Madi Ellis Photography

the phone I knew Madi wasn’t just a wedding photographer. She was someone who from the beginning showed genuine excitement and passion when it came to preserving the memories of such a special day. She was incredibly helpful when it came to finding a venue. She reached out to vendors she knows and gave us suggestions as well. We decided to go with The Lincoln Park Conservatory which was just incredible. The day of Madi did a fantastic job at easing and pre wedding jitters. She brought a perfect amount of humor to the day. She made being photographed not only easy, but super fun as well. She was an incredible hype woman. From individual portraits, to the first look, to wedding party and ceremony, she captured every single moment that we want to remember for the rest of our lives. The photographs she took not only captured the beauty and nature around us, but she somehow perfectly captured our personalities. I am forever grateful that she captured all of the moments from endearing and emotional to goofy and silly. Madi exceeded all expectations. She truly knows what she is doing and you can tell that she genuinely loves doing it. 5 starts simply is not enough.

iately put everyone in the wedding at ease. In addition, she works incredibly quickly, meaning we had the full virtual album less than one month after the wedding!! Are you worried about being photographed for hours and made the center of attention? Hire Madi; she will make what could be an awkward encounter feel second nature. Are you worried that your venue has weird lighting or a lot of different locations? Hire Madi; from getting ready to the ceremony to the dance floor, every photo perfectly captures the emotion of the day. Are you stressed about logistics? Hire Madi; she was super-human levels of communicative leading up to the wedding and helped us plan and navigate various logistics without even batting an eye. Planning a wedding involves a lot of difficult decisions, but this one is easy.

d. To begin the process, Madi schedules a 30 minute "get to know you" phone call to discuss ideas, vendor support, etc. After we chatted on the phone for TWO hours, Madi quickly became my favorite person. She eased my anxieties and we could not wait to schedule our engagement pics with her. The day of the engagement pics are a highlight of wedding planning. Madi is hysterical and knows how to make you feel comfortable in front of the camera. She gives direct and clear instruction and can envision shots that are breathtaking. On the day of our wedding, Madi was second in command with our planner. She kept us on track, was clear in her timelines and captured the most beautiful photos that still make me cry. I felt so at ease knowing that Madi, and her awesome assistants Kate and Grace were shooting our wedding. They were so much fun to be around. Overall - there are not enough words to describe how talented, wonderful, and incredible Madi is. She was by far the best vendor we used in our wedding and we could not recommend her enough!

Madi's gorgeous, documentary style photography, we knew we had to reach out to her for our wedding. We were worried about feeling awkward in front of the camera due to our lack of experience, but Madi is absolutely amazing at capturing breathtaking candid moments while also helping to pose you in a natural feeling way. Her responses to inquiries are lightning quick, and she is unparalleled in her organization and time/event coordination skills. Coordinating with multiple vendors, you will find prompt responses are an absolute god send! She provides you with a survey once you are booked, inquiring as to the details of your event along with the names of important people who are must haves in photos. I felt relieved knowing I could give her this info in advance, and not worry the day of that we would get photos with all the most important people in our lives. Madi also helped develop the timeline for our wedding day, taking lighting into consideration due to it being a late fall wedding, and it was an immense help in coordinating with all our other vendors. She has a great working knowledge of picturesque locations, especially in the city of Chicago, as well, which was amazing when we were originally trying to figure out where we wanted to host our ceremony and take photos before the reception. Finally, Madi came to our rescue a month before our wedding. We lost our reception venue 28 days before our wedding, and Madi was able to use professional connections to help us secure a new and even better location. Truly... if it weren't for her going FAR above and beyond her job description, we very well might not have gotten married after almost two years of planning. There is no amount of words I could use to over exaggerate Madi's professionalism, talent and dedication to her craft and to her clients. Madi immortalized our wedding day into artwork we will cherish our entire lives. Out of all my vendors, working with Madi felt like we were working with a close friend. A friend who is fiercely loyal, supportive, and has the most magnetic energy that just draws you in. She goes above and beyond in everything she does and was the hero of our wedding day. We will never be able to thank her enough for everything she did for us, but we have decided to at least try by singing her praises to anyone who will listen.

feel very relaxed and natural, and the photos reflected that. Madi was an amazing communicator, so much fun and gave us not only the most beautiful photographs, but also wonderful memories.

part of our day. Not only that, but due to some personal family matters she expedited us getting our photos back in record speed. Could not recommend her enough. Best decision we made. She was truly the MVP of our special day.

rst vendor we hired and was so amazing to work with in the 18 months leading to our wedding. She recommended other amazing vendors (like our kickass band), agreed to a two location engagement shoot so that our cats could be included, and was someone to talk through some of our logistical pieces leading up to the day. From early on in the planning process, Madi made sure we were thinking about the different kinds of photos we wanted to see from our wedding. In addition to having a comprehensive form to fill out with all our formal family photos, Madi checked in with us multiple times before the event to make sure she knew any other shots we'd be hoping for (candids with certain friends, group shots with work colleagues, etc). She was able to move us along efficiently through the wedding party shots (especially impressive as it was in a public park) and found the most gorgeous places to take pictures in. Her experience as a live music photographer allowed her to capture some absolutely bonkers shots on the dance floor that we will treasure forever. It’s so much fun to see the photo evidence of the rager on our dance floor! She was thoughtful throughout, making sure we were enjoying the day, even sharing her snacks when the bride realized she was getting a little bit hangry. The care she takes when getting to know a couple before the wedding itself made us that much more comfortable with her in the room, throughout the day, and led to some fantastic candids through the event. We were amazed with the speed with which she sent us photos, and were so excited to have sneak peeks before the full gallery was ready. We loved that she included some silly shots along with more formal ones, as we loved seeing our personalities come out in the photos! We have left this process feeling that Madi was an integral part of our wedding and are so happy to have her in our memories of the day. Our friends have all commented on how fantastic the photos have turned out, how great both Madi and her second shooter were to work with, and multiple have even taken her information for when they eventually get married. We hope that works out so we can see Madi in action again :)

of my career is to work with numerous different vendors for my couple’s weddings/events. When I tell you how incredible the experience was working closely with Madi on a friend’s wedding I mean it - and I have very high expectations! Madi and I understood each other from the start and our communication leading up to the wedding was phenomenal. She was extremely responsive, organized and thorough. Wedding day was a breath of fresh air with her and her team ensuring we were aligned on time and place of all the events happening throughout the day. Not to mention on top of Madi being highly organized, talented, friendly, a team player and thoughtful, she has a way of putting everyone at ease and it’s apparent in her skill of capturing organic moments in the most beautiful way. I honestly can’t wait to work with Madi again and I will with out a doubt be referring her to my clients!! HIRE MADI STAT!

ent and wedding photos, Madi knew what to do (and say) to make us feel comfortable. She never missed a beat, recommending poses and providing prompts and exercises to keep us relaxed in our photos. Madi was(is) a stellar communicator. She connected with us at the perfect times during the wedding planning process to ensure that she understood how the day would flow and what key moments and people we wanted to capture. Honestly, Madi could have very well been not just our photographer but our wedding planner. She was so organized and knowledgeable; we felt like we were in such good hands the entire day. Her incredible organization and preparation for our day allowed us to be a little more flexible with what photos she took. Madi could easily add extra shots that we hadn't thought to include. She even captured some impromptu Christmas card photos for our family friends. Not only was Madi a joy to work with on our actual wedding day, but holy smokes, she then delivered our wedding album to us in RECORD time. And it was terrific! I could go on and on; there were too many good photos to count. The icing on the cake is how easy it was to use Madi's photography platform to pick out favorite shots, share photos with friends and family, and buy prints. Madi's technology was the most user-friendly and seamless of all the vendors we hired. Even my 82-year-old grandmother could easily buy prints without having to reach out for assistance!! In addition to the platform to view and purchase prints, Madi utilizes a client portal that sends timely reminders for payments, makes payment easy and efficient (no sending of physical checks, which many vendors had us do), and allows her clients to easily submit all details Madi needs to know for the day. I can't stress the vast difference this makes in the vendor process. It was shocking how many vendors used outdated technology. Madi is not one of those vendors- she gets it. She is truly a master of her craft and business. We were so lucky to work with her and would recommend her in a heartbeat!!

, Madi was there and our most solid advocate that day along with our amazing wedding planner! She even called us an Uber to leave our own wedding after our original plans bailed on us when we were one minute late!! Seriously the most solid photographer you could ask for. Thank you, Madi, thank you!! The photos themselves made us cry, laugh, giggle, and overall have so much love! My family has bought prints already and I’m planning to purchase a ton more. They’re stunning! Truly captured the magic we felt that day. Leading up to the event, though, I had a lot of difficulties with a bridal party member. In short, Madi tried her best to protect me from that toxic person but it still ended up backfiring and causing the friendship to be severed shortly after the wedding. Despite this, Madi did her job brilliantly and smoothed over so if you have any difficult people in your life Madi will work her magic. I’m not sure if that difficult person led to Madi not liking the photos (this is all purely conjecture from here on out and not verified so grain of salt), but I was a bit disappointed that Madi never included our photos in her Instagram feed or portfolio. I thought her work was worthy of her feed or portfolio, but instead it was forgotten about. Though, two pictures went on her story, one that was gorgeous and featured my bridesmaids. Sooo many people loved that one, especially me! I hold that picture in high regard. The other one was an embarrassing picture from when I Iost my footing during our shaky first dance and I made a weird face. I know she probably meant it in jest and was lighthearted but it sort of hurt my feelings. I’m super self-conscious and not confident about dancing at all so it was a bit of a bummer to be reminded of how not graceful I can be sometimes. I’m a heavy set tattooed woman so I guess grace was always lacking for me, but I just didn’t want to be reminded of that fact after my wedding day by someone I consider a friend. So, all in all, my mixed feelings about personal issues associated with the photos are probably coming through in this review. I knew Madi for several years before she transitioned to wedding photography and made me feel like a client she cared about and was always going above and beyond for. Thank you for getting beautiful, natural, candid pictures of our wedding! I just wish I had gotten a candid photo with my brother- the family shot list was quickly done one after another. An essential for a busy wedding day FOR SURE. However, hindsight being 20/20 I wish there had been a bit more flexibility because I had forgotten to write it on the sheet when I was writing it, and that translated to no picture with my brother on my wedding day. Again, this was my fault because it wasn’t explicitly written down, but i can’t help but think the rigidity around the shot list contributed to this photo that now feels like a missing void. Again, hindsight is 20/20 so take it for what you will. I have a lot of gratitude for these photos as I know my family and I will treasure them for years to come.

oth those things are just dripping out of our photographs. I usually don't love photos of myself, so it feels strangely self-centered to just be ogling all these works of art, but that's really what they are - art. She's made us love our wedding and each other even more than we already do. Also, there were a couple moments from the day where I thought the photos would look completely bonkers, and somehow those photos are some of the most amazing ones. Aside from her beautiful work, Madi is such a genuine and delightful person to spend your wedding day with. She handled our memories with such care. She's enthusiastic, but in an organized way, which is exactly what we needed. She made us feel comfortable. On top of just doing her job brilliantly, she helped keep us on schedule, she helped us figure out a new location to shoot bridal party photos at the literal last second, and she photoshopped out the microphone stand on one of our photos to make an already beautiful moment even more beautiful. Alex Maldonado, her second shooter, was also amazing - they worked together so seamlessly, and it was so cool to see them hype up each other's creative ideas. I am not a take-it-as-it-comes type of person, so it was difficult for me to just trust that everything would come together on the day, but Madi was the one part of this wedding that I never stressed out about. Hire her for gorgeous photos and an equally wonderful personality!

y of our wedding, we met Kate. She complimented Madi perfectly and we couldn’t have been happier with our choice. Madi is an amazing human being and we are grateful to have stumbled upon her. Hire her. You will NOT be dissatisfied. I literally wish we were best friends. :)

ing as far as providing bandaids to my bridesmaids and giving me her sunglasses when the sun was too bright! All of that is not even related to her photography - which was INCREDIBLE. She made us feel comfortable in front of the camera and made us laugh throughout the day. Even as she was taking the photos, we knew they were going to be amazing. When we received the full gallery of photos, we could not have been happier. She captured the joy and excitement of the day along with all of the small details that made the day complete. We could go on and on about how grateful we are to have worked with Madi and for all of her amazing work. The comment we received the most about our wedding was how amazing our photographer was, and we could not agree more. Not only is she an amazing wedding photographer, but she is also just a great person. We could not recommend Madi enough!!

as the absolute best. When you have multiple wedding guests and family members saying multiple times during--and after--the wedding that "Your wedding photographer is so good. Can she take all my photos?!" you know you lucked out. Madi knows how to put everyone at ease in front of a camera; she corrals wayward folks; she makes everyone feel like a star; and she is an extra set of hands/eyes/ears to rely on to get through the most insane whirlwind of a day. Oh, and she also creates insanely drop-dead gorgeous photos (seriously, they're all so stunning and dreamy!). Thank you, Madi, for sharing your talent with us and capturing our day so beautifully!

s as an artist and as a photographer. Our wedding and celebration photos are absolutely stunning. My husband and I wanted our ceremony and day to feel as intimate and natural to our relationship as possible, and Madi captured the essence of it all. She did a fantastic job in making us feel comfortable and at ease the entire time, and the photos she captured are ones that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. Our commitment ceremony was fairly last minute, and we were lucky that Madi was available to photograph our day with just a few weeks notice. If you have more time than we did to plan your special day, please do yourself a favor and book with her - you will be happy and grateful that you did!

photos, but she also helped us with timeline, thinking through bridal party colors, where to take photos, and so much more. Additionally, Madi genuinely cared about us and our wedding day. That was so clear from the first meeting through delivery of our wedding photos. The photos themselves are SPECTACULAR. Madi is an expert in our venue space (Revolution Brewing) and was able to capture it beautifully. She asked us what was most important to us on our wedding day multiple times to ensure she was capturing what was most important to us. Madi is so communicative and helpful throughout the process, and honestly, that puts her in her own category of amazing wedding vendors. We would hire Madi 1000 times over and highly recommend that you consider her for your big day. Thank you, Madi!

r an engagement shoot throughout Chicago and and when I say it was the most fun hour and a half we’ve had ever…and when I saw the photos the amount of gasping we did. To think someone could capture the love we feel so viscerally and beautifully, I was in shock. She is a genius and so easy to work with and you will not regret it.

ure that we got all of the pictures that we wanted without a lot of fuss, and getting many photos that we did not know that we wanted until we saw them! They both listened and adjusted to us. Before the wedding, our meetings were productive, and clearly demonstrated Madi's confidence, expertise, and thoughtfulness. She and her associates were never anything but consummate professionals. We've just received our photos and love them! If you go with Madi, you're in good hands.

king out the snacks) and we felt truly comfortable and confident with Madi by our side. We learned that your wedding photographer should be someone who not only takes amazing photos, but also someone you want to hang out with all day - we couldn’t be happier!

table. Madi did just that. She has a presence that is comforting and calming despite how stressful her job can be. She helped my husband and I to naturally show our love and affection without it feeling forced or uncomfortable. Our engagement photos and wedding photos are seriously amazing. After receiving our wedding photos, I couldn't resist the urge to keep signing into the account and viewing them time and time again. If you are looking for the perfect wedding photographer, look no further than Madi. She is truly gifted and a phenomenal person to have on your team!

rack even though my hair and makeup took an extra 45 minutes to complete. We had a rather large wedding party: six bridesmaids and six groomsmen. Plus a few dogs. Madi had every single one of our friends laughing and singing her praises as she directed us en masse to hold poses or move freely and candidly, all while cracking jokes with the ladies and gents. “This woman knows what’s up! What a professional!” they chimed, as she whipped out her second camera and kept shooting away like a veritable photography ninja. The first look photos were truly enchanted, straight out of a fairytale. The group pics were fun and bursting with love and vibrant color. The dance floor shots are full of life and movement, grins and smiles and laughter in every frame. She even coached me and my husband to get the perfect champagne popping shots, fizzy bubbles in the foreground, happy bubbling faces in the mid-ground, and epic, snow-covered mountains in the distant background. We are obsessed with every picture she has shared with us and recommend her to everyone seeking a photographer for their special day. She makes everyone who works with her feel comfortable and happy, and will work with you to capture your vision, perhaps even more perfectly than your imagination could create. Madi is a fantastic photographer. Hire her.