Photographer Dilemma

[Nobo323]

Getting married in Wedding Pavilion and having our reception at Grand Floridian in September. I am the groom and have been researching photographers for some time now. As luck would have it we have our pick of everyone's favorite photographers for our day- Randy Chapman, Regina Hyman, Misty Miotto and Elegant Imagery. All have fantastic reviews so it's impossible to choose. We are leaning towards Randy as his prices for photo and video are the best out there, almost half some others. His Disney experience is also a huge plus for us. Wanted to get people's thoughts. Thank you.

 

[mb187143]

We shopped Randy, Regina, and Misty for our wedding. Even though Randy was the cheapest, I wasn't super comfortable with his style. We ended up going with Misty. She was fabulous. That said, i don't think you could go wrong with any of them. They all come very highly recommended. Have you looked at their work online? Seeing their styles may help you decide which you like best.

 

[2012DisneyWorldBride]

We used Randy for our Dec 2012 wedding and were beyond happy with him. His work is simply amazing! And his price is great too. We got almost 5,000 pictures of our wedding day. We loved working with him. I have started updating my planning journal (link below) with our wedding day pics... You could take a look at them if you like. It's towards the end pages.

 

[tinkerbell 766]

Another shout out for Randy. He is the sweetest man and a joy to work with. We did two sessions with him (VR and TTD) and we ended up with over 1200 shots!!! Of course some were similar to each other, but even so. Highly recommend Randy!!!

 

[TabZ]

Randy is awesome, I've seen him work two weddings I was lucky enough to go to in October last year, he's such a rockstar!!

Personally I'm not a huge fan of his editing, his candid stuff is lovely but for me personally they are a little over edited.

We've gone with Regina, I met her last year and she's just the sweetest lady. She has recently started doing a photo/video package, it might be worth dropping her an email? She is willing to customise her packages as well so don't take them at face value, she will work with you!

 

[pkdang]

If photography and video are extremely important to you, I would go for the style you like best. Misty Miotto was one my top choices because of style. She is a bit pricey, but I figure I can lower prices somewhere else.

 

[Sheldora]

We shopped Randy, Regina, and Misty for our wedding. Even though Randy was the cheapest, I wasn't super comfortable with his style. We ended up going with Misty. She was fabulous. That said, i don't think you could go wrong with any of them. They all come very highly recommended. Have you looked at their work online? Seeing their styles may help you decide which you like best.

Can I get the $ randy and misty quoted you? I'm looking at a guy near me and he wants $3800 +travel for 2hr engagement and 10 hours wedding with cd. Seems pricy to me so I want to shop around

 

[mb187143]

Can I get the $ randy and misty quoted you? I'm looking at a guy near me and he wants $3800 +travel for 2hr engagement and 10 hours wedding with cd. Seems pricy to me so I want to shop around

Randy offered us a $1600 package for full day coverage (knocked down to $1400 If we didn't want the prints, just everything on DVDs). He offered a $2800 combo package with STVS video. That was mid-June 2012 so I don't know what their current pricing is.

Misty offered us the Gold package (on her website) at a discounted rate for being a DFTW bride, no travel fee or anything. Her payment terms were more flexible so we went with her even though she was slightly more than Randy. I also preferred her style to Randy's.

I would suggest you email whomever you're considering. Many of the photographers are willing to customize their packages.

 

[Sheldora]

Randy offered us a $1600 package for full day coverage (knocked down to $1400 If we didn't want the prints, just everything on DVDs). He offered a $2800 combo package with STVS video. That was mid-June 2012 so I don't know what their current pricing is.

Misty offered us the Gold package (on her website) at a discounted rate for being a DFTW bride, no travel fee or anything. Her payment terms were more flexible so we went with her even though she was slightly more than Randy. I also preferred her style to Randy's.

I would suggest you email whomever you're considering. Many of the photographers are willing to customize their packages.

Thanks so much! That's much more like what I expected to pay

 

[SarahFarra]

Getting married in Wedding Pavilion and having our reception at Grand Floridian in September. I am the groom and have been researching photographers for some time now. As luck would have it we have our pick of everyone's favorite photographers for our day- Randy Chapman, Regina Hyman, Misty Miotto and Elegant Imagery. All have fantastic reviews so it's impossible to choose. We are leaning towards Randy as his prices for photo and video are the best out there, almost half some others. His Disney experience is also a huge plus for us. Wanted to get people's thoughts. Thank you.

Of those choices I would go with Regina! I actually was prepared to book her but someone else stole our date from under us before we could sign a contract. I really like her style of photography (although some of her edits are a little on the blurry side but that's rare) and she is super nice from what I could tell!

This is very controversial because I know a lot of people really love him but I would steer clear of Randy. I have no personal experience with him but just from his work that I've seen he seems to be very inconsistent in quality and as many have said before me, the edits he uses are very overdone and in my opinion, look very cheap. Being a photographer myself this is really important to me and I see over editing as a sign of having poor photography to cover up. I've also seen really outdated poses that he uses that I am not a fan of as well as poorly-lit subjects (i.e. shadows on faces or squinting from too much sun). I feel like you get what you pay for! So these are obviously just my opinions and there are others that love him and his work, so take it for what you will.

That being said, another to consider is Jason Angelini! We're using him and I immediately fell in love with his photography! In a way I'm glad I got out-booked with Regina because I love Jason's work even more!! Check him out... www.jasonangeliniphotography.com His prices are very reasonable too! His wife is his personal assistant and responds quickly to emails and I just love them both.

 

[Janice2013]

My fiancee and I used Randy for our Engagelement pics and he will be doing our wedding pics. He is phenomenal. Very professional and lots of fun to work with and very reaonable priced.

 

[WittyAmb]

Have you looked into David & Vicki Arndt yet? There work is similar to Regina's and they're also reasonably priced.

 

[Nobo323]

Thanks everyone for the opinions. We met with Regina this evening and she was great and we were very impressed. We are meeting with Randy on Saturday. Randy is so much cheaper (few thousand than anyone else) so that it makes it that much more difficult. My wedding planner at Disney did say her preference would be Regina cuz she has a 'fresher eye' but also said i couldnt go wrong with either. The Arndts were booked on our day but they recommended Regina in their message to be. I will check out Jason as well.

 

[disneyamy4]

that's unfortunate that the arndts aren't available, we plan to use them for our wedding!

jason is great and his photos are amazing, i've only heard good reviews! his prices start at $1300 for a full day coverage, then you can add on a disc of images etc etc.

i would go with regina between her and randy, randy is great, i just don't like his overly edited style. regina is expensive but you could maybe take out some albums or prints to cut down the price!

 

[nydisneygirl1975]

Nobo I have worked with Regina on two separate occasions, she shot our wedding and we just did a family shoot. Never in my life have I encountered a photographer with such natural talent. Every single picture that she sent us was perfect. When people see our pictures they are in awe of how beautiful they are. We had our wedding at the wp and we did pre ceremony pictures at the grand. She has this ability to make it look like you are the only two people in the picture. You have to remember that after your wedding is over you only have the pictures to look back on, everything else is gone. I found her package to be very responsible for what you get. Pm me and I can show you some of our pictures if you're interested.

 

[PinkSleepingBeauty]

Hey! I love Regina's photography. She is lovely to work with and such a sweet person

 

[BethieTink]

My vote, hands down, would be for Regina. We met her in April and did a 2 hour/2 resort shoot to get to know her and both my husband an I absolutely fell in love with her. She makes it so fun and easy to take photos. We adored our shots in April.

We also used her for two events of at our vow renewal weekend and we also did a 3 hour/3 resort bridal shoot with her. We had an in-park ceremony and reception and had to use Disney Photograhy for it (and Amy was fantastic! So was Ty for our MK and Epcot shoot), but if we weren't in-park, we would have used Regina without question.

We love her work so much that we are going down in September just to do another session with her so we have photos for our Christmas cards. She is an absolute delight to work with and to just be around. She interacted with our guests at our events and everyone mentioned how great she was.

When I first started planning, I did contact Randy and while his prices are very good. The more I looked at his work, I realized I didn't love it the way I should. I also found his email skills, when it came to spelling and grammar a real turn off to me. I know that it really nitpicky, but both my DH and I felt that if he could be professional enough to spell check an email what else would he miss.

In regard to the Arndt's, I like a good amount of their work. They have done some amazing shots. However, when I met them a few weeks ago at a separate event, I never made the connection that I made with Regina. My husband felt the same way about them.

Here are some of the shots that Regina has taken of us so you can get an idea. I included some of the bridal resort shots and some details shots from our 2 events. Sorry they are so large, I forgot to resize.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[jlocmac]

My recommendation is for Regina!

We had an Escape ceremony at Disney World in September 2011. We were lucky enough to have Regina has our Disney photographer, for our ceremony, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot shoots. We LOVE every single photo that we received from her.

We love Regina so much, that we did our first anniversary shoot with her September 2012. Again, every shot was to die for! Upon returning home, I contacted her for our anniversary 2013. We were beyond thrilled that she was available on our actual anniversary date. I know we will have a blast, and she will take stunning photos for us.

We also had a Disbrides meet up last month, and Regina did 2 photo shoots with all of the girls there. We had an amazing time with her.

Not only is Regina a fantastic photographer, she's also an incredibly sweet person. She has a way about her that instantly makes you feel at ease, in front of the camera. The contact beforehand was perfect. She always replied to my emails in a timely manner. Her turn around time, with the after product, is unbelievable. It's such a surprise to receive the photos, because they show up so fast!! I can guarantee that you won't be disappointed, if you choose Regina.

We also used Randy for our ceremony, because the Disney photographer was a mystery until it's wedding time. He was a nice guy, but we definitely clicked with Regina way more. Like others here have said, his edits are different from other photographers. Some people aren't fans of his look, some are. We personally liked our photos from Regina better. We received tons of shots from Randy, but a lot of them are basically the same pictures. It was a bit much to have to weed through, to find ones I wanted to post.

With that said, all of the photographers you mentioned are very well known in the Disney wedding world. Just do your research and pick the one that suits your needs best.

Hope this helps.

 

[belle2211]

Hi! I would definitely go with Regina! Back when we got engaged in 2011, I requested Regina for an Epcot anniversary shoot. My husband and I fell in love with her instantly. There's just something about her that makes you click with her. She makes the shoots fun and not the least bit awkward (which my husband was worried about). You feel like you're with a friend! And after we saw the pictures, it was a done deal. She is the only photographer we will use! Her pictures are fantastic--the quality and creativity of her shots are amazing. We instantly requested her again for our wedding and for our MK Bridal Shoot. And I can honestly say we loved every single picture she took!

Last year we did an anniversary photo shoot with her and were once again blown away! I can't wait to be able to have her again in the future to hopefully do maternity and family shots one day. If only I had more reasons to get pictures done!

If you want to see any pictures from her, just let me know!!

Good luck with your research!

 

[tinkerbell 766]

I agree with the Randy fans. We did two sessions with him (VR and TTD), and loved him and his work. We have had several of his shots enlarged, and the quality has been excellent, even when enlarged.
I agree that some of his edits would not be everybody's style, but every photo he edits you also get on the disc unedited, so the choice is yours. I highly recommend him, and would book him again in a heartbeat!!!