Long Island Wedding Photographer Reviews
Bride and groom Long Island wedding photo at NYIT de Seversky Mansion. © Dan Wagner 2023
Long Island wedding photographer reviews can help every bride and groom get the beautiful wedding photos they deserve. Most Long Island wedding photographer websites feature a testimonial webpage with reviews from happy couples who love their Long Island wedding photos. As a Long Island wedding photographer, I share my reviews on my About page. You can also read my reviews on sites I used to advertise on such as The Knot.
When choosing the best Long Island wedding photographer, venue, or limo company, most bride and grooms put a lot of faith in wedding vendor reviews. Knowing that other couples left great reviews for the same Long Island wedding photographer they’re considering inspires confidence. The opposite holds true for bad reviews. Reading a negative review can shake your confidence and cause you to reconsider a wedding photographer you were ready to hire.
That’s the power of reviews. What’s interesting, is that bad reviews—even when there’s only one—often holds more weight than good reviews. Making bad decisions is something everyone wants to avoid. Not being a Long Island wedding photographer, all a couple can do is look at sample photos, ask questions, make comparisons, and read reviews. Unless, they’ve already seen the photographer in action, or know someone who hired them—deciding which wedding photographer or other vendor to hire isn’t easy.
Bride and groom Long Island wedding photo at NYIT de Seversky Mansion. © Dan Wagner 2023
Fortunately, my five ways to know you’ve found a great Long Island wedding photographer may help you reach a decision you feel good about. I’ve included my list below. Please read the full blog article for valuable added information.
Five Ways to Know You've Found a Great Long Island Wedding Photographer
Look at the photographer’s work. Try picturing yourself in similar photos.
Do the bride and groom look happy and relaxed? That’s important!
Great wedding photos should be enjoyable to view, and make you want to smile.
Communications with the photographer should be friendly and inspire confidence.
Sensing your wedding photographer is looking forward to working with you speaks volumes.
What Should Every Bride Know About Long Island Wedding Vendor Reviews?
Real-or fake?-Not every vendor review is real. Some bad reviews might be left by the vendor’s competition, or by someone with unreasonable expectations—or even blackmail. On the flip side, some good reviews may have been written by the vendor’s friends, or by the vendor—that’s the worst!
Yelp Reviews—to leave a Yelp review you need to provide Yelp with your contact info and open an account. Not wanting to share data and risk being bombarded with unsolicited ads, many people decide not to leave reviews—except when reviewers decide to ignore these concerns due to perceived vendor gross mistreatment. Unfortunately, great vendor treatment isn’t as motivating—resulting in reviews that skew negative. That’s human nature.
The Knot, Wedding Wire, and other pay-to-advertise websites—reviews on these sites are generally more trustworthy. However, these sites also require parting with personal data to open an account. And, unless a vendor pays $2,000 or more to advertise on these websites, their reviews will be harder to find and less prominent. And if a vendor decides to stop advertising with a website, it might have an adverse impact on their reviews getting archived. This is quite unfortunate for the brides who took the time to write the reviews, the vendors, and for you—someone who could benefit from the reviews.
Websites with bride forums—reviews on these sites are often the most trustworthy. The reason for this is that forum members can message one another. Friendships are often formed. The downside to bride forums is that some brides may be fake, and members have to share their personal data with the forum owners. One weird dynamic on wedding vendor forums is when members aggressively advocate for others to use their vendor. For some reason they need validation in the form of other brides making the same choices. Worse yet, vendors who advertise on these sites are usually given forum member email lists. So before you surrender your data, bear in mind that you will be receiving emails from dozens, if not hundreds of vendors! Lastly, only photographers who pay to advertise will have reviews on this site. For this reason, Google searches will help you find the best Long Island wedding photographer or other wedding vendor from a larger talent pool.
Facebook and other social media—Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and other social media are other ways for brides and grooms to consume content and leave reviews. As with other websites, they also require surrendering your personal data, and having your site usage tracked and shared with advertisers. They also have their own fare share of imposters.
Facebook private groups—unlike Yelp and other sites where vendors can respond with a rebuttal comment to a bad review—Facebook private group members can destroy a wedding vendor’s reputation with impunity, and without the vendor even knowing it’s happening. Sadly, there’s no way to know if the person targeting a particular vendor has a truthful or sinister agenda.
Dan Wagner Long Island Wedding Photo Reviews
“My friend recommended Dan to my husband and I, and we could not have been happier. Dan is calm, cool, and professional. I have a large Italian Family, and my husband has a large Irish Family. Dan was able to gather all of us for pictures, followed lists we had previously prepared, and did not miss one minute of our special day.”
—Christine and William
“Dan Wagner came highly recommended by a very good friend who is also in the photography business. To be recommended by a competitor, I think, is one of the greatest compliments…and Dan most certainly lived up to his reputation. Dan’s work and professionalism are exquisite! Our wedding pictures are beautiful, romantic, creative, tasteful, spontaneous, some traditional & some modern. The wedding party had so much fun during the photo shoot in the gardens, that they didn’t even mind the cold, windy weather! We are extremely happy with our wedding pictures and video—they are wonderful lifetime memories.”
—Elaina and Scott
“Dan Wagner was the photographer for my wedding, and he was amazing! You could tell he loves what he does, and he brought creativity and romance to my photos—especially to my albums. It poured on the day of our wedding, and we did a wedding re-shoot so that we could take outside photos. Dan was happy to spend the whole afternoon with us traveling around Manhattan taking all sorts of fun photos. Both days were so memorable for us. My husband and I are so pleased that we used Dan as our photographer, I would recommend him to anyone! Thanks Dan!”
—Yvonne and Jason
“I could not have been more pleased with our photography choice. Dan was so easy to communicate with and really captured the feeling we wanted in our photographs. His price was fair in comparison with other photographers and was very flexible in creating our package. On the day of the wedding everything went smoothly with no kinks and honestly during the day we barely even knew he was there taking the pictures. We look at our album often and love remembering the moments of our special day.”
—Zarrea and Elvis
“It isn't often that I rate any vendor or contractor I have used in my life (whether for parties, home improvements, etc.) with a perfect score, but Dan and his team more than earned it. We have since referred numerous people to him, including my brother-in-law’s wedding.
I still remember my wife and I going from photography studio to studio, trying to find the balance of style, professionalism, and price; we must have met with 10-12 different people before meeting with Dan. Our first conversation was filled with ideas and brainstorming, instead of trying to "place" us into pre-determined sets of wedding characteristics. With all the other challenges that go into planning a wedding, Dan made the details around photography (and videography) easy and painless.
My wife and I immediately feel in love with the style of one of his sample albums, with a combination of full page, borderless photos, a small number of powerful black and white photos (some with color accents), and picture overlays on top of a background picture. Our own album came out in such a way that for months after our wedding we pulled it out to show people, and still relish opportunities to look at it with family and friends almost five years later.
The quality of the photography was superb, and every magical moment of the day was captured with a tremendous number of stills to choose from for our album. Dan’s team was completely non-intrusive; at no point in time did they force pictures during the wedding itself and the entire event flowed as if they weren’t even there (which was very important to us). That’s a lot of words to say that Dan Wagner has my highest recommendation as a professional photographer, and I look forward to future events that we can leverage his services. My wife keeps reminding me we agreed to renew our vows after 10 years, so we may be reaching out to him in just a couple of more years.”
—Mary and Mike
“Rose-Royce” Long Island wedding photo at NYIT de Seversky Mansion. © Dan Wagner 2023
“Hi all, this is an unsolicited review of our photographer, Dan Wagner. My beautiful bride Danielle, and I chose him for our wedding. This is the first time I’m writing any sort of review of any sorts, but after our experience with Dan, we felt it would be a crime not to give credit where credit is due!
Danielle and I did most of our searches – like most prospective couples – for a wedding photographer whom we felt would fit in completely with our celebration. We wanted a photographer who would make Danielle and the rest of the guests feel so completely at ease during the day. Essentially, we wanted a professional who we could communicate our requests easily to as well as gently guiding us through the various photographic opportunities during the evening.
After visiting countless studios around Long Island—including a few that had beautifully decorated photographic studios—but cookie-cutter photographers ‘on call’—we finally paid a visit to Dan Wagner. We were immediately impressed by the down-to-earth, yet completely professional attitude that he conveyed to us. His sample works showed us EXACTLY what we were looking for—traditional wedding photography with the right amount of photo-journalistic flair to weave the storybook photo album we desired. The type of package that we were looking for included the modern digital album. Dan had this choice available, which we loved.
On our special day, Dan met Danielle and her family at their home and took some beautifully pre-wedding shots of my beautiful bride. Later, throughout the evening, Dan and his trusty assistant did everything to make the evening picture-perfect in a non-obtrusive way. A lot of our guest remarked that our photographer was very nice—including my mother who traveled from South Africa for the event.
Our post-wedding relationship with Dan has been very satisfying. After hearing horror stories of newlyweds waiting months before receiving DVD’s or any albums of any sorts, this was not the case with Dan. In no time at all, we received our DVD’s. Dan’s e-mails and replies to our questions etc. were very quick. We felt that he had our interests at heart totally, and he was very personable. When we wanted some changes to our digital album, we were rewarded with a quick turnaround. Danielle and I were completely satisfied with the quality shots including one of Danielle’s favorites… a B&W photo of her getting dressed in her gown looking at herself in a long mirror—with her mirror image in color.
Phew! Long review! But like I said, if I see a dedicated professional who goes out of his way to really care about his work and his results—but most of all, his client’s satisfaction—then credit is due. I don’t think you will be disappointed with the choice of Dan’s services.”
—Danielle and Lawrence
“As someone who is never seen without her camera glued to her side, it was very important to me that I choose a good photographer for my special day, as my family and friends were not going to let me near my camera that day. I am happy and able to say that Dan was a fantastic choice for a photographer. He was very professional, but not dry and could make you laugh and come up with creative shots easily. Also, I love that only 3 days after the wedding he already had my online gallery up, and 11 days later my DVD with all the original files was in my mailbox too! (Especially impressive considering I live in Indiana!) He can capture all sorts of emotions, from romance to completely candid and I couldn't be happier. Oh, and being someone who uses e-mail obsessively, Dan is a great communicator by way of email and replies rather quickly.”
—Catherine and Joel
“After seeing Dan's work for a friend’s engagement pictures, we decided that we had to have him. He is extremely professional and talented. We have gotten continuous compliments on our own engagement and wedding photographs. He continued to be extremely helpful in our photo and album selections even after the wedding. He is very detail oriented and is dedicated to producing memorable photos. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
—Jill and John
“I can’t say it enough. Dan Wagner is a GENIUS, so TALENTED, very CREATIVE and a nice person to boot! Dan was one of my favorite vendors. When DH and I initially met with him, we knew within 5 minutes that he would be our photographer. Our personalities clicked immediately. And once we saw his work, we were sold. Dan took almost 900 pictures at our wedding, and I am THRILLED with them! He had them all uploaded onto a private website 2 days after the wedding! I looked at many of the proofs from Jamaica on my HM. Some of the pictures were so beautiful that they made me cry. I am really looking forward to making my digital album with Dan. I know it will be beautiful! I would HIGHLY recommend Dan Wagner to anyone! He exceeded our expectations in every way!”
—Dina and Bill
“Dan Wagner was the best money spent on our wedding. He was nice, professional and did a great job. He took great candid photos—which I love. Not only did we get DVDs with every picture he took, but the photos were full size and without any writing on them, and they arrived just a few days after we came back home from our honeymoon. We got to choose many pictures for our album. Because everything was digital, he e-mailed me exactly what the layout of the album would be before it was printed, and I was able to make changes. Our album was the nicest I have seen, and everyone who has seen it wishes they had hired him.”
—Genevieve and William
“Dan was on time and great to work with, he also handled our large wedding (766 guests) very well and had patience all day especially while taking family pictures which can be very frustrating. He even learned a lot of family members’ names, which we thought was nice and helped when taking photos. He stayed the whole day and worked very hard. We got our DVD’s in less than a week and they all look beautiful. We had such a hard time narrowing down the choices for our album. Dan did great work and gave us a great price with a package we customized ourselves. I told him that I wanted our pictures to be bright and e-mailed him samples of photos I liked and didn’t like so he knew what I meant, and he followed directions because I love my photos, and I’m very picky about pictures.
We received our albums, and they look great! The pictures look beautiful, we got a digital album and I love the layout. Everyone who sees it compliments us on the quality of the pictures. We were very pleased with our enlargements as well. Dan was great to work with even after our wedding was over, which I think says a lot about his professionalism. I highly recommend him!”
—Amy and Stanley
Every Bride and Groom Deserve Beautiful Wedding Photos!
Please feel free to share your thoughts on Long Island wedding photography in the comment box below. Have a wonderful wedding, and many thanks for visiting my Long Island wedding photographer blog!