Jessie Mary Photography

The worst wedding photos I have ever seen. My niece was very upset with how terrible Jessie Mary’s photographs were, but Jessie Mary didn’t care at all. Jessie Mary is a nasty woman that you should NOT hire to take your photos. She will over charge and disappear the second she sends you awful photos. Hire someone else who charges a more reasonable fee and who, more importantly, has talent. DO NOT trust Jessie Mary with your precious life moments. Jessie Mary is a nightmare to work with.

Overall just a bad experience. We paid over $ 1,700 to Jessica for three hours of photography and the time she spent editing the photos. Due to a life emergency that occurred one-​month prior to our wedding and very demanding jobs, we did not have the time to adequately research local wedding photographers who could cover a very small event. Upon a recommendation and reviewing the photographs on Jessica’s website, we decided to book her. The recommender and I both informed Jessica ahead of time that we are not the most natural couple behind the camera and that we would need direction. After our plans for a place to take photos fell through about a week prior to the wedding, I informed Jessica right away. In a picturesque city like DC, we thought this was something she could plan for in advance and adjust to.
Instead, we ended up wandering around for a short time outside in the extreme heat with no direction. It was not pleasant and we were clearly miserable, and Jessica did very little to direct us or to make us feel comfortable – you can see exactly how uncomfortable and out of place we feel in each of the photographs. Every photograph she took outside is completely distorted by shadows covering our faces and bodies (think zebras). Although she could see the digital photos as she was taking them, no adjustment was made and we have not one usable picture from outside. Some of the photos she took in the hotel lobby and in our suite could have been OK, but no adjustment was made in the majority of these photos for furniture obstructing her view of us. At one point, we requested a photo of us holding hands to get a photo of our wedding bands. We were having trouble placing our hands in a way to make this workable, and Jessica acted as if we were the first couple to ever ask for a wedding ring photo. The pictures that resulted were our hands awkwardly twisted up or where my engagement ring fell off center and just looks limp on my hand.
Jessica took a single photograph of the façade of the venue, The Hamilton, which doesn’t even get the entire name in the photo, it says «Milton.» She also took one photograph of the event menu, of which only a couple of lines are in focus – the rest are blurry and unreadable. During the event, we left the main dining area to go into a secluded hallway, where we wanted to take full-​length photographs with our family. In each of these photographs, the photos cut off at very different places on our legs. Some cut us off at the ankles, some mid-​calf, and some at the knee or higher. I understand cropped photos if you are trying to zoom in on faces/​torsos, but randomly cutting off at the ankles, calves, and knees and including vast spaces above our heads just does not make any sense. There is not a single full-​length photo of us with our families or of the two of us at the event at all.
When we originally received the gallery from Jessica, every one of the photos were obstructed with shadows, overexposed, and/​or seemingly uncropped. Very upset and unsatisfied with the gallery, I emailed Jessica to let her know that I was not happy with the photographs at all. She instantly responded that she was happy with them and asked me to be more specific about what I didn’t like about the photos. Per her request, I made a photograph-​by-​photograph list of the issues. After radio silence for a full week, I emailed again, very upset and troubled by her unresponsiveness. She finally responded, saying that she would send me re-​edited photos in a few days. The second round of photos, while cropped better, just appeared to enrich and deepen the color, making everyone look sweaty/​shiny from the severe flash she used. I let her know that I was still not happy with them at all and that our gallery is not representative of the photos on her website.
The response she sent was very dismissive and defensive. She said something along the lines that she had shown our gallery to others who all thought her photography was amazing. However, the two of us, her clients, and every single member of our families and our friends believe these photos are terrible. Based on the beautiful pictures on her website, I really just think she had an off day. However, despite our complete dissatisfaction, her only response was to crop the photos and get defensive. No refund or real solution was offered, and we are stuck having to have wedding photos taken again so that we have something to put in a frame. She also stated that our dissatisfaction must just be a difference in stylistic preference. If crooked, overexposed, chopped off, shadow-​covered, blurry photos constitute «stylistic preferences,» then she’s correct – we do not like those things.
It’s awful to receive terrible photos from your wedding day. Unless you can independently act as your own creative director and can take perfect photographs without direction, I would not recommend Jessica for your special event at all.

The photos Jessica took at our wedding and reception were absolutely stunning! She was fantastic to work with; always on time, responded to emails right away and overall I felt like she was easy to talk to and communicate with about our ideas. We are thrilled with the pictures she took. We have received so many compliments on them. We are a gay couple and Jessica made us feel so comfortable, she embraced our family and captured our love in every photo. I highly recommend Jessie Mary Photography for your wedding!

I have received endless comments about what beautiful photos I have from my wedding day! Jessica was able to think outside of the box, made us both feel comfortable, and was able to get some beautiful shots during the ceremony without anyone noticing she was even there. I cannot recommend her highly enough, and already have recommended her to many people requesting her info after seeing out photos. Thank you, Jessica!

Jessica did our engagement and wedding photos. She was a pleasure to work with in the year or so leading up to our Portland wedding while we were living in Southern California. Jessica was a great help and very responsive in the planning process and had wonderful ideas as we were trying to plan for our engagement session, our actual wedding day, and our «day after» photos. Not only was she always professional, but she was a lot of fun to work with.
Not only did we love working with her, Jessica’s photos are beautiful! We love going back to the all the photo and reliving all of our special moments. Our album is amazing and we’ve received so many compliments. Jessica also made us a customized guest book with our engagement photos, which was beautiful and provided a beautiful backdrop for messages from our family and friends.
I’d hire Jessica again in a heart beat if we ever find ourselves in the same state.
Thank you again for making it possible to relive so many beautiful moments!