Maris Plymale Photography

It pains me to give such a terrible rating, but I feel as though I need to tell people looking for a photographer that our experience with Maris as a wedding photographer was deeply disappointing. If you value timely delivery of your photos and professional communication, I strongly advise looking elsewhere. We found Maris on The Knot as a local Rochester wedding photographer with great reviews and reasonable pricing. Initially, she was responsive, helpful, and friendly. However, communication related to setting up our engagement photo session was not excellent, with a few follow-up emails required to get all the necessary information. The session itself went well, and she made us feel comfortable in front of the camera. Unfortunately, that’s where the positive experience ended. Despite multiple follow-ups, it took almost 3 months to receive our engagement photos. We even begged her to send a handful of unedited photos just so that we had one to use for invitations. Her inability to respond meant we had to send our wedding invitations without the pictures we had planned for—a major disappointment and the only reason we really wanted engagement photos. The lack of communication from Maris (no response to multiple attempts at email, text, and message via the Knot) kept us in the dark and induced a lot of anxiety about sending invitations out on time. Then came the wedding in October. Maris showed up and took photos as expected, but once again, we were left waiting for three months until (February 1, 2025), to receive all of our photos. Repeated emails again went unanswered, or answered with a professional but detached version of “I’m working on it and will have it to you soon.” By the time we finally got our photos, the excitement of reliving those moments with friends and family had faded. Every other vendor we worked with was professional, responsive, and delivered on time—Maris was the only exception. In one of the rare responses we got from Maris before receiving the photos, she noted that a 12-week turnaround is normal. This may be true for her, but this was never communicated to us during the process. In fact, in our prep call before the wedding, we understood that she was trying to have a turnaround time of one week (she denies this, but that’s how my wife and I remember the conversation). Miscommunication regarding timeline aside, other photographers that we spoke to told us that they work to get albums to their clients within two weeks, and try to provide a preview within 48 hours, so to have to wait 8 weeks for a preview and 12 weeks for the remainder was a bit of a shock. Delays happen, but a complete lack of communication and dismissive responses are unacceptable, especially for something as important as wedding photography. If you want a photographer who values your time, communicates professionally, and delivers on their commitments, Maris is not the right choice. I expect any photographer I hire to take good photos—that’s table stakes. What you pay for is someone who acts as a professional, manages their time well, and can be trusted to deliver on your special day. Maris failed on every one of those expectations. This added significant stress to our wedding and was the only thing we truly regret about our big day. Save yourself the frustration—hire someone else and be sure to get a timeline expectation in writing before signing a contract.