Peter Wolff Photography and Videography

We were very excited to get the video from Lindsay and Aaron's wedding. You were right, within the first 5 minutes Rich and I were both crying. We are so happy that we decided to have you video that moment in our lives so we can relive the wonderful memories of that precious day. You were so tentative and professional in orchestrating what seemed to be somewhat of a daunting task. You were able to capture so much of the sweetness and love of the wedding ceremony and the joy and happiness we felt at the reception. We are so grateful to have a second chance to experience that incredible time in our lives as when you are living it you only have that fleeting moment, where now the memories will live on for generations to come. Thank you again for all your guidance, care and love that came thru working so close with you. I am so glad we chose"Peter Wolff" I will miss you... Until the next wedding...... Thank you again for doing such a wonderful job! Barb and Rich Miller

(continued from above)Truthfully, Peter, you were a dream come true. For me, the job of finding the right photographer involved looking through tons of web sites, talking to lots of answering machines and a few lifeless photographers who just wanted to know what package I wanted. You know me well enough now to know that I am anything but a “package” kind of girl. This was the most miserable waste of my time and only caused frustration at the fact that there seemed to be no one out there that would even discuss options. They wanted me to pick a, b or c and that choice alone would dictate who and what would/would not be photographed at the wedding. It became clear to me that I wanted what I have now come to think of as a photographer who does
it the “old school way”.
I was venting about my futile search dilemma to a dear friend and he said that you had taken the photographs of his wedding some 15+ years before. Without another word, he picked up the phone, dialed and handed it to me saying simply, “here is your photographer and his name is Peter Wolff”.
It is almost indescrible just how right he was and truly impressive that this one call was enough for me. In our first conversation, you clearly and unquestionably differentiated yourself from your competitors. You spoke with such enthusiasm and sincerity that
I immediately trusted your replies and responses to every question or concern that I had. I was beyond excited and remember practically jumping up and down because my search was finally over. (Fast forward to my reception, when you, my friend and I were together for a short moment, and he said to his teen age daughter, “MJ, Peter is also going to be doing the photography at your wedding when the time comes.”). You are like a family heirloom, passed on for the next generation to enjoy. I will always
be grateful to my friend because he was absolutely "spot on" with his referral.
I also have to point out that I was absolutely amazed to hear you say that the majority of your brides come from referrals. It is almost unbelievable that you don’t have a website. But, rather than a criticism of your accessibility, I truly believe that it speaks volumes about you as a professional. Your name and your reputation are your “brand” trademark. During the wedding planning process, I cannot tell you how elated people were once I mentioned you were my photographer. Their confidence in you from their prior experience confirmed that I had made the very best choice!
Now I understand why you spent so much time on the phone with me talking about anything and everything. The types of questions that you asked me and the suggestions and advice that you gave me were invaluable in helping me plan how perfectly my wedding eventually turned out. That type of sincerity and helpfulness only comes from an experienced professional who completely understands what I was looking for and who was capable of customizing his style to fit my desires for that day, perfectly. From those conversations alone, I just knew that you were the one for me.
Again, I hope you can forgive me for sending you this note so late but I absolutely wanted to be able to express my enormous gratitude for everything you did for me far after the wedding was over. i.e. The Album! And Slideshow. Oh, and I must mention that you truly proved that you are unique and completely different from the current norm when you showed up at my house 2 days after the wedding with a disk in your hand that had all of the photographs along with a copyright release so that I could have any
picture printed where I wanted. This is almost unheard of and none of my friends believed me. Many of them are waiting for their photographer to release their pictures a year after their wedding day! Ridiculous what other photographers do to force people
into ordering overpriced prints from their studio.
Going through the process of making the album would have been unbearable with anyone but you. The best advice you gave me was to let time pass between the wedding and when I should start choosing the pictures for the album so that I didn’t feel like I wanted every single picture included. Even though I let a long time pass, you were ready to help me just as soon as I said I wanted to start working on the album. But, I have to admit I was still set on far too many to include in the album. You (very patiently) made suggestions and showed me layouts that really made me see the huge impact things like a 2 page panorama can have on the album and I gradually agreed to drop pictures. You led me in the right direction and ultimately I said what you have heard me say many times – “you are the pro, I trust you completely”. That was the best decision I could have made. NO ONE will ever have an album like mine. It is a work of art. Nor will they have such a wonderful and painless experience making an album (unless they use you of coarse!!). You put in as much time as needed to get it perfect. I am still stunned at the amount of time and effort you put into making my album. I don’t know how to thank you for giving me this amazing album. I will be able to show it to people with full confidence that it reflects the exact feeling of the day. Unlike everyone else’s albums that I have seen, it is not a glorified scrapbook or a predictable proof book. It is a wedding album done the way they should be, with style and panache. You are truly unique Peter and your attention to details and customer service is unmatched.
You are quite simply the best of the best – virtually incomparable to anyone else. The hard work you put towards giving every bride the very best possible images shows the love you have for your work. Your skill in accomplishing that task is undeniable. I cannot thank you enough – this note does not even come close to expressing my gratitude for everything, especially your time, your creative talents and your unending patience. You captured the heart of our wedding. We will always treasure that gift.

Dear Peter, You were so HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to us and that is why I called you personally to let you know that we really wanted YOU to be our videographer. That decision proved to be everything that we expected from an experienced professional and more. Both of our families agree that you provided the MOST MEMORABLE reminder of that magic day. We have since shared it with so many people, that I had to acknpwledge this to you in a letter of appreciation and sincere gratitude.

Our video was fabulous from start to finish. As the groom, some of the most memorable highlights that I ever got to see were all of the pre-wedding preparations such as the bride getting ready, the conversations and laughter with her best friend Susana, and the personal on camera message that Dolores spoke to her parents who lived in Spain and were unable to attend her wedding. Then there was the traditional ceremony of my brother presenting the bridal bouquet to Dolores while at the house. You so artfully arranged that scene with my parents and sister in the background against the backdrop of the lake. It was like right out of a movie.

Personally, I was so outrageously nervous before the start of the wedding ceremony and you came up to me and you said “John, I am going to make this really simple and put this little microphone right here on your lapel. I almost couldn’t move, I could barely breath and I couldn’t talk and if you were to ask me a single question, I might have totally lost it right there, but the fact is, you didn’t .. and now I know that you already knew the situation and there is no substitute for that level of experience. Our celebrant, Pastor Rick is a great preacher and one of his best gifts is that he really knows how to pray. To our amazement, the fact that you were able to capture our private prayer session with just the three of us, on both audio and the video, is a moment we never imagined we would hear again.

Now on to the reception. As you now know, our wedding dance was a medley of different dances and music from four different cultures. We put so much time into our practice sessions. Thinking about that dance was constantly on my mind and I really couldn’t relax at my own wedding until the dance was over. Dolores was so nervous that she could barely remember anything about the dance. But watching the video and seeing the guests standing up and seeing their excitement and reactions was absolutely amazing. After viewing our performance, I realized that we did indeed do a really entertaining wedding dance sequence. It was so wonderful to see it and hear it all.

Peter, you captured a lasting memory for all our future and that is something that is truly priceless. We sent the DVD video to Dolores’ parents in Spain and they watched it 6 times in 2 days. Then when we visited with them several months later and we
all watched it, they said it was like sharing our wedding day together with us. The tears in their eyes told the whole story.

Peter, you are a truly unique professional and we will always appreciate the experience of what you did for our wedding day.
We are forever grateful and we thank you. At the end of the day, you most definitely deserve our Page of Happiness nomination.
- John and Dolores -

(letter #1) Dear Peter, Our decision to hire you to make a video movie of our wedding was the BEST choice in planning our wedding. We have been having fun thinking about what is on it. We just returned from our honeymoon and are most anxious to see the finished product. We cannot express how grateful we are for your unique talents, abiding patience and boundless energy on our wedding day! I am certain we placed a tremendous amount of stress on you given the unusual disjointedness of our venue, the issues you experienced with the chapel, and our shot-nerves (particularly after I forgot the wedding dance approximately 45 minutes beforehand!); however you were fantastic!

Although we were not always completely aware of where the camera was we know from the tips you gave us beforehand, and from the few opportunities we had to speak with you at the wedding, how many wonderful surprises you no doubt incorporated into the video. After the wedding we had a little time to take in how quickly it was all over, and it really hit us how important it was that we had a videographer to capture and witness the memories. You really were one of those last minute miracles that came through – perhaps a wedding gift from Christy’s mom.

During our honeymoon Christy and I played a little “Where’s Waldo” trying to anticipate some of the shots you got. I know you got a great shot from behind the wall separator during dinner, and we both know you from your questions during practice, that you captured the wedding dance perfectly! I hope the waterfall closing will be as beautiful as it seems it would be – it was probably the only significant amount of time we spent outside! In closing, we eagerly look forward to the video, so please let us know when we can get together to pick it up. Christy and I hope to hear from you soon!

(letter#2) Dear Peter, Where to begin? You are both a talented and perceptive man. We had the great fortune of watching our wedding DVD the night we picked it up from you. You captured every important moment, including those moments that you somehow knew would be important just to us. There is simply no way that many of those scenes were moments that would be generically important to a wedding couple. I can only assume you listened, intently, when you interviewed us. The DVD has its own personality, that matches our own - an ironic blend of solemn, serious moments, mixed with light hearted and silly things that you knew we would recognize that were very, "us."

In particular, the scene of Christy on the balcony waiting for our first dance is my favorite of the whole DVD. It's such a powerful memory that I downloaded the song in the background just to relive it from time to time when the DVD is not around. There are so many other candid moments that you captured, without anyone knowing you were present.
Your skill is truly incomparable, we truly see how each scene was crafted with care and experience, beautifully blended into the next scene without flaw. We appreciate the extra time we spent with you listening to your advice, and working with you to capture the right scenes. That truly made all the difference!

I wish to add a word on your perceptivity, not just as a cameraman. One day after we saw our wedding movie, we were rushed to the hospital for my grandfather's final moments. Over this last week the wedding DVD has done much to heal our family, because this was the last truly happy time we all spent together with him. The DVD captured not just the scenes, but the mood - the festivity of it all. We watched it in the hospital while we waited, we watched it the nights after the viewings, we watched it after the funeral and again and again, and it really has uplifted us.

Moreover, your observation that we could neither see nor remember the wedding was prophecy. As my last email to you described, we were so nervous, and under so much pressure to visit guests we remember very little of the day! The DVD shows us not only the things we couldn't see, but also the things we had forgotten.

That being said, I will always remember your very apropos explanation of the importance of having a professional and experienced videographer do the video of our wedding and how it will forever allow us to - rewind the clock of time to that very first day of our new life as husband and wife. And how all of our nearest and dearest family and friends will never ever be gathered together like this again. Lastly, I have now made about 10 backup copies scattered across the family to assure that we will never lose this. Thanks again for an absolutely wonderful memory!

-Christy and Dave-