Jennifer Vincente Photography

I wanted my wedding planning to go as smoothly as possible. I had one rule and I stuck to it, perhaps a little too well. If anything stressed me out, it was to be eliminated. In short, I just didn't let things get to me. I felt that the entire experience from engagement to wedding day should be fun and happy and so it was. When my husband and I discovered the location that we eventually chose we were in love. Yes it was a bit farther away than we had wanted and a little bit pricier but it was beautiful. Not only that but the package was a great deal. Dj and Photographer included? Sign us up this wedding planning stuff is easy! There were a few options for photographer but Jennifer contacted us right away. We checked out her website and the photos were beautiful so we agreed to meet her. The initial meeting was fine. I am sad to say that we were a bit naive to this whole wedding planning process as we had never been to a wedding before and were the first of our friends to get married. I did inquire about specific shots that I wanted and was told to think about it and that we would talk at a later date. We signed a contract and discussed plans to meet for an engagement shoot. The day of the engagement shoot my husband and I were running a bit late though we did make it. I have to say that when we got there Jennifer was quite rude. She had an assistant with her but she never even introduced her to us by name, I still don't know who she is! She may have been her assistant but she didn't assist her at all. Jennifer had us wander around and took a few boring shots. There was little style and zero creativity. It was over in just about 20 minutes. She spent most of the time continuing to carry on a conversation with her "assistant". I had a gut feeling about her after that but I said nothing and have kicked myself every day because of it. All I really ever wanted from my wedding day aside from my fabulous husband was beautiful photographs to always remember it by. I only got my husband. About a week before the wedding Jennifer called me to discuss the plans for photography on the day of the wedding. Considering the location we were being married in is one that she works with a lot I expected her to know it inside and out and have staples as to some of the shots she was to take. She asked me if I was getting ready at the hotel or the site and I said site. She asked me what time I would be there and I told her. That was the extent of the phone call. She cut me off and said she'd see me in a week. The call was about a minute long. I remember checking my cell phone's call history log and being astounded at how fast it actually was. Somehow it had made it past me that the "bridal suite" at our location was actually a larger than normal (but not by much) bathroom. Had I know I would have dressed at the hotel! Jennifer never mentioned that. There are about 8 photos of me "getting ready" and most of them have a shower rod in the background. Every one is black and white and nothing about them says "wedding photographer". There's no creativity whatsoever. My Maid of Honor was also there taking photos and if you lay them next to Jennifer's they look exactly the same! While she was actually still in the room with me I asked her when we could do a specific shot I had wanted which was one of my husband and myself on opposite sides of an open door holding hands but not being able to see each other. I had seen it done somewhere and LOVED it. She said we would soon and that she would be right back. She left the room and NEVER CAME BACK! I figured she had gone to get shots of my husband waiting at the alter for me, the cake, the place cards, the table cards (instead of numbers each table had a picture of a famous Disney couple and the place cards had a smaller version of the couple at which table that guest was seated at. It was cute.) or perhaps the ball room before any guests had entered it or even the special memorial I had set up for my grandmother who had passed away. That's what I figured was happening and of course as the Bride enough people were coming by to see me so I was busy. It was only after we got the photos that I saw that she NEVER GOT A PHOTO OF MY HUSBAND ALONE!!! Not at the alter, not ever. Not once during our wedding did she or her assistant get a photo of my husband by himself. The one exception was during our first dance but that is all. There were 2 photographers, no one could get a shot of him as I started down the aisle? No one could shoot his smiling face as he saw his bride all dressed in her wedding gown for the VERY FIRST TIME?! Seriously? Isn't that just common sense? Someone shoot me and someone shoot him. Simple. During the ceremony every shot is from the same dead on angle and EXACTLY THE SAME. Boring. The formal shots were done outside even though it had started to mist. It wasn't bad and the locale was still pretty. I think our formal wedding shoot was about 30 mins total. Every shot is the same. Us together, us with out Best man and Maid of honor, us with his parents, us with my parents, us with both sets of parents, me alone with my parents, me with mom, me with dad, my husband with his parents, him with his mom, him with his dad, him, his brother and his father and then me alone. Same spot every time, under an archway which she couldn't even center properly with her fancy camera. I am a photographer myself, though I don't do weddings, and that is just simple stuff that she just didn't care about. There are shots where half the archway is missing or she zoomed in so close one half of the photo is white from one side of the arch. It looks sloppy and boring. It was rather windy and so my hair kept blowing in my eyes but I could never fix it, she never gave me a chance to since she was shooting so fast. Then we were rushed inside for our entrance, dinner, and the reception. She got a few shots of the cake and one shot of one table as well as our sweetheart table. She never got any pictures of each table complete with our guests, not my table cards, not my place cards, not the ball room, not my memorial, nothing creative and nothing fun. During dinner she told us that the clouds had lifted and out on the balcony she could get a few good shots of the sunset, which we had wanted. We happily abandoned our plates for a few minutes to get some good shots. As we were out on the balcony both she and her assistant were poised in front of us to shoot. No one told us which camera to look at first or ever and as a result those photos depict us each looking at a different camera each time. Needless to say the photos look sloppy. Are we noticing a pattern here? She got shots of the party, some of us but mostly of a select group of girls that were always on the dance floor. I have too many photos of just these friends. She somehow thought it was acceptable to take not one but two shots of the Dj and his assistant. Why I have no idea. I saw her sitting on the floor a lot of the time when she could have been shooting. It wasn't until later into the reception, after I had had a few glasses of champagne even that she approached me and asked me if I wanted to take that photo with the door. I told her no since it would complete defeat the purpose now, we were already married and the shot is suppose to show our nervous, excited faces right before we see each other for the first time. I should have said more to her then but I was happy on my wedding day and wanted to enjoy it. Was that really so wrong? After the wedding when we received the photos I cried so hard. They were awful! We do have at least one good shot of us together, even though it is off center, but that is about it. There are shots we tolerate but we could never put an album together even if we wanted to. I was horrified. the pictures we had seen in her books, on her website, and in her office were at least a bit more creative. She also had done some in black and white with select colorization which I had expressed an interest in. I had 0 images like that. When I asked for some I got 2 and that was it. I was so depressed I never spoke up and it has been a year. I wish every day that I had gone with my gut feeling. I also wish that I had known more then but I guess someone always has to be first. It is not like me to speak up when I am unhappy and with her I never did. I never saw any reviews online for her so that is why I am writing one now. Even though my photos are horrible I can at least try to save someone else from the same heart ache. I suppose I could always "re-enact" the wedding with a different photographer and get some shots that I failed to have the first time but it wouldn't be the same. The real feelings would not be there as they were that day, the excitement, it would be fake and that I would not want. The only consolation I have is that the wedding itself was fun and that I am married to a truly amazing man. All in all if you are looking for a wedding photographer DO NOT hire Jennifer Vincente. Do not be fooled by her website because what you see is NOT what you get!

We booked Jennifer as part of a package deal which included the reception, cake, DJ and a few other items. All parts of the wedding went smoothly with the exception of the photographer. Here are my feelings on Jennifer and her photography skill.s First, be aware if you book her as part of a package deal. Ther will be hidding costs for more hours, and especially if you want a DVD of your images. Our package included 4x6 prints of all the photos she took at the wedding. When we requested a DVD of the photos, we were advised it would be $300 for the DVD AND we would nto get the 4x6 prints. When we tried to explain the 4x6 prints were already included in our package, we were advised they were, but not if we wanted the DVD. The DVD and 4x6 prints would cost $500. Now for professionalism during the wedding. While me and my wife enjoyed ourselves very much, we found Jennifer to be lacking in several areas. First, not once did she suggest for us to stand a particular way or setup for a particular photo. Instead, during the formal photo shoot, she stood their and said what do you want. This may be fine for some people, but my belief is we paid a lot for the wedding and had a lot more important things on our mind than deciding on what photos our paid photographer should take. We were expecting her to direct us for the photos, but that was not the case. Also several of the photos of the ouside of the church had temporary signs posted in the church garden in the shot. A good photographer would have seen these were in the shot, removed the sign, taken the shot, and put the sign back in place. Also the back drop for my wife exiting the limo was a gas station. Again, a good photographer should have picked up on this and asked the limo to pull up a few feet so the backdrop would have been the nearby wooded area. And we found out after teh wedding that several guests familiar with the layout of the church had suggested different areas on the church grounds for nicer backdrops. According to these guests, she dismissed their ideas. Then as we moved to our formal wedding shot, all of our guest got to the location correctly, and our photographer was no where to be seen. After approx 10 minutes, we find out she went to a different access point to the area, instead of the area we specifically requested weeks before the wedding. Is it that hard to follow the two limos? Now for the reception. Once again, instead of taking control and directing us to where and how we should line up for our photos, Jennifer and her assistant just stood there making my and my wife gather people together, decide where we wanted the photo to be shot and chose how we wanted people to stand. Then, during the wedding, we were dumbfounded when she came up to us and said, "You need to tell me when your going to dip your wife during dancing so I can take a picuture." No...with two photographers, one should have their camera on the bride and groom at all times when they are dancing so if they do a spontaneous "dip" you capture the actual moment instead of some staged moment. So now onto the actual photos. We purchased the DVD and as we were viewing the images noticed several key points. First, the majority of the photos were not composed properly. For the most part, they were not centered, some were not straight, and then others had important aspects cut off. The photos of our cake included no close ups of the unique wedding topper. The cake was never centered in frame. Then a smoke stake that we had requested to be not visible in the background of our formal photos was clearly visible and a good percentage of the shots. I could go on, but I am sure you can gather our overall feel for the day. After looking at all 800 plus photos with several other people, we all had the same reaction. While some of the photos were acceptable, for the most part, they were candids that could have been snapped by any of our guests with a digital camera. There was not artistic thought to how shots were layed out or use of b&w to fade the background. There were also none of the typical articstic shots from different heights or of the bride and groom with the background blured. They were simply unacceptable for and expensive wedding photographer. Obviously her paychecks go into paying for her very nice studio and expensive computer equipment instead of how to use photoshop and a digital camera properly.