Amelia Renee Photography

Very disappointed – I was really looking forward to receiving wedding photography services from Amelia. Sadly, my experience with Amelia Renee Photography was beyond stressful. After booking fall 2019, I hadn’t heard from Amelia until I reached out in April 2020 in regard to her COVID-19 policies as a second wave was being predicted to hit in the fall. Our wedding was booked for late fall 2020 and my fiancé and I were having some serious anxiety about how to proceed. After much discussion between my fiancé and I, we decided to scale back our wedding out of caution and move it 1.75 hours closer to home, needing to change our venue as well as our date. All of which I understand is not Amelia’s fault but each of our other vendors were extremely understanding and flexible given we are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and at that time, 6 months away from our big day. Amelia was not. Amelia was by far the most stressful part of moving an entire wedding to a different part of the state during a pandemic. While she gave us an alternative option – save our date, wait until the last possible minute and if need be, split ceremony and reception time between this year and next. This option was not going to work for us with our new ceremony date and we had no desire for a reception down the line. Long story short, my finance and I are out nearly a $1000. The only service she provided was saving a date that was reasonable to assume she could fill within a half year – no engagement photography shoot, no wedding photography planning assistance as she advertises, only four dragged out email replies, a short 10 minute phone call and two weeks of horrid stress. She was unwilling to give us a dime of our deposit back or even an engagement shoot to offset the cost. I would have been happy with even $100, a mini-session or credit for a future session, something (ANYTHING) that said she was sensitive to the unprecedented situation. Furthermore, she had forgot to bill us at the beginning of 2020 and told us we should consider that as a partial refund. However, given my experience working with Amelia – I am confident that had she billed us and had we paid, we would be out double our money. We are relieved to no longer be working with Amelia. While she cited industry policy for not returning any of our funds, it’s simply not true. I have found a wonderful photographer who altered her contract to include reasonable COVID-19 specific policies. In normal circumstances, keep the money but these are anything but normal circumstances and she barely provided us any service. I have visited several forums discussing wedding photography deposit policies for COVID-19 couples; many photographers saying they would return some funds, even if cancelled within two weeks, as long as an engagement shoot was not provided. As a reminder, our wedding was 6 months away and we never received an engagement shoot. My fiancé and I may end up and are more than happy to pay more for our new photographer and her services than what we would have paid Amelia, simply because we feel like she heard us and cared. At the end of the day, this whole situation is much more than money and I hope Amelia comes to realize that. My recommendation for all brides with weddings that could be impacted by COVID-19 looking for Iowa wedding photography services from Amelia or any photographer, make sure you ask about their COVID-19 policies and book with caution. Signs of inflexibility should be seen as a red flag no matter how “experienced” they are. Unfortunately, we did not have the luxury of knowing that a pandemic was going to wreak havoc on 2020 when we booked Amelia Renee Photography. I should note that immediately following this situation, I personally provided this feedback to Amelia. This review and everything I have said, should not come as a surprise to her. In fact, as of June 5th, 2020, you can no longer view or leave a Facebook review for her. All-in-all, I hope this detailed review will help prevent other couples from having to go through what my fiancé and I did.

Amelia was SO helpful in our season of engagement & wedding planning! We could not be more happy with her work. She helped us plan our timeline, even sending us a mock timeline!, and went above & beyond in everything. Amelia is worth what we paid and more! Her photos will remind us of our wedding day and engagement for years to come. We definitely will be seeking her out for photos in the future!

Having Amelia be a part of my husband and I’s wedding was a huge blessing to us! She was full or great ideas and went out of her way to help make every moment a special as possible! She captured those moments beautifully! We are so thankful that we will be able to enjoy her beautiful artwork, and ability to capture the day in its fullest, for many years to come! ❤️

Amelia was super great to work with! She returned emails promptly. She's so easy to work with. After our engagement session, I felt I knew her my whole life! :-)

Amelia is wonderful to work with and makes sure that your special day is captured beautifully. She is also flexible when things don't go as planned.