I have written text messages to the Hoffers themselves and to so many of my friends, Facebook and Instagram captions, and email after email about my experience with the Hoffers, but I have yet to write an official review. My husband and I got married about 5 months ago, and I have already started crying writing the first few sentences of this review. “Gratitude” does not even begin to explain my feelings toward Amy and Tony, who are not only the most talented, creative, funky photographers in the world but two incredible souls that we consider true friends. The photos from our wedding (and from our engagement session) are stunning. There is no other word for them. Every time I open our album or click through our Facebook pictures, I lose my breath, because we look like ourselves in EVERY. SINGLE. SHOT. You can feel the emotion in every single photograph. How is that even possible?! When we were planning the wedding, the most important things we were looking for were the music & the photos. We went to Amy and Tony’s house to meet with them (the 2nd photography team we met with) and I started crying in the driveway as we left, saying “I cannot believe we found them.” I just felt so lucky, and we texted them less than an hour later (before we even got home) asking for the contract. I felt like they *knew* us, and that made me feel like our wedding day would feel comfortable, authentic, and easy. And, it was. It really was. Tony and Amy are so funny, cool, easy-going, positive, and goofy that every session felt like the best date ever. I forgot I was being photographed and instead just felt like my best self, enjoying the moment with the love of my life. AND THE RESULT IS MAGICAL. MAGICAL. To give you an idea of how impactful Amy and Tony are, one of my strongest memories of the wedding was in the quiet moment after putting on my wedding dress. My mom left the room to go gather the bridesmaids, and it was just me and Tony. I finally took a deep breath and said “I’m getting married.” I started shaking and smiling and feeling EVERYTHING all at once. It was spiritual and powerful and I just remember thinking, “What would this be like if any other photographer was here?” I was able to have that special moment, that feeling of being a BRIDE, 100% genuinely and authentically. I felt like I had a moment to myself, even though Tony was there, because Tony made me feel so safe and comfortable. And now I have it in a picture that makes me cry every time I see it. I could go on and on about this but the reality is, Tony and Amy are artists that see PEOPLE. They are empaths that use their gift to create beautiful pieces of art that you will treasure for the rest of your life. They see moments that others don’t see. They capture feelings in their photographs. No staged nonsense, no Pinterest trends; true, beautiful, raw, real emotions of the people you love. What else could you ever want.

First of all, Ken and I would like to thank you and Amy for the absolutely amazing photos you took during our trip on St. John. The photos of us running around the island are extremely special to Ken and I. It was so surreal to experience the island all over again and make new memories in the spots we first visited a few years ago when our relationship was still so new. And our wedding photos. My goodness. I don’t even know where to begin with those. Ken and I knew they would be nothing short of incredible, but we were left speechless (except for gasps each time we scrolled down the blog entry to reveal the next photo). We are really, really just beyond thrilled with the photos we have seen. We both said to each other, “I can’t believe these are our wedding photos.” Each time we scroll through the blog post (and we’ve probably scrolled through about 87x by now), we feel like we are reliving every special moment of that day. We ran into Ken’s family at the St. Thomas airport yesterday (they went to St. Thomas after the wedding and stayed there the rest of the week), and they said the same things about the photos. A lot of “SO cool’s” and “Oh my gosh’s” :) Secondly, aside from the photos themselves… We knew pretty early on after our engagement that we wanted to do a destination wedding and do something a little different. And once we made that decision, the next most important thing to us was making sure we hired someone to visually document that location. Choosing a place like St. John, we knew we had to make sure we hired the right people who had the talent and experience to be able to capture the beauty of the island. Ken and I made such a great decision bringing you and Amy with us for this adventure. You both kept us completely at ease every step of the way. In both of our professional lives, we plan and manage creative on a daily basis (similar to wedding planning, apparently!). There’s a certain level of specific, inevitable stress that comes with that. With both you and Amy, we had zero worry, zero stress, and complete trust in both of your creative visions and decisions. And I, being a professional logistics freak, felt so comfortable with you two traveling to the wedding, knowing you and Amy have both traveled extensively, for work and for fun. Choosing St. John, and choosing you two to photograph everything, were probably two of the smartest decisions we made with this wedding. You and Amy work SO well together. Of course, Ken and I have an appreciation for couples who can work together :) We truly felt that you were both just two of our friends hanging out, taking some photos of us and the island. We’re not sure we can thank you enough for helping make it such a wonderful experience for us.