job as well we were so glad to have her work on our wedding as well. I can't stop looking at the photos! So so happy!
We are so happy we found John to photograph our wedding. He was very easy to work and accommodating to our needs and wants. I dislike having my picture taken, but John and his assi...
stant helped me feel beautiful and relaxed on our special day. John provided our pictures very quickly, and the online photo gallery has been great for sharing and retrieving our pictures. Thank you again, John!
JOHN IS AWESOME!! You should absolutely use him as your wedding photographer. He is outgoing and enthusiastic, and has lots of great ideas for picture settings and poses. We worked...
with him for multiple events related to our wedding, which gave us a great opportunity to get to know him. He and his assistant kept track of our shot list and also captured many candid moments. He was also very helpful in working with some of our other vendors, and always served as our advocate. We would highly, highly recommend that you hire him to shoot your wedding or any other photography need!
We cannot say enough good things about our experience with John. The pictures were phenomenal!! I never knew a picture could carry so much emotion and evoke such feeling. The dedic...
ation John showed us surpassed any of our expectations. He made us feel like we were more than clients and was always available to speak with us. Thank you so much!!!
John and his assistant did excellent work! I was very impressed by how John was able to get fantastic pictures of the ceremony and still be out of the way of guests so they were ab...
le to see and enjoy everything. The pictures were phenomenal and he was easy to work with!
John was awesome! We met with a few photographers beforehand but John showed them all up with his professionalism and flexibility. On the day of the wedding he was not pushy or int...
rusive at all, but still got the shots that we wanted. We would definitely recommend John and his assistant Heather to anyone looking for a wedding photographer.
John was amazing! Not only did he take amazing photos, but he made you feel so comfortable during all the pictures. I would definitely recommend him to anyone else! So happy we use...
d John for our photos.
John was amazing; thoroughly professional and tireless in his pursuit of capturing the moments that made my wedding day special. Many of my guests, as well, have made a point of sh...
aring how impressed they were with his dedication and work ethic. My wedding photos are stunning and I'm absolutely thrilled to have such beautiful memories of my perfect day!
John was very pleasant to work with and skilled in arranging large group photos. John captured some great candid photos of the bridal party and guests as well. Very pleased with o...
ur wedding photos!
John is awesome!!! He takes absolutely stunning photos and is extremely professional. He will take pre- wedding pictures as well and was super flexible with our wedding schedule. L...
ove love love!!
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