Sophisticated Grace Photography

but ignores and refuses to give me the rest of what I paid for in full. Broke her own contract. Would not recommend.

enough to write this review. When we hired April we were excited to use her. There were red flags right off the bat with scheduling our engagement session. We had a date but she never communicated with us as to a location until the night before and she had us scheduled from some park that I have never heard of and no where near where we lived. Our session ended up being fine and the photos were nice and we received them relatively quickly. From that point on communication was seriously lacking. I could not get her to give me a timeline for the wedding day which I needed to schedule hair and makeup artists. Emails went unanswered. Finally got that timeline a few days before the wedding. The sheer lack of professionalism from April in her communications is shocking when you are paying her rates. We even sent her a starbucks gift card as a little "we are excited to work with you gift" and she never acknowledged it. When I asked if she received it she had to sift thru months of emails to find it. She never saw it. The wedding day seemed to go well. We didn't have any compliants but it all went down hill after that. We were married on 11/21/21 and April had an associate photographer with her that day so there were 2 photographers shooting. Our contract stated we would get our gallery within 10-12 weeks and we were to received 700-1000 images. We never got a sneak peak, we never got an email from April telling us things would be delayed. After 4 months I reached out to her only to be told how busy she was, how backed up she was, how she took on too much work and that we were in a queue to be completed. She would not give us a time frame. This pattern repeated for several months. We finally received our photos after 7 months but we only received 472 photos. I immediately emailed April because there were several special request photos that were missing and those all were taken by the 2nd photographer. She said she would look into. Never heard back from here. Emailed her several more times, most times without a response. I had to send her a letter threatening legal action. She responded that she wasn't sure what photos we were talking about. I gave her specifics. Got anothor response from her stating she was still looking for the photos but was busy as she had taken on another job. After 2 more attempts to reach her she blocked my email. We filed in concilation court and April did not bother to appear for court so we won a default judgment against her. She has not yet settled this judgment. The sad thing about all of this is we didn't receive all of our photos and several special request photos are among the ones missing and we will never get them. These are photos that cannot be recreated. You only get one chance to do your wedding photos right. Do yourself a favor and pick another photographer so you don't end up with bad memories and missing photos.

getting deleted but I’m going to keep trying. I’m STILL enraged and refuse to hang my wedding photos in my house. We got engaged in June of 2020. We had our engagement photos done by April in October of 2020 and it took over 7 weeks to receive them when she said it would take 2-3 weeks. Okay, whatever. We really liked her so we went ahead and kept her on for our wedding. Big. Effing. Mistake. Out of all 14+ vendors we had, she was the only one we had an issue with and the only one that put a negative vibe on our day. She came while we were getting ready and did detail photos and such, and once she was done she came into the bridal suite and rushed all of us to get dressed. She had noticed that we have other photos taken by another photographer around the venue (also had her work too), and she seemed rather upset about this, but we moved on. She then took about 5 minutes to do bridesmaid photos, then said “we’re way ahead of schedule so you guys can relax.” For 45 minutes. Our party bus then arrived and she asked me where we wanted to do photos. I said where I wanted- I’ve wanted my wedding photos at this location for years- and she said “I’d rather not.” And told me why she doesn’t like the location. What?? But me being nice, I said okay I’ll trust you. Whatever. Then she got upset that the driver wouldn’t take direction from her and I had to ask him to go to a different location. She was so bossy and rude to my bridal party during photos. Like we’re adults having fun on our wedding day, we’re not children. We know how to take direction. Anyways, the day went on and we got a few complaints from the bridal party about her and we apologized and said we thought she was cool before but she’s completely different today, let’s just go have a good time. We got married at the beginning of October in 2021. We didn’t get any kind of sneak peak photo until the beginning of DECEMBER. Over 9 weeks later. Then it took over 6 MONTHS from the time of our wedding to get our wedding photos back after we had no other choice but to threaten legal action. Our contract stated a 8-10 week turnaround time. She did not comply to her own contract. Then the very next morning we conveniently had our photos. I asked for a refund of our deposit to which she declined and offered 2 complimentary sessions with her instead. Are you kidding me?? I will never work with or recommend this woman again! Completely unprofessional and can’t believe she has a business since she severely lacks communication skills. Constantly posting about how we have to give her time, patience, and grace but treats paying clients like garbage. 1000% do NOT recommend this woman.

hoot date - we had to call and something came up. I tried not to read into this and stayed positive about our decision to use her service. Late day of wedding to the salon. Everyone was done getting ready when she arrived. Missing photos of the groomsmen getting ready Missing photos of our wedding band. Why wouldn’t you take photos of the stage and them performing? Decor shots - I didn’t need 20 of the donuts - missing cocktail bar sign, seating chart with floral arrangements, nothing of the buffet Hardly any of grooms parents and family. Stayed at the reception for 15 minutes. I think being late in the morning would have granted us more time for her to stay in the evening. Waiting 7 months for all photos- 5 months since first drop. I know that is an incredibly long time to complete a job. We also had no communication. We had to reach out often inquiring about our photos. I also feel the quality was lacking based off of how long she had to complete them. The key item to me is the lack of professionalism. She never communicated with us until after months of reaching out and frankly begging for updates. So much so that I had to have my mother reach out. We felt taken advantage of and disrespected as a client. We understand people are busy. We understand her being a single working mom. We gave her more grace than most people would have. But to throw at me that she is working two jobs and it’s my fault that I’m asking her for what is mine is wild. We paid for her service bottom line and we expected our photos in a timely manner. Maybe this is too much for her to handle. I would hate to see more couples let down during a momentous occasion like ours. It hurts us knowing there are photos we’ll never see. We expected so much more from her and are disappointed.

ed herself, which happens. But then she was over 15 minutes late to our “golden hour” session and since it gets dark it got cut short. After engagement photos were done on October 4th 2021 and we did not receive them until November 26th. Quite a wait for engagement session. Then for our wedding, we got married on September 24th 2022. We did not receive “sneak peeks” until 3 weeks after our wedding. We had nothing to share for 3 weeks following the wedding. Next, 7 MONTHS after the wedding, we had not received our full album and just more and more excuses on why they are not done. Then at 8 MONTHS we have finally received our unedited RAW photos. All she does is post and ask for grace and patience but then shares she has taken on another full time job when she already cannot handle her wedding photography business. I am completely disappointed and this is not how any bride should feel about receiving her wedding photos. We have finally received our UNEDITED RAW photos but we will have to take our own time to get them edited. We have asked for a refund for breaking contract and making us wait MONTHS for unedited photos!! It could even be years before she would have edited them. She also believes she does not need to issue us a partial refund.

y favorite part of the whole experience was her awesome personality. She is so much fun to be around, especially on a wedding day.

ade us feel so comfortable and also made it so fun!! Also, with having two sets of families, it can be hard to get everyone and it can become chaos, but April took over and captured pictures of all of our families which made everyone so happy! We ABSOLUTELY LOVE our pictures!! She is BEYOND talented!! April is truly the best of the best. We are so thankful for her.

ngs with her not only her amazing energy, but also an incredible eye for detail. Anyone can tell you her content is jaw dropping. Every picture lays the groundwork for your story. You can’t stop yourself from falling into love all over again through your pictures. The thing that people don’t often think about is what happens behind the scenes. I can truly say I have never felt so at ease. Never once did I feel awkward, posed or unauthentic to who I was. Working with April felt more like a hang out session as opposed to another check off of your to do list. Allow yourself to enjoy your wedding and all that leads up to it and give the rest to April. I can personally guarantee you will be in awe of the quality of the photos and others will be too. I cannot say enough great things and SO look forward to having April part of every monumental life moment from here on out.

I was absolutely amazed with how wonderful ALL of our photos turned out. If you are on the fence and trying to choose your photographer, go with April of Sophisticated Grace, you deserve the amazing photos!!

o speak too and completely understood what I was looking for! Getting married during a pandemic was a feat in and of itself but having to postpone our original date and reschedule SGP was so accommodating! I couldn't be happier with our photos they turned out so beautiful!! I will be recommending Sophisticated Grace Photography for years to come!

her genuine personality alone. If you think you might be shy behind the camera, you need to hire April because she is so funny and down-to-earth you can’t help but have a great time. We had an absolute blast at our engagement session and when our wedding day came, our entire wedding party kept telling me how awesome and fun she is. She even brought me a lemon drop shot as I was getting my hair done because she could tell I was a little nervous. To my surprise, I got a sneak-peak of over 200 photos within 2 days of my wedding! Which was absolutely amazing because I was bummed that I didn’t have many to look at before that (unplugged ceremony). April is SO talented that I was surprised at how affordable she is compared to other Minnesota photographers in her style. Both my engagement and wedding albums are public on Facebook so take a look and if you think you might be interested, reach out to her because she is truly one of my favorite parts of my entire wedding experience.

couple. One of the best decisions to be made is hiring April to do your photos.

e was so much fun to work with during our engagement shoot and made us feel so comfortable, so we knew when it came to our wedding day she would be so amazing to have there to keep us calm! She made sure we got all the shots we wanted and then some. I could not have dreamed of better wedding photos, we are truly grateful for her. We have gotten so many compliments on our pictures from countless people, and we will definitely be using April for all future photography needs! We love her!

knew the shots she wanted, but also included what we wanted. She doesn't waste time thinking about what to do, she's organized and thinking ahead to the next shot. I can't wait to see the rest of the wedding pictures!!

se April in the future. Highly recommend!

ng behind schedule. She got all of the pictures we wanted and more. It was important to find someone we got along with and understood what we wanted and she was so fun and down to earth. She is also extremely reasonably priced for the work she does. 10/10 recommend!

etting through family photos and telling people where they need to be! We love April!

this wedding... besides you of course!" Here is why: April is an amazing photographer and a wonderful person! She makes a point to get to know you individually and as a couple and it really shows through her photos. She is reasonably priced, highly skilled, easy to get a hold of, and incredibly nice. I was starting to freak out over the wedding day details and she really calmed my nerves.... even when I was asking silly questions :) I will definitely be recommending her and using her myself as my family grows. A+

nd the pictures turned out beautifully. We will be recommending her to anyone we know who needs a photographer and will plan to use her for any of our future photography needs!!

n engagement session, she made us feel so comfortable and relaxed. I knew I didn't have to worry about what pictures we were getting, she caught everything. April shot every aspect of our day, she stayed well into our reception and caught some amazing photos of our guests dancing and having a great time. She was 150% dedicated to getting every photo op! When we received our pictures back, I was shocked and surprised at some of the photos she got...I didn't even know she was near me taking pics. April is incredible and I will use her for family pictures in the coming years and my sister will be using her for her upcoming wedding.