The Basics
A mixture of traditional and modern artistic styles to appeal to the taste of everyone in your family.
Jenna Michele Photography averages 25-50 booked weddings per year.
I love being artistic, and the creativity of today’s weddings. Each one shows the personality of both the couple and the whole family.
I am a full-time licensed photographer since 2009. We work on location all over the state of Florida, and across the USA.
Many years down the road, the pictures you have will remind you of the cherished memories of that day. Did the photographer capture emotional moments between the bride and groom? Did they know when and where to stand at the right time to get those moments, and how to instruct you? Do they know how to do the job without getting the way of other vendors and how to anticipate the flow of a wedding? It’s a craft that takes hard work and time to learn, and most professionals go through years of training with established studios.
Many locations in Central Florida don’t require any fee. Please ask about rates for traveling outside of that zone.
Consultations can be through email, phone, video chat, or in person at our downtown Orlando office. Meetings are typically 40-60 minutes long.
After a consultation a 50% retainer is required to lock in your date. The remaining fee is due 14 days before the wedding day. You may make several small payments over time or one final payment the week before the wedding. Payments must be completed before the wedding date.
This provides us with a great guide for what you like in photography, and it can be customized to your wedding with a unique twist to make it your own. But as a courtesy to the original photographer, we will not seek to replicate an image exactly or create an identical copy of inspirational images.
I have a growing set of Canon Mark series DSLRs, which gets updated to a new model every few years, and a collection of lenses as my main gear. The expected 70-200, macro, and other typical wedding lenses can be found in my kit.
We are not ‘natural light only’ photographers – we bring our own lighting to create quality work even at night-time outdoor venues or inside dimly lit reception rooms.
Our cameras could produce images large enough to make a roadside billboard (and we have, before!). I shoot in RAW in order to maintain the best quality images, which are then converted into a JPEG format for your ease of use. We do not release the RAW unedited files to clients for any reason.
Sunsets give beautiful light, but make sure you will not run the risk of the light being gone for formal portraits which are typically done after the ceremony. 1 to 1.5 hrs before sunset is the ideal time for formal photography. Avoid mid-day weddings whenever possible, as the sun is just too bright and intense to produce an attractive look; and if you’re getting married in Florida it may be uncomfortably bright and hot for you and your guests during that time.
Please allow time for post-processing and for you to work with the images. As there are many ways to include your images in invites and save the dates, and many different timetables provided by labs, we simply ask that you tell us your own deadlines and we decide to set a date together. Return time varies from 2-8 weeks, dending on the time of year.
Wedding Day
I shoot roughly 150 images per hour, not including the second shooter’s work. Our 8 hour weddings typically have 700-1200 final images for the client to use after culling through 2500-4500 and reducing it to the best selections.
1.5 to 2 hours before the ceremony is the ideal time, so we can record your preparations for the wedding along with the details, hair and makeup, and candids. Please allow for travel time in addition to this, as well as adjustments for first looks and portraits if you will be doing them.
About 60 minutes. We ask that you plan for 30 minutes of private photography time after the first 30 minutes of family formals. It’s a really great moment in your day for just the two of you to talk and laugh together while we get your couples photos done.
Ultimately it is up to you, but we ask that you tell those friends and family members with trigger fingers to relax and enjoy the event. Let your guests soak in the moment and have a wonderful time, while we do the work. Having too many cameras going off at once can cause real problems on the technical side of photography, which is why it’s often discouraged or disallowed. For the family formals and the session with just our brides and grooms, guests are not allowed to attend and are asked to enjoy the pre-reception so we can work efficiently and in a timely manner to get everyone done and on track for the start of the reception.
You may want to ask the coordinator ahead of time so you’ll know what limitations a church may have placed on your photography team. In the most extreme cases some churches do not allow any photography during the ceremony. It’s best to find this out early and see what we can do to work with your venue.
Yes, a buffet plate or hot meal is required for any wedding that contracts six hours or more, for both the primary photographer and second photographer. Please check with the caters to make sure they won’t be serving your vendors pre-made ham sandwiches and chips, due to dietary restrictions.
Check with us for hourly rates on overtime. You’ll be given the option to make that decision at the reception. It’s best to let us know beforehand, both for a lower rate and to ensure we bring everything we need to cover the extra hours.
While we cover all the standard expected moments along with candid shots and details (Dress, shoes, jewelry, handmade decor, etc). If you have any unique plans for surprises or will be incorporating religious elements (example: Indian, Jewish, Korean, etc) please do send that information over so we can be well prepared.
After the Wedding
Your final full set of images are ready for viewing 4-8 weeks after the event at the latest, depending on the current season and wait list. This is due to our quality control process, where the images are culled down to remove doubles, outtakes, and apply a basic editing process. This ensures you look your absolute best, which is totally worth the wait.
Please contact us directly for canvas prints and albums, but for all other products we ask that you seek out an appropriate lab to have the work done. We release high resolution files so that you may print and use them in your home however you’d like.
We work with our clients after the wedding to create customized albums. Just schedule a consultation to start the process and view the samples after your final images have been delivered.
Basic retouching is included at no cost. This includes color and exposure corrections. Some diminishing of pimples or blemishes, laugh lines, and other small imperfections may be applied on the teaser images, or by request to a small number of your favorites (less than 10). It does not drastically change what you look like, as the goal is to enhance your natural appearance. The full set of images have color and exposure corrections and our own style of processing. Major retouching and additional editing is available at $60 an hour.
High Resolution (printable) images are delivered via zenfolio.com or dropbox.com for instant download. The client is responsible to keep them backed up for personal use, as they may not remain on the download site after the designated package time. By request a copy can be mailed on a set of USB drives.
You are more than welcome to share your images, but we ask that you please use the watermarked versions to ensure client privacy and frustrate anyone looking to use our images to scam or mislead wedding clients.
Professional photographers retain the full ownership and rights to the photographs as the original creator. Limited rights are released to you under a specific usage. By law you are allowed to make prints or albums for yourself, but you cannot sell the images to make a profit without written permission from the creator. Your contract covers non-profit use only, which in most cases is all that’s needed anyhow.
The original RAW files are never released. You probably won’t enjoy trying to comb through 2000-4000+ unedited images, and the average consumer does not have the right software and computer system to do this. Primarily the outtakes are removed – blinking and any strange expressions for example – nothing anyone would actually want to keep. In special cases we may work with a client to provide another format such as TIFF but always with our own culling and editing work applied to serve as a finished product.
Yes, we will provide you with a release form if needed. It’s not often asked and you should be fine taking the files there.
Usually we have no problem with this, but please ask us first. We want to make sure we get proper credit and we like to know where our work goes.
