"When my husband and I first met with Tory, we were both impressed by her calm, easy-going demeanor and professionalism--she seemed just like the type of person we would want to be around during our wedding day. Her portfolio pictures were gorgeous, personal, striking, and with a hint of humor, and the combination of talent and personality made it an easy choice for us.
At that time, I did not know that I would be getting married during a once-in-fifty-year natural disaster--Hurricane Irene. Our wedding was essentially canceled and moved to the hotel the guests were staying in, which was, to be honest, an unrenovated relic from the 70s that I was told reminded some guests of a small town ski resort. The morning of my wedding day, when I was frantically calling vendors from the hair salon, I heard from my coordinator that not only was Tory not canceling (as several of our other vendors did), she left early to be sure she would be able to make it to the wedding in time. My wedding day was not exactly what I had planned (it was meant to be in a garden with a live band and was instead in a hotel conference space with an iPod playlist), but despite all of the chaos surrounding it, Tory was a delight. She was calm, cool, collected but also fun, flexible and able to improvise. Our setting was no longer a beautiful garden, but she made it work. She even improvised a "photo booth" in front of an old book case in the hotel lobby.
The wedding was pulled off, it was great fun, but I admit I was a little apprehensive about our pictures, knowing that the venue was not the most attractive setting and that many of our portraits were literally set in a parking lot. The photos were incredible--somehow the parking lot didn't look like a slab of asphalt and the beige upholstered conference room chairs faded from view. She captured all of the best parts of our day and managed to carve out the worst. In one turn of inspired genius she photographed our wedding invitation with the location crossed out and replaced with our new venue address, written in by my husband. Everyone who has seen our photos has remarked on how gorgeous they are, and those who were in attendance have uniformly told me "the pictures are so gorgeous you would never know that the wedding didn't go off as planned."
The photos are a testament to Tory's talents, skill and resourcefulness, and we will always be grateful we hired her!"
Bethlehem, CT, July 2011