Amber Wilkie Photography

The only thing that’s cut through the happy glow that’s persisted for weeks after my wedding is the fact that Amber is moving to Sweden, at least for a while; she was so wonderful that I wish she could photograph every major event for the rest of our lives.
Amber shot both an engagement session and our wedding day for us, and throughout the process, she was wonderful about communicating, a relaxing presence even at moments when I was anxious for things to move forward or happen in a particular way, and she delivered gorgeous images to us at lightning speed. She shot us both in our home and in a Washington park for our engagement session, and really captured the essence of who we are, what our relationship is like, and the way we live in our neighborhood. She was thoughtful about what time of day the light would be best, what poses would make us both feel comfortable and like ourselves, and creative about using winter foliage and even some clever graffiti in our shots.
For our wedding pictures, Amber and Tim, her second shooter, blended in seamlessly while my husband and I were getting ready, but also used the time to take beautiful pictures of things like our flowers. They shot beautiful, efficient portraits with our families before our ceremony. And the pictures she took of us and our families during the ceremony and reception that followed were, hands down, some of the best pictures that have been taken of all of us at any point in our entire lives. The hardest part has been picking which ones to print for our albums, mantlepieces, etc. Amber is a treasure. I just hope we can find a way to work with her again as we pass other milestones in the future.

We loved Amber even before we saw her photographs: She was easy to work with, a pleasure to be around, and somehow managed to herd our unruly family members into pictures while maintaining everybody’s good humor. Then we saw the photos and loved her even more. She captured the spirit of the day perfectly, from silly to serious to awkward moments. And on top of that the photos are just plain beautiful — we’re struggling to pick just a few to print and frame.

In 2012 we hired Amber to photograph our wedding. It was such a great experience from start to finish! Her personable and professional approach made it both feel like she really understood who we were and that we could trust she would use that insight to get photographs that would be meaningful. It was absolutely true!
So no surprise that when we found out we were expecting a baby, we called on Amber again!
We absolutely LOVE our maternity and newborn pictures from Amber. And working with her again couldn’t have been more lovely! I think if we’d been the types to want perfect baby-​in-​a-​flower-​pot pictures it would have been really stressful (our incredibly easy baby decided to scream the entire time Amber was in our apartment), but knowing that Amber was there to capture the reality of our new lives allowed us to just go with the flow… and resulted in pictures I will love forever!

Amber is a fantastic photographer! If you are a prospective client — hire her!
We came across Amber’s work somewhere on the internet and immediately fell in love with her images. She was the first person we knew we wanted to hire for our wedding. Our experience with her was great. She strikes a great balance between being a professional who takes the job seriously but is also down to earth and fun. We really appreciated that she had her stuff in order pre-​wedding. She let us know what was included, when we should expect to hear from her, what info she needed from us, etc. She was also very organized with our wedding information, was responsive to emails and did not ask the same questions multiple times (which happened more than I expected with other vendors and left us feeling nervous). At one point my husband and I actually said we hoped everyone had their stuff together like Amber and actually went back to her and asked her for a vendor recommendation (we also lucked out with DJ, caterer and hair/​makeup if you want to check those reviews out).
Day of she was super fun and just went with our flow. You spend so much time with your photographer that this makes a huge difference. The best part — we are so happy with our pictures! She captured the moment and how much fun we had. The images look «real» in the best way (not sure how else to describe it, but everything looks great and super genuine). Would highly recommend!

Amber did the pictures for our engagement and wedding and we couldn’t be happier. They are beautiful, and artistic, she really knows how to capture a special moment, and get interesting shots. It also helps that she has a great personality, tons of fun, I even caught her dancing at the party! I’ve been to other weddings where photographers are really obtrusive, she managed to always be there, never miss a beat, but somehow she was never in the way. Would recommend her to everybody! Now we just have to figure out what pictures we want in our album, so hard to narrow it down!

Amazing experience with Amber! I love the photojournalistic style for event photography because I think you get the genuine smiles, the fun, the little things that are missed with everyone smiling and posing on cue. And that’s just what we received with Amber! We had a couple of posing shots (which we had requested), but they were fun and relaxed — and fast!
Her and her wonderful assistant were both so friendly and kept us at ease that even my camera shy husband was relaxed and comfortable! Absolutely everyone loves the results, too, which came quickly (about a week and a half). The photos were as amazing as expected, but also helped capture moments that I had missed as the bride swept up in all the wedding stuff!
The whole process was easy and fuss-​free for us — even if you’re like me, and don’t know the first thing about weddings, you can feel comfortable that she’s going to offer you the very best experience you can hope for.

Absolutely beautiful pictures — Amber has a wonderful eye. She’s also extremely laid-​back and joked the entire time! Put us at ease — especially this nervous bride!

Amber is the best. When looking at portfolios online, my husband and I were both independently drawn to her style and uncanny ability to capture moments and emotions. More than just stylized shots of decorations and shoes and rings (though she’s great at those!) Amber was able to capture the emotion and tone of our wedding day perfectly. The look on my husband’s face when he’s saying his vows, guests getting down and dirty dancing, quiet moments between the two of us surrounded by our friends and family, I get a smile every time I look through our album remembering how loving and fun the whole day was.
Her package, with one price for weddings, no time limit, with a second shooter, is also a refreshing change of pace. I never worried about what time she should arrive or had to adjust our timeline to accommodate a specific number of hours we had.
Amber also took amazing engagement photos for us, and I can’t wait to keep having her capture special moments throughout our lives.

We are so happy we hired Amber to take photos of our courthouse wedding and reception in D.C. She is very responsive to our need — very professional, funny, and a fantastic photographer. We booked our wedding within the span of a few weeks and were still ironing out the details the week before our wedding (while we were on vacation.) We contacted Amber via email, and she responded right away. We were able to work out the details of what we wanted over email — in fact the first time we saw her was at the courthouse. She immediately made us feel at ease upon meeting her and we knew that our special moments would be memorialized — not in a staged way, but in an organic, fluid way. Needless to say, we love our pictures! She’s fantastic.

Amber is a real gem of a photographer. When looking for a photographer for maternity and infant photos I didn’t want everything to look super staged or kitschy. Although Amber specializes in weddings she worked with us to set up a package deal and took amazing pictures of my husband and me when I was pregnant and then came back a few months later to include our son. Amber is both laid back and professional at the same time. The pictures are wonderful, worth every cent, and will be treasured forever. I couldn’t be more satisfied.

Amber is a fantastic wedding photographer. She photographed our wedding (and also engagement pics) in October 2013. Not only are her photos classic and incredible (go look at her website, are the images not wonderful?), she is a great person to work with. She is a calming presence, she makes you laugh, she puts you at ease, she makes you look great, all seemingly effortlessly. She will also nerd out with you about Doctor Who, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Other salient points:
— Extremely quick to respond to emails (with quality responses).
— Able to photograph candid shots with ninja-​like discretion.
— Willing (eager, even) to travel and work out ways to minimize travel fees.
— Very fast photo turnaround (although we were near the end of wedding season so your mileage may very).
— Clear, concise contract and fee information.
— Goes above and beyond to do things such as scout out the only autumn-​looking tree within a 500-​foot radius of your wedding.
— All-​around awesomeness.

We used Amber for our wedding and she was spectacular. She was recommended to us by another photographer that was booked the day of our wedding, and I’m so glad. She made us feel comfortable, we had fun, and our pictures turned out great.
The day of your wedding can be so overwhelming and stressful that it was really nice to have Amber there to direct us, make suggestions, and she even found the place for us to go after our wedding to take more pictures. It was one less thing we had to worry about.
I can’t say enough good things about her. We love our pictures and have such good memories tied to them.

Amber rocks, she is not only one of the most pleasant people we worked with during our wedding but she is also an amazingly talented photographer. She captured everything we wanted and more and not once was she in the way or trying to herd cats. She is a true artist and professional. We heart Amber!

You just need to look to the profile picture to see how amazing Amber is, She takes awesome pictures and knows exactly what shot to take. She put us at ease the entire time and managed to always be everywhere all at once to capture that shot but you never knew she was there. Ninja like. I cannot recommend Amber highly enough. Now comes the hard part of having to choose only 20 to go into the book. so far we have it down to 50… but that final 30 are going to be hard to cull!

Amber is an excellent, extraordinarily intelligent photographer with a beautiful soul. You can tell by her actions she is a careful, well practiced craftsman. Every shot is consistently and carefully checked before taking the next. Her blissful personality makes everyone happy, smiling and relaxed. A wedding is pure joy and Amber is a joyful person. She’s no slouch in the serious posing category either, as her website and our personal experience attests.
My daughter and her fiancé chose Amber knowing that the photography was the forever memento of the wedding. Photographs bring the entire day together, morning noon and night, so a compatible, skilled, happy and tireless photographer is absolutely necessary.
She spends most of the time doing what a truly good photographer should-​she captures the hundreds of split-​second moments that grasp all the different emotions, feelings, silliness and seriousness that make up a huge complex event we call a wedding. I endorse Amber both as a professional and also as a sensitive human being who knows what people need. I am very grateful that Amber shot the wedding and look forward to tell my friends all about her. She deserves a ten star rating! Five for excellent photography and five more for vivacity!

Amber photographed our small wedding. So far three people have had tears in their eyes when I showed them the photos. In a good way! We’re thrilled with the photos and I feel lucky to have found her. We had a small budget and twenty guests, so we weren’t sure we’d be able to have a wedding photographer. Amber made it possible for us to have gorgeous photos to remember the day. Also, my husband makes really awkward faces when he tries to fake smile for pictures, but miraculously in Amber’s photos he looks completely natural! I don’t know how she did it.

We had Amber doing our wedding photos. We love the way they turned out. Neither my wife nor I tend to photograph well. We seem to make weird faces, stand in the wrong place, or otherwise find ways to screw up pictures of us. Somehow every photo Amber did turned out great. Walking through them is like reliving our wedding… you know, in a good way.
Throughout the process Amber was easy to work with, calming and helpful. She knew the venue, knew all the stuff we didn’t think of, etc. I’ve been to some weddings where you think the photographer had a previous gig as a member of the paparazzi. Amber was the opposite. When we weren’t chatting (she’s a genuinely nice person) we hardly knew she was there. When we saw the photos we thought «she got that shot? Where was she?»
Highly recommend.

Amber is the BEST! I think my sister found her when she googled «DC courthouse wedding photographer» and found some beautiful pics of a couple’s courthouse wedding. Amber was extremely responsive, her prices were great and most importantly she takes gorgeous pictures! She’s also a lot of fun to be around. My now husband and I were a little nervous about having professional photos taken because we did not want to look «posed.» We had nothing to worry about. Amber has a great point of view. She captures so much in each shot. She was fun and very relaxing to be around. My husband is one of those people who often freezes up and puts on a really strange «camera face» when having his picture taken, but miraculously he doesn’t have «camera face» in a single one of the pictures she took. I absolutely recommend Amber!

Amber shot our wedding photos, and we were beyond happy with both her and the pictures! She was fun and easy to work with, and she was very flexible with our last minute nuptials… she gave us a GREAT price that worked within our tight budget, and we didn’t have to compromise at all on the quality (which was superb), her attention to detail, and her personalized customer service that made me feel like I had made a good friend.
The pictures were simply amazing. I believe a sampling of our shots are still available for viewing on her website… Just look through her portfolios and you’ll see her talent and eye for capturing moments.
I initially didn’t want to hire a photographer because of the high cost usually associated with them, but Amber’s pricing blew the other photographers out of the water and she truly captured the energy and essence of our wedding. I’m so thankful she was a part of our big day.

I’ve been following Amber’s blog for a while and have been consistently impressed with the quality of her photography. My husband and I had considered asking her to shoot our wedding, but we had to scrap that plan when we moved away from DC — which is too bad, because she really does excellent work.
I was back in DC for a few days recently, and scheduled a boudoir session with Amber. I’ve lost some weight recently, and really liked the idea of documenting my new and improved figure with photos that I can use to embarrass my grandchildren. I thoroughly enjoyed the session — Amber was encouraging and professional, and really made me feel beautiful and comfortable.
And the photos! They’re gorgeous. The lighting is perfect. The editing is perfect. My skin is (or at least looks) perfect. I am 100% happy with them, and have shared them with as many of my friends as are willing to look — and c’mon people, we’re not talking about NSFW content. We’re talking about gorgeous, flattering, sexy photos that are less revealing than most high-​fashion ads.
This review barely scratches the surface of my happiness with Amber’s work. I highly recommend her to anyone who wants an approachable, professional, and delightful photographer!